Want something a little different this Valentine’s Day? How about a book that mixes love and death?
The quintessential Key West pick for this is Ben Harrison’s UNDYING LOVE, which tells the story of Count Carl von Cosel, who didn’t allow even death to separate him from his love – literally.
Or by our very own George Cooper, try POISON WIDOWS, which features a magic butter knife, a love potion that works better as a poison, and a number of women who, knowingly or not, solve domestic problems with murder.
If you like your dark romance mythic, try A TOUCH OF DARKNESS by Scarlett St. Clair, a steamy, contemporary retelling of the story of Hades and Persephone.
Or LOVE IN THE TIME OF SERIAL KILLERS by Alicia Thompson which asks the age-old question, can a true crime aficionado trust enough to let romance bloom – or are her suspicions justified?
Store manager Emily believes A CERTAIN HUNGER by Chelsea G. Summers will hit the spot, fulfilling your desire for a dark, fascinating entrée. In her staff pick review last year, Emily wrote, “Dorothy Daniels is a food critic with all the descriptive language skills needed to tell her story of love, lust, murder and a smidgen of cannibalism. You know she did it, you know she gets caught, and yet I still found this to be a page turner.” Read her full review.
WHEN NO ONE IS WATCHING by Alyssa Cole has been described as “Rear Window meets Get Out” and it will have you peering around corners and double-checking your door locks.
With crackling suspense, unforgettable characters and searing insight, THE LOST APOTHECARY by Sarah Penner is a subversive and intoxicating debut novel of secrets, vengeance and the remarkable ways women can save each other despite the barrier of time. Look for Penner’s new book, THE LONDON SÉANCE SOCIETY, out in March.
Bookseller Lori read a lot of books for the upcoming Key West Literary Seminar, Singing America: A Celebration of Black Literature, for which she is serving this year as chairperson, and one of the standouts was The Secret Lives of Church Ladiesby Deesha Philyaw.
Lori writes, “This book explores the passions, vulnerabilities, sensuality and raw emotions of four generations of black women who want – and desperately need- to be so much more than ‘good’ church women all their lives. It’s raw and very relatable to a former church girl like me.”
The award-winning collection is also currently in development for TV by HBO Max.
The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton (Dec. 6, 2022, Grand Central Publishing) picked by store manager Emily
Tragic, but hopeful and completely enthralling. The Light Pirate is an essential read.
After living in Florida for nearly a decade, I’ve prepared for a few hurricanes. I was drawn to the first few lines of the description – a family prepares for a storm. I’ve been very lucky when it comes to storms, but I know as well as anyone the internal drama that comes with deciding if you should stay or go as a hurricane approaches. I thought it would be an interesting read but I wasn’t prepared for how deep it would take me down the rabbit hole.
Since reading this book, not a day has gone by that I haven’t brought it up in conversation. As Key West prepared for Hurricane Ian (or didn’t prepare as the case may be) I found my chatter increased. I think I became a little annoying as I told all of my fellow booksellers that they needed to read The Light Pirate.
The book begins as the Lowe family, Kirby, his wife Frida (pregnant with their first child) and his two sons from a previous marriage prepare for an incoming hurricane. This is nothing new for the family living on the east coast of Florida. But Frida feels this one is different, and of course she is right. It’s a story of our changing planet, yes, but at its core it’s a story of family and what and who makes a place a “home.”
Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher (Tor Books), picked by Bookseller Camila
“The trees were full of crows and the woods were full of madmen. The pit was full of bones and her hands were full of wires.”
first line, Nettle & Bone
I was browsing for a summer read amongst our new releases when I came upon this brief description on the back jacket of one of our bestsellers.
“This isn’t the kind of fairy tale where the princess marries a prince. It’s the one where she kills him.”
Well, that grabbed my attention and I started Nettle & Bone that very evening. Marra is our princess and the hero of this story, or rather dark & twisty fairy tale. She is the youngest of three sisters in a kingdom struggling to maintain its power. Marrying off the sisters seems to be the only way to keep it safe from invasion, even if the marriage is to a powerful yet abusive prince. We follow our hero Marra while she plans a rescue mission to save her sister, murder a wicked prince, and topple his throne. In order to receive the help she needs to fight such an evil adversary, Marra needs to succeed in this insurmountable quest:
Build a dog of bones
Sew cloak of nettles
Capture moonlight in a jar.
