On the Same Page – Amherst will culminate in an appearance by author Chris Bohjalian to be held at 7:30 pm on Tuesday, March 25, 2014 at the Amherst Regional Middle School Auditorium. For complete program descriptions, visit the program’s webpage at http://www.joneslibrary.org/ onthesamepage/osp2014.html
Tuesday, March 4 at 7 pm - Woodbury Room The Armenian Genocide -
Join us for a screening of this documentary, produced in 2005 by Two
Cats Productions, which explores this historical event. A discussion
will follow, led by Henry Theriault, Professor of Philosophy at
Worcester State University.
Saturday, March 8 at 2:30 pm - Goodwin Room Book Discussion - A book discussion led by Barry O'Connell, Professor of English Emeritus at Amherst College and a former professor of the author. A friendly discussion, open to all.
Thursday, March 13 at 7 pm - Woodbury Room The American Missionaries and the Armenians: Successes and Limitations of Humanitarianism - A
presentation by Barbara Merguerian, Vice President of the Armenian
Library & Museum of America, will take a look at the role of
American missionaries in bringing aid to the Armenian people.
Tuesday, March 18 at 7 pm - Woodbury Room Overcoming Evil: Preventing Genocide and Other Group Violence & Creating Peaceful Societies - Ervin Staub, Professor of Psychology Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, will take a look at the societal conditions that can lead to violence against groups and discuss how to prevent such conflicts.
Tuesday, March 25 at 6:00 pm - Woodbury Room Friends’ Reception - Please join the Friends of the Jones Library System and author Chris Bohjalian at this special reception. Sponsored by the FOJLS, this event is free & open to the public.
Tuesday, March 25 at 7:30 pm - Amherst Regional Middle School Auditorium On the Same Page...with Chris Bohjalian - Join
us for this author appearance! Chris Bohjalian will talk about the
book, with an introduction by novelist Cammie McGovern. Books will be
available for purchase & signing.
Copies of The Sandcastle Girls
can be borrowed from the Jones Library and branches, requested and
checked out from the C/W Mars library catalog, or purchased at Amherst
Books or Food for Thought Books in Amherst.
The Sandcastle Girls is a New York Times
bestseller that was included on several “Best Book of 2012” lists and
Arts and Letters Award from the Armenian National Committee of America
and the Saint Mesrob Mashdots Medal by His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos
of the Great House of Cilicia. The novel tells the parallel stories of
Elizabeth, a Mt. Holyoke College graduate who, in 1915, accompanies her
father to Aleppo, Syria, to aid Armenian refugees, and current-day
Laura, a New Yorker trying to make sense of the life story of her
grandmother Elizabeth, as well as her own past. The selection of this
title is particularly timely, as the novel addresses the Armenian
genocide which began in 1915, an event that is rarely studied or
mentioned. The 100th anniversary of this tragedy is approaching, and is sure to receive media attention in 2015.
Chris Bohjalian is the author of more than a dozen books, including the New York Times bestsellers The Night Strangers, Secrets of Eden, Skeletons at the Feast, The Double Bind, Before You Know Kindness, The Law of Similars, and Midwives. He won the New England Book Award in 2002, and his novel Midwives
was a selection of Oprah's Book Club. His work has been translated into
over 25 languages. He has also written for a wide variety of
magazines, including Cosmopolitan, Reader's Digest, and the Boston Globe Sunday Magazine, and he has been a Sunday columnist for Gannett's Burlington Free Press since 1992. A graduate of Amherst College, Bohjalian lives in Vermont with his wife and daughter.
These
programs are sponsored by the Friends of the Jones Library System. For
further information about the On the Same Page - Amherst, please
contact Janet Ryan at 413/259-3223.