Reader Meet Writer Presents – Mary Kay Andrews

Reader Meet Writer, Southern Edition

Mary Kay Andrews

Let us deliver authors to your living room. The next author in the Southern Edition series is Mary Kay Andrews. Mary Kay Andrews will be talking with us about their newest book Hello, Summer and answering your questions. Mary Kay Andrews is one of many authors we’ll be bringing into your living room.

Mary Kay Andrews is the New York Times bestselling author of 24 novels including THE WEEKENDERS, BEACH TOWN, LADIES’ NIGHT, SUMMER RENTAL, DEEP DISH and HISSY FIT.

A native of St. Petersburg, Florida, she received a B.A. in journalism from The University of Georgia and was a newspaper reporter for 14 years. The last ten years of her career were spent as a features reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. After a 14-year career working as a reporter at newspapers including The Savannah Morning News, The Marietta Journal and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where she spent the final ten years of her career, she left journalism in 1991 to write fiction. Her first novel, EVERY CROOKED NANNY, was published in 1992 by HarperCollins Publishers. She went on to write ten critically acclaimed mysteries under her real name. In 2002, she assumed the pen name Mary Kay Andrews with the publication of SAVANNAH BLUES. In 2006, HISSY FIT became her first New York Times bestseller, followed by eleven more New York Times, USA Today and Publisher’s Weekly bestsellers. To date, her novels have been published in German, Italian, Polish, Slovenian, Hungarian, Dutch, Czech and Japanese.

Here are the details you need:
Date: 5/12/2020
Time: 4:00:00 PM CST
RSVP here

Hello, Summer

It’s a new season…

Conley Hawkins left her family’s small town newspaper, The Silver Bay Beacon, in the rearview mirror years ago. Now a star reporter for a big-city paper, Conley is exactly where she wants to be and is about to take a fancy new position in Washington, D.C. Or so she thinks.

For small town scandals…

When the new job goes up in smoke, Conley finds herself right back where she started, working for her sister, who is trying to keep The Silver Bay Beacon afloat—and she doesn’t exactly have warm feelings for Conley. Soon she is given the unenviable task of overseeing the local gossip column, “Hello, Summer.”

And big-time secrets.

Then Conley witnesses an accident that ends in the death of a local congressman—a beloved war hero with a shady past. The more she digs into the story, the more dangerous it gets. As an old heartbreaker causes trouble and a new flame ignites, it soon looks like their sleepy beach town is the most scandalous hotspot of the summer.

To see a list of all upcoming authors booked so far, click here.

Reader Meet Writer Presents – Kimberley McCreight this Friday

Reader Meet Writer, Southern Edition

Kimberley McCreight

Let us deliver authors to your living room. The next author in the Southern Edition series is Kimberley McCreight. Kimberley McCreight will be talking with us about their newest book A Good Marriage and answering your questions. Kimberley McCreight is one of many authors we’ll be bringing into your living room.

Kimberly McCreight is the New York Times bestselling author of Reconstructing Amelia, which was nominated for the Edgar, Anthony, and Alex Awards; Where They Found Her; and The Outliers young adult trilogy. She attended Vassar College and graduated cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two daughters.

Here are the details you need:
Date: 5/8/2020
Time: 4:00:00 PM CST
RSVP here

A Good Marriage

Big Little Lies meets Presumed Innocent in this riveting novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Reconstructing Amelia, in which a woman’s brutal murder reveals the perilous compromises some couples make—and the secrets they keep—in order to stay together.

Lizzie Kitsakis is working late when she gets the call. Grueling hours are standard at elite law firms like Young & Crane, but they’d be easier to swallow if Lizzie was there voluntarily. Until recently, she’d been a happily underpaid federal prosecutor. That job and her brilliant, devoted husband Sam—she had everything she’d ever wanted. And then, suddenly, it all fell apart.

No. That’s a lie. It wasn’t sudden, was it? Long ago the cracks in Lizzie’s marriage had started to show. She was just good at averting her eyes.

