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August 13, 2022

I am hosting my book group on Wednesday night. What I love is that hosting this group does not mean that I am doing a lot of work; these women are neither fussy nor judgmental. Hopefully the weather will be nice, and we can sit out by the pool...or maybe in it! We will be discussing THE TOBACCO WIVES by Adele Myers, and I am hoping that as I read it, there will be inspiration about something to serve. I considered having Adele join us for this meeting, but if we are floating in the pool during the discussion, that is not going to work!

August 12, 2022

Yippee! The air conditioner on the one side of the house is working again. I was able to stop being a nomad in my own home. My laptop and I were working all around the house on Monday and Tuesday. And I think/hope/pray that the brutal heat wave has ended, and we are able to stop watching flowers wilt. So many flowers and plants dried out, despite being watered every other day. We definitely need to get some fertilizing going. Anyone with ideas for what to do for reviving hydrangeas whose growth is stunted and have not flowered well for two years, I am all ears. Also, now that I have the air conditioning back on, you can plan on temps in the 80s in the New York area.

Elliot Ackerman, author of The Fifth Act: America's End in Afghanistan

Elliot Ackerman left the American military 10 years ago, but his time in Afghanistan and Iraq with the Marines and later as a CIA paramilitary officer marked him indelibly. When the Taliban began to close in on Kabul in August 2021 and the Afghan regime began its death spiral, he found himself pulled back into the conflict. Afghan nationals who had worked closely with the American military and intelligence communities for years now faced brutal reprisal and sought frantically to flee the country with their families. With former colleagues and friends protecting the airport in Kabul, Ackerman joined an impromptu effort by a group of journalists and other veterans to arrange flights and negotiate with both Taliban and American forces to secure the safe evacuation of hundreds.

Emiko Jean, author of Mika in Real Life

At 35, Mika Suzuki is at the lowest point of her life when she receives a phone call from Penny, the daughter she placed for adoption 16 years ago. Penny is determined to forge a relationship with her birth mother; in turn, Mika longs to be someone Penny is proud of. Faced with her own inadequacies, Mika embellishes a fact about her life. What starts as a tiny white lie slowly snowballs into a fully fledged fake life. The harder-won heart belongs to Thomas Calvin, Penny’s adoptive widower father. What starts as a rocky, contentious relationship slowly blossoms into a friendship and, over time, something more. But can Mika really have it all --- love, her daughter, the life she’s always wanted --- or will her deceptions ultimately catch up to her?

Gillian McAllister, author of Wrong Place Wrong Time

Late October. After midnight. You’re waiting up for your 17-year-old son. He’s late. As you watch from the window, he emerges, and you realize he isn’t alone: he’s walking toward a man, and he’s armed. You can’t believe it when you see him do it: your funny, happy teenage son kills a stranger, right there on the street outside your house. You don’t know who. You don’t know why. You only know your son is now in custody. His future shattered. That night you fall asleep in despair. All is lost. Until you wake...and it is yesterday. And then you wake again...and it is the day before yesterday. Every morning you wake up a day earlier, another day before the murder. With another chance to stop it. Somewhere in the past lies an answer. The trigger for this crime --- and you don’t have a choice but to find it.

Michael Mann, author of Heat 2

Described by Michael Mann as both a prequel and sequel to the renowned, critically acclaimed movie of the same name, HEAT 2 covers the formative years of homicide detective Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino) and elite criminals Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro), Chris Shiherlis (Val Kilmer) and Nate (Jon Voight). Ranging from the streets of L.A. to the inner sancta of rival Taiwanese crime syndicates in Paraguay to a massive drug cartel money-laundering operation just over the border in Mexico, this new story illuminates the dangerous workings of international crime organizations and the agents who pursue them as it provides a full-blooded portrait of the men and women who inhabit both worlds.

Lisa Jewell, author of The Family Remains

DCI Samuel Owusu is called to the scene of a gruesome discovery and learns the bones are connected to a cold case that left three people dead 30 years ago. Rachel Rimmer’s husband, Michael, has been found dead in his cellar. The French police need Rachel to answer questions about Michael and his past that she very much doesn’t want to answer. After fleeing London 30 years ago in the wake of a horrific tragedy, Lucy Lamb is coming home. While she settles in with her children and is just about to purchase their first-ever house, her brother takes off to find the boy from their shared past whose memory haunts their present. As they all race to discover answers to these convoluted mysteries, they will come to find that they’re connected in ways they never could have imagined.

