It's the end of June, which was a heinously hot month, and we're on to the 4th of July soon, celebrating 250 years of America. I am hoping, however, that July will fly by as fast as June, and August's dog days will also flow by fast, so we can get to my favorite time of year, Autumn, with its cozy vibes, cool temps and beautiful trees (and premiers of shows on streaming services TV). My son is flying up to Canada for vacation during the last two weeks of July, so that will present me with a challenge to navigate that I'm not looking forward to. But regardless, here's to mid-summer and its sunny but swift passing. Reviews below...enjoy!
I used to live in St Pete, and there were several great bookstores there. Now another is opening up not too far from where I lived, off 9th and MLK Jr St. For now, though, the bookstore is located in a hotel, the Cordova Inn, which I stayed at once a long time ago. I think a bookstore will be a great addition to the hotel.
Pages & Perks Launches Pop-Up in Advance of St. Petersburg, Fla., Opening
In advance of its bricks-and-mortar opening in St. Petersburg, Fla., this summer, Pages & Perks Bookstore & More will be inside the Cordova Inn, Patch reported.
Located at 253 2nd Ave. N. in downtown St. Petersburg, the pop-up can be found in the hotel's lobby, next to the coffee shop and bar. Pages & Perks carries a curated selection of general-interest titles for all ages.
"The great part is that people can shop any time there's someone at the front desk of the hotel which is 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. any day of the week," Pages and Perks co-owner Kate Johnson told Patch. "[Cordova owner] Alex Hodges knew we were ready to go and offered up the space in their library as the first permanent home of Pages and Perks."
The bookstore's main location will be a 1,600-square-foot space at 914 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. St. South. In addition to books, it will serve desserts, mocktails, beer, and wine, and events will be a major part of its offerings. Initially, Kate and Ben Johnson planned to have the bricks-and-mortar open in June, but due to ongoing construction, the opening has been delayed to August.
In the meantime, Pages & Perks will have a presence at the Cordova Inn and will be popping up throughout St. Petersburg at other events and markets. Kate Johnson noted that they hope to stay open in the Cordova Inn even after the main store opens.
My family used to be neighbors to the Hedges family (their father and three boys, that is) during the late 60s and early 70s in West Des Moines, Iowa. My brothers, Phil and Kevin, got into all kinds of trouble with Peter and his brothers.
On Stage: What's Eating Gilbert Grape
MCC Theater in New York City revealed the lineup for its 40th anniversary season, including the world premiere of a musical adaptation
What's Eating Gilbert Grape, featuring a book by Peter Hedges (About a Boy), adapting his own 1991 novel, Playbill reported.
Music and lyrics are from Adrian Enscoe, Christopher Sears, Sydney Shepherd, and Regina Strayhorn. Directed by Obie Award winner and Tony Award nominee Anne Kauffman (Mary Jane), What's Eating Gilbert Grape is produced in association with Matt Ross, Dede Harris, and Linda Rubin. Specific dates for the run at the Newman Mills Theater will be announced eventually.
"It's exciting and energizing to celebrate our 40th year with a season of collaborators both new and old, with works that are filled with heart, wit, bravery, and humor," said co-artistic director Will Cantler. "Peter Hedges is one of our longest collaborators and friends, developing the novel What's Eating Gilbert Grape in a series of chapter readings at MCC in 1989. How fitting to come full circle."
Yay for Bookstore Romance Day! I hope some bookstores near where I live here in SE Washington will have celebrations and book discounts on that day!
Save the Date: Bookstore Romance Day Arrives August 15
The popularity of Bookstore Romance Day, which takes place this year on Saturday, August 15, has grown almost as fast as the romance category itself.
Celebrating romance authors and readers, the event was founded by bookseller Billie Bloebaum. The first Bookstore Romance Day was held in 2019, when some 150 independent bookstores participated. Since then, even during the pandemic, more and more bookstores have kept the date every August, with the numbers of participating stores increasing to nearly 600 last year. Almost 700 have signed up so far this year.
