It’s time to vote for winners in this year’s Books & Books @ The Studios Summer Art Contest. Vote for your favorite canvas online or in-person. The top three entries will be featured on special edition bookmarks.
See the work and vote in-person in the Zabar Project Gallery on the first floor of The Studios of Key West now through Oct. 31st.
Many of the canvases are available for purchase. Contact The Studios of Key West if you’re interested in purchasing one of the entries.
“This is a dangerous time for readers and the public servants who provide access to reading materials. Readers, particularly students, are losing access to critical information, and librarians and teachers are under attack for doing their jobs.”
– Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom
Book challenges and bans often happen very quietly. A book is challenged and pulled from shelves in a local school or library without fanfare. Readers might not even know what they are missing. A goal of Banned Books Week is to raise awareness of the scope and impact of book censorship and encourage people to get involved, to stand with the banned.
Here at Books & Books @ The Studios, we keep our banned books display up all year because Florida leads the country in challenging and banning books. In response to these extensive efforts to restrict access to books and ideas, PEN America opened a Florida office in Miami last year. We asked PEN America Florida Senior Director Katie Blankenship to explain what’s happening with book banning around the state, https://booksandbookskw.com/a-qa-with-katie-blankenship-of-pen-america-florida.
As Katie Blankenship points out, book challenges often target books by and about people of color and LGBTQIA+ people. We believe that everyone deserves to read and have access to stories that represent their lives and experiences. Visit us during Banned Books Week (Sept. 22-28), read a banned book, and make up your own mind.
Plan to join us or the indie bookstore in your neighborhood on Saturday, April 27 for Independent Bookstore Day. Bookstore Day is a nationwide celebration of what makes indie bookstores special – and of the people who love them.
Here in Key West, expect doughnuts, mimosas, freebies, a couple of raffles, and, of course, the Bookstore Day exclusives. We’ll make exclusive available online after Bookstore Day (if we have any left), but if there’s something you want to make sure and grab, come shop in store or give us a call on Bookstore Day.
Follow our social media to see what the exclusive products will be this year!
Our party will include:
· Doughnuts and mimosas, while supplies last.
· Free book with any purchase plus other assorted freebies.
· Entry into our In-store Basket of Books Raffle with any purchase (must be picked up in-store).
· Entry into our Online & Phone Mystery Box Raffle with any purchase (will ship, U.S. addresses only).
· Plus, watch for a big sale from our audiobook partner, Libro.fm. Check out Libro.fm’s plans for IBD.
And join us for a special event with Lydia Millet, discussing her new book, We Loved it All: A Memory of Life at 6:30PM ET on Sat. the 27th in the PEAR House Courtyard at the bookstore. Register in advance to assure attendance.
Not sure if your gift recipient would enjoy The Marriage Portrait or Ina Garten’s Go-To Dinners? Give a Books & Books @ The Studios of Key West gift card and let your loved ones pick out their own #nextfavoriteread.
Call the store or order online. Individual gift cards are mailed First Class mail for free. Gift cards are good for books, art supplies and holiday gifts, and your recipient can shop online or in store.
We have several ways to make your gift card stand out. For $4.99 (plus shipping), add a fun pouch that makes a great gift card presentation and then can be used for coins or other small knickknacks.
For $2.00 extra (First Class shipping included free) have the gift card mailed in a festive holiday card. For any of these gift card options, upgrade to tracked, 3-day expected Priority mail for $9.00. Note your upgrade choices in the comments section if ordering online.
Courtesy of the American Booksellers Association
In addition to books for all ages and a wide range of interests and tastes, we have lots of fun gifts – some you can only find in store during the lead up to the holiday season. Come see what’s new!
There are art supplies and tarot cards, puzzles and games, socks and crafts and swag with our name on it. We’re happy to help you find just the right gift for everyone on your list, and wrap it for you! Or add a Books & Books tote bag to your gift for instant eco-minded wrapping.
And, if you’re just not sure, a gift card is always a perfect fit!
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.”
Black Cake
On Saturday, October 16th, Books & Books along with The Studios of Key West hosted the Great Works Speaking Contest sponsored by Fred and Joanne Klein. Six high school students from Key West to Tavernier competed by giving dramatic readings from some of their favorite Key West authors. Elizabeth Bishop, Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams and Alison Lurie were all represented.
Judges Leda Andrews, Rebecca Bennett, Ben Harrison, Erin McKenna and Lori Reid scored the contestants on everything from pronunciation and tone to organization and preparedness.
In the end, the top prize of $750 went to 9th grader Neslo Atilla from Key West High School for her reading of a passage from The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. Second place was awarded to Lela Griffin, 9th grader from Key West High, who selected a passage from Mango Opera by Tom Corcoran. Third place went to Parker Curry, 10th grader from Key West High, reading work by Elizabeth Bishop.
This was the first year for the contest with high hopes for making it an annual event. Thanks again to our sponsors, judges, competitors, volunteers, and audience.
If you missed it, you can watch a replay of the event on our Facebook page at: https://fb.watch/8Q4Es_da8b/
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/
Friday, April 19, at 6pm, a presentation and book signing with Jason Dewees, author of DESIGNING WITH PALMS.
Palms are a landscape staple in warm, temperate climates worldwide. But these stunning and statement-making plants are large, expensive, and difficult to install, resulting in unique design challenges. In Designing with Palms, palm expert Jason Dewees details every major aspect of designing and caring for palms. This definitive guide shares essential information on planting, irrigation, nutrition, pruning, and transplanting. A gallery of the most important species showcases the range of options available, and stunning photographs by Caitlin Atkinson spotlight examples of home and public landscapes that make excellent use of palms.
The book includes beautiful photos of gardens and native palm habitat in South Florida from Miami to Key West to Naples, as well as in California, South Carolina, Georgia, and Hawai`i. Celebrated Miami landscape architect, Raymond Jungles, said about the book, “Contains virtually everything you need to know about these plants and their usage in gardens. This is the go-to book.”
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
