November 21, 7 PM ET

The Authors

 

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Derick Lugo had never hiked or camped a day in his life. This Brooklyn-born, New York City urbanite hopped a train to Georgia, grabbed a taxi at the station, and told the cab driver to drop him off at the beginning of the Appalachian Trail. Then he did as he has always done — put one foot in front of the other and never looked back.

After hiking for more than 2,000 miles, he now feels invincible and plans to cross the Sahara barefoot. (Not really, but when an ambitious spirit is successful, it will strive for even greater accomplishments.)

The Unlikely Thru-Hiker is his debut memoir. Learn more at dericklugo.com.

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Carl Nixon was born and still lives in Christchurch, in the South Island, New Zealand. He has a Masters in Religious Studies from the University of Canterbury. He is a full-time writer of short stories, novels, plays, and screenplays. Carl’s plays have been performed in every professional theatre in New Zealand and include both comedy and drama. His latest is, Matthew Mark, Luke and Joanne. Others are Kiwifruits, The Raft, The Birthday Boy, Two Fish n a Scoop, and The War Artist.

His short story collection, Fish “n’ Chip Shop Song and other stories was published in 2006 by Random House New Zealand. Since then has had four novels published by the same publisher, now Penguin Random House: Rocking Horse Road, Settler’s Creek, The Virgin and the Whale, and The Tally Stick. His novels have been published in translation in Germany, France, Taiwan and Hong Kong. The Tally Stick is published in the UK and USA by World Editions. Learn more at carlnixon.co.nz.

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Authors’ Books

 

Girl In Ice by Erica Ferencik

Valerie “Val” Chesterfield is a linguist trained in the most esoteric of disciplines: dead Nordic languages. Despite her successful career, she leads a sheltered life and languishes in the shadow of her twin brother, Andy, an accomplished climate scientist stationed on a remote island off Greenland’s barren coast. But Andy is gone: a victim of suicide, having willfully ventured unprotected into 50 degree below zero weather. Val is inconsolable—and disbelieving. She suspects foul play.

When Wyatt, Andy’s fellow researcher in the Arctic, discovers a scientific impossibility­—a young girl frozen in the ice who thaws out alive, speaking a language no one understands—Val is his first call. Will she travel to the frozen North to meet this girl, and try to comprehend what she is so passionately trying to communicate? Under the auspices of helping Wyatt interpret the girl’s speech, Val musters every ounce of her courage and journeys to the Artic to solve the mystery of her brother’s death.

The moment she steps off the plane, her fear threatens to overwhelm her. The landscape is fierce, and Wyatt, brilliant but difficult, is an enigma. But the girl is special, and Val’s connection with her is profound. Only something is terribly wrong; the child is sick, maybe dying, and the key to saving her lies in discovering the truth about Wyatt’s research. Can his data be trusted? And does it have anything to do with how and why Val’s brother died? With time running out, Val embarks on an incredible frozen odyssey—led by the unlikeliest of guides—to rescue the new family she has found in the most unexpected of places.

Purchase at an independent bookstore near you.

Purchase online at www.bookshop.org.

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The Unlikely Thru-Hiker, An Appalachian Trail Journey by Derick Lugo

Derick Lugo had never been hiking. He certainly couldn’t imagine going more than a day without manicuring his goatee. But with a job cut short and no immediate plans, this fixture of the New York comedy scene began to think about what he might do with months of free time. He had heard of the Appalachian Trail, but he had never seriously considered attempting to hike all 2,192 miles of it. Suddenly he found himself asking, Could he do it?

The Unlikely Thru-Hiker is the story of a young black man setting off from the city with an extremely overweight pack and a willfully can-do attitude. What follows are lessons on preparation, humility, race relations, and nature’s wild unpredictability. Through it all, Lugo refuses to let any challenge squash his inner Pollyanna, persevering with humor, tenacity, and an unshakeable commitment to grooming that sees him from Georgia to Maine.

Purchase at an independent bookstore near you.

Purchase online at www.bookshop.org.

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The Second Mother by Jenny Milchman

Julie Weathers isn’t sure if she’s running away or starting over, but moving to a remote island off the coast of Maine feels right for someone with reasons to flee her old life. The sun-washed, sea-stormed speck of land seems welcoming, the lobster plentiful, and the community close and tightly knit. She finds friends in her nearest neighbor and Callum, a man who appears to be using the island for the same thing as she: escape.

But as Julie takes on the challenge of teaching the island’s children, she comes to suspect that she may have traded one place shrouded in trouble for another, and she begins to wonder if the greatest danger on Mercy Island is its lost location far out to sea, or the people who live there.

Purchase at an independent bookstore near you.

Purchase online at www.bookshop.org.

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