Celebrating 25 Years Judy Blume’s Iconic Novel Gets a New Look
Summer Sisters, Judy Blume’s iconic novel of female friendship, is celebrating its 25th anniversary with a beautiful new cover – and it’s the August 2023 Read with Jenna book pick!
Jenna writes, “It’s about that time in your life where you’re trying to figure out who you’re going to be. It is the perfect, perfect beach read but that doesn’t mean that it’s an easy read.” Read more of what Jenna says at https://www.today.com/shop/read-with-jenna.
Plus, keep an eye out for more news about the Summer Sisters tv show, currently in development.
You can order a signed copy of Summer Sisters from us. All copies ordered after this date (8/1/23) will feature the new cover. If you want the book signed, please note in your order comments that you’d like a signed copy. Due to volume, it will be signed only. Also, please note, signed copies ordered now will not ship until November 2023 at the earliest.
Perilous Times by Thomas D. Lee (Ballantine Books), picked by bookseller, Riona Jean
Do you want to fight climate change, battle a dragon, reminisce about lost friends, fight the patriarchy, and more!? Try this new Arthurian Legend on for size.
Bookseller Riona Jean picked Perilous Times as the August featured staff pick because it mixed her favorite genres, fantasy and dystopias.
“It remixes the Arthurian Legend in a new and dynamic way,” she writes.
“Mariam is an ecowarrior with FETA, fighting to save the planet from extreme climate change and rising sea levels. Kay is one of King Arthur’s knights, bound to a resurrection tree by Merlin, called to action whenever Britain is in trouble. With great swaths of the UK under water and major cities falling into ruin, Mariam and Kay stumble their way through trying to do the right thing. Watch out for Lancelot, corporate greed, and a nefarious plot to resurrect Arthur getting in the way!”
“Witty, insightful, and poignant, Perilous Times perfectly marries fantastical legend and dystopian new world order.”
Ed note: Riona read Perilous Times on her Kobo Clara 2E, it’s waterproof, made with recycled plastic, and we have them at the bookstore!
We’ve had the pleasure of working with Alexander this summer, and before we say goodbye, we’d like you all to get to know a little more about him.
Q: Tell us a little bit about yourself.
A: Hi! My name is Alexander Wilson, and I’ve had the pleasure of working at Books & Books over my summer break back home in Key West. I’m going into my sophomore year of college at the University of Florida in Gainesville, where I’m studying English as well as French & Francophone Studies. On top of that, I’m big on music as well as creative writing. I’ve been coming to B&B since high school, and I’d wanted to work at the store for a little while. Fortunately, the opportunity arose this summer, and hopefully more summers in the future. I knew I would fit in at the store because while I enjoy reading & writing, I absolutely love to interact with other people who feel the same way.
Q: What was your favorite thing about working at the store?
A: By far my favorite part of working at the store has been the environment – the people, the books, and the general air of life that surrounds writing. My fellow employees have been nothing short of wonderful. I feel insanely lucky to have been around such remarkable people in such a remarkable space. Moreover, B&B has customers coming from all over the world. Interacting with teachers, authors, book lovers, and even just those relieved to be out of the heat has taught me a great deal about how much a single work could change someone’s life. Being surrounded by other people’s stories is the closest we can truly get to understanding one other, and this was what surprised me: the close-knit community of reading and writing. It is such a beautiful thing, and I’m so grateful to be a part of it.
Q: What kinds of things do you typically read?
A: Although I’d like to widen my literary taste, much of what I currently read is what I would consider “realistic fiction.” While there are a few memoirs and series of essays that I’ve greatly enjoyed, I’ve found that I feel the most seen and learn the most through a good story. For me, books centered on complex human relationships help me to figure out those in my own life and inspire me to try to capture the massive emotions someone like me feels at eighteen.
I can’t say that I have an all-time favorite book just yet, but there are three I can definitively say will always be special in my life: The Color Purple by Alice Walker made me realize just how moving a novel could be and got me back into reading after a long slump period all through adolescence. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller put on display a kind of love that was novel (haha) and inspired me to believe that there are good people out there waiting to be met. Finally, The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton is a testament that it doesn’t matter if you’re in your teens or your 50s, your voice matters and you can write something worth hearing. I deeply recommend each of these books and keep them very close to my heart.
Whether it’s fake dating and food, or a thorny, political take on ‘will they or won’t they’ or a wicked hot mythical retelling, there’s something for every Romance reader.
Here are a few books we’ve been enjoying or are looking forward to this summer.
Pre-order Meg Cabot’s witchy new Rom-Com, Enchanted to Meet You, which is getting great early reviews. You can get a signed copy from us, just note you want it signed when placing your order.
