Photo credit: Gary A. Rosen
Sunday, February 10, at 2pm, a reading and book signing with Holly Goldberg Sloan, co-author of TO NIGHT OWL FROM DOGFISH. Meet author Holly Goldberg Sloan and get TO NIGHT OWL FROM DOGFISH two days before its official release.
Holly Goldberg Sloan, author of the New York Times bestsellers Counting by 7s and Short, has teamed up with Meg Wolitzer, the New York Times-bestselling author of novels for adults and kids, on TO NIGHT OWL FROM DOGFISH, a moving, exuberant, laugh-out-loud novel about friendship and family, told entirely in emails and letters.
ABOUT THE BOOK: Avery Bloom, who’s bookish, intense, and afraid of many things, particularly deep water, lives in New York City. Bett Devlin, who’s fearless, outgoing, and loves all animals as well as the ocean, lives in California. What they have in common is that they are both twelve years old, and are both being raised by single, gay dads.
When their dads fall in love, Bett and Avery are sent, against their will, to the same sleepaway camp. Their dads hope that they will find common ground and become friends – and possibly, one day, even sisters.
But things soon go off the rails for the girls (and for their dads too), and they find themselves on a summer adventure that neither of them could have predicted. Now that they can’t imagine life without each other, will the two girls (who sometimes call themselves Night Owl and Dogfish) figure out a way to be a family?
EARLY PRAISE FOR To Night Owl From Dogfish:
“Featuring a dramatic climax and a host of surprising twists, the novel affirms that families conventional and unconventional are families just the same.” – Publishers Weekly
“The Parent Trap gets a modern makeover in this entertaining and endearing middle-grade novel about two 12-year-old girls, one camp, and a summer that will bond them for a lifetime….A sweet and amusing tale that celebrates diversity while reinforcing the power of love and the importance of family.” – Kirkus
Tuesday, January 29, at 6pm, a meet & greet and book signing with Key West designer Debra Butler, contributing designer to SOME LIKE IT HOT.
From the widely praised author of Paris Was the Place — a shattering new novel that bravely delves into the darkest corners of addiction, marriage, and motherhood
Wednesday, February 6, at 6pm, a reading, discussion and book signing with Andrew Furman, author of GOLDENS ARE HERE.
In GOLDENS ARE HERE, Andrew Furman imagines with great empathy the individual members of the Golden family, their unique struggles and dreams, during a single tumultuous citrus season. Isaac Golden must reckon between his ambition to create the perfect fruit and the business realities bearing down upon him given the booming postwar demand for cheap frozen concentrate. His beautiful wife, Melody, finds herself testing the boundaries that had so clearly governed her more conventional life in suburban Philadelphia, and their chronically ill son, Eli, wishes only to muster his strength so that he might enjoy the wide-open outdoors and see a bobcat.
Friday, February 8, at 6pm, a reading, discussion and book signing with Michelle C. Johnson, author of SKILL IN ACTION: RADICALIZING YOUR YOGA PRACTICE TO CREATE A JUST WORLD.
Michelle is an author, yoga teacher, social justice activist, licensed clinical social worker and Dismantling Racism trainer. She writes, “I approach my life and work from a place of empowerment, embodiment and integration. With a deep understanding of trauma and the impact that it has on the mind, body, spirit and heart, much of my work focuses on helping people better understand how power and privilege operate in their life. I explore how privilege, power and oppression affects the physical, emotional, mental, spiritual and energy body.”
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.
At The Studios of Key West, next door to Books & Books @ The Studios, a book discussion and signing with 
Dar Williams, a beloved folk singer, presents an impassioned account of the fall and rise of the small American towns she cherishes through her book WHAT I FOUND IN A THOUSAND TOWNS. 
Saturday, January 19, at 6pm, a discussion and book signing with comedy writer Caitlin Kunkel, co-author of NEW EROTICA FOR FEMINISTS. Kunkel will appear in-conversation with local comedian and journalist Gwen Filosa.
Kunkel, Preston, Taylor, and Wittmer have assembled a smart, timely, and relatable book that balances our need to laugh through the pain with an earnest invocation for change. In NEW EROTICA FOR FEMINISTS, the authors have written dozens of brand-new satirical, spicy vignettes, chock-full of tongue-in-cheek (yet safer for work than the title implies) smut about women in pop culture, literature, dating, and modern parenting.
Happy New Year!
Camila Duke’s introduction to ELSEY COME HOME, and get some background on our visiting authors. Find out how Bethany Ball and Spencer Wise feel about doing events together and how Cailin Kunkel and her co-authors turned an 800-word web post into a 10,000-word book.
From Bethany Ball, comes WHAT TO DO ABOUT THE SOLOMONS, a hilarious multigenerational family saga set in Israel, New York, and Los Angeles that explores the secrets and gossip-filled lives of a kibbutz community near Jerusalem. The book introduces readers to the Solomon family as they are faced with a life-altering scandal. Marc Solomon, an Israeli exNavy commando now living in L.A., is falsely accused of money laundering through his asset management firm. Marc’s American wife, Carolyn—concealing her own dark past—makes hopeless attempts to hold their family of five together. But news of the scandal makes its way from America to the rest of the Solomon clan on the kibbutz in the Jordan River Valley. As the secrets and rumors of the kibbutz are revealed through various memories and tales, we witness the things that keep the Solomons together, and those that tear them apart.
Spencer Wise’s THE EMPEROR OF SHOES is a transfixing debut novel inspired by the author’s experiences living and working in an American-owned shoe factory in Guangdong, China. The novel follows Alex, a Jewish American ex-pat, as he reluctantly assumes the helm of his family’s shoe company. When he meets a seamstress named Ivy, she shifts his gaze. But Ivy, who is also an embedded pro-democracy organizer, has broader aims, and Alex must decide where his loyalty resides, a choice which ultimately pushes the entire factory to a crisis point.