Virginia Pye discusses River of Dust at the Library of Virginia’s Books on Broad, , a monthly book club that brings authors and booklovers together in an informal setting.

Discussion of City Of Thieves by David Benioff.  Documenting his grandparents’ experiences during the siege of Leningrad, a young writer learns his grandfather’s story about how a military deserter and he tried to secure pardons by gathering hard-to-find ingredients for a powerful colonel’s daughter’s wedding cake.

Discussion of The Algebra of Snow: a Bedtime Story for My Mother by Ginger Moran. A mathematics professor alone in the Adirondack Mountains in winter has two dogs and one estranged husband.

Viewing of The Loving Story: a Film by Nancy Buirski (2012). A true racially-charged criminal trial and a heart-rending love story converge in this documentary about Richard and Mildred Loving, set in Virginia during the turbulent Civil Rights era.

Write a micro-memoir under 1000 words—the nonfiction equivalent of flash fiction—which might hold the seed of a full-length work. There will be in-class readings and exercises that address pertinent craft issues, and we will explore the essential elements of memoir writing, such as sensory imagery, metaphoric language, distinctive voice, dramatic arc, and focused theme.

The first of several performances of Return to the Forbidden Planet presented at the American Shakespeare Center’s Blackfriars Playhouse in Staunton. See the full schedule for this and other performances at www.AmericanShakespereCenter.com

Discussion of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.  Internationally acclaimed, Fahrenheit 451 is Ray Bradbury’s classic novel of censorship and defiance, as resonant today as it was when it was first published nearly 50 years ago.

Come by and check out the hundreds of new and used books, audiobooks, CDs and DVD. for sale.  All proceeds benefit WriterHouse programs and workshops.   

Discussion of The Sense of an Ending  by Julian Barnes. This intense new novel follows a middle-aged man as he contends with a past he has never much thought about-until his oldest friends return with a vengeance, one of them from the grave, another maddeningly present.