All posts by Emily Berg

A Note from Judy Blume

Hi Friends,

What a strange, crazy, scary week!  I’m thankful for the books that have helped me through it.  Being at the store is my favorite place, my happy place, and when my son called Thursday night and gave me and George #$%& (in a loving way, of course) we knew he was right.  Although we think of ourselves as kids, we’re in that most vulnerable age group.  So we’re “social distancing” and staying out of the store for now.  And if that isn’t a crazy expression I don’t know what is.

We were hoping the store could remain open but with everything changing so fast, we’re going along with The Studios and closing at least until April 2, to protect our staff and you, our customers.  BUT, and this is a big But, we’re going to be open for you to shop by phone or online. Full info at BooksandBooksKW.com 

You don’t even have to leave your house.  If you live in Key West, call or order online before noon and we’ll deliver your books or art supplies before 4pm, free of charge.  No, it won’t be me in my purple Jeep (George just liked that photo).  I don’t even have that Jeep
anymore.  The package can be left on your doorstep.  No interaction necessary.  AND I’m still signing and personalizing books.  I’ve done a few bags of them in the last two days.  Our staff will be working from 10am-3pm, to take your calls, orders, questions.  And we’re hoping to come up with even more ways to keep in touch.

I just read about a bookstore that’s asking patrons to send a surprise gift of a book (s) to someone who may be isolated.  We’ll gift wrap and enclose a card if that appeals to you.  We appreciate your understanding and your loyalty.  Indie bookstores all over the country are doing what they can to be there for you.

Oh – in case you’re wondering, I just finished Dear Edward a novel by Ann Napolitano.   It’s a wonderful story that took me away from my own problems.  And last night I watched the first episode of the limited HBO series based on Philip Roth’s great novel, The Plot Against America. Some of you know that’s one of my favorite books.  You might want to read it before you watch the series, or read along with it.  Tomorrow night I’ll be watching the first episode of Little Fires Everywhere on HULU.  Also a limited series, it’s based on Celeste Ng’s bestseller, another terrific book to read right now.

Stay well!

A *VIRTUAL* EVENING WITH EMMA STRAUB & JUDY BLUME

Books & Books and Miami Book Fair present…
A *VIRTUAL* EVENING WITH EMMA STRAUB AND JUDY BLUME
To celebrate the publication of All Adults Here

Monday, May 18, 7pm ON CROWDCAST

REGISTER FOR THE LIVESTREAM HERE

A warm, funny, and keenly perceptive novel about the life cycle of one family–as the kids become parents, grandchildren become teenagers, and a matriarch confronts the legacy of her mistakes. From the New York Times bestselling author of Modern Lovers and The Vacationers.

When Astrid Strick witnesses a school bus accident in the center of town, it jostles loose a repressed memory from her young parenting days decades earlier. Suddenly, Astrid realizes she was not quite the parent she thought she’d been to her three, now-grown children. But to what consequence?

Astrid’s youngest son is drifting and unfocused, making parenting mistakes of his own. Her daughter is pregnant yet struggling to give up her own adolescence. And her eldest seems to measure his adult life according to standards no one else shares. But who gets to decide, so many years later, which long-ago lapses were the ones that mattered? Who decides which apologies really count? It might be that only Astrid’s thirteen-year-old granddaughter and her new friend really understand the courage it takes to tell the truth to the people you love the most.

In All Adults Here, Emma Straub’s unique alchemy of wisdom, humor, and insight come together in a deeply satisfying story about adult siblings, aging parents, high school boyfriends, middle school mean girls, the lifelong effects of birth order, and all the other things that follow us into adulthood, whether we like them to or not.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Emma Straub is from New York City. She is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Vacationers and Laura Lamont’s Life in Pictures. Her fiction and nonfiction have been published by Tin House, The Paris Review Daily, Time, Slate, and the New York Times, and she is a staff writer for Rookie. Straub lives with her husband in Brooklyn, where she also works as a bookseller.

