Families can get a 10% discount for books on kids’ required summer reading lists. And, if we don’t have it in stock, we’ll order it for you. Just let us know that the books you are purchasing are school-required summer reading.
Local Teachers — Provide us a copy of your summer reading list and we’ll give your students 20% off of those books. Send your lists to booksandbooks@tskw.org by June 1.
We wish we were in Key West at Books & Books. Alas, @#$% happens and it’s happened to us. In November George had Whipple surgery in New York. Everything happened very fast. Too fast to let you know. We were away for six weeks. He’s made a remarkable recovery, we had a joyous holiday with our family in town, and some of you might be lucky enough to have seen him at the store these last few weeks. As Emily says, he’s back crawling around on the floor fixing electronics.
But now, even though he feels fine and has an excellent pathology report, we’re off to Miami (he has to be near a major medical center) for further treatment. It’s the protocol. We’re hoping we can get back every few weeks but we can’t say for sure until we see how he reacts to the chemo. We’re both feeling positive about this though leaving our beloved Key West and the store for a period up to six months makes us sad. How lucky we are to have Emily at the helm with Robin, Lori, Gianelle, Camila, and our loyal volunteers making sure everything runs smoothly. I’ll miss introducing our visiting writers. We have some great ones lined up. I’ll miss the day to day with all of you. While I won’t be around for photos I will be able to sign books. It may take an extra week but we’ve figured out a way to get them to me, and then to you.
And so, it’s goodbye for a while. I’ll check in with the store every day. I’ll be there in spirit. You know that. Thank you for your support and good vibes.
Love,
Judy
January, 14, 2019
Almost a year ago, Books & Books @ The Studios introduced our Youth Advisory Board (YAB), a group of readers in grades 6-12, to help us keep our selection of Young Adult books relevant and engaging. The group has had the opportunity to read new books before they are officially published, write reviews and participate in store events.
With the ending of the school year, it is time to say good-bye and good luck to our graduating YAB members, including Becca, who is graduating from Key West High School.
One of Becca’s favorite books this year was WHEN DIMPLE MET RISHI by Sandhya Menon and before she heads off to University of Florida in the fall, planning to major in business, she’ll spend the summer as a counselor at a sleep away camp in Pennsylvania.
Congratulations to Becca, her proud family, and to all our Florida Keys graduating seniors!
Interested in learning more about our YAB or know someone who is? Email booksandbooks@tskw.org for more information or click here to fill out an online application.
Books and Books and the Key West Literary Seminar are pleased to welcome Nicole Dennis-Benn to Key West. Dennis-Benn will read from her latest novel PATSY at the store (533 Eaton Street) on Friday June 28th at 7pm. Signing to follow.
PATSY has received starred reviews from Kirkus and Booklist and has been lauded by the New York Times, NPR, Washington Post, Time Magazine, The Atlantic, Vogue, Vanity Fair, among others.
“PATSY fills a literary void with compassion, complexity and tenderness,” raves Time Magazine; and according to NPR,
“Dennis-Benn is quickly becoming an indispensable novelist, and PATSY is a brave, brilliant triumph of a book.” The National Book Review describes PATSY as “exquisitely written, highly nuanced, and powerful” and Nylon has proclaimed that “[this] stunning second novel only serves to solidify [Dennis-Benn’s] place as one of the finest novelists writing today.” Award-winning author, Alexander Chee, calls PATSY “a stunningly powerful inter-generational novel,” and Man Booker Prize finalist, Chigozie Obioma, deems PATSY as “beautiful, shattering, and deeply affecting.”
Her debut novel, HERE COMES THE SUN, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, won 
the Lambda Literary Award for Fiction, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Award, the New York Times Public Library Young Lions Award, the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize, and was long-listed for the Dublin Literary Award.
Time Out New York described Dennis-Benn as one of the “few immigrants and first-generation Americans who are putting their stamps on NYC,” and Vice included her in a round-up of immigrant authors “who are making American literature great again.”
