For early summer reading, I chose a glorious romp of a novel. Not a rom-com, but something different for me. I’d read good reviews and it’s hard to beat that cover. Turns out LOVE MARRIAGE by Monica Ali was just what I craved.
The story of two young doctors, engaged to marry, set in London. She is from a conservative middle class British/Indian family. He is the son of a wealthy, liberal, famous feminist. Both families approve of the marriage. That’s not the problem.
Everything else is. Plenty of humor, political satire and sex. It all comes together and makes for a great read. I loved it!
George just finished RIVER OF THE GODS by Candice Millard. At first I told him to stop telling me the story. I wanted to read it myself. But his stories about the characters and their adventures were so fascinating I encouraged him to tell me just a little bit more each time.
We both wish you many happy hours of reading this summer.
~ Judy Blume, store co-founder
About RIVER OF THE GODS, George writes:
The fabulous true story of the brave, obsessive Englishmen who discovered the source of the Nile, and of the role played by heroic Africans who guided and supported them.
“Compulsively readable, and ultimately heartbreaking.”
Raised by her mother in exile, Xingyin must flee her home in the middle of the night. Separated from everything & everyone she’s ever known, Xingyin strikes out on her own. She quickly finds ways to improve her isolated situation, while also acquiring archery skills and prowess.
Xingyin is determined to pave her own path through life without being beholden to another; she acknowledges her complicated romantic emotions yet stays true to her ultimate goal of safely rescuing her mother. Battling epic monsters, both demonic and fellow Immortals, Xingyin grows into herself and her strength.
This is an enthralling tale that will sweep you off into the night.
Have you read GENDER QUEER, a graphic novel memoir by Maia Kobabe? It’s about a lot of things you might expect in a memoir, growing up and fitting in, and it’s about Kobabe’s experience of being nonbinary.
Some people think you or your kids and grandkids shouldn’t be able to read GENDER QUEER or the 1500 other books that were challenged or banned last year, according to stats collected by the American Library Association Office for Intellectual Freedom.
But it’s not actually about GENDER QUEER or THE HATE YOU GIVE by Angie Thomas (which has been on the top banned list 4 out of the 5 years since its publication in 2017) or A COURT OF MIST AND FURY by Sarah J. Maas, which a Virginia judge thinks might not be appropriate to sell unrestricted in bookstores. As librarian Alex Brown wrote recently for Tor.com:
Banning books is always bigger than just the ban or just the book. It’s a concerted effort to whitewash and sugarcoat history, to deny the truth of what happened and who we are as a nation, and to continue the dismantling of our public educational institutions.
And it’s getting worse – along with targeting school libraries at every level and public libraries, an active challenge right now is trying to restrict Barnes & Noble bookstores from selling certain books to kids, and maybe to anyone at all (in Virginia).
It’s not really about the books. It’s about the people. The kids who are hungry to see themselves and their experiences in the books they read. All of us who want to read widely, adventurously and freely. The authors who are writing their best stories with heart and hard-won wisdom, or maybe just for fun.
This Pride month, pick up a copy of GENDER QUEER, and see what you think. And, if it’s not for you, pick up something else – but champion everyone’s right to read freely.
In his first full-length autobiography, comedy legend and national treasure Billy Connolly reveals the truth behind his windswept and interesting life.
Windswept and Interesting is Billy’s story in his own words. It is joyfully funny – stuffed full of hard-earned wisdom as well as countless digressions on fishing, farting and the joys of dancing naked. It is an unforgettable, life-affirming story of a true comedy legend.
When I learned that Fowler, author of the witty and surprising We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves had a new novel, I jumped at the chance to preview it.
She’s still surprising, but in a completely different way. BOOTH is historical fiction, but it might better be described as a novelistic biography of a famous family, famous for its lifelong brilliant achievements on the Shakespearean stage, but even more for the single dastardly act of young John Wilkes.
The father, Junius Brutus Booth emigrated from England as a young man and went on to triumph on the American stage, and father a family of six children who survived into adulthood. Son Edwin became even more celebrated than his father as an actor, perhaps the most famous Hamlet ever; daughter Asia had some success as a writer; and son June (Junius, Jr.) became a theatrical producer.
But the novel is not limited to these foreground players. Equally important are daughter Rosalie, the stay-at-home ugly duckling of this luminous family, and long-suffering mother Mary Ann who held the family together through periods of poverty, as the often drunk, flamboyant father would disappear on road tours for months, often drinking his fees rather than sending them home.
The period covered goes from the arrival in America of Junius and Mary Ann in 1821, until 1865. A crushing gloom and infamy then settled on this northern, Lincoln loving family as it tried to reconcile love for its assassin son with revulsion at what he did. The book is a novel, but supported by a wealth of research: letters from and to the principle characters, journals and news stories, and the documented history of the United States during a period of passionate divisions that bears disturbing parallels to today.
