Events Calendar

We are thrilled to spend the evening with New York Times bestseller and Pulitzer Prize nominee Hernan Diaz! Winner of the Kirkus Prize and longlisted for the Booker Prize, Trust was one of the most celebrated novels of 2022. With the release of the paperback edition, Diaz is joining us to discuss his process, digging into a wild period in American history, and how that ripples through to current times. We can’t wait to hear Diaz discuss Trust and his storied career with a signature cocktail in hand. Don’t miss it!

Your ticket includes admission, a cocktail, and a copy of the book.

BOOK SUMMARY

From an award-winning chronicler of our nation’s history and its legends comes his much-anticipated novel about wealth and talent, trust and intimacy, truth and perception.

Even through the roar and effervescence of the 1920s, everyone in New York has heard of Benjamin and Helen Rask. He is a legendary Wall Street tycoon; she is the brilliant daughter of eccentric aristocrats. Together, they have risen to the very top of a world of seemingly endless wealth. But the secrets around their affluence and grandeur incites gossip. Rumors about Benjamin’s financial maneuvers and Helen’s reclusiveness start to spread–all as a decade of excess and speculation draws to an end. At what cost have they acquired their immense fortune?

This is the mystery at the center of a successful 1938 novel entitled Bonds, which all of New York seems to have read. But it isn’t the only version.

Hernan Diaz’s Trust brilliantly puts the story of these characters into conversation with other accounts–and in tension with the life and perspective of a young woman bent on disentangling fact from fiction. The result is a novel that becomes more exhilarating and profound with each new layer and revelation. Provocative and propulsive, Trust engages the reader in a quest for the truth while confronting the reality-warping gravitational pull of money and how power often manipulates facts. An elegant, multifaceted epic that recovers the voices buried under the myths that justify our foundational inequality, Trust is a literary triumph with a beating heart and urgent stakes.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Hernan Diaz is the author of two novels translated into more than twenty languages. His first novel, In the Distance, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award. He has also written a book of essays, and his work has appeared in The Paris Review, Granta, Playboy, The Yale Review, McSweeney’s, and elsewhere. He has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Award, the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing, and a fellowship from the New York Public Library’s Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers.

REVIEWS

“Hernan Diaz is a narrative genius whose work easily encompasses both a grand scope and the crisp and whiplike line. Trust builds its world and characters with subtle aplomb. What a radiant, profound and moving novel.”

—Lauren Groff

“Hernan Diaz understands, and deeply, how strange money is, as an omnipotent and imaginary substance that controls our lives. His novel Trust glints with wonder and knowledge and mystery. Its plotlines are as etched and surreal as Art Deco geometry, while inside that architecture are people who feel appallingly real. This novel is very classical and very original: Balzac would be proud, but so would Borges.”—Rachel Kushner

“Though set in a historical New York, Trust speaks to matters of the most urgent significance to the present day. Money, power, class, marital and filial relations, the roles played by trust and betrayal in human affairs—Diaz’s development of his chosen themes is deeply insightful. Cleverly constructed and rich in surprises, this splendid novel offers serious ideas and serious pleasures on every beautifully composed page.”—Sigrid Nunez

“That rare jewel of a book—jaw-dropping storytelling against the backdrop of beautiful writing. Amidst all the noise in the world, whole days found me curled up on the couch, lost inside Diaz’s brilliance.”—Jacqueline Woodson

“The audacity and scope of Hernan Diaz’s extraordinary novel— a prism, a mystery, a revelation—are brilliantly matched by the quality of his prose.”—Jean Strouse

“In this glorious puzzle of a novel, perspectives keep shifting and the wealth of one early-twentieth-century family keeps changing its origin-story. What a joy this is to read, suspenseful at every turn, the work of a rare and impressive talent. Hernan Diaz has once again taken apart an American myth and pondered how we lie to ourselves.”—Joan Silber

“Sublime, richly layered novel. A story within a story within a story. Elegantly written . . . This is just sublime.”

—Roxane Gay

“Diaz’s spotlight on stories behind stories seeks out the dark workings behind capitalism, as well as the uncredited figures behind the so-called Great Men of history. It’s an exhilarating pursuit.”—The New York Times (10 Best Books of 2022)

“The only certainty here is Diaz’s brilliance and the value of his rewarding book . . . In execution, [Trust] is an elegant, irresistible puzzle. The novel isn’t just about the way history and biography are written; it’s a demonstration of that process. By the end, the only voice I had any faith in belonged to Diaz.”—Ron Charles, The Washington Post (10 Best Books of 2022)

“Trust is an ingeniously constructed historical novel with a postmodern point: namely, that readers can’t wholly ‘trust any of the slippery stories we read here”—Maureen Corrigan, NPR (Top 10 Books of 2022)

“Diaz cleverly weaves . . . disparate strands together while showing how our shifting perception of the story relates to wealth’s ability to ‘bend and align reality’ to its own motives.”—The New Yorker (12 Best books of 2022)

Global Transplant Solutions, Inc. was established in 2017 in Spartanburg, SC as a provider of preservation solutions used in the human organ procurement and transplant market. The company’s vision of “Fostering the Mission” of organ donation is ingrained throughout everything we do and starts with each employee being a registered organ donor.

As a start-up company, the owners, John Bruens and Tim Bruce, understood the importance of partnerships for a successful business and quickly aligned themselves with organizations such as SC Launch and Spartanburg Community College’s Spark Center. The support of these, and other organizations, has been a major contributing factor in propelling the company to success.

Make plans to attend May’s Caffeinated Conversations to hear about the impact that Global Transplant Solutions, Inc. has made in the organ procurement and transplant market worldwide.

