Boston Flora

Category: Author Book Signing

  • Monday, April 6, 7:00 pm – When the Forest Breathes: Renewal & Resilience in the Natural World

    Plan to be at the Museum of Science, Boston, on April 6 at 7 pm for a captivating conversation with acclaimed forest ecologist and bestselling author Suzanne Simard as she presents her new book, When the Forest Breathes, alongside moderators Steve Curwood and Jenni Doering of Living on Earth radio.

    Building on the groundbreaking insights of her previous book, the bestseller Finding the Mother Tree, Simard reveals how the deep cycles of renewal in forests hold the key to protecting threatened ecosystems from climate change and human disruption.

    Drawing on decades of research in her native British Columbia and collaboration with Indigenous communities, Simard demonstrates how forests thrive through intricate networks of life—from elder trees passing on their genetic knowledge to mushrooms breaking down fallen logs. Her work illuminates how thoughtful stewardship can restore balance to landscapes affected by logging, wildfire, and environmental pressures.

    With warmth, wisdom, and a profound reverence for nature, Simard intertwines her scientific discoveries with reflections on life, loss, and renewal, showing how the rhythms of the forest mirror our own journeys. When the Forest Breathes is a hopeful call to action, proving that through care, insight, and community, reversing environmental decline is within our reach.

    Tickets to this event includes a signed copy of When the Forest Breathes.

    This event is presented in partnership with Brookline Booksmith and public radio’s Living on Earth. $30. Register at https://www.mos.org/events/when-forest-breathes-author-suzanne-simard

  • Sunday, April 26, 10:00 am – 1:30 pm – Night Magic Brunch

    Join Grow Native Massachusetts on Sunday, April 26th for a special fundraiser! Brunch at 10 followed by booksigning and discussion with the author at noon. Books will be available for purchase from @thelittlebeebookshop and New York Times best-selling author @leighannhenion will be there to sign copies of her stunning book before we begin our discussion. We are thrilled to be hosted once again by @bull_run_restaurant. Their brunch buffet is a DREAM! Everything is included in your ticket, register today at https://grownativemass.org and https://tickets.bullrunrestaurant.com

    Grow Native Massachusetts is delighted to host a conversation with New York Times bestselling nature writer Leigh Ann Henion, discussing her book Night Magic: Adventures Among Glowworms, Moon Gardens, and Other Marvels of the Dark (2024), a glorious celebration of the night that invites us to leave our well-lit homes, step outside, and embrace the dark as a profoundly beautiful part of the world we inhabit.

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  • Thursday, April 16, 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm – Baking an Impact: Small Changes for More Sustainable Baking

    Join Chef Genevieve Meli as she discusses her book, Baking an Impact: Small Changes for More Sustainable Baking

    Chef Genevieve Meli is an associate professor of Baking and Pastry Arts at CIA. Among the courses she teaches are Individual and Production Pastries, Baking and Pastry Skill Development, and Applied Baking and Pastry Production. She was the youngest-ever chef to earn the Certified Master Baker (CMB) designation and is also a Certified Higher Education Professional (CHEP). Meli is the author of two cookbooks: Baking an Impact: Small Changes for More Sustainable Baking and Sweet Nature. Outside of the classroom, she volunteers with the Stormville Fire Company Auxiliary and enjoys gardening at her 1800s farmhouse, where she and her husband are raising their son Leonardo.

    The title is Chef Meli’s second work, and the first book to be published by CIA Press, the college’s own publishing imprint. The book showcases an incredible array of mouthwatering desserts, savory baked goods, and more, with an eye toward reducing food waste; utilizing alternative ingredients, grains, and pantry staples; and seasonality in the baking and pastry realm. Baking an Impact is available now at all CIA locations and Amazon. It’s an ideal gift for the sustainably minded baker on your list or for anyone looking to level up their baking skills.

    “People don’t often consider sustainability when it comes to baking, in part, because the staples in many of our favorite baked goods—dairy, eggs, and refined flours—are inherently not sustainable because of sourcing and heavy processing,” said Meli. “My purpose behind Baking an Impact is to show how the smallest of changes can make a larger impact than you might expect,” according to Chef Meli.

    Baking an Impact includes both sweet and savory recipes. Some of Chef Meli’s favorite recipes from the book are Coffee Coffee Cake, Wildflower Lollipops, Koginut Squash Gourds, and Blue Spirulina Oat Mint Truffles.

    This free lecture is sponsored by Boston University’s Food Studies Programs and takes place April 16 at 6 pm at 808 Commonwealth Avenue, Room 124, Brookline, Massachusetts. Register at Eventbrite.

  • Tuesday, March 24, 6:30 pm – Curated Cuisine: The Diaspora Spice Co. Cookbook

    Curated Cuisine is a monthly WBUR series examining all things edible, from the chefs cooking the food to the writers reviewing the recipes. Meet the people shaping the food industry, both local and national and enjoy a post-show bite inspired by the conversation.

