Sue Monk Kidd On-Demand Event Recording

THIS IS THE RECORDING OF THE ORIGINAL EVENT (recorded on Thursday, March 25, 2021).

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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! 

MJCCA Book Fest In Your Living Room Presents 

Sue Monk Kidd, The Book of Longings

In Conversation with Greg Changnon, Former Book Club Columnist, Atlanta Journal Constitution, and Playwright

Zoom Author Talk & Q & A

Book purchases include signed bookplate! A Cappella Books is the official bookseller of the National JCC Literary Consortium.

Sue Monk Kidd, celebrated novelist and #1 New York Times bestselling author, has written that “the aim of the novelist is not only to hold up a mirror to the world, but to imagine what’s possible.” Now available in paperback, The Book of Longings, Kidd employs her extraordinary storytelling gifts and takes an audacious approach to history in giving voice and life to Ana, the wife of Jesus.

We first encounter Ana at age fourteen; raised in a wealthy family, she is rebellious and ambitious with a brilliant, curious mind and a daring spirit. Longing for the freedom to bring forth what she calls the “largeness” in herself, she defies the expectations placed on women in 1^st century Galilee and engages in secret scholarly pursuits and writes narratives about neglected and silenced women. When she meets eighteen-year-old Jesus, he awakens her heart, and each is drawn to and enriched by the other’s spiritual and philosophical ideas. Their marriage unfolds with uncommon love, ordinary tensions, humor and pathos in Nazareth where they live for nearly a decade until Ana’s life becomes imperiled and she finds it necessary to seek refuge in Egypt shortly before Jesus’ public ministry begins. While there, she is introduced to an order of Jewish contemplative philosophers, the Therapeutae, where she will eventually find a sense of belonging and a way to express her full self.

The Book of Longings is a novel Sue Monk Kidd was born to write—a powerfully imagined, beautifully composed, fully realized story of a young woman who realizes her passion and potential against great odds. In a voice that is assured and intoxicating, the novel takes up many of the signature themes of Kidd’s fiction: feminism, the bonds between women, the search for self, and the quest for one’s voice and purpose in life. In particular, this novel explores the longings and “largeness” within women, addresses the importance of women’s stories and voices, and encourages readers to grapple with the inherent sexism in society and western religion.

How would the world be different if Jesus had had a wife who had been part of the story? Would western culture and Christianity have evolved somewhat differently? Would women and their stories have found more inclusion and equality? The Book of Longings invites readers to contemplate these questions, and reconsider the story we thought we always knew.

Sue Monk Kidd's debut, The Secret Life of Bees, spent more than 100 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, has sold more than 6 million copies in the U.S., was turned into an award-winning major motion picture and a musical, and has been translated into 36 languages. Her second novel, The Mermaid Chair, was a #1 New York Times bestseller and was adapted into a television movie. Her third novel, The Invention of Wings, an Oprah's Book Club 2.0 pick, was also a #1 New York Times bestseller. She is the author of the acclaimed memoirs The Dance of the Dissident Daughter, a groundbreaking work on religion and feminism, and the New York Times bestseller Traveling with Pomegranates, written with her daughter, Ann Kidd Taylor. She lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Greg Changnon has facilitated conversations on reading and books for more than 20 years, including many author interviews (Judy Blume, Jonathan Safran Foer, Alice Hoffman, Nicole Krauss, Lawrence Wright, Rachel Kadish, Kristen Hannah and others) at the Book Festival of the MJCCA. He also taught literature, social studies and creative writing at Atlanta’s Paideia School for 15 years. In collaboration with his students, Greg wrote and produced many original pieces of theatre, curating his students’ experiences into full-length plays, using classic texts (Fahrenheit 451, Lord of the Flies, 12 Angry Men, Much Ado About Nothing, for example) as a framework for modern revisions. His updated version of Pygmalion—with Eliza Doolittle recast as a Muslim teenager in a mostly white school—was adapted and produced as Slur which appeared on Atlanta's Alliance Main Stage during the theatre’s 2016-2017 season. He was featured in Poets and Writers magazine for his innovative work infusing theatre and playwriting into his classroom.  For ten years, Greg wrote the Reading Room column for the Book Section of the Atlanta Journal Constitution, where he also contributed features and reviews.

Presented in partnership with the National JCC Literary Consortium

All books include shipping to the US and Canada only. Books will be shipped after the event and can take 7 - 10 business days to receive due to Covid-related USPS delays!

EVENT RECORDINGS:

Event recording for ticket holders will be available 24 hours after the event for a limited time; please email bookfestival@atlantajcc.org if you would like a copy.
On-demand recording of the event may be purchased on this ticketing page after the program.

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