Events Calendar
Explore family friendly events, theatres, galleries, concerts, nightlife, things to do, and more in the Greenville, SC and Upstate areas.
Interested in adding an event to our calendar? Please click the green “Post Your Event” button below.
Join author Ryan Gray for an in-store signing at Fiction Addiction on Saturday, December 9th from 1-3pm to celebrate his new book, Twilight in York.
This event is free and open to the public, or you can purchase a $16.91 ticket that includes a copy of Twilight in York. Additional books can be ordered on our website or purchased at the event while supplies last.
If you’re unable to attend, signed copies of the author’s book can be purchased on our website.
Tickets can be purchased online through Friday, December 8th at 2:30pm. Refunds can be requested up until the ticket cutoff. At-the-door tickets and books will be available as space allows.
Dive into the explosive, raw, and vulnerable story of a man’s search for sanity amid his increasing dependence on DXM (dextromethorphan), the active ingredient in Robitussin and other cough suppressant medications. In Volume One, you’ll enter the underbelly of York, PA as the narrator navigates the streets and his new normal.
Halfway through 2007, Ryan Gray started to come to grips with his reality: the point where an addict senses his own futility, his own demise, but remains powerless to his own craving for a drug. As things get worse and he sees his own doomed fate, it opens the door to full and complete morbidity–Hell on earth.
Before this point, Ryan begins his life on the street like many others. He was introduced to the lifestyle by a native of York and knows which drugs can be bought from whom. As he freely shares his wealth of knowledge with Ryan, the men become like brothers–always found side by side.
Still, Ryan was staring down the barrel of a loaded gun and knew it. Will he come to terms?
Twilight in York: Volume One encompasses a narrative about immense suffering of a variety known only to the addict, the junky, or the dope fiend. It is raw, real, and relatable.
About the Author:
Ryan Gray attended the University of North Carolina Asheville (UNCA) to study literature and graduated in 2016. He is currently pursuing a career in behavioral health as a peer support specialist.
He is self-supporting (financially and otherwise) despite severe schizophrenia, depression, ADHD, and anxiety. Ryan has been unusually close to his family ever since he got clean 15 years ago. He credits his recovery to the encouragement of many people along the way, including nurses, social workers, counselors, and doctors, sponsors, and fellow AA members.
Refund Policy:
- You may request a full refund prior to the ticket cutoff.
Fulfill your New Year’s Resolution to read more and scroll less! Stock up on books for the new year at our first Spartanburg Boozy Book Fair.
There was nothing like the elementary school book fair – the smell of new books in the air, the rush of racing your friends to find the next installment of your favorite series, and, if you were lucky, the crinkle of money from Mom in your pocket.
Life felt so much easier back then, didn’t it? Don’t you find yourself wishing from time to time that you could just go back?
This January, you can – but we’re doing it grown-up style.
Don’t miss our Boozy Book Fair at Ciclops Cyderi & Brewery (197 E St John St, Spartanburg, SC 29306) on Sunday, January 7th from 1-3pm!
Book categories will include:
-Geeks and Gamers
-Gothic and Ghastly
-Read the Rainbow
-Meet Cute Moments
-Truth ‘R Us
-Criminally Good Reads
…and much much more!
This event is FREE and open to the public, so bring your friends! Be sure to RSVP so we have the booze + books ready – we can’t wait to see you there.
We look forward to having author Terri Parlato spend an evening with us! Grab a cocktail and a seat because you’re not going to want to miss hearing her chat about her new novel A What Waits in the Dark.
Your ticket includes admission, a cocktail, and a copy of the book.
BOOK SUMMARY
Her ballet career derailed by injury, a once-promising young dancer returns to her hometown only to face a grisly discovery – and the increasingly alarming realization that nothing from her past is quite what she believed…
When Esmé Foster left the Boston suburbs to become a professional ballerina, the future shimmered with promise. Eleven years later, her career has been derailed by an injury, and Esme knows it’s time to come back to Graybridge to help her brother care for their ailing father. But her return coincides with an unthinkable crime. Kara Cunningham, one of Esme’s high school friends, is found dead in the woods behind the Fosters’ house.