The last thing Lizzie needs right now is a call from an inmate at Rikers asking for help—even if Zach Grayson is an old friend. But Zach is desperate: his wife, Amanda, has been found dead at the bottom of the stairs in their Brooklyn brownstone. And Zach’s the primary suspect.

As Lizzie is drawn into the dark heart of idyllic Park Slope, she learns that Zach and Amanda weren’t what they seemed—and that their friends, a close-knit group of fellow parents at the exclusive Brooklyn Country Day school, might be protecting troubling secrets of their own. In the end, she’s left wondering not only whether her own marriage can be saved, but what it means to have a good marriage in the first place.

To see a list of all upcoming authors booked so far, click here.

Reader Meet Writer Presents – Kaitlin B. Curtice this Thursday

Reader Meet Writer, Southern Edition

Kaitlin B. Curtice

Let us deliver authors to your living room. The next author in the Southern Edition series is Kaitlin B. Curtice. Kaitlin B. Curtice will be talking with us about their newest book Native: Identity, Belonging, and Rediscovering God and answering your questions. Kaitlin B. Curtice is one of many authors we’ll be bringing into your living room.

Kaitlin B. Curtice is a citizen of the Potawatomi Nation as well as a Christian, public speaker, and poet. She travels around the country speaking on faith and justice within the church as it relates to Indigenous peoples and has been a featured speaker at Why Christian, Evolving Faith, Wild Goose Festival, The Festival of Faith & Writing, The Revolutionary Love Conference, and more. Curtice is a monthly columnist for Sojourners, has contributed to On Being and Religion News Service, and has been featured on CBS and in USA Today and the New Yorker for her work on having difficult conversations within the church about colonization. She is the author of Glory Happening: Finding the Divine in Everyday Places and writes on her blog at http://www.kaitlincurtice.com.

Here are the details you need:
Date: 5/7/2020
Time: 2:00:00 PM CST
RSVP here

Native: Identity, Belonging, and Rediscovering God

Native is about identity, soul-searching, and the never-ending journey of finding ourselves and finding God. As both a citizen of the Potawatomi Nation and a Christian, Kaitlin Curtice offers a unique perspective on these topics. In this book, she shows how reconnecting with her Potawatomi identity both informs and challenges her faith.

Curtice draws on her personal journey, poetry, imagery, and stories of the Potawatomi people to address themes at the forefront of today’s discussions of faith and culture in a positive and constructive way. She encourages us to embrace our own origins and to share and listen to each other’s stories so we can build a more inclusive and diverse future. Each of our stories matters for the church to be truly whole. As Curtice shares what it means to experience her faith through the lens of her Indigenous heritage, she reveals that a vibrant spirituality has its origins in identity, belonging, and a sense of place.

To see a list of all upcoming authors booked so far, click here.

Reader Meet Writer Presents – Brad Meltzer this Wednesday

Reader Meet Writer, Southern Edition

Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation Gala Writer’s Luncheon at the home of Terri and Jon Havens

Brad Meltzer

Let us deliver authors to your living room. The next author in the Southern Edition series is Brad Meltzer. Brad Meltzer will be talking with us about their newest book The Lincoln Conspiracy and answering your questions. Brad Meltzer is one of many authors we’ll be bringing into your living room.

Here are the details you need:
Date: 5/6/2020
Time: 2:00:00 PM CST
RSVP here

The Lincoln Conspiracy

In 2019, #1 bestselling author Brad Meltzer, with Josh Mensch, wrote THE FIRST CONSPIRACY: The Secret Plot to Kill George Washington, a national bestseller that was widely praised by critics, historians, and two U.S. Presidents for its meticulous research and propulsive narrative. Meltzer and Mensch return to uncover another fascinating episode previously lost to history in THE LINCOLN CONSPIRACY: The Secret Plot to Kill America’s 16th President—and Why It Failed (Flatiron Books; May 5, 2020). In our current climate of uncertainty and fear, the book is a reminder of the capacity for American greatness in the form of one of its most lauded and inspirational heroes, Abraham Lincoln.

