Practice reading and using tarot spreads! You may bring your own decks and books. If you don’t have a deck to use, one can be provided.

Hosted by Amanda Bergemann from COLORFLOW & Meg Rose.

Writers Circle at WordHaven BookHouse offers local writers a comfortable place to share and develop their work, receive feedback and guidance, encourage and support other writers, and discuss all aspects of the writing process. Open to all forms of writing and all experience levels. Free to attend.

Writers Circle will meet at WordHaven the first Tuesday of each month, from 6-8pm. The circle will be led by published author and award-winning book designer, Erika Block, owner of Gray House Publishing.

In powerful black-and-white comic strip images, Satrapi tells the coming-of-age story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah’s regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the devastating effects of war with Iraq. The intelligent and outspoken only child of committed Marxists and the great-granddaughter of one of Iran’s last emperors, Marjane bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country.

Persepolis paints an unforgettable portrait of daily life in Iran and of the bewildering contradictions between home life and public life. Marjane’s child’s-eye view of dethroned emperors, state-sanctioned whippings, and heroes of the revolution allows us to learn as she does the history of this fascinating country and of her own extraordinary family. Intensely personal, profoundly political, and wholly original, Persepolis is at once a story of growing up and a reminder of the human cost of war and political repression. It shows how we carry on, with laughter and tears, in the face of absurdity. And, finally, it introduces us to an irresistible little girl with whom we cannot help but fall in love.

With its ensemble of warm and unforgettablecharacters, The Faculty Lounge shows listeners a different side of school life. It all starts when an elderly substitute teacher at Baldwin High School is found dead in the faculty lounge. After a bit of a stir, life quickly returns to normal—it’s not like it’s the worst (or even most interesting) thing that has happened within the building’s walls. But when, a week later, the spontaneous scattering of his ashes on the school grounds catches the attention of some busybody parents, it sets in motion a year that can only be described as wild, bizarre, tragic, mundane, beautiful, and humorous all at once.

In the midst of the ensuing hysteria and threats of disciplinary action, the novel peeks into the lives of the implicated adults who, it turns out, actually have first names and continue to exist when the school day is done. We meet: a former punk band front man, now a middle-aged principal who must battle it out with the schoolboard to keep his job; a no-nonsense school nurse willing to break the rules, despite the close watch on their campus, when a student arrives at her office with a dilemma; and a disgruntled English instructor who finds himself embroiled in even more controversy when he misfires a snarky email. Oh, and there’s also a teacher make-out session in a supply closet during a lockdown.

As these people continue to manage the messiness of this school year, there is the looming threat of what will become of their beloved Baldwin High. Ultimately, at the heart of this unconventional workplace novel is a story of the power of human connection and of the joy of finding purpose in what it is we do every day.

Practice reading and using tarot spreads! You may bring your own decks and books. If you don’t have a deck to use, one can be provided.

Hosted by Amanda Bergemann from COLORFLOW & Meg Rose.

Practice reading and using tarot spreads! You may bring your own decks and books. If you don’t have a deck to use, one can be provided.

Hosted by Amanda Bergemann from COLORFLOW & Meg Rose.

Writers Circle at WordHaven BookHouse offers local writers a comfortable place to share and develop their work, receive feedback and guidance, encourage and support other writers, and discuss all aspects of the writing process. Open to all forms of writing and all experience levels. Free to attend.

Writers Circle will meet at WordHaven the first Tuesday of each month, from 6-8pm. The circle will be led by published author and award-winning book designer, Erika Block, owner of Gray House Publishing.

Frank Szatowski is shocked when his daughter, Maggie, calls him for the first time in three years. He was convinced that their estrangement would become permanent. He’s even more surprised when she invites him to her upcoming wedding in New Hampshire. Frank is ecstatic, and determined to finally make things right.

