Author and Kirsten Miller Discusses "Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books"

  
 

Join us for this discussion with author Kirsten Miller. Her book "Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books" is "a provocative and hilarious summer read that will have book lovers cheering and everyone talking! Kirsten Miller, author of 'The Change', brings us a bracing, wildly entertaining satire about a small Southern town, a pitched battle over banned books, and a little lending library that changes everything." In a day when this topic can rip people apart, learn how one small community was able to come together - it's fictional but, maybe, hopeful, too!

RECORDING NOTE: This program will be recorded. All registrants will receive the recording via email within 48 hours of the program.

You can buy signed books (by bookplate) by Kirsten from Aesop's Fable. Just write that you would like the book signed in the notes section at checkout. 

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About the book:

Beverly Underwood and her arch enemy, Lula Dean, live in the tiny town of Troy, Georgia, where they were born and raised. Now Beverly is on the school board, and Lula has become a local celebrity by embarking on mission to rid the public libraries of all inappropriate books—none of which she’s actually read. To replace the “pornographic” books she’s challenged at the local public library, Lula starts her own lending library in front of her home: a cute wooden hutch with glass doors and neat rows of the worthy literature that she’s sure the town’s readers need.

But Beverly’s daughter Lindsay sneaks in by night and secretly fills Lula Dean’s little free library with banned books wrapped in “wholesome” dust jackets. The Girl’s Guide to the Revolution is wrapped in the cover of The Southern Belle’s Guide to Etiquette. A jacket that belongs to Our Confederate Heroes ends up on Beloved. One by one, neighbors who borrow books from Lula Dean’s library find their lives changed in unexpected ways. Finally, one of Lula Dean’s enemies discovers the library and decides to turn the tables on her, just as Lula and Beverly are running against each other to replace the town’s disgraced mayor.

That’s when all the townspeople who’ve been borrowing from Lula’s library begin to reveal themselves. It’s a diverse and surprising bunch—including the local postman, the prom queen, housewives, a farmer, and the former DA—all of whom have been changed by what they’ve read. When Lindsay is forced to own up to what she’s done, the showdown that’s been brewing between Beverly and Lula will roil the whole town...and change it forever.

 

About the author:

I grew up in the mountains of North Carolina. After high school, I moved to New York City to attend Barnard College. Though I will always consider myself a Southerner, I reside in Brooklyn now with my kid and my cat. There are five bagel shops within a two-block radius of our house, which makes it pretty damn close to heaven.

I wanted to go into publishing after college, but I needed to eat, so I took a job in advertising instead. I spent my first few years in advertising working for a brilliant woman at an agency I adored. I was well into my career when I left that agency and discovered the ad world was rarely a warm and welcoming place for women.

Around 2004, I started writing about a band of six delinquent girl scouts who discover a secret city beneath Manhattan and end up saving the world. That was how I amused myself back then. I had no idea I was writing a book. Several bizarre strokes of luck later, Kiki Strike was published. One early reader, who’s now all grown up, called it her “first feminist handbook.” I must say, that made me very happy.

Since Kiki, I’ve written over fifteen books. About half of them were co-authored with Jason Segel, one of the finest, funniest, and most talented human beings I’ve ever known. After the last book in our second series was published, I wasn’t quite sure what to do. So I sat down and started writing to amuse myself. That’s how I ended up with The Change.

The Change was not my first foray into the seriously dark and disturbing. (That would be How to Lead a Life of Crime.) But it was, technically, my first novel for adults. And yes, the title does indeed refer to menopause. (Say it loud and proud, ladies.) I’ve heard The Change described as a feel-good feminist revenge fantasy. That sounds about right. As any woman my age will understand, I had a lot to get off my chest. And believe you me, I had a damn good time doing it. The Change came out in May, 2022. I hope it’s as fun to read as it was to write.

My next book Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books will be out in June, 2024. More on that later. But I promise—it’s a doozy. 

 
 

This program is sponsored by the Friends of the Ashland Public Library and in partnership with a multitude of MA Libraries.