Valerie Plame Lecture

Just as Kareem Abdul Jabbar will be speaking at Hopkins next week (on October 28, 2008) as part of the Milton S. Eisenhower Speakers Symposium “A More Perfect Union: Partnership, Progress and Prosperity in a Changing America,” so shall Valerie Plame (on October 30, 2008).

Author of Fair Game: How a Top CIA Agent Was Betrayed by Her Own Government, Plame features heavily in Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War by Michael Isikoff and David Corn.

Click here to read about Hubris (an excerpt may be found here) and click here to read an excerpt from Fair Game.

Doors will open at 7:30 pm at Shriver Hall on the Homewood Campus the talk begins at 8:00 pm and will be followed by a reception in the Clipper Room.

This event is free and open to the public.

Shriver Hall Auditorium is on the university’s Homewood campus, 3400 N. Charles St., in Baltimore.

Visitor parking is available in the South Garage, 3101 Wyman Park Drive, Baltimore, Md. 21211.

Brenda Avadian Lecture

Brenda Avadian, author of eight books, is speaking at the 11th Annual Louis Mary Battle Lecture on  Monday November 3, 2008 at the Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Auditorium, Mercy High School.

Dr. Rebecca Elon, director of the Lorien Columbia Nursing and Rehabilitation Center,  will also be speaking.

Avadian’s books include:

• Drive North in Your Career
• Finding the Joy in Alzheimer’s: Caregivers Share the Joyful Times
• Finding the Joy in Alzheimer’s: When Tears Are Dried with Laughter
• “Where’s My Shoes?”: My Father’s Walk Through Alzheimer’s

The event posting I saw gave this description of the speakers:

Rebecca Elon, MD
The Absence of Presence: Lessons from American Medicine
Dr. Rebecca Elon is the founding medical director of Erickson Health Howard County (EHHC). The outpatient offices of EHHC are housed within the Lorien Columbia Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, where Dr. Elon has served as medical director since 2006.

Brenda Avadian, MA
Finding the JOY in Caregiving: When Tears are Dried with Laughter
Brenda Avadian, The Caregiver’s Voice, is a spokesperson and advocate for caregivers and their loved ones with dementia. An eight-book author, she offers sprinkles of JOY from her own experiences caring for her father with Alzheimer’s. For caregiving information, please visit thecaregiversvoice.com.

Reception starts at 6:00pm and lecture starts at 7:00pm at Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Auditorium, Mercy High School, 1300 East Northern Parkway, Baltimore, Maryland 21239.

Open to the public but reservations are required; call 410-252-4500 x7208.

Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics by Joe Biden

Well, I’ve finished reading Joe Biden’s 2007 memoir Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics (click here to view all my posts about this book).

And while I would still recommend it to folks who want to learn more about the Senator and the Democratic Nominee for Vice President, I found that as I got further and further into the book it became clear that it was written as a campaign tool (for his 2008 presidential attempt).

The first half of the book — Biden’s childhood, the love story of meeting his first wife Neila, Biden’s Senate campaign, the tragic death of Neila and his baby daughter Naomi in 1972, meeting Jill and rebuilding his family, and coming into his own as a Senator — is beautiful and moving.

But as the memoir moves into September 11th, Afghanistan and Iraq, I started to lose interest because it felt like Biden was trying to sell readers on a Biden Presidency.

Click here to view the table of contents, here to read an excerpt from Promises to Keep, or here to visit the Senator’s website.