Thursday, January 12, 7:00pm

Dick Pirozzolo, Escape from Saigon
Author appearance, discussion, Q&A, and book signing
At Wellesley Books, 82 Central St

Few thirty-day periods in history have been more tumultuous than the fall of Saigon in April of 1975. With US military gone for two years, the North Vietnamese Army routed South Vietnam’s forces. Refugees poured into a city once known as the Paris of the Orient. The world watched and waited for what many expected would be a bloodbath. Escape from Saigon is a story of a city and its inhabitants struggling to survive in its most desperate hours–a tale that stays true to the historic record while recounting moments of human hardship, courage, and triumph.

For his service during the Vietnam War, Dick was awarded the Bronze Star for his work as a US Air Force information officer in Saigon. He worked as a media spokesperson and often participated during the official daily press briefings aptly nicknamed, “The Five O’clock Follies.”

Tuesday, January 17, 7pm

Will Schwalbe, author of the beloved bestselling The End of Your Life Book Club, shares Books for Living, an inspiring and magical exploration of the power of books to shape our lives in an era of constant connectivity.
Author appearance, discussion, Q&A, and book signing
At Wellesley Books, 82 Central St.

In this delightful celebration of reading, Schwalbe invites us along on his quest for books that speak to the specific challenges of living in our modern world, with all its noise and distractions. In each chapter, he discusses a particular book—what brought him to it (or vice versa), the people in his life he associates with it, and how it became a part of his understanding of himself in the world. These books span centuries and genres (from classic works of adult and children’s literature to contemporary thrillers and even cookbooks), and each one relates to the questions and concerns we all share.