Surprise! Johanna Skibsrud at the Library!

This week marks the presentation of the Atlantic Book Awards and for the last week, great author readings have been taking place across the Halifax Public Libraries and elsewhere around town. The awards ceremony happens Thursday evening at the Alderney Landing Theatre - will your favourite author win?

In anticipation of Thursday's awards ceremony, the library is pleased to announce that author Johanna Skibsrud will read from The Sentimentalists on Thursday, May 19 at 3 p.m. at the Spring Garden Road Memorial Public Library. Already a winner of the 2010 Giller Prize, The Sentimentalists is also nominated for the Atlantic Independent Booksellers’ Choice Award.

Johanna will also read from I Do Not Think that I Could Love A Human Being, nominated for the Atlantic Poetry Prize.

And don't forget there are also two more scheduled readings at Halifax Public Libraries before the Atlantic Book Awards are given out—both on Wednesday (that's today!).

Grab your lunch and head to Alderney Gate Library for a reading at noon today. Evelyn Richardson Memorial Prize nominee Christopher Walsh reads from his nonfiction book Under the Electric Sky: the legacy of the Bill Lynch Shows.

And if evening is more your time for an outing, you'll want to catch Anne Emery, Dartmouth Book Award nominated author of Children in the Morning, reading at the Captain William Spry Library at 6:30 pm.

For more information, call your local library branch.