The stores are primarily in the U.S. but include some in other countries, with participants last year in Canada, the U.K., and Australia. The stores have a variety of specialties, and include, of course, many of the fastest-growing type of specialty bookstore: romance bookstores. The rest are general stores that have connected with customers who love romances. And the participants comprise all kinds of stores: bricks-and-mortar, mobile, pop-up, online, and more, all of which celebrate Bookstore Romance Day in many creative, heartfelt ways. Bloebaum noted that a big recent increase in participating retailers is from "mobile, pop-up, and online-only stores, especially among the romance-focused stores."
And this year the focus of the day's celebrations is historical romance. "This isn't on purpose, but simply the way things worked out," Bloebaum said. Besides in-store events, Bookstore Romance Day will include virtual programming that will be set soon. Last year's programming ran the Saturday and Sunday of Bookstore Romance Day, featuring separate panels of authors from Sourcebooks Casablanca & Bloom Books, Bramble, and Harlequin; "Humor Is Magical," in which authors focused on humor in fantasy and paranormal romances; "Love Is Queer," celebrating LBGTQ+ voices in romance; a panel "For the Love of Romance," presented by Steamy Lit and featuring romance authors; and "Toy Story," a discussion of sex toys in romance novels.
I used to read Singer's zingers in Talk of the Town in the New Yorker Magazine. I also read some of his profiles...he was a singular wit who always managed to be funny without being mean, or cynical and rude. He will be missed.
Obituary Note: Mark Singer
Mark Singer, a staff writer at the New Yorker magazine "from the age of 23 who extended the magazine's franchise of rich reporting and witty prose about offbeat, complicated and quintessentially American characters," died June 19, the New York Times reported. He was 75. Singer wrote "urbane 'Talk of the Town' pieces... reflected on serious national matters like the Affordable Care Act, and did a hitch traveling the country as the correspondent for the 'U.S. Journal' column."
He was best known, however, for his profiles of subjects like magician Ricky Jay; a set of four doorman brothers in New York; and "a braggadocious real-estate developer, Donald Trump, years before he ran for office," the Times noted.
Singer's books, many of them collections of pieces from the magazine, include Funny Money (1985); Mr. Personality: Profiles and Talk Pieces (1989); Citizen K: the Deeply Weird American Journey of Brett Kimberlin (1996); Somewhere in America: Under the Radar with Chicken Warriors, Left-Wing Patriots, Angry Nudists, and Others (2004); Character Studies: Encounters with the Curiously Obsessed (2005); The Rise and Fall of Bear Stearns (with Alan C. Greenberg, 2010); and Trump and Me (2016).
"He came out of the tradition of A.J. Liebling and Joseph Mitchell and Calvin Trillin, which is to say he combined meticulous reporting and a very distinctive comic voice, which is extremely rare," said New Yorker editor David Remnick.
"Singer's voice is pitched perfectly to the register of the New Yorker: cool and intelligent, with a wry and artful skepticism uncorrupted by cynicism," Jeff Macgregor wrote in the New York Times Book Review. "Neither aloof nor Olympian, he maintains instead an efficient distance from his subjects. He is a terrific reporter, with a receptive ear for dialogue and a painter's eye for the salient detail."
In 1997, Singer was less than excited when then editor Tina Brown assigned him to profile Donald Trump. "Observing him over several months on construction sites, in his Trump Tower office and on a private plane, Mr. Singer concluded that Mr. Trump, in the period before he became a reality TV star, was a man 'who had aspired to and achieved the ultimate luxury, an existence unmolested by the rumbling of a soul,' " the Times noted. "That profile," Remnick said, "got everything about Trump 20 years before he ran for president: the vanity, the casual cruelty, the outsized selfishness. It was all there."
"Trump Solo" was included in Singer's Character Studies collection. After a mention of it in the Times review, Trump wrote a letter to the editor attacking Singer, who, in turn, sent a mock thank-you note to Trump for the publicity, along with a check for $37.82 for the Amazon sales boost.
