Boston Flora

Category: Author Book Signing

  • Wednesday, September 12, 7:00 pm – Moonbird

    In a stunning slide presentation on Wednesday, September 12 at 7 pm at Porter Square Books, 25 White Street in Cambridge, National Book Award-winning author Phillip Hoose takes us around the hemisphere with the world’s most celebrated shorebird, showing the obstacles rufa red knots face, introducing a worldwide team of scientists and conservationists trying to save them, and offering insights about what we can do to help shorebirds before it’s too late. With inspiring prose, thorough research, and stirring images, Hoose explores the tragedy of extinction through the triumph of a single bird.

    Hoose is the author of the National Book Award winner Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice, which is also a Newbery Honor Book, a Robert F. Sibert Honor Book, a YALSA Finalist for Excellence in Young Adult Fiction, and an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, among other honors. His other books include The Race to Save the Lord God Bird, winner of the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, and We Were There, Too!, a National Book Award Finalist. Mr. Hoose lives in Portland, Maine.  For more information visit www.portersquarebooks.com.

  • Saturday, August 18, 4:00 pm – The Sanctified Landscape: The Beginnings of Historic Preservation in the Hudson Valley

    Dr. David Schuyler will discuss New York’s Hudson Valley as America’s first iconic landscape, while unraveling a history of idealization, revolution, pre-environmentalism, and creative power in the 19th and early 20th centuries, on Saturday, August 18, beginning at 4 pm on Olana’s East Lawn.  Olana, the historic home of Frederic Edwin Church, is located at 5720 Route 9G, Hudson, New York. He traces how an emerging sense of place, aesthetic identity and American historical associations became synonymous with the Hudson Valley, and increasingly ingrained in national consciousness – ideas advanced by popular authors such as James Fenimore Cooper and Washington Irving, and Hudson River School painters including Thomas Cole and Frederic Church. David Schuyler has been a professor at Franklin and Marshall College for over thirty years.  He also serves on Olana’s National Advisory Committee.  He is the author of Apostle of Taste: Andrew Jackson Downing 1815 – 1852, and The New Urban Landscape: The Redefinition of City Form in Nineteenth-Century America.  Presented by The Olana Partnership.  Call 518-828-1872, x 103, to reserve, or email rsvp@olana.org for more information.

  • Thursday, August 16, 6:00 pm – Evolution in a Toxic World: How Life Responds to Chemical Threats

    The Harvard Museum of Natural History welcomes Emily Monosson on Thursday, August 16 at 6 pm for a free lecture and book signing at The Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street in Cambridge. Toxic chemicals: They have shaped our bodies, our world, and all life around us. Today, species are rapidly evolving in response to toxins like PCBs, dioxins and pesticides. Emily Monosson, adjunct professor at UMass Amherst and author of the new book, Evolution in a Toxic World (Island Press), will discuss how life on Earth survives in the face of increased amounts of both age-old and new synthetic chemicals in our environment. Dr. Monosson is an environmental toxicologist. A diversity of past research experience, and data synthesis of the health and environmental impacts of contaminants from nanoparticles, to organochlorines, and personal health care products have laid the groundwork for Monosson’s current academic interest – investigating the evolutionary history of the toxic response.

    Beyond academics her interest in increasing public awareness about their role in the environment and the importance of science education, has led to her service on the Gill-Montague School Committee and on the board of the Montague Reporter, where she occasionally contributes as a writer.  For more information, visit www.hmnh.harvard.edu.  Photo from toxicevolution.wordpress.com.

  • Thursday, August 16, 7:00 pm – Season to Taste

    When a head injury obliterated twenty-two-year-old Molly Birnbaum’s sense of smell, it destroyed her dream of becoming a chef. Determined to reawaken her nose, she bravely sets off on a quest to rediscover the scented world. A moving personal story packed with surprising facts about the senses, Season to Taste brims with the scents of Molly’s world–cinnamon, cedarwood, fresh bagels, and lavender–lost and finally found.

