Independent Bookstore Day has been rescheduled for Saturday, August 29, 2020, making this beautiful totebag a collector’s item for sure.

Purchase at least $100 in books, gift cards or other merchandise and be entered to win an IBD totebag filled with books and other surprises.

Place your order online at shop.booksandbookskw.com or call us 10a-3p everyday. Purchases made thru 3p on Saturday, April 25 will qualify for the drawing. 2 gift bags will be awarded. U.S. addresses only.

And, of course, you don’t have to depend on luck. The IBD totebags are for sale at https://shop.booksandbookskw.com/product/IBD-tote. Supplies are limited.

And stay tuned for news about Independent Bookstore Day as we get closer to the new date.

Lead by Assistant Manager Gianelle, last month’s virtual book club pick was HOW NOT TO DIET, which offers information to change how to think about eating and nutrition.

Eat real foods grown from the ground, rich in fiber & nutrients. Eat as we are designed to eat.

Gianelle writes, “This is not a diet-book, in fact that’s right in the title!

We believe fake foods are real foods. These pseudo foods ‘exploit our innate biological vulnerabilities by stripping down crops into almost pure calories-straight sugar, oil…condensed in the same way plants are turned into addictive drugs…’ which ‘appear to activate the same reward pathways in the brain.’

AND these pseudo foods are more abundant than real foods. I am grateful for Dr. Greger and the nonprofit nutritionfacts.org, mainly because he condenses all of the relevant research and explains it in an easy to digest way, which is remarkable considering he cites studies 4,990 times.

Eating mainly whole grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables may seem restrictive to some, but there are plenty of easy ways to choose real foods as often as possible. Dr. Greger proposes when we choose to eat real food instead of fake food, it’s not dieting, and, perhaps, we should all put it to the test.”

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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.

We had a wonderful time with Mamta Chaudhry, author of HAUNTING PARIS, a timeless story of love and loss takes a mysterious turn when a bereaved pianist discovers a letter among her late lover’s possessions, launching her into a decades-old search for a child who vanished in the turbulence of wartime Paris.

In addition to a well-attended reading and booksigning, we had the opportunity to ask Mamta a few questions:

Q: What was the genesis of this novel?

A: HAUNTING PARIS is above all a love letter to the City of Light. Many of the scenes take place in and around Notre Dame; but when I visited the Deportation Memorial behind the cathedral, I became aware of the darker side of the city’s history. So the love letter became as complicated, layered, and heartbreaking as love can often be.

Q: In a manner of speaking, Paris gets top billing in your novel, how does the city as a character play into the themes and ideas you’re exploring in the novel?

A: That is so perceptive . . . Paris is indeed a character in the novel, and the double entendre in the title refers to a city that is both haunting and haunted. The ghosts of history accompany you as you walk the cobblestone streets, especially on Île Saint-Louis. I’m always fascinated by the long shadow of the past upon the present. The story is set in 1989, when Paris is celebrating the bicentennial of the French Revolution that resulted in the glorious motto “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.” But it also leads us back to Nazi occupation, a time when the city singularly failed to live up to that promise.

Q: This is your debut novel, do you have any advice for aspiring authors?

A: Although HAUNTING PARIS is my first novel to be published, it’s certainly not the first one I’ve written. So my advice is, don’t give up. Write more, write better. If your story is important enough for you to keep at it, sooner or later it will find its way into the world.

Q: What are you reading and recommending?

A: Although I’m mostly drawn to fiction, I was gripped by a couple of non-fiction books recently: SAY NOTHING by Patrick Radden Keefe, and EDUCATED by Tara Westover. For fiction, I’ve been enthusiastically recommending Lucia Berlin’s A MANUAL FOR CLEANING WOMEN, and Nicholson Baker’s THE ANTHOLOGIST.

Q: What are you working on next, if you don’t mind saying?

A: As they say on Monty Python, “Now for something completely different!” But although the new book is set in a different time, a different place, we take our obsessions wherever we go, so it’s still about love, loss, and forgiveness.

We had a great time hosting Key West local Hays Blinckmann on Friday, Feb. 21 promoting her second novel WHERE I CAN BREATHE. WHERE I CAN BREATHE is a drama/comedy infused with bold characters, laugh out loud humor that will keep you engrossed in its compelling storylines.

