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Health & Fitness

Meet Local Authors and Find a Meaningful Mother's Day Gift at the Library Tonight!

Four Square Press authors Maria Mello, M.W. MacKay and Deahn Berrini will be among the panelists at the Library's Local Authors Forum tonight, beginning at 6:30.

Celebrate the evening sun with a stroll to the Swampscott Library tonight, where local authors will read from their works.

Among the panelists will be Maria Mello (author of Bird Calls), M.W. MacKay (Hope runs through it) and Deahn Leblang (How to Earn Your Keep). Each of the three books, published by Four Square Press last November, has won widespread praise and a growing number of groupies.

Mello's poetry collection, Bird Calls, is being plucked by birding bookstores as far south as Sanibel Island, Fla. The prestigious Midwest Book Review gave the collection a ringing endorsement in a phrase that sounded like a bird call itself: "A fine pick, Bird Calls is a fine pick for bird lovers..."

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MacKay's poetry in Hope runs through it has profoundly moved reviewers in both the medical and literary communities.The author "plays with sound to the reader’s delight," said Cynthia Brackett-Vincent, publisher/editor of The Aurorean poetry journal, "but the reader must pay attention to fully appreciate the many subtle nuances of these poems.” The North Shore Medical Center's Family Resource Center recently ran one of the poems, Bittersweet, in its newsletter.

Meanwhile, Berrini's How to Earn Your Keep caught the attention of the IndieReader website:

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“The sister and brother are endearing in different ways, and the reader will likely end up rooting for them to find the right path as they navigate the worlds of work they inhabit and the home they share. It’s also refreshing to read a novel that involves legal issues that is, on the whole, accurate, as well as clearly explained in bite-sized chunks throughout.”

Berrini, a history major and lawyer, relishes in accurate detail. In How to Earn Your Keep, she provides a compelling framework to examine the moral and legal repercussions of her characters' actions.

Sound intriguing? Come out tonight and hear more!

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