Trump was not amused. The Times noted that he "returned the letter with an all-caps note at the bottom, reading, in part, 'MARK--YOU ARE A TOTAL LOSER.'" Singer later said that Trump did, however, cash the check, a framed photocopy of which the writer displayed in his apartment. In 2016, Singer expanded and updated his essay into the book Trump and Me.
Mermaid Zephyra of the Syl dreams of freedom. On the run from a dangerous captor and years of abuse, she’s shed her tail, grown legs, and hidden herself on land in the merrow-loathing kingdom of Mortia, left to steal and barter on the dirty streets. But her freedom is short-lived when she’s caught and sentenced to death by the brutal warlock, Arion Stone.
Arion is as beautiful as he is cold and deadly, only interested in punishing the merrow he views as evil. He has grown as strong as any warlock might, but at great personal cost ... which can only be remedied by the heart of the God of Death, lost to a fabled kingdom beneath the ocean’s treacherous depths.
So Arion offers Zephyra a deal she can’t refuse; help him find the mystical heart, and he’ll spare her life. With no other options, Zephyra agrees, entangling their souls and forbidden desires in a magical bargain until death do they part. But Zephyra's past is catching up to her, and the enemy she fled seeks vengeance. If Zephyra and Arion can't learn to fight together—and trust each other—there are worse things awaiting them than just death. Of course, in the wicked sea, everyone has secrets, and no one should be trusted.
The road stretched out before them. No other cars, just the headlights on the blacktop. Above, the cracked moon in a kaleidoscope sky.
Husbands Don and Rodney have lived a good long life. Together they’ve experienced the highest highs of love and family, and lows so low that they felt like the end of the world.
Now, the world is ending for real. A rogue black hole is coming for Earth and in a month everything and everyone they’ve ever known will be gone.
Suddenly, after 40 years together, Don and Rodney are out of time. They’re in a race against the clock to make it from Maine to Washington State to take care of some unfinished business before it’s all over.
On the road they meet those who refuse to believe death is coming and those who rush to meet it. But there are also people living their final days as best they know how―impromptu weddings, bright burning bonfires, shared meals, and new friends.
And as the black hole draws near, among ball lightning and under a cracked moon in a kaleidoscope sky, Don and Rodney will look back on their lives and ask if their best was good enough.
Is it enough to burn bright if nothing comes from the ashes?
Elegy Ahn did not ask for destiny to find her.
She is happy with her life as a soldier, defending her small country from the Talusar, a powerful nation who worships a deadly Fever. A fever that blesses half of its victims with mysterious gifts. (Editors note: the other half DIE in AGONY).
But then she’s summoned to hear a prophecy–her, and the most ruthless of Talusar generals, Rava Vidar. Brought face to face, they learn that one of them will lead their people to victory over the other…but they don’t know which. And at the center of both of their fates: a man. A man that, Elegy is told, she will fall in love with.
In just one day, Elegy’s old life–her job, her purpose, and her future–is over. She and Rava are destined to collide, with the fate of their nations hanging in the balance. And when they do, only one will be left standing.
Elegy intends to make sure it’s her.
Rainy March is a proud, third-generation Book Witch, sworn to defend works of fiction from all foes real and imaginary. With her magical umbrella and feline familiar, she jumps in and out of novels to fix malicious alterations and rogue heroes like a modern-day magical Nancy Drew.
Book Witches live by a strict code: Real people belong in the real world; fictional characters belong in works of fiction. Do not eat, drink, or sleep inside a fictional world, lest you become part of the story. Falling in love with a fictional character? Don’t even think about it.
Which is why Rainy has been forbidden from seeing the Duke of Chicago, the dashing British detective who stars in her favorite mystery series. If she’s ever caught with him again, she’ll be expelled from her book coven—and forced to give up the magical gifts that are as much a part of her as her own name.
But when her beloved grandfather disappears and a priceless book is stolen, there’s only one person she trusts to help her solve the case: the Duke. Their quest takes them through the worlds of Alice in Wonderland, King Arthur, and other classics that will reveal hidden enemies and long-buried family secrets.
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