Events & News
Friends of the Library Spring Book Sale set for April 10-13
Need some new books after a long winter of reading? Restock your collection at the Friends of the Athens-Clarke County Library Spring Book Sale!
The Friends will host their semi-annual sale beginning Wednesday, April 10, through Saturday, April 13, 2019. The sale will feature thousands of gently used books, including fiction, non-fiction, children’s books, hardbacks, paperbacks, audio books, CDs and more.
The sale kicks off on Wednesday, April 10, with a Friends of the Library Member Exclusive Preview from 2-6 p.m. Memberships will be available at the door for $25 and are valid for one year. Following the members-only sale, the sale will open to the public from 6-8 p.m. on Wednesday, April 10.
The hours of the Spring 2019 book sale are Thursday, April 11, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Friday, April 12, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Saturday, April 13, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Saturday is Bag Day! Shoppers will have the special opportunity to fill a grocery bag (provided by the Friends) with items for only $10!
All proceeds from the Book Sale benefit the Athens-Clarke County Library. The Athens-Clarke County Library is located at 2025 Baxter Street, Athens.
April 5, 2019
Friends of Athens-Clarke County Library present author Marie Benedict, April 5, 2019
ATHENS, Ga. — The Friends of Athens-Clarke County Library are proud to present an afternoon with New York Times bestselling author Marie Benedict on Friday, April 5, at 12:00 p.m. at Athens-Clarke County Library.
Benedict will discuss her latest work, The Only Woman in the Room, a novel based on the life of actress Hedy Lamarr. Books will be available for purchase and signing. Attendees are encouraged to bring a lunch for this special afternoon edition of Café au Libris.
Lamarr is mainly remembered as one of the most glamourous movie stars of the 1940s, but she was also an avid inventor whose legacy includes advances in communication technology that led to the cell phone, Wi-Fi, GPS and Bluetooth technology we all use today.
Benedict’s novel is set in 1930s Austria before the start of World War II and follows a young Jewish Hedy Keisler, who marries the country’s richest man, Friedrick “Fritz” Mandl, a munitions manufacturer known as the “Merchant of Death.” Fritz is responsible for supplying weaponry to Mussolini and Hitler in deals struck at the dinner table while Hedy was often the only woman in the room. Hedy escapes to London and then Hollywood. With the help of co-inventor Georgi Antheil, she uses the secret military information learned at her ex-husband’s side to develop an incredibly effective frequency-hopping weaponry system that would have ended the war sooner had the navy not rejected their proposal solely because it was the invention of a woman.
Benedict is a lawyer with more than 10 years’ experience as a litigator at two of the country’s premier law firms and for Fortune 500 companies. She is a magna cum ladue graduate of Boston College with a focus on history and art history and a cum laude graduate of the Boston University School of Law. Her other works includes The Other Einstein and Carnegie’s Maid.
This event is sponsored by Friends of the Athens-Clarke County Library. For more information, call the library at (706) 613-3650. The Athens-Clarke County Library is located at 2025 Baxter Street, Athens.
Sunday, June 10, 2018 3:00 p.m.
Join us on June 10th at 3:00 p.m. to hear author Rebecca Davis talk about her book, Justice Leah Ward Sears: Seizing Serendipity. Book signing and reception to follow.
This is the first full biography of Justice Leah Ward Sears. In 1992 Sears became the first woman and youngest justice to sit on the Supreme Court of Georgia. In 2005 she became the first African American woman to serve as chief justice of any state supreme court in the country. This book explores her childhood in a career military family; her education; her early work as an attorney; her rise through Georgia’s city, county, and state court systems; and her various pursuits after leaving the supreme court in 2009, when she transitioned into a life that was no less active or public.
As the biography recounts Sears’s life and career, it is filled with instances of how Sears made her own luck by demonstrating a sharpness of mind and sagacious insight, a capacity for grueling hard work, and a relentless drive to succeed. Sears also maintained a strict devotion to judicial independence and the rule of law, which led to decisions that would surprise conservatives and liberals alike, earned the friendship of figures as diverse as Ambassador Andrew Young and Justice Clarence Thomas, and solidified a reputation that would land her on the short list of replacements for two retiring U.S. Supreme Court justices.
As a woman, an African American, a lawyer, and a judge, Sears has known successes as well as setbacks. Justice Leah Ward Sears shows that despite political targeting, the death of her beloved father, a painful divorce, and a brother’s suicide, she has persevered and prevailed.
