Reviews & Interviews

We'll meet at Foggy Pine Books on November 23rd at 7:30pm. There will be free wine and snacks for book club members to share.  Bring a friend and 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. 

It's October and what better way to celebrate this spooktacular month than by diving into something by the master of scary, Stephen King! King has received many awards and nominations over the years including multiple Bram Stoker Awards, World Fantasy Awards, and British Fantasy Society Awards as well as the National Medal of Arts, Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters and the O. Henry Award. He has also received awards for his contribution to literature for his entire oeuvre, such as the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement (2004), the Bram Stoker Lifetime Achievement Award (2002), the Canadian Booksellers Association Lifetime Achievement Award (2007), and the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America (2007).

This month, we've selected Joyland, a story set in a small-town North Carolina amusement park in 1973. The novel follows college student Devin Jones who takes a summer job at Joyland, hoping to forget the girl who broke his heart. But he winds up facing something far more terrible: the legacy of a vicious murder, the fate of a dying child, and dark truths about life—and what comes after—that will change his world forever.

A riveting story about love and loss, about growing up and growing old—and about those who don’t get to do either because death comes for them before their time--Joyland is Stephen King at the peak of his storytelling powers. With all the emotional impact of King masterpieces such as The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption, Joyland is at once a mystery, a horror story, and a bittersweet coming-of-age novel, one that will leave even the most hard-boiled reader profoundly moved.

"High Pulp: Stephen King's "Joyland" -- LA Review of Books
"Joyland by Stephen King" -- The Guardian
"Stephen King on Growing Up, Believing in God and Getting Scared" -- NPR
​

​This month’s novel, An American Marriage by Tayari Jones, explores the marriage of a middle-class African-American couple and the aftermath of their lives as they are torn apart by wrongful conviction and imprisonment. An American Marriage was a 2018 Best of the Year selection of NPR, Time, and Bustle, a New York Times and Washington Post Notable Book, and a 2018 Oprah Book Club book. It won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, Fiction and the 2019 Women’s Prize for Fiction. Tayari Jones, a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers, has been the recipient of the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, Lifetime Achievement Award in Fine Arts from the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, United States Artist Fellowship, NEA Fellowship and Radcliffe Institute Bunting Fellowship. Her writing has appeared in Tin House, The Believer, The New York Times, and Callaloo. 

Newlyweds Celestial and Roy are the embodiment of both the American Dream and the New South. He is a young executive, and she is an artist on the brink of an exciting career. But as they settle into the routine of their life together, they are ripped apart by circumstances neither could have imagined. Roy is arrested and sentenced to twelve years for a crime Celestial knows he didn’t commit. Though fiercely independent, Celestial finds herself bereft and unmoored, taking comfort in Andre, her childhood friend, and best man at their wedding. As Roy’s time in prison passes, she is unable to hold on to the love that has been her center. After five years, Roy’s conviction is suddenly overturned, and he returns to Atlanta ready to resume their life together.
 
This stirring love story is a profoundly insightful look into the hearts and minds of three people who are at once bound and separated by forces beyond their control. An American Marriage is a masterpiece of storytelling, an intimate look deep into the souls of people who must reckon with the past while moving forward—with hope and pain—into the future.

If this sounds like something you'd like to read, you can get your copy of the book from the store with a 15% discount until the end of September. You can also get the audiobook from our partner, Libro.fm! Click here to get yours!

"An American Marriage: Redefining the American Love Story" -- NPR
"You Have To Work With the Love You Are Given" -- Tin House
"The Epistolary Heat of An American Marriage" -- The Atlantic
"If I Can't Cry, Nobody Cries: An Interview with Tayari Jones" -- The Paris Review

We'll meet at Foggy Pine Books on September 28th at 7:30pm. There will be free wine and snacks for book club members to share.  Bring a friend and 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.

For the August book club read, we chose a debut novel about the complicated lives and loves of people working at a beloved Chinese restaurant. Lillian Li is the author of the novel Number One Chinese Restaurant, which was longlisted for the Women’s Prize, the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize, and an NPR Best Book of 2018. Her work has been published in the New York Times, Granta, One Story, Bon Appetit, and Jezebel. Originally from the D.C. metro area, she lives in Ann Arbor. So what's it about?

