Spend an evening at the library with award-winning writer Marilyn Johnson, author of the new nonfiction book Lives in Ruins, a story about archaeologists.

The author of The Dead Beat and This Book is Overdue! turns her piercing eye and charming wit to the real-life avatars of Indiana Jones—the archaeologists who sort through the muck and mire of swamps, ancient landfills, volcanic islands, and other dirty places to reclaim history for us all.
 

Pompeii, Machu Picchu, the Valley of the Kings, the Parthenon—the names of these legendary archaeological sites conjure up romance and mystery. The news is full of archeology: treasures found (British king under parking lot) and treasures lost (looters, bulldozers, natural disaster, and war). Archaeological research tantalizes us with possibilities (are modern humans really part Neandertal?). Where are the archaeologists behind these stories? What kind of work do they actually do, and why does it matter?

Marilyn Johnson’s Lives in Ruins is an absorbing and entertaining look at the lives of contemporary archaeologists as they sweat under the sun for clues to the puzzle of our past. Johnson digs and drinks alongside archaeologists, chases them through the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, and even Machu Picchu, and excavates their lives. Her subjects share stories we rarely read in history books, about slaves and Ice Age hunters, ordinary soldiers of the American Revolution, children of the first century, Chinese woman warriors, sunken fleets, mummies.What drives these archaeologists is not the money (meager) or the jobs (scarce) or the working conditions (dangerous), but their passion for the stories that would otherwise be buried and lost.

About the author
In addition to her new book, Lives in Ruins, Marilyn Johnson is the author of This Book Is Overdue! How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All and The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs, and the Perverse Pleasures of Obituaries. Both books received the Washington Irving Prize. She wrote obituaries for Elizabeth Taylor, Katharine Hepburn and Marlon Brando, which led to the writing of The Dead Beat. She studied poetry at the University of New Hampshire after which she was an editor for Esquire and Outside magazines, and a staff writer for Life magazine. She lives in New York's Hudson Valley with her husband, Rob Fleder.

This community talk is free.

About the Library Author Series
Bud Werner Memorial Library presents an ongoing program of author talks throughout the year. These are free community events held in Library Hall, where a diverse award-winning range of visiting authors speak about their literary works and their writing processes. Each talk is followed by a Q&A and an opportunity to have authors sign copies of  their books.

Books will be available for sale and author signing courtesy of Off the Beaten Path Bookstore.