Category: #BookTok

Introducing the James Beard 2024 Book Award Nominees


Baking and Desserts:

This award recognizes books with recipes focused on the art and craft of baking, pastries, and desserts, both sweet and savory items, including ingredients, techniques, equipment, and traditions.

This year, submissions to the Bread category were included for consideration within the Baking and Desserts category.


Dark Rye and Honey Cake: Festival Baking from Belgium, the Heart of the Low Countries

Regula Ysewijn
(Weldon Owen)

Mayumu: Filipino American Desserts Remixed

Abi Balingit
(HarperCollins)

More Than Cake: 100 Baking Recipes Built for Pleasure and Community

Natasha Pickowicz
(Artisan Books)

Beverage with Recipes:

This award recognizes books with recipes focused on beverages, such as
cocktails, beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, or juices.

Juke Joints, Jazz Clubs, and Juice: Cocktails from Two Centuries of African American Cookbooks

Toni Tipton-Martin
(Clarkson Potter)

The Maison Premiere Almanac: Cocktails, Oysters, Absinthe, and Other Essential Nutrients for the Sensualist, Aesthete, and Flaneur

Joshua Boissy, Jordan Mackay, and Krystof Zizka
(Clarkson Potter)

Slow Drinks: A Field Guide to Foraging and Fermenting Seasonal Sodas, Botanical Cocktails, Homemade Wines, and More

Danny Childs
(Hardie Grant North America)

Beverage without Recipes:

This award recognizes books without recipes that focus on beverages, such
as cocktails, beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, or juices; or books that cover these subject areas where recipes are not the focus of cooking, not just a single topic, technique, or region.

Agave Spirits: The Past, Present, and Future of Mezcals

Gary Paul Nabhan and David Suro Piñera
(W. W. Norton & Company)
The New French Wine

Jon Bonné
(Ten Speed Press)

Vines in a Cold Climate: The People Behind the English Wine Revolution

Henry Jeffreys
(Atlantic)
Food Issues and Advocacy:

This award recognizes books that focus on investigative journalism, food
policy, food advocacy, deep dives, and critical analysis of the changing social landscape around food.

At the Table: The Chef’s Guide to Advocacy

Katherine Miller
(Island Press)

Avocado Anxiety: and Other Stories About Where Your Food Comes From

Louise Gray
(Bloomsbury Wildlife)

Resilient Kitchens: American Immigrant Cooking in a Time of Crisis: Essays and Recipes

Philip Gleissner and Harry Eli Kashdan
(Rutgers University Press)

General:

This award recognizes books with recipes that address a broad scope of cooking, not just a single topic, technique, or region.

A Cook’s Book

Nigel Slater
(Ten Speed)

The Everlasting Meal Cookbook: Leftovers A-Z

Tamar Adler
(Scribner)

Start Here: Instructions for Becoming a Better Cook

Sohla El-Waylly
(Alfred A. Knopf)

International:

This award recognizes books with recipes focused on food or cooking traditions of countries, regions, or communities outside of the United States.

Made in Taiwan: Recipes and Stories from the Island Nation

Clarissa Wei with Ivy Chen
(Simon & Schuster/Simon Element)

My Everyday Lagos: Nigerian Cooking at Home and in the Diaspora

Yewande Komolafe
(Ten Speed Press)

The World Central Kitchen Cookbook

José Andrés and Sam Chapple-Sokol
(Clarkson Potter)

Literary Writing:

This award recognizes narrative nonfiction books, including memoirs, culinary travel, culinary tourism, biography, reflections on food in a cultural context, and personal essays.

Food Stories: Writing That Stirs the Pot

The Bitter Southerner

(The Bitter Southerner)

For The Culture: Phenomenal Black Women and Femmes in Food: Interviews, Inspiration, and Recipes

Klancy Miller
(HarperCollins)

The Migrant Chef: The Life and Times of Lalo García

Laura Tillman
(W. W. Norton & Company)

Reference, History, and Scholarship:

This award recognizes manuals, guides, encyclopedias, or books
that present research related to food or foodways.

