#book-event

#book-event

After authoring seven best-selling works of nonfiction based around the sciences, it's safe to say Mary Roach knows a thing or two. Her books have appeared on the New York Times bestseller list, have been lauded by Barnes & Noble and Entertainment Weekly, and in 2012, she received the Harvard Secular Society's Rushdie Award for a lifetime achievement in cultural humanism.

Sixteen-year-old Smidge is on the run, burdened with a shameful secret. Together with her fellow runaway, a performance artist called Violet, she travels through the underbelly of America, desperately searching for a way to rise above her past. On meeting a travelling circus filled with misfits and drifters, they think they might have found a home. But as Violet is drawn under the influence of its sinister ringleader, Smidge learns that belonging comes with a price. Forced to choose between her past and present, Smidge must confront the shame that has shaped her, and return to face her flawed mother, before it is too late.

Join authors Nick Veronico and Bruce Cumming at the San Mateo County History Museum as they explore their new book, The Lost Gas Stations of San Mateo County.