By Jessica Zagacki Renowned Author Lily King kicked off Hofstra’s “14th Annual Great Writers, Great Readings” series in the Guthart Cultural Center Theater with a discussion of her...

Recap of the Great Writers, Great Readings event with Alice McDermott

Gerald Stern visits Hofstra as part of the "Great Writers, Great Readings" program.

Last Monday, Tracy Kidder, the pulitzer prize winning author of this year's common read, Mountains Beyond Mountains, came to speak to first year students. In his book, Kidder follows the medical antrhopoligist Dr. Paul Farmer in his crusade to bring medical help and disease prevention to the people of Haiti. Kidder also spoke to the crowd about Farmer's organization, Partner In Health, as well as the importance of recognizing the humanity of all people and pursuing a life with meaning. WRHU and The Chronicle sat down for a joint interview with Kidder before the talk:

Listening to Martha McPhee read a couple of excerpts from her book, Dear Money, I realized that this was a member of the Hofstra faculty proving her worth in public. To those students in attendance, the professor demonstrated why she has earned her title. She can teach creative writing because she is talented at it.

Typically, we read memoirs of famous people like presidents or celebrities, or of people who have experienced a historical tragedy, like Holocaust survivors. We are interested in hearing what these people went through to attain fame or to survive in difficult times. Kim Sunée doesn't meet any of these standards. Sunée is a writer, food enthusiast and world traveler. Even though she is not famous, Sunée's memoir, "Trail of Crumbs: Hunger, Love and the Search for Home," is captivating enough to become a national bestseller.

The initial premise of "A Man's Wrong to Choose?" is a potentially intriguing one: if it's the woman's right to choose, then what's the purpose of the man? However, this potentiality is crushed beneath the weight of the author's penchant for preaching and poor writing.

When people open up the pages of a book, they are usually looking for something specific in its pages. People want to read about war, fantasy, romance, or magic. Reading is an escape to wherever you want to go. So why not go the Seven Satrapies?

If you're an avid late-night talk show watcher, you've probably heard of Chelsea Handler. She's the sharp-tongued host of the E! network's "Chelsea Lately," a late-night talk show featuring a roundtable of comedians and actors (along with Chelsea and her vertically challenged sidekick, Chuy) talking about the daily happenings in the world of pop culture.
Along with the wildly successful show, Chelsea is also a New York Times best-selling author. With three books under her belt, she has proven herself as a strong competitor in the literary world.

Tracing the roots of college's most popular sport, Chronicle Books' "The Book of Beer Pong: The Official Guide to The Sport of Champions" is one of the first organized attempts to legitimize Beer Pong as an actual sport. However, sparing readers the tedium of a mind-numbing sports rulebook, authors Ben Applebaum and Dan Disorbo are anything but dry in the presentation of their case. Instead, our guides couch the formalities of the "sport" with a consistently refreshing humor that skillfully conceals any hint of instruction or regulation.
 

For the high-end fashion devotee, there is Vogue, Elle, and Harper's Bazaar. For the creative trendsetter, there's Nylon. For the lady wise in love and lust, there's Cosmopolitan. Now, for the wanna-be fashionista seeking professional advice on how to develop her own personal style, there's "Who What Wear" the book.