The story opens in 1861 on a train traveling from Philadelphia to Washington DC in the dark of night, days before Abraham Lincoln’s first inauguration. Having just won the presidency by a slim margin, Lincoln is headed to the White House deeply hated by the slaveholding Southern states, who began to secede only weeks after he was elected. Now a group of pro-slavery, white supremacist conspirators want to go further than delegitimizing Lincoln’s presidency. They want him dead.

The assassins don’t know it, but someone is on to them. America’s most famous private detective, Allan Pinkerton, just discovered their plot and is trying to defeat it. He’s assembled a team that includes the first known female detective in the U.S., Kate Warne. In the middle of the night, Lincoln boards a train disguised as an invalid, wearing a shawl and a low-brimmed hat. The goal? Get to Washington, D.C. undetected – and save the new President’s life. President Lincoln would go on to lead the United States during one of the most tumultuous times in its history. Thanks to Meltzer and Mensch, we learn how dangerously close the killers came to changing everything.

“THE LINCOLN CONSPIRACY is a story few people know, one that’s set in a time of deep political division in America,” Meltzer says. “It shows us what good leaders can do in times of strife – perfectly on point for where our country is today.” Written in the same page-turning style as Meltzer’s other bestsellers, THE LINCOLN CONSPIRACY offers a fascinating new look at one of the most important figures in American history.

To see a list of all upcoming authors booked so far, click here.

Reader Meet Writer Presents – Caroline B. Cooney

Reader Meet Writer, Okra Picks

Caroline B. Cooney

Let us deliver authors to your living room. The next author in the Okra Pick series is Caroline B. Cooney. Caroline B. Cooney will be talking with us about their newest book Before She Was Helen and answering your questions. Caroline B. Cooney is one of many authors we’ll be bringing into your living room.

Here are the details you need:
Date: 5/5/2020
Time: 2:00:00 PM CST
RSVP here

Before She Was Helen

Her life didn’t turn out the way she expected—so she made herself a new one…

When Clemmie goes next door to check on her difficult and unlikeable neighbor Dom, he isn’t there. But something else is. Something stunning, beautiful and inexplicable. Clemmie photographs the wondrous object on her cell phone and makes the irrevocable error of forwarding it. As the picture swirls over the internet, Clemmie tries desperately to keep a grip on her own personal network of secrets. Can fifty years of careful hiding under names not her own be ruined by one careless picture?

And although what Clemmie finds is a work of art, what the police find is a body. . . in a place where Clemmie wasn’t supposed to be, and where she left her fingerprints. Suddenly, the bland, quiet life Clemmie has built for herself in her sleepy South Carolina retirement community comes crashing down as her dark past surges into the present.

From international bestselling author of The Face on the Milk Carton Caroline B. Cooney comes Before She Was Helen, an absorbing mystery that brings decades-old secrets to life and explores what happens when the lie you’ve been living falls apart and you’re forced to confront the truth.

To see a list of all upcoming authors booked so far, click here.

Reader Meet Writer – Three Virtual Events This Week, Kristy Woodson Harvey, Marie Benedict and Donald J. Palmisano

Reader Meet Writer, Okra Picks

Kristy Woodson Harvey

Let us deliver authors to your living room. The next author in the Okra Pick series is Kristy Woodson Harvey. Kristy Woodson Harvey will be talking with us about her newest book There I Am and answering your questions. Kristy Woodson Harvey is one of many authors we’ll be bringing into your living room.

From “the next major voice in Southern fiction” (Elin Hilderbrand) and the bestselling author of the Peachtree Bluff series comes an odd-couple tale of friendship that asks just how much our past choices define our happiness.

Here are the details you need:
Date: Tuesday, April 28, 2020
Time: 2pm CST
RSVP here

Feels Like Falling

It’s summertime on the North Carolina coast and the livin’ is easy.

Unless, that is, you’ve just lost your mother to cancer, your sister to her extremist husband, and your husband to his executive assistant. Meet Gray Howard. Right when Gray could use a serious infusion of good karma in her life, she inadvertently gets a stranger, Diana Harrington, fired from her job at the local pharmacy.

