Cocktails & Convos with Claire Lombardo
Date: Thursday, July 11 Time: 7 PM Location: Dog-Eared Books Main Floor
Claire Lombardo has long been a store-favorite author, and her debut novel The Most Fun We Ever Had remains a beloved book to recommend, so it is with immense excitement that we are hosting an event to honor her new title Same As It Ever Was (whose main character has our town as her namesake!). Come join us this July to celebrate Claire’s sophomore novel, drink a curated cocktail, and hear the author in conversation with one of her biggest fans, Amanda!
The Book: Julia Ames, after a youth marked by upheaval and emotional turbulence, has found herself on the placid plateau of mid-life. But Julia has never navigated the world with the equanimity of her current privileged class. Having nearly derailed herself several times, making desperate bids for the kind of connection that always felt inaccessible to her, she finally feels, at age fifty-seven, that she has a firm handle on things. She’s unprepared, though, for what comes next: a surprise announcement from her straight-arrow son, an impending separation from her spikey teenaged daughter, and a seductive resurgence of the past, all of which threaten to draw her back into the patterns that had previously kept her on a razor’s edge. Same As It Ever Was traverses the rocky terrain of real life, —exploring new avenues of maternal ambivalence, intergenerational friendship, and the happenstantial cause-and-effect that governs us all. Delving even deeper into the nature of relationships—how they grow, change, and sometimes end—Lombardo proves herself a true and definitive cartographer of the human heart and asserts herself among the finest novelists of her generation.
Tickets are non-refundable, with the exception of us rescheduling or canceling the event. If you can no longer attend the event please contact events@dogearedbooksames.com to arrange to pick up your book in store, or to have it mailed.
Tickets include one copy of the book; add-on ticket does not include a book.
Did you already purchase a copy of Same As It Ever Was from Dog-Eared Books and would like to attend this event? We require registration, click the button below to save a seat! Add-on tickets will need to be purchased separately if someone is attending with you.
Claire Lombardo is the author of The Most Fun We Ever Had which was an instant New York Times bestseller and has been translated or is forthcoming in over a dozen languages. Claire is a graduate of the University of Illinois-Chicago and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and prior to publishing her debut novel, Claire spent several years working with homeless children and families in Chicago. She has taught fiction writing at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and Grinnell College and currently works part-time as a bookseller at Prairie Lights Books. A native of Oak Park, Illinois, she now lives in Iowa City, Iowa, with her dog, Renee.