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An illustration of a flame, from blue through reds and oranges takes up the majority of the cover, with the title in all caps in the center.

Author Works with Chimamanda Adichie

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An illustration of a flame, from blue through reds and oranges takes up the majority of the cover, with the title in all caps in the center.
Photo of the author, sitting with her chin resting in her hand.

Sun, Nov 23 | 2 –3 pm
HCLS Miller Branch
For adults. Register at bit.ly/Author-Adichie

Chimamanda Adichie, the bestselling and award-winning author of Americanah and We Should All Be Feminists— converses about her new novel, Dream Count. In this highly anticipated new release, Adichie tells the story of four women and their loves, longings, and desires.

The story’s main character, Chiamaka, is a Nigerian travel writer living in America. Alone in the midst of the pandemic, she recalls her past lovers and grapples with her choices and regrets. Zikora, her best friend, is a lawyer who has been successful at everything until, broken-hearted, she must turn to the person she thought she needed least. Omelogor, Chiamaka’s bold, outspoken cousin who works as a financial powerhouse in Nigeria, begins to question how well she knows herself. And Kadiatou, Chiamaka’s housekeeper, proudly raising a daughter in America, faces unthinkable hardship that threatens all she has worked to achieve.

In Dream Count, Adichie trains her fierce eye on these women in a sparkling, transcendent novel about the very nature of love itself. A reflection on the choices we make and those made for us, on daughters and mothers, on our interconnected world, Dream Count pulses with emotional urgency in language that soars with beauty and power.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was born in Enugu, Nigeria in 1977. She grew up on the campus of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where her father was a professor and her mother was the first female registrar. She studied medicine for a year at Nsukka then left for the US at the age of 19 to continue her education on a different path. She graduated summa cum laude from Eastern Connecticut State University with a degree in Communication and Political Science.

She has a Master’s Degree in Creative Writing from Johns Hopkins University and a Master of Arts degree in African History from Yale University. Her first novel, Purple Hibiscus, won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, and her second novel, Half of a Yellow Sun, won the Orange Prize. Her 2013 novel Americanah won the US National Book Critics Circle Award and was named one of The New York Times Top Ten Best Books of 2013. Her latest book, Dream Count, won the Women’s Prize for Fiction.

Our next chapter starts soon when the blog moves to the newly redesigned hclibrary.org. All the same great reviews and news, plus more library information!

A black cover shows thin handwriting over a dark purple sketch of the Brooklyn Bridge, with the authors in magenta, and the title in creamy yellow.

Bauder Book Talk: Meet two of the authors of Blackout

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A black illustrated cover where two people standing holding hands, backs to the viewer, with a sketched city in front of them and lots of small windows lit up.

by Carmen J.

What do you get when you have six talented young adult authors, a pandemic, and a beautiful excuse to celebrate many versions of black love and romance? You get Blackout written by Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk, and Nicola Yoon. Even better, you’ll get to see two of the featured authors (Clayton and Woodfolk) at the third annual Bauder Book Talk event on November 6 from 4:30-6:30 pm at HCLS’s East Columbia Branch.

Written and inspired during the 2020 pandemic and set in New York City during a blackout, each author contributes connecting narratives — which can stand alone — about Black teens in the midst of their unique, complicated, joyful, sometimes simple, often spontaneous, intense, surprising romantic journeys. Whether it’s two young men catching feelings on a stalled subway, a couple who must talk through their past relationship over a long walk across town, two girls whose chance encounter ignites a spark in a nursing home, each interwoven story shines to a satisfying conclusion at a Brooklyn block party. 

In particular, Woodfolk’s “Made to Fit,” Clayton’s “All the Great Love Stories … and Dust,” and the closing story titled “Seymour and Grace” (written by Yoon) are stand-outs. Bonus points for Blackout’s inclusion of queer love and the acceptance of the adults in their lives (Made to Fit). The warmth and feel-good feelings of Blackout remain long after the lights are back on.

EVENT HAPPENING ON NOVEMBER 6: Register now!

Celebrate the voices of young Black girls in literature at this year’s Bauder Book Talk. Dhonielle Clayton and Ashley Woodfolk share how their stories center joy, magic, and truth while creating space for Black teens to see themselves on the page. 