 

 

 

ABOUT THE MODERATOR:

Judy Blume spent her childhood in Elizabeth, New Jersey, making up stories inside her head. Adults as well as children will recognize such Blume titles as Are You There God? It’s Me, MargaretBlubber; and the five book series about the irrepressible Fudge. She has also written four novels for adults, In the Unlikely EventSummer SistersSmart Women, and Wifey, all of them New York Times bestsellers. Four years ago Blume and her husband, George Cooper, longing for a bookstore in Key West where they live, founded the independent, non-profit Books & Books @ The Studios.  “After 50 years of writing, I’m enjoying meeting so many readers and introducing them to some of my favorite authors.”

A Small Town by Thomas Perry

From the New York Times bestselling author Thomas Perry, “who can be depended upon to deliver high-voltage shocks” (Stephen King), comes a new thriller about an ingenuous jailbreak and the manhunt it unleashes.

In A Small Town, twelve conspirators meticulously plan to throw open all the gates to the prison that contains them, so that more than a thousand convicts may escape and pour into the nearby small town. The newly freed prisoners rape, murder, and destroy the town–burning down homes and businesses. An immense search ensues, but the twelve who plotted it all get away.

After two years, all efforts by the local and federal police agencies have been in vain. The mayor and city attorney meet, and Leah Hawkins, a six-foot, two-inch former star basketball player and resident good cop, is placed on sabbatical so that she can tour the country learning advanced police procedures. The sabbatical is merely a ruse, however, as her real job is to track the infamous twelve. And kill them.

Leah’s mission takes her across the country, from Florida to New York, from California to an anti-government settlement deep in the Ozarks. Soon, the surviving fugitives realize what she is up to, and a race to kill or be killed ensues. Full of exhilarating twists and surprisingly resonant, A Small Townwill sweep readers along on Leah’s quest for vengeance.

About the Author


Thomas Perry is the bestselling author of over twenty novels, including the critically acclaimed Jane Whitefield series, Forty Thieves, and The Butcher’s Boy, which won the Edgar Award. He lives in Southern California.

Summer Art Contest Winners – Bookmarks are in

Update: The limited edition bookmarks featuring the winners of the Summer Art Contest are now available in store, free with purchase. Come and get them while they last!

Congratulations again to all the winners and thanks to everyone who entered and voted.

There were many talented artists who submitted art for the Summer Art Contest this year. Thank you to all of the artists who participated in this years’ Summer Art Contest and to all who voted.

The following canvases will be featured on limited edition bookmarks:
“Untitled” by Dreya Ramos
“Key Weird #2” by Kevin Assam
“Deep Blue” by Brooke Dore
Check out all of the amazing entries!

SCS: Black Canary Ignite Order

SIGSBEE STUDENT ORDER
BLACK CANARY: IGNITE by MEG CABOT

Please include the Sigsbee student’s name in the comment section.
Choose “Pick-Up” as deliver option for school delivery.
Place online orders by Monday, November 11th at 10am for school delivery.

The Body: A Guide for Occupants, by Bill Bryson

Bill Bryson, bestselling author of A Short History of Nearly Everything, takes us on a head-to-toe tour of the marvel that is the human body. As addictive as it is comprehensive, this is Bryson at his very best, a must-read owner’s manual for everybody.

Bill Bryson once again proves himself to be an incomparable companion as he guides us through the human body–how it functions, its remarkable ability to heal itself, and (unfortunately) the ways it can fail. Full of extraordinary facts (your body made a million red blood cells since you started reading this) and irresistible Bryson-esque anecdotes, The Body will lead you to a deeper understanding of the miracle that is life in general and you in particular. As Bill Bryson writes, “We pass our existence within this wobble of flesh and yet take it almost entirely for granted.” The Body will cure that indifference with generous doses of wondrous, compulsively readable facts and information.  

