Queens Gazette

June Events At Astoria Bookshop


Below is a list of Astoria Bookshop’s upcoming events. Remember that you can always see the full calendar on their website (Astoria bookshop.com). Also, check out the bookshop’s latest feature, Preorder Exclusives! RSVP via Facebook for all events.
Join Nishta Mehra on June 19, at 7 pm, at Astoria Bookshop for a reading and discussion of Brown White Black: An American Family at the Intersection of Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Religion. In this moving collection of essays from a fresh new voice, Nishta J. Mehra takes us into her life—the daughter of Indian American immigrants, the wife of a white Christian woman from Texas, and the mother of an adopted black child, Shiv. Nishta’s life is a series of intersecting boundaries—of race, gender, sexuality, and religion—and these essays examine the ways she navigates the various communities and ideologies that make up her family’s life.
Kick off your summer break with Joanne Ramos, author of The Farm, and Elvia Wilk, author of Oval. Both writers will be at Astoria Bookshop on Thursday, June 20, at 7 pm, to give readings and discuss their works.

 The Farm: Nestled in New York’s Hudson Valley is a luxury retreat boasting every amenity, and all of it for free. In fact, you’re paid big money to stay here. The catch? For nine months, you are cut off from your former life while you dedicate yourself to the task of producing the perfect baby. Jane, an immigrant from the Philippines in desperate search of a better future, commits to being a Host. But now pregnant, fragile, consumed with worry for her own family, Jane is determined to reconnect with her life outside. Oval: In the near future, Berlin’s real estate is being flipped in the name of “sustainability,” only to make the city even more unaffordable; artists are employed by corporations as consultants, and the weather is acting strange. When Anja and Louis are offered a rent-free home, they seize the opportunity, but it isn’t long before the experimental house begins malfunctioning and Louis becomes obsessed with a pill called Oval that temporarily rewires the user’s brain to be more generous. While Anja is horrified, Louis believes he has found the solution to Berlin’s income inequality.
On June 21, at 7 pm, join mystery writers Cara Black and Alex Segura for a reading and discussion of Cara Black’s new novel, Murder in Bel-Air. Cara Black’s riveting 19th installment in her New York Times bestselling Parisian detective series entangles private investigator Aimée Leduc in a dangerous web of international spycraft, post-colonial Franco-African politics, and neighborhood secrets in Paris’s 12th arrondissement.
On Tuesday, June 25, at 7 pm, join Suketu Mehta and Julie Schwietert Collazo (founder of Immigrant Families Together) for a reading and discussion of Mehta’s latest book, This Land Is Our Land. There are few subjects in American life that prompt more discussion and controversy than immigration. But do we really understand it? In This Land Is Our Land, Mehta attacks the issue head-on. Drawing on his own experience as an Indian-born teenager growing up in New York City and on years of reporting around the world, Mehta subjects the worldwide anti-immigrant backlash to withering scrutiny. Mehta juxtaposes the phony narratives of populist ideologues with the ordinary heroism of laborers, nannies, and others, from Dubai to Queens, and explains why more people are on the move today than ever before.
Join Darcey Steinke on Thursday, June 27, at 7 pm to discuss her latest book, Flash Count Diary: Menopause and the Vindication of Natural Life. Menopause hit Darcey Steinke hard. First came hot flashes. Then insomnia. Then depression. As she struggled to understand what was happening to her, she slammed up against a culture of silence and sexism. There was little that offered a path to understanding menopause in a complex, spiritual, and intellectually engaged way. She felt lost until she encountered a scientific fact that had escaped her through the early stages of dealing with this life change: the only two creatures on earth that go through menopause, she discovered, are human women and female killer whales.
On Sunday, June 30, at 2 pm, join life coach and author Jasamine Hill in conversation with Sapphira Em, one of the hosts of The Black Girl Podcast. They’ll be discussing Jasamine’s book, The Roller Coaster Effect: How to Turn Your Fear Into Fuel, Your Passion Into Your Purpose, and Enjoy the Ride of Life. Jasamine makes it clear that lasting success and true inner fulfillment is not magic nor happens overnight. It is a result of a specific process that has many parallels to the metaphor of riding a roller coaster. If you are a millennial with a head full of great ideas and big dreams, but you don’t know how to CONVERT these ideas into a path to your dreams, then this book is for you. With clarity, humor, real-life examples, self-reflection exercises, suggestions, resources, and strategies, Jasamine covers ways to discover your passions, turn your fears into fuel, and make your dreams real.
The next General Interest Book Club Meeting will be held on Sunday, June 30 at 1 pm. They’ll be discussing Women Talking by Miriam Toews, available in store 10% off up until the date of the discussion. Questions about this group? Email Katie at events@astoriabookshop.com.

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