Clayton is a New York Times bestselling author and former middle school librarian whose work celebrates Black joy, magic, and possibility. She is the author of The Belles series and the Conjureverse series.

Woodfolk is the critically acclaimed author of The Beauty That Remains and When You Were Everything. Her work explores love, loss, friendship, and the complexities of finding one’s voice. A former publishing professional, Woodfolk is celebrated for her lyrical prose and heartfelt storytelling that resonates deeply with teens. 

Carmen J. is a teen instructor at HCLS East Columbia Branch. Among her favorite things are great books, all things 80s, shamelessly watching The Bachelor, gardening, and drinking anything that tastes like coffee.

The title, in white, is layed over a photo taken looking up into a tree in full leaf.

Author Works: The Lost Trees of Willow Avenue

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The title, in white, is layed over a photo taken looking up into a tree in full leaf.

Tue, Jul 29 | 7 – 8:30 pm  
HCLS Miller Branch
For adults.
Register at bit.ly/Author-Tidwell

Tidwell’s new book is a riveting and elegant story of climate change on one city street, full of surprises and true stories of human struggle and dying local trees. It’s set against the national backdrop of 2023’s record heat domes and raging wildfires and, simultaneously, rising hopes for clean energy.
In 2023, author and activist Mike Tidwell decided to keep a record for a full year of the growing impacts of climate change on his one urban block right on the border with Washington, DC. A love letter to the magnificent oaks and other trees dying from record heat waves and bizarre rain, Tidwell’s story depicts the neighborhood’s battle to save the trees and combat climate change: The midwife who builds a geothermal energy system on the block, the Congressman who battles cancer and climate change at the same time, and the Chinese-American climate scientist who wants to bury billions of the world’s dying trees to store their carbon and help stabilize the atmosphere.

Mike Tidwell is a journalist, author, and climate activist living in Takoma Park, MD. As a past contributing writer for The Washington Post, he won four Lowell Thomas Awards, the highest prize in American travel journalism. He is a former National Endowment for the Arts fellow whose work has been published in Audubon, National Geographic Traveler, Orion, Washingtonian, and elsewhere.

The Lost Trees of Willow Avenue by Mike Tidwell is available in print, e-book, and e-audiobook.

Space Shuttle Stories with Astronaut Tom Jones

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Thursday, Oct 17
7 – 8 pm
HCLS Elkridge Branch
For everyone. Registration preferred.
In partnership with the Maryland STEM Festival and the Howard Astronomical League. Books available for purchase and signing.

“Astronaut Tom Jones provides readers of all ages with a definitive look into the spirit, challenges, enjoyment, and faith that accompanies Earth-orbit exploration. Space Shuttle Stories takes us inside the lives, the risks, and the dedication of those men and women who are reaching for the stars.”
—Harrison H. Schmitt, Apollo 17 astronaut and geologist

NASA’s space shuttle was the world’s first reusable spacecraft, accomplishing many firsts and inspiring generations across its 30-year lifespan as America’s iconic spaceship. In Space Shuttle Stories, astronaut Tom Jones interviewed more than 130 fellow astronauts for their personal vignettes, covering all 135 space shuttle missions from Columbia’s maiden flight in 1981 to the final launch of Atlantis in 2011.

Dr. Thomas Jones in a blue flight suit covered in patched standing with arms crossed in front of the Atlantic shuttle.

Thomas D. Jones, Ph.D., is a veteran astronaut, planetary scientist, pilot, author, and speaker who completed four space shuttle missions and three spacewalks in helping build the International Space Station. Jones has authored six books, including Sky Walking: An Astronaut’s Memoir, and has written for aerospace magazines such as Air & Space Smithsonian, Aerospace America, Popular Mechanics, and The Planetary Report. A senior research scientist for IHMC, he appears regularly on television news as an expert commentator for space exploration and science stories.

Space Shuttle Stories is available to borrow in print.

A Native man in full regalia dancing, silhouetted against a bright blue sky.

Native American Heritage Month Celebration

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A Native man in full regalia dancing, silhouetted against a bright blue sky.