The Ark of Taste: Delicious and Distinctive Foods That Define the United States

David S. Shields and Giselle K. Lord
(Hachette Book Group)

Food Power Politics: The Food Story of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement

Bobby J. Smith II
(University of North Carolina Press)

White Burgers, Black Cash: Fast Food from Black Exclusion to Exploitation

Naa Oyo A. Kwate
(University of Minnesota Press)

Restaurant and Professional:

This award recognizes books written by a culinary professional or
restaurant chef with recipes that may include advanced cooking techniques, the use of specialty ingredients and professional equipment, including culinary arts textbooks.

Ester: Australian Cooking

Mat Lindsay with Pat Nourse
(Murdoch Books)

Fish Butchery: Mastering The Catch, Cut, and Craft

Josh Niland
Hardie Grant Books)

Rintaro: Japanese Food from an Izakaya in California

Jessica Battilana and Sylvan Mishima Brackett
(Hardie Grant North America)

Single Subject:

This award recognizes books with recipes focused on a single ingredient, dish, or method of cooking. Examples include seafood, grains, pasta, burgers, or canning. Exceptions are baking and desserts books, vegetable-focused books, restaurant and professional books, and beverage books—
which would be entered in their respective categories.

The Hog Island Book of Fish and Seafood: Culinary Treasures from Our Waters

John Ash
(Cameron Books)

Pasta Every Day: Make It, Shape It, Sauce It, Eat It

Meryl Feinstein
(Hachette Book Group

Yogurt & Whey: Recipes of an Iranian Immigrant Life

Homa Dashtaki
(W. W. Norton & Company)

U.S. Foodways:

This award recognizes books with recipes focused on the cooking or foodways of regions or communities located within the United States.

Ed Mitchell’s Barbeque

Ed Mitchell, Ryan Mitchell, and Zella Palmer
(Ecco)

Love Japan: Recipes from Our Japanese American Kitchen


Aaron Israel and Sawako Okochi with Gabriella Gershenson
(Ten Speed Press)

Made Here Recipes & Reflections From NYC’s Asian Communities

Send Chinatown Love
(Self-Published)

Vegetable-Focused Cooking:

This award recognizes books on vegetable cookery with recipes that are meatless, vegetarian, or vegan.

Ever-Green Vietnamese: Super-Fresh Recipes, Starring Plants from Land and Sea

Andrea Nguyen
(Ten Speed Press)
Japan: The Vegetarian Cookbook

Nancy Singleton Hachisu
Phaidon Press)

Tenderheart: A Cookbook About Vegetables and Unbreakable Family Bonds

Hetty Lui McKinnon
(Alfred A. Knopf)

Visuals:

This award recognizes books on food or beverage with exceptional graphic design, art, or photography.

The Book of Sichuan Chili Crisp

Yudi Echevarria
(Ten Speed Press)
For The Culture: Phenomenal Black Women and Femmes in Food: Interviews, Inspiration, and Recipes

Kelly Marshall and Sarah Madden
(HarperCollins)
Thank You Please Come Again: How Gas Stations Feed & Fuel the American South

Kate Medley with Dave Whitling
(BS Publishing)

Cookbook Hall of Fame:

This award is given to either a cookbook that has significantly influenced the way we think about food, honoring authors who possess an exceptional ability to communicate their gastronomic vision via the printed page, or an author whose cookbooks and other culinary books and work, taken together, make a difference in the world of food and cooking.

The Book Awards Subcommittee selects the winner for this category. The Cookbook Hall of Fame winner will be announced at the Media Awards ceremony on June 8.

No Place Like Murder: 20 Historic True Crimes in the Hoosier State

               “True crime aficionados are fascinated by the havoc their fellow humans are capable of wreaking,” says author Janis Thornton who takes us beyond high profile crime into lesser known but equally fascinating tales. “For them, learning details of the victims’ worst nightmares is not only tantalizing; in a perverse way, it’s almost comforting because it happened to someone else. In a sense, true crime offers readers a “there but for the grace of God” revelation that allows them to vicariously experience unimaginable horrors behind a safety buffer of time and space.”

               Using these buffers, “No Place Like Murder” Thornton examines the underbelly of Hoosier history through the retelling of twenty sensational murders that ripped apart numerous small, Indiana communities between 1950 and 1869. But because volumes have been written chronicling the likes of high-profile Hoosier serial killers Belle Gunness (includig “America’s Femme Fatale” by Jane Simon Ammeson) and H.H. Holmes, Thornton’s tales focus on 20 lesser known, but no less merciless, homegrown killers.

