Leslie Bennetts Discusses Last Girl Before Freeway

As part of MPL's Open Book/Open Mind, Leslie Bennetts will be engaging a conversation with Montclair native, Mary Alice Williams.

Leslie Bennetts will cover matters such as life, love, and liberation of Joan Rivers. 

LESLIE BENNETTS - Joan Rivers
Photo courtesy of Montclair Public Library.

Enjoy your Sunday afternoon with Montclair Public Library on Dec. 4 at 4 P.M. The library and its foundation will have the extraordinary honor of Leslie Bennetts as part of their Open Book/Open Mind 2016. Bennetts will be discussing her book, Last Girl Before Freeway with Montclair native, Mary Alice Williams.

The 2016 Open Book/Open Mind series is sponsored by Susan and Thomas Dunn.

In this talk, two brilliant feminist journalists will discuss the life of Joan Rivers, who smashed innumerable barriers for women in show business, even as she herself remained a prisoner of the sexist values of her youth. Joan Rivers’s life, rife with contradiction, is the subject of Leslie Bennetts’s new biography, Last Girl Before Freeway.

Joan Rivers, the first, female, late-night TV host, though a woman’s happiness depends on having a husband, but hers destroyed her career. She believed that beauty and youth were crucial to women’s success, and yet she built a billion-dollar company in her 60’s and 70’s.

Leslie Bennetts is the author of the national bestseller The Feminine Mistake as well as a longtime Vanity Fair writer and former New York Times reporter. Montclair native Mary Alice Williams is an accomplished broadcast journalist who was anchor of NBC’s Weekend Today in New York and Vice President of the News Division of CNN. She’s currently anchor of NJTV news.

Bennetts will sign book after the talk. Books will also be available for purchase from Watchung Booksellers. It is located on 54 Fairfield Street, Watchung Plaza in Montclair. They can be contacted at 973-744-7177 or info@watchungbooksellers.com. They are open Monday-Friday from 10 A.M. to 7 P.M. and on Saturday-Sunday from 10 A.M. to 5 P.M.

There are a limited number of seats by reservation. Remaining seats are first come, first served. To register, visit montclairlibrary.org/openbook or call 973-744-0500 ext 2235.

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