Lori enjoyed Everything’s Fine by Cecilia Rabess, an opposites attract story, that deals with office politics, politics, race, and more. “Slow burn but the attraction and the obstacles are real and well portrayed,” Lori writes.
6 Times We Almost Kissed (And One Time We Did) by Tess Sharpe is one of Robin’s favorite books of the year. She loved these tenacious, determined, stubborn young people, and if you’ve ever been a fan fiction reader, she thinks you will too.
Gina is devouring Katee Robert’s Dark Olympus series, and Wicked Beauty doesn’t disappoint.
Both Chef’s Choice by TJ Alexander and Fake Dates and Mooncakes by Sher Lee re charming and sweet, and might inspire you to spend some time in the kitchen with someone you love.
Partners in Crime by Alisha Rai is a second-chance/caper mashup, that will take you for a thrilling ride, while Ms. Demeanor by Elinor Lipman makes house arrest sexy.
Sat. August 19, 2023, join us or indie bookstores across the country to celebrate books about love. On Bookstore Romance Day, we’ll be featuring a great display of our favorite romances, mimosas while supplies last, a giveaway with in-store purchase, a fun raffle, and maybe a surprise or two.
If you won’t be in Key West on the 19th, visit Bookstore Romance Day for a list of participating stores, and check out the slate of online panels featuring some of your favorite Romance writers.
We are always so excited when Meg Cabot has a new book coming out! Meg is the author of The Princess Diaries series, the Little Bridge Island series (set on a fictional island in the Florida Keys, starting with No Judgments) and many other books. We are proud to call her a friend of the store – you can regularly get personalized, signed copies of her books from our store.
Get ready to read about Princess Mia’s personal (and political) battles while imposing health restrictions on her small European nation; life during lockdown (even in as idyllic a location such as a palace on the Riviera); a suspected royal affair; the invention (and implementation) of an intranasal vaccine by Michael Moscovitz that could change the course of the pandemic – or at least the lives of every citizen in Genovia; and one very demanding royal grandmother.
While we wait for the new book, we had the opportunity to chat with Meg Cabot.
Q: What was it like revisiting the Princess Diaries at this time?
A: So much fun! When the Florida Keys shut down in Spring of 2020 due to COVID, we were all living with so much uncertainty. I kept sane by returning to the world of The Princess Diaries, and writing about how an adult Princess Mia would handle the crisis in Genovia. So this was a comfort read for me—and I hope it will be for others, too.
Q: If you would, tell us a little about VOW for Girls and why this organization is important to you?
A: I was shocked when, during the pandemic, I was contacted by real life Princess Mabel of the Netherlands, who asked if I could help promote the charity she founded, VowForGirls.org, which hopes to end child marriage. For every 18 year old girl in the US who graduates from high school, 6 girls the same age or even much younger are forced into marriage around the world, and that number is only growing higher due to COVID and other recent global disasters. That’s why I’m donating 10% of my author proceeds from Quarantine Princess Diaries to VowForGirls, which devotes 100% of its funding to community-based efforts to help girls choose their own future. Very princessy!
Q: What can you tell us about the Princess Diaries 3 movie? Are you excited?
A: I’m not allowed to say much, but I CAN say I’m excited. I love the direction they’re going.
Q: If you don’t mind saying, what are you working on these days?
A: Thanks so much for asking! I’m actually heading north for my next book, to the fictional town of West Harbor, CT, which appears to be on the verge of apocalyptic collapse. Only a modern day witch can save it (with a little help from a handsome stranger). Enchanted to Meet You, a paranormal rom-com for adult readers, will be out just in time for Halloween 2023!
Q: How long have you lived in Key West? What originally brought you here and from where?
A: Like so many people, my husband and I came to Key West on vacation from New York City. We loved the funky, artistic vibe, which reminded us so much of Greenwich Village—but with tropical weather! So nearly 20 years ago, we bought a house here, intending to split our time between Key West and Manhattan. But as so often happens in Key West, our house came with a cat who adopted us, so we ended up staying full time—and love it more every day!
Q: What are you reading and recommending these days?
A: For readers looking for something light and romantic, I recommend This Time It’s Real by Ann Liang. It’s YA, but set in Beijing, so in addition to all the fun teen drama, there are tons of descriptions of delicious Asian street food. And for readers looking for something slightly more serious, I’m loving Rough Sleepers by Tracy Kidder, a non-fiction exploration of one doctor’s experience dedicating his career to helping the homeless in Boston.
[Ed. note: If you want a signed, personalized copy of The Quarantine Princess Diaries, include the personalization in the order comments.]