Make plans to attend this Power Up Spartanburg Workshop on How to Start Your Business and How to Access Capital. Offered every month in partnership with the SC Small Business Development Center, join Jay Jenkins, Director of Small and Minority Business Development, to learn about the topics below.

Training Topics: Business Start-up/Preplanning; Accounting/Budgeting; Business Financing
Description:

Join New York Times bestselling author Karen White for a book your lunch event at the Greenville Country Club on Tuesday, May 9th at Noon. Karen will give a talk on her book, The House on Prytania, and will be available afterwards to sign.

Your $65 ticket admits one to the event, and includes lunch, as well as a copy of The House on Prytania.

If you do not feel comfortable attending in-person, signed books can be purchased on our website.

Tickets can be purchased through Friday, May 5th, at 2pm. Refunds can be requested up until the ticket cutoff. (You can send someone else in your place after the cutoff, but be sure to give that person your ticket.)

Your menu options (to be selected on the order form) will be:

Quiche & Salad Plate.

Ham & swiss quiche. Salad- spinach, candied pecans, strawberries, feta cheese, champagne vinaigrette.

*Different dressing can be requested from your server

GCC Grilled Cheeseburger

American cheese, applewood smoked bacon, onions, yellow mustard, ketchup, Duke’s mayonnaise, house fries.

Cookies will be provided for dessert.

Beverage options include iced tea, water, and coffee.

Gather with your community for a FREE tasty meal, lessons on healthy eating and information on Double Up Food Bucks (a new program through SNAP)! Community Dinners are held on the second Wednesday of each month from 6 – 7:30 pm. FREE childcare provided.

Seating is limited. Reserve your seat online.

For more information, contact Leah Berger-Singer, Preventive Health Coordinator at (828) 254-7206 ext. 212 or [email protected].

We are so excited to host the writing BFFs behind the Ali Brady pen name: Alison Hammer and Bradeigh Godfrey! Perfect for reading BFFs, we can’t wait to hear more their new book The Comeback Summer, where two sisters have one summer to crush their comfort zones and save their grandmother’s legacy. Hear more about this sweet, sexy, and heartfelt novel, as well as this author duo’s unique writing process as we enjoy a book-inspired cocktail. This is a ticketed event.

Your ticket includes admission, a cocktail, and a copy of the book.

BOOK SUMMARY

Hannah and Libby need a miracle. The PR agency they inherited from their grandmother is losing clients left and right, and the sisters are devastated at the thought of closing. The situation seems hopeless—until in walks Lou, an eccentric self-help guru who is looking for a new PR agency. Her business could solve all their problems—but there’s a catch. Whoever works with Lou must complete a twelve-week challenge as part of her “Crush Your Comfort Zone” program.Hannah, whose worst nightmare is making small talk with strangers, is challenged to go on twelve first dates. Libby, who once claimed to have period cramps for four weeks straight to get out of gym class, is challenged to compete in an obstacle course race. The challenges begin with Hannah helping Libby train and Libby managing the dating app on her sister’s behalf. They’re both making good progress—until Hannah’s first love rolls into town, and Libby accidentally falls for a guy she’s supposed to be setting up with her sister.
Things get even more complicated when secrets come to light, making the sisters question the one relationship they’ve always counted on: each other. With their company’s future on the line, they can’t afford to fail. But in trying to make a comeback to honor their grandmother, are they pushing themselves down the wrong path?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ali Brady is the pen name of writing BFFs Alison Hammer and Bradeigh Godfrey. The Beach Trap is their first book together. Alison lives in Chicago and works as a VP creative director at an advertising agency. She’s the author of You and Me and Us and Little Pieces of Me. Bradeigh lives with her family in Utah, where she works as a physician. She’s the author of the psychological thriller, Impostor.

Make plans to join us on May 11, 2023, for Twilight in the Garden – the Upstate’s Premier Garden Party ! We look forward to this year’s signature fundraising event with an elegant, celebrated garden party including cocktails, an irresistible gourmet dinner, and the finest selection of silent and live auction items!

Submit your nominees for the Noble Trees of Spartanburg County Contest. Our friends at Noble Tree Foundation will announce the 2023 winners during Twilight in the Garden!

Join Ten at the Top and the Urban League of the Upstate for an informal networking event to be held from 9-10:15 a.m. on Friday, May 12 at Pronk Studios

The Focus Topic for this session will be: Bringing the Entertainment Industry to the Upstate.

Topic Leaders for the session will include: Will Stewart, Pronk Studios; David Entrada, Cargo Agency; Kwadjo Campbell, African American Tourism Conference; Edgar Bravo, No Restrictions Entertainment; David Stapp, 9/8 Central & Pronk Studios; Kathy Dickson, Apprenticeship Carolina.

Upstate Connect is a free event, but registration is required as we will be limiting the number of participants to 30 people to allow for group conversation and social distancing. Wearing a mask is welcome at all times. 

If on the day of the event you are experiencing any COVID symptoms or if you have been in contact with someone with COVID, please plan to visit us for another Upstate Connect event throughout 2023. Symptoms include: cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, chills, muscle pain, fever, sore throat, or new loss of taste and/or smell.

Shop food, gifts, and win giveaways with local businesses every second Saturday at this indoor pop-up market.

See Carolina Barbie Dolls LLC on May 13th from 12-4PM for a well deserved break, giveaways, and free mimosas. Choose from body sculpting, facials, massages, scrubs and waxing. The ultimate rejuvenating and relaxing experience.

To book your spot in advance text or call Shari at (864) 453-2889 or (516) 423-9291