Author: BILL BRYSON’s bestselling books include A Walk in the WoodsThe Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, and A Short History of Nearly Everything (which won the Aventis Prize in Britain and the Descartes Prize, the European Union’s highest literary award). He was chancellor of Durham University, England’s third oldest university, from 2005 to 2011, and is an honorary fellow of Britain’s Royal Society.

Me: Elton John Official Autobiography, By Elton John

In his first and only official autobiography, music icon Elton John reveals the truth about his extraordinary life, from his rollercoaster lifestyle as shown in the film Rocketman, to becoming a living legend.

Christened Reginald Dwight, he was a shy boy with Buddy Holly glasses who grew up in the London suburb of Pinner and dreamed of becoming a pop star. By the age of twenty-three he was performing his first gig in America, facing an astonished audience in his bright yellow dungarees, a star-spangled T-shirt, and boots with wings. Elton John had arrived and the music world would never be the same again.

His life has been full of drama, from the early rejection of his work with song-writing partner Bernie Taupin to spinning out of control as a chart-topping superstar; from half-heartedly trying to drown himself in his LA swimming pool to disco-dancing with Princess Diana and Queen Elizabeth; from friendships with John Lennon, Freddie Mercury, and George Michael to setting up his AIDS Foundation to conquering Broadway with AidaThe Lion King, and Billy Elliot the Musical. All the while Elton was hiding a drug addiction that would grip him for over a decade.

In Me, Elton also writes powerfully about getting clean and changing his life, about finding love with David Furnish and becoming a father. In a voice that is warm, humble, and open, this is Elton on his music and his relationships, his passions and his mistakes. This is a story that will stay with you by a living legend.

Author: Sir Elton John, CBE, is a multi-award winning solo artist who has achieved 38 gold and 31 platinum or multi-platinum albums, has sold more than 300 million records worldwide, and holds the record for the biggest-selling single of all time, ‘Candle in the Wind 1997’. In August 2018 Elton was named the most successful male solo artist in the Billboard Hot 100 chart history, having logged 67 entries, including nine Number 1s and 27 Top 10s. Elton launched his first tour in 1970 and since then has performed over 4,000 times in more than 80 countries. When not recording or touring, Elton devotes his time to a number of charities, including his own Elton John AIDS Foundation, which has raised over $300 million and funded programmes across four continents in the twenty-four years it has existed. He is married to David Furnish, and they have two sons. Me is his first and only official autobiography.

The Guardians: A Novel; by John Grisham

John Grisham delivers a classic legal thriller – with a twist.

In the small Florida town of Seabrook, a young lawyer named Keith Russo was shot dead at his desk as he worked late one night. The killer left no clues. There were no witnesses, no one with a motive. But the police soon came to suspect Quincy Miller, a young black man who was once a client of Russo’s.

Quincy was tried, convicted, and sent to prison for life. For twenty-two years he languished in prison, maintaining his innocence.  But no one was listening.  He had no lawyer, no advocate on the outside. In desperation, he writes a letter to Guardian Ministries, a small nonprofit run by Cullen Post, a lawyer who is also an Episcopal minister.

Guardian accepts only a few innocence cases at a time.  Cullen Post travels the country fighting wrongful convictions and taking on clients forgotten by the system. With Quincy Miller, though, he gets far more than he bargained for. Powerful, ruthless people murdered Keith Russo, and they do not want Quincy Miller exonerated. 

They killed one lawyer twenty-two years ago, and they will kill another without a second thought.

Author: JOHN GRISHAM is the author of thirty-three novels, one work of nonfiction, a collection of stories, and six novels for young readers.

Olive, Again: A Novel by Elizabeth Strout

#1 New York Times bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout continues the life of her beloved Olive Kitteridge, a character who has captured the imaginations of millions.

“Strout managed to make me love this strange woman I’d never met, who I knew nothing about. What a terrific writer she is.”—Zadie Smith, The Guardian.

