Category: Newsletter

Shining a light on history with Pam Jenoff, author of THE LOST GIRLS OF PARIS

March 17, 2019

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

Under the Palms with Jason Dewees, author of DESIGNING WITH PALMS

March 17, 2019

by Robin Wood

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

Beyond the Legend: Michael Mewshaw, author of THE LOST PRINCE

February 22, 2019

by Robin Wood

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

Moving off the Princess Track with Joan Jacobs Brumberg, author of FASTING GIRLS & THE BODY PROJECT

February 17, 2019

by Robin Wood

Thursday, March 28, at 6pm, a reading and book signing with Joan Jacobs Brumberg, author of FASTING GIRLS & THE BODY PROJECT. Join us for a fascinating and timely discussion about women, girls, body image and social change.

Leading up to this event, we had the opportunity to ask Joan a few questions about her books and herself.

Q: Since THE BODY PROJECT and FASTING GIRLS were originally published how have the issues explored in the books changed? Has there been an increase or decrease in anorexia nervosa with the growth of social media?

A: Social media and scientific medicine may have intensified the cultural imperative for bodily perfection. There are many more “body projects” requiring time, energy, money and persistent maintenance. The number of diagnosed cases of anorexia nervosa remains consistent but there is more disordered eating and orthorexia.

[Editor’s note: Orthorexia is the obsessive pursuit of ‘healthy’ eating.]

Q: From the research you’ve done about girls and body image, what’s the one thing you wish you could impart to girls and parents?

A: Stop reading each others bodies as well as your own. What your body can do is far more important than what it looks like. Young girls need to be moved off The Princess Track.

Q: What’s your relationship to Key West?

A: My husband and I are happy snowbirds, two months here, for almost a decade. We like winter in the Conch Republic and summer in Ithaca, NY on Cayuga Lake. We chose Key West because it is so different than the rest of Florida.

Q: What are you reading and recommending currently?
So far this season: Finished BECOMING on the plane and thought it was far better than most autobiographies of public figures. But I’ve also read THE LOST GIRLS OF PARIS by Pam Jenoff, EARTHLY REMAINS by Donna Leon, THE WINTER SOLIDER by Daniel Mason. At home, I read mostly nonfiction, but not here.

~Robin Wood, Associate Manager

Artists & Mothers: Talking with Susan Conley, author of ELSEY COME HOME

February 2, 2019

by Robin Wood

Hearing Susan Conley, author of ELSEY COME HOME read from and discuss her novel was a great way to close out a busy January 2019 calendar of events. Conley’s novel about an expat American living in China deals with issues of artistic and personal identity, addiction, marriage, and motherhood.

Elsey, the novel’s protagonist is trying to figure out how to reconcile the divergent needs of marriage, motherhood with small children and art. Her husband suggests a yoga retreat in the mountains where Elsey meets a cast of characters, who, among other things, depict women dealing with different kinds of issues and challenges.

“Elsey’s problem is that she can’t cohere all the parts of herself,” Susan said. Painting and parenting both call for a kind of obsession, focus, that it is hard to divide. Art calls for a kind of recklessness – and more than anything else – for time.

And, though, Susan herself is now the mother of teenagers rather than young children, she says that need for time doesn’t go away. But while children require the alteration of artistic habits, Susan says they have also been a gift to her work as a writer. “A deeper sense of empathy, a more expansive emotional bandwith, I am more committed to my work,” she said.

~ Robin Wood, Associate Manager

Planting Seeds with Andrew Furman, author of GOLDENS ARE HERE

February 2, 2019

by Robin Wood

Inspired by true events surrounding an historic Florida citrus season and the civil rights struggle, Andrew Furman’s GOLDENS ARE HERE offers a glimpse of the sea changes occurring in Florida and the nation in the 1960s through the prism of one family’s negotiations with the land, their neighbors, and each other. Leading up to his reading and book signing Feb. 6, we had the opportunity to chat with him about his background and new book.

Q: Please tell us a little about how you came to write GOLDENS ARE HERE?

A: I’ve lived here in south Florida for the past 22 years and one of my favorite things to do is hop in the car with my family and visit some of the more scruffy out-of-the-way outposts of our Sunshine State. The seeds for GOLDENS ARE HERE, if I might use a botanical metaphor, originated in one of these trips with my family to the small town of Titusville and its rural outskirts. As I walked the streets of this historic town and visited the remaining orange groves along the nearby Indian River, I found myself imagining what the place must have looked like and meant to the people who lived there in what might be considered the region’s hey-day, the 1960s when the space-race was hitting its stride, the citrus industry was booming, and, as my research would uncover, the Civil Rights struggle was impacting black and white lives in significant ways. It seemed like a rich time and place to direct my creative energies. It wasn’t too long before a cast of characters and a story emerged in my mind that would allow me to engage with the intersections between the social and environmental realms, which has long been a primary interest of mine.

Q: You’ve also written a memoir about Florida? Can you say a little about how you decide to cast a subject as fiction or nonfiction and how you think readers respond to those narrative choices?

