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Beaverdale Books Local Author Fair
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Meet local Des Moines authors including Francis Sparks, author of MADE SAFE.
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2017
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February
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Book Launch: Dr. Morgain Hall
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New Book, New Approach to “Diet Brain”
In her debut book, Slow Down and Lighten UpTM, Dr. Morgain Hall introduces a new lifestyle and science-founded approach for lasting weight-loss, better health and greater happiness. The public is invited as Dr. Hall launches her book, the first in a series, at Artisan Gallery 218 (located at 218 Fifth Street in Valley Junction) on Monday, February 20 from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. Wine and hors d’oeuvres will be served.
Slow Down and Lighten Up helps readers learn to reprogram their thinking with lifestyle changes. With better balance in their environments, emotions and relationships, food is no longer the center of focus. The urge to reach for fattening food solutions falls away, as do the pounds.
A licensed psychologist with 25 years of experience and extensive scientific literature on obesity, Dr. Hall unmasks the hidden causes that lead to “Diet Brain.” In doing so, she also takes on the diet industry as the chief contributor to America’s ever-expanding waistline. Her book asks the critical question: Who gains the most when people consume more-and-more and try diet-after-diet plan? In 2015 alone, the diet industry gained $60 billion by offering incorrect information and false hope.
To learn more, visit www.drmorgainhall.com/SlowDownandLightenUp. or Like Us on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/SlowDownLightenUp/
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2017
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February
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Meet the Author: Mindy Mejia
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Saturday, February 25, 1:00 PM
Suspense Novel Tests Line Between Innocence and Culpability
Mindy Mejia’s new thriller is filled with twists and turns, earning it recognition as an Indie Next pick for February by the American Booksellers Association. Mejia will be in Des Moines to visit Beaverdale Books on Saturday, February 25 at 1:00 PM to talk about her book, Everything You Want Me to Be. Mejia cleverly constructs a year in the life of a dangerously mesmerizing young woman, during which a small town’s darkest secrets come to the forefront...and she inches closer and closer to her death.
High school senior Hattie Hoffman has spent her whole life playing many parts: the good student, the good daughter, the good citizen. When she’s found brutally stabbed to death on the opening night of her high school play, the tragedy rips through the fabric of her small- town community. Local sheriff Del Goodman, a family friend of the Hoffmans, vows to find her killer, but trying to solve her murder yields more questions than answers. It seems that Hattie’s acting talents ran far beyond the stage. Told from three points of view—Del, Hattie, and the new English teacher whose marriage is crumbling—Everything You Want Me to Be weaves the story of Hattie’s last school year and the events that drew her ever closer to her death.
Evocative and razor-sharp, Everything You Want Me to Be challenges you to test the lines between innocence and culpability, identity and deception. Does love lead to self-discovery—or destruction?
Mindy Mejia received her MFA from Hamline University. Her debut novel, The Dragon Keeper, was published by Ashland Creek Press in 2012. The granddaughter of Minnesota farmers, she lives in the Twin Cities with her husband and two children.
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2017
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February
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Suspense Novel Tests Line Between Innocence and Culpability
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Mindy Mejia’s new thriller is filled with twists and turns, earning it recognition as an Indie Next pick for February by the American Booksellers Association. Mejia will be in Des Moines to visit Beaverdale Books on Saturday, February 25 at 1:00 PM to talk about her book, Everything You Want Me to Be. Mejia cleverly constructs a year in the life of a dangerously mesmerizing young woman, during which a small town’s darkest secrets come to the forefront...and she inches closer and closer to her death.
Evocative and razor-sharp, Everything You Want Me to Be challenges you to test the lines between innocence and culpability, identity and deception. Does love lead to self-discovery—or destruction?
Mindy Mejia received her MFA from Hamline University. Her debut novel, The Dragon Keeper, was published by Ashland Creek Press in 2012. The granddaughter of Minnesota farmers, she lives in the Twin Cities with her husband and two children.
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2017
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February
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Author Event with Francis Sparks
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Francis Sparks will be at Plot Twist to sign his debut novel, Made Safe.
"Made Safe is a must read for thriller lovers. Throttling forward with a killer plot, well-drawn and intriguing characters...you won't be able to put it down." - Sarah K. Stephens, author of A Flash of Red Adultery. Murder. Something worse. A private detective determined to unravel it all.
