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book signings

LOCAL AUTHOR ~ JENNIFER COMEAU – APRIL 26 @ 2:00 PM

Local author, poet, and musician Jennifer Comeau will be here at Graves Library on Saturday, April 26 at 2:00 pm to discuss her debut novel A Moon in All Things.

In the wild heart of 1820s Ireland, young Morrigan Lane hears the sea’s call—and her ancestors’ ancient voices. Born with a connection to the mystical lands of her Celtic heritage, Morrigan is no ordinary girl. She dreams of adventure, breaking free from the restrictions of village life, and, above all, sailing beyond the distant horizon.  But Morrigan finds herself pulled into a mysterious journey when a haunting vision of the Irish sea god, Manannán mac Lir, beckons her into his shadowy world. Against the backdrop of Ireland’s rugged cliffs and ancient stone circles, she must navigate myth and reality, confronting age-old traditions, family secrets, and the fierce expectations placed upon her as a young woman. A Moon in All Things is a spellbinding tale of Celtic mysticism, forbidden dreams, and the resilience of the human spirit. Fans of historical fantasy and coming-of-age adventures will be swept away by Morrigan’s quest for self-discovery in a world where land and sea, myth and truth, are deeply intertwined.

Perfect for readers enchanted by Irish folklore, women’s journeys, and stories that echo the timeless call of nature, A Moon in All Things reminds us that the true magic of life is waiting if we dare to reach for it.

Fans of Outlander’s Claire Fraser and The Frozen River’s Martha Ballard will enjoy Comeau’s Morrigan Lane, who is fiercely devoted to discovering her healing gifts while those in power call them “dangerous.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Her stories, songs, speaking events, and nature-based walks and workshops all seek to help you remember and restore your sacred partnership with the rest of the natural world.  She grew up one of eight children in suburban Tonawanda, New York. Following the dictates of family and societal programming, she jumped into the world of engineering, earning a Masters of Engineering from University at Buffalo, and a Bachelors of Industrial Engineering at General Motors Institute, now Kettering University.  After decades working as an executive for manufacturers in the auto industry and then in information systems, she returned to her early love for how words, music, nature, and beautiful places can enliven the whole landscape of a life. She began to write songs, and stories — speaking and performing them throughout the country, and soon, narrowed her focus to align with her reverence for Earth.

Copies of the book will be available for sale and signing after the discussion.  Light refreshments will be served.

The Louis T. Graves Memorial Public Library is located at 18 Maine Street, Kennebunkport. For further information, please call 967-2778 or visit www.graveslibrary.org. Parking is available on Maine Street, Consolidated School (Route 9), and the Village Fire Station (North Street). Doors will open at 1:30 p.m.

MAINE AUTHOR VALERIE REID – SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 1 @ 2:00 PM

We hope you will join us for our first Author Talk of 2025.  Local favorite, Valerie Reid, will be here at Graves Library on Saturday, February 1 @ 2:00 pm to read from her memoir, One Stop West of Hinsdale: Love Derailed in a Sixties Suburb.  This debut memoir covers the years 1960 to 1974, Valerie’s ages seven through twenty, in her hometown of Clarendon Hills, Illinois, bringing the era and her own family mystery to vibrant life. 

Valerie Kuhn Reid arrived in the Kennebunks back in 1976 when—fresh from the University of Minnesota—she came looking for a teaching job and a home by the sea. She began her teaching career as the librarian at Park Street School, then taught second grade at Consolidated, and when her own three children reached school-age, she returned to teaching, this time at Kennebunk High School where she spent twenty years as the KHS Theater teacher  and play director with 41 productions to her credit.  Writing has been Valerie’s life-long passion, and at the age of 63 she earned a masters in Writing and the Teaching of Writing  through UMaine, Orono and the Maine Writing Project. While her short story “Moving On” appeared in Woman’s World Magazine, and two others received honorable mentions in Writer’s Digest Annual Competitions, One Stop West of Hinsdale is Valerie’s first published book. 
Light refreshments will be provided by the Graves Library Snack Team.  Copies of the book will be available for sale and signing.
The Graves Library is located at 18 Maine Street, Kennebunkport.  Parking is available on Maine Street, Consolidated School (Route 9) and the Village Fire Station (North Street)  Doors open at 1:30 pm

CANADIAN/MAINE AUTHOR SUSAN D. HANNAFORD – JUNE 26 @ 6:00 PM

 

We are so excited to welcome back Susan Doherty Hannaford for the launch of her third book, Monday Rent Boy.  Susan will be here at the Louis T. Graves Memorial Public Library, 18 Maine Street, Kennebunkport on Wednesday, June 26 at 6:00 pm.  This event is free and open to the public. A reception with light refreshments will follow.

