Author Jamie Ford drew a packed house to the Sequim Library on Feb. 2.

Ford spoke about his award-winning New York Times Best-Seller, “Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet.” The novel, set in World War II and the 1980s, explores the wartime internment of Japanese Americans through a Chinese American boy’s experiences of alienation, first love and family relationships. Ford, who grew up in Ashland, Ore., touched on his writing and research process, his new books in progress, and how he met and proposed to his wife.

Afterward, he signed books before moving on to lecture at the Port Angeles Library.

Sponsored by Friends of the Sequim Library, the event kicked off the Adult Winter Reading Program, which runs through March 31. Participants who read two books can enter a prize drawing; those who read eight receive a free “Book Lover’s Diary.”

Pick up reading logs at the Sequim Library, 630 N. Sequim Ave.

More information on the program is available at www.nols.org or call 683-1161.