The popular Beijing Duck House in Rockville, Maryland has been serving devoted regulars for decades, but behind the staff's professional smiles simmer tensions, heartaches, and grudges from decades of bustling restaurant life.

Owner Jimmy Han has ambitions for a new high-end fusion place, hoping to eclipse his late father's homely establishment. Jimmy's older brother, Johnny, is more concerned with restoring the dignity of the family name than his faltering relationship with his own teenage daughter, Annie. Nan and Ah-Jack, longtime Duck House employees, yearn to turn their thirty-year friendship into something more, while Nan's son, Pat, struggles to stay out of trouble. When disaster strikes and Pat and Annie find themselves in a dangerous game that means tragedy for the Duck House, their families must finally confront the conflicts and loyalties simmering beneath the red and gold lanterns.

If this sounds like something you'd like to read, you can get your copy of the book from the store with a 15% discount until the end of August. You can also get the audiobook from our partner, Libro.fm! Click here to get yours!

"Number One Chinese Restaurant' by Lillian Li" -- Asian Review of Books
"Number One Chinese Restaurant" -- Kirkus Review
"Family Drama is on the Menu in 'Number One Chinese Restaurant'" -- USA Today
"An Interview with Lillian Li" -- Fiction Writers Review
"48: Lillian Li - writer" -- Mythos

We'll meet at Foggy Pine Books on August 31st at 7:30pm. We'll have free wine and snacks for book club members to share.  Bring a friend and 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.

Though National Poetry Month is in April, our book club has been wanting to read some poetry for a while. We wanted to read something that had recently won an award and that was accessible to non-poetry readers. We landed on The Poet X since it had just won the National Book Award and was written for younger readers. Elizabeth Acevedo is a New York Times best selling author. She is the winner of the 2018 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, The Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Fiction, the Boston Globe-Hornbook Award Prize for Best Children’s Fiction, and the Pura Belpré Award for a work that best affirms the Latinx cultural experience.

Her books include, Beastgirl & Other Origin Myths (YesYes, 2016), The Poet X (HarperCollins, 2018), & her upcoming title--With The Fire On High (HarperCollins, 2019). We're so excited to discuss this critically acclaimed book together and to bring more poetry into our lives. What's it about, though? The summary given by the publisher says: 

Xiomara Batista feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood. Ever since her body grew into curves, she has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talking. But Xiomara has plenty she wants to say, and she pours all her frustration and passion onto the pages of a leather notebook, reciting the words to herself like prayers—especially after she catches feelings for a boy in her bio class named Aman, who her family can never know about.

With Mami’s determination to force her daughter to obey the laws of the church, Xiomara understands that her thoughts are best kept to herself. So when she is invited to join her school’s slam poetry club, she doesn’t know how she could ever attend without her mami finding out. But she still can’t stop thinking about performing her poems--because in the face of a world that may not want to hear her, Xiomara refuses to be silent.

If this sounds like something you'd like to read, you can get your copy of the book from the store with a 15% discount until the end of May. If you'd like to purchase online, we have the following the formats available:

Hardcover
Large Print
Digital Audiobook
Audiobook CD

We'll meet at Foggy Pine Books on May 25th at 7:30pm. We'll have free wine and snacks for book club members to share.  Bring a friend and 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.

Starred Kirkus Review -- "The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo"
The New York Times Review -- "Speaking Truth, Beautifully, to Shattered Young People"
Publisher's Weekly Interview -- "Q & A with Elizabeth Acevedo"
Literary Hub Interview -- "Meet National Book Award Finalist Elizabeth Acevedo"

We recently had the pleasure of having Southern author, C. H. Hooks, visit the bookstore during the book tour for his novel, Alligator Zoo-Park Magic. We decided that we'd like to read this novel for one of our book clubs since we hadn't read any Southern novels recently.

C.H. Hooks is a Florida author whose work has appeared in American Short Fiction, Burrow Press, and Bridge Eight Literary Magazine. He received his MFA from The University of Tampa and is currently a lecturer at the College of Coastal Georgia. Alligator Zoo-Park Magic is his first novel. 

So, what is it about? The publisher says: Is Jeffers an Alligator Zoo-Park magician or the Messiah? Two friends live unapologetically on the edge of poverty in the rugged, un-decorous part of the South. Jimmy, a single father with an addict ex, and Jeffers, a magician whose tricks are closer to miracles--both are immersed in a place where trailers and Hot Pockets dominate the landscape, and alligators roam free. When Jimmy witnesses "losing" his best friend to his biggest trick gone awry, he reflects on their lifelong friendship and what it really means to escape.

If this sounds like something you'd like to read, you can get signed copies of the book from the store with a 15% discount until the end of April. If you'd like to purchase online, we have the following the formats available:

Paperback

We'll meet at Foggy Pine Books on April 27th at 7:30pm. We'll have free wine and snacks for book club members to share.  Bring a friend and 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.

We've really enjoyed diversifying our book club choices this year and are very much looking forward to this month's pick: Heads of the Colored People by Nafissa Thompson-Spires. Last month brought a split from our members, with about half of the book club enjoying The Good Son and half not liking it at all. Books like this make book club interesting and bring up powerful conversations. So, if you think you'd enjoy a thoughtful conversation with other people in your community, come by the store to grab your copy of this month's book!

Presenting unique characters, gifted storyteller Thompson-Spires navigates the black experience with humor and poignancy while also acknowledging the inherent tensions and exposure to violence black citizens encounter. ​Inspired by leading abolitionist and physician James McCune Smith's "Heads of the Colored People, Done with a Whitewash Brush," Thompson-Spires offers a powerful debut of 11 original, multilayered stories that focus on the African American community, exploring race and the politics of identity but also class issues and the privileges of the black middle class. "Belles Lettres" exemplifies this focus well. Two mothers correspond with increasing snippiness via notes in their daughters' backpacks, their insults targeting education, mental health, physical appearance, paternity, and so on. It would seem that the daughters, Christinia and Fatima, the only black girls in their private school, might seek each other out. However, their rivalry continues through high school, as revealed in "The Body's Defenses Against Itself." This piece and the title story are among several that delve into body and self-image, clarifying what it's like to live in a black body within a racist society.

If this sounds like something you'd like to read, you can get your copy of the book from the store with a 15% discount until the end of January. If you'd like to purchase online, we have the following the formats available:

Digital Audiobook
eBook
Paperback
Hardcover
Audiobook CD

We'll meet at Foggy Pine Books on March 30th at 7:30pm. We'll have free wine and snacks for book club members to share.  Bring a friend and 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.

New York Times Interview --"Tell Us 5 Things About Your Book: Disarming Humor in 'Heads of the Colored People'"
The Guardian Review -- "'Heads of the Colored People' by Nafissa Thompson-Spires review - coolly ironic stories"

If one of your new year's resolutions was to read more, we encourage you to join the Foggy Pine Book Club and come discuss each month's selection with us. This month, we're reading The View from Saturday by E. L. Konigsburg. We're also excited to announce the first three books that the Foggy Pine Book Club is reading for 2019. So, read on to find out what we have coming up and what this month's book is about. 

In an effort to read more diversely, our book club decided together to read more books by people of color. To that end, we chose to read The Good Son by South Korean author You-Jeong Jeong for the month of February. For the month of March, we are reading Heads of the Colored People by Nafissa Thompson-Spires, a Black American author and professor. You can view the events on our event calendar and Facebook page. You can also buy both books in advance at Foggy Pine Books, both in-store or online.

What about the book we're reading this month, though? We're excited to read a novel by Newberry Award-winning author, E. L. Konigsburg, especially since we haven't read a middle grade book together before. This book came highly recommended from one of our book club members and we're looking forward to discussing it's themes and scenes together. This is the summary the publisher gives on their website: Mrs. Olinski, returning to teaching after having been injured in an automobile accident, found that her Academic Bowl team became her answer to finding confidence and success. What she did not know, at least at first, was that her team knew more than she did the answer to why they had been chosen. This is a tale about a team, a class, a school, a series of contests and, set in the midst of this, four jewel-like short stories -- one for each of the team members -- that ask questions and demonstrate surprising answers.

​If this sounds like something you'd like to read, you can get your copy of the book from the store with a 15% discount until the end of January. If you'd like to purchase online, we have the following the formats available:

Digital Audiobook
eBook
Paperback
Hardcover
Audiobook CD

We'll meet at Foggy Pine Books on January 26th at 7:30pm. We'll have free wine and snacks for book club members to share.  Bring a friend and 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.

The New Yorker Review--"'The View from Saturday' by E. L. Konigsburg"
Publisher's Weekly Review--"The View From Saturday"

Since November is a busy month for many people, our group decided to read a novella, Binti by Nnedi Okorafor. We'll still have plenty to talk about but you won't have to spend a lot of time reading--the book is only 90 pages!

Nnedi Okorafor is an author we're quite fond of at Foggy Pine Books. Her Binti trilogy is an incredible science fiction story (it won the Hugo & Nebula awards for best novella) but she writes in other genres, as well. She has another scifi book, Lagoon, and several fantasy books: Akata Witch (a YA series), The Book of Phoenix, and Who Fears Death--which is being made into an HBO show produced by George R. R. Martin. Plus, she has written a children's picture book, Chicken in the Kitchen. You really can't go wrong with any of her works.

Let's learn a little more about Binti though. Here's the official summary:

Her name is Binti, and she is the first of the Himba people ever to be offered a place at Oomza University, the finest institution of higher learning in the galaxy. But to accept the offer will mean giving up her place in her family to travel between the stars among strangers who do not share her ways or respect her customs.

Knowledge comes at a cost, one that Binti is willing to pay, but her journey will not be easy. The world she seeks to enter has long warred with the Meduse, an alien race that has become the stuff of nightmares. Oomza University has wronged the Meduse, and Binti’s stellar travel will bring her within their deadly reach.

If Binti hopes to survive the legacy of a war not of her making, she will need both the the gifts of her people and the wisdom enshrined within the University, itself - but first she has to make it there, alive.

If you want to travel to an galactic university without leaving your favorite chair, we hope you'll join us for the November meeting. This book is a favorite of Mary's and she can't wait to share it with others. 

If this sounds like something you'd like to read, you can get your copy of the book from the store with a 15% discount until the end of November. If you'd like to purchase online, we have the following the formats available:

Digital Audiobook
eBook
Paperback
Hardcover

We'll meet at Foggy Pine Books on November 24th at 7:30pm. We'll have free wine and snacks for book club members to share.  Bring a friend and 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.

Tor.com Review-- "Of Jellyfish, Otjize, and Afrofuturism: Binti by Nnedi Okorafor"
​Publisher's Weekly-- "Binti"
Nnedi’s Wahala Zone Blog-- “On That Rapid Puppies Thing and My Hugo Award-Winning Novella Binti”
Lightspeed Magazine-- “Interview: Nnedi Okorafor”

This month we wanted to read something both true and spooky. We decided on this memoir by Jen Waite about discovering that her husband was most likely a psychopath or sociopath after what had seemed like a perfect marriage. Definitely creepy and a little unnerving, this book has received good reviews from Publisher's Weekly and Kirkus Reviews so we thought we'd give it a chance. 

Here's the official summary:
One night. One email. Two realities.

It all started with an email…

Before: Jen Waite has met the partner of her dreams. A handsome, loving man who becomes part of her family, evolving into her husband, her best friend, and the father of her infant daughter.

After: A disturbing email sparks suspicion, leading to an investigation of who this man really is and what was really happening in their marriage.

In alternating Before and After chapters, Waite obsessively analyzes her relationship, trying to find a single moment form the past five years that isn’t part of the long con of lies and manipulation. Instead, she finds more lies, infidelity, and betrayal than she could have imagined. With the pacing and twists of a psychological thriller, A Beautiful, Terrible Thing looks at how a fairy tale can become a nightmare and what happens when “it could never happen to me” actually does.

In addition to being disturbing as all hell, this book also address the topic of domestic violence and abuse. October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month and our hope is to tie in some of the events in the book to DV awareness and support of victims. 

If this sounds like something you'd like to read, you can get your copy of the book from the store with a 15% discount until the end of the month. If you'd like to purchase online, we have the following the formats available:

Digital Audiobook
eBook
Paperback
Hardcover

We'll meet at Foggy Pine Books on October 27th at 7:30pm. We'll have free wine and snacks for book club members to share.  Bring a friend and 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.

Today Show Interview--"Jen Waite on Megyn Kelly"

BookPage Review-- "Book Reviews: A Beautiful, Terrible Thing" 

The New York Times Review--"New in Memoir: Lessons in Falling in Love and 2 accounts of its Horrors"​