“The idea is that the city that opens the
same book closes it in greater harmony.”
— Mary McGrory, The Washington Post, March 17, 2002
The Fox Cities Book Festival in partnership with the public libraries of the Fox Cities has come together with the goal of building a larger sense of community to promote literacy. Each year, we select an author and title to promote for Fox Cities Reads and encourage the people in our communities to read, think, talk, listen, and grow together.
Please direct questions about Fox Cities Reads to Joe Bongers at bongers@menashalibrary.org or to your local Fox Cities public library.
Highlights of Matthew Desmond’s Visit
"Think about the brain power, the human creativity that we just squander," Matthew Desmond said, looking out at a crowd in the Lawrence University Memorial Chapel on April 12. Evictions have lasting negative effects on
Guest Blog: A Teacher’s Thoughts on Evicted
Special thanks to Katie Chicquette Adams, a public school teacher, for this guest blog post. I’ve worked downtown at Appleton’s alternative high school program as its Language Arts teacher for ten years. Students at risk
Our Exciting News
Mark Your Calendars: Matthew Desmond, Pulitzer-prize winning author of Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City is here for the Fox Cities Reads April 11 & 12. Please join us for his presentations on April 11 at
You’re Invited to a Community Conversation about EVICTED
Join facilitators from Celebrate Diversity Fox Cities as they lead us in meaningful and respectful conversations around the topics of homelessness and poverty as part of the Fox Cities Reads 2019. On Thursday, February 28,
Join the Silent Reading Party
Read, hang out, talk books, repeat. Book lovers rejoice! The Silent Reading Party is coming to a bookstore near you. The Fox Cities Book Festival hosts its first Silent Reading Party on Wednesday, February 27,
Fox Cities Reads 2019 Events
The Fox Cities Book Festival hosts two annual programs: a spring program, Fox Cities Reads, and a week-long festival in the fall. The Fox Cities Reads program, in its twelfth year, is a one-book, one-community
#WisconsinWednesdays are back!
Patricia Wells was born November 5th, 1946, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She is the only American and the only woman to be a restaurant critic for a major French publication, L'Express (1988–1991). She was also a global restaurant critic for the International Herald Tribune from 1980 until 2007.
Wells is a journalist, author and cooking school teacher. She received her Bachelor of Arts in journalism from The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1968, and her Master of Arts in journalism, from The University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1972.
Wells’ resume is comprised of an impressive list of professional accomplishments, published works, and more than a dozen honors and awards. She is a four-time James Beard Award winner and has been honored by the French government for her contribution to French culture.
She has written fifteen books. Her first, THE FOOD LOVER’S GUIDE TO PARIS, was published in 1984, and updated in 1988, 1993, 1999, and completely revised and updated in 2014. THE FOOD LOVER’S GUIDE TO PARIS, iOS application (for iPhone and iPad), was released in April 2013.
Before her relocation to Paris, France in 1980, Wells served as a copy editor and writer for The Washington Post from 1972 to 1976. She went on to become a food writer and editor for The New York Times from 1976 to 1980. Today, she runs her cooking school, “At Home with Patricia Wells,” in both Paris and Provence, where she lives with her husband, Walter, retired executive editor of the International Herald Tribune.
The 2019 author line up
is live on our website.
What books have you already read by our festival authors?