"Identity is frail business, and in her searing story, Dani Shapiro makes the most disquieting discovery: that everything, from her lineage, to her father, down to her very own sense of self is an astounding error. How do we live with ourselves after finding we are not who we thought we were? The answer is not disquieting. It is beautiful."--Andre Aciman, author of Call Me by Your Name To reserve your seat, purchase a copy of Inheritance by speaking with a bookseller or…

Alan Brennert reads from Daughter of Moloka'i, the sequel to his bestselling Moloka'i. Wednesday, February 20, 2019 - 7:30pm

James Cagney is a poet from Oakland. He has performed in venues and museums throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. His first book, Black Steel Magnolias In The Hour of Chaos Theory, is available from Oakland's own Nomadic Press. James will read his poems, then sit for an interview; audience discussion will follow the interview. A month before the reading a free chapbook of James Cagney's poems will be available at all BPL branches. James Cagney is the 11th…

Katie Peterson in Conversation with Louise Gluck discussing her new book of poems A Piece of Good News. Dense, rich, and challenging, Katie Peterson's A Piece of Good News explores interior and exterior landscapes, exposure, and shelter. Imbued with a hallucinatory poetic logic where desire, anger, and sorrow supplant intelligence and reason, these poems are powerful meditations of mourning, love, doubt, political citizenship, and happiness. Learned, wise, and witty, Peterson explodes the possibilities of the poetic voice in this remarkable and deeply felt…

Elinor Lipman returns to Mrs. Dalloway's to celebrate the publication of her latest novel, Good Riddance, in which one woman's trash becomes another woman's treasure, with deliriously entertaining results. A pitch-perfect, whip-smart new novel from an "enchanting, infinitely witty yet serious, exceptionally intelligent, wholly original, and Austen-like stylist" (Washington Post). In this delightful new romantic comedy, Daphne Maritch doesn't quite know what to make of the heavily annotated high school yearbook she inherits from her mother, who held this relic dear. Too dear.The…

Joyce Carol Oates reads from her latest novel The Hazards of Time Travel, an ingenious, dystopian novel of one young woman's resistance against the constraints of an oppressive society. To reserve your seat, please purchase a copy of The Hazards of Time Travel by speaking to a bookseller or ordering from our website. "Time travel"--and its hazards--are made literal in this astonishing new novel in which a recklessly idealistic girl dares to test the perimeters of her tightly controlled (future) world and is punished by…

Kurt Eichenwald presents A Mind Unraveled: A Memoir, the compelling story of an acclaimed journalist and New York Times bestselling author's ongoing struggle with epilepsy-- his torturous decision to keep his condition a secret to avoid discrimination, and his ensuing decades-long battle to not only survive, but to thrive. "Inspirational in the true sense of the word....It is written with great verve and wisdom by someone who has closely and thoughtfully detailed his own plight as well as the journey out of it....A book to…