NAMED ONE OF FALL’S MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS BY People • Time • Entertainment Weekly • Vanity Fair • BuzzFeed • Vogue • USA Today • The Seattle Times • HuffPost • Newsday • Vulture • Bustle • Vox • PopSugar • Good Housekeeping • LitHub • Book Riot

Prickly, wry, resistant to change yet ruthlessly honest and deeply empathetic, Olive Kitteridge is “a compelling life force” (San Francisco Chronicle). The New Yorker has said that Elizabeth Strout “animates the ordinary with an astonishing force,” and she has never done so more clearly than in these pages, where the iconic Olive struggles to understand not only herself and her own life but the lives of those around her in the town of Crosby, Maine. Whether with a teenager coming to terms with the loss of her father, a young woman about to give birth during a hilariously inopportune moment, a nurse who confesses a secret high school crush, or a lawyer who struggles with an inheritance she does not want to accept, the unforgettable Olive will continue to startle us, to move us, and to inspire moments of transcendent grace.   

Advance praise for Olive, Again

“There’s no simple truth about human existence, Strout reminds us, only wonderful, painful complexity. ‘Well, that’s life,’ Olive says. ‘Nothing you can do about it.’ Beautifully written and alive with compassion, at times almost unbearably poignant. A thrilling book in every way.”Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Strout’s stories form a cohesive novel, both sequel and culmination, that captures, with humor, compassion, and embarrassing detail, aging, loss, loneliness, and love. Strout again demonstrates her gift for zeroing in on ordinary moments in the lives of ordinary people to highlight their extraordinary resilience.”Publishers Weekly (starred review).

Author: Elizabeth Strout is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Olive Kitteridge, winner of the Pulitzer Prize; Anything Is Possible, her most recent book and winner of The Story Prize; My Name Is Lucy Barton, longlisted for the Man Booker Prize; The Burgess Boys, named one of the best books of the year by The Washington Post and NPR; Abide with Me, a national bestseller; and Amy and Isabelle, winner of the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction and the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize. She has also been a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, the International Dublin Literary Award, and the Orange Prize. Her short stories have been published in a number of magazines, including The New Yorker. Elizabeth Strout lives in New York City.

New Virtual Book Club Pick: This Tender Land

Lori’s pick for this month: THIS TENDER LAND by William Kent Krueger.

(Save 20% on this title all month in-store and online with code BC20.)

THIS TENDER LAND, is a profoundly moving story about four orphans traveling down the Mississippi River in search of a new home.

The leader of the group is 12-year old Odie O’Banion, who along with his older brother Albert, their Sioux friend Mose, and little Emmy Frost escape from the Lincoln Indian Training Center. Odie has a vague memory of an aunt, who may represent their best hope for a new life, so off they set in search of her. This is the beginning of the adventures and misadventures they will have during the summer of 1932 while the country was in the throes of the Great Depression.

There are other displaced families and individuals in search of the stability that they’ve lost, villains, and possibly saints along the way, and while it is hard at times to discern which is which,  these colorful characters all propel the little band towards what awaits them at the end of their journey.

There are religious overtones, but this is a story less about religion and more about grace and faith; the many small graces that are bestowed upon our little vagabonds by complete strangers, and the faith they had in themselves that they were doing the right thing during their quest.

This is a huge undertaking for a small boy, and Odie is often burdened in a way no child should have to be, but he is also their leader and accepts that responsibility with all of his being.  I loved the following passage.

In the distance beyond the trees that edged the riverbank, a gathering of lights marked a small village.  I imagined the people in the houses there, safe in their slumbering, happy in the comfort of the love they shared as families, as friends. I envied them once, but no longer. Like one of the Vagabonds, I had no idea where I was headed, but it didn’t matter.

Because I knew exactly where my heart was.

Evocative of some of my other favorites, The Wizard of Oz, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, News of the World, and even The Odyssey, I was truly sorry when their travels were brought to an end. I will keep this on my bookshelf and enjoy it again sometime.

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Every other month or so, we chose a new book for our virtual book club, giving us the chance to share a book we love with other readers far and near. Read along with us. Share your thoughts and photos with our virtual book club on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram by following and using the hashtag: #bbkwbookclub.