Saturday, November 4 | 11 am – 3 pm
Color Burst Park
6000 Merriweather Dr., Columbia

2 pm: Author Steven Paul Judd
Performers include:
Carly Harvey, Tsalagi and Tuscarora: singer
Brett Walking Eagle, Dakota Sioux: flute player and singer
Angela Gladue, Cree: hoop dancer
Shawn IronMaker, Ft. Belknap: singer
Lance Fisher, Northern Cheyenne: singer
Chris EagleHawk, Lakota/Pueblo: traditional dancer
Four members, Iroquois-St. Regis Mohawk: smoke dancers
Misty Nace & Nathan Solorio, Cree: dancers
Jennifer Night Bird Miller, Cree: jingle dancer

Interview with Steven Paul Judd:

Two Native American teens, one kneeling looking through a magnifying glass, and the other wearing a ribbon skirt and red sneakers.

Steven Paul Judd was a student who loved movies when he decided to apply for a fellowship with ABC Disney. His submission, a speculative script for the television show My Name is Earl, secured him the fellowship and the opportunity to fly to Los Angeles to write. This launched his career which now includes not only screen writing, but also fashion, books, painting, and whatever artistic medium inspires him in the moment. His substantive works often include satire with pop culture themes that lift Native American culture.

Judd, who is of Kiowa and Choctaw heritage, talks about his work at the fifth annual Native American Heritage Month Celebration on Saturday, November 4. Judd says these types of events are important, “because when people think about Native Americans and Native American heritage, they obviously think of the past, but we are also doing things today. Like, I’m a writer. It’s a perfect opportunity to broaden people’s awareness about Native Americans in the arts.”


When asked about the inspiration for his bestselling Rez Detectives series, Judd says he did it for his childhood self, who saw little representation of Native culture in books. “I would have loved to have something like this when I was a kid! I loved comic books,” he says. The book was co-authored with his friend Tvli Jacob.

Things have changed considerably since 2011 when he first hit the Hollywood scene, Judd says. “There wasn’t a lot of indigenous representation in the (television) industry. Now you see a lot more. There’s Reservation Dogs, Rutherford Falls, and of course, Dark Wind, which I write on.”

In his spare time, when he’s not creating, Judd pursues his passion for securing Indigenous treaty rights. “It’s a pet project,” he says. “No one is going to right the wrongs of the past for moral reasons…you have to prove things legally.”

“Dig it if you can,” a catch phrase used by Judd, is the title of an award-winning documentary on his life created by filmmaker Kyle Bell. Catch it on Vimeo.

The title sandwiches a mock version of Washington crossing the Delaware, with Alexandra Petri holding the flog and the ice floes being made of cherry pie.

Humor is good for the soul!

Rohini G. Leave a comment
The title sandwiches a mock version of Washington crossing the Delaware, with Alexandra Petri holding the flog and the ice floes being made of cherry pie.

A witty, absurdist satire of the last 500 years, Alexandra Petri’s US History is the fake textbook you never knew you needed!

by Rohini G.

Every morning, before I plunge into the doom and gloom printed on the front page of the newspaper, I take a few minutes to refresh my soul and laugh loudly. Washington Post’s humor columnist Alexandra Petri’s witty perspective on the absurd in our politics (of which there is no dearth), tickles my funny bone, enlivens my gray cells, and infuses my heart with optimism. A full body workout!

What? You haven’t read her column and are unfamiliar with her razor sharp writing? Ah, my friend, what should I offer you – her hilarious article about whether George Santos should resign (It’s the last thing he should do) or her recent satirical perspective on the U.S. Senate – it’s senior living made permanent. Or better yet, come and meet her in-person on Saturday, June 24 at 2 pm at the Miller Branch as she discusses her new book U.S. History: Important American Documents (I Made Up).

As a columnist for The Washington Post, Alexandra Petri has watched in real time as those who didn’t learn from history have been forced to repeat it. And repeat it. And repeat it. If we repeat history one more time, we’re going to fail! Maybe it’s time for a new textbook.

