VIRTUALLY VROMAN’S

VIRTUALLY Vroman’s BOOKSTORE BOASTS STELLAR LINEUP FOR JUNE

BY CHRISTINA FUOCO-KARASINSKI

The renowned bookstore Vroman’s is hosting more top-notch virtual programs throughout June.

The events are held virtually through Crowdcast. Register at vromansbookstore.com.

Christopher Buehlman discusses and signs “The Blacktongue Thief” 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 1

Kinch Na Shannack owes the Takers Guild a small fortune for his education as a thief, which includes lock picking, knife fighting, wall scaling, fall breaking, plus a few small magics. His debt has driven him to lie in wait by the old forest road, planning to rob the next traveler who crosses his path.

Today, Kinch has chosen the wrong mark. Galva is a knight, a survivor of the brutal goblin wars and handmaiden of the goddess of death. She is searching for her queen, missing since a distant northern city fell to giants.

Unsuccessful in his robbery and lucky to escape with his life, Kinch and Galva’s fate are entangled. Common enemies and uncommon dangers force thief and knight on a journey during which goblins hunger for human flesh, krakens hunt in dark waters, and honor is a luxury few can afford.

In this comprehensive field guild, high school coaches Jill and Dave Henry break down the facts and deliver doable, no-BS strategies for managing physical and mental health on campus.

In addition to helpful, interactive graphics, the coaches share their relatable true stories to discuss the five biggest health obstacles students face in college.

Michael Punke, in conversation with Michael Hampton, discusses “Ridgeline” 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 8

In 1866, with the country barely recovered from the Civil War, new war breaks out on the Western frontier — a clash of cultures between a young, ambitious nation and the native tribes who have lived on the land for centuries. Col. Henry Carrington arrives in Wyoming’s Powder River Valley to lead the U.S. Army in defending the opening of a new road for gold miners and settlers.

Carrington intends to build a fort in the middle of critical hunting grounds, the home of the Lakota. Red Cloud, one of the Lakota’s most respected chiefs, and Crazy Horse, a young but visionary warrior, understand well the implications of this invasion. For the Lakota, the stakes are their home, their culture and their lives.

Andrew McCarthy, in conversation with Michael Oats Palmer, discusses “Brat: An ’80s Story” 6 p.m. Wednesday, June 9

Most people know Andrew McCarthy from his movie roles in “Pretty in Pink,” “St. Elmo’s Fire,” “Weekend at Bernie’s” and “Less than Zero” and as a charter member of Hollywood’s Brat Pack.

That iconic group of ingenues and heartthrobs included Rob Lowe, Molly Ringwald, Emilio Estevez and Demi Moore and has come to represent a genre of film and an era of pop culture.

In his memoir, “Brat: An ’80s Story,” McCarthy focuses his gaze on that moment in time. The result is a revealing look at coming of age in a maelstrom, reckoning with conflicted ambition, innocence, addiction and masculinity.

Filled with personal revelations of innocence lost to heady days in Hollywood with John Hughes and an iconic cast of characters, “Brat” is a surprising and intimate story of an outsider caught up in a most unwitting success.

The event ticket includes a hardcover copy of “Brat: An ’80s Story” and online access for a household. The link and password will be sent on Tuesday, June 8. For more information, contact email@vromansbookstore.com.

P.C. and Kristin Cast, in conversation with Emily Duncan, discusses “Spells Trouble: Sisters of Salem” 6 p.m. Wednesday, June 2

Hunter and Mercy Goode are twin witches, direct descendants of the founder of their town of Goodeville. As their ancestors have done before them, it is now time for the twins to learn what it means to be Gatekeepers — the protectors of the gates to different underworlds, ancient portals between their world and realms where mythology rules and nightmares come to life.

When their mother is murdered, the devastated sisters vow to avenge her death.

Jill and Dave Henry present “The Greatest College Health You Never Knew You Needed” 6 p.m. Monday June 7

Every fall, around 8 million young adults enter college fired up for the next four years.