               “No Place Like Murder” paints portraits of murderous women like Frankie Miller, who shot and killed her fiancé after he stood her up for another woman. Readers also will meet the plucky Isabelle Messmer, who ran away from her quiet farm-town life, and after nearly taking down two tough Pittsburgh policemen, she was dubbed “Gun Girl,” earning headlines across the country. And one of the more sensational crimes highlighted in the book is the shotgun slaughter of five members of the Agrue family on their Southern Indiana farm at the hand of Virginious “Dink” Carter, husband of one of the Agrue daughters.

                   According to the Publishers Weekly review of “No Place Like Murder,” true crime fans will be well satisfied. •

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

               Janis Thornton is Tipton, Indiana’s home-grown author of true crime, mystery and history.

               Her true crime books include: and “Too Good a Girl,” the story of Thornton’s high school classmate, Olene Emberton, whose tragic, unsolved death in 1965 shocked their community. Now, more than 50 years later, Janis wrote Olene’s story to ensure it is never forgotten.

               Her mysteries include: “Dead Air and Double Dare” and “Dust Bunnies and Dead Bodies”, both in the “Elmwood Confidential” series; and “Love, Lies, and Azure Eyes,” a suspenseful, paranormal romantic mystery.

               Her history books are: “The 1965 Palm Sunday Tornadoes in Indiana,” which takes a look back at Indiana’s worst weather disaster, and pictorial-history books about the communities of Elwood, Frankfort and Tipton, all in Indiana.

Celebrate Independent Bookstore Day with Romance and Brews

On Saturday, April 27 at 3:30 pm, join the folks at The Book Stall for an afternoon of Romance and Brews to celebrate Independent Bookstore Day! Author Stephanie Jayne joins us at The Book Stall (811 Elm Street in Winnetka) with three fellow Romance authors for a meet & greet with some frosty refreshments! Stop by for a brew and say hello to romance author Kelly Farmer, romance and mystery author Sharon Michalove, and historical romance and mystery author Felix Alexander. Copies of their titles will be available to be signed! Ms. Jayne will be signing her new book, I’ve Got My Mind Set on Brew. A down-on-her-luck craft beer brewer and her privileged new boss clash as they work together to save a quirky brewpub in this enemies-to-lovers workplace rom-com. 

More About the Book: Kat Malone is left cash-strapped after a job loss and a bad breakup when she discovers a surprising new career path: craft beer brewer. When the brewpub is sold, the new owner places his light-on-experience son in charge of the pub. Ryan is as basic as a pale lager and aims to turn quirky Resistance into a run-of-the-mill sports bar. Despite clashes between Kat and Ryan, he confides that Resistance is in financial trouble and that drastic changes will be needed if the pub has any hope of survival. Forced to collaborate, Kat realizes Ryan isn’t as bland as she assumed—he might even be exactly what she’s been craving.

More About the Authors: Stephanie Jayne loves to write relatable characters striving to make their mark on the world as they fall in love in the process. When not crafting quirky love stories, she’s often found playing video games or fangirling over romance books with a book club. She lives in the greater Chicago area with her multi-talented creative husband and two persistent cats.

Kelly Farmer, author of It’s a Fabulous Life, has been writing romance novels since junior high. The stories have changed, but one theme remains the same: everyone deserves to have a happy ending. She loves telling tales with a touch of snark and a lot of heart. Kelly lives in the Chicago area, where she swears every winter is her last one here.

Felix Alexander is a Mexican-born, American-raised novelist and poet of Mexican and Puerto Rican descent. Being third-generation military, after a grandfather and three uncles who served in the Korean and Vietnam Wars, respectively, Alexander is proud of his service in the U.S. Army and grateful for his experience. He lives in the Chicagoland area and volunteers to promote literacy among youth. His books include the Aiden Leonardo mystery series and the Labyrinth of Love Letters historical romance series. 

