PROVIDENCE – The Rhode Island Chapter of Hadassah will celebrate Hadassah’s 101st birthday on Tuesday, Aug. 13, with its Third Annual Books on the Beach Author Luncheon. The event, which will be held at the Atlantic Beach Club, 55 Purgatory Road, Newport, from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., will feature book talks by three distinguished local authors.
The Providence-based husband-and-wife team, Hester Kaplan and Michael Stein, M.D., will present a unique program. Each author will select and read passages from the other’s book and will discuss his or her choices with the audience. What it is like to have two authors, both recipients of many literary awards, living in the same house? Kaplan and Stein, who edit one another’s work, have learned to be brutally honest without being hurtful.
Kaplan’s newest novel, “The Tell,” is a story of marriage, relationships, compulsion and culture. BookReporter.com called it “an elegant and haunting novel of love and family.”
Stein’s “The Rape of the Muse,” a novel based on a true artwork rivalry and courtroom drama, has been called an “exceptional novel,” by the New York Journal of Books.
Boston-based Dale Stanten wrote a memoir of her childhood, “The Hooker’s Daughter – A Boston Family’s Saga.” Reviewer Katie Hale writes, “The book is a memoir of Dale (and her sister Rowena) and their childhood of being in the shadow of their mother, who worked as a prostitute in their tiny apartment to make ends meet and to provide for her own lavish lifestyle. There are no flowery descriptions, no erotic adventures – it is pure and simple ‘this is what happened and here is how it affected me.’”
Debolina Raja Gupta, a critic for BookPleasures.com, wrote, “‘The Hooker’s Daughter’ is a study in human relations and emotions.”
Paid reservations of $50 per guest must be received by July 30. Mail your check, made out to RI Hadassah, with lunch preference (salmon or vegetarian) and table seating preferences to: RI Hadassah Author Luncheon, Judy Silverman, 50 Cindy Ann Drive, East Greenwich, RI 02818. Beach Club parking is free. Books on the Beach proceeds support Hadassah programming.
MORE INFO: 463-3636 or rhodeislandchapter@hadassah.org.
TOBY ROSSNER (tobyross@cox.net) is a life member of RI Hadassah.