Dennis-Benn was born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica. She is a graduate of St. Andrew High School for Girls and Cornell University; and holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Michigan and an MFA in Creative Writing from Sarah Lawrence College. She has taught in the writing programs at Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania, NYU, Sarah Lawrence College, and City College; and has been awarded fellowships from MacDowell Colony, Hedgebrook, Lambda, Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, Hurston/Wright, and Sewanee Writers’ Conference. She lives with her wife in Brooklyn, New York.
Dennis-Benn is in Key West to serve as Distinguished Visiting Writer for the Key West Literary Seminar’s Young Writers Studio, a writing program for high school students across Monroe County. The program is designed to highlight Key West’s literary history, give students access to prominent working authors and help them develop and practice key writing skills and techniques. This year’s theme is Island in the Works from James Merrill’s poem of the same name, which he wrote from his Elizabeth Street home in the 1980s.
Nicole Dennis-Benn, author of PATSY (reading and signing at the store on Friday June 28th at 7pm) is in Key West to serve as Distinguished Visiting Writer for the Key West Literary Seminar’s Young Writers Studio, an innovative writing program for local high school students.
KWLS executive director Arlo Haskell, who is also a historian and the author of THE JEWS OF KEY WEST: SMUGGLERS, CIGAR MAKERS, AND REVOLUTIONARIES graciously took some time out of his busy schedule to chat with us a little about the Young Writers Studio.
Q: Please tell us a little about the Young Writers Studio?
A: This is the second year of the program, but it was in development for a few years before that. All the extra time and thinking that went into it really paid off. We recruited a number of current and former high school students to serve as an advisory committee and ran through brainstorming sessions with them that were really eye-opening. We also spent time talking with local teachers to get their input. Then Kate Peters, Nick Vagnoni, and I created and refined the prompts and reading materials and tested out various excursion, so we felt like it was fully-formed by the time it launched last summer.
It’s totally different from our adult programs — five full days with a travel/excursion component each day, the highlight being a trip to Dry Tortugas National Park. The idea is to have a really immersive experience in Key West, use this place as inspiration for new writing, and end up seeing “home” in a whole different way.
Q: Has KWLS had any other youth focused programs in the past?
A: We’ve brought speakers to the high school in January for years, but this is the first fully-developed youth program that we’ve launched. Hopefully not the last! Eventually, I’d like to create a full-time educational department at KWLS to work hand-in-hand with teachers throughout the county and strengthen the literary education of local students.
Q: How many young adults participate each year?
A: Anywhere from 12 to 16, with some returning students and Key West High School graduates serving in a junior staff role.
Q: How do you select the visiting authors?
A: The Seminar in January is a great way to evaluate the writers we want for this program. I look for writers who have been on our stage and who make a big, immediate impression, who have charisma and a natural ability to connect with people from various backgrounds. A well-developed sense of empathy is hugely important. And of course they have to be kind, generous, and caring.
Getting Victor LaValle (author of THE CHANGELING) to teach for us last year was huge. He’s an incredible writer and an even more incredible human being. Seeing how inspired our students were by the work they did with him was enormously gratifying.
Q: What are your favorite books to recommend to young adults, either classic or current?
A:Young people should read whatever grabs their attention, and they should also seek out books that challenge their idea of the world. It’s good to be pushed outside of your comfort zone — that’s how we grow. These seem like cliché choices now, but the books that had the biggest impact on me in high school were Jack Kerouac’s ON THE ROAD, Herman Hesse’s SIDDHARTA, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE.
Q: In general, what are you reading and recommending these days? What do you consider a beach read and why?
A: At the beach these days, I’m usually eagle-eyes watching my two young daughters (they can’t swim yet!) and don’t get much reading done. But outside the beach, I’m reading a lot by and about the late great Harry Mathews. I’m editing his Collected Poems for publication early next year, so of course I’ve read through all of his poems in an insanely-close-reading-proofreading kind of way. I’ve also been reading his “Autobiography” and other prose pieces like “For Prizewinners” and “Mathews’s Algorithm” to get a better sense of what made him tick as an artist, plus a great book called MANY SUBTLE CHANNELS by Daniel Levin Becker, which is a history of the Oulipo, the French group of mathematicians and writers that Harry was part of.
