The Houston Tufts Alliance is pleased to host

Anita Shreve, J68, reading from
Body Surfing

Date & Time:
Thursday, October 18, 2007
7:30 pm – Registration
7:45 pm – Presentation and reading
followed by a dessert reception and book signing

Location:
At the home of Suzanne (J81, A11P) and Bob Nimocks, A11P
16 Courtlandt Place, Houston
Ample parking available. Please pull up and wait for gate to open. Self-park.

Cost:
$10 per person
Register online today!

Directions:
Coming from 59, going toward downtown, take spur 529 toward downtown. Follow spur to Brazos. Left at light on Elgin. Immediate left on Bagby. Courtlandt Place gate is on the right. Pull up to gate and wait a few seconds for it to open. We are at number 16, halfway down street on right, a white house with big front porch.

Contact:
For more information about this event, contact Margo Cox, J68, M73, A03P, at drmacox@aol.com or 713-826-6880.

About the book:
Twenty-nine-year-old Sydney, already once divorced and once widowed, hopes to regain her footing by answering an ad to tutor the teenage daughter of a well-to-do couple. But when the family’s two grown sons arrive and vie for her affections, Sydney is caught up in bitter divisions that challenge her fragile sense of self. With her subtle insight into the human heart, Shreve weaves a novel about marriage, family, and the courage it takes to love.

About the author:
Best-selling author of 13 novels, Shreve taught high school for five years before devoting herself to writing. She developed her craft with short stories; "Past the Island, Drifting" won an O. Henry Prize. Shreve subsequently pursued a career in journalism in Nairobi, Kenya, where she worked for an African magazine, and then in New York, as a writer and editor for a number of publications. Later, when she started a family, she turned to freelancing, publishing in the New York Times Magazine, New York Magazine, and dozens of others.

In 1989, she published her first novel, Eden Close. In 1998, she received the PEN/L. L. Winship Award and the New England Book Award for fiction. In 1999, The Pilot's Wife was selected for Oprah's Book Club and became an international bestseller. In April 2002, CBS aired the film version of The Pilot's Wife, and in fall 2002, The Weight of Water was released in movie theaters.

Still in love with the novel form, Shreve now writes only in that genre. "The best analogy I can give to describe writing for me is daydreaming," she says. "A certain amount of craft is brought to bear, but the experience feels very dreamlike."