He arrives to find that the wedding is at a private estate―very secluded, very luxurious, very much out of his league. It seems that Maggie failed to mention that she’s marrying Aidan Gardner, the son of a famous tech billionaire. Feeling desperately out of place, Frank focuses on reconnecting with Maggie and getting to know her new family. But it’s difficult: Aidan is withdrawn and evasive; Maggie doesn’t seem to have time for him; and he finds that the locals are disturbingly hostile to the Gardners. Frank needs to know more about this family his daughter is marrying into, but if he pushes too hard, he could lose Maggie forever.

An edge-of-your-seat thriller that delves deep into the heart of one family, The Last One at the Wedding is a work of brilliant suspense from a true modern master.

Stanley Yelnats is under a curse. A curse that began with his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather and has since followed generations of Yelnatses. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys' detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the boys build character by spending all day, every day digging holes exactly five feet wide and five feet deep. There is no lake at Camp Green Lake. But there are an awful lot of holes.

It doesn't take long for Stanley to realize there's more than character improvement going on at Camp Green Lake. The boys are digging holes because the warden is looking for something. But what could be buried under a dried-up lake? Stanley tries to dig up the truth in this inventive and darkly humorous tale of crime and punishment—and redemption.

Practice reading and using tarot spreads! You may bring your own decks and books. If you don’t have a deck to use, one can be provided.

Hosted by Amanda Bergemann from COLORFLOW & Meg Rose.

Practice reading and using tarot spreads! You may bring your own decks and books. If you don’t have a deck to use, one can be provided.

Hosted by Amanda Bergemann from COLORFLOW & Meg Rose.

There’s trouble, and then there’s Big Lake Troubles.

Coal might be killing the planet, but former judge Jason Erickson is reluctant to get involved in a case involving a massive coal shipper on Lake Superior. He’d prefer drinking wine and walking the California beaches rather than winter in a Wisconsin courtroom. Jason’s girlfriend, Grace Clarkson, represents the opponents and is pressuring him to join her. However, committing to the case means different things to each of them, and their relationship might be at stake. Hotshot Chicago attorney Courtney Sharpe represents the coal shipping company.

She will crush the opposition if she can only get former mentor and lover Earl Franks—recently out of prison—to help her. But can she get to him before the other side does?

As this drama unfolds, alliances shift, and some of these respected attorneys become convinced they must engage in shady ethical practices involving small boats and large dogs to catch the coal facility in bad faith. But when they put someone’s life in danger, can they still consider themselves the good guys?

Big Lake Troubles picks up where Boldt’s acclaimed first novel Blue Lake left off. It’s an elegant exploration of the ethics of tackling the climate crisis in a flawed system and an inspiring journey of personal growth, connection, and truths beyond courtroom walls.

Jeffrey D. Boldt is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin and its School of Law.

After a career focusing on environmental law, Boldt received his MFA in Fiction from Augsburg University in Minneapolis in 2019. Boldt’s short fiction, poetry, and essays have appeared in literary journals, including HuffPost and those affiliated with the University of California, Johns Hopkins, Duke, Rutgers, UNLV, Clarkson, Stephen F. Austin, Minnesota, SUNY, and CUNY. His first novel, Blue Lake, published by River Grove Books, was given a Starred Review and named in Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2022.

Writers Circle at WordHaven BookHouse offers local writers a comfortable place to share and develop their work, receive feedback and guidance, encourage and support other writers, and discuss all aspects of the writing process. Open to all forms of writing and all experience levels. Free to attend.

Writers Circle will meet at WordHaven the first Tuesday of each month, from 6-8pm. The circle will be led by published author and award-winning book designer, Erika Block, owner of Gray House Publishing.

Alma Cruz, the celebrated writer at the heart of The Cemetery of Untold Stories, doesn’t want to end up like her friend, a novelist who fought so long and hard to finish a book that it threatened her sanity. So when Alma inherits a small plot of land in the Dominican Republic, her homeland, she has the beautiful idea of turning it into a place to bury her untold stories—literally. She creates a graveyard for the manuscript drafts and the characters whose lives she tried and failed to bring to life and who still haunt her.

