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An evening with Jan Wong and Open Book Club oin us this month for a book lovers dream. On Monday, Nov. 12, we are thrilled to bring you An Evening with Jan Wong. A third generation Canadian who grew up in Montreal, Wong is a best-selling author and journalist. While studying Asian Studies at McGill University in Montreal, Que., Wong travelled alone to the People's Republic of China at the age of 19 to become one of the first Westerners to study there during the Cultural Revolution. She began her journalism career as a news assistant for the New York Times bureau in Beijing, and after graduating with a master's degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, she became a staff reporter at The Gazette in Montreal, and later, The Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail. Her time in China served as the basis for her first published work, a memoir titled Red China Blues: My Long March from Mao to Now, a book which remains banned in China. Wong will be joining us to speak about her new book, Out of the Blue: A Memoir of Workplace Depression, Recovery, Redemption and, Yes, Happiness, a memoir of her experience with clinical depression. The event will be held at the Oakville Conference Centre at 2515 Wyecroft Rd. and is for participants ages 18 and older -- cost to attend is $12. · · · If you'd like to get together with other book lovers, but don't have time to join a book club, Open Book Club is perfect for you. Our superstar team of librarians will discuss Michael Ondaatje's electrifying new novel, The Cat's Table. Both thrilling and deeply moving, The Cat's Table is one of Ondaatje's most vividly rendered and compelling works of fiction to date. The book follows an 11-year-old boy as he boards an ocean liner travelling to England from Sri Lanka in the 1950s. Looking back from deep within adulthood, the narrator unfolds a spellbinding tale about the magical discoveries of childhood and the burdens of earned understanding. The free event is on Thursday, Nov. 29 at the Iroquois Ridge Branch (1051 Glenashton Dr.) and open to participants ages 16 and older -- iris course code: 174848. -- Submitted by the Oakville Public Library 9 · Friday, November 2, 2012 OAKVILLE BEAVER · www.insideHALTON.com J