Diana Harrington’s summer isn’t off to the greatest start either: Hours before losing her job, she broke up with her boyfriend and moved out of their shared house with only a worn-out Impala for a bed. Lucky for her, Gray has an empty guest house and a very guilty conscience.

With Gray’s kindness, Diana’s tide begins to turn. But when her first love returns, every secret from her past seems to resurface all at once. And, as Gray begins to blaze a new trail, she discovers, with Diana’s help, that what she envisioned as her perfect life may not be what she wants at all.

In her warmest, wisest novel yet, Kristy Woodson Harvey delivers a discerning portrait of modern womanhood through two vastly different lenses. Feels Like Falling is a beach bag essential for Harvey fans—and for a new generation of readers.

Marie Benedict

Let us deliver authors to your living room. The next author in the Okra Pick series is Marie Benedict. Marie Benedict will be talking with us about her newest book The Other Einstein and answering your questions. Marie Benedict is one of many authors we’ll be bringing into your living room.

“The Other Einstein takes you into Mileva’s heart, mind, and study as she tries to forge a place for herself in a scientific world dominated by men.”—Bustle

Here are the details you need:
Date: Wednesday, April 29, 2020
Time: 4pm
RSVP here

The Other Einstein

In the tradition of The Paris Wife and Mrs. Poe, The Other Einstein offers us a window into a brilliant, fascinating woman whose light was lost in Einstein’s enormous shadow. It is the story of Einstein’s wife, a brilliant physicist in her own right, whose contribution to the special theory of relativity is hotly debated and may have been inspired by her own profound and very personal insight.

Mitza Maric has always been a little different from other girls. Most twenty-year-olds are wives by now, not studying physics at an elite Zurich university with only male students trying to outdo her clever calculations. But Mitza is smart enough to know that, for her, math is an easier path than marriage. And then fellow student Albert Einstein takes an interest in her, and the world turns sideways. Theirs becomes a partnership of the mind and of the heart, but there might not be room for more than one genius in a marriage.

Donald J. Palmisano

Let us deliver authors to your living room. The next author in the Okra Pick series is Donald J. Palmisano. Donald J. Palmisano will be talking with us about her newest book A Leader’s Guide to Giving a Memorable Speech and answering your questions. Donald J. Palmisano is one of many authors we’ll be bringing into your living room.

Here are the details you need:
Date: Thursday, April 30, 2020
Time: 3pm
RSVP here

A Leader’s Guide to Giving a Memorable Speech

A good leader must be intelligent, charismatic, strong, and inspiring. A good leader must stir passion and instill knowledge in the minds of followers, whether in the field of business, medicine, politics, sports, or entertainment. A memorable speech is a powerful tool for demonstrating leadership and inspiring listeners for years to come. You can give a stirring, memorable speech, and be seen as a real leader, and Donald J. Palmisano can help you.

Here Palmisano shares proven tips on delivering an inspiring and motivating speech. Drawing from his popular seminar at Tulane University School of Medicine and over 1,000 speeches and interviews, Dr. Palmisano teaches readers how to:

Use rhetorical devices effectively
Stay on message
Practice delivery
Glean lessons from great speeches of powerful leaders from the past, such as Cicero, Winston Churchill, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Ronald Reagan
Organize speeches to emphasize the message
Weave in stories that are unforgettable
And more!

If you are a professor or teacher, if you are a CEO or manager, if you are thinking of running for office or trying to raise money, then A Leader’s Guide to Giving a Memorable Speech belongs on your bookshelf. It’s a great gift for anyone with aspirations of teaching, leading, or managing.

To see a list of all upcoming authors booked so far, click here.

Reader Meet Writer – Two Virtual Events This Week, Lee Smith and Ruthie Lindsey

Reader Meet Writer, Okra Picks

The next author in the Okra Pick series is Lee Smith. You may have read Lee Smith’s earlier works. Lee Smith will be talking with us about her newest book Blue Marlin and answering your questions. Lee Smith is one of many authors we’ll be bringing into your living room.