Sharon Michalove writes romance, suspense, and traditional mystery, as well as being a published historian. After growing up in suburban Chicago, she spent most of her life in a medium-sized university town, working as an academic professional. Sharon moved back to Chicago in 2017 and started writing fiction, publishing her first book in 2021. She is a member of Mystery Writers of America and Chicago-North Romance Writers. Currently, she is president of the Sisters in Crime Chicagoland Chapter and an at-large board member of MWA Midwest. Her Global Security Unlimited series is a finalist for the Chanticleer International Book Award for Genre Series.

Independent Book Store Day is a national effort to recognize the importance of independent bookstores. This national one-day party held on the last Saturday in April celebrates independent bookstores across the country online and in-store. It’s a party you don’t want to miss!

The Duchess: Scandalous Ladies of London by Sophie Jordan

“I liked my husband well enough . . . but I like him even better dead,” says Duchess Valencia Dedham.

Now a Dowager Duchess following the death of her husband (no great loss there) and the discovery of the nearest male heir means Valencia Dedham must move out of the mansion that has been her home since she married at a young age and into a dower house far away in Yorkshire. It’s all part of primogeniture, the English way of assuring that property passes down through the male line.

But for Valencia it means she loses not only the house but also access to London and the glittering Regency-era society to which she belongs. As she starts to pack for her journey to a home and location she has never known, she doesn’t even know what is hers to take. The beautiful writing desk she bought? The jewels she wore? Her beautiful gowns? Or are the all part of the estate that belongs to the new duke?

And so, Valencia, in The Duchess: Scandalous Ladies of London (HarperCollins) by Sophie Jordan, is faced with a situation common to many wives back in those days.

But the new duke, the brooding and handsome Rhain has six sisters he wants to marry off and he quickly realizes that their wild ways from growing up in Wales under less-than-strict guidance need a lot of polish before they can hope to land suitable husbands. After all, what gentleman would want to make a match with a woman such as Isolde, the duke’s sister who carries her stuffed dog with her even though it died years ago?

Who better than Valencia with her knowledge of manners and social mores to whip the sisters into marriageable material with dance and singing lessons, the right coiffures and gowns, and entry into the best of homes? And besides, the duke has more than a passing interest in the beautiful young widow and she in him as well.

Of course, this being a romance novel there are many issues to overcome. Rhain is sure he wants to return to Wales and doesn’t need the impediment of a wife, and Valencia was abused by her husband and also complicit in the way he died. She’s afraid of falling in love again as much as she wants a man’s touch.

Sensual looks and sizzling attraction abound. Of course, we know it will all turn out well in the end but the fun of these books—if they’re well-written and this one certainly is—is how the author keeps our attention until all the plot lines are tied together into a happy ending.

This is the second book in the Scandalous Ladies of London, a new series from New York Times bestselling author Sophie Jordan, a prolific writer with over 50 books to her credit. Each chronicles the machinations of women at the highest level of society making their way in the world where their best chance of getting ahead is marrying well.

About the author.

Sophie Jordan grew up in the Texas hill country, where she wove fantasies of dragons, warriors, and princesses. A former high school English teacher, she’s the New York Times, USA Today, and international bestselling author of more than fifty novels. She now lives in Houston with her family. When she’s not writing, she spends her time overloading on caffeine (lattes preferred), talking plotlines with anyone who will listen (including her kids), and streaming anything that has a happily ever after.

This review originally appeared in the New York Journal of Books.

Tracey Garvis Graves and Rochelle Weinstein: In-Conversation with Lauren Margolin

The Book Stall (811 Elm Street in Winnetka) is so pleased to host authors Tracey Garvis Graves and Rochelle Weinstein on Wednesday, April 24th at 6:30 PM. They will be in conversation with Lauren Margolin, a.k.a. The Good Book Fairy.  Tracey Garvis Graves’ new book is The Trail of Lost Hearts, which Colleen Hoover calls, “Breathtaking and endlessly romantic.” Rochelle Weinstein’s latest title is What You Do to Me.  Lisa Barr, the bestselling author of Woman on Fire, says, “The nostalgic new page-turner What You Do to Me hits all the high notes.”

This event is free and open to the public, but registration is required, as space is limited. Click here or visit their website to reserve your spot!