On Petri’s deranged timeline, John and Abigail Adams try sexting, the March sisters from Little Women are sixty feet tall, and Susan Sontag goes to summer camp. Nearly eighty short, hilarious pieces span centuries of American history and culture. Ayn Rand rewrites The Little Engine That Could. Nikola Tesla’s friends stage an intervention when he falls in love with a pigeon. The characters from Sesame Street invade Normandy. And Mark Twain—who famously said reports of his death had been greatly exaggerated—offers a detailed account of his undeath.

Alexandra Petri is a Thurber Prize finalist. Her satire has also appeared in McSweeney’s and the New Yorker’s Daily Shouts and Murmurs. She lives in Washington, DC. She won the National Press Club Angele Gingras Award for Humor Writing 2016, Shorty Award 2016, Forbes 30 Under 30, Fifty Funniest People Right Now (Rolling Stone).

If there is even a single person standing who can see through the political obfuscation on all sides, and spark humorous conversation, then there is, yet, hope for this world.

Saturday, June 24
2 pm
Miller Branch
Register.

Rohini is the Adult Curriculum Specialist with HCLS. She loves literature and rainy days.

The black cover sports a silhouetted treeline and the eyes and upright ears of a fox, drawn in watercolors.

Author Event: The Nocturnals

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The black cover sports a silhouetted treeline and the eyes and upright ears of a fox, drawn in watercolors.

By Eliana H.

If you’ve ever taken an evening walk, you might have noticed signs of some animals that are active at night. Maybe you’ve heard an owl call or seen a bat winging its way through the sky. We call those animals nocturnal, and lots of fascinating nocturnal animals live in our neighborhoods and parks. You can learn more about some of them along with the process of writing a book from Tracey Hecht at our Author Works event on Wednesday, May 17, at 7:30 pm at the Elkridge Branch.

Author Tracey Hecht has written a critically-acclaimed children’s book series called The Nocturnals about a group of unlikely friends who are all animals active at night. Dawn, a serious fox; Tobin, a sweet pangolin; and Bismark, a pint-sized sugar glider, head off on fun-filled adventures in this middle-grade series, starting with The Mysterious Abductions. Early Reader books such as The Moonlight Meeting and The Slithery Shakedown introduce younger readers to these friends while presenting themes that encourage kindness, empathy, and bravery.

Participate on Wednesday evening in an interactive workshop to learn more about the animal science that inspired the books. You can also explore developing characters, creating author voice, and learning how books are made. Visit the children’s desk at HCLS Elkridge Branch before the workshop to collect a mask craft you can make that also reminds you what time the event begins. When you come to hear Tracey speak, you receive a bookmark, and if you’re lucky, you might win a plush fox or a Nocturnals activity book. The workshop is best for children ages 5 to 12 years. Books available for purchase and signing. 

About the Author

Tracey Hecht has written, directed, and produced for film. The American Booksellers Association chose The Mysterious Abductions—the first book in her critically acclaimed middle-grade series The Nocturnals—as a Kids’ Indie Next List pick. With the New York Public Library, she created a Read Aloud Writing Program that has since been used in more than 200 schools, libraries, and bookstores. When she isn’t writing, she can be found hiking, reading, or spending time with her family. Tracey currently splits her time between New York City and Oquossoc, Maine, with her husband and four children.

Eliana is a Children’s Research Specialist and Instructor at HCLS Elkridge Branch. She loves reading, even if she’s slow at it, and especially enjoys helping people find books that make them light up. She also loves being outside and spending time with friends and family (when it’s safe).

The viewer peers through leaves at a young Black girl standing at the edge of water where ripples circle.

Meet Nyani Nkrumah, Author of Wade in the Water

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The viewer peers through leaves at a young Black girl standing at the edge of water where ripples circle.

“Stunning…The author is supremely gifted at bringing both her characters and their close-knit rural town to life. Readers will eagerly await more from this writer.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Mon, Mar 27; 7 – 8 pm
HCLS Miller Branch and online
Register at bit.ly/AuthorNyaniNkrumah

Resonant with the emotional urgency of Alice Walker’s classic Meridian and the poignant charm of Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees, this gripping debut novel of female power and vulnerability, race, and class explores the unlikely friendship between a precocious black girl and a mysterious white woman in a small Mississippi town in the early 1980s.