Lucy Burdette is the author of the popular Key West food critic mysteries and the standalone novel, The Ingredients of Happiness (Severn House)
Lucy Burdette, photo credit Coppola Photography
Q: Would you tell us a little about the new book, The Ingredients of Happiness? What inspired it? Is it a standalone or the possible beginning of a new series?
A: Thank you so much for asking me about The Ingredients of Happiness, my first venture into contemporary women’s fiction. The story follows Cooper Hunziker, a new Yale professor, who also has also has a pop psychology book on happiness about to be published. She’s under a lot of pressure at work because four people are vying for the same job. Plus the chair of the department is unhappy about her fluffy sideline project. As penance, she’s sentenced to co-lead a self-help happiness group at the New Haven library, which forces her to examine her own life. Is she happy with the path she’s chosen? Does she have the kind of warm friendships that the women in the group seem to have? Like Cooper, I’m a clinical psychologist. I also spent time at Yale during my internship and post graduate training, though I never faced the kind of pressure that she has. But this question intrigued me: what if an expert on happiness is not happy herself? I love reading this kind of story, the kind that focuses on the emotional journey of the protagonist – not a dead body to be found. HAPPINESS will not be a series, but I’m hoping to take one of the minor characters and put her front stage in a novel set mostly in Paris.
Q: Speaking of series, you also have a new Key West food critic mystery coming this summer. What can you tell us about it? How do you keep a long series fresh?
A: I am also very excited about A Clue In The Crumbs, number 13 in the Key West food critic mystery series, arriving August 8! I’m a little surprised about how long this series has continued, though thoroughly delighted about it too. I’m passionate about trying something new in each book so that I am not foisting a retread of the same plot on potential readers. Luckily, Key West has so many layers that it’s easy to find potential threads and motives for murder. For example, in A Dish To Die For, there was an historical angle based on the Woman’s Club and an old cookbook. In A Clue In The Crumbs, the Scottish Scone sisters from book 11 come to visit Key West to launch a baking contest. This takes place at Williams Hall with the chef (and talented real person) Martha Hubbard in charge. I also work hard to think and write about how the characters will grow and change over the course of the books, as that’s the part of a long running mystery series that I love most.
Q: How did you happen upon a food critic as your protagonist? Are you a foodie yourself?
A: I am not a food critic, but I love to eat, read, and talk about food. I enjoy cooking but also love visiting the Key West restaurants that my character will be reviewing. Back in 2010, as I was searching for the subject of a new mystery series, I heard about an editor who wanted to acquire a series about a food critic, preferably in a tropical setting. Hayley Snow was born!
Q: How long have you called Key West home, and how did you end up here?
A: My husband John and I first visited Key West in 2008, and as happens with so many visitors, we fell in love with the island. By 2014, we’d become residents and now live here six months out of the year. We love being part of the story, rather than outsiders. A big bonus of this for me is serving on the board of the Friends of the Key West Library. This is my fourth year as president, and we’d love to have you join us! https://www.friendsofthekeywestlibrary.org/
Q: What are you reading and recommending these days?
Factory Girls by Michelle Gallen (Algonquin Books), picked by store manager, Emily
Maeve Murray has complicated feelings on just about everything: her family, her friends, her English boss, Protestant co-workers and most of all preparing to leave her small town in Northern Ireland.
In the Summer of 1994 as they wait for their school test results Maeve and her two best friends, Caroline and Aoife, take the only jobs available to them. Working in a shirt factory is hard but made all the more difficult with The Troubles brewing inside and outside of the factory walls.
I found this book to be in turns funny and somber. Gallen captures the time and place but with characters so relatable everyone can enjoy their story.
She’s the author of our July featured staff pick, Factory Girls. Questions by Emily Berg, store manager.
Michelle Gallen (photo credit: Brideen Baxter and Deci Gallen/Simpletapestry.com)
Q: This is a work of fiction, but it does take place in a time and place you lived. Of the three girls, is there one whose feelings and experiences most closely reflect your own?
A: I think each character has strengths, weaknesses, griefs and talents that I envy or fear, and that’s why they are all so vivid to me. I also feel incredibly close to both Deirdre – Maeve’s sister – and I adore Fidelma, the fist-fighting factory worker who elbows her way into the narrative.
Having said that, when I worked in a shirt factory, I did press shirts, and the hard physical experience of that is one I brought to the book. In one way, it was an incredibly zen job – I have never since got so ‘lost’ in my work, or felt so in the flow. But I found the socio-political side of working in the factory hugely stressful – I worked alongside lots of clever, quick-witted people who were also watchful and wary – I never felt like I could keep up with the ‘banter’, and disliked the underlying current of mistrust.
Q: Maeve has some memories of programs set up (in school and out) to bring Catholics and Protestants together. Did you participate in any such programs and, if so, did you find they were successful in anyway?