    Spices are more than small jars that sit in your cabinet and make an appearance during meal prep. For Sana Javeri Kadri, CEO of Diaspora Spice Co., and recipe writer Asha Loupy those little jars represent the farmer who toiled in the fields with love to bring you that flavor. Kadri and Loupy have co-authored The Diaspora Spice Co. Cookbook, a new book that celebrates the spices from India and Sri Lanka. The cookbook centers on regenerative farms across South Asia where Kadri and Loupy spent time with the farmers who grow regional spices and the family recipes built on those traditions.

    Join Tamika Francis, founder of Food & Folklore, on March 24 at CitySpace for a conversation with Kadri and Loupy and watch a cooking demonstration from the new collection of 85 recipes. Copies of the book will be available to purchase from our bookstore partner Frugal Bookstore, Kadri and Loupy will sign and guests will enjoy a bite from the book following the conversation. Book Bundle: $55.00 (general admission and one copy of the cookbook)
    General: $20.00
    BU Faculty/Staff: $15.00 (must present a valid BU ID upon arrival)
    Student: $10.00 (must present a valid student ID upon arrival)

    Register at www.wbur.org

  • Tuesday, March 11, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Unlocking the Mysteries of Native Plant Selection

    Kim Eierman, author of The Pollinator Victory Garden, will speak on March 11 at 7 pm in parson at the Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway in Cambridge, as part of Grow Native Massachusetts’s free public lecture series. No registration required.

    When choosing native plants, you have to ask the right questions to get the best results. Kim Eierman will help you sort out the mysteries and complexities of native plant selection including:  Am I buying a genetic clone, and does it matter? What are local ecotypes and where can I buy them? Are native cultivars ok? Are dwarf nativars ecologically-useful? What’s the tradeoff with double flowers? Which native plants require pollination partners (i.e. are dioecious) and how do I source them? What are the pros and cons of planting native seeds vs. live plants? Get the answers you need to make your native landscape both beautiful and eco-beneficial.

    Kim Eierman is the Founder of EcoBeneficial LLC and author of The Pollinator Victory Garden: Win the War on Pollinator Decline with Ecological Gardening. She is an ecological landscape designer and environmental horticulturist specializing in native plants.  Based in New York, Kim teaches at the New York Botanical Garden and Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and is a Steering Committee member of The Native Plant Center.

  • Sunday, February 1, 12:00 noon – 1:30 pm – Fearless, Sleepless, Deathless

    Join the Arnold Arboretum on February 1 at noon for a talk by popular Mushroom Hunt instructor Maria Pinto on her new book, Fearless, Sleepless, Deathless: What Fungi Taught Me about Nourishment, Poison, Ecology, Hidden Histories, Zombies, and Black Survival. Maria weaves together memoir, mycology, and cultural history to illuminate the deep and surprising ways fungi connect with human life. With vivid storytelling and a fiercely original voice, she explores fungi not just as biological wonders but as tools of survival, subversion, and spiritual sustenance – especially for thos living at the margins. The program takes place in Hunnewell Hall. For more information visit https://arboretum.harvard.edu/events-2/program-catalog/

  • Monday, January 26, 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm – Curated Cuisine: Diane Kochilas – Greatest Dishes from Athens

    Join chef Diane Kochilas for a conversation and cooking demo spotlighting the fresh flavors of her new Athens-inspired cookbook on January 26 at 6:30 pm..

    Curated Cuisine is a monthly series examining all things edible, from the chefs cooking the food to the writers reviewing the recipes. Meet the people shaping the food industry, both local and national and enjoy a post-show bite inspired by the conversation.

    Greek food has come a long way since the days of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. The modern metropolis is flush with global influences and ingredients dancing alongside traditional Greek staples. Greek chef and television personality Diane Kochilas, an Athenian for over three decades, has written a new cookbook that dives deep into the savory twists and turns of cuisine in the Greek capital. In Athens: Food, Stories, Love, she offers a cipher to the changing Mediterranean mecca and also fresh takes on Greek classics. Join us for a conversation and live cooking demonstration with Kochilas moderated by WBUR senior correspondent and host Deborah Becker.

    Copies of the cookbook will be available to purchase from our bookstore partner Brookline Booksmith. Kochilas will sign and guests will enjoy a bite from the book following the conversation.

    This event is co-produced by Boston University Metropolitan College Programs in Food & Wine. Tickets (from $12.51) available through Eventbrite HERE.

  • Thursday, November 20, 6:30 pm – 8:15 pm – Gardner’s Eden: A Conversation & Book Signing

    Join friends at The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum on November 20 in Calderwood Hall for a special evening with James Prosek—award-winning artist, writer, and naturalist—in celebration of Gardner’s Eden, one of the Museum’s newest publications and the culmination of Prosek’s 2018 residency at the Gardner. In conversation with Pieranna Cavalchini, Tom and Lisa Blumenthal Curator of Contemporary Art at the Gardner Museum, Prosek will trace the roots of inspiration for the book and provide insights into his artistic practice. An audience Q&A and book signing will conclude the event. Copies of Gardner’s Eden will be available for purchase from Gift at the Gardner.