Esmé is shocked and grieving, but also uneasy. In her dreams, she still sees the man who showed up at the scene of the car accident that killed her mother—and told Esmé he was going to kill her too. Family and friends insisted the figure was a product of Esmé’s imagination, that she was concussed after the crash. But she and Kara looked alike, sharing the same petite build, the same hair color. Could Kara’s murder have been a case of mistaken identity?
Detective Rita Myers is familiar with close-knit communities like Graybridge, where, beneath the friendliness, there are whispers and secrets. The town has seen other tragedies too, including the long-ago drowning of a young girl in a pond, deep in the woods. Even within the once-close circle of friends that included Kara and Esmé, Rita discerns a ripple of mistrust.
Day by day, Esmé discovers more about the place she left behind—and the friends and family she thought she knew. Soon, shining a light into the darkness to learn what really happened the night Kara died is the only way she can bring the nightmare to an end . . .
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Terri Parlato is the acclaimed author of domestic suspense, including All the Dark Places and What Waits in the Woods. Born and raised in upstate New York. She currently lives in a small north Georgia town with her husband and dog, Lucy. For more information, visit her online at TerriParlato.com.
We look forward to having author Rachel Hawkins spend an evening with us on Thursday, January 15th starting at 7:30 pm! Grab a cocktail and a seat because you’re not going to want to miss hearing her chat about her newest novel The Heiress.
Your ticket includes admission, a cocktail, and a copy of the book.
BOOK SUMMARY
New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hawkins returns with a twisted new gothic suspense about an infamous heiress and the complicated inheritance she left behind. THERE’S NOTHING AS GOOD AS THE RICH GONE BAD
When Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore dies, she’s not only North Carolina’s richest woman, she’s also its most notorious. The victim of a famous kidnapping as a child and a widow four times over, Ruby ruled the tiny town of Tavistock from Ashby House, her family’s estate high in the Blue Ridge Mountains. But in the aftermath of her death, her adopted son, Camden, wants little to do with the house or the money—and even less to do with the surviving McTavishes. Instead, he rejects his inheritance, settling into a normal life as an English teacher in Colorado and marrying Jules, a woman just as eager to escape her own messy past.
Ten years later, his uncle’s death pulls Cam and Jules back into the family fold at Ashby House. Its views are just as stunning as ever, its rooms just as elegant, but the legacy of Ruby is inescapable.
And as Ashby House tightens its grip on Jules and Camden, questions about the infamous heiress come to light. Was there any truth to the persistent rumors following her disappearance as a girl? What really happened to those four husbands, who all died under mysterious circumstances? And why did she adopt Cam in the first place? Soon, Jules and Cam realize that an inheritance can entail far more than what’s written in a will––and that the bonds of family stretch far beyond the grave.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
RACHEL HAWKINS is the New York Times bestselling author of The Wife Upstairs, Reckless Girls, The Villa, and The Heiress, as well as multiple books for young readers. Her work has been translated into over a dozen languages. She studied gender and sexuality in Victorian literature at Auburn University and currently lives in Alabama.
We are so excited to welcome Rachel Hawkins to M. Judson for a Lunch & Lit event featuring The Heiress! Rachel will be on hand to talk, answer questions, and sign books, as we enjoy an incredible lunch at Soby’s! Get your ticket today!
BOOK SUMMARY
New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hawkins returns with a twisted new gothic suspense about an infamous heiress and the complicated inheritance she left behind. THERE’S NOTHING AS GOOD AS THE RICH GONE BAD
When Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore dies, she’s not only North Carolina’s richest woman, she’s also its most notorious. The victim of a famous kidnapping as a child and a widow four times over, Ruby ruled the tiny town of Tavistock from Ashby House, her family’s estate high in the Blue Ridge Mountains. But in the aftermath of her death, her adopted son, Camden, wants little to do with the house or the money—and even less to do with the surviving McTavishes. Instead, he rejects his inheritance, settling into a normal life as an English teacher in Colorado and marrying Jules, a woman just as eager to escape her own messy past.
