The Hypocrite by Jo Hamya (Pantheon), picked by bookseller Leslie
The country is Italy, specifically the island of Sicily. To me, the opening conjured images of lazy afternoons, reading, Aperol spritzes, and warm, family togetherness, while exploring. That’s not what this book is about.
The book takes place during present day London (during Covid) where the daughter, Sophia, has written a play, and about ten years earlier when Sophia is a teenager taking a holiday on Sicily with her father, a writer. Coming from a divorced family, Sophia believes that their holiday will be a time to connect while her father treats her like an employee at times, dictating his new book to her.
Flash forward to London – her father sits down to see his daughter’s play; he is horrified to see it is about him. Sophia is brutal in her characterization of her father and his old fashioned ways, and how he treated her during their holiday. The father can’t believe it!!
This book is about different generations, being uncomfortable, expectations, disappointment, love, all of it!
The book goes back and forth between Sicily and London, a format I love. I was surprised and uncomfortable at times while reading this book. There are no easy answers especially with family – I really thought a lot about that, and isn’t that what a good book should do?
We love books as gifts, they are easy to wrap, fun to unwrap, and there’s an option for every reader, but there’s much more to our shop than books! Come see what’s new and fabulous. We’re happy to help you find just the right thing.
Join us, Saturday, Nov. 30 for Small Business Saturday. We’ll be open early at 9am, with mimosas, while supplies last and our friends at The Studios of Key West will be hosting their annual Artisan Fair!
Here are a few of the things we’ll be giving our friends and family this year!
Signed and special editions: Do you know someone who loves sprayed edges? Try Jessica Warman’s Repeat After Me or the deluxe edition of Frank Herbert’s Dune.
You Like It Darker by Stephen King (Scribner), picked by bookseller Lori
Twelve new short stories from the master of horror. Standouts for me: “Rattlesnakes,” a sequel to 1981’s Cujo, and “The Answer Man,” my personal favorite, which asks us to ponder the meaning of our own lives and ask ourselves how we will approach the inevitable end of it.
Beauty, horror, humor and humanity are all present in the pages from the true King of the genre.
David James Poissant, author of Lake Life and The Heaven of Animals, is coming to the Key West Library, (time and date TBD). Monroe County Public Library’s Acting Director of Libraries Michael Nelson asked Poissant a few questions, offering up a little preview of the planned event.
Q: Your debut novel, Lake Life, brings a complicated family (The Starlings) together at a lake house in North Carolina for one last vacation before the place is sold. What compelled you to write about this particular family?
A: When I was young, my parents rented a house for one week every summer. The house was a lake house on the shores of Lake Toxaway in Transylvania County, North Carolina. When I was in my late teens or early twenties, my parents bought a converted double wide trailer on Lake Oconee, not far from Milledgeville, Georgia and Andalusia Farm where Flannery O’Connor lived. Because I’m a person who falls in love with places, I fell in love with both houses, both lakes. And because I’m a writer who loves writing place, I wanted to capture the essence of both places in a single story. For the novel, I moved the Lake Oconee house to Lake Toxaway, then renamed the place Lake Christopher. I had a place, then, but no novel. Then, at a fourth of July event on Lake Oconee in 2009 or 2010, I saw a small boy very nearly fall from the back of a speeding boat. The boat was moving fast, and it was a miracle that no one was killed. The boy looked too young to swim, he wore no lifejacket, and the person piloting the boat was likely drunk. Fortunately, authorities intervened. For weeks, though, I had nightmares. What would have happened had the boy fallen into the water? Could I have saved him? I’m a fairly strong swimmer, but this was at night, and who knows? These dreams and questions haunted me until I knew that I had the opening chapter of my novel Lake Life.
Q: You’ve lived and worked as a writer in Florida for many years and received a Florida Book Award for your 2014 collection of stories, The Heaven of Animals. What appeals to you about Florida’s literary scene? What makes it different from other places in the country?
A: Florida is wild. Growing up in Georgia, I thought of Florida the way most tourists see Florida: beaches and Disney. When the job offer at the University of Central Florida brought me to Orlando thirteen years ago, I wasn’t sure what I’d find. What I found was a vibrant, sophisticated literary community with numerous reading series and open mics, small presses and literary magazines, indie bookstores, and more writers than I would ever have expected. So many literary luminaries call the Sunshine State home. And I love the atmosphere. The vibe of Florida’s literary scene, as my students would say, is “chill.” If you’ve ever hung out with Kristen Arnett or Lauren Groff or Laura van den Berg, you know that these are not pretentious people. They’re brilliant writers, but they’re also good hangs. And I need that. I’m not particularly comfortable in a recliner with a tie on. I’d rather perch on a barstool in a t-shirt and argue about which Lydia Millet book is best. (Answer: There isn’t a bad Lydia Millet book!)
