Join us at Artists Book House on Sunday, June 22, from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. for a reading and conversation with Donna Seaman on her memoir, River of Books: A Life in Reading.
Please join us at 2 p.m. to purchase a copy and mingle before the reading begins at 3 p.m. Artist Book House founder and author of The Time Traveler’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger, will join Donna Seaman in conversation to discuss River of Books, the challenges of the literary world, and a life in books.
Stick around after the discussion to get your copy signed by Donna! RSVP below.
About River of Books
River of Books is a memoir of reading and working with books by the renowned Booklist editor, Donna Seaman. With the infectious curiosity of an inveterate bibliophile and the prose of a fine stylist, Donna Seaman charts the course of her early reading years in a book-by-book chronicle of the significance books have held in her life. River of Books recounts Seaman’s journey in becoming an editor at Booklist, a reviewer, an author, and a literary citizen. Seaman makes palpable the power and self-recognition that she discovered in a life dedicated to reading.
About Donna Seaman
Donna Seaman is editor in chief for Booklist. A recipient of the Louis Shores Award for Excellence in Book Reviewing, the James Friend Memorial Award for Literary Criticism, and the Studs Terkel Humanities Service Award, Seaman is a member of the Content Leadership Team for the American Writers Museum, and an adjunct professor for Northwestern University’s MA in Writing and MFA in Prose and Poetry Programs. Seaman created the fiction anthology, In Our Nature: Stories of Wildness; her author interviews are collected in Writers on the Air: Conversations about Books, and she is the author of Identity Unknown: Rediscovering Seven American Women Artists and River of Books: A Life in Reading.
Praise for River of Books: A Life in Reading (Ode Books)
“A ‘constant reader’ who generously advocates for a wide diet of literature, from novels to poetry to narrative nonfiction to essays and all that lie between, Seaman counsels that “the more varied our reading, the more detailed, intricate, and vital our perceptions become.”
—KIRKUS REVIEWS
“River of Books makes me realize I’m not alone . . . I, too, am swept away by words. This is a celebration of the intense love affair we have with books.”
—Sandra Cisneros, author of Women Without Shame; The House on Mango Street
"Donna Seaman reads with her whole body, and RIVER OF BOOKS is a hymn to her vocation, a testament to her immersions, the story of her transports. The surface is calm, but the water runs deep in this memoir of intense responses, of enchantments and ecstasies."
—EDWARD HIRSCH, author of Stranger by Night, editor for 100 Poems to Break Your Heart
"River of Books is a beautiful memoir. Deeply personal, it is moving, dazzling, and spiced with touches of Seaman's slantwise sense of humor."
—SARA PARETSKY, author of Pay Dirt and other V. I. Warshawski novels and the memoir, Writing in an Age of Silence
"River of Books is as exhilarating as a first date, and it delivers: The memoir of a lifelong book lover who brings us her keen, engaging perspective on her own reading and the larger world of books, it will warm you and delight you and make you realize how fabulous reading can be."
—SUSAN ORLEAN, author of On Animals and The Library Book
“In this memoir, Seaman enchants readers with musings on her lifetime as a reader. It’s filled with lovely anecdotes, lightly humorous musings, and deep thoughts on books she loves, and will leave readers checking their lists to see what they need to add—because what’s more special than a recommendation from a true booklover?”
–KAITE STOVER, LibraryReads board member