Ten years later, his uncle’s death pulls Cam and Jules back into the family fold at Ashby House. Its views are just as stunning as ever, its rooms just as elegant, but the legacy of Ruby is inescapable.
And as Ashby House tightens its grip on Jules and Camden, questions about the infamous heiress come to light. Was there any truth to the persistent rumors following her disappearance as a girl? What really happened to those four husbands, who all died under mysterious circumstances? And why did she adopt Cam in the first place? Soon, Jules and Cam realize that an inheritance can entail far more than what’s written in a will––and that the bonds of family stretch far beyond the grave.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
RACHEL HAWKINS is the New York Times bestselling author of The Wife Upstairs, Reckless Girls, The Villa, and The Heiress, as well as multiple books for young readers. Her work has been translated into over a dozen languages. She studied gender and sexuality in Victorian literature at Auburn University and currently lives in Alabama.
We look forward to having author Jill McCorkle spend an evening with us! Grab a cocktail and a seat because you’re not going to want to miss hearing her chat about her new novel Old Crimes: stories!
Your ticket includes admission, a cocktail, and a copy of the book.
BOOK SUMMARY
Beloved author Jill McCorkle delivers a collection of masterful stories that are as complex as novels—deeply perceptive, funny, and tragic in equal measure—about crimes large and small.
“Jill McCorkle has had an extraordinary ear for the music of ordinary life since the beginning of her career, able to work with the voices we know so well to write these stories about what they will not tell us, what they would rather not tell us, what they hope to tell us, what too often goes unsaid. And this collection is a new wonder.” —Alexander Chee, author of How to Write an Autobiographical Novel
Jill McCorkle, author of the New York Times bestselling Life After Life and the widely acclaimed Hieroglyphics (“One of our wryest, warmest, wisest storytellers” —Rebecca Makkai), brings us a breathtaking collection of stories that offers an intimate look at the moments when a person’s life changes forever.
Old Crimes delves into the lives of characters who hold their secrets and misdeeds close, even as the past continues to reverberate over time and across generations. And despite the characters’ yearnings for connection, they can’t seem to tell the whole truth. In “Low Tones,” a woman uses her hearing impairment as a way to guard herself from her husband’s commentary. In “Lineman,” a telephone lineman strains to connect to his family even as he feels pushed aside in a digital world. In “Confessional,” a young couple buys a confessional booth for fun, only to discover the cost of honesty.
Profoundly moving and unforgettable, for fans of Alice Munro, Elizabeth Strout, and Lily King, the stories in Old Crimes reveal why McCorkle has long been considered a master of the form, probing lives full of great intensity, longing and affection, and deep regret.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jill McCorkle has the distinction of having published her first two novels on the same day in 1984. Of these novels, the New York Times Book Review said: “one suspects the author of The Cheer Leader is a born novelist. With July 7th, she is also a full grown one.” Since then she has published five other novels—most recently, Hieroglyphics—and four collections of short stories. Five of her books have been named New York Times notable books and four of her stories have appeared in Best American Short Stories. McCorkle has received the New England Booksellers Award, the John Dos Passos Prize for Excellence in Literature, the North Carolina Award for Literature and the Thomas Wolfe Prize; she was recently inducted into the NC Literary Hall of Fame. McCorkle has taught at Harvard, Brandeis, and NC State where she remains affiliated with the MFA Program in creative writing and she is core faculty in the Bennington Writing Seminars.
Join us on Wednesday, January 17th at 5:30 pm for an In Conversation event with author Julie Chavez. She’ll be chatting about her new book, Everyone But Myself: a memoir, alongside Paula Faris.