Having to rush suddenly to a Connecticut hospital, Arthur, Abby, and Ansel Williams must come to grips with the impending death of their beloved mother, Agnes. She is dying from cirrhosis and for years has been drinking herself to death. None of the siblings are prepared for the journey of placing their mother in hospice care and spending her final weeks looking back at her lifetime of pain and destruction. Asher Williams, their father, business mogul, and Agnes’s ex-husband, also must come to terms with his family’s path and his role in shaping all of their lives. The story is rich with a family’s defining moments that changed them, pushed them apart, and brought them back together.

We had the pleasure of asking Hays a few questions to give you a taste of her books and future plans.

Q: You balance novel writing with journalism, please tell us a bit about your writing process? Do you find the different types of projects compatible or can it be difficult to keep on track?

A: At the moment I am taking a break from journalism, if I didn’t I would have never written WHERE I CAN BREATHE. The story was forming in my head for months after my mother’s death in August 2018 so I had to stop everything to get it on paper.

Writing news is an addictive form of employment with its rush and immediacy and I loved it. There was always one more story, one more deadline and I admit, I had hard time withdrawing from it. But thanks to journalism, I have become a very efficient writer and when I began WHERE I CAN BREATHE it just flowed out of me. It required very little subject editing, mostly just regular editing and I had a team from the paper to help me. Start to finish was less than six months on top of being a mom, wife and regular life stuff, so that was the real accomplishment. I am very disciplined and work extremely hard, but it’s the kind of work I love. Infinitely better than unloading the dishwasher or figuring out how in the hell kids do math nowadays.

Q: Mothers and alcoholism recur in both your novels, can you say a little about what makes this such an interesting subject for you?

A: My mother was an alcoholic since I can remember and I have never tried to hide it. Anyone remotely close to me knew or was involved in the drama of it. But I wasn’t ready to put that into words until after my children were born and I became a mother myself. At that point, my mother’s struggles and choices became fascinating to me and less a reflection. Fictionalizing her turmoil riddled life was a wholly new form of therapy. My first novel, IN THE SALT definitely has some of that residual anger but WHERE I CAN BREATHE has a lot of compassion for the circumstance. Both are very healing books when it comes to family relationships and how we cope with dysfunctional behavior, that was my endgame.

Q: How long have you been in Key West? How did you come to be here? What’s your favorite thing about our little island?

A: I started coming in the early 90s, when my parents bought a second home and made my permanent move after 9/11/2001. Now it’s been almost 20 years and absolutely no regrets. I moved around a lot throughout my life so some places were too big and some too small but Key West was just right for me. My favorite thing is how my life has gone through so many phases here: Young party girl, then newlywed, then a family and soccer mom, then journalist and writer. Key West is incredibly supportive if you let it. I even thanked the whole city in the back of the book, I don’t think many people thank their city, but I genuinely believe Key West has given me everything I could imagine (except a sit down with HBO for movie options but that’s still on the table).

Q: What are you reading and recommending?

A: I am reading and fascinated by Ada Calhoun’s WHY WE CAN’T SLEEP. It’s non fiction about how women my age, Gen Xer’s, got the short end of the stick when it came to money, careers and family because of when we were born. There are so many points she makes that are dead on it’s frightening. And she’s right, I remember every advertising slogan between 1975 and 1985 that ever aired on TV. Break me off a piece of that Kit Kat bar…

Q: What’s next? Is novel #3 already in the works?

A: Yes, I’ve got novel #3 in the works. It’s another “dramady”. I like humor and family dynamics but this time no alcoholism – there are many other dysfunctional maladies to choose from, I can’t be so one sided. Also, I am playing around with #4, a book of autobiographical shorts. Whatever one finishes first will be next.

We recently had the pleasure of hearing Craig Pittman, author of CAT TALE, at the Key West Library discussing his new book about how Florida panthers nearly went extinct and how they were saved. We had the opportunity to ask Craig a few questions about his new book, his writing process and what he’s reading and recommending these days.

It wasn’t so long ago when a lot of people thought the Florida panther was extinct. They were very nearly right. That the panther still exists at all is a miracle–the result of a desperate experiment that led to the most remarkable comeback in the history of the Endangered Species Act. And no one has told the whole story–until now. With novelistic detail and an eye for the absurd, Craig Pittman recounts the extraordinary story of the people who brought the panther back from the brink of extinction, the ones who nearly pushed the species over the edge, and the cats that were caught in the middle. This being Florida, there’s more than a little weirdness, too. An engrossing narrative of wry humor, sharp writing and exhaustive reportage, CAT TALE shows what it takes to bring one species back and what unexpected costs such a decision brings.