    During his artist residency at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, James Prosek was drawn to Gardner’s collection, her love of plants, and the relationships she nurtured. Over the course of several visits, he created a series of 54 exquisite drawings capturing everything from rarely seen personal mementos and carefully arranged gallery objects to the ever-changing flora and fauna of the Museum’s iconic Courtyard.

    Each drawing is paired with carefully selected quotations from letters, poems, and journals by Gardner, her friends, and contemporaries. These selections highlight the breadth of Isabella’s eclectic interests and reveal Prosek’s own keen, observant eye. Thoughtfully paired with an essay by the artist, they invite readers to reflect on the enduring dialogue between art, nature, and personal history.

    For tickets and more information visit https://www.gardnermuseum.org/calendar/gardners-eden

  • Thursday, October 23, 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm – Awaiting Their Feast

    For the final event of the Fall 2025 Pépin Lecture Series on October 23 at 6 pm, author and historian Lori A. Flores joins us to discuss her latest book, Awaiting Their Feast: Latinx Food Workers and Activism from World War II to Covid-19. Copies of Awaiting Their Feast will be available for purchase.

    Though Latinx foodways are eagerly embraced and consumed by people across the United States, the nation exhibits a much more fraught relationship with Latinx people, including the largely underpaid and migrant workers who harvest, process, cook, and sell this desirable food. Lori A. Flores traces how our dual appetite for Latinx food and Latinx food labor has evolved from the World War II era to the COVID-19 pandemic, using the US Northeast as an unexpected microcosm of this national history.

    Spanning the experiences of food workers with roots in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Central America, Flores’s narrative travels from New Jersey to Maine and examines different links in the food chain, from farming to restaurants to seafood processing to the deliverista rights movement. What unites this eclectic material is Flores’s contention that as our appetite for Latinx food has grown exponentially, the visibility of Latinx food workers has demonstrably decreased. This precariat is anything but passive, however, and has historically fought—and is still fighting—against low wages and exploitation, medical neglect, criminalization, and deeply ironic food insecurity.

    Lori Flores’ research and writing focus on Latino life, labor, immigration, and food history, particularly when it comes to the US Northeast. She is an expert on the Bracero Program and Mexican guestworkers, the US farmworker rights movement, food laborers’ conditions, and relationships between citizen and immigrant Latinos. She is also the author of Grounds for Dreaming: Mexican Americans, Mexican Immigrants, and the California Farmworker Movement. She also directs Stony Brook’s Latin/x American and Caribbean Studies Center and Program.

    Free. The talk takes place in Room 124 at 808 Commonwealth Avenue in Brookline. Register at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/pepin-lecture-series-author-talk-with-lori-a-flores-tickets-1399688809909?aff=oddtdtcreator

  • Thursday, October 23, 6:00 pm – Awaiting Their Feast with Lori A. Flores

    The second talk of Boston University’s Food Studies Programs’ Pépin Lecture Series for Fall, 2025 will take place Thursday, October 23 at 6 pm at 808 Commonwealth Avenue, in Fuller 124.

    Author and historian Lori A. Flores joins us to discuss her latest book, Awaiting Their Feast: Latinx Food Workers and Activism from World War II to Covid-19. Copies of Awaiting Their Feast will be available for purchase.

    Though Latinx foodways are eagerly embraced and consumed by people across the United States, the nation exhibits a much more fraught relationship with Latinx people, including the largely underpaid and migrant workers who harvest, process, cook, and sell this desirable food. Lori A. Flores traces how our dual appetite for Latinx food and Latinx food labor has evolved from the World War II era to the COVID-19 pandemic, using the US Northeast as an unexpected microcosm of this national history.

    Spanning the experiences of food workers with roots in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Central America, Flores’s narrative travels from New Jersey to Maine and examines different links in the food chain, from farming to restaurants to seafood processing to the deliverista rights movement. What unites this eclectic material is Flores’s contention that as our appetite for Latinx food has grown exponentially, the visibility of Latinx food workers has demonstrably decreased. This precariat is anything but passive, however, and has historically fought—and is still fighting—against low wages and exploitation, medical neglect, criminalization, and deeply ironic food insecurity.

    Lori Flores’ research and writing focus on Latino life, labor, immigration, and food history, particularly when it comes to the US Northeast. She is an expert on the Bracero Program and Mexican guestworkers, the US farmworker rights movement, food laborers’ conditions, and relationships between citizen and immigrant Latinos. She directs Stony Brook’s Latin/x American and Caribbean Studies Center and Program.

    The program is free but registration is open at Eventbrite HERE.