“Complex characters and surprising plot twists…Smith has become a master of coupling tragedy and humor.” – San Francisco Chronicle

Here are the details you need:
Date: Tuesday, April 21, 2020
Time: 3pm CST
RSVP here

Blue Marlin

New York Times bestselling author Lee Smith is one of the South’s most prominent and influential writers, with seventeen works of fiction to her name, including the iconic Fair and Tender Ladies and bestseller The Last Girls. Now comes this gem of a novella, which Smith names one of her favorite works of her illustrious career.

Lee Smith’s masterful storytelling manifests in this jewel of a novella that follows Jenny, an adventurous thirteen-year-old, down to Key West for a patched-up family vacation following the discovery of her father’s affair. Jenny confronts the frailty of family life while vying for the attention of dreamy actor Tony Curtis and even a role in his latest movie.

Available for the first time as a stand-alone novella, this book centers on the Blue Marlin Motel, where Jenny, her beautiful socialite mother, and chastened father share their sunny days with movie stars who are in town to film the 1959 classic, Operation Petticoat. Blue Marlin showcases this iconic writer at her best: sharp characterizations, perfect pitch, generous humor, and a quietly profound understanding of human nature.

Author Bio:
Born in the small coal-mining town of Grundy, Virginia, Lee Smith began writing stories at the age of nine and selling them for a nickel apiece. Since then, she has written seventeen works of fiction, including Fair and Tender Ladies, Oral History, and, most recently, Guests on Earth. She has received many awards, including the North Carolina Award for Literature and an Academy Award in Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her novel The Last Girls was a New York Times bestseller as well as winner of the Southern Book Critics Circle Award. She lives in Hillsborough, North Carolina, with her husband, the writer Hal Crowther.

Meet Ruthie Lindsey on Wednesday

Following Lee in the series is Ruthie Lindsey. She will be talking with us about her newest book There I Am: The Journey From Hopelessness to Healing, and answering your questions. Ruthie Lindsay is one of many authors we’ll be bringing into your living room.

“Ruthie Lindsey’s voice speaks directly to the heart. There I Am is a testament to the things that break us, heal us, and make us who we are.”
– Glennon Doyle, author of Untamed, and founder of Together Rising

Here are the details you need:
Date: Wednesday, April 22, 2020
Time: 4pm
RSVP here

There I Am

Brain on Fire meets Carry On, Warrior. There I Am is an arresting inspirational memoir about one woman’s journey from chronic pain and hopelessness to finding joy, redemption, and healing.

At seventeen years old, Ruthie Lindsey is hit by an ambulance near her home in rural Louisiana. She’s given a five percent chance of survival and one percent chance of walking again. One month later after a spinal fusion surgery, Ruthie defies the odds, leaving the hospital on her own two feet.

Just a few years later, newly married and living in Nashville, Ruthie begins to experience debilitating pain. Her case confounds doctors and after numerous rounds of testing, imaging, and treatment, they prescribe narcotic painkillers—lots of them. Ruthie has become bedridden, dependent on painkillers, and hopeless, when an X-ray reveals that the wire used to fuse her spine is piercing her brain stem. Without another staggeringly expensive experimental surgery, she could well become paralyzed, but in many ways, she already is.

Ruthie goes into the hospital in chronic pain, dependent on prescription painkillers, and leaves that way. She can still walk, but has no idea where she’s going. As her life unravels, Ruthie returns home to Louisiana and sets out on a journey to learn joy again. She trades fentanyl for sunsets and morphine for wildflowers, weaning herself off of the drugs and beginning the process of healing—of coming home to her body.

Raw and redemptive, There I Am is not just about the magic of optimism, but the work of it. Ruthie’s extraordinary memoir urges us to unlearn the stories of brokenness that we tell ourselves and embrace the wholeness, joy, and healing that lives inside all of us.