Q: How did you come to write this book? What changes do you hope it will foster? Who is the audience for the book?

A: I’ve been writing about Florida panthers since I started covering environmental issues for the Tampa Bay Times in 1998, and I’ve wanted to write a book about them for 20 years. I had to wait until I had a good ending, and I finally got one a few years ago. I hope this book will help people see the panther as more than just a figure on a license plate or a hockey uniform. They’re living, breathing animals, apex predators that need wilderness to survive. The audience for this book would be anyone who cares about Florida’s state animal, anyone who’s apprehensive about saving endangered animals, and anyone who loves cats. (But don’t worry, dog fans, you get some love too.)

Q: OH, FLORIDA was funny. CAT TALE is a light-hearted title; how would you describe the tone of this book? Do you enjoy the serious journalism as much as the humorous stuff? How do your research and writing processes differ between various types of projects? 

A: CAT TALE is, overall, a more serious book, but it has some light-hearted scenes in it, and because this is Florida the story takes some weird twists and turns. For instance, Florida’s version of Bigfoot, the Skunk Ape, gets a cameo. Serious or humorous, you have to take the same approach to researching and writing the story. Your first loyalty is to telling the story right.

Q: What are you working on now, if you don’t mind saying?

A:  I’ve got a Florida novel I’ve been working on since 2017 and I’m on my third rewrite. Maybe this will be the one that gets a publisher’s attention! The title is “Death of a Dolphin” and it concerns the death of the most famous Florida dolphin since Flipper. There’s also a mysterious fish kill, a developer who’s disappeared, a barbershop quartet made up of crooked cops, and a Weeki Wachee mermaid who is not what she seems.

Q: What Florida books are top-of-mind recommendations for you?

A: How much time do you have? I have a VERY long list. It includes nonfiction such as:

• Jack E. Davis’ THE GULF
• Gilbert King’s DEVIL IN THE GROVE
• Julie Hauserman’s DRAWN TO THE DEEP

My list of fiction features such titles as:

• Lauren Groff’s FLORIDA
• Zora Neale Hurston’s THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD
• John D. MacDonald’s CONDOMINIUM
• Elmore Leonard’s LABRAVA

Along with pretty much everything from Tim Dorsey and Carl Hiaasen, of course.  Among Keys authors, I always recommend Tom Corcoran, who has a real sense of place in his novels.

Q: What else would you like to share?

A: I always brag about the fact that I am a Florida native, and my parents still live in the Panhandle. My mom taught me to appreciate a good book while my dad taught me to appreciate a good story. CAT TALE is dedicated to my dad. I dedicated an earlier book to my mom — THE SCENT OF SCANDAL which is about an orchid smuggling case involving Selby Gardens in Sarasota. It’s the only book I know of that is classified as “True Crime/Gardening.”

Photo credit: Pete Duval

Books and Books @ The Studios is pleased to partner with the Key West Library as they present Mark Powell, author of literary thriller FIREBIRD, on Tuesday, January 7th at 6pm at the library (700 Fleming St.).

Spanning the U.S. and Eastern Europe, from New Haven and D.C. to Kiev and Bratislava, Mark Powell’s FIREBIRD takes you into the 2014 Ukraine-Russia conflict and reveals the corrupt relationship between war, money, and political power.

The plan was simple: foment a small-scale conflict in Eastern Ukraine that will prevent the vast Ukrainian shale gas field from being tapped. Should the project succeed, Leviathan Global’s billionaire founder stands to profit mightily from the sale of gas reserves in Slovakia. But when a disillusioned staffer named Hugh Eckhart uncovers a dossier containing bank accounts laying out the conspiracy, things begin to unravel.

Patricia Engel, author of The Veins of the Ocean writes FIREBIRD is “[a]n unrelenting thrill ride across the globe and deep into the political intrigue and machinations that drive our lives without our knowing; this is a thriller with a conscience that will change how you see the world. Mark Powell is a fearless and master storyteller and FIREBIRD is an absolute powerhouse of a novel.”

Prior to his event, we had the opportunity to ask Mark a few questions:

Q: In one or two lines, how would you describe the new novel?

A: FIREBIRD is a political thriller set between the U.S. (Washington, New Haven, Florida) and Eastern Europe (Ukraine and Slovakia) that addresses (speculatively) the U.S. involvement in the Ukraine war in the run-up to the 2014 election. Bob Shacochis once said he writes books that are “entertainment for people who pay attention.” I’d like to steal that line.

