Ina Garten and Willie Geist in conversation as Library’s Book & Author Luncheon returns

Mark your calendars for a virtual Book and Author Luncheon with Ina Garten, interviewed by Willie Geist, on Sept. 29 to benefit the Shelter Island Library.

Since we are not yet ready to return to a large indoor luncheon event, we invite you to join our Zoom conversation at 1 p.m. while enjoying your lunch at home.

Our author, Ina Garten, was a celebrated specialty food store owner for eighteen years when she decided to shake things up. She sold her store and began to write cookbooks. Ina’s first book, “The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook,” published in 1999, was one of the biggest selling cookbooks of the year.

She has since gone on to write twelve bestselling cookbooks. Her newest, “Modern Comfort Food,” which was published last October, has 1 million books in print.

She is also working on two more cookbooks, a design book, and a memoir to be published in 2023.

In 2002, she reluctantly agreed to create a cooking show for the Food Network and 19 years later she is still there and has won an Emmy.

Ina is currently a monthly columnist for Food Network magazine and numerous other periodicals. In 2015, she was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People.

Ina lives in East Hampton and New York City with her beloved husband Jeffrey.

Willie Geist has been a co-host of the talk show Morning Joe on MSNBC’s 6-9 a.m. time slot since 2007 where he has conducted countless political interviews.

He just celebrated five years as the solo host of Emmy-nominated Sunday Today with Willie Geist and he has been described as a “well-regarded long-form profile interviewer of the biggest celebrities in the world,” including Ina Garten.

In addition to his career on television, Willie is the author of three humorous books including “Good Talk, Dad,” written with his father Bill Geist. Most importantly, Willie has appeared in two of People Magazine’s “Sexiest Men Alive” issues.

Willie lives in the New York metropolitan area with his wife and his two children, Lucie and George. He is a regular visitor on Shelter Island.

Join the fun on Zoom, Wednesday, Sept. 29 at 1 p.m. Tickets can be purchased at the library’s circulation desk, on our website, silibrary.org, or from Eventbrite at tinyurl.com/2kzsn7ua. The minimum requested donation is $40. If you have any questions, please contact the library at 631-749-0042.