But back to the beach and beach-reading! How about this great 1966 poem of Harry’s, “The Swimmer”:
Removing my watch, pleased with the morning weather,
I dove—I would cross the Atlantic by myself Neither she,
Nor I, nor Brooklyn minded.
~ Robin Wood, Associate Manager
Come celebrate five years of independent bookselling’s biggest party. Join Books & Books @ The Studios of Key West and more than 500 independent bookstores in 49 states celebrating our shared love of reading and shopping local, small & independent.
It’s a party for the best customers in the world. We’ll have exclusive day-of merchandise – fun products you can only get in indie bookstores and only on Bookstore Day – along with giveaways and a surprise or two. And, you’ll certainly find great books, art supplies, toys and all the other things that make our store special.
The 2019 IBD author ambassador Tayari Jones, author of AN AMERICAN MARRIAGE, says, “Indie stores stock books by hand and sell them the same way. They know what we want and need to read because they know us, as people. A writer is not a machine. A reader is not an app. We are human beings and so are the independent bookstore workers who show up each day and place books in our hands.”
Some of this year’s exclusive Bookstore Day items include:
Charles Bukowski Uncensored exclusive vinyl album
In 1993, the year before he died, Bukowski recorded selections from his classic Run with the Hunted. This exclusive vinyl edition features these selections along with additional material from that recording session including candid conversations between Bukowski, his wife Linda Lee Bukowski, and his producer. This is a true must-have for the Bukowski fan.
Women Talking (signed edition with an exclusive IBD-only cover)
Author: Miriam Toews
Fans of Toews’ darkly funny fiction have been waiting for this one. And we have an exclusive signed edition with a redesigned, IBD-only cover. Women Talking is a transformative novel — as completely unexpected as it is inspired—based on actual events that happened between 2005 and 2009 in a remote Mennonite community.
What to Eat with What You Read: A Guide for Book Clubs and Other Literary Gatherings
A companion to last year’s IBD bestseller The Book Club Journal, comes this funny, helpful guide with reading lists, recipes, and menu suggestions from 25 of our favorite authors, including Min Jin Lee, Mary Roach, Roxane Gay, Jennifer Egan, and Robin Sloan.
Ada Twist and the Perilous Pants (Exclusive, signed edition with FREE iron-on Ada patch)
Author: Andrea Beaty
A special Independent Bookstore Day exclusive autographed copy of ADA TWIST AND THE PERILOUS PANTS signed by bestselling author Andrea Beaty. Includes a collectible embroidered iron-on patch of stellar scientist Ada Twist.
If you won’t be in Key West on April 27, check out this list of participating indie bookstores: http://indiemap.bookweb.org/
Author photo: Mindy Schwartz Sorasky
Pam Jenoff is the author of historical novels, including the New York Times bestseller THE ORPHAN’S TALE. Her novels are inspired by her experiences working at the Pentagon and also as a diplomat for the State Department handling Holocaust issues in Poland.
We had the opportunity to ask her a few questions before her reading and book signing of THE LOST GIRLS OF PARIS on Wednesday, April 17 at 6pm.
Q: What does a U.S. foreign service officer do? Where was the most interesting place you were posted to?
A: A foreign service officer is a career diplomat. They are posted to embassies and consulates all over the world to do political, economic, consular and cultural affairs work. Krakow, Poland was my only posting.
Q: In addition to writing novels, you teach law school? How do those two endeavors compare and contrast?
A: I am proud to be on the faculty of Rutgers Law in New Jersey; it’s a wonderful place. There is a great synergy between writing and teaching. I can bring fiction writing techniques to the legal writing classroom in order to help my students know themselves better as writers and jumpstart creativity. Legal writing helps my novels by providing me with critical skills such as revision. Additionally, I love to balance the solitude of writing with the sociability of teaching. Truly a great combination!
Q: THE LOST GIRLS OF PARIS is based on a true story, why did you want to fictionalize it?