More About The Trail of Lost Hearts: Thirty-four-year-old Wren Waters believes that if you pay attention, the universe will send you exactly what you need. But her worldview shatters when the universe delivers two life-altering blows she didn’t see coming, and all she wants to do is put the whole heartbreaking mess behind her. She decides that a weeklong solo quest geocaching in Oregon is exactly what she needs to take back control of her life. Enter Marshall Hendricks, a psychologist searching for distraction as he struggles with a life-altering blow of his own. What begins as a platonic road trip gradually blossoms into something deeper, and the more Wren learns about Marshall, the more she wants to know. Now all she can do is hope that the universe gets it right this time.

Tracey Garvis Graves is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling author. Her debut novel, On the Island, spent 9 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and is in development with MGM and Temple Hill Productions for a feature film. She is also the author of Heard It in a Love Song, The Girl He Used to Know, Uncharted, Covet, Every Time I Think of You, Cherish, Heart-Shaped Hack, and White Hot Hack. 

More About What You Do to Me:  While writing an article for Rolling Stone, Cecilia works to reveal the mystery that has intrigued fans and discovers a classic tale of two soulmates separated by fate and circumstance. Rock star Eddie Vee once sang with his soul, dedicating love songs to Sara Friedman, his inspiration and first love. Now, Eddie takes refuge in anonymity, closed off to the past. Sara, too, has distanced herself from their love, moving thousands of miles away to live the life she once railed against. As Eddie and Sara tentatively open up to Cecilia about broken dreams, she struggles to give them a happy ending. In the process, she learns that broken hearts can be healed–even her own.

Rochelle B. Weinstein is the USA Today bestselling author of seven novels, including When We Let Go, This Is Not How It Ends, and Somebody’s Daughter. As Miami’s NBC 6 in the Mix monthly book contributor, Rochelle is on the hunt for the next great read while she teaches publishing workshops at Nova Southeastern University. She is currently working on her eighth novel. Please visit her at www.rochelleweinstein.com.

Moderator Lauren Margolin, “The Good Book Fairy,” is an avid reader who gets great joy in recommending books and sharing her love for the written word with other readers. Lauren leads book discussion groups, interviews authors, moderates author panels and speaks about all things bookish for libraries, charities, civic groups and more. You can find out more about her HERE.

The French Ingredient: Making a Life in Paris One Lesson at a Time

The Book Stall (811 Elm Street in Winnetka) is delighted to host author Jane Bertch on Thursday, April 11 at 6:30 pm for a discussion featuring her new book, The French Ingredient: Making a Life in Paris One Lesson at a Time, the inspiring and delicious memoir of an American woman who had the gall to open a cooking school in Paris. A true story of triumphing over French naysayers and falling in love with a city along the way, The French Ingredient is the story of a young female entrepreneur building a life in Paris. As she established her school, Jane learned how to charm, how to project confidence, and how to give it right back to rude waiters. Having finally made peace with the city she swore to never revisit, she now offers a love letter to France, and a master class in Parisian cooking and living.

To register for this free event, please visit their website or CLICK HERE. Space is going fast!

More About the Book: When Jane Bertch was eighteen, her mother took her on a graduation trip to Paris. Thrilled to use her high school French, Jane found her halting attempts greeted with withering condescension by every waiter and shopkeeper she encountered. At the end of the trip, she vowed she would never return. Yet a decade later she found herself back in Paris, transferred there by the American bank she worked for. She became fluent in the language and excelled in her new position. But she had a different dream: to start a cooking school for foreigners like her, who wanted to take French cuisine classes in a friendly setting, then bring their new skills to their kitchens back home.

Predictably, Jane faced the skeptical French, as well as real-estate nightmares, and a long struggle to find and attract clients. Thanks to Jane’s perseverance, La Cuisine Paris opened in 2009. Now the school is thriving, welcoming international visitors to come in and knead dough, whisk bechamel, whip meringue, and learn the care, precision, patience, and beauty involved in French cooking.

More About the Author: Jane Bertch has spent more than two decades living and working in Europe. In 2009, she started La Cuisine Paris, which has become the largest nonprofessional culinary school in France. She holds a BA in English, an MA in labor and industrial relations from the University of Illinois, and an executive MA from the French business school INSEAD. The French Ingredient is her first book. Follow her on her blog.