More from Publisher’s Weekly:

Nkrumah’s stunning debut revolves around an unlikely friendship between an 11-year-old Black girl and a middle-aged white woman in 1982 Ricksville, Miss., and the segregated town’s fraught history. Intelligent, questioning Ella stands out in her light-skinned Black family because she is the result of her mother’s fling with a much darker-skinned man. Her ne’er-do-well stepfather Leroy is seldom home, but when he is, he takes out his rage and humiliation by sexually abusing Ella, while her mother treats her with contempt and frequent whippings. Meanwhile, a white Princeton University professor named Katherine St. James, who was raised in Mississippi, stirs things up when she moves into the Black half of town for a research project. Though it’s been almost 20 years since the killings of three voting-rights activists nearby, the case remains unsolved and racial tensions still run high. Against this backdrop, Katherine becomes a tutor and mother figure to the love-starved Ella, but as shocking revelations emerge about Katherine’s past in 1960s Mississippi, Nkrumah leads readers to reflect on the limits of the professor’s good intentions. The author is supremely gifted at bringing both her characters and their close-knit rural town to life. Readers will eagerly await more from this writer.

Nyani Nkrumah was born in Boston and grew up in Ghana, West Africa, and later Zimbabwe. Nyani graduated from Amherst College, has a Masters from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and earned a Ph.D from Cornell University. A Fulbright Fellow, she lives in the Washington, DC area with her family and works in international development.

Author Works with Kathryn Finney

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Thursday, Jan 19
6:30 – 7:30 pm
online  
Registration and more information at bit.ly/hclsfinney

Turn your passion into profit! If you have ever dreamed about starting a business, you need to know about Kathryn Finney. She encourages you to not wait for the system to let you in. Her new book, Build the D*mn Thing, is the essential guide to knowing, breaking, remaking, and building your own rules of entrepreneurship.

She explains how to build a business from the ground up, from developing a business plan to finding investors, growing a team, and refining a product.  

Finney, an investor and startup champion, is the founder and managing general partner of Genius Guild, a Chicago-based venture fund that invests in scalable businesses led by Black founders using innovation to build and promote healthy communities. Build The D*mn Thing: How to Start a Successful Business if You’re Not a Rich White Guy made the Wall Street Journal bestsellers list in its first week of release.

In partnership with Columbia Inspired magazine and The 3rd, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, co-created, community of Women of Color entrepreneurs.

The author looks straight at the camera, resting her chin between her hands. She has short, curly hair and glasses.

Meet the Author: Sheryll Cashin

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The author looks straight at the camera, resting her chin between her hands. She has short, curly hair and glasses.

Thu, Oct 13, 7 – 8 pm
Miller Branch
Register at bit.ly/hclscashin

Sheryll Cashin discusses her new book, White Space, Black Hood, which traces the history of anti-Black residential caste — boundary maintenance, opportunity hoarding, and stereotype-driven surveillance. It unpacks the current legacy so we can begin the work to dismantle the structures and policies that undermine Black lives. The iconic Black hood, like slavery and Jim Crow, is a peculiar American institution animated by the ideology of white supremacy. Politicians and people of all colors propagated “ghetto” myths to justify racist policies that concentrated poverty in the hood and created high-opportunity white spaces.

Drawing on nearly two decades of research in cities around the U.S., Cashin traces the processes of residential caste and contends that geography is now central to American caste. Poverty-free havens and poverty-dense hoods would not exist if the state had not designed, constructed, and maintained this physical racial order.

The book cover has a bright red splash painted over orange, with bold type

Cashin calls for abolition of these state-sanctioned processes. The ultimate goal is to change the lens through which society sees residents of poor Black neighborhoods from presumed thug to presumed citizen, and to transform the relationship of the state with these neighborhoods from punitive to caring.

Deeply researched and sharply written, White Space, Black Hood is a call to action for repairing what white supremacy still breaks.

Cashin is the Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Law, Civil Rights and Social Justice at Georgetown University and an active member of the Poverty and Race Research Action Council. Follow her at sheryllcashin.com and on Twitter @sheryllcashin.