Along the way she meets new friends and gathers a fierce team of the quintessential fairy tale variety which includes a courageous yet disgraced ex-knight, a fairy godmother with unreliable magic, a dog of bones, an ornery grave witch, and a demonic chicken. Can they save her sister and survive this mission? Will they have their happy ending?
I loved reading this dark fantasy and devoured it within one sitting. Nettle & Bone is a perfect summer read… especially if you like a blend of fantasy, horror, unforgettable characters, humor, and a brave feminist protagonist. Enjoy the journey, I sure did.
For early summer reading, I chose a glorious romp of a novel. Not a rom-com, but something different for me. I’d read good reviews and it’s hard to beat that cover. Turns out LOVE MARRIAGE by Monica Ali was just what I craved.
The story of two young doctors, engaged to marry, set in London. She is from a conservative middle class British/Indian family. He is the son of a wealthy, liberal, famous feminist. Both families approve of the marriage. That’s not the problem.
Everything else is. Plenty of humor, political satire and sex. It all comes together and makes for a great read. I loved it!
George just finished RIVER OF THE GODS by Candice Millard. At first I told him to stop telling me the story. I wanted to read it myself. But his stories about the characters and their adventures were so fascinating I encouraged him to tell me just a little bit more each time.
We both wish you many happy hours of reading this summer.
~ Judy Blume, store co-founder
About RIVER OF THE GODS, George writes:
The fabulous true story of the brave, obsessive Englishmen who discovered the source of the Nile, and of the role played by heroic Africans who guided and supported them.
“Compulsively readable, and ultimately heartbreaking.”
We are delighted to host Erika Robuck at 6:30pm on Wednesday, March 23, in-person, outdoors at Hugh’s View on the roof of The Studios of Key West (register here). Robuck will be discussing her newest historical novel, SISTERS OF NIGHT AND FOG (Berkley). She is the bestselling author of novels including THE INVISIBLE WOMAN, and store favorite HEMINGWAY’S GIRL.
We had the opportunity to ask a few questions in advance of her upcoming event.
Q: Is there a short excerpt that you think works well to introduce SISTERS OF NIGHT AND FOG?
A: I chose the following scene, at the start of the German occupation of France, because it felt relevant to the way the beginning of the pandemic felt. The start of rationing, the restriction of movement, and the disbelief were unsettlingly relatable.
“It takes many cuts before she comprehends the truth: France is bleeding out—sliced with a mortal blow—and with it, Virginia’s old life is dying.
Like the early days of grieving a loved one, Virginia awakens each morning not knowing, but rather having to remember. That remembering brings fresh pain with each wave, and the waves are drowning her. She thinks it will be better when she simply knows the world has turned upside down—to have the thing dead and buried and not have to recollect. Then maybe she can move on. But there’s no knowing, at least not now. There is no certainty and no timetables, and that’s the hardest part. Though she knows it’s not for her ultimate good, Virginia continues to grasp the ever-vanishing vapors of the memories of before, but they’re getting increasingly hard to grasp.”
SISTERS OF NIGHT AND FOG
Q: How do you do your research? Has the pandemic disrupted or changed how you work?
A: My research process usually begins with visits to sites important to my story. Because of the pandemic, and the difficulty of traveling overseas, I had to settle for books, YouTube videos, interviews, and Google Earth, all of which are surprisingly helpful (and economical). I tend to begin by reading nonfiction about the subjects, events, and locations. Then I moved to archival material and interviews of the subjects or their loved ones. If there is any first person or autobiographical writing, that is my last stop in getting to know the characters before I can inhabit them to write them.
Edit note: Erika Robuck made a great interactive map of key locations from SISTERS OF NIGHT AND FOG? Check it out at https://bit.ly/3vhS0k2
Q: I saw a fun teaser on your Facebook page, involving vinyl records. Can you tell us anything about your current work-in-progress? If it is indeed, a near-past historical, will this be the first time you have set a story post-WWII?