    Birnbaum is the recipient of the Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship in Arts and Culture from Columbia Journalism School. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, O, The Oprah Magazine, and ARTnews magazine, and she writes the popular food blog “My Madeline”.  Hear her discuss her book on Thursday, August 16, beginning at 7 pm at Porter Square Books, 25 White Street in Cambridge.  For more information call 617-491-2220.

  • Thursday, September 20 – Saturday, September 22 – America in Bloom Symposium & Awards Program

    Located in the heart of the Ozark Mountains, the progressive spirit in Fayetteville, Arkansas makes it a great place to live, work, and play. It has been recognized as one of the best places to live in America. Much of Fayetteville’s success is due to its participation in America in Bloom for the past 11 years.

    The America in Bloom Symposium & Awards program offers the opportunity for you to see Fayetteville and Northwest Arkansas from the inside out. You can walk in the paths of the community’s past, learn about its innovative environmental efforts, witness commitment to quality landscapes, and experience the newest cultural addition, the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. You will be able to talk with Northwest Arkansas mayors who are facing different challenges leading their cities, and meet some environmental and horticultural experts. Experience the Farmer’s Market and the crazy enthusiasm for all that is Razorback! Fayetteville is a fun and unique mix of cool college town, thriving business community, outdoor lovers’ haven, and cultural arts center. We can’t wait for you to experience Fayetteville and discover “Ozark Red, White & Blooms.”

    On Thursday, you will take a guided walking tour of historic downtown Fayetteville, followed by a welcome reception, and an Arkansas Barbecue Feast and Award presentation with Mayor Lioneld Jordan. Friday brings the keynote speech Great Design & Tough Plants: The Key to Beautiful Communities, by P. Allen Smith, TV personality, designer, and garden expert. Scott Eccleston, Director of Trails and Grounds at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, will give insight into the unique design of the 120 acres of magnificent native plant trails and gardens that surround the museum. John McLarty and Marilyn Heifner, Heritage Trail Partners, will speak on Celebrating History – The Northwest Arkansas Heritage Trail. And there are other concurrent sessions on a variety of subjects, followed by an environmental tour of Fayetteville, a tour of the Gardens of the Crystal Bridges Museum of Art, and a reception at the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks. Saturday brings Robin Moore, director of the National Learning Initiative and author of Natural Learning – the Life History of an Environmental Schoolyard, speaking on Designing Nature into Children’s Lives, and more talks and workshops. A complete schedule may be found at www.americainbloom.org.

    A $139 group hotel rate at the Hampton Inn & Suites may be reserved using code “AIB” either online or by calling 479-756-3500. Full registration for all events is $200. Please register before August 29.

  • Saturday, August 4, 12:00 noon – Sparrow

    In her newest book, Sparrow, science author Kim Todd explores the complex history, biology, and literary tradition of the sparrow. From the Sparrow War of the late 1800s in the United States (a battle over the sparrow’s introduction which climaxed at Boston Common), to the recent mysterious decline of house sparrows globally, the sparrow has been at the center of the invasive species debate for over 150 years.  Kim will appear at The Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, on Saturday, August 4, at 12 noon.  For directions and parking information, visit www.hmnh.harvard.edu.  Regular admission rates apply. Free for members.

  • Thursday, July 19, 6:00 pm – Food in Jars

    Join Porter Square Books for a demonstration by Marisa McClellan at Tags Hardware, 25 White Street in Cambridge, on Thursday, July 19 beginning at 6 pm.

    Preserving delicious canned fruits, yummy jams, and savory pickles has never been easier with McClellan’s essential guide to home preserving and canning. Perfect for the urban dweller and unlike other books on canning and preserving, Food in Jars offers small-batch recipes ideal for tiny kitchens, says McClellan. McClellan is a food blogger and a creator of the online cooking show “Fork You”. She is a former writer and editor for Slashfood, one of the nations biggest and most widely read food websites. She writes about canning, pickling, and preserving on her blog, Food in Jars.

