Ashland’s Bloomsbury Books – June Events

Prescriptions for a Healthy House

 A talk by author Paula Baker Laporte

Monday June 12th

7 to 8 pm

Do you have questions about your home and your health? Bring them with you to this talk. The author, Paula Baker Laporte is an internationally known expert.  Her architectural firm EcoNest Architecture has consulted on the health of buildings all over the world.

Prescriptions for a Healthy House 4th edition is the definitive source for creating a healthy home. It contains a veritable treasure trove of useful and often difficult-to-find information. The recommendations are based on research and decades of experience “in the trenches.” If you would like to maximize your home’s ability to nurture your health and well-being then this book is for you!

Paula has been a resident of  Ashland for the past 13 years and is looking forward to this intimate evening to meet with old friends and new neighbors and talk about your homes.

Orchid Child 

 A talk by author Victoria Costello

Tuesday June 13th

7 to 8 pm

Ashland resident Victoria Costello invites local readers to celebrate the publication of her debut novel, ORCHID CHILD, which blends history, science, mystery, and magic to tell a three-generation story based in part on the author’s Irish American family. In its review, WritersnAuthors.com called Orchid Child “captivating,” and went on to say, “Victoria Costello expertly navigates through the depth and complexity of psychological resilience, neurodiversity and ancient Celtic wisdom to create a story that is both gripping and thought-provoking.”

At Bloomsbury Books, the author will discuss some fascinating discoveries she made while researching her book, including: the science of intergenerational trauma and neurodiversity; aspects of Celtic folklore still influencing Irish culture, including stone circles, fairies and second sight, and little-known history of America’s role in The Troubles, going back a hundred years.

Victoria Costello is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, a teacher of life writing at OLLI/SOU and WritingWorkshops.com, and the author of a memoir, A LETHAL INHERITANCE (Prometheus Books/2012). Her science and parenting articles have appeared in Scientific American Mind, Huffington Post and Psychology Today. Find out about her work at www.victoriacostelloauthor.com

FRY, THRIVE OR DIE: A Fun Pocket Guide To Fifty Common, Delicious, Hallucinogenic, Medicinal and Poisonous Mushrooms

A Talk by author Dr. Mike Amaranthus

Monday June 19th 

7 to 8 pm

FRY, THRIVE OR DIE: A Fun Pocket Guide To Fifty Common, Delicious, Hallucinogenic, Medicinal and Poisonous mushrooms in the Western United States.
Are you skeptical about your ability to identify a delicious mushroom from a deadly one?
Do you want to learn how to find, process, and prepare wild mushrooms for food and medicine?
Each species is identified with a detailed color picture, distinct features, as well as information on habitat, fruiting timing, edibility, creative uses, and dangerous look-alikes.
Fry, Thrive, or Die is a pocket-sized field guide to the most prominent and distinctive wild mushrooms in the Western United States, from the Pacific Coast to the Rocky Mountains, and prepares readers to hunt wild mushrooms and to serve them up.
This book will delight the reader with stories, history, possibilities, recipes and much, much, more. Fry, Thrive, or Die puts the “fun” in fungi.

Dr. Mike Amaranthus, author of Fry, Thrive or Die is a retired mycologist and research scientist and long time Southern Oregon resident.

Michelle St. Romain Wilson and Alma Rosa Alvarez read from their chapbook Water’s Edge (Poems)

Monday June 26th

7 to 8 pm

Michelle St. Romain Wilson and Alma Rosa Alvarez will be reading from their new chapbook Water’s Edge. These poems, written between the start of the global pandemic of 2020 and the spring of 2023, are a reflection of life during times of great change and challenge. The reader is invited to walk with the poets:  witnessing an increasingly complex world, connecting with those around us, and ultimately healing through the power of nature.