Love To Read? Meet The Authors At Inkwood Books

Upholding its long tradition of hosting book signings, Inkwood Books, 216 S. Armenia Ave., Tampa, will welcome four authors, all with new releases, during August.

On Thursday, Aug. 8 at 7 p.m., Tampa author Claire Conner will discuss and sign copies of her narrative history of the John Birch Society, Wrapped in the Flag.  
The daughter of one of the infamous ultraconservative organization’s founding fathers, Conner grew up surrounded by dedicated Birchers and was expected to abide by and espouse Birch ideals. When her parents forced her to join the society at age 13, she became its youngest member. Conner said she found herself sucked into campaigns against abortion rights and for ultraconservative presidential candidates like John Schmitz before finally freeing herself of the John Birch legacy.

In Wrapped in the Flag, Conner offers an intimate account of the society —based on society records and documents, on her parents’ files and personal writing, on historical archives and contemporary accounts, and on firsthand knowledge—giving readers an inside look at one of the most radical right-wing movements in U.S. history and its lasting effects on our political discourse today.

Conner's appearance will be followed on Friday, Aug. 9 at 7 p.m. by a visit from Miami author Patricia Engel, author of It's Not Love, It's Paris. 
 
The novel features Lita del Cielo, the daughter of two Colombian orphans who arrived in America with nothing and made a fortune with their Latin food empire. Lita has been granted one year to pursue her studies in Paris before she must return to work in the family business. She moves into a gently crumbling Left Bank mansion known as “The House of Stars,” where she meets Cato, son of a notorious right-wing politician. 

Engel is the author of Vida, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Fiction Award, Young Lions Fiction Award, winner of a Florida Book Award and Independent Publisher Book Award, and named a Best Book of the Year by NPR and L.A. Weekly.

On Tuesday, Aug. 13 at 7 p.m. New Jersey author Dagmara Dominczyk will be at the bookstore to discuss and sign her novel The Lullaby of Polish Girls. 

Inspired by her parents’ political history and her family’s immigrant story, Dominczyk, an actress most recently seen this winter in the motion picture Higher Ground and the Broadway revival of Golden Boy, has written a debut novel that follows the friendship of three women — Anna, Justyna and Kamila — from their coming of age in a small Polish town in the 1980s to their complicated adult lives as immigrants in Brooklyn.

To round out the month of authors, John Dufresne of Dania Beach will be at Inkwood Books Thursday, Aug. 29 at 7 p.m. to discuss his new novel, No Regrets Coyote. 

Dufresne's quirky Florida noir features Wylie “Coyote” Melville, therapist and forensic consultant, as he is summoned to a horrific crime scene on Christmas day. Wylie has the rare ability to read a crime scene, consider the evidence seen and unseen, and determine what’s likely to have happened.

Dufresne is the author of seven books, including the New York Times Notable Books Love Warps the Mind a Little and Louisiana Power & Light. He teaches in the Creative Writing Department at Florida International University.