Max’s War: The Story of a Ritchie Boy

The Book Stall (811 Elm Street in Winnetka) on Thursday, April 18 at 6:30 pm is presenting a program with author Libby Fischer Hellman featuring her new book, Max’s War: The Story of a Ritchie Boy. This suspenseful coming-of-age war story is Libby Hellmann’s tribute to her late father-in-law who was active with the OSS and interrogated dozens of German POWs. To register for this free event, please visit their website or CLICK HERE. 

More About the Book: As the Nazis sweep across Europe, Jewish teen Max and his parents flee German persecution to Holland, where Max finds friends and romance. But when Hitler invades in 1940, Max escapes to Chicago, leaving his parents and friends behind. When he learns of his parents’ murder, Max immediately enlists in the US Army. After basic training he is sent to Camp Ritchie, Maryland, where he is trained in interrogation and counterintelligence.

Deployed to the OSS, Max carries out dangerous missions in Occupied countries. He also interrogates German POWs, especially after D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge, where, despite life-threatening conditions, he elicits critical information about German troop movements.

Post-war, he works for the Americans in the German denazification program, bringing him back to his Bavarian childhood home of Regensburg. Though the city avoided large-scale destruction, the Jewish community was decimated. Max roams familiar yet strange streets, replaying memories of lives lost to unspeakable tragedy. While there he reunites with someone from his past, who, like him, sought refuge abroad. Can they rebuild their lives together?

More About the Author: Libby Fischer Hellmann left a career in broadcast news to write gritty crime fiction and historical fiction. She has written eighteen novels and twenty-five short stories and has been nominated for many awards in the mystery and crime writing community. She has been a finalist twice for the Anthony and the Shamus; and four times for Foreword Magazine’s Book of the Year. She has also been nominated for the Agatha, the Daphne, and she won the Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year in 2021. Her novels include the Ellie Foreman series, the Georgia Davis PI series, and five stand-alone historical thrillers.

Her short stories have been published in anthologies, the Saturday Evening Post, and Ed Gorman’s 25 Criminally Good Short Stories collection. In 2006 she was the National President of Sisters in Crime, a 4000-member organization committed to the advancement of female crime fiction authors.

Poisoned Passover: Book 2 Torah Mystery Series

he Book Stall (811 Elm Street in Winnetka) is delighted to host mystery author Susan Van Dusen on Wednesday, April 17 at 6:30 pm for an in-store discussion featuring her new book, Poisoned Passover, the second book in the Torah Mystery Series. With no experience except watching TV detective shows, Julia Donnelly, the wife of the mayor, and her Torah group leader, Rabbi Avrum Fine, have been pressed into service to solve the town’s mysteries. 

This event is free with registration. To register, please visit their website or CLICK HERE.

More About the Book: Who’s poisoning Passover guests in Crestfall, Illinois? When Julia Donnelly brings chopped liver to her Torah group friend Devorah’s seder, she has no idea it will result in mass poisoning, murder, and a connection to past arson. Julia, wife of Crestfall’s mayor, and Rabbi Fine, Torah study group leader, become involved in a mystery surrounding Sophie’s Kosher Deli. Someone is trying to put her out of business. Is it Lester Pintner, a developer who wants to put up a building, her good-for-nothing son Milton who wants to transform the store into a pool parlor, Sweet Cheeks, a mysterious woman who has attached herself to Milton, or perhaps Nate, another deli owner who wants to buy Sophie’s store. 

Meanwhile, Julia must also deal with challenges on the home front when her son Sammy refuses to go to school. She has a full plate! How does she cope with everything? By teaming up with the Rabbi, using powers of observation, and logic from Jewish tradition to solve a confusing puzzle of danger and greed!

More About the Author: Susan Van Dusen is an international award-winning writer of books, editorials, magazine and newspaper articles. She was the Communications Director of the Institute of Government and Public Affairs and Associate Director of Public Affairs at the University of Illinois. Susan created “The Read In” project at the University of Illinois in Chicago and “Coming Together in Skokie and Niles Township,” acknowledging the diversity of those communities. In Israel and in Chicago’s Uptown area, while teaching English to non-English speakers, she wrote songs and plays to stimulate interest in language. Susan was the editor of a neighborhood weekly newspaper, then became the award-winning editorial director of WBBM-AM Newsradio as well as writing for newspapers and magazines. While studying with a Torah group for ten years, she realized it was the perfect vehicle for a series of books, with the first book in the series being The Missing Hand. Currently she is retired, a normal human being, a mayor’s wife, a mother and grandmother, and participant in several civic and writing groups.  