Find out more and don’t miss this free event!
BOOK SUMMARY
Like so many mothers, Julie Chavez ran herself ragged trying to meet the needs of everyone else, until an unexpected panic attack forced her to find a new way. Funny, deeply honest, and inspiring for readers feeling overwhelmed in their own lives, Everyone But Myself feels like a best friend sharing how she pulled herself back to solid ground while embracing chaos along the way.
“In my experience, the phrase ‘all of a sudden’ is rarely applicable when it comes to mental health.”
For Chavez, an elementary school librarian and mother of two boys, the signs of mounting anxiety and depression had been present for a while, though she had done her very best to ignore them. Then, one night, while her husband was away on business, Julie found herself locked in a debilitating panic attack that threw her life into a tailspin. The terrifying aftershocks left her grappling with questions about the origin of her anxiety and where it would lead next.
What follows is a funny, unflinchingly open account of love and loss, comically negligent doctors, husbands who can’t read minds, family outings gone wrong, and the life-affirming joy of a life well loved and well lived.
Written with humor and hope, and sure to resonate with mothers spread thin by the demands of modern family life, Everyone But Myself offers an intimate portrait of how one woman found her way back from the edge.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Julie Chavez is an elementary school librarian in Northern California. Though thousands of books pass through her hands each month, Everyone But Myself is the first one written by her. Julie lives with her husband and two tall teenagers in a house where she arranges her books by color.
Join Hub City Bookshop to Celebrate Diane Vecchio’s latest book Peddlers, Merchants, and Manufacturers!
If you order the book ahead of the event through Eventbrite, get a 10% discount and ensure you get a copy!
About the Book
Diane Catherine Vecchio examines the diverse economic experiences of Jews who settled in what we today call Upstate South Carolina. Like other parts of the so-called New South, Upcountry South Carolina was a center of textile manufacturing and new business opportunities that drew entrepreneurial energy to the region. Previous histories of economic development in the South Carolina Piedmont have tended to overlook the significance of Jewish involvement and instead focused on northern investment and low labor costs. Working with a rich set of oral histories, memoirs, and traditional historical documents, Vecchio provides an important corrective to the history of manufacturing in South Carolina, and that revision is part of a large retelling of southern Jewish history, one that adds social and cultural dimensions to the traditional economic story.
Vecchio explores Jewish community development, how Jewish business leaders also became civic leaders and affected social, political, and cultural life in what we now call the mountainous Upcountry. Their impact in all facets of life across the Upstate is important to understanding the growth of today’s Spartanburg-Greenville corridor.
About the Author
Diane C. Vecchio is a native of Cortland, New York. She was educated at State University of New York and earned MA and Ph.D. degrees in History from Syracuse University. The author of multiple chapters and articles in scholarly journals on Italian and Jewish immigrants in America, she has also published on the history of upstate South Carolina. Her book titled Merchants, Midwives, and Laboring Women. Italian Migrants in Urban America was published by the University of Illinois Press, a leading publisher in immigration history.
Vecchio recently retired from Furman University where she was professor of history and chair of the History Department. She resides in Spartanburg with her husband, John Stockwell.
Join us on Monday, January 22nd at 5:30 pm for an In Conversation event with author Kathryn Smith. She’ll be chatting about her new book, Methodist & Moonshiners: Another Prohibition Expedition Through The South… with Cocktail Recipes.
Find out more and don’t miss this free event!
BOOK SUMMARY
Did you know George Washington drank his way through the South in 1791 and ran one of the country’s biggest distilleries after his presidency? Or that Methodists were even keener about drying up America than Baptists were?
