After weeks of book discussions and community programs, the Shorewood Public Library is set to host New York Times bestselling author Angie Kim on Thursday, April 23 for a day of events. Kim’s appearance is part of Shorewood Reads, a community-wide event centered around reading and experiencing one book. This year’s title: Happiness Falls by Angie Kim.
"We didn't call the police right away." Those are the electric first words of the extraordinary novel about a biracial Korean American family in Virginia whose lives are upended when their beloved father and husband goes missing. In the aftermath, the family's search leads them to question everything they know about him and one another in a deeply moving portrait of a family in crisis.
Angie Kim will headline three events at the library on Thursday, April 23. At 10:00 a.m., Kim will focus on her journey to bestselling author, after four other wildly divergent career paths in “Becoming a Writer Later in Life.” At 2:00 p.m., “Overcoming the Bias of Equating Verbal Fluency with Intelligence” will highlight her research and experiences with many types of non-speakers and non-fluent speakers, and explore deep-seated biases many have in equating verbal fluency with intelligence. The day’s keystone at 6:30 p.m. is the signature event of Shorewood Reads, “An Evening with Angie Kim,” a wide-ranging discussion of all things Happiness Falls, in conversation with Noah Weckwerth of the Shorewood Public Library. All events are free to attend. Books will be available for sale at the conclusion of the evening program.
Angie Kim is the New York Times bestselling author of Happiness Falls, a Good Morning America and Barnes & Noble book club pick, and Oprah Daily's #1 novel of 2023. A Korean immigrant who moved to Baltimore in middle school, Kim studied philosophy at Stanford University and attended Harvard Law School, where she was an editor of the Harvard Law Review.
Shorewood Reads is achieved in partnership by the Shorewood Public Library and the Friends of the Shorewood Public Library, with support from the Lange Bequest and Boswell Book Company.