Future meetings, with books to be announced, will be held at 6:30 p.m. March 10 at the library, 1687 Mountain Blvd. The next selection in the series will be “The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives,” a 2017 book by author Dashka Slater, with a meeting set for 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. “It makes you want to read each chapter.” “As I was leafing through it the other day, I kept getting sucked in,” Mailman said. ![]() Mailman was also enthusiastic about the book. When the Montclair Library asked what book it should select there was a huge outpouring for it.” “The way she wrote it makes it timeless and with an awareness that she knew people would be reading it years hence. “I think it’s still so relevant today,” Mailman said of the book. “It’s a wonderful book, and I’m honored I got to write the afterword when they published the update in 2012.”īagwell’s articles and book played a large part in efforts to preserve and celebrate the city’s past, and in 1980 she was a co-founder and the first president of the Oakland Heritage Alliance, formed at a time when urban renewal was in the process of modernizing Oakland’s downtown and erasing the past by removing entire blocks. “Beyond that, Beth Bagwell’s book was incredibly well-written and well-researched, with a lot of background that shows an understanding of the times and their context,” she said. “I think people really hunger for local history about who lived here before you and what it was like,” said Erika Mailman, an author and former Montclarion editor who followed in Bagwell’s footsteps by writing a column about Oakland history. The book evolved in 1982 from a series of well-received articles Bagwell researched and wrote for The Montclarion in 1978 and ‘79. The Friends of the Montclair Library are hosting the 2020 reading series of six books with Oakland as their setting, starting with “Oakland: The Story of a City” by Beth Bagwell, a work that has its origins with The Montclarion and remains a timeless reference work on local history. Author Thompson to discuss his Steph Curry biography at Montclair library
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |