Tag: virtual book club

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

February 2, 2019

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

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

Susan Conley, author of ELSEY COME HOME

January 28, 2019

by Robin Wood

photo credit: Michael Lionstar

Thursday, January 31, at 6pm, a reading and discussion with Susan Conley, author of ELSEY COME HOME. ELSEY COME HOME is the January/February 2019 Books & Books @ The Studios Virtual Book Club pick. Bookclub discount available now through January 26th. (Online use code BC20 for 20% off). The event will be followed by a book signing.

“I loved ELSEY COME HOME. The exotic setting, the characters Elsey meets along the way—her husband, her little girls, her dilemma. And the writing, spare and lovely. What more can I say— perfect.” – Judy Blume, Books & Books @ The Studios co-founder.

From the widely praised author of Paris Was the Place — a shattering new novel that bravely delves into the darkest corners of addiction, marriage, and motherhood

When Elsey’s husband, Lukas, hands her a brochure for a weeklong mountain retreat, she knows he is really giving her an ultimatum: Go, or we’re done. Once a successful painter, Elsey set down roots in China after falling passionately for Lukas, the tall, Danish MC at a warehouse rave in downtown Beijing. Now, with two young daughters and unable to find a balance between her identities as painter, mother, and, especially, wife, Elsey fills her days worrying, drinking, and descending into desperate unhappiness. So, brochure in hand, she agrees to go and confront the ghosts of her past. There, she meets a group of men and women who will forever alter the way she understands herself: from Tasmin, another (much richer) expat, to Hunter, a young man whose courage endangers them all, and, most important, Mei — wife of one of China’s most famous artists and a renowned painter herself — with whom Elsey quickly forges a fierce friendship and whose candidness about her pain helps Elsey understand her own. But Elsey must risk tearing herself and Lukas further apart when she decides she must return to her childhood home — the center of her deepest pain — before she can find her way back to him. Written in a voice at once wry, sensual, blunt, and hypnotic, Elsey Come Home is a modern odyssey and a quietly dynamic portrait of contemporary womanhood.

Virtual Book Club Pick: Elsey Come Home

January 4, 2019

by Robin Wood

Every other month or so, we chose a new book for our virtual book club, giving us the chance to share a book we love with other readers far and near. Read along with us. Share your thoughts and photos with our virtual book club on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram by following and using the hashtag: #bbkwbookclub.

ELSEY COME HOME by Susan Conley is a staff favorite, and we’ve asked bookseller Camila Duke to introduce the book to all of you.

“I was about to head across the country without my family for the very first time since my eldest son Phineas was born. He’s 8 and my youngest is almost 5. So, it’s been a while since I could read uninterrupted on a trip. I needed a book for the plane and ELSEY COME HOME was recommended by our manager Emily and our co-founder Judy Blume. I had no idea what the content was, but based on who suggested it… it was the winner.

As I started to read it on the first of two flights that day, I realized that this was the PERFECT book for my trip. Elsey and I were both heading to wellness retreats away from our families. We were both moms of two, and we shared the loves and frustrations that go along with family life. Sometimes we feel a little lost or alone. At times we have a glass of wine at the end of a very long day, or in Elsey’s case a bottle of wine and a couple of six packs. Maybe our similarities ended there.

Elsey had to go on a week-long mountain retreat in order to save her marriage, herself, and her connection with her young daughters. She was given an ultimatum. If she didn’t go, sober up and take care of herself, she would lose everything. Elsey and her family were comfortably settled in China. She used to be a well-known painter, but when she became a mother her identity shifted, and she lost herself.

This novel takes us on her journey to find herself again. We go along with Elsey and meet fascinating characters that help her along on her path away from home and back again. I finished this book en route and continued to think about this novel while I was away. I hope you enjoy reading this book as much as I did. Susan Conley created a very real character with relatable problems.

You don’t have to be a mother, an artist, or an alcoholic to relate to this character and story. There is a connection for everyone in ELSEY COME HOME.”

Our Current Virtual Bookclub Read — Little Failure by Gary Shteyngart

August 20, 2018

by Robin Wood

Hi all,

Hope you’re having a good summer. I’ve had some long flights in the last few months, allowing me to read a great group of new books.

But now it’s my pleasure to introduce you to our latest Books & Books at The Studios Virtual Bookclub pick for August/September — a book I could read over and over without ever tiring of it. Little Failure by Gary Shteyngart is a dazzling memoir of a boy who emigrates from the Soviet Union in 1979. It’s funny, tender, deeply affecting and has been a favorite book of mine since I first read it in 2014. When it came out in paperback I read it again. And now, I’ll get to read it with you. If you’ve read Gary’s novels you already know he’s an incredible writer. You’ve probably laughed aloud at his humor. And for those who don’t yet know him, this will be a real treat.

Becoming an American speaks to all of us today as we wait and wonder what will happen to the children separated from their families at our borders. Gary is lucky. He comes to America with his parents where they make a new home. But, oh, the hilarious details! No spoilers here but best of all, when you finish this book, you will feel you know him. And that’s a good thing because….

Gary has a new novel coming out in September, one I’ve already read and couldn’t put down. It’s called Lake Success. He’ll have you in stitches while you shake your head in disbelief, asking yourself, what is success anyway? Another funny, irreverent page turner, filled with characters you will love and hate, often at the same time. But more about that next time.

I know a lot of you are getting the kids ready to go back to school. It can be a stressful time, so we hope you’ll find a book like Little Failure a real pick-me-up at the end of the day. Maybe it will ease your worries about the kids, maybe even the world? Right now we all need that.

Thanks, as always,

************

How the B&BKW Virtual Book Club works

The Books & Books @ The Studios virtual book club is an opportunity for us to share reading experiences, even if we’re not all together in the same place.

Now through the end of September, purchase a paperback copy of Little Failure and get 20% off Lake Success. Online, put both books in your cart and use the code BC20. If you order now, we’ll send both books to you when Lake Success comes out September 4, or you can pick up in store. And, if that wasn’t quite enough, the first 10 purchasers of Lake Success will get a signed copy.

Read along with us and share your reactions on social media. Make a comment, share a picture, ask a question. Don’t forget to include the hashtag: #bbkwbookclub on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Follow us on social media and look for the #bbkwbookclub hashtag. Every week, we’ll post new book club content.

A Q & A with Cork Dork Author, Bianca Bosker

August 20, 2018

by Robin Wood

Courtesy of: NapaFilms.net

We had a great time reading Cork Dork by Bianca Bosker. In addition to taking the time to answer some questions below and interacting with us on social media, Bianca was kind enough to work with us on custom book plates, available only at Books & Books at The Studios. You can still get one when you buy Cork Dork from us, online or in-store, while supplies last.

Did you always know you were going to write a book about your quest to pass the sommeliers’ test?

I have the disease that afflicts a lot of journalists, which is that I’m virtually incapable of doing anything without thinking that it could become a story. Vacation in a new place? Story. Dinner out? Story. And so when I first got fixated by the world of cork dorks, I thought there could maybe be a story there–but I had no inkling of all the places that journey would eventually take me.

What do you feel is the key thing you took away from your year-long journey of learning about wine tasting and the world of sommeliers?

Most of us pretty much ignore two of the five senses—taste and smell—that we’ve been given to take in the world. Sommeliers live for them. Through these somms, I’ve learned to embrace a new mindset: what I call “sensefulness,” the idea that it is by tuning into our senses that we can better make sense of the world. Even beyond the table, sharpening my senses means I can pick up on information and nuance that I never knew existed. Tuning in to them bestows us with new intelligence with which to make sense of our lives. While those revelations can begin with a glass of wine, they certainly don’t end there.

Which part of the research did you enjoy the most?

How could I possibly choose between dissecting cadaver brains with sensory scientists, guzzling Burgundy at the world’s most extravagant wine orgy, and getting hazed by aspiring Master Sommeliers? I had the time of my life, even if I was hungover for lots of it.

What advice would you give someone who is thinking about making a radical life change of the kind that this book chronicles?

Knowing very little can actually be an asset, as long as you’re open, curious, and fearless about asking questions. I found that coming into the world of wine without any preconceptions made me open to all kinds of information, even from unorthodox sources, that helped me progress faster than I otherwise might have.

Are you working on a new writing project? What’s next for you?

I am! I am just starting work on a new non-fiction book, while also contributing stories about wine and culture to outlets such as The Atlantic. I have a story on mass extinction coming out soon…

What’s on your nightstand? What are you reading and recommending currently?

Next to my nightstand is a tower of books as tall as my nightstand. I recently devoured Lauren Hilgers’ fabulous book Patriot Number One — a riveting and revealing story that doubles as one of the most fascinating portraits of New York City.

What are your favorite wine recommendations these days?

I’ve been going wild for the white wines of Sicily and Slovenia. They’re interesting, odd, soulful, and a bargain, and I just cant get enough of them.

~ Robin Wood, Associate Manager

VBC: My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

Other Picks from Our Halloween Display

How the B&BKW Virtual Book Club works