Q: You teach in the MFA Creative Writing program at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. What’s the best advice you give to new writers, or something you wished you knew when you started first writing?
A: Read. We can talk all day about craft, and I do. And we can talk about process, and I will. But the thing I find that students need most is more time to read. We’re all busy. We have families and jobs and classes, so time is a luxury, I know. But I strongly encourage them to carve as much time from devices, streaming platforms, and social media as they can manage. I encourage students to read at least a book a week beyond the books they read for class. I’m happiest at a rate of two books a week, in addition to the books I assign, student’s stories, and the dozens of submissions I read each week for The Florida Review, where I serve as Editor. To me, the math of fiction is pretty simple. If you want to be a writer, you need to read a lot of books. Every book is a toolbox. When you start reading like a writer, you see how many craft tools are at your disposal, which is why I encourage students and beginning writers to read widely from writers of diverse backgrounds and writing styles. Read things you wouldn’t think you’d like. Read as widely as you can. So much of learning arrives via this bookworm osmosis, and well read beginning writers make for the fastest learners.
Q: What are you reading and recommending these days?
A: I got a good bit of reading done this summer. I’ve been on a pandemic novel kick, and two reads that have stuck with me are The Vulnerables, by Sigrid Nunez and Touch, by Olaf Olafsson, both set during the Covid-19 pandemic. I heard that a great film version of Touch was just released, but I haven’t seen it yet. I’m a longtime fan of Tove Jansson’s Moominbooks, all of which I read to my daughters when they were younger. This summer I finally read one of her adult novels, The Summer Book, reissued in 2008 by NYRB Classics. It’s the sad, gorgeous, episodic story of a grandmother and granddaughter set over the course of a summer on an island in the Gulf of Finland. We forget that children know and feel and grieve more than we think, and this novel captures that fact, and childhood, beautifully. Other books that brightened my summer include Joshua Cohen’s The Netanyahus, Paula Fox’s Desperate Characters, Hiroko Oyamada’s The Factory, and Max Porter’s Shy.
Q: Can you tell us anything about future projects?
A: Sure! I’ve finished a second collection of short stories, tentatively titled Sons & Daughters. As with The Heaven of Animals, I don’t think that I consciously set out to pen a collection. It was more that I looked back over ten years of story publications and saw that I had produced dozens of new stories, most of which address questions of childhood and parenthood. For years, my fiction has grappled with the question of what it means to be a child or a parent. I like to think about what we owe each other, as family members, if anything. Familial bonds can save us, but they’re also frequently abused. And the tension between those extremes, that gray area between salvation and degradation, that’s what I’m interested in. Where some people find their identities in family, some can’t thrive until they’ve freed themselves from their family of origin. I’m interested in both of those characters. Each of their stories will resonate with different readers. To that end, I’m also hard at work on a novel, my first to be set in the great state of Florida, about a very large, very isolated family, and about the dangers of such isolation.
Colored Television by Danzy Senna (Riverhead Books), picked by manager Emily
When her novel (dubbed the “mulatto War and Peace”) is rejected by her agent, Jane wonders if pivoting to television might finally give her the life she wants; time and energy to enjoy her family, a nice house in a good school district and an audience that will actually consume and appreciate her work.
Jane is used to life between worlds but will this new venture, and the deception she practices to get there, all finally be too much?
No book is ever about one thing, at least not the good ones, but rarely does a story perfectly mix together life’s big issues. Senna cleverly examines race, class, and cultural consumption while still producing a fun and compelling read.
When it comes to bookish opinions are you ever worried that your hot take might be flaming trash? Do you want to know who exactly is the literary a**hole in any given situation? Author Kristen Arnett can help. She writes the Literary Hub, Am I the Literary A**hole? column and will be doing a live event based on the column, September 13 at The Studios of Key West.
She will answer your questions about how to survive the writing life (and behave in the book world) in this live event. Bring your question with you or click here to submit anonymously ahead of time.
We got her to answer a few general questions before she answers your questions about literary etiquette on Sept. 13.
Q: How did the AITLA column come about?
A: This is a great question because I actually have a really funny answer for it! I was waiting for my friend at a restaurant and they were running (very) late for dinner, so I ordered a bottle of wine to start. Before I knew it, I’d already finished half the bottle. I started thinking about the fact that I really love reading advice column questions. I wondered if there was an advice column for literature, and then I wondered if anyone had ever agreed to write an advice column while they were mind-numbingly drunk. This immediately felt like a very funny idea to me, so I opened up my phone right there at the dinner table and shot off an email to my buddy Jonny Diamond over at Lit Hub. I knew him from a previous column that I did for them, which was about librarianship. Jonny is always up for fun, weird ideas! So I drunkenly emailed him with a subject line that was like “hear me out” and then in one line or so was like “how do you feel about me writing a drunk advice column for you.” I am not joking when I say that within like 10 minutes he’d written back to agree that I should do it. And now the rest is drunken history!
