CAS, Warwick's Bring Best-Selling Authors to Campus

The University of San Diego’s College of Arts and Sciences and Warwick’s Books in La Jolla will co-host multiple events with book authors on the USD campus in September, October and November.

Ticket prices vary for these events as the amount includes the cost of presenting each audience member with a copy of the author’s book. One event, Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha’s in November, is free to attend and there is not a book-buying requirement.

Actor and Author Neil Patrick Harris, The Magic Misfits, Saturday, Sept. 29, 2 p.m., Camino Hall’s Shiley Theatre. Tickets are SOLD OUT. Harris’ latest book in the New York Times’ best-selling series, “The Magic Misfits,” will be part of the discussion.

Author Hank Green, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, Thursday, Oct. 4, 7 p.m., Camino Hall’s Shiley Theatre. Tickets are $28 and include one copy of An Absolutely Remarkable Thing. A special USD student discount, using a promo code, USDGREEN, is available. Purchase tickets.

Hank Green, co-creator of Crash Course, Vlogbrothers and SciShow, shares about his much-anticipated debut novel, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing. It spins a sweeping, cinematic tale about a young woman who becomes and overnight celebrity before realizing she’s part of something bigger, and stranger, than anyone could have possibly imagined. His book grapples with big themes, including how the social internet is changing fame, rhetoric and radicalization; how our culture deals with fear and uncertainty; and how vilification and adoration spring from the same dehumanization that follows a life in the public eye.

Author Jodi Picoult, A Spark of Light, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 7 p.m., Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice Theatre. Tickets are $31.24 and include a copy of her book.

Jodi Picoult, a No. 1 New York Times best-selling author of 23 novels, including Change of Heart, Nineteen Minutes, and My Sister's Keeper, will be at USD to discuss in conversation her latest, A Spark of Light.

The warm fall day starts like any other at the center—a women’s reproductive health services clinic—its staff offering care to anyone who passes through its doors. Then, in late morning, a desperate and distraught gunman bursts in and opens fire, taking all inside hostage.

After rushing to the scene, Hugh McElroy, a police hostage negotiator, sets up a perimeter and begins making a plan to communicate with the gunman. As his phone vibrates with incoming text messages he glances at it and, to his horror, finds out that his 15-year-old daughter, Wren, is inside the clinic.

But Wren is not alone. She will share the next and tensest few hours of her young life with a cast of unforgettable characters. Told in a daring and enthralling narrative structure that counts backward through the hours of the standoff, this is a story that traces its way back to what brought each of these very different individuals to the same place on this fateful day.

Physician, Scientist, Activist and Author Mona Hanna-Attisha, What the Eyes Don’t See, Saturday, Nov. 10, 2 p.m., Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice Theatre. Tickets are free.

Mona Hanna-Attisha is a physician and a scientist, but her book, What the Eyes Don’t See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance and Hope in an American City, adds activist to the list. That’s because she’s deeply connected to the story of water issues in Flint, Mich. This is the inspiring story of how Dr. Mona — accompanied by an idiosyncratic team of researchers, parents, friends, and community leaders — proved that Flint’s kids were exposed to lead and then fought her own government and a brutal backlash to expose that truth to the world. Paced like a scientific thriller, this book shows how misguided austerity policies, the withdrawal of democratic government, and callous bureaucratic indifference placed an entire city at risk. And at the center of the story is Dr. Mona herself — an immigrant, doctor, scientist, and mother whose family’s activist roots inspired her pursuit of justice. 

Author Liane Moriarty, Nine Perfect Strangers, Friday, Nov. 16, 7 p.m., Camino Hall’s Shiley Theatre. Tickets are $31.24 for one admission and a signed copy of Nine Perfect Strangers and $41.24 for two general admissions and a signed copy of the book.

Moriarty, who had a New York Times’ No. 1 best-seller with Big Little Lies, writes in Nine Perfect Strangers about nine people who’ve gathered at a remote health resort. Some are here to lose weight, some are here to get a reboot on life, some are here for reasons they can’t even admit to themselves. Amidst all of the luxury and pampering, the mindfulness and meditation, they know these 10 days might involve some real work. But none of them could imagine just how challenging the next 10 days are going to be.

— Compiled by USD News Center

Photo images courtesy of Eventbrite.com and Warwick's Books in La Jolla