Four Books, One City: Meet the Authors

Every
year the Friends of Crowell Public Library present a program of One Book, One City events that brings
the community together in celebration of the joy of reading.  This year they are going above and beyond
this concept to present Four Books, One
City: Meet the Authors.  Four times
the authors, four times the fun!

The events will kick off
Thursday, January 30, 2014, at 7:00 p.m. with author Christopher Norgaard who
wrote, Unfair Competition - Murder by
Gunshot:  The Untold Story of the
Neutrogena Empire.  Mr. Norgaard’s book
traces fifteen years in the saga between Neutrogena International Corportion’s Arne
Tali and Lloyd Cotsen as they entertained, negotiated and litigated with and
against each other, while building the worldwide Neutrogena brand. This
cooperation alternated with rivalry, followed by threats and conspiracies,
mystery and finally – murder.  Christopher
Norgaard is currently Vice President of the San Marino Unified School District,
and is a practicing business litigation lawyer with 39 years of
experience.  He is a graduate of Stanford
University and the Georgetown University Law Center.

On Thursday, February
27, 2014 at 7:00 p.m., bestselling author and veteran homicide detective Steve
Hodel presents his follow-up investigation into Los Angeles’s Black Dahlia and
other serially connected “Lone Woman
Murders” from the 1940s -- Black
Dahlia Avenger II.  In
this investigative sequel to Black Dahlia
Avenger: A Genius for Murder (2003), he identifies the actual Dahlia murder
residence and presents hard physical
evidence connecting Dr. George Hill Hodel (his father) to evidence found near
the body, and a careful deconstruction of the Dahlia myth.  Steve Hodel was born and raised in Los
Angeles and joined the LAPD in 1963.  By
1986, he was Detective III, the highest attainable rank in detectives, received
more than 75 commendations and handled over 300 separate murder investigations
with one of the department’s highest solve rates.  He retired in 1986 and established Hodel
Investigations.

On Thursday, March 18,
2014 at 7:00 p.m., John Wayne: The
Genuine Article will be presented by Michael Goldman and Ethan Wayne.  This biography is authorized by John Wayne
Enterprises and offers readers a rare glimpse into the life of one of the most
iconic movie stars of all time through a treasure trove of memorabilia,
stories, and interviews. This book includes John Wayne Enterprises' collection
of never-before-seen letters and telegrams as well as incredibly compelling
text from Wayne's unfinished memoir. Important milestones in the Academy
Award-winning actor, director, and producer's life are also well documented here
through anecdotes, photos, and visually rich ephemera. With a foreword by Jimmy
Carter and a preface by his son Ethan Wayne, John Wayne: The Genuine Article
presents the complete story of how an ordinary man became a top box office draw
for six decades, and a larger-than-life icon known simply as the Duke.  Michael
Goldman is a veteran entertainment-industry journalist and author who
contributes regularly to American Cinematographer. He has written six
books, including Clint Eastwood: Master Filmmaker at Work.  Ethan
Wayne, John Wayne’s youngest son, currently is president of Wayne
Enterprises, the sole and exclusive steward of the John Wayne brand. Ethan and
Michael Goldman both live in Los Angeles, California.

More John Wayne
insights will be revealed on Thursday, April 10, 2014 at 7:00 p.m. when Scott
Eyman talks about his book, John
Wayne:  The Life and Legend. Eyman
has written eleven books, including biographies of Hollywood legends such as
John Ford, Cecil B. DeMille and Louis B. Mayer. He has based his book on
interviews with John Wayne before his death and more than one hundred interviews
with the actor’s family and co-stars.  He
explores Wayne’s early life with a difficult mother and a feckless father.  Eyman makes startling connections to Wayne’s later
days as an anti-Communist conservation, his stormy marriages to Latina women
and his notorious and long-lived extra-marital affair with Marlene
Dietrich.  Through it all the author
provides a nuanced and sympathetic portrait that is as charming, compelling and
complicated as the Duke himself.  Scott
Eyman is the literary critic for The Palm
Beach Post and he lives in West Palm Beach.

All programs will take
place in the Library’s Barth Community and light refreshments will be
available.

The
concept of One Book, One City
originated in Seattle back in 1998 as an entertaining strategy to build
community – imagining a huge book group consisting of friends and neighbors,
discussing plots and characters, while promoting literacy.  Past selections for San Marino’s One Book,
One City programs have included Iron
River by T. Jefferson Parker, Flower
Confidential by Amy Stewart, Samurai’s
Garden, by Gail Tsukiyama, The
Ragtime Kid by Larry Karp, 2012’s The
Sherlockian by Graham Moore, and last year’s Dearie: The Remarkable Life of
Julia Child by Bob Spitz.

For further details on these exciting programs and more to come at
Crowell Library, keep an eye on the website: http://www.CrowellPublicLibrary.org.