Hi all, Mary here! I have a sad announcement about the book club so I thought it better if I did it myself. This was the first book club I started at the store & our first meeting was in a tiny, less-than 400 sq ft space. We had wine & talked about The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. The book club grew & became one of our most popular offerings. We expanded & added new book clubs, new folks decided to join us, and we even had authors come speak to us a few times! However, since the pandemic began, attendance at our virtual meetings has dwindled until, for the last few months, no one came at all.
We understand that things are crazy right now and, for many, spending another hour on a screen at the end of a day spent on screens isn't very enticing. We also understand that the virtual format isn't as much fun for some as meeting in person at the bookstore with drinks & snacks. Whatever your reasons are for no longer attending our book club or for not attending in the first place, please know that we don't hold it against you! However, planning for an event takes prep time. I spend the month reading the book, developing discussion questions, creating these blog posts, and developing social media images & copy for marketing. It's a lot of work. I don't mind doing it, of course, if that means that the event goes well & we get to have a lovely discussion about that month's book. But, with folks not attending, I am going to have to put this book club on temporary hold. I am spread very thin right now & spending time on an event that doesn't bring in any readers doesn't seem like the best use of my time. I hope y'all understand & know that we wouldn't do this unless it was necessary. I need to spend more time on things that offer a return on energy spent, in some way or another. This doesn't mean that the Foggy Pine Book Club is canceled! We will be returning to our usual format when we are able to meet in person again. Of course, we have no idea when that will be but we expect that we will have no new meetings for the rest of 2020. We will post here & on our social media accounts when the book club is gearing up to start again. In the meantime, if you were hoping to join a book club, you can check out the Fantasy & Sci-Fi Book Club. Thank you, everyone, for your continued support of the bookstore. Without you, we wouldn't be here & we are forever grateful that you've allowed us a space in your hearts.
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A Song Below Water is Bethany C. Morrow's second novel. Her first published work MEM, another work of speculative fiction, addressed the ideas of cloning, memory, and trauma. Morrow is the editor of the anthology Take the Mic: Fictional Stories of Everyday Resistance, which was released in 2019. It "aims to provide marginalized teens visibility and validation in stories of everyday resistance." Here's the summary for A Song Below Water: In a society determined to keep her under lock and key, Tavia must hide her siren powers. Meanwhile, Effie is fighting her own family struggles, pitted against literal demons from her past. Together, these best friends must navigate through the perils of high school’s junior year. But everything changes in the aftermath of a siren murder trial that rocks the nation, and Tavia accidentally lets out her magical voice at the worst possible moment. Soon, nothing in Portland, Oregon, seems safe. To save themselves from drowning, it’s only Tavia and Effie’s unbreakable sisterhood that proves to be the strongest magic of all. If this sounds like something you'd like to read, you can get your copy of the book from the store or online with a 15% discount through the end of August. You can have it shipped directly to you or come pick it up curbside! This title is also available as an audiobook through our partner, Libro.fm. Reviews & Interviews "Q&A: Bethany C. Morrow" -- The Nerd Daily "Black Voices, Power, and Activism" -- The Young Folks "Interview with Bethany C. Morrow" -- Pine Reads Review "Raise Your Voice: A Song Below Water" -- TOR.com "A Song Below Water" -- Kirkus "Voice As Resistance" -- Chicago Review of Books We'll meet online via Google Meet on August 29th at 7:30pm. Come discuss the book with us, even if you weren't able to completely finish it or if you didn't like it. You can see the Facebook event & RSVP here. Influenced by the mysterious place gingerbread holds in classic children's stories, beloved novelist Helen Oyeyemi invites readers into a delightful tale of a surprising family legacy, in which the inheritance is a recipe. Perdita Lee may appear to be your average British schoolgirl; Harriet Lee may seem just a working mother trying to penetrate the school social hierarchy; but there are signs that they might not be as normal as they think they are. For one thing, they share a gold-painted, seventh-floor walk-up apartment with some surprisingly verbal vegetation. And then