Susan has a Bachelor of Science from Concordia University and studied journalism at Ryerson University where she was recommended for a job at Macleans Magazine. After Macleans, she worked in Paris, France for a digital publishing company, Atex France, freelancing for The International Herald Tribune, La Tribune de Genève, La Suisse, and the Independent in London UK.  Back in Canada, she started her own company, On Location Productions, and for 18 years worked in advertising.  During that time, she studied creative writing at the University of Toronto, and Concordia University.  Susan has numerous volunteer affiliations: the YMCA and the Douglas Institute and was a long-serving board member of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. She was a board member of the Quebec Writers’ Federation (QWF) in Montreal, and Nazareth Community, serving men and women with addictions and mental illness. As a committed volunteer, she works with patients suffering from psychosis through Montreal’s Douglas Institute and has done significant research in the area of bipolar illness and paranoid schizophrenia.  In Toronto, she created an annual event for the Royal Conservatory of Music, in a sustained effort to raise their endowment to allow all Canadian would-be professional musicians to study on full bursary.

Premise of Monday Rent Boy:

At eight years of age, Arthur Barnes and Ernie Castlefrank find themselves on the same altar boy at St. Nick’s, a situation that readies an unlikely friendship. Father Zipernowski— a pastor referred to as The Zipper, has given both boys a sterling crucifix that marks them as children conditioned to provide sexual favors for clergy members in the counties of Somerset and Avon.  As Ernie and Arthur slip into lives of petty degeneracy; dope-smoking thieves who steal from the collection plate, local shops, parked cars, and department stores in nearby Bristol, they laugh off their inner humiliation without ever speaking publicly, or privately about what has been happening in the vestry. Arthur’s book-thieving leads to an unlikely partnership with Marina Phillips, the owner of the town bookshop. He has the chance to reinvent himself as a young book critic with eyes to becoming an English major, a professor, and a scholar. Ernie’s leg-up comes in the form of a pawnshop owner, a man with a desire to profit from the exploitation of children in The Pint Room, a website on the Internet.

For more information, please call 967-2778 or visit our website:  www.graveslibrary.org

NEW ENGLAND AUTHOR – EMILY FRANKLIN – SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 17 @ 2:00 PM

We are extremely excited that Emily Franklin has accepted our invitation to visit us at Graves Library on Sunday, September 17 at 2:00 p.m. in the Community Room.

Ms. Franklin is the author of more than twenty novels and a poetry collection, Tell Me How You Got Here. Her award-winning work has appeared in the New York Times, Boston Globe, Guernica, JAMA, and numerous literary magazines as well as long-listed for the London Sunday Times Short Story Award, featured and read aloud on NPR and named notable by the Association of Jewish Libraries. The Lioness of Boston (June 2023) is her latest novel.

A lifelong visitor to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Emily lives outside of Boston with her family including two dogs large enough to be lions.

 

 

“Franklin offers a vivid narrative of Isabella Stewart Gardner’s evolution into a pioneering art collector and museum founder. New Yorker Isabella marries wealthy Boston Brahmin Jack Gardner in 1860 at age 19. The straitlaced Jack appreciates his unpredictable wife’s intellect and creativity, though she gets a cold reception from Boston’s well-heeled matrons.

A year later, Isabella considers the “sad magic to being female, a disappearing of the self,” and hopes that motherhood will win her social acceptance and help provide the sense of purpose she craves.

Instead, her only child dies of pneumonia before he turns two, and a subsequent miscarriage leaves her unable to conceive again. During a lengthy stay in Europe, Jack hopes to ease her paralyzing grief. There, she meets Henry James, Oscar Wilde, and other luminaries who encourage her love of learning and passion for the arts. Isabella’s confidence deepens—and her reputation for eccentricity grows—as she begins to acquire artworks for the museum she opens in 1903.

The novel brims with pitch-perfect period details, such as Isabella’s ability to shock New England society merely by wearing blue shoes, and Franklin cannily captures Gardner’s ambition, independence, and quirks. Fans of strong female protagonists and Gilded Age historicals will enjoy this.”  [Publishers Weekly]

We are grateful to our Graves Library Snack Team for providing treats for our program. Doors open at 1:30. Parking is available at the Village Fire Station (North Street) and Consolidated School (School Street).  Copies of the Lioness of Boston will be for sale and signing after the program. Please call the Library for more information 967-2778.