Editorial Content for Bark to the Future: A Chet & Bernie Mystery

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Pamela Kramer

BARK TO THE FUTURE is the latest doggie mystery featuring the charismatic narrator Chet, a distinctive black Shepherd mix with one white ear, who tells the story as only a canine might. And in the capable paws --- er, hands --- of author Spencer Quinn, we chuckle and nod our heads in amusement as we realize that Chet's narrative is just what our dogs might say if only we could understand them. Read More

Teaser

When Chet the dog and his human partner, PI Bernie Little, are approached by a down-and-out older man with a cardboard sign at an exit ramp, Bernie is shocked to discover the man is a former teammate from his high school baseball team. Chet and Bernie take Rocket out for a good meal, and later, Bernie investigates Rocket’s past, trying to figure out what exactly went wrong. Then, Rocket goes suspiciously missing. Bernie goes back to his old high school for answers, where much that he remembers turns out not to be true --- and there are powerful and dangerous people not happy with the questions Bernie is asking. Now, Chet and Bernie are plunged into a dangerous case where the past isn’t dead and the future could be fatal.

Promo

When Chet the dog and his human partner, PI Bernie Little, are approached by a down-and-out older man with a cardboard sign at an exit ramp, Bernie is shocked to discover the man is a former teammate from his high school baseball team. Chet and Bernie take Rocket out for a good meal, and later, Bernie investigates Rocket’s past, trying to figure out what exactly went wrong. Then, Rocket goes suspiciously missing. Bernie goes back to his old high school for answers, where much that he remembers turns out not to be true --- and there are powerful and dangerous people not happy with the questions Bernie is asking. Now, Chet and Bernie are plunged into a dangerous case where the past isn’t dead and the future could be fatal.

About the Book

Spencer Quinn's BARK TO THE FUTURE continues the adventurous New York Times and USA Today bestselling series that Stephen King calls “without a doubt the most original mystery series currently available.”

When Chet the dog, “the most lovable narrator in all of crime fiction” (Boston Globe), and his human partner, PI Bernie Little, are approached by a down-and-out older man with a cardboard sign at an exit ramp, Bernie is shocked to discover the man is a former teammate from his high school baseball team. Chet and Bernie take Rocket out for a good meal, and later, Bernie investigates Rocket’s past, trying to figure out what exactly went wrong.

Then, Rocket goes suspiciously missing. With his former teammate likely in danger, Bernie goes back to his old high school for answers, where much that he remembers turns out not to be true --- and there are powerful and dangerous people not happy with the questions Bernie is asking.

Bernie soon learns that he misunderstood much about his high school years --- and now, Chet and Bernie are plunged into a dangerous case where the past isn’t dead and the future could be fatal.

Audiobook available, read by Jim Frangione

Editorial Content for Stay Awake

Book

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Pamela Kramer

The title of Megan Goldin's latest thriller, STAY AWAKE, is important. In fact, it’s been vital to the survival of Liv Reese. Why must she stay awake? Why has she written those words on her arms? On the doors? Why are exhortations like this posted and written everywhere: stay awake, don't trust anyone, don't sleep? Read More

Teaser

Liv Reese wakes up in the back of a taxi with no idea where she is or how she got there. When she’s dropped off at the door of her brownstone, a stranger answers --- a stranger who claims to live in her apartment. Her hands are covered in scribbled messages, like graffiti on her skin: STAY AWAKE. Two years ago, Liv was thriving as a successful writer for a trendy magazine. Now, she’s lost and disoriented in a New York City that looks nothing like what she remembers. She’s horrified to see news reports of a crime scene where the victim’s blood has been used to scrawl a message across a window, similar to the message that’s inked on her hands. What did she do last night? And why does she remember nothing from the past two years?

Promo

Liv Reese wakes up in the back of a taxi with no idea where she is or how she got there. When she’s dropped off at the door of her brownstone, a stranger answers --- a stranger who claims to live in her apartment. Her hands are covered in scribbled messages, like graffiti on her skin: STAY AWAKE. Two years ago, Liv was thriving as a successful writer for a trendy magazine. Now, she’s lost and disoriented in a New York City that looks nothing like what she remembers. She’s horrified to see news reports of a crime scene where the victim’s blood has been used to scrawl a message across a window, similar to the message that’s inked on her hands. What did she do last night? And why does she remember nothing from the past two years?

