Book Group Expo 2006 presents Cultures Among Us: How To Be An American moderated by Susanne Pari and featuring panelists Cindy Dyson, John Hamamura, and Rabih Alemeddine.
Part salon, part marketplace, and part marvelous party, Book Group Expo brings together a wide variety of book lovers, and authors under one roof. The Expo is an opportunity for the thousands of serious readers and book group members from throughout the Bay Area to experience a unique interactive program built around reading and discussing literature.
Bio
Rabih Alemeddine
Rabih Alemeddine: is a painter and the author of two novels, Koolaids and I, the Divine, and a book of short stories, The Perv.
Cindy Dyson
Cindy Dyson: was a journalist driven to write a first novel, And She Was, when she became a mother and began to long for a deeper connection with her research. She’s been in a book club, Our Ladies of Perpetual Disappointment, for many years and credits the women in her club with not only making her a better writer, but a better reader.
John Hamamura
John Hamamura: was born in the final year of World War II. His mother’s family was interned at Rohwer in southern Arkansas; his father’s family was from Hiroshima. Hamamura lived and went to school near Tokyo, and spent summer vacations at his grandmother’s house. It was not until many years later that he learned the significance of its location, two and half miles from Ground Zero. Hamamura’s debut novel, Color of the Sea, grew out of an exploration of his family history.
Susanne Pari
Susanne Pari's novel, The Fortune Catcher, is a love story and a painless history lesson on the Iran-America situation. It has been translated into six languages. She was an advisor to Edgework Press and the Program Director for their Literary Salons. She has contributed to The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, The Boston Globe, The San Francisco Chronicle, National Public Radio, and Voice of America.
She sees her job as Program Director for Book Group Expo as a sly opportunity to read every book of every participating author without feeling guilty that she's having so much fun.
Susanne Pari is a very interesting host. I was intrigued by her comment that recent American immigrants tend to be more patriotic than those born in the US.