A: I think the fundamental problem with these programs is that they are based on premise that children who have been brought up in a society that is structurally biased and segregated at almost every level, run by adults who aren’t doing all that much to change the dynamic, will bring about peace simply by hanging out for the weekend and doing some mildly risky outdoors activities. If it were that easy, Mo Mowlam and Bill Clinton would’ve had a much easier time of it in the peace process. I think these programs were better than nothing. But they also placed an enormous burden on our shoulders, while giving us almost no power to make changes. I think if the adults and interested parties had placed all that energy and funding into integrating the schools, our peace process would be a lot more advanced than it currently is – and the current school system would be spending its money on a shared education instead of wasting money segregating students.
Q: The book captured the feeling of having that first apartment, out on your own with a friend. What was your first apartment like?
A: Oh I didn’t live independently until I got to university, and it wasn’t the same experience, as I knew nobody in Dublin and had to room with a total stranger. I know that’s quite a common college experience in the US, but very unusual in Ireland, where everyone knows each other or has family they can stay with. I lived with a student from Newry and one from Tipperary. We were all utterly different from each other but I bonded well with the student who had come from Northern Ireland. Our lives were much more similar than students who had never experienced the Troubles, who had no idea of what the conflict was like. Although I didn’t drink, I loved hosting friends and parties in my flat. I had the only computer in the building, so lots of geeks came to hang out and use the program Eliza to work through their problems, or to play basic arcade games. We also had ‘sessions’ where we’d get together to sing and play guitar. The building I lived in was occupied mostly by students – so I got to meet and mix with people from all over Ireland for the first time. It was an incredible experience, even if I was also homesick for the North.
Q: Have you heard the audio book version of Factory Girls? Did you think the narrator’s accent was accurate? (I believe she’s English.)
A: I actually had the opportunity to hear the shortlisted narrators before the final choice was made, so I was thrilled to discover that Northern Irish actors were in the line up. I loved the selected narrator, Amy Molloy, who grew up in Belfast. She captures all the different voices and characters just beautifully. Nicola Coughlan – who plays Clare in Derry Girls – narrated my first book, Big Girl Small Town. Nicola isn’t from Northern Ireland, but obviously her work in refining her accent for Derry Girls helped her nail the narration too.
Q: What are you currently reading?
A: Oh I’m reading about 10 books at the moment because I’m a bit overloaded juggling the the chaos of a renovation, work and travel. So to escape into the world of a deliciously eccentric character, I’m reading Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent. To improve my French and consider the horror of always being in the first flush of love, I’m reading Mon Mari by Maud Ventura. And to keep myself doing ‘The Work’ I’m reading Waking the Tigerby Peter Levine.
Ed note: In English, Mon Mari is My Husband by Maud Ventura, translated by Emma Ramadan.
Q: Are you working on anything new?
A: I’m silly busy writing at the moment 😱 I’m trying to finish a fourth book instead of redrafting my third, simply because every time I sit down to start the redraft of the third book, the narrator of the fourth book grabs me by the throat and won’t let go until I’ve exhausted that voice. I’m also working on the adaptation of Big Girl Small Town for screen with BBC production company Lookout Point, and working on the adaptation of Factory Girls for TV with Irish Production company Deadpan Pictures. I feel like I am being jostled on all sides by characters, locations, voices and events – on top of finishing up a house renovation, parenting, and travelling for work in the ‘real’ world. It’s funny how exhausting having your dreams come true is 😂
Q: One of my favorite quotes from the book is “If Aoife fell into a barrel of c*cks she’d come out sucking her own thumb.” Is this an idiom I just may not have heard as an American or a Michelle Gallen original phrase? I love it.
A: Hahahahah no it’s a phrase I first heard in Belfast. I can still remember how hard I laughed. It’s TERRIBLE. It’s brilliant! I’m heading up to Belfast shortly for an event and I can’t wait to catch up with all my friends there – it will be like drinking pure comedy gold.
Long lazy days call for a good book – and we have some recommendations.
Lori is readingDrowning: The Rescue of Flight 1421 by T. J. Newman. She writes, “Probably not the best to read before flying cross-country, but it was a great action story and quick read. A take on The Poseidon Adventure (only trapped on an airplane) with a great cast of characters.”
Alexander is looking forward to Small Joys by Elvin James Mensah because of the clever cover and engaging subject.
Robin has had Patricia Wants to Cuddle by Samantha Allen on her TBR since it came out last year. This is the summer for the book that everyone says is unhinged in the best kinds of ways.
Shelly, one of our fabulous volunteers, loves Fiona Davis, and can’t wait to dive into The Spectacular.