Category: Uncategorized

The Committed by Viet Thanh Nguyen

March 2, 2021
by George Cooper

SIGNED FIRST EDITON
The long-awaited follow-up to the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Sympathizer, which has sold more than one million copies worldwide, 

The Committed follows the man of two minds as he arrives in Paris in the early 1980s with his blood brother Bon. The pair try to overcome their pasts and ensure their futures by engaging in capitalism in one of its purest forms: drug dealing.

Traumatized by his reeducation at the hands of his former best friend, Man, and struggling to assimilate into French culture, the Sympathizer finds Paris both seductive and disturbing. As he falls in with a group of left-wing intellectuals whom he meets at dinner parties given by his French Vietnamese “aunt,” he finds stimulation for his mind but also customers for his narcotic merchandise. But the new life he is making has perils he has not foreseen, whether the self-torture of addiction, the authoritarianism of a state locked in a colonial mindset, or the seeming paradox of how to reunite his two closest friends whose worldviews put them in absolute opposition. The Sympathizer will need all his wits, resourcefulness, and moral flexibility if he is to prevail.

Both highly suspenseful and existential, The Committed is a blistering portrayal of commitment and betrayal that will cement Viet Thanh Nguyen’s position in the firmament of American letters.

Nobody’s Normal by Roy Richard Grinker

January 26, 2021
by George Cooper

A compassionate and captivating examination of evolving attitudes toward mental illness throughout history and the fight to end the stigma.

For centuries, scientists and society cast moral judgments on anyone deemed mentally ill, confining many to asylums. In Nobody’s Normal, anthropologist Roy Richard Grinker chronicles the progress and setbacks in the struggle against mental-illness stigma—from the eighteenth century, through America’s major wars, and into today’s high-tech economy.

Nobody’s Normal argues that stigma is a social process that can be explained through cultural history, a process that began the moment we defined mental illness, that we learn from within our communities, and that we ultimately have the power to change. Though the legacies of shame and secrecy are still with us today, Grinker writes that we are at the cusp of ending the marginalization of the mentally ill. In the twenty-first century, mental illnesses are fast becoming a more accepted and visible part of human diversity.

Grinker infuses the book with the personal history of his family’s four generations of involvement in psychiatry, including his grandfather’s analysis with Sigmund Freud, his own daughter’s experience with autism, and culminating in his research on neurodiversity. Drawing on cutting-edge science, historical archives, and cross-cultural research in Africa and Asia, Grinker takes readers on an international journey to discover the origins of, and variances in, our cultural response to neurodiversity.

Urgent, eye-opening, and ultimately hopeful, Nobody’s Normal explains how we are transforming mental illness and offers a path to end the shadow of stigma.

An Evening with Susan Conley and Judy Blume

January 6, 2021
by Emily Berg

Books & Books presents…
An Evening with Susan Conley and Judy Blume
To celebrate the publication of Landslide

 

Tuesday, March 2nd, 7:30pm

REGISTER FOR THE LIVESTREAM HERE

From the author of Elsey Come Home, a stunning novel about a mother caring for her two teenage sons while the crumbling fishing industry her New England community relies on threatens to collapse around them.

After a fishing accident leaves her husband hospitalized across the border in Canada, Jill is left to look after her teenage boys–“the wolves”–alone. Nothing comes easy in their remote corner of Maine: money is tight; her son Sam is getting into more trouble by the day; her eldest, Charlie, is preoccupied with a new girlfriend; and Jill begins to suspect her marriage isn’t as stable as she once believed. As one disaster gives way to the next, she begins to think that it’s not enough to be a caring wife and mother anymore–not enough to show up when needed, to nudge her boys in the right direction, to believe everything will be okay. But how to protect this life she loves, this household, this family?

With remarkable poise and startling beauty, Landslide ushers us into a modern household where, for a family at odds, Instagram posts, sex-positivity talks, and old fishing tales mingle to become a kind of love language. It is a beautiful portrait of a family, as compelling as it is moving, and raises the question of how to remain devoted when the eye of the storm closes in.

ORDER THE BOOK NOW

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

SUSAN CONLEY grew up in Maine. She is the author of four previous books including Elsey Come Home. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Paris Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, Harvard Review, New England Review, and Ploughshares. She has received multiple fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, as well as from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Maine Arts Commission, and the Massachusetts Arts Council. She has won the Maine Literary Award and the Maine Award for Publishing Excellence. She is a founder of the Telling Room, a youth creative writing center in Portland, Maine, where she lives and teaches on the faculty of the Stonecoast Writing Program.

 

ABOUT THE MODERATOR:

Judy Blume spent her childhood in Elizabeth, New Jersey, making up stories inside her head. Adults as well as children will recognize such Blume titles as Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret; Blubber; and the five book series about the irrepressible Fudge. She has also written four novels for adults, In the Unlikely Event, Summer Sisters, Smart Women, and Wifey, all of them New York Times bestsellers. Four years ago Blume and her husband, George Cooper, longing for a bookstore in Key West where they live, founded the independent, non-profit Books & Books @ The Studios.  “After 50 years of writing, I’m enjoying meeting so many readers and introducing them to some of my favorite authors.”