It’s full of descriptive set pieces from this master novelist, like the burdens of a journey by citified Easterners to San Francisco by boat and a slog through the mountainous jungles of Panama – supposedly easier and safer than the direct overland route through Indian lands and the Rockies – that makes one marvel at the fortitude of ordinary men and women of the time.
“TASTE reminds me that whomever you are and wherever you come from the sharing of food connects us,” Gina writes. “It’s impossible to read this book and not be drawn back into your memories to the feel of a certain room, the sounds and smells of that ONE special dish (that of course only your family makes perfectly). And, then to sharing that dish with family or people who will become family.
Plus, I learned how to make the “perfect” martini! PRICELESS!”
I like to be surprised – and BLACK CAKE by Charmaine Wilkerson (Ballantine Books), our staff pick of the month for March, begins on a literal cliffhanger.
“He stood at the water’s edge, now, watching the waves crash white against the rocks, waiting for his daughter’s body to wash ashore.
… He remembered a clattering of plates, the splintering of glass on the tile floor, someone crying out. When he looked toward his daughter, she was gone and her satin-covered shoes lay strewn on the lawn outside like tiny capsized boats.”
– Black Cake
In a family shaped by secrets, siblings Byron and Benny sit down with the family lawyer to hear about their mother’s past, revealed only after her death. She asks them the share a Black Cake, a recipe that has been an important part of their family traditions and gains significance as the story unfolds. Before the cake is shared, we learn there should be one more at the table.
These are people who have never heard Dr. Phil’s adage: Would you rather be right or would you rather be happy? But they are compelling characters and the plot is propulsive. This book is the whole package: beautiful cover, good writing, strong plotting, relatable characters.
Twisty, fun and moving, you’ll enjoy this book where everyone has (a lot of) secrets.
****
“Survival is not enough. Survival has never been enough.”
Black Cake
I love this quote, which comes late in the book, because in a story about Black characters it makes sense out of context, but in the larger context it pulls together the themes of the book. Love and inheritance and all the bigger problems of the world that we can’t ignore or escape.
Here’s a bit more of the quote, from page 372 of the hardcover,
“Etta is swimming for her children now, and for their children, too, not for the records. She uses every chance she can to talk about the health of the oceans. Seafloor damage, runoff, plastics, rising water temperatures, overfishing. She calls for the designation of additional protected zones. But she also take the time to show the audience old photos of herself as a girl in a swim cap, plus her favorite snapshots of Patsy and the boys when they were little, poking around a tide pool in Wales, their shoes clumped with wet sand. She never forgets to show the joy, to show the love. Because, otherwise, what would be the point of anything?
Survival is not enough. Survival has never been enough.”
We are delighted to host Erika Robuck at 6:30pm on Wednesday, March 23, in-person, outdoors at Hugh’s View on the roof of The Studios of Key West (register here). Robuck will be discussing her newest historical novel, SISTERS OF NIGHT AND FOG (Berkley). She is the bestselling author of novels including THE INVISIBLE WOMAN, and store favorite HEMINGWAY’S GIRL.
We had the opportunity to ask a few questions in advance of her upcoming event.
Q: Is there a short excerpt that you think works well to introduce SISTERS OF NIGHT AND FOG?
A: I chose the following scene, at the start of the German occupation of France, because it felt relevant to the way the beginning of the pandemic felt. The start of rationing, the restriction of movement, and the disbelief were unsettlingly relatable.
“It takes many cuts before she comprehends the truth: France is bleeding out—sliced with a mortal blow—and with it, Virginia’s old life is dying.
Like the early days of grieving a loved one, Virginia awakens each morning not knowing, but rather having to remember. That remembering brings fresh pain with each wave, and the waves are drowning her. She thinks it will be better when she simply knows the world has turned upside down—to have the thing dead and buried and not have to recollect. Then maybe she can move on. But there’s no knowing, at least not now. There is no certainty and no timetables, and that’s the hardest part. Though she knows it’s not for her ultimate good, Virginia continues to grasp the ever-vanishing vapors of the memories of before, but they’re getting increasingly hard to grasp.”
SISTERS OF NIGHT AND FOG
Q: How do you do your research? Has the pandemic disrupted or changed how you work?
A: My research process usually begins with visits to sites important to my story. Because of the pandemic, and the difficulty of traveling overseas, I had to settle for books, YouTube videos, interviews, and Google Earth, all of which are surprisingly helpful (and economical). I tend to begin by reading nonfiction about the subjects, events, and locations. Then I moved to archival material and interviews of the subjects or their loved ones. If there is any first person or autobiographical writing, that is my last stop in getting to know the characters before I can inhabit them to write them.
