please join me in welcoming to the stage anne lamott. [applause] [applause] >> thank you. can i talk to the lighting guy from here. just got so bright. i'm actually blinded. [laughter] how are you over there? >> i'm used to this. [laughter] edward and i have been friends over time. we are very excited about each other's work in the world. we work together in l.a. a week ago and got to spend some time reconnecting. i just love, love being with him on stage. it's not just an honor. it's having a friend up here in the brother with me. i'm going to read a few pages from the book so you can get a sense of what it's like and then we will sit down. we hope you have questions you can ask me pretty much anything. you might want to be a bit more sensitive with him. [laughter] these are the first few pages of the prelude. i'm stuck piling antibiotics for the apocalypse even as i await the blossoming of the windowsill in the kitchen. the news of the dream of modern life everything exploding earning being shot or crashing to the ground all around us while growing older has provided me

copy of almost everything as you walk in, additional copies of the book and other titles by anne lamott are available through the evening and and will be signing books after the discussion. she will be signing additional ones so she won't have time to personalize. assigning line will form around the perimeter of the auditorium. if you prefer not to do assigning line, we may have pre-signed copies at the table so check with us . we also will be passing out cards on which you can write questions for anne and we will walk through those in a few minutes, collecting those partway through the discussion and our moderator will pick questions to be discussed on stage so pass those to the end of the aisle when you're ready for them to be collected. our interviewer is edward back , a roman catholic priest of the passionate congregation and also an author, playwright and commentator for cnn on issues of faith, religion and ethics whose work in mainstream media for 10 years. father beck is on sabbatical working on a second play so we're honored to be joining us, speaking with our featured author an

and lamotte, reading imperfect birds which i found great and jeannette walls was recommended to me by my niece. we have a familial non-gender book club obviously, we give books back and forth for each other and what an incredible glass castle. impressive story. the me too movement, in the face of what is being faced, is even more important for voices of reason and different points of view such as the characters you create. >> host: we are going to leave it there. >> host: we will leave it there. >> guest: jeannette, phenomenal writers. he mentioned politics because i havesp been on a book tour fora spark of light" for six straight weeks and i was in cuba and the uk and at every stop i was asked to run for office.t honestly, something really important, he does have a non-gender book club which is great and fantastic. you may be broadening your bookshelves no matter who you are, something i challenge people to do with "small great things". how many offers of color are you u reading? so many incredible authors, if you are not reading voices that are different from where you are, you will