A: This is an excellent question that preoccupies much of my attention these days. In fact, I’m currently teaching a graduate writing workshop at Florida Atlantic University entitled, Writing Across Genres, which examines the work of writers (e.g., Colson Whitehead, Marilynne Robinson, Jesmyn Ward) who write both nonfiction and fiction. The aim, ultimately, is for my students to contemplate their own choices, vis a vis genre, more deliberately. Most of my writing—both nonfiction and fiction, and as my answer above suggests—originates in place. From there, I might choose the essay form if I feel that my own personal experiences in and of a particular place stands the chance of resonating with readers in a powerful way, and/or the real-life experience of another person associated with that place demands attention, or if some feature of the place (an animal or plant, say) intrigues me so much that I’m compelled to research and reflect upon this feature in earnest. BITTEN, my recent memoir, documents my experiences coming to know various fascinating aspects of my adopted home state.

I think I turn to fiction when there’s something about a place that inspires me to imagine an entire story and set of characters outside my own personal experiences, when to imagine a place as fully as I desire, I require the freedom of the “make believe” realm. As I review this response, I realize that I’ve positioned fiction, perhaps, as the more “creative” genre. I resist this notion, in theory, as I believe that the essay form can be every bit as creative as fiction, and as some of my most creative work, certainly from an aesthetic point of view, exists within the pages of my essays. But there we are.

In terms of how readers respond to these narrative choices, this is an even tougher question. But if I understand the question correctly, and given all the scandals in the realm of nonfiction lately (James Frey, Margaret B. Jones, et. al.), I will say that I believe that writers enter into a sort of contract with their readers when they purport to write nonfiction, that writers implicitly promise to be telling the truth (not to be inventing characters or events out of whole cloth, for example) and that readers have a right to be disappointed when writers are discovered to have violated these essential terms. In my creative nonfiction classes, my students and I spend a good bit of time brooding over the more nuanced terms of this contract.

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

A: This one’s easy. Don’t give up! That is, if you love the writing part of writing, keep at it and don’t be discouraged by the obstacles that come your way as you seek publication. I find that many aspiring writers simply don’t realize how many false starts, how many drafts, how many rejections by agents and editors, how many years, in short, go into a typical book. Perseverance pays.

Q: What are you reading and recommending currently?

A: The best novel I read recently is Richard Powers’ THE OVERSTORY, in which several interconnected characters and plot-lines beautifully evoke the long and tangled relationship between trees and us. On the nonfiction front, I was fascinated and moved by Sy Montgomery’s THE SOUL OF AN OCTOPUS, which forced me to look at octopuses (not “octopi,” I learned) in an entirely new light, and to rethink my alimentary choices at Greek restaurants and sushi bars!

Finally, upon learning of Mary Oliver’s recent passing (who was living just up the coast in Hobe Sound), I’ve been re-reading many of the poems I’ve so admired over her long career and reading some of her newer work in DEVOTIONS, a fairly comprehensive recent anthology of her poetry.

Q: What are you working on next?

A: Funny that you ask. I’m delighted to report that I’m currently working on a novel manuscript and a related collection of stories set in the Florida Keys! While I don’t like to talk too much about my current projects, I will say that I was inspired by my several bird-watching visits to the Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Botanical State Park. As some of your readers surely know, this hammock and much of north Key Largo was slated for residential development in the 1970s and 80s, and some construction had ensued. Thanks in no small part to the tireless efforts of various environmental groups, including the Izaak Walton League, Friends of the Everglades, and the Upper Keys Citizens Association, led by Dagny Johnson, the land was finally acquired by Florida’s Conservation and Recreational Lands Program. The 2,421 acre park, which I encourage readers to visit, is now home to 84 protected species of plants and animals.

~ Robin Wood, Associate Manager

A Q&A with Holly Goldberg Sloan, co-author of TO NIGHT OWL FROM DOGFISH

February 2, 2019

by Robin Wood

Photo credit: Gary A. Rosen

Come meet Holly Goldberg Sloan, co-author of TO NIGHT OWL FROM DOGFISH and be among the first people to read her new middle-grade book. Attendees at Holly’s Sunday, February 10, reading and book signing will have the opportunity to get the book two days before its official release.This 2pm store event is free, family friendly and open to the public.

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. Get to know a little bit about Holly and her new book below and come ready with your own questions.

Q: How did you and Meg Wolitzer come to write this novel together?

A: Meg and I met in Naperville, Illinois at Anderson’s Bookshop’s YA Conference. I thought Meg was so funny, and it wasn’t long before we discovered that we had so many life similarities. We’re both writers married to writers. We both have two sons. We both want to laugh more than anything. Over the course of the next few years, as we sent each other email and text messages, we decided we wanted to write something together. We didn’t know how, exactly. I remember asking my husband, and he said, “Just start by emailing each other.” He meant, for the record, that we should send emails back and forth with ideas, themes and possible outlines. I didn’t understand. I thought he meant I should email Meg as a character. So I did that. The very first email of TO NIGHT OWL FROM DOGFISH remains very, very close to that first message! I’m pretty proud of that. We never had an outline. And in fact, I resisted talking much about the story. It was so exciting to not know where it was all going.