Most students, however, are better prepared to choose their major or talk to strangers than they are to take care of themselves in college. College students are now more depressed, anxious and stressed than previous waves of students. They’re also more sedentary and living in a meal-plan limbo supplemented with ramen and coffee.

Daisy Hernández, in conversation with Alex Espinoza, discusses “The Kissing Bug: A True Story of a Family, an Insect, and a Nation’s Neglect of a Deadly Disease” 6 p.m. Thursday, June 10

Growing up in a New Jersey factory town in the 1980s, Daisy Hernández believed her aunt had become deathly ill from eating an apple. No one in her family, in either the United States or Colombia, spoke of infectious diseases.

Even into her 30s, she only knew that her aunt had died of Chagas, a rare and devastating illness that affects the heart and digestive system.

But as Hernández dug deeper, she discovered that Chagas — or the kissing bug disease — is more prevalent in the United States than the Zika virus.

After her aunt’s death, Hernández began searching for answers.

John McMahon discusses “A Good Kill” 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 15

“A Good Kill” is an electrifying mystery featuring a troubled small-town police detective faced with three interwoven crimes that reveal sinister secrets about his community.

In the years since the mysterious deaths of his wife and child, P.T. Marsh, a police detective in the small Georgia town of Mason Falls, has faced demons — both professional and personal.

But when he is called to the scene of a school shooting, the professional and personal become intertwined, and he suspects that whoever is behind the crime may be connected to his own family tragedy.

Jonathan Evison, in conversation with Tod Goldberg, discusses “Legends of the North Cascades” 6 p.m. Thursday, June 17

Dave Cartwright used to be good at a lot of things: good with his hands, good at solving problems, good at staying calm in a crisis.

But on the heels of his third tour in Iraq, the fabric of Dave’s life has begun to unravel. Gripped by PTSD, he finds himself losing his home, his wife and his direction.

Most days, his love for his 7-year-old daughter, Bella, is the only thing keeping him going. When tragedy strikes, Dave makes a dramatic decision: The two of them will flee their damaged lives, heading off the grid to live in the wilderness of the Pacific Northwest.

As they carve out a home in a cave in that harsh, breathtaking landscape, echoes of its past begin to reach them. Bella retreats into herself, absorbed by visions of a mother and son who lived in the cave thousands of years earlier, at the end of the last ice age. Back in town, Dave and Bella are rapidly becoming the stuff of legend — to all but those who would force them to return home.

Yehudi Mercado, in conversation with Raina Telgemeier, discusses “Chunky” 6 p.m. Thursday, June 24

In this full-color middle grade graphic memoir for fans of Raina Telgemeier and Jerry Craft, Yehudi Mercado draws inspiration from his childhood weight struggle while finding friendship with his imaginary mascot, Chunky, as he navigates growing up in a working class Mexican Jewish family.

Hudi needs to lose weight, according to his doctors. Concerned about the serious medical issue Hudi had when he was younger, his parents push him to try out for sports.

Hudi would rather do anything else, but then he meets Chunky, his imaginary friend and mascot. Together, they decide to give baseball a shot.

Nobuko Miyamoto discusses “Not Yo’ Butterfly: My Long Song of Relocation, Race, Love, and Revolution” 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 29

A mold-breaking memoir of Asian American identity, political activism, community and purpose, “Not Yo’ Butterfly” is the intimate and unflinching life story of Nobuko Miyamoto — artist, activist and mother. Beginning with the harrowing early years of her life as a Japanese American child navigating a fearful West Coast during World War II, Miyamoto leads readers into the landscapes that defined the experiences of 20th century America and also foregrounds the struggles of people of color who reclaimed their histories, identities and power through activism and art.

Miyamoto vividly describes her early life in the racialized atmosphere of Hollywood musicals and then her turn toward activism as an Asian American troubadour with the release of “A Grain of Sand,” considered to be the first Asian American folk album.