Tag: whatwerereading

Michael Mewshaw, author of THE LOST PRINCE

February 12, 2019

Photo credit: Sean Mewshaw

Join us Tuesday, February 26, at 6pm, as Michael Mewshaw launches his newest book, THE LOST PRINCE, an examination of his friendship with the author Pat Conroy. Pat Conroy was America’s poet laureate of family dysfunction. A larger-than-life character and the author of such classics as The Prince of Tides and The Great Santini, Conroy was remembered by everybody for his energy, his exuberance, and his self-lacerating humor.

Michael Mewshaw’s THE LOST PRINCE is an intimate memoir of his friendship with Pat Conroy, one that involves their families and those days in Rome when they were both young—when Conroy went from being a popular regional writer to an international bestseller. Family snapshots beautifully illustrate that time. Shortly before his forty-ninth birthday, Conroy telephoned Mewshaw to ask a terrible favor. With great reluctance, Mewshaw did as he was asked—and never saw Pat Conroy again.

Although they never managed to reconcile their differences completely, Conroy later urged Mewshaw to write about “me and you and what happened . . . i know it would cause much pain to both of us. but here is what that story has that none of your others have.” THE LOST PRINCE is Mewshaw’s fulfillment of a promise.

Michael Mewshaw‘s five decade career includes award-winning fiction, nonfiction, literary criticism and investigative journalism. He is the author of the nonfiction works Sympathy for the Devil: Four Decades of Friendship with Gore Vidal and Between Terror and Tourism; the novel Year of the Gun; and the memoir Do I Owe You Something? He spends much of his time in Key West.

Praise for THE LOST PRINCE

“In THE LOST PRINCE Michael Mewshaw sets down one of the most gripping stories of friendship I’ve ever read.” —Daniel Menaker, author of My Mistake: A Memoir

“THE LOST PRINCE: A SEARCH FOR PAT CONROY is a book about male bonding rituals and reversals, but it’s also about so much more than that. It’s about how perplexed and inadequately
prepared we can be as characters who pop up in other people’s lives. It’s about unknowability
and its repercussions. It’s a fluidly written, fascinating book about Michael Mewshaw and Pat Conroy caught in the crossbeams of past and present, fated to overlap, bond, retreat, and then—as Mewshaw clearly hopes—to unite in a different configuration a final time.” — Ann Beattie, author of The Accomplished Guest

A Q&A with Holly Goldberg Sloan, co-author of TO NIGHT OWL FROM DOGFISH

February 2, 2019

by Robin Wood

Photo credit: Gary A. Rosen

Come meet Holly Goldberg Sloan, co-author of TO NIGHT OWL FROM DOGFISH and be among the first people to read her new middle-grade book. Attendees at Holly’s Sunday, February 10, reading and book signing will have the opportunity to get the book two days before its official release.This 2pm store event is free, family friendly and open to the public.

Holly Goldberg Sloan, author of the New York Times bestsellers COUNTING BY 7s and SHORT, has teamed up with Meg Wolitzer, the New York Times-bestselling author of novels for adults and kids, on TO NIGHT OWL FROM DOGFISH, a moving, exuberant, laugh-out-loud novel about friendship and family, told entirely in emails and letters. Get to know a little bit about Holly and her new book below and come ready with your own questions.

Q: How did you and Meg Wolitzer come to write this novel together?

A: Meg and I met in Naperville, Illinois at Anderson’s Bookshop’s YA Conference. I thought Meg was so funny, and it wasn’t long before we discovered that we had so many life similarities. We’re both writers married to writers. We both have two sons. We both want to laugh more than anything. Over the course of the next few years, as we sent each other email and text messages, we decided we wanted to write something together. We didn’t know how, exactly. I remember asking my husband, and he said, “Just start by emailing each other.” He meant, for the record, that we should send emails back and forth with ideas, themes and possible outlines. I didn’t understand. I thought he meant I should email Meg as a character. So I did that. The very first email of TO NIGHT OWL FROM DOGFISH remains very, very close to that first message! I’m pretty proud of that. We never had an outline. And in fact, I resisted talking much about the story. It was so exciting to not know where it was all going.

Q: What do you hope readers will take away from Avery, Bett and their family?

A: Our book is about two young girls who are trying to navigate the fact that their single fathers are now in a relationship. It’s about identity and family, and it’s funny and, I hope, moving. The big take away, I believe, is one of acceptance. We live in times of great division. If these two girls (and their two dads) can find a way to work things out, there’s hope for us all.

Q: What do you like about writing for middle-grade readers?

A: I think that both Meg and I write stories that interest us. So we don’t target readers so much as we target intriguing characters and stories. I believe that adults will get as much out of TO NIGHT OWL FROM DOGFISH as kids.

Q: What are you reading and recommending? For adults? For kids?

I loved EDUCATED, by Tara Westover. And I just finished ASYMMETRY, by Lisa Halliday. I love all of Kate Dicamillo’s books. And Jackie Woodson makes the world go round.

Q: Have you been to Key West before? What are you most looking forward to here?

A: I have never been to Key West and I will visit 15 cities in the next month as Meg and I promote this new novel. Key West is by far the place I’m most excited to see. I have heard that the drive from Miami is epic. I’m ready!

~ 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

How the B&BKW Virtual Book Club works