Edit note: Erika Robuck made a great interactive map of key locations from SISTERS OF NIGHT AND FOG? Check it out at https://bit.ly/3vhS0k2
Q: I saw a fun teaser on your Facebook page, involving vinyl records. Can you tell us anything about your current work-in-progress? If it is indeed, a near-past historical, will this be the first time you have set a story post-WWII?
A: Yes, my new work in progress is a dual period, multigenerational family drama—moving between 1978 and the 1930s—tied together by one of the most studied and debated artifacts of all time. My first, self-published novel, was also a dual period, multigenerational family drama that took place partly in the present day and in the 1800s. I love working in this form because it ties the past to the present in interesting ways, and creates natural suspense as the reader moves back and forth in time.
Q: What’s your favorite thing to do when visiting Key West? What’s one thing visitors should not miss?
It’s hard for me to answer this question, because I want to say so much. Key West is my home away from home. Aside from visiting Books & Books to find that perfect vacation read, my heart turns to The Hemingway House. You don’t have to like Hemingway to be enchanted by the home, gardens, and cats.
Q: What are you reading and recommending these days?
A: I recently rediscovered my love of Rosamunde Pilcher, the queen of multigenerational family dramas, and have been recommending WINTER SOLSTICE to everyone I meet. I also loved the re-released LOOKING FOR TROUBLE: THE CLASSIC MEMOIR OF A TRAILBLAZING WAR CORRESPONDENT, by Virginia Cowles (out in August). From the Spanish Civil war to the London Blitz, readers are travel companions on the most astonishing pre-WW2 itinerary imaginable. Finally, I loved THE PERSONAL LIBRARIAN, by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray. It tells the story of JP Morgan’s dazzling, brilliant librarian, Belle da Costa Greene, whose secret—that she is a Black woman who passes for white—could destroy both her personal and professional life. It was incredibly beautiful and eye opening.
Lori, who curates our Black History Month display, recommends Yonder by Jabari Asim (Simon & Schuster) for readers who enjoyed one of her previous picks,The Prophetsby Robert Jones, Jr.
Of Yonder, Lori writes, “The slaves are The Stolen, their masters are The Thieves, and Yonder (Canada) is the promised land of freedom. The story of slavery and all of its horrors is not new, but this book focuses instead on the intimacy and love The Stolen feel for each other under the harshest conditions. Allegorical, poetic, and unflinchingly honest, it had me reading through tears of sadness and joy.”
In picking this book, Lori was looking for a good read to kick-off Black History month, and she thinks that it will appeal to readers who want complex stories of the challenges and joys of Black people in America.
“I would consider this a companion piece to The Prophets, which tells the story of a passionate affair between two enslaved young men, another book depicting slaves as loving people looking for intimate connections in the face of the most hopeless of times,” Lori writes. Read her review of The Prophets from last February.
Lori writes that she enjoyed and was intrigued enough by Yonder to add other books by Jabari Asim to her TBR. Maybe she’ll find something that works for next year’s Key West Literary Seminar, which has the theme I Sing, America: A Celebration of Black Literature, and for which she is the chairperson.
On Thursday Jan. 20th Books and Books @ the Studios welcomed Kirthana Ramisetti, author of the bestselling debut novel Dava Shastri’s Last Day – the Good Morning America December Book Club selection.
The live event has passed but you can watch the recording below and then pick up your copy at the store or by clicking here.
Dava Shastri, one of the world’s wealthiest women, has always lived with her reputation in mind. When she is diagnosed with brain cancer at the age of seventy, she decides to take her death—like all matters of her life—into her own hands.
Summoning her four adult children to her private island, she discloses shocking news: in addition to having a terminal illness, she has arranged for the news of her death to break early, so she can read her obituaries. As someone who dedicated her life to the arts and the empowerment of women, Dava expects to read articles lauding her philanthropic work. Instead, her “death” reveals two devastating secrets, truths she thought she had buried forever. And now the whole world knows, including her children.
In the time she has left, Dava must come to terms with every decision that has led to this moment—and make peace with those closest to her before it’s too late. Compassionately written and full of humor and heart, this powerful debut novel examines private versus public legacy, the complexities of love, and the never-ending joys—and frustrations—of family.
As a former entertainment reporter for Newsday and the New York Daily News, Kirthana Ramisetti has written her fair share of stories about the lives (and deaths) of the rich and famous. She has a master’s degree in creative writing from Emerson College, and her work has been published in the Wall Street Journal, Entertainment Weekly, The Atlantic, TODAY.com, and elsewhere. Dava Shastri’s Last Day is her first novel, and she lives in New York City.