A: I prefer to say “inspired by actual events” because I take great liberties with the history and I don’t want to stake too large a claim as to the real story – that belongs to those who lived it. I was researching when I discovered the remarkable history of the women who served as agents for Britain’s Special Operations Executive in World War II, deployed behind enemy lines to engage in sabotage and subversion. I was taken by the scope of their heroism, their tragic downfall and the dark betrayals that led to that. I wanted to shine a light on their stories through my own medium – fiction.
Q: What have you learned about publishing along the way that it would have been useful to know earlier in your writing career?
A: In the beginning, I probably did not understand the importance of historical accuracy to readers. I thought of myself as creating a world in a Tolkien-esque way and I think there were mistakes and missteps that I would do differently now.
Q: What are you reading and recommending currently?
A: I read everything. In historical fiction I loved THE WARTIME SISTERS by Lynda Loigman and IN ANOTHER TIME by Jillian Cantor. In suspense, I can’t say enough good things about Annie Ward’s new book BEAUTIFUL BAD and the forthcoming Heather Gudenkauf title, BEFORE SHE WAS FOUND. In contemporary books, I loved Kristin Higgins GOOD LUCK WITH THAT and ONE DAY IN DECEMBER by Josie Silver.
Q: Are you working on anything new?
A: It’s very early days, but my new project was inspired by the true story of a young girl who survived World War II in a sewer.
~Robin Wood, Associate Manager
DESIGNING WITH PALMS showcases beautiful photos of gardens and native palm habitat around the country that will give you the sense of relaxing in fabulous green spaces. Author Jason Dewees will discuss creating landscapes that feature dramatic palms on Friday, April 19, at 6pm.
Prior to his talk, we had the opportunity to ask him a few questions:
Q: What inspired you to write this book? Why palms?
A: I became the youngest member at the time of the International Palm Society in high school and maintained the interest until I began working in horticulture and eventually at Flora Grubb Gardens, a design-driven garden center in San Francisco where palms are a significant offering — big specimens, small rarities, and everything in between. Palms are exceptional plants, charismatic, iconic, and diverse — and not always the easiest to understand and work with. Much of my work as horticulturist at Flora Grubb Gardens involves collaborating with designers, homeowners, and landscape architects on planting design, and it became clear that there was a place for a book about designing with palms, something of interest to gardeners, designers, and palm-lovers. Once photographer Caitlin Atkinson was on board, the fate of the book was sealed: we knew it would be a beautiful and useful book, and it’s been received remarkably well.
Q: How did you get interested in plants and landscape design? Were you a gardener as a kid?
A: I grew up in San Francisco, where I live today. My mother had grown up in Miami and we used to visit my grandparents in Coconut Grove and Pinecrest over holidays. Some of my earliest memories of visiting Florida involve my grandfather carting me around in the wheelbarrow, proudly showing me his garden acre — his veggie plot, banana patch, mango trees, Florida-native buttonwoods, and his favorite palms — royal palms and coconut palms.
From an early age palms made an impression on me and thanks to those regular Florida visits I paid attention to the palms in California, as well. Meanwhile, I was fascinated by native California plants (not just our one native palm species) as a child and in our tiny urban garden in San Francisco I helped my mother maintain her beloved roses and cherry tomatoes. Then, in my senior year of high school while studying botany and California natural history I become obsessed with palms.
That year we spent spring break in Miami and the Keys and my grandmother gave me her copy of PALMS OF THE WORLD, a 1960 black and white encyclopedia of palms that was still (this was in mid-1980s) the best source of info on palms, and it opened up the world for me.
Q: Please tell me a fun fact about palms, something that might surprise and intrigue people.
A: Among the 2600 species in the palm family are vines, shrubs, trees, bamboo-like clusters, tiny understory plants, and even mangroves. The family is home to the largest seed in the plant kingdom (up to 65 pounds on the coco de mer), the largest leaf in the plant kingdom (80 feet long on a raffia palm species), and the largest flowerstalk on any plant (up to 25 feet tall on the talipot palm). Palms are monocots — meaning they’re closer to fellow-monocots like grasses, orchids, bromeliads, asparagus, and agaves than they are to any woody trees.
