Burlington

Join Evelyn Geer and the Lepine sisters to learn about the stories behind Evelyn's new book, The Lepine Girls of Mud City: Embracing Vermont. Books will be available for purchase and to have signed. You can also meet Evelyn and the Lepine sisters on June 23rd at Phoenix Books Essex.

The Lepines’ story began in Quebec, from where Maurice and Imelda immigrated to Vermont during the Great Depression. The family farmed, lived off the rich Vermont landscape and instilled a love for it in their daughters, Gert, Jeanette and Therese. As adults, “the Girls” taught school, traveled the world and worked for President Johnson but never forgot their roots. All three returned to Mount Sterling Farm, raising their famed Jersey cows and embodying Vermont’s agricultural tradition. Their story is one of hope and valor—of a family who loved their home and neighbors and left their land as a lasting gift for the world.

Evelyn Geer is a lifelong resident of Vermont and a long-time friend of the Lepine family. During college, she cared for the sisters’ ailing mother, and has remained close to the family since. She has made a living as an artist and journalist, and is a member of the Jacob Walker Art Gallery in Morristown, VT, which was founded by the Lepine sisters. She is also a member of the Helen Day Art Center in Stowe, worked for the Stowe Reporter, Stowe Guide Magazine, and The Vermont Journal and Vermont’s Channel 3 TV. She is a member of the Vermont Folklife Center, Stowe Historical Society, and Morristown Historical Society.

Mayor Miro Weinberger will officially welcome us to town, with the requisite scissors and ribbon!

Vermont State Senator Hinda Miller will visit Phoenix Books Burlington to discuss her new memoir, Pearls of a Sultana: What I've Learned About Business, Politics, and the Human Spirit. Copies of this book will be available for purchase and to have signed following the event.

Hinda Miller has been a Vermont State Senator since 2003. As vice chair of the economic development committee and member of the appropriations committee, she has championed legislation promoting the creative economy, green environmental technologies, and complementary medicine as part of quality health care. Born in Canada, she has been, since 1977, a resident of Burlington, Vermont, where she lives with her husband, Dr. Joel Miller. She has two grown children, Macey and Noah. She received a BFA from Parsons School of Design & MFA from New York University as well as an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Trinity College. Before serving in the Vermont Senate, she enjoyed a successful career as an entrepreneur, corporate executive, visiting university professor, corporate director, community activist, and yoga teacher. In 1977, she co-founded Jogbra, Inc., the original maker of the Jogbra women's sports garment. After growing the business into a national brand and selling the company to Sara Lee Corp., Hinda continued on as president, CEO and spokesperson from 1990–1997. Ms. Miller presently sits on the board of directors of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. as chair of the Corporate Social Responsibility and Governance Committees. She is a former board member of the New England Culinary Institute, and is a trustee emeritus of Champlain College. Ms. Miller believes that a strong inner voyage for self-knowledge is the foundation of a successful and purposeful life. She has continually tried to bring spiritual practice into worldly endeavors, always practicing the integration of the material and spiritual world. To that end, she has been a seeker and student of yoga for over 30 years, teaching yoga to prison inmates, teenage mothers, and women of all ages.

About the Book:   This book is a memoir that is equal parts business, politics, and spirituality. Hinda Miller's career has spanned all three, and then some! Inspired by the simple, yet powerful, legacy of her father, Bobo, Ms. Miller and a partner develop and bring to market the Jogbra, the original sports bra. Over the next decade they build their company into a women's sportswear powerhouse. Eventually, the company is sold to a corporate giant, and Ms. Miller begins a new career as an executive. Eventually, she leaves business and embarks on a new career as a Vermont State Senator and board member for such companies as Green Mountain Coffee Roasters. Throughout all her ventures, Hinda Miller is guided and anchored by a strong connection to the practice of yoga. Now she is preparing for a new venture as a Sultana, a woman of experience and wisdom who is always practicing, always learning, and always grateful.

Join us in welcoming Madeleine M. Kunin to Phoenix Books Burlington!  She'll discuss her new book, The New Feminist Agenda: Defining the Next Revolution for Women, Work, and Family.  Copies of the book will be available to purchase and have signed by Kunin.

Madeleine M. Kunin was the first woman governor of Vermont and the first woman in the U.S. to serve three terms as governor. She served as Deputy Secretary of Education and Ambassador to Switzerland in the Clinton administration. Kunin is the author of The New Feminist Agenda; Pearls, Politics and Power; and Living a Political Life. She is also a Marsh professor at the University of Vermont, a commentator on Vermont Public Radio, and founder and board member of the global Institute for Sustainable Communities (ISC), a nongovernmental organization focused on climate change and civil society. She lives in Burlington, Vermont with her husband, John Hennessey.

About The New Feminist Agenda: Feminists opened up thousands of doors in the 1960s and 1970s, but decades later, are U.S. women where they thought they’d be? The answer is a resounding no.

Women now comprise nearly 60 percent of college undergraduates and half of all medical and law students. They have entered the workforce in record numbers, making the two-wage-earner family the norm. While women changed, however, social structures surrounding work and family remained static. Affordable, high-quality childcare, paid family leave, and equal pay for equal work remain elusive for most women. The U.S. has also fallen far behind other countries on the gender-equity front with fewer women holding federal offices and leading the nation’s top private companies.