“Ruthie Lindsey’s voice speaks directly to the heart. There I Am is a testament to the things that break us, heal us, and make us who we are.” —Glennon Doyle, author of #1 New York Times Bestseller Love Warrior and founder of Together Rising

Attendance is limited.

If you elect to attend, we will email you on Wednesday morning with the link to attend this virtual event, plus the link to purchase books. Happy Reading!

To see a list of all upcoming authors booked so far, click here.

Virtually Meet Grady Hendrix tomorrow at 2 PM, author of The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires

Reader Meet Writer, Okra Picks

Company’s coming. Let us bring authors to your living room. Our first author in the Okra Pick series is Grady Hendrix. You may have read Grady’s earlier works: We Sold Our Souls, My Best Friend’s Exorcism, and Horrorstor. Grady will be talking with us about his newest book The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires. and answering your questions. Grady is one of many authors we’ll be bringing to your living room.

Grady Hendrix has cemented his place as a literary luminary…cancel your plans and lock your doors, you won’t be able to stop reading this one until the very end. — Sarah Gailey, author of Magic for Liars

Here are the details you need:

Date: Tuesday, April 7, 2020
Time: 2 PM CST
RSVP here

Attendance is limited.

If you elect to attend, we will email you on Tuesday morning the link & password to attend this virtual event, plus the link to purchase books. Happy Reading!

The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires

Steel Magnolias meets Dracula in this ’90s-set horror novel about a women’s book club that must do battle with a mysterious newcomer to their small Southern town, perfect for murderinos and fans of Stephen King.

Patricia Campbell’s life has never felt smaller. Her husband is a workaholic, her teenage kids have their own lives, her senile mother-in-law needs constant care, and she’s always a step behind on her endless to-do list. The only thing keeping her sane is her book club, a close-knit group of Charleston women united by their love of true crime. At these meetings they’re as likely to talk about the Manson family as they are about their own families.

One evening after book club, Patricia is viciously attacked by an elderly neighbor, bringing the neighbor’s handsome nephew, James Harris, into her life. James is well traveled and well read, and he makes Patricia feel things she hasn’t felt in years. But when children on the other side of town go missing, their deaths written off by local police, Patricia has reason to believe James Harris is more of a Bundy than a Brad Pitt. The real problem? James is a monster of a different kind—and Patricia has already invited him in.

Little by little, James will insinuate himself into Patricia’s life and try to take everything she took for granted—including the book club—but she won’t surrender without a fight in this blood-soaked tale of neighborly kindness gone wrong.

Contributor Bio(s):
Grady Hendrix is a novelist and screenwriter based in New York City. He is the author of Horrorstör, My Best Friend’s Exorcism, Paperbacks from Hell, and We Sold Our Souls, all of which received critical praise from outlets including NPR, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, the A.V. Club, Paste, Buzzfeed, and more. He has contributed to Playboy, The Village Voice, and Variety.

We’re starting virtual “office hours”

As we continue to adapt and evolve to being an online-only store for now while we weather this pandemic, we’re trying to think of ways to still be there for you in the world of books. It’s heartbreaking not having all of your voices and laughter and the excited kid voices in the store. We started posting video tours of the store for you to get your “fix” but we know that isn’t the same. So we had an idea–why not have Zoom “office hours” that we post and for those who want to drop in, can do so and chat with us. We’ll be on regardless during that time to see each others’ faces and voices and we’d love to have you join us too! Even if it’s just to say hi and let us know how you’re doing! Or if you loved the last book Alex recommended to you and now want another recommendation. Or you have kids who need books and would like to ask Candice for a recommendation. Or you’re looking for a good Romance to escape into and want Angela to weigh in — we’re here for you!

In a quick Zoom call we had today, we decided to call these “Virtual Countertop” sessions, but if you have a better name, we’re open to suggestions!

Join us for our first Virtual Countertop session this Thursday at 4 PM CST. To get the Zoom invite, just email us at info@thehauntedbookshopmobile.com and put VIRTUAL COUNTERTOP in the subject heading and we’ll send you an invite!