In Methodists and Moonshiners: Another Prohibition Expedition Through the South…with Cocktail Recipes, you’ll learn about the notorious murder at Atlanta’s Georgian Terrace Hotel, the peculiar story of Chang and Eng, the original Siamese Twins, who share a hometown with actor Andy Griffith, and the former enslaved man who taught Jack Daniel to make whiskey. In this companion volume to Baptists and Bootleggers, you’ll go to bars, distilleries, speakeasies, museums, and cemeteries and can sample vintage and modern cocktails from the comfort of home. History has never been so much fun!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kathryn Smith is a former journalist and nonprofit director who has written six non-fiction and co-written five fiction books in the past ten years. Her books include “The Gatekeeper,” the biography of FDR’s private secretary Marguerite LeHand, and two books about Prohibition in the South, “Baptists and Bootleggers” and, most recently, “Methodists and Moonshiners.” Kathryn writes the Missy LeHand Mystery series with Kelly Durham, and they recently completed the fifth book in the series, “Murder on the Campaign Train.” A popular speaker, Kathryn has given more than 250 presentations on her books at venues including the FDR Presidential Library and Museum, the National World War II Museum, and the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library. She lives in Anderson with her husband Leo.
Join us for a book-inspired wine tasting!
We pair the qualities of each wine with a book that shares the same spirit. Your ticket to the tasting, apart from the tastes, includes your choice of one of the featured books. Bottles of the featured wines will be for sale at great prices, too. Plus we’ve got a few authors joining us for a wonderful night.
This event is a crowd favorite, serving as a great date, a perfect girls night out, or treat to yourself. Buy your ticket now and join us on Wednesday, January 24th!
*Refunds or transfers can only be accommodated 48 hours prior to the event.
ABOUT BETH UZINS JOHNSON
Beth Uzins Johnson’s short fiction and essays have appeared in Massachusetts Review, Broad Street, Cincinnati Review, Story Quarterly, Mississippi Review, Southwest Review, “The Best American Essays,” and elsewhere. She was the recipient of the McGinnis-Ritchie Award in nonfiction and holds an MFA in fiction from Queens University of Charlotte. She lives and writes in Chicago, Illinois. Coming Clean is her first novel.
BOOK SUMMARY OF COMING CLEAN
A darkly complex, wildly funny story of haves vs. have-nots and healed vs. healed-nots as cleaning lady Dawn and her friend Matthew embark on a week-long, clandestine photography project–in the houses she cleans Dawn, a self-employed cleaning lady in upstate New York, agrees to pose in the houses she cleans for her friend Matthew’s provocative photography project. Over the course of one week, she and Matthew scour the contents of each home to find inspiration but what she un-covers instead is an unexpected connection to the people who live there: from the insecure Bridget Riley and the recent immigrant Wei Chen to the pretentious Robert McIntyre. But it’s the troubled housewife, Barb Turner, and the contents of her life that finally force Dawn to confront her darkest secret about the death of her fiancé. Coming Clean is a novel of forgive-ness, family, and fresh starts.
ABOUT CARLA DAMRON
CARLA DAMRON is a social worker, advocate and ward-winning author of The Stone Necklace, The Orchid Tattoo, and the Caleb Knowles mystery series. Damron holds an MSW and an MFA. Her careers of social worker and writer are intricately intertwined. Damron is a South Carolina native. Born in Sumter, she currently lives outside of Columbia with her husband and their blended family of assorted animals.
BOOK SUMMARY OF JUSTICE BE DONE
Social worker Caleb Knowles finds himself in the heart of a firestorm of racial tensions and violence in downtown Columbia, SC. When he interviews young Laquan Harwell, the truth behind Laquan’s crime becomes clear – it was born from years of racial mistreatment. However, Laquan’s assault on a white storekeeper lights the match that sets the town on fire: a hate crime sparks protests. Protests erupt into riots.
Downtown becomes a war zone.
The murder of a racist police officer further fuels the violence, and Caleb is deeply entangled in a desperate search for justice. As the riots escalate, Caleb’s brother Sam is injured, leading Caleb to take rash actions that put his career on the line.
As he uncovers the truth about the police officer’s death, Caleb’s efforts to save a client thrust him into the eye of the storm and endanger his life. Will justice prevail, or will the hate-spawned violence take more lives?