It’s time, says former U.S. Ambassador and Governor Madeleine M. Kunin, to change that and usher in a new social revolution. Our inability to invest in families leaves us vulnerable to being reduced to second-rate status in the global economy.

Looking back over five decades of advocacy, Kunin analyzes where progress stalled, examines the successes of other countries, and charts the course for the next feminist revolution—one that mobilizes women, and men, to call for the kind of government and workplace policies that can improve the lives of women and strengthen their families.

Please Note:  This event has been cancelled.  We hope to reschedule it for later this summer.

John Katzenbach, author of the psychological thriller What Comes Next, will visit Phoenix Books Burlington to discuss and read from his new novel.

John Katzenbach is the New York Times bestselling author of nine previous novels: the Edgar Award-nominated In the Heat of the Summer, which was adapted for the screen as The Mean Season; The Traveler; Day of Reckoning; Just Cause, which was also made into a movie; The Shadow Man (another Edgar nominee); State of Mind; Hart's War, which was also a major motion picture; The Analyst; and The Madman's Tale. Katzenbach has been a criminal court reporter for The Miami Herald and Miami News and a featured writer for the Herald's Tropic magazine. He lives in western Massachusetts.

About What Comes Next: When a retired academician witnesses a lovely young woman snatched off the street, he is unsatisfied by the police response and vows to find her on his own. She has been kidnapped and held prisoner by a married couple who have started an exclusive website, named "What Comes Next," on which viewers can watch, in real time, what befalls their victims.
What befalls the pretty teenager at the hands of the depraved couple, as thousands follow every moment of her nightmare, provides one of the most terrifying novels of the year.

Praise for John Katzenbach:
"Few writers of crime fiction seem to understand the criminal mind as well as Katzenbach." --People

"What is so scary is that Katzenbach creates a fictional world that is very much like the one we live in now, only taken to a horrifying extreme." --USA Today

"Katzenbach is very good at world-building, and his imaginary Western Territory is frighteningly believable." --The Washington Post

"Katzenbach weaves a complex and intriguing mystery while at the same time illuminating a piece of history. I found myself caught in its grip within the first few pages." - Jonathan Harr, author of A Civil Action

"Katzenbach's wonderful, tense narrative flows effortlessly, drawing you deeper and deeper into a chilling atmosphere of evil, darkness, and shadows." --The Miami Herald

This event is free and open to the public.  Copies of What Comes Next will be available to buy and have signed by Katzenbach at the event.

Andrea Chesman is a food writer and gardener and the author of several cookbooks, including "Recipes from the Root Cellar, Serving Up the Harvest, " and "Pickles and Relishes." A resident of Vermont, she has been a contributing editor for "Vermont Life "and "Edible Green Mountains." 

Half-Sour Dill Pickles. Salt-Cured Dilly Beans. Sauerkraut. Kimchi. Classic Hot Sauce. Cortido with Cilantro. Rosemary Onion Confit. Italian Tomato Relish. Chow Chow. Korean-Style Pickled Garlic. With Andrea Chesman's expert guidance, you'll love making these and dozens of other fresh, contemporary recipes for pickling everything from apples to zucchini. Beginners will welcome the simple, low-fuss methods and thorough coverage of the basics, and dedicated home canners will love the large-batch recipes and the stunning variety of flavors.

Explore Burlington's new bookstore, and enjoy cookies, chocolates, and punch!  Enter to win literary door prizes! 

Make sure to join us at 2:00pm with Andrea Chesman.  Learn about pickling and her new book, The Pickled Pantry: From Apples to Zucchini, 150 Recipes for Pickles, Relishes, Chutneys & More. Enjoy delicious samples from the pages of this book!

Sarah Healy, author of Can I Get an Amen?, will visit Phoenix Books Burlington to discuss and read from her new novel.

As an extra treat, attendees will be treated to free ice cream from Ben & Jerry's! (While supplies last!)

This event is free and open to the public.  Copies of Can I Get an Amen? will be available to buy and have signed by Healy at the event.

Can I Get an Amen? is about the way life can suddenly change and make us question all of our relationships--with our family, with our faith, and with our childhood dreams of how life would be. Growing up, Ellen Carlisle was a Christian: she went to Jesus camp, downed stale Nilla wafers at Sunday school, and never, ever played with Ouija boards.  In exchange, God took care of her.  He showed his love through expensive clothes, new cars and extended vacations.  Now, years later, with infertility pushing her marriage to the brink of divorce, Ellen finds herself unemployed and living with her right-wing, Born Again Christian parents in her suburban New Jersey hometown. The voice is wonderful and the story is funny while it tackles some tough situations.  With wit and warmth, Healy puts a new spin on love, faith and family--exploring the difficulties that arise from conflicting religious beliefs between loved ones and how the ties that bind us are not always what we expect them to be.

Sarah Healy lives in Williston with her busband and three sons, where she works in marketing consultancy.  Can I Get An Amen? is her first novel. You can learn more about her at sarah-healy.com and facebook.com/sarahhealyauthor.