Q: Have you found any common traits amongst all Literary A**holes?
A: Honestly, yes – and that trait is that not many of them are actually a**holes! I find that a lot of the people who write in are actually, for the most part, overly conscientious people who themselves have been treated a little badly. Through the process of developing this column, I’ve (happily) discovered that many people are just out here every day trying their best; most of them are very worried about offending or hurting others. There is a very clear throughline of empathy and care and community building, which is lovely. Of course, for all of the great ones that I select from the slush, there are some that never make it onto the site. The occasional people who write in to complain that they have better ideas on how to run the column! To them, I say: find an editor to email drunk about it and get your own gig!
Q: You’re going to be in Key West as a PEAR – what do you enjoy most about artist residencies?
A: I truly love spending creative time in places that are connected with nature. I am from Florida – third generation – and so much of my work contains regional nods and influences. Being afforded a residency is always a gift, one that I genuinely treasure, because it’s time out of regular life to focus solely on art. And not only art, but also my relationship to it, which is forever changing. I feel like I get to know myself as a writer all over again at each residency. That is so important. I am deeply grateful for it.
Q: What are you looking forward to exploring/doing in Key West?
A: I am deeply interested in observing everything around me while I’m in town. I can’t wait to people watch, to explore nature, to feel embedded in a new space that’s still so closely connected to my own home. I am such an extrovert – truly, can’t contain myself – so I am really looking forward to bar hopping talking and chatting with anybody I happen to run into while I’m out and about!
Q: What are you reading and recommending these days?
A: I loved Laura van den Berg’s latest novel, State of Paradise. Great Florida book, truly. I also recently got done with Liz Moore’s God of the Woods, which was terrific. I am in the middle of revisiting Bryan Washington’s fabulous short story collection, LOT, which always gets my head in a wonderful place and energizes me. Biggest problem for me right now is that there are too many great things I want to be reading and definitely not enough hours in the day to do that!
Q: What’s your favorite/current summer drink?
A: Spicy margarita really hits the spot, I tell you what. I love to make a joke that if you’re having a drink with citrus then you’re being very healthy because you’re preventing scurvy. But you also can’t go wrong with an ice-cold beer. Or an ice-cold coke classic! Jesus, now I’m thirsty!
As we get ready for Banned Books Week, Sept. 22-28, we had the opportunity to talk with Katie Blankenship, Senior Director of PEN America Florida. PEN America champions freedom of expression and literary excellence. The organization’s Florida office was established last year in response to an unprecedented increase in book banning and restrictive educational initiatives.
Katie Blankenship of PEN America Florida; photo courtesy PEN America
Q: What’s going on with book banning in Florida? Why is this such a big issue in the state and nationally?
A: Just last fall, 4,394 book bans were recorded across the country, with 3,135 occurring in Florida, making it the top book banning state in the country by a wide margin. (By comparison, the second most book bans, Texas, had 1,567 recorded bans last fall.) And there are no signs of this trend slowing down—we’re now up to 5,107 in Florida at the time of writing this.
So many of the book bans in Florida are due to a bill passed in 2023, HB 1069, which created a statutory process to ban books based on vague prohibitions against any text that “depicts or describes sexual content.” This has resulted in thousands of books pulled due to any inclusion of sexual content, often taken out of context and without consideration of literary value, and that in practice have disproportionately targeted books featuring LGBTQ+ and BIPOC themes and/or characters. Even worse, counties with the highest rates of book bans also have dismal rates of returning books to the shelves. So not only are books yanked from the shelves without consideration of literary or education value, but the “reviews” of such texts either are not happening or happening at a snail’s pace, resulting in books remaining off shelves for entire school years or longer. The book ban movement is ultimately built on bad faith. Not only has HB 1069 been employed to target books with LGBTQ+ and BIPOC themes and characters, but it’s led to ridiculous outcomes such as the dictionary being pulled because what does it contain? A definition, and thus description, of sexual content!
Book bans go hand in hand with attacks on public education and other infringements on the First Amendment. The Florida legislature has launched a wave of censorship through a number of harmful new laws, such as HB 1 (2021), HB 1557 (2022), HB 7 (2022), SB 266 (2023), HB 1069 (2023), and HB 1291 (2024), just to name a few of the biggest offenders. What this legislation and the wave of book bans have in common is that they aim to censor and stifle Floridian’s speech and undermine our public education system.
Florida has also proven time and again to be a blueprint for other states to pass their own legislation/policies with copycat bills proliferating across the country. So it’s more critical than ever that Floridians stand up and fight back.
