Fun and Exciting Programs at Your Local Library

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These are some programs and classes we offer throughout the year. Please check the calendar for dates, times, and registration details.  Want to receive our events e-newsletter in your inbox every month?  Click HERE to sign up!

 

ELCL Book Club

The ELCL Book Club likes to read a wide array of literature from contemporary authors. The Book Club meets every first Wednesday of the month for an exciting and lively discussion.

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2023 ELCL Book Club Selections:

January 4 - ANXIOUS PEOPLE BY FREDRIK BACKMAN
February 1 - THE PERSONAL LIBRARIAN BY MARIE BENEDICT
March 1 - THE MAGNIFICENT LIVES OF MARJORIE POST BY ALLISON PATAKI
April 5 - THE GIRL YOU LEFT BEHIND BY JOJO MOYES
May 3 - THE WOMAN THEY COULD NOT SILENCE BY KATE MOORE
June 7 - THE GIRL WITH THE LOUDING VOICE BY DARE ABI
July 5 - AMERICAN DIRT BY JEANINE CUMMINS
August 2 - FIFTY WORDS FOR RAIN BY ASHA LEMMIE
September 6 - MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL BY JOHN BERENDT
October 4 - HORSE BY GERALDINE BROOKS
November 1 - SMALL GREAT THINGS BY JODI PICOULT
December 6 - THE BEEKEEPER OF ALEPPO BY CHRISTY LEFTERI

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2022 ELCL Book Club Selections:

January 5 - NEXT YEAR IN HAVANA by Chanel Cleeton

February 2 - THE YEARLING by Marjorie Rawlings

March 2 - THE ONLY WOMAN IN THE ROOM by Marie Benedict

April 6 - THE DUTCH HOUSE by Ann Patchett

May 4 - THE GIVER OF STARS by JoJo Moyes

June 1 - THE NIGHTINGALE by Kristin Hannah

July 6 - THE HOLDOUT by Graham Moore

August 3 - THERE, THERE by Tommy Orange

September 7 - WARLIGHT by Michael Ondaatje

October 5 - THE BOOK OF LONGINGS by Sue Monk Kidd

November 2 - THE FOUR WINDS by Kristin Hannah

December 7 - THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY by Matt Haig

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Author Showcase

The Authors Showcase series of in-person author talks is usually scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on the 3rd Tuesday of each month from January through October.  In the past, speakers have been local up-and-coming authors as well as luminaries such as Lisa Unger, Tim Dorsey, Governor Bob Graham, Kris Radish, and Tom Corcoran.  If you know of a local author you’d like to hear talk, contact us with the author’s name, book information, and how to contact the author. 

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Here are the 2022 authors:

 

January 18: John Andes is a prolific author of a dozen fast-paced crime/murder mystery books who has moved from self-published to commercially published (World Castle Publishing and Mirador) to internationally published. John writes in English, but several of his books have been translated into Danish after a publishing company read and liked them and asked if they could translate his writings. It has been said that his books are not for the faint of heart. John's style of writing has been described as aggressive, hard-hitting, gritty and graphic. Unlike most crime novelists, John's books appeal to women readers as well as the typical male audience. Each story contains a strong female component and are full of suspense, leaving the reader on the edge of their seats!  For more info, please go to http://www.crimenovelsonline.com. This meeting is virtual only. To receive a Zoom link, please register at https://eastlakelibrary.evanced.info/signup/calendar or call the library at 727-773-2665.

February 15: Jan Moran - Author Jan Moran is a USA Today bestselling author of heartfelt women's fiction series, family sagas, and 20th-century historical novels.  Jan dreams up her popular, contemporary beach books on the sunny shores of Southern California, not far from where she lives.  As a native of Texas who lived on the east coast and worked in Paris, Hong Kong, and Canada, Jan brings a wealth of experience to every book she writes. For more info, please go to https://www.janmoran.com.  This meeting is virtual only. To receive a Zoom link, please register at https://eastlakelibrary.evanced.info/signup/calendar or call the library at 727-773-2665.

