Popular author returns to Arlington Hts. for reading
The Arlington Heights Memorial Library welcomes back one of its biggest draws Wednesday, when they host best-selling author Elizabeth Berg.
Berg's first visit four years ago drew a standing-room-only crowd of more than 200 people who clamored to meet their favorite author.
At the time, she had just written, "We Are All Welcome Here," which described a complicated relationship between a mother who had spent her adult life in an iron lung, and the daughter she delivered in it.
Berg will meet with fans from 7-8:30 p.m. in the library's second floor Hendrickson Room. Admission is free, but patrons must register in advance at www.ahml.info.
"She is a very popular author in Arlington Heights and always draws a large crowd," says Linda Mulford, programming specialist for the library. "Our patrons always embrace the opportunity to meet both national and local authors at the library."
Berg is expected to read from her latest novel, "The Last Time I Saw You," published in April by Random House, which follows five characters who reconnect at their 40th high school reunion.
"My favorite part of doing a reading is when the audience laughs at something," Berg said during a brief interview last week. "I'm interested in the spontaneous comments people make about my work, and I'm always heartened by the generosity displayed."
Berg, who divides her time between homes in Oak Park and Wisconsin, said she always wanted to write about a reunion, even though she has never attended one.
"I wanted to explore what it is that inspires people to visit their past in this way," Berg writes in an entry on her website. "I wanted to look at why so many people's memories of high school are so compelling, still so freshly felt."
Berg's appearance at the Arlington Heights library comes during a series of author visits. Last spring, officials welcomed New York-based writer and filmmaker, Mary Pat Kelly, followed by mystery author Erin Hart.
Next month, they will present two Chicago authors, Jonathan Eig, whose best-selling biography of Al Capone came out in May, and Michael Harvey, who coproduced the "Cold Case Files," and was an investigative reporter for CBS.