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The library’s Fall Festival is just four weeks away, and visitors to the library can now purchase tickets for gift certificate drawings and place bids for hotel stays. The festival is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, October 1, at the library.

Local merchants and restaurant owners have been incredibly generous, donating gift certificates to restaurants, galleries, clothing stores, grocery stores and much more. Drawings for six bundles of these gift certificates, with each bundle valued at more than $550, will take place at 4 p.m. the day of the festival. Ticket prices are one ticket for $1, six tickets for $5 and 25 tickets for $20.

The festival also includes a silent auction for stays donated by five premium hotels: the Hallmark Resort & Spa, Land’s End at Cannon Beach, the Ocean Lodge, the Stephanie Inn and the Tolovana Inn.

Drawing tickets will be sold, and auction bids will be accepted at the library from September 1 until the afternoon of October 1. Winners do not have to be present. Stop by the library, or call 503-436-1391, or email info@cannonbeachlibrary.org for more information.

In addition to offering chances for gift certificates and hotel stays, the library, during the month of September, is offering a book club discussion and the first NW Author Speakers Series event of the 2022-23 year.

Participants in Cannon Beach Reads will be meeting, via Zoom, beginning at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, September 21, to discuss “So Big” by Edna Ferber.

“So Big” is the story of Selina De Jong, a widow who, to give her son a chance at a good life, turns her seemingly infertile Illinois farm into a thriving business through sheer determination and grueling labor. “So Big” won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1925 and was made into a film starring Jane Wyman in 1953.

Edna Ferber was an American novelist, short story writer and playwright. Many of her novels, with their panoramic landscapes and larger-than-life characters, were adapted into award-winning films and musicals, including “Show Boat,” “Cimarron,” “Giant” and “Ice Palace.” Ferber was in many ways ahead of her time, creating strong female protagonists and taking on issues of discrimination.

Lauren Wilson will lead the discussion of this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Cannon Beach Reads is open to everyone. If you would like to join the discussion on September 21, contact Joe Bernt at berntj@ohio.edu for the Zoom link.

And speaking of Zoom, the library kept the NW Author Speakers Series going during the pandemic thanks to Zoom and Facebook Live. While these virtual events may have lacked the intimacy of in-person talks, they did reach more people, often being watched by hundreds of viewers.

This year, members of the NW Authors Committee (Pam Crone, Jen Dixon, Nancy McCarthy, Wanda Meyer Price, Doug Sugano and Phyllis Bernt) hope to combine the benefits of in-person and virtual events in a hybrid approach. Authors’ talks in the library will, at the same time, be streamed through Facebook Live.

The first such hybrid NW Author Speakers Series event is scheduled for 2 p.m. on Saturday, September 24, with freelance writer and beekeeper Eileen Garvin.

Garvin, a Hood River resident, writes fiction, personal essays, memoirs and creative nonfiction. Her debut novel, “The Music of Bees,” was enthusiastically reviewed by Good Housekeeping, People, the Washington Post, the Christian Science Monitor and others.

The favorable response to “The Music of Bees” is not surprising; it is a well-written book with sympathetic, believable characters, a well-constructed plot and a satisfying ending.

Set in the Hood River area, the novel tells the story of three lost souls who grow to love and trust one another, and in the process learn who they are and where they belong.

Alice Holtzman is a widow whose ambition is to become a successful beekeeper and orchard owner. A socially awkward loner, grief and bitterness over the loss of her husband have made her even more isolated and prone to panic attacks.

One dark, rainy night she literally runs into Jake Stevenson, an 18-year-old paraplegic. Jake is angry, sullen, lacking direction and wheelchair-bound because of his own carelessness.

Alice first hires Jake and then 24-year-old Harry Stokes to help care for her beehives. Harry, who is homeless, jobless and recently released from jail, suffers from social anxiety. He has a pathological need to be liked and an inability to make decisions about anything of importance.

Beekeeping brings these characters together and teaches them—and the reader--valuable lessons about life. Garvin weaves instructions about beekeeping into the novel, beginning each chapter with a quotation from an 1878 treatise on caring for bees and interweaving facts about bees throughout the novel.

What the characters and the reader learn is that bees are loyal to the hive and each other; that they each have a clear sense of who they are and what their role is in ensuring the health of the community; and that, as a result, life in the hive is orderly and, most importantly, a home.

Garvin has a knack for understanding and exploring her characters’ feelings and motivations, a talent she may have honed as the younger sister of an autistic sibling. In her 2010 memoir, “How to Be a Sister,” Garvin examines her relationship with her older sister Margaret, who suffers from an acute form of autism.

In often heart-breaking detail, she describes growing up with Margaret, and analyzes Margaret’s impact on their family and on Garvin herself, as she tries to determine what sort of a relationship she and Margaret can expect to develop and how much responsibility she bears for her sister, now that they are adults.

Garvin’s talk is free and open to everyone, either in person at the library, or over Facebook Live at 2 p.m., Saturday, September 24.

Eileen Garvin is the first of eight writers scheduled for this year’s NW Author Speakers Series. Future authors include fiction writer and editor Callum Angus on October 15, author of cozy mysteries Ellie Alexander on November 12, essayist Liz Prato on January 14, novelist and songwriter Willy Vlautin on February 11, historian Annelise Heinz on March 25, anthropologist David Deur in April and poet Jessica Mehta on May 13.

View our 9-16-22 E-Edition right here!

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