Q: The novel is very concerned with the spiritual and the political inclinations of its characters. Do you see these as being inherently linked? How does it drive the narrative?

A: The theologian John Caputo once wrote “The greatest fantasy of religious belief is the fantasy of political power.” I’m always interested in how fervently-held (if deeply-misguided) beliefs manifest themselves in the actual world.  Think of George W. Bush’s “Crusade” into Iraq — we may well feel the violent repercussions for the rest of the 21st C.

Q: Did you read any great books this year?

A: I read a number of great books this year. Two that I think will really stick with me are FLEISHMAN IS IN TROUBLE by Taffy Brodesser-Akner and OUR MAN by George Packer. FLEISHMAN, as one blurb notes, reads like John Updike updated for Tinder and the #MeToo movement. It’s also hilarious and poignant. OUR MAN is equal parts a biography of the diplomat Richard Holbrooke and an autopsy of those five or so decades we sometimes call the “American Century.” Both books capture perfectly our current political, moral, and emotional moment.

Q: What advice would you give to new writers?

A: My advice to beginning writers is embarrassingly basic, but, I think, remains true: read everything you can, particularly the writers you want to write like; don’t chase trends, they’ll be gone by the time you catch up; and, at least at first, develop a certain discipline about when and how often you write.

Special thanks to Key West Library Administrator Michael Nelson for the questions and facilitating this interview.

Ayse Papatya Bucak’s stories have been called: “fearless,” “elegant,” “kinetic” and “wildly imagined.” What you’ll find for sure in her story collection, THE TROJAN WAR MUSEUM, is that the stories will take you to unexpected places.

We had a chance to ask Bucak, who is a former Artist-in-Residence at The Studios of Key West, a few questions before her reading and book signing on Dec. 10.

Q: Please tell us a little about your time as a Studios Artist-in-Residence.

A: My residency at the Studios was in May 2016. I also attended the Literary Seminar in 2017. I loved my time in Key West–I got plenty of writing done but I also went to dance and music performances at the Studios, I heard Edmund White read at Books & Books, I went to a performance of The Cripple of Inishmaan. I visited Fort Jefferson. I walked all around town whenever I needed to clear my head. I drank so much Cuban coffee.

The amount of nature and art that I was able to take in during that month was so restorative.  I always tell my students they need to do things to feed their artistic well, and my well was well fed in Key West.

Writing-wise, I worked on drafting “Mysteries of the Mountain South” (ironically set in Appalachia) and I researched “The Dead” which is set in Key West.  “The Dead” is about the sponge merchant Edward Arapian–who I first heard tell of in Joy Williams’s guide to Key West–where she refers to the brick house of a Turkish sponger but doesn’t give his name. So I literally walked over to the brick house, looked up the street number, and then looked through an old Key West phone book until I found the name…at which point I realized he was not just Turkish but Armenian which led me down a long research path culminating in a story about sponge-diving and genocide. Not quite where I expected to go. But I never would have written that story if it hadn’t been for my residency.

Q: What, if anything, is the overarching theme or project of THE TROJAN WAR MUSEUM?

A: My plan was to write stories that were both Turkish and American because I am both Turkish and American.  But I think most people read the collection as a series of stories that are both historical and fairy-tale-ish.

Q: If you can boil it down, what’s the top piece of advice you’d give aspiring writers?

A: Tortoise beats hare. But you have to remember the tortoise never stops.

Q: What are you reading and recommending?

Some of my favorites from this year are Good Talk by Mira Jacob, Lost Children Archives by Valeria Luiselli, and I Will Never See This World Again by Ahmet Altan.  All-time favorites: Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson, Beloved by Toni Morrison, and The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje.  I’m really looking forward to picking up a copy of Grand Union by Zadie Smith when I’m in the store.  I recently heard Ross Gay read at the Miami Book Fair and I was reminded of how completely delightful his essay collection The Book of Delights is.  And my friend and colleague Andrew Furman has a great book of Florida nature essays called Bitten. Oh, and favorite recent poetry collection: The Boy in the Labyrinth by Oliver de la Paz.

Q: What are you working on now, if you don’t mind saying?

A: I keep saying I’m writing a novel (which I am) but lately I have fallen into writing two new short stories, one about a creature known as the Anatolian monster, which in my story is found hiding at Topkapi Palace, and one about a (fictional) American writer imprisoned for her writing, as well as some essays about the two branches of my family (one side Turkish, one side very-waspy American).