Q: What do you hope readers will take away from Avery, Bett and their family?

A: Our book is about two young girls who are trying to navigate the fact that their single fathers are now in a relationship. It’s about identity and family, and it’s funny and, I hope, moving. The big take away, I believe, is one of acceptance. We live in times of great division. If these two girls (and their two dads) can find a way to work things out, there’s hope for us all.

Q: What do you like about writing for middle-grade readers?

A: I think that both Meg and I write stories that interest us. So we don’t target readers so much as we target intriguing characters and stories. I believe that adults will get as much out of TO NIGHT OWL FROM DOGFISH as kids.

Q: What are you reading and recommending? For adults? For kids?

I loved EDUCATED, by Tara Westover. And I just finished ASYMMETRY, by Lisa Halliday. I love all of Kate Dicamillo’s books. And Jackie Woodson makes the world go round.

Q: Have you been to Key West before? What are you most looking forward to here?

A: I have never been to Key West and I will visit 15 cities in the next month as Meg and I promote this new novel. Key West is by far the place I’m most excited to see. I have heard that the drive from Miami is epic. I’m ready!

~ Robin Wood, Associate Manager

Practicing Yoga with Michelle C. Johnson, author of SKILL IN ACTION

February 1, 2019

by Robin Wood

Michelle C. Johnson will read from her book SKILL IN ACTION: RADICALIZING YOUR YOGA PRACTICE TO CREATE A JUST WORLD on Friday, February 8, at 6pm. We had the opportunity recently to ask Michelle a few questions to give you an idea of the concepts she will discuss during her presentation.

Q: Please tell us a little about the links between yoga and social justice work?

A: Yoga is a transformative practice physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. The practice of yoga is about more than our individual transformation, it is also about our collective liberation. The principles of yoga invite practitioners to consider how to live in ways that decrease harm, increase being truthful about the cultural context and our social location and to live with an awareness of our devotion to something bigger than us. Given these times, it is important for yogis to consider how they can live into their yoga and transform the world.

Q: How did you come to this combined practice of yoga and social justice work?

A: I was an activist before a yogi. I entered into my teacher training with an anti-racism lens and a liberatory framework. With each introduction of the tenants of yoga I heard justice infused in them. I have only practiced yoga in this country and my experience as a black yoga teacher has reflected my experience as a black woman navigating the dominant culture. Yoga can be exclusive and a I don’t fit the norms of yoga in the U.S. based on race and body type. Given my experience of oppression in the world and oppression in the yoga room I saw the need for the yoga community to begin to explore the ways in which it is exclusive and not living into the universal truth of our oneness. I have had times when I experience liberation on my yoga mat but in the room I don’t feel free because I am the “only one” or I don’t see myself reflected in the class or teacher.

Q: What will people who aren’t yoga practitioners get from your presentation?

A: Justice is created through social change. Each one of us moves on this planet and needs to be thinking about our identities, our power, our privilege and the healing that needs to happen based on the identities that are oppressed by dominant culture. My presentation is for everyone because yoga and justice are for everyone. I speak about yoga as a way of living and being, not as a physical practice. Often the practice begins when we roll up our mat or step off our meditation cushion. Everyone can relate to navigating a culture with an awareness that we are moving in different ways. The presentation is for anyone interested in social change, creating a just world and deepening their understanding of power and privilege.

Q: What are you reading and recommending currently?

A: EMERGENT STRATEGY by Adrienne Maree Brown
RADICAL DHARMA by Rev. Angel Kyodo Williams
THE HEALING by Saeeda Hafiz

~ Robin Wood, Associate Manager

Knopf presents: A Conversation with Susan Conley, author of ELSEY COME HOME

January 28, 2019

by Robin Wood

Publishing company Alfred A. Knopf put together an excellent Q & A with Susan Conley, author of ELSEY COME HOME to get you ready to meet her in store on January 31 at 6pm.

Q: How would you describe Elsey to readers meeting her for the first time?
A: Elsey is someone you want to talk to at the dinner party, because she’s self-deprecating and also bitingly funny. She can read a room and has a warm smile, and what might really attract you to her is that she’s curious about you and asks good questions. But she doesn’t want you to ask questions about her, because she doesn’t want to give her secrets away. She’s known great success as an acclaimed painter, so she moves through the world with a certain level of confidence on the outside. In this way she seems self-possessed, but by the time we meet her she’s struggling, and her life is unraveling, and she’s trying hard to hide it.

Along with her reading and book signing on Jan. 31, Susan Conley’s ELSEY COME HOME is our current Virtual Book Club pick. Read the book along with us and interact with us on social media by posting and following the hashtag #bbkwbookclub. Share your thoughts and photos on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. We’re @booksandbookskw.

Read the full Q & A from Alfred A. Knopf at: Conley Q&A