 
Alma wants her characters to rest in peace. But they have other ideas and soon begin to defy their author: they talk back to her and talk to one another behind her back, rewriting and revising themselves. Filomena, a local woman hired as the groundskeeper, becomes a sympathetic listener to the secret tales unspooled by Alma's characters. Among them, Bienvenida, dictator Rafael Trujillo's abandoned wife who was erased from the official history, and Manuel Cruz, a doctor who fought in the Dominican underground and escaped to the United States.
 
The Cemetery of Untold Stories asks: Whose stories get to be told, and whose buried? Finally, Alma finds the meaning she and her characters yearn for in the everlasting vitality of stories. Julia Alvarez reminds us that the stories of our lives are never truly finished, even at the end.

Jennifer (Jenn) Walter is a freelance journalist living in Sheboygan. Her work has been published in a variety of local and national publications, including Milwaukee Magazine, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Discover, and Inverse. She primarily writes about science and nature, and is a member of the National Association of Science Writers. Her writing and editing work has also spanned topics like entertainment, business, and education.

Jenn is a graduate of Marquette University, where she earned bachelor’s degrees in journalism and German. You can usually find her out birdwatching in her free time.

Check out Jenn’s work at www.jenngwalter.com.

Practice reading and using tarot spreads! You may bring your own decks and books. If you don’t have a deck to use, one can be provided.

Hosted by Amanda Bergemann from COLORFLOW & Meg Rose.

In Margaret Atwood’s dystopian future, environmental disasters and declining birthrates have led to a Second American Civil War. The result is the rise of the Republic of Gilead, a totalitarian regime that enforces rigid social roles and enslaves the few remaining fertile women. Offred is one of these, a Handmaid bound to produce children for one of Gilead’s commanders. Deprived of her husband, her child, her freedom, and even her own name, Offred clings to her memories and her will to survive. At once a scathing satire, an ominous warning, and a tour de force of narrative suspense, The Handmaid’s Tale is a modern classic.

My name is Anita Bobbypin, I am 25 years old. My favorite color is PINK! I am a Cosmetologist and a new drag queen in the Fox Valley area. I’ve been doing drag since the beginning of March and I ABSOLUTELY love everything about this art form. My favorite thing about drag, is that I have been able to express myself, my creativity, and gender-expression in ways that I never thought were possible for me. I also love that drag has given me a platform and a voice to help inspire LGBTQ+ youth for future generations. And a fun fact about me, I have a 6 year old tuxedo cat named Steve!

Jennifer (Jenn) Walter is a freelance journalist living in Sheboygan. Her work has been published in a variety of local and national publications, including Milwaukee Magazine, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Discover, and Inverse. She primarily writes about science and nature, and is a member of the National Association of Science Writers. Her writing and editing work has also spanned topics like entertainment, business, and education.

Jenn is a graduate of Marquette University, where she earned bachelor’s degrees in journalism and German. You can usually find her out birdwatching in her free time.

Check out Jenn’s work at www.jenngwalter.com.

Practice reading and using tarot spreads! You may bring your own decks and books. If you don’t have a deck to use, one can be provided.

Hosted by Amanda Bergemann from COLORFLOW & Meg Rose.

Practice reading and using tarot spreads! You may bring your own decks and books. If you don’t have a deck to use, one can be provided.

Hosted by Amanda Bergemann from COLORFLOW & Meg Rose.

Mandy Manning is a writer, educator, and activist. Currently, Mandy advocates for educators, public schools, and students as the Digital Content Specialist for the Washington Education Association. Mandy was a classroom teacher for 21 years. Most recently she served students as an English language development specialist, serving as the first teacher for newly arrived refugee and immigrant students at Ferris High School in the Newcomer Center in Spokane, WA. She serves on several national education-related boards, as well as serving on the board for the Spectrum Center, an organization serving the LGBTQ+ community in her community.

Mandy is the 2018 National Teacher of the Year. She is co-author of Creating a Sense of Belonging for Immigrant and Refugee Students. Her latest book, 50 Strategies for Teaching Multilingual Learners, is available from Teacher Created Materials. Mandy also writes horror and has published several short stories. She has an MFA in Fiction from the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts Whidbey Writers Workshop. She lives, works, and writes in Spokane.