What's On at the Library

 The Keep Toronto Reading / One Book contest winners were the Beaches Library Book Club, and last night they claimed their prize: Dinner with Austin Clarke.

The event was sponsored by TD Bank Financial Group, and they offered up their private dining room on the 54^th floor of the TD Center for the dinner with Austin. The Beaches crowd assembled in the dining room around 5:30 for pre-dinner cocktails and chit chat with Clarke, the author of More, Toronto Book Award winner and our One Book selection for this year’s KTR celebration. Dinner was scrumptious and plentiful, catered by Canoe, the restaurant on the 54^th floor of the TD tower, and elegantly served by the TD private dining room staff.

The book club, which is organized by the Beaches branch staffers Maureen McPhee and Barbara Weissman, was thrilled to be picked for the win. The winning submission was from long-time club member Linda Bissinger, whose entry ballot explained that their evening with More was ‘the most heated discussion I ever remember, surely the sign of a perfect book club choice’, and she added that ‘We had to shake hands afterward’. Who knew book club meetings got so heated! Over dinner, Austin was generous with his responses to questions and comments, very funny when offered the chance, and, surrounded by a room full of fans, he was in his element.

Thanks go to TD Bank Financial Group for their generosity and to the TPL Foundation for their assistance in setting up the prize for the contest.