March 15: Natalie Symons - Natalie Symons is a local award-winning playwright, actress and novelist. Her plays have been produced at theaters around the world, including, locally, Free Fall Theater and American Stage theater. She will speak about her debut novel Lies in Bone, WINNER of the 2021 BEST BOOK AWARDS in Fiction: Cross-Genre. Lies in Bone is told by a tart-tongued young woman with a love of Bruce Springsteen. It is at once a mystery and coming-of-age tale fueled by dark secrets involving love, murder, and the truths worth lying for. On Halloween 1963, eleven-year-old Chuck Coolidge and his brother Danny are lost in a toxic smog covering the steel town of Slippery Elm, Pennsylvania. When the smog lifts, half the town is sick and twenty people are dead. And Danny is missing. Now over 20 years later the mystery is resurrected. For more info, please go to https://www.nataliesymons.com.

April 19: Kimberly Lojewski - Local author Kimberly Lojewski will talk about her collection of short stories Worm Fiddling Nocturne in the Key of a Broken Heart a Florida Book Award Gold Medal winner. The eleven stories in this wildly imaginative debut collection, feature characters from marionettes to princesses to juveniles in a camp run by authoritarian grandmothers, who long for escape, community, acceptance and self-discovery. For more info, please go to https://www.kimberlylojewski.com.

May 17: TBD

June 21: Susan Adger - For more info, please go to http://www.susanadger.com.  More details to come.

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July 19: Lee Summerall - For more info, please go to https://latelastnightbooks.com/tag/lee-summerall. More details to come.

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August 16: TBD

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September 20: TBD

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October 18: TBD

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Here are the 2021 authors:

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January 19: Michael Jordan, a resident of Longboat Key, has practiced law for more than forty years. His colleagues have regularly named him to Best Lawyers in America©. His first novel, The Company of Demons, was awarded the Gold Medal in the Florida Book Awards, a Silver by the Florida Writers Association Royal Palm Literary Competition and won best crime thriller of the year in the National Independent Book Awards.  Click HERE for Michael's website.

 

February 16: Novelist, nonfiction author, and filmmaker Gay Courter has been traveling the world since age six, when her family left the U.S. to spend several years in Japan and Taiwan. Her first cruise, as a child, was aboard the famed Ile de France.  Since then, she and her husband, Philip have taken twenty-one cruises, on nine different lines, including ten Princess ships together. Gay Courter's latest book is the non-fiction Quarantine! How I Survived the Diamond Princess Coronavirus Crisis.  Her previous experiences helped prepare her for the successful media campaign she and Phil launched, with the aid of their three adult children, asking for the help of the U.S. government to evacuate them and other Americans from the Diamond Princess as the number of cases of the Coronavirus grew day by day. In addition to the more than 150 interviews with media outlets from around the globe that Gay and Phil did while under quarantine in Japan and Texas, Gay wrote two op-eds for the Washington Post and an article for The Atlantic. Click HERE for more about Quarantine! and for updates on Phil’s companion documentary, Quarantine! How We Survived the Diamond Princess Coronavirus Crisis and gaycourter.com for more about Gay and her previous books. 

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March 16: John Vanek, author of The Father Jake Austin Mystery Series, is a physician by training, but a writer by passion. Medicine is his life but mysteries are his drug of choice. He practiced medicine at a Catholic hospital for a quarter century. Father Jake Austin is a fictional character, but aspects of his personality and struggles are modeled after two priests who became the author's closest of friends and confidants. Consequently, The Father Jake Austin Mystery Series is filled with murder, mayhem, medicine, and ministry. Click HERE for John's website.

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April 20: Tonight's Showcase is a conversation with Madeleine Henry, author of the acclaimed The Love Proof (out Feb 9,2021 from Atria). This novel follows a brilliant physicist studying the nature of time who embarks on a journey to prove that those we love are always connected to us. Jill Santopolo, New York Times bestselling author of The Light We Lost, called i