I Cheerfully Refuse: Author Discussion & Book Signing

The Book Stall (811 Elm Street in Winnetka) is thrilled to welcome award-winning author Leif Enger to the store on Sunday, April 7 at 2:00 pm for a discussion featuring his new book, I Cheerfully Refuse (Grove Atlantic). A career defining tour-de-force from the New York Times bestselling author of Peace Like a River, Enger’s latest novel is set in a not-too-distant America and epitomizes the “musical, sometimes magical and deeply satisfying kind of storytelling” (Los Angeles Times) for which Leif Enger is cherished.  A rollicking narrative in the most evocative of settings, I Cheerfully Refuse is a symphony against despair and a rallying cry for the future.

This event is free with registration. To register, please visit The Book Stall’s website or CLICK HERE.

More About the Book: I Cheerfully Refuse is the tale of Rainy, a bereaved and pursued musician, embarking under sail on a sentient Lake Superior in search of his departed, deeply beloved, bookselling wife. An endearing bear of an Orphean narrator, Rainy seeks refuge in the harbors, fogs, and remote islands of the inland sea. Encountering lunatic storms and rising corpses from the warming depths, he finds on land an increasingly desperate and illiterate people, a malignant billionaire ruling class, crumbled infrastructure, and a lawless society.

Amidst the Gulliver-like challenges of life at sea and no safe landings, Rainy is lifted by physical beauty, surprising humor, generous strangers, and an unexpected companion in a young girl who comes aboard. And as his innate guileless nature begins to make an inadvertent rebel of him, Rainy’s private quest for the love of his life grows into something wider and wilder, sweeping up friends and foes alike in his strengthening wake.

More About the Author: Leif Enger grew up in Osakis, Minnesota, and worked as a reporter for Minnesota Public Radio before writing his bestselling debut novel Peace Like a River, which won the Booksense Award for Fiction and was named one of the Year’s Best Books by Time Magazine and the Los Angeles Times. His second novel, So Brave, Young, and Handsome, was also a national bestseller. It was a Midwest Booksellers Honor Book, and won the High Plains Book Award for Fiction. His third novel, Virgil Wander, was longlisted for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and was named a best book of the year by Library Journal, Bookpage, and Chicago Public Library. He lives with his wife in Duluth, MN.

The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook: Discussion and Book Signing

The Book Stall (811 Elm Street in Winnetka) is thrilled to host historian Hampton Sides on Monday, April 15 at 6:30 pm for a discussion featuring his new book, The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook. (Doubleday). From the New York Times bestselling author, an epic account of the most momentous voyage of the Age of Exploration, which culminated in Captain James Cook’s death in Hawaii, and left a complex and controversial legacy still debated to this day. 

At once a ferociously-paced story of adventure on the high seas and a searching examination of the complexities and consequences of the Age of Exploration, The Wide Wide Sea is a major work from one of our finest narrative nonfiction writers. 

This event is free with registration. To register, please visit The Book Stall’s website or CLICK HERE. 

More About the Book: Hampton Sides’ bravura account of Cook’s last journey wrestles with Cook’s legacy and provides a thrilling narrative of the titanic efforts and continual danger that characterized exploration in the 1700s. Cook was renowned for his peerless seamanship, his humane leadership, and his dedication to science. He was also deeply interested in the native people he encountered. On previous expeditions, Cook mapped huge swaths of the Pacific, including the east coast of Australia, and initiated first European contact with numerous peoples. He treated his crew well and endeavored to learn about the societies he encountered with curiosity and without judgment.

Yet something was different on this last voyage. Cook became mercurial, resorting to the lash to enforce discipline, and led his two vessels into danger time and again. Uncharacteristically, he ordered violent retaliation for perceived theft on the part of native peoples. This may have had something to do with his secret orders, which were to chart and claim lands before Britain’s imperial rivals could, and to discover the fabled Northwest Passage. Whatever Cook’s intentions, his scientific efforts were the sharp edge of the colonial sword, and the ultimate effects of first contact were catastrophic for Indigenous people around the world.

The tensions between Cook’s overