Register 100 Seats Remaining

Open Book, Open Mind; Liana Finck, "How to Baby"

A Memoir

A New Yorker cartoonist will talk about her hilarious new spoof of baby-raising manuals with Leah Wolchok, an award-winning documentary filmmaker.  She'll share a PowerPoint excerpt from the book. 

The event is free but registration is required. Doors open at 3:30 p.m. After the discussion, there will be a Q&A period and a book signing and sale with Watchung Booksellers. The event is co-presented by the Montclair PreK.

Open Book / Open Mind is sponsored by Montclair Public Library Foundation, Watchung Booksellers, the New Jersey Council on Humanities, Anonymous, David and Mary Lee Jones, Dr. Alex and Doris Malaspina and our Underwriters. We are also grateful for the generous support of our in-kind sponsors, First Congregational Church of Montclair, The George, and Amanti Vino. To support Open Book / Open Mind and other library programs, click here to donate.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Liana Finck is the author of three graphic novels, a memoir, and has published several collections of her cartoons with Penguin Random House. They have been reviewed and featured by the New York Times and the The New York Times Book Review. Her work has been featured in many publications including regular contributions to the New Yorker. She is the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship, a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, and a 2023 Guggenheim Fellowship.

ABOUT THE BOOK

"In "How to Baby," Liana takes her witty and lacerating cartoons (“Hobbies for Pregnant Women: Waiting on Hold with the Insurance Company”) and weaves them together with comic essays (“You Married a Brute. Worse. You’re a Nag: Go Ahead and Argue with Each Other”), handy lists (“Nesting. The Comprehensive List of What to Buy and Why Getting Things Used Is Dangerous and Unamerican”), and profound observations. Together, these brilliant pieces form an immersive and comprehensive narrative whole—a baby book, a resource, and an emotional balm—for our time."--Penguin Random House

“I struck a note between parody and memoir,” Finck told Publishers Weekly earlier this year. “It’s a parody of books on how to parent an infant—older books that told you it was going to be beautiful and easy and didn’t mention anything difficult. I found them hilarious. Parenthood isn’t something that you need to trick people into, and those books felt ripe for making fun of. I’m also parodying the books that say parenthood is a horrible, difficult slog…I want to give companionship to readers: a means to vent their own feelings, whatever those are, even if they can’t be articulated.”

ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER

Leah Wolchok is a documentary producer known for her films, Judy Blume Forever, Very Semi-Serious, a film about cartoonists, and Ask Not. She lives in Montclair.

Upcoming events