A: Yes, my new work in progress is a dual period, multigenerational family drama—moving between 1978 and the 1930s—tied together by one of the most studied and debated artifacts of all time. My first, self-published novel, was also a dual period, multigenerational family drama that took place partly in the present day and in the 1800s. I love working in this form because it ties the past to the present in interesting ways, and creates natural suspense as the reader moves back and forth in time.
Q: What’s your favorite thing to do when visiting Key West? What’s one thing visitors should not miss?
It’s hard for me to answer this question, because I want to say so much. Key West is my home away from home. Aside from visiting Books & Books to find that perfect vacation read, my heart turns to The Hemingway House. You don’t have to like Hemingway to be enchanted by the home, gardens, and cats.
Q: What are you reading and recommending these days?
A: I recently rediscovered my love of Rosamunde Pilcher, the queen of multigenerational family dramas, and have been recommending WINTER SOLSTICE to everyone I meet. I also loved the re-released LOOKING FOR TROUBLE: THE CLASSIC MEMOIR OF A TRAILBLAZING WAR CORRESPONDENT, by Virginia Cowles (out in August). From the Spanish Civil war to the London Blitz, readers are travel companions on the most astonishing pre-WW2 itinerary imaginable. Finally, I loved THE PERSONAL LIBRARIAN, by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray. It tells the story of JP Morgan’s dazzling, brilliant librarian, Belle da Costa Greene, whose secret—that she is a Black woman who passes for white—could destroy both her personal and professional life. It was incredibly beautiful and eye opening.
Lori, who curates our Black History Month display, recommends Yonder by Jabari Asim (Simon & Schuster) for readers who enjoyed one of her previous picks,The Prophetsby Robert Jones, Jr.
Of Yonder, Lori writes, “The slaves are The Stolen, their masters are The Thieves, and Yonder (Canada) is the promised land of freedom. The story of slavery and all of its horrors is not new, but this book focuses instead on the intimacy and love The Stolen feel for each other under the harshest conditions. Allegorical, poetic, and unflinchingly honest, it had me reading through tears of sadness and joy.”
In picking this book, Lori was looking for a good read to kick-off Black History month, and she thinks that it will appeal to readers who want complex stories of the challenges and joys of Black people in America.
“I would consider this a companion piece to The Prophets, which tells the story of a passionate affair between two enslaved young men, another book depicting slaves as loving people looking for intimate connections in the face of the most hopeless of times,” Lori writes. Read her review of The Prophets from last February.
Lori writes that she enjoyed and was intrigued enough by Yonder to add other books by Jabari Asim to her TBR. Maybe she’ll find something that works for next year’s Key West Literary Seminar, which has the theme I Sing, America: A Celebration of Black Literature, and for which she is the chairperson.
Celebrate the range and richness of Black history this month through poetry, fiction and non-fiction. Reread the classics and meet exciting new authors during Black History Month.
Here are the books featured, but we have many more in store. Stop by or follow us on social media (Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/booksandbookskw/) for recommendations.
Fiction is the ultimate time/teleportation machine.
Last month I lived through WWI, the rise of Hitler, WWII and the rise of McCarthyism, all while living the complex life of Thomas Mann, the Nobel Prize winning author and father of six politically and sexually multifarious children. The power of The Magician, Colm Tóibín’s novel/biography, is the way he makes us see and feel, not the historic figure, but the man and his struggles with closeted homosexuality, an obstreperous family, and a roiling world.
Or what about joining an aspiring black businessman in 1950-60’s Harlem, navigating the path between riots and the tugs of easy money from shady diversions. That’s Harlem Shuffle, from Colson Whitehead, author of prize-winning The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys.
But all that pales beside Cloud Cuckoo Land from Anthony Doerr, author ofAll the Light We Cannot See. Doerr weaves together the lives of a girl living in a 15th Century monastery and an elderly translator of classical Greek living in contemporary Idaho, with flashes of Korean POW camps, a terrorist bomber, and the Ottoman siege of Constantinople. Like the dazzling diamond at the heart of his last novel, he has a moldy, faded ancient codex of a Greek fairy tale to bring it all together.
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.
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?