Love occurs mainly between people, yet we also love all sorts of other things, such as sports teams, phones, photos, cars, clothing, hobbies, and nature. Is that love the same as loving a person? Is it really love at all? Does it compete with other people for our affection? Does it make our lives richer? Can it go too far?

Shannon Gibney, author and class of 1993 graduate of Community High School, will read from and discuss her new genre-bending book The Girl I Am, Was, and Never Will Be: A Speculative Memoir of Transracial Adoption.

In the midst of a rising awareness of social inequalities, the acronym "DEI" has become an ever-present buzzword in workplaces across the world. But underneath our talk and commitment is the real challenge: how do we actually create better communities for everyone in practice? What can we learn from advocates and practitioners who have come before us? 

Michael W. Nagle discusses his new book about Eber Brock Ward (1811–1875).

Ward began his career as a cabin boy on his uncle’s sailing vessels, but when he died in 1875, he was the wealthiest man in Michigan. His business activities were vast and innovative. Ward was engaged in the steamboat, railroad, lumber, mining, and iron and steel industries. In 1864, his facility near Detroit became the first in the nation to produce steel using the more efficient Bessemer method.

Join Michigan photographer Bruce Harkness as he presents his new book Photographs from Detroit, 1975–2019, a retrospective survey of his striking social documentary photographs and an invaluable historical record that bears witness to irrevocably lost swaths of Detroit’s social and urban fabric. Harkness’s work merits him recognition as one of the Motor City's most important documentary photographers during a pivotal, transitional era in its history.

Join us for an evening with local authors doing short readings from their four published works.  Have a chat with an author or buy a copy of their book during the event!

Local artist and crochet wizard Drew Hill talks about his maker journey and his book, Crochet Magical Creatures. 

This event is part of the Ann Arbor Fiber Arts Expo (AAFAX) presented by the Ann Arbor District Library.

Kidada Williams discusses her new book, a heart-wrenching reexamination of the struggle for survival in the Reconstruction-era South, and what it cost. In I Saw Death Coming, Kidada E. Williams offers a breakthrough account of the much-debated Reconstruction period, transporting readers into the daily existence of formerly enslaved people building hope-filled new lives.

Michigan author Maria Dong joins us to read from and discuss her new novel Liar, Dreamer, Thief.

Katrina Kim may be broke, the black sheep of her family, and slightly unhinged, but she isn’t a stalker. Her obsession with her co-worker, Kurt, is just one of many coping mechanisms—like her constant shape and number rituals, or the way scenes from her favorite children’s book bleed into her vision whenever she feels anxious or stressed.

Although the greater Ann Arbor area has enjoyed low crime rates, extraordinary criminal acts have occasionally pierced its calm and quiet. James Thomas Mann presents his latest book Murder & Mayhem in Washtenaw County, a tour into some of the darkest corners of our area's past.