Q: What are PEN America Florida’s top priorities to combat book banning?
A: PEN on a national level is dedicated to tracking and fighting back against book bans and educational gag orders, which are bills or policies designed to restrict teaching about topics such as race, gender, American history and LGBTQ+ persons and identities in educational settings. The Florida office is keenly focused on these issues, ensuring that we can serve both as a trusted expert on free speech and expression issues, while also helping to support, connect, and uplift the grassroots movement that is steadily growing in Florida. We are also focused on legislative and legal advocacy and will continue to build a strong presence in Tallahassee.
There is a lot of power and energy behind this movement in Florida, and so much of it comes from individual students, parents, educators and community members, and particularly in counties that other people might assume are lost causes—places where book banning runs rampant. But this is exactly where our energy should be placed and exactly where some of the most impactful work can be done, and our aim is to support the many grassroots organizations across the state in developing joint action to protect the right to read, learn, and be in Florida.
Q: How do these bans impact the general public? Is this only a school issue?
A: Book bans do not happen in a vacuum—they are occurring in Florida alongside legislation like HB 1069/1557 (“Don’t Say Gay”), HB7 (the Stop WOKE Act) and SB 266 (banning DEI and undermining tenure), bills that aim to instill mistrust and fear in our public education system and send the message that certain topics, experiences, histories, and types of people should not have a place in our schools or society. This legislation and this rhetoric is deeply damaging to Florida’s students, particularly queer students and students of color who are directly targeted. Florida’s attack on free speech and expression sends a clear message that these perspectives and identities are not welcome, leading to greater discrimination, bullying, and removal of critical educational resources.
Q: How can people get involved? What’s the #1 thing you’d like people to do to combat book banning?
A: Join the movement in Florida! There is a growing state-wide movement and all are welcome! You can join the Free to Be Network and get plugged in with other folks all across the state.
VOTE!! And encourage everyone in your life to vote.
Attend your school board meetings, meet and speak with your school board members, and get engaged with your local public school system.
READ!! The book ban movement is all about silencing outside or minority perspectives, creating fear around “disfavored” topics. So one of the simplest and best ways for people to combat book banning is to read the books! Share the joy of reading with others, talk about what you read, and engage in real conversations with folks in your community, especially those that may not agree with you.
Q: What brought you to champion this issue?
A: First and foremost, I’m a parent. And I’m a Floridian, with a child entering the public school system this month. This is personal for me and my daughter.
I’m also a southerner, and so I feel a real calling and responsibility to help address the ongoing discrimination, racism, and government censorship that is so rampant in southern states and has cemented so many of our systemic injustices. As a lawyer, I feel a responsibility to do what I can to support efforts to bring greater equality and justice to the South.
Q: And, on a personal note, what are you reading and enjoying these days?
A: This has been a great summer of reading. I’ve gotten to dig into new and classic fiction while also doing a deep dive into the history of the Civil Rights Movement. I just finished Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. It was incredibly inspirational, and also reassuring to read as we see authoritarian tendencies on the uptick. The book encapsulates not only the success of the Civil Rights Movement, but also, and so poignantly, all the struggles and pain, internally and externally, that are part and parcel in fighting against discrimination and suppression – the strife and stress of building coalition and community, of building any movement for social change. And now I’m reading The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult, who is certainly one of my favorite storytellers. I also read Flowers for Algernon for the first time this summer and it has haunted me (in a good way) ever since – so good!
“This is a dangerous time for readers and the public servants who provide access to reading materials. Readers, particularly students, are losing access to critical information, and librarians and teachers are under attack for doing their jobs.” – Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom
Book challenges and bans often happen very quietly. A book is challenged and pulled from shelves in a local school or library without fanfare. Readers might not even know what they are missing. A goal of Banned Books Week is to raise awareness of the scope and impact of book censorship and encourage people to get involved, to stand with the banned.
Here at Books & Books @ The Studios, we keep our banned books display up all year because Florida leads the country in challenging and banning books. In response to these extensive efforts to restrict access to books and ideas, PEN America opened a Florida office in Miami last year. We asked PEN America Florida Senior Director Katie Blankenship to explain what’s happening with book banning around the state, https://booksandbookskw.com/a-qa-with-katie-blankenship-of-pen-america-florida.
As Katie Blankenship points out, book challenges often target books by and about people of color and LGBTQIA+ people. We believe that everyone deserves to read and have access to stories that represent their lives and experiences. Visit us during Banned Books Week (Sept. 22-28), read a banned book, and make up your own mind.
Registration for our 8th annual summer art contest is now open. The registration fee includes a 4×12 canvas. Use the canvas to show your artistic abilities. Paint, collage, pencil, whatever suits your style.
