Author Jessica Lamb-Shapiro is coming to discuss her newest work, a plunge into the self-help industry of America. Augustana’s River Readings will host Lamb-Shapiro, as she talks about her new book, “Promise Land: My Journey Through America’s Self-Help Culture.”
On Jan. 27, Lamb-Shapiro will take the stage at the Wilson Center, discussing society’s seemingly strange obsession with the self-help genre. Amanda Makula, Research and Instruction Librarian at Augustana, is in charge of the event.
“River Readings is a visiting writer series that brings writers working in a variety of genres (poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, memoir, young adult literature, etc.) to campus to meet with students and share their work,” Makula said. “It’s a fantastic opportunity for students to learn about the creative writing process from authors who are doing interesting things and being recognized for their work. The writers involved in River Readings typically visit classes and present a public reading of their work.”
Lamb-Shapiro has been reviewed by a variety of different publications such as New York Times Book Review, Salon.com and People. She has also been hosted on NPR’s “Fresh Air” with Terry Gross, which is how she was discovered by Makula.
“I heard Jessica being interviewed on NPR’s “Fresh Air” radio program and it was funny, sad and thought-provoking,” Makula said. “So, I reached out to her agent to see if she’d be able to come. From the very beginning she was excited to come to Augustana.”
Her book is not just for adults, but is popular among students as well. Augustana professor Ann Boadon brings up Lamb-Shapiro’s book in her creative writing course.
“We only read one chapter, but even that was enough to say I really love her voice because she’s really sarcastic and funny,” sophomore Brianna Meyer said. “I also like that she argues for empowered women in a modern society.”
Meyer said she can relate to Lamb-Shapiro’s writing.
“I always thought that self-help books could be helpful for certain people, but I have never encountered them in any sort of way other than passing them in a store,” Meyer said. “So, reading them as a firsthand experience really opened my eyes on how much authors can take advantage and how much faith anyone can place in these books. It’s not that all of them are bad, but the one Jessica focuses on is about women finding husbands through completely misogynist rules.”
“She does a great job of capturing both the absurdity and the appeal of self-help programs,” Makula said. “On the one hand, you can look at it cynically and think, ‘This stuff is crazy!’ And yet it often comes from a place of longing and fragility. It’s a desire to somehow make the experience of being human a little better — a little less frightening and lonely, a little more within our control,” Makula stated.
Lamb-Shapiro said she  is excited  to visit Augustana and share her book.
“I’m really excited to come and talk about self-help in a college setting, because it’s a topic that has been largely ignored by academia, despite it’s long history (back to Ancient China, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece),” Lamb-Shapiro said. “ It’s a huge part of social history and popular culture that rarely gets discussed in an intelligent manner, likely because it’s considered low-brow. Yet many important thinkers (Lord Byron, John Locke, William and Henry James)  were obsessed with and/or heavily influenced by some aspect of self-help culture.”
Lamb-Shapiro will be in the Wilson Center from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 27 . There will be a reception and a book-singing at the end.