The Sentinel (Jack Reacher #25)

October 27, 2020
by George Cooper

Jack Reacher is back! The “utterly addictive” (The New York Times) series continues as the acclaimed #1 bestselling author Lee Child teams up with his brother, Andrew Child, fellow thriller writer extraordinaire.

“One of the many great things about Jack Reacher is that he’s larger than life while remaining relatable and believable. The Sentinel shows that two Childs are even better than one.”—James Patterson

As always, Reacher has no particular place to go, and all the time in the world to get there. One morning he ends up in a town near Pleasantville, Tennessee.

But there’s nothing pleasant about the place.

In broad daylight Reacher spots a hapless soul walking into an ambush. “It was four against one” . . . so Reacher intervenes, with his own trademark brand of conflict resolution.

The man he saves is Rusty Rutherford, an unassuming IT manager, recently fired after a cyberattack locked up the town’s data, records, information . . . and secrets. Rutherford wants to stay put, look innocent, and clear his name.

Reacher is intrigued. There’s more to the story. The bad guys who jumped Rutherford are part of something serious and deadly, involving a conspiracy, a cover-up, and murder—all centered on a mousy little guy in a coffee-stained shirt who has no idea what he’s up against.

Rule one: if you don’t know the trouble you’re in, keep Reacher by your side.

Virtual Event with Valeria Luiselli

October 8, 2020
by Emily Berg

Books & Books and the Miami Book Fair presents…
A VIRTUAL EVENING WITH
VALERIA LUISELLI
author of LOST CHILDREN ARCHIVE

Wednesday, October 28th at 7PM

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER HERE FOR THIS FREE EVENT

In Valeria Luiselli’s fiercely imaginative follow-up to the American Book Award-winning Tell Me How It Ends, an artist couple set out with their two children on a road trip from New York to Arizona in the heat of summer. As the family travels west, the bonds between them begin to fray: a fracture is growing between the parents, one the children can almost feel beneath their feet.

Through ephemera such as songs, maps and a Polaroid camera, the children try to make sense of both their family’s crisis and the larger one engulfing the news: the stories of thousands of kids trying to cross the southwestern border into the United States but getting detained—or lost in the desert along the way.

A breath-taking feat of literary virtuosity, Lost Children Archive is timely, compassionate, subtly hilarious, and formally inventive—a powerful, urgent story about what it is to be human in an inhuman world.

Online Event with Michael Ian Black

October 2, 2020
by Emily Berg

Books & Books and the Miami Book Fair presents…
AN ONLINE EVENT WITH MICHAEL IAN BLACK
In Conversation with MERRILL MARKOE
discussing A BETTER MAN:
A (MOSTLY SERIOUS) LETTER TO MY SON.

Friday, October 23rd at 7PM

 

A poignant look at boyhood, in the form of a heartfelt letter from comedian Michael Ian Black to his teenage son before he leaves for college, and a radical plea for rethinking masculinity and teaching young men to give and receive love.

Part memoir, part advice book, and written as a heartfelt letter to his college-bound son, A Better Man reveals Black’s own complicated relationship with his father, explores the damage and rising violence caused by the expectations placed on boys to “man up,” and searches for the best way to help young men be part of the solution, not the problem. “If we cannot allow ourselves vulnerability,” he writes, “how are we supposed to experience wonder, fear, tenderness?”

Honest, funny, and hopeful, Black skillfully navigates the complex gender issues of our time and delivers a poignant answer to an urgent question: How can we be, and raise, better men? 

MICHAEL IAN BLACK is an actor, comedian, and writer who started his career with the sketch comedy show The State, on MTV, and has created and starred in many other television shows. Movie appearances include Wet Hot American Summer, The Baxter, and Sextuplets. Black is the author of several books for children, including the award-winning I’m Bored, I’m Sad, and I’m Worried, and the parody A Child’s First Book of Trump. His books for adults include the memoirs You’re Not Doing It Right and Navel Gazing, and the essay collection My Custom Van. Black also co-authored with Meghan McCain America,You Sexy Bitch. As a stand-up comedian, Michael regularly tours the country, and he has released several comedy albums. His podcasts include Mike & Tom Eat Snacks, with Tom Cavanagh; Topics, with Michael Showalter; How to Be Amazing; and Obscure. He lives in Connecticut with his wife and two children.

