Author Event: Heather Frese, Andromeda Romano-Lax, and Kristin Bair
Page 158 Books is excited to present a virtual event with authors Heather Frese and Andromeda Romano-Lax. This event will be hosted on our Crowdcast channel. You can RSVP and attend the event here.
Evie Austin, native of Hatteras Island, NC, and baddest girl on the planet, has not lived her life in a straight line. There have been several detours—career snafus, bad romantic choices, a loved but unplanned child—not to mention her ill advised lifelong obsession with boxer Mike Tyson. This is the story of what the baddest girl on the planet must find in herself when a bag of pastries, a new lover, or quick trip to Vegas won’t fix anything, and when something more than
casual haplessness is required. The Baddest Girl on the Planet is inventive, sharp, witty, and poignant. Readers will want to jump in and advise this baddest girl on the planet—or at least
just give her a shake or a hug—at every fascinating turn. The Baddest Girl on the Planet is Blair’s lead title for the fall and the most recent winner of the Lee Smith Novel Prize.
Heather Frese’s fiction, essays, and poetry have appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, the Los Angeles Review, Front Porch, the Barely South Review, Switchback, and elsewhere, earning notable mention in the Pushcart Prize Anthology and Best American Essays. She received her master’s degree from Ohio University and her M.F.A. from West Virginia University. Coastal North Carolina is her longtime love and source of inspiration, her writing deeply influenced by the wild magic and history of the Outer Banks. She currently writes, edits, and wrangles three small children in Raleigh, North Carolina.
A modern-day historian finds her life intertwined with Annie Oakley’s in an electrifying novel that explores female revenge and the allure of changing one’s past.
Ruth McClintock is obsessed with Annie Oakley. For nearly a decade, she has been studying the legendary sharpshooter, convinced that a scarring childhood event was the impetus for her crusade to arm every woman in America. This search has cost Ruth her doctorate, a book deal, and her fiancé—but finally it has borne fruit. She has managed to hunt down what may be a journal of Oakley’s midlife struggles, including secret visits to a psychoanalyst and the desire for vengeance against the “Wolves,” or those who have wronged her.
With the help of Reece, a tech-savvy senior at the local high school, Ruth attempts to establish the journal’s provenance, but she’s begun to have jarring out-of-body episodes parallel to Annie’s own lived experiences. As she solves Annie’s mysteries, Ruth confronts her own truths, including the link between her teenage sister’s suicide and an impending tragedy in her Minnesota town that Ruth can still prevent.
Andromeda Romano-Lax is a book coach and the author of five novels translated into 11 languages, including The Spanish Bow, A NYT Editors' Choice, and Annie and the Wolves, selected by Oprah Magazine as one of 2021's "Best and Most Anticipated Historical Novels." Born in Chicago, she lived in Alaska, Taiwan and Mexico before settling on a small island in British Columbia, Canada.
Agatha Arch's life shatters when she discovers her husband in their backyard shed, in flagrante delicto, with the local dog walker. Suddenly, Agatha finds herself face to face with everything that frightens her...and that's a loooooong list.
Agatha keeps those she loves close. Everyone else, she keeps as far away as possible. So she's a mystery to nearly everyone in her New England town. To her husband, she's a saucy, no-B.S. writer. To her Facebook Moms group, she's a provocateur. To her neighbor, she's a standoffish pain in the butt. To her sons, she's chocolate pudding with marshmallows. And to her shrink, she's a bundle of nerves on the brink of a cataclysmic implosion.
Defying her abundant assortment of anxieties, Agatha dons her "spy pants”—a pair of khakis whose many pockets she crams with binoculars, fishing line, scissors, flashlight, a Leatherman Super Tool 300 EOD, candy, and other espionage essentials—and sets out to spy on her husband and the dog walker. Along the way, she finds another intriguing target to follow: a mysterious young woman who's panhandling on the busiest street in town.
It's all a bit much for timorous Agatha. But with the help of her Bear Grylls bobblehead, a trio of goats, and a dog named Balderdash, Agatha may just find the courage to build a better life.
Kristin Bair’s new novel, Agatha Arch Is Afraid of Everything, is a People magazine "Best New Book." It received a starred review in Publishers Weekly, and Booklist called it "hilarious." As Kristin Bair O’Keeffe, she has published two novels, The Art of Floating and Thirsty. Her words have appeared in the Gettysburg Review, Flyway: Journal of Writing and Environment, Scary Mommy, and many other publications. A native Pittsburgher, Kristin now lives north of Boston with her husband and two kiddos.
Our event provides a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, religion (or lack thereof), or technology choices. We do not tolerate harassment in any form. Sexual language and imagery are not appropriate. Anyone violating these rules may be expelled from the event without a refund at the discretion of the organizers.
Date and Time
Tuesday Mar 30, 2021
6:30 PM - 7:30 PM EDT
March 30, 6:30 pm