Huntsville Public Library

The Huntsville Reads series of author events sponsored by the Friends of the Library begins its 2008 season in April.  The events are held in the library meeting room.  Everyone is welcome. Admission is by donation to the Friends.

Kate Thompson, co-author of It’s So Hard to Love You: Staying Sane When a Loved One is Manipulative, Needy, Dishonest, or Addicted, will be our first guest author on Thursday, April 10 at 7 p.m. Kate is a writer, editor, educator and life skills coach who lives on Manitoulin Island. This book has been co-authored by psychotherapist Bill Klatte.

It is not unusual to have someone in our life that we care very much about, but who is in some way difficult to deal with: a partner with an addiction or personality disorder, a friend who is stuck in some life situation and can’t seem to move on, a son or daughter who we feel is making inappropriate choices, or a family member or friend who seems to gain comfort from dragging us into their personal drama.

In It’s so Hard to Love You, Thompson and Klatte offer a program for anyone who has experienced this anguish but wants to maintain a sane relationship. The book addresses “troublesome loved ones” who break promises and don’t complete tasks, manipulate, lie, lose their temper, are critical or negative, break the law, choose “bad” friends or partners, or engage in risky behaviour, including excessive drinking, drug use or eating disorders.  

The book helps the reader to understand the effects of this negative behaviour of loved ones in their own lives, and to develop a strategy of shifting focus from trying to change the difficult person to changing the reaction to them.

On Thursday, April 17 at 7 p.m., we will be celebrating poetry month with an evening of poetry. Special guests Tom MacGregor, Sandra McTavish and Alan Pearson will be reading their poetry and answering questions about this special literary form.

On Saturday May 3 at 2 p.m. our guest Robert Ward, author of All the Good Pilgrims will share his experience of walking the ancient pilgrimage route, the Camino de Santiago or the Way of St. James, from St. Jean Pied-de-Port on the France side of the Pyrenees, to Santiago de Compestela, a distance of some 730 km across northern Spain. Learn about the history, the traditions, the significance of the scallop shell and the gourd, as well as the joys and hardships of day after day of walking, in good weather and bad.

On Thursday, May 22 at 7 p.m. we will be welcoming Karolyn Smardz Frost, author of the 2007 Governor General’s Award for non-fiction, I’ve Got a Home in Glory Land; a Lost Tale of the Underground Railroad. This is the fascinating story of young Thomas Blackburn and his bride Lucie, who chose an audacious plan of escape to Canada on the Underground Railroad rather than accept Lucie’s fate of being sold “down the river” to the brutal and sexually exploitive slave markets of the deep South. Don’t miss this opportunity to share a compelling moment in our history.

Just when the gardening season is in full swing, Canadian gardening guru  Ed Lawrence will be our guest on Saturday, June 14 at 10:30 a.m. Ed is the  retired head gardener to six Canadian Governors General and Prime Ministers as well as the popular phone-in host of gardening questions on CBC Radio’s Ontario Today.  His new book is Gardening Grief & Glory.