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MT. LEBANON PUBLIC LIBRARY
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
AUTHOR VISITS
He is also the author of many non‑fiction
titles and a number of books for children,
including the Akimbo series, about a boy in
Africa; the Harriet Bean books, and the Max
& Maddy series. His newest children’s books
are based on the adventures of the beloved
Precious Ramotswe as a little girl.
His numerous awards include The Crime
Writers’ Association Dagger in the Library
Award, the SAGA Award for Wit, and the
United Kingdom’s Author of the Year Award
in 2004. In 2010 McCall Smith was awarded
the Presidential Order of Merit by the
President of Botswana.
An Evening with Alexander McCall Smith
7 p.m., Tuesday, October 18
MELLON MIDDLE SCHOOL AUDITORIUM,
ACROSS FROM THE LIBRARY
Bestselling author Alexander McCall Smith
will be the speaker at Mt. Lebanon Public
Library’s Third Annual Joseph Wertheim
Memorial Author Lecture.
Alexander McCall Smith has written more
than 100 books, including specialist
academic titles, short story collections,
and a number of immensely popular
children’s books. But he is best known for
his internationally acclaimed No. 1 Ladies’
Detective Agency series, which rapidly rose
to the top of bestseller lists throughout the
world. The Woman Who Walked in Sunshine
(June 2016) is the 16th book in the series,
which has now been translated into 40
languages and has sold over 20 million
copies worldwide. A television series
starring Jill Scott and produced by the
Weinstein Company, with the first episode
directed by Anthony Minghella, aired on
HBO in 2009.
A self-confessed serial novelist, McCall
Smith is the author of several other series
including one about a female sleuth
named Isabel Dalhousie, which appeared in
2004 and immediately leapt onto national
bestseller lists. Another of his serial novels,
44 Scotland Street, was published in book
form to great acclaim starting in 2005.
68 724.942.0940 TO ADVERTISE | Mt. Lebanon
This Mt. Lebanon Library event honors
the memory of Joe Wertheim, an avid
reader and longtime library patron who
had served nine years on the library board,
including a term as President, and as the
President of the Friends of Mt. Lebanon
Public Library.
General admission tickets to the lecture
and book signing are $20 each and can
be purchased online or at the library.
Books will also be available to purchase.
Attendees may bring their own as well.
www.showclix.com/event/alexandermccall-smith.
questions, and sign books. A Mt. Lebanon
High School graduate, Benny studied
biopsychology at Oberlin College and
earned an MFA in experimental animation.
He made an award-winning film, The
ErlKing, animated entirely with sand, that
screened all over the world. Benny also
directed the kids’ show Lunar Jim and
provided the voice for the title character.
Over the past 13 years, Benny has worked
on tons of commercials, music videos,
feature films, and TV shows.
The Books of Ore series—which Zelkowicz
co-writes with Cam Baity--are for children
in grades 5-8. The plot centers on the
all-powerful company The Foundry, a
metal-forging behemoth that controls
the world’s supply of trinkets, fashion,
construction materials, vehicles, and, of
course, weapons, and the children who
fight against the Foundry. BookList says:
“Baity and Zelkowicz put their experience
as animators to work, describing the
alien metal world and its mind-bendingly
outlandish denizens with such an eye for
visual detail that they clatter to life on the
page. The imaginative world, whirlwind
adventure, tense emotional stakes, and
some well‑placed laughs put this first in a
planned series in the same stack as Harry
Potter and Percy Jackson.”
The Science of Fear
7 p.m., Tuesday, October 4
Margee Kerr, ScareHouse’s official
sociologist and fear researcher and author
of Scream: Chilling Adventures in the Science
of Fear, will discuss why we like to be
scared. Kerr, who is a nationally recognized
expert on professional haunted houses, has
a PhD in sociology from the University of
Pittsburgh, where she teaches.
Benny Zelkowicz
1:30 p.m., Sunday, September 18
Benny Zelkowicz, co-author of The First
Book of Ore The Foundry’s Edge and the
recently released sequel The Second Book of
Ore Waybound, will pop by the library to
talk about his book series, answer
Fall Local Author Forums
7 p.m., Tuesdays, November 8 and 15
Two evenings of panel discussions with
some Pittsburgh-area authors who will talk
about their writing process and books. The
authors will sell and sign their books and
light refreshments will be served. Please
check the library’s calendar of events at
www.mtlebanonlibrary.org for a list of
authors closer to the event.