Join New York Times bestselling author Brad Taylor for a moderated discussion at the Kimberly Hampton Memorial Library (304 Biltmore Road, Easley, SC 29640) on Friday, January 26th, at 7pm. Brad will discuss his new book, Dead Man’s Hand and will be available afterwards for a book signing. Fiction Addiction will be on-site for book sales.
This event is FREE and open to the public, or you can purchase a book ticket for $34.24. We will have books for sale at the event.
New York Times bestselling author and former special forces officer Brad Taylor is back with a propulsive and topical edge-of-your-seat thriller featuring Pike Logan as he goes head-to-head with Putin’s henchmen.
To finally end the war between their nations, a rogue band of Ukranian partisans known as the Wolves teams up with members of Russia’s military intelligence to assassinate Vladimir Putin.
But Putin is aware of the traitors in his midst and assigns the loyal commander of the Russian National Guard to root them out. It’s a mission Victor Petrov is expected to undertake after he prevents Sweden from joining NATO—by assassinating a deputy minister of foreign affairs.
After receiving intelligence about the threat in Sweden, the United States sends Pike Logan to identify Petrov’s target—only for him to get caught in the crossfire between Putin’s agents and the Wolves. When the smoke clears, Pike makes no effort to stop the Wolves on their ultimate mission, believing it just, until he discovers that their operation has unimaginable consequences.
For Putin is preparing a devastating endgame: activating the Dead Man’s Hand nuclear response that will launch Russia’s missiles in the event of his death. . .
About the Author:
Brad Taylor Lieutenant Colonel (Ret.), is a twenty-one-year veteran of the U.S. Army Infantry and Special Forces, including eight years with Delta Force. Taylor retired in 2010 after serving more than two decades and participating in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. He has written seventeen New York Times bestsellers and is a security consultant on asymmetric threats for various agencies. He lives in Charleston, South Carolina, with his wife and two daughters.
Thank you to the Pickens County Library System for co-sponsoring this event! The mission of the library is to provide all county residents with access to information through the development of appropriate collections and services. These collections and services must cover the informational, educational, cultural, and entertainment needs of county residents.
The Hampton Memorial Library honors Captain Kimberly Hampton, a native of Easley, SC, who was killed on January 2, 2004, when her OH-58 Kiowa Warrior observation helicopter was attacked near the Iraqi town of Fallujah, west of Baghdad. Captain Kimberly Hampton is the first female combat pilot killed by enemy fire in United States history.
We are so excited to welcome Sadeqa Johnson to M. Judson for a Lunch & Lit event featuring her new paperback release The House of Eve! Sadeqa will be on hand to talk, answer questions, and sign books, as we enjoy an incredible lunch at Soby’s!
Get your ticket today!
BOOK SUMMARY
1950s Philadelphia: fifteen-year-old Ruby Pearsall is on track to becoming the first in her family to attend college. But a taboo love affair threatens to pull her back down into the poverty and desperation that has been passed on to her like a birthright.
Eleanor Quarles arrives in Washington, DC, with ambition and secrets. When she meets the handsome William Pride at Howard University, they fall madly in love. But William hails from one of DC’s elite wealthy Black families, and his parents don’t let just anyone into their fold. Eleanor hopes that a baby will make her finally feel at home in William’s family and grant her the life she’s been searching for. But having a baby—and fitting in—is easier said than done.
With their stories colliding in the most unexpected of ways, Ruby and Eleanor will both make decisions that shape the trajectory of their lives.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sadeqa Johnson is the New York Times bestselling author of five novels. Her accolades include being the 2022 Hurston/Wright Foundation Legacy finalist, a BCALA Literary Honoree, and the Library of Virginia’s Literary People’s Choice Award winner. She is a Kimbilio Fellow and teaches in the MFA program at Drexel University. Originally from Philadelphia, she currently lives near Richmond, Virginia with her husband and three teens.