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Books and Bees 2026
Saturday, April 11th
4000 Galleria Parkway, Bee Cave Public Library
2026's Evening with the Author
Featuring Lisa Wingate
Moderated by Sarah Bird
Friday, April 10 @7pm at Third Coast Bank (formerly Keystone Bank) in Bee Cave
Click here to reserve your free ticket
2026's Books and Bees Evening with the Author features Lisa Wingate. Lisa Wingate is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Before We Were Yours, which has sold more than three million copies and been translated into over forty languages worldwide. The co-author, with Judy Christie, of the nonfiction book Before and After, Wingate is a Goodreads Choice Award winner, an Oklahoma Book Award finalist, a Southern Book Prize winner, and was named among the 2023 Distinguished Alumni of Oklahoma State University. She lives in North Texas and Central Colorado. Shelterwood (2024) marks her thirty-third release. More information about her novels can be found at www.lisawingate.com.
This event will be moderated by Sarah Bird. Sarah is the author of 11 novels, along with other books published over an enduring career. Her latest, Juneteenth Rodeo, was published by the University of Texas Press in June 2024. In addition to novels and other books, Sarah has written screenplays for television and magazine articles for national publications, including The New York Times Magazine, Texas Monthly and the Chicago Tribune. During her 10-year screenwriting career, she worked for Paramount, CBS, Warner Brothers, National Geographic, ABC and TNT, as well as several independent producers. In 2015, she was selected for the Meryl Streep/Oprah Winfrey Screenwriters’ Lab. Sarah and her husband, George Jones, live in Austin, Texas, with their son and, arguably, the cutest corgi in the world.
1990. Law enforcement ranger Valerie Boren-Odell arrives at Horsethief Trail National Park seeking a quiet place to raise her son. But no sooner has Valerie reported for duty than a teenage hiker goes missing and the long-hidden burial site of three children is discovered in a cave. Val’s quest to uncover the truth wins an ally among the Choctaw Nation’s Tribal Police but soon collides with the deadly legacy of the land itself.
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1909. Eleven-year-old Olive Radley knows that her stepfather is a threat to the two Choctaw girls boarded in their home. When the older girl disappears, Ollie flees, taking six-year-old Nessa with her. Together they begin a perilous journey to the remote Winding Stair Mountains, the territory of outlaws, treasure hunters, and desperate men. Along the way, they form an unlikely band with other children struggling to get by on their own.
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In this gripping novel, Lisa Wingate traces the story of children abandoned by the law and the battle to see justice done. Amid times of deep conflict over who owns the land and its riches, Ollie and Val each leave behind one life in search of another.