Q: What’s you top tip for people as they think about designing with and maintaining landscaping that includes palms?
A: The top tip for landscaping and designing with palms is to make a careful choice about the varieties you use. It’s important to calibrate the species to your conditions, to the roles they need to play, and to the scale of your garden. Consider using palms like the areca or the Macarthur palm as informal hedges or bamboo substitutes, not looking at palms just as trees. For that tree role, Florida’s state tree, the palmetto, is often an excellent choice, but its penchant for producing seedlings may force more weeding than you’re ready for. Or the iconic and useful coconut palm might be your favorite palm, but when it reaches a certain height those big nuts can become a hazard as well as a resource.
Q: It looks like you covered a lot of ground in putting this book together. What was your favorite locale?
A: In working on the book we traveled from the rainy windward side of Hawai`i’s Big Island to the desert of Palm Springs, and from parts of South Carolina and the California Wine Country with pretty cold winters, to Key West’s tropical gardens. Honestly, my favorite locale in traveling for the book was the Silver Palm Trail at Bahia Honda State Park, which we visited in 2015, long before Hurricane Irma closed the trail. It was not a designed landscape, but a native palm habitat, an inspiration for garden design. Its Florida silver palms mixed with low evergreen woodland adjacent to mangrove and blue sea had a combination of scrappy vitality and serene beauty. I plan to stop there on my way to Key West and hope to see it regenerating.
~ Robin Wood, Associate Manager
Photo credit: Sean Mewshaw
Michael Mewshaw often writes about famous people and his goal is to take the reader deeper than what they think they know. “The greatest challenge is overcoming readers’ preconceived notions. Celebrities get a lot of publicity, much of it inaccurate. I feel a responsibility as a writer to explore the truth behind the public image. That’s been my modus operandi for my 50-year career,” Mewshaw said recently when we caught up with him ahead of his Tuesday night event launching his newest book, THE LOST PRINCE, an examination of his friendship with the author Pat Conroy.
We had the opportunity to ask him how this book is different, what makes Key West special and what he’s reading now.
Q. For THE LOST PRINCE, in specific, why did you want to share this story? What do you hope readers will take away from it?
A. I hope they’ll take away an accurate picture of Pat Conroy and of our relationship. I’d also like to emphasize that Pat urged me to write about this, painful as he knew it would be for both of us. He’s dead now, but it’s still painful for me, and I hope readers will understand that you can be honest even about someone you loved.
Q. How long has Key West been your winter home? Given that you’ve traveled all over the world, what makes Key West special?
A: I spent two winters in Key West, one in 1973, the other in ’78, back when the place a raffish, rundown, low-priced paradise. I returned in 2000 and have been spending the winter here ever since. It’s a much different town, just as I’m a much different and older person. But many of KW’s best qualities remain — the weather, the tolerance for idiosyncrasies, and the tennis courts in Bayview Park where people continue to be patient with my geriatric game.
Q. What are you reading and recommending currently?
A. I read incessantly, both fiction and nonfiction. Recently I’ve finished a few books about Spain which pertained to my current project. For pleasure I’ve been reading Lauren Groff’s short story collection, FLORIDA, and Deborah Eisenberg’s collection, YOUR DUCK IS MY DUCK. Anyone who loves language would glory in these books.
Q. What are you working on next?
A. I’ve finished a very rough first draft of a novel that’s set in Granada, Spain. I just started rewriting it and have a great deal of work to do. It’s much too early to say more.
~ Robin Wood, Associate Manager
Books and Books @ the Studios will host a discussion and book signing with Ann Beattie to launch her new novel, A WONDERFUL STROKE OF LUCK on April 9th at 6pm.
An undisputed master of the short story, A WONDERFUL STROKE OF LUCK (on sale April 2nd, published by Viking) is Beattie’s first novel since Mrs. Nixon published in 2011.
Longtime readers of Beattie’s will be pleased to find in A WONDERFUL STROKE OF LUCK the same indelible, funny observations about relationships, life’s mysteries and disappointments, that make her short fiction so beloved.