For Private Investigator, Moses Winter, the job just got more complicated. His adultery case has taken a violent turn landing the subject of his investigation, Fred Dunsmore, in the hospital and Moses in jail. Moses is held for questioning along with his erratic client, Sharon Dunsmore, and Fred’s mistress, a Bosnian refugee who just happens to be related to the DCI agent investigating the case, Raif Rakić.
After Rakić secures their release, Fred goes missing, and Moses Winter finds himself compelled to find him. With the assistance of Rakic, Moses unravels Fred’s ties to Des Moines’s underworld and is forced to confront the most heinous crimes of his career.
Francis Sparks grew up on a farm in Iowa where he spent his days avoiding bulls and other livestock as he created castles in the pasture with odds and ends from the machine shed and his imagination. In middle school, he fell in love with reading when he discovered TSR/Wizard of the Coast’s treasure trove of fantasy novels and he began to dream of one day becoming a writer.
Working as a librarian’s assistant in college, he stumbled upon The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler and quickly devoured all of his novels and Francis’s love of the mystery/detective story was born.
In his early thirties, Francis began chasing his dream of becoming an author and began writing seriously. That dream came true when his debut novel Made Safe was signed by Pandamoon Publishing in 2016. Francis Sparks currently lives in Des Moines with his amazing wife, Kelly. If he’s not working on his next novel or short story, you can find him teaching his children about dragons.
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2017
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March
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AViD presents Michelle Hoover
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Michelle Hoover is the author of two novels, including Bottomland, the 2017 All Iowa Reads title. Hoover is currently the Fannie Hurst Writer-in-Residence at Brandeis University in Boston, where she teaches advanced fiction workshops and works with students on honors and thesis projects. Hoover is the co-founder and head of the GrubStreet Novel Incubator program in Boston. She is a 2014 NEA Fellow and has been a Writer-in-Residence at Bucknell University, a MacDowell Fellow, and a winner of the PEN/New England Discovery Award. Her debut novel, The Quickening, was a 2010 Massachusetts Book Award “Must Read.”
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2017
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March
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AViD Presents Eloisa James
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Eloisa James is the New York Times bestselling author of 27 romance novels. From the very beginning, her books received wide acclaim. A reviewer from USA Today wrote of James’ first book: "I found herself devouring the book like a dieter with a Hershey bar.” James has been nominated for a RITA – the highest award in romance fiction – several times, and she won her first RITA in 2003. James graduated from Harvard and received post-graduate degrees from Oxford University and Yale University. In addition to being an author, James is a Shakespeare professor at Fordham University.
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2017
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March
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Author Michelle Hoover Visits
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Michelle Hoover - 2017's All Iowa Reads author Wednesday, March 8th at 7:00 p.m. in Room A/B for a discussion of her book Bottomland.
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2017
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March
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Meet the Author, Jerry Harrington
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Jerry Harrington of Iowa City, Iowa, has spent a lifetime writing about Iowa
history. A frequent contributor to Iowa History Journal (IHJ), he recently won
the 2016 George Mills-Louise Noun Popular History Award from the Iowa
State Historical Society for the IHJ series “Iowa Governors of Influence.”
Harrington recently retired as marketing public relations manager for DuPont
Pioneer in Johnston, Iowa. He has worked for advertising/public relations
agencies in Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and Rochester, New
York. He has also worked for newspapers in Spencer and Clear Lake, Iowa.
He graduated from Cornell College, Mt. Vernon, Iowa, in 1977 with degrees in
English and political science and received his master’s degree in history from
the University of Iowa in 1981.
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2017
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March
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AViD Presents Jon Ronson
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Jon Ronson is a Welsh nonfiction author, documentary maker, and screenwriter. He’s written ten books, including the best-sellers So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed, The Psychopath Test, and The Men Who Stare at Goats. Ronson regularly contributes to The Guardian and BBC Radio 4, where his series Jon Ronson On... has been shortlisted for the Sony Award four times. In the United States, Jon is a regular contributor to This American Life, GQ, The New York Times Book Review, and has appeared at TED and on The Daily Show.
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2017
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April