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Best-selling author to visit
By GUY D’ASTOLFO
POLAND
Jennifer Weiner, the best-selling author of nearly a dozen novels, will be the guest at a cocktails-and-dinner event tonight at the Lake Club.
Weiner’s appearance is a fundraiser sponsored by the Literary Society of the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County. Tickets are no longer available, said Deborah Liptak, development director of the library.
The evening will begin with a cocktail reception at 6 p.m., followed by dinner and Weiner’s presentation.
The goal of the $75-per-person event is to raise funds to continue the annual series of best-selling authors, said Liptak, adding a couple hundred people will be at the Lake Club.
Weiner’s body of work meshes well with the club’s goals.
“We chose her for the fundraiser because she has had so many best-sellers, and she reaches a lot of women who enjoy reading light material that highlights women’s issues, and topics that concern women,” said Liptak. “And she is funny and writes good fiction that is very current.”
Each person who purchased a ticket for tonight’s event will get a signed copy of Weiner’s latest novel, “All Fall Down” (2014).
Authors brought in for the series in the past include Adriana Trigiani, Carol Higgins Clark, Tess Gerritsen and Lisa Scottiline.
The author who the society will bring in next year will be revealed at the event.
In addition to “All Fall Down,” Weiner has written several other books, including “Good In Bed” (2001) and “In Her Shoes” (2002) which was made into a movie starring Cameron Diaz, Toni Collette and Shirley MacLaine.
Her other titles include “Little Earthquakes” (2004), “Goodnight Nobody” (2005), “The Guy Not Taken” (2006), “Certain Girls” (2008), “Best Friends Forever” (2009), “Fly Away Home” (2010) and “Then Came You” (2011).
“All Fall Down” is about a woman with a seemingly perfect life: handsome husband, adorable child, a job she loves and a big house in the suburbs. But her insecurities lead her to become addicted to pills.
Weiner, a 1991 Princeton University graduate, began her career as a newspaper reporter at the Centre Daily Times in State College, Pa. She later would move on to newspapers in Lexington, Ky., and Philadelphia.
She landed a job as a contributing editor at Mademoiselle magazine in 1998 but the magazine folded within a few years.
At that point, and in the wake of a bad breakup, Weiner began writing her first novel, “Good In Bed.” The book is about a girl who is a lot like like Weiner, and who is with a not-so-nice man.
“Good In Bed” would go on to make The New York Times bestseller list and launch her career as a novelist.