MERRILL MARKOE was the head writer for the original The David Letterman Show; the live NBC morning show was recognized with a Daytime Emmy Award. She shared in three Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series for her work on Late Night with David Letterman. She engineered most of the original concepts and architecture for the ground-breaking late-night talk show and created the segment “Stupid Pet Tricks”, as well as “Stupid Human Tricks” and “Viewer Mail.” Many of the ideas behind the remote segments outside the studio came from Markoe, who also won a Writer’s Guild award for her writing/performing work on HBO’s Not Necessarily the News. She has also written for television shows such as Newhart, Sex and the City, and Moonlighting.  Markoe has had a number of columns and written for many periodicals including Rolling Stone, Time, New York Woman, New Woman, US Newsand World Report, US, People, Esquire, The New York Times, and The Los Angeles Times. She is the author of four books of essays and four novels. Most recently, her cartoons have appeared in The New Yorker.

Online Event with NICK HORNBY and CARL HIAASEN

September 23, 2020
by Emily Berg

Books & Books and the Miami Book Fair  presents…
AN ONLINE EVENT WITH NICK HORNBY
discussing JUST LIKE YOU
Moderated by: CARL HIAASEN

Sunday, October 4 at 2PM

REGISTER HERE

 

This warm, wise, highly entertaining twenty-first century love story is about what happens when the person who makes you happiest is someone you never expected.

“Hornby lives up to his reputation as bard of the everyday in this thoughtful romance that crosses lines of race, age, and class…Hornby is good company on the page and offers insights on his characters with aplomb, demonstrating an investment in each of their voices and an interest in the forces that draw people to one another. This is great fun.” —Publishers Weekly

NICK HORNBY is the author of seven other bestselling novels, including High Fidelity, About a Boy, and A Long Way Down, as well as several works of nonfiction. Many of his books have been turned into successful films and TV series. He has been Oscar-nominated twice, for his screenplays of An Education and Brooklyn. His ten-part, short-form TV series, State of the Union, directed by Stephen Frears, has recently been broadcast by the Sundance Channel and the BBC, and has won three Emmys. He lives in London.

CARL HIAASEN was born and raised in Florida. He is the author of fourteen previous novels, including the best sellers Bad Monkey, Lucky You, Nature Girl, Razor Girl, Sick Puppy, Skinny Dip, and Star Island, as well as six best-selling children’s books, Hoot, Flush, Scat, Chomp, Skink, and Squirm. His most recent work of fiction is Squeeze Me. 

An evening with JODI PICOULT and JUDY BLUME

September 18, 2020
by Emily Berg

Books & Books and the Florida JCC Partnership present…

 

A Virtual Evening with
JODI PICOULT
in conversation with
JUDY BLUME

 

discussing
THE BOOK OF TWO WAYS: A NOVEL
(Ballantine Books, $28.99) 

 

Wednesday, September 23, 8pm EST
LIVE on Zoom

 

PURCHASE TICKETS*
Each ticket includes a copy of the book. 


 

Everything changes in a single moment for Dawn Edelstein when on a plane the flight attendant announces: Prepare for a crash landing. She braces herself as thoughts flash through her mind. Shockingly, the thoughts are not of her husband or daughter but of a man she last saw fifteen years ago at an archeological site in Egypt … Wyatt Armstrong. Miraculously, Dawn survives, but so do new doubts and questions.

 

About the Author
JODI PICOULT is the #1 bestselling author of 26 novels including My Sister’s Keeper, Nineteen Minutes, The Storyteller, Leaving Time and A Spark of Light. Approximately 40 million copies of her books are in print worldwide, translated into 34 languages.

 

About the Moderator
JUDY BLUME spent her childhood in Elizabeth, New Jersey, making up stories inside her head. She has since published twenty-nine books, including Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. She has written four novels for adults, In the Unlikely Event, Summer Sisters, Smart Women, and Wifey, all of them New York Times bestsellers. She was awarded the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters in 2004. She and her husband George Cooper are proud to be co-founders of the Books & Books @ the Studios of Key West.

 

*Ticket Info

  • Tickets: $36 and include a copy of the book.
  • All book sales benefit Books & Books in Miami and Key West, with a percentage of sales going back to the JCC Partnership.
  • Tickets must be purchased online and will not be sold at the Key West store.

2020 Summer Art Contest

September 4, 2020
by Robin Wood

We’re looking for submissions to our fourth annual summer art contest!

Your registration fee will include a 4×12 canvas. Use the canvas to show your artistic abilities. Paint, collage, pencil, whatever suits your style.

The work will show in the store for one week while visitors vote in person and online for their favorite designs.

2019 Summer Art contest winners: “Untitled” by Dreya Ramos, “Key Weird #2” by Kevin Assam, and “Deep Blue” by Brooke Dore

Three winning canvases will be selected to appear on special edition Books & Books @ The Studios bookmarks, which are given out with store purchase. Artists will even have the option to include their website and social media handles on the bookmark.

One grand prize winner will appear on a special edition bookmark, have their canvas show in the bookstore through the end of the year and receive a $25 Art Supply gift card from Books & Books. One winner from the junior division (for those under 18) will be selected to receive a Books & Books gift card. All contestants are eligible for the grand prize.

Contest details and entry here.