Events

      Wednesday, April 21, 6:30 p.m. Between Two Worlds: My Life and Captivity in Iran  BUY NOW Cubberley Theatre, 4000 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto   On the morning of January 31, 2009, Roxana Saberi, a journalist working in Iran, was dragged from her home and secretly arrested. The intelligence agents who captured her accused her of espionage - a charge she denied. For eleven days, Saberi was cut off from the outside world, forbidden even a phone call. For weeks, neither her family, friends, nor colleagues had any knowledge of her whereabouts. After a sham trial that made headlines around the world, the 32-year-old reporter was sentenced to eight years in Iran's notorious Evin prison. But following broad-based international pressure, she was released on appeal on May 11, 2009. Now, Saberi breaks her silence to share the full story of her ordeal. Saberi writes movingly of her imprisonment, her trial, her ultimate release, and the faith that helped her through it. Between Two Worlds is also a deeply revealing account of this complex nation and the six years Saberi lived there. A citizen of both the United States and Iran, Saberi sheds new light on the Iranian regime's inner political workings and the restrictions to basic freedoms that have intensified since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's victory in 2005. For reservations call 1-800-847-7730 or register online at www.Commonwealthclub.org/sv 

    Wednesday, April 21, 7:30 p.m. Imperfect Birds  BUY NOW Rosie Ferguson is seventeen and ready to enjoy the summer before her senior year of high school. She's intelligent, athletic, and beautiful. She is, in short, everything her mother, Elizabeth, hoped she could be. The family's move to Landsdale, with stepfather James in tow, hadn't been as bumpy as Elizabeth feared. But as the school year draws to a close, there are disturbing signs that the life Rosie claims to be leading is a sham, and that Elizabeth's hopes for her daughter to remain immune from the pull of the darker impulses of drugs and alcohol are dashed. Slowly and against their will, Elizabeth and James are forced to confront the fact that Rosie has been lying to them--and that her deceptions will have profound consequences. This is Anne Lamott's most honest and heartrending novel yet, exploring our human quest for connection and salvation as it reveals the traps that can befall all of us.  Lamott is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Grace (Eventually), Plan B, Traveling Mercies, and Operating Instructions, as well as seven novels, including Rosie and Crooked Little Heart. She is a past recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. Click HERE to request a signed copy.