About the Book

A murder she doesn’t remember committing. A killer she doesn’t remember meeting. Megan Goldin’s STAY AWAKE is an electrifying novel that proves memory can be deadly.

Liv Reese wakes up in the back of a taxi with no idea where she is or how she got there. When she’s dropped off at the door of her brownstone, a stranger answers --- a stranger who claims to live in her apartment. She reaches for her phone to call for help, only to discover it’s missing. In its place is a bloodstained knife. Her hands are covered in scribbled messages, like graffiti on her skin: STAY AWAKE.

Two years ago, Liv was thriving as a successful writer for a trendy magazine. Now, she’s lost and disoriented in a New York City that looks nothing like what she remembers. Catching a glimpse of the local news, she’s horrified to see reports of a crime scene where the victim’s blood has been used to scrawl a message across a window, similar to the message that’s inked on her hands. What did she do last night? And why does she remember nothing from the past two years? Liv finds herself on the run for a crime she doesn’t remember committing. But there’s someone who does know exactly what she did, and they’ll do anything to make her forget --- permanently.

A complex thriller that unfolds at a breakneck speed, STAY AWAKE will keep you up all night.

Audiobook available, read by Imogen Church and January LaVoy

Editorial Content for Koshersoul: The Faith and Food Journey of an African American Jew

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Stuart Shiffman

Reading KOSHERSOUL reminds me of why books are a never-ending joy. The James Beard award-winning author of THE COOKING GENE, Michael W. Twitty describes his acclaimed first book as planting the seeds for him to talk about being Black, Jewish, of Southern heritage and gay. It allowed him to focus on how food has shaped his family tree and how the food produced, prepared and consumed along the way defines people, soul by soul. I was drawn to his latest effort, KOSHERSOUL, thinking that it would be an opportunity for me to learn more about Black Jews and what I share with them. Read More

Teaser

In KOSHERSOUL, Michael W. Twitty considers the marriage of two of the most distinctive culinary cultures in the world today: the foods and traditions of the African Atlantic and the global Jewish diaspora. To Twitty, the creation of African-Jewish cooking is a conversation of migrations and a dialogue of diasporas offering a rich background for inventive recipes and the people who create them. The question that most intrigues him is not just who makes the food, but how the food makes the people. Jews of Color are not outliers, Twitty contends, but significant and meaningful cultural creators in both Black and Jewish civilizations. The book also explores how food has shaped the journeys of numerous cooks, including Twitty’s own passage to and within Judaism.

Promo

In KOSHERSOUL, Michael W. Twitty considers the marriage of two of the most distinctive culinary cultures in the world today: the foods and traditions of the African Atlantic and the global Jewish diaspora. To Twitty, the creation of African-Jewish cooking is a conversation of migrations and a dialogue of diasporas offering a rich background for inventive recipes and the people who create them. The question that most intrigues him is not just who makes the food, but how the food makes the people. Jews of Color are not outliers, Twitty contends, but significant and meaningful cultural creators in both Black and Jewish civilizations. The book also explores how food has shaped the journeys of numerous cooks, including Twitty’s own passage to and within Judaism.

About the Book

The James Beard award-winning author of the acclaimed THE COOKING GENE explores the cultural crossroads of Jewish and African diaspora cuisine and issues of memory, identity and food.

In KOSHERSOUL, Michael W. Twitty considers the marriage of two of the most distinctive culinary cultures in the world today: the foods and traditions of the African Atlantic and the global Jewish diaspora. To Twitty, the creation of African-Jewish cooking is a conversation of migrations and a dialogue of diasporas offering a rich background for inventive recipes and the people who create them. 

The question that most intrigues him is not just who makes the food, but how the food makes the people. Jews of Color are not outliers, Twitty contends, but significant and meaningful cultural creators in both Black and Jewish civilizations. KOSHERSOUL also explores how food has shaped the journeys of numerous cooks, including Twitty’s own passage to and within Judaism.

As intimate, thought-provoking and profound as THE COOKING GENE, this remarkable book teases the senses as it offers sustenance for the soul.

KOSHERSOUL includes 48-50 recipes.

Audiobook available, read by Michael W. Twitty