there's the gingerbread they make. Londoners may find themselves able to take or leave it, but it's very popular in Druhástrana, the far-away (or, according to many sources, non-existent) land of Harriet Lee's early youth. The world's truest lover of the Lee family gingerbread, however, is Harriet's charismatic childhood friend Gretel Kercheval —a figure who seems to have had a hand in everything (good or bad) that has happened to Harriet since they met. Decades later, when teenaged Perdita sets out to find her mother's long-lost friend, it prompts a new telling of Harriet's story. As the book follows the Lees through encounters with jealousy, ambition, family grudges, work, wealth, and real estate, gingerbread seems to be the one thing that reliably holds a constant value. Endlessly surprising and satisfying, written with Helen Oyeyemi's inimitable style and imagination, it is a true feast for the reader. Oyeyemi's novel White Is For Witching was a 2009 Shirley Jackson Award finalist and won a 2010 Somerset Maugham Award. In 2009 Oyeyemi was recognized in Venus Zine's "25 under 25" list. In 2013 she was included in the Granta Best of Young British Novelists list and Boy, Snow, Bird was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in 2014. What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours won the PEN Open Book Award: for an exceptional book-length work of literature by an author of color published in 2016. If this sounds like something you'd like to read, you can get your copy of the book from the store or online with a 15% discount through the end of July. Remember, you can have it shipped directly to you or come pick it up curbside! Buy Here: |
Buy Here | Reviews & Interviews |
"The Silence of the Girls, A Feminist Odyssey" -- The Guardian "Giving Voice to Homer's Women" -- The NY TIMES "The Silence of Classical Literature's Women" -- The Atlantic "The Waterstones Interview: Pat Barker on The Silence of the Girls" -- Waterstones |
Korede has long been in love with a kind, handsome doctor at the hospital where she works. She dreams of the day when he will realize that she’s exactly what he needs. But when he asks Korede for Ayoola’s phone number, she must reckon with what her sister has become and how far she’s willing to go to protect her.
My Sister the Serial Killer is Oyinkan Braithwaite's first novel. It has been nominated for the 2019 Booker Prize and was a finalist for the 2019 Women's Prize. My Sister the Serial Killer was the winner of the 2018 LA Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller and also won the 2019 Anthony Award for Best First Novel.
"In This Novel, One Sister Is a Nurse. The Other Is a Murderer" -- NY Times
"A Morbidly Funny Slashfest" -- The Guardian
"Sister Act: On "My Sister the Serial Killer" -- LA Review of Books
"Interview with Oyinkan Braithwaite" -- Dead Darlings
"Author Interview: My Sister the Serial Killer" -- NPR
"On Violence, Beauty, and Poetry" -- LitHub
Buy Here!
Reviews & Interviews
"Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities"--Kirkus Review
"Thirteen Years On, Rebecca Solnit's Hope in the Dark Offers a Vision for Defiance, Not Dispair, in the Age of Trump"--Paste
"Rebecca Solnit on What Makes Her Hopeful"-- Democracy Now
"Rebecca Solnit: The Essay is Powerful Again" -- The Guardian
"Interview with Rebecca Solnit"-- Terrain.org
In Boy, Snow, Bird Oyeyemi serves us a brilliant recasting of the Snow White fairy tale as a story of family secrets, race, beauty, and vanity. In the winter of 1953, Boy Novak arrives by chance in a small town in Massachusetts looking, she believes, for beauty—the opposite of the life she’s left behind in New York. She marries Arturo Whitman, a local widower, and becomes stepmother to his winsome daughter, Snow.
A wicked stepmother is a creature Boy never imagined she’d become, but elements of the familiar tale of aesthetic obsession begin to play themselves out when the birth of Boy’s daughter, Bird, who is dark-skinned, exposes the Whitmans as light-skinned African-Americans passing for white. And even as Boy, Snow, and Bird are divided, their estrangement is complicated by an insistent curiosity about one another. In seeking an understanding that is separate from the image each presents to the world, Boy, Snow, and Bird confront the tyranny of the mirror to ask how much power surfaces really hold.
Dazzlingly inventive and powerfully moving, Boy, Snow, Bird is an astonishing and enchanting novel. With breathtaking feats of imagination, Helen Oyeyemi confirms her place as one of the most original and dynamic literary voices of our time.
Buy Now!
Reviews & Interviews
"'Boy, Snow, Bird' Takes A Closer Look Into The Fairy Tale Mirror" -- NPR
"'Boy, Snow, Bird' Author on Fairy Tales and Feminists With Flawless Prose" -- Flavorwire
"White Lies" -- The New York Times
"Boy, Snow, Bird" -- Kirkus Review
"Snow Whitman" -- Slate
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