    Marisa will be demonstrating a canning procedure for jam at TAGS at 6pm on the 19th. PSB will be on hand selling copies of her book . Be sure to stock up on your canning supplies when you are there!

  • Wednesday, July 11, 6:30 pm – The Pollinator’s Corridor

    This just in: “the back corner” and Mt Grace Land Conservation Trust are pleased to co-host an evening with author Aaron Birk tomorrow, July 11, beginning at 6:30 pm, at 1497 Main Street in Athol. Aaron will present and discuss the significance of his new graphic novel The Pollinator’s Corridor.

    Set in the aftermath of the 1970’s landlord fires, The Pollinator’s Corridor follows the lives of three friends who attempt to convince wild bees and butterflies to cross the Bronx by planting ‘corridors’ of native flora throughout the industrial wasteland. Connecting fragmented forests, watersheds and city parks, our heroes restore biodiversity to the blighted ghetto by uniting marginalized communities and laying the foundations of ecological health in an age of crisis and decline.

    Philadelphia-based artist Aaron Birk began work on The Pollinator’s Corridor in 2003, while employed as a forester in Central Park, NY. Along with his efforts in restoration ecology, Aaron continues to hone his craft in illustration, puppetry and acrobatics. He is sponsored by New York Foundation for the Arts, and is the recipient of two major grants from The Independence Foundation and Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts.

    The project has received over $15,000 in grant funding through three major foundations, including The Independence Foundation, The New York Foundation for the Arts, and Pennsylvania Cultural Alliance. The Pollinator’s Corridor has been featured in The Bronx Museum of the Arts, and made the cover of the Philadelphia City Paper. Audiences range from 4th graders to PHD entomologists.

     

  • Tuesday, July 24, 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm – Gertrude Jekyll and the Country House Garden

    Join author and landscape historian Judith Tankard on Tuesday, July 24 at 4 pm at the Polly Hill Arboretum for this talk about her latest book, Gertrude Jekyll and the Country House Garden. This is the first book in over two decades devoted to one of the most important garden designers of the twentieth century. Gertrude Jekyll laid the basis for modern garden design and is credited with popularizing an informal, naturalistic look in counterpoint to the rigid, formal landscapes of the Victorian era. Also known as a prolific and influential writer, Jekyll contributed more than one hundred articles to Country Life and designed three gardens for the publication’s founder, Edward Hudson. As a result, the Country Life archive has an unrivaled record of her work. Tankard, who has spoken twice in the past for The Garden Club of the Back Bay,  has mined this archive resulting in a treasure trove of text and images showcasing the more than 350 gardens created by Jekyll. Book signing and light refreshments to follow.  $20/$15 for PHA members. Generously sponsored by Donaroma’s Nursery.  Register at www.pollyhillarboretum.org.

  • Wednesday, July 11, 7:30 pm – Extraordinary Secrets of Trees

    Perhaps you plan a trip to Martha’s Vineyard in July.  If so, don’t neglect this terrific evening lecture at the Polly Hill Arboretum in West Tisbury on Wednesday, July 11 beginning at 7:30 pm. Have you ever looked at a tree? Of course, we see them every day; however have you ever really seen the wondrous traits of your favorite trees? Join author and educator Nancy Ross Hugo for this illustrated talk based on her recent book Seeing Trees: Discover the Extraordinary Secrets of Ordinary Trees. Focusing on widely grown trees, this captivating book describes the rewards of close observation of trees, and with stunning photographs illustrates some of the most visually interesting tree structures, including leaves, flowers, buds, leaf scars, twigs, and bark. Trees will never look quite the same again.  $10/$5 for PHA members. Generously sponsored by Bartlett Tree Experts.  Register on line at www.pollyhillarboretum.org.