Once a year I consider myself a lady who lunches.
I dress up, put on a smile, grab the checkbook and
head to the annual Books and Brunch to join hundreds of other women,
many of whom are just like me and can’t resist the urge to do something
that involves both books and eating for an excellent cause. I will be
there again on Tuesday, Nov. 13.
Books and Brunch is the fundraiser for the
Hinsdale-based Assistance League of Chicagoland West, the local chapter
of Assistance League which directly serves the Greater
Hinsdale/Clarendon Hills/Burr Ridge area, including Darien, Willowbrook,
Western Springs, Lombard, West Chicago and Villa Park.
The 60-odd members of the league are women who
enjoy putting their brains, hearts and hands to work serving the
community. These are the women who get things done in other
organizations and institutions throughout our community as well.
Meg Cooper and Maureen Hegarty, for example, are
Books and Brunch co-chairs again. Jamie Marucha of Clarendon Hills
joined the league earlier this year when she was looking for something
to “fill the void” with her kids now off to college. Since then she has
worked with the league’s Operation School Bell, which in the past
several months has provided 1,728 elementary school students from 24
DuPage County schools — including students from Hinsdale and Clarendon
Hills — with new winter coats, hats and gloves.
The work has been so rewarding, she enthused,
because of getting to know the other league members when packing the
coats, hats and gloves and also because of working directly with the
children.
As to the “Books” part of the event, once again the
authors are excellent. Margaret George is known to fans of historically
accurate fiction as the writer of long but engaging and well-researched
novels on Cleopatra, King Henry VIII and Mary Queen of Scots, to name a
few. Elizabeth I: A Novel is her most recent work and was published to very good reviews in 2011.
Local restaurateur and Hinsdale resident Paul Virant has a well-deserved following, and this year he has published The Preservation Kitchen: The Craft of Making and Cooking with Pickles, Preserves, and Aigre-doux with Kate Leahy. The chef and force behind Vie Restaurant in Western Springs will speak on cooking and writing.
Mystery writer Laura Caldwell once worked as a
Chicago civil trial lawyer. She has created the Izzy McNeil mysteries
and has also written the nonfiction book Long Way Home: A Young Man Lost in the System and the Two Women Who Found Him,
the account of a Chicago teen who was coerced into confessing to a
crime he did not commit and spent more than five years in jail before
Caldwell and another attorney helped free him.
As in past years, Books and Brunch will be held at
The Abbington on Butterfield Road and Route 53 in Glen Ellyn. Doors open
at 10 a.m. There are tables and tables with fabulous silent auction
items, a boutique with more than a dozen vendors selling everything from
belts and bags to Santa Clauses, jewelry of all sorts and distinctive
clothing. Of course the featured authors will be there to sign copies of
their books.
Tickets for Books and Brunch cost $80 each. There
are a variety of raffle tickets and prizes. For more information and to
buy tickets online, visit www.alcw.org. the league’s offices are located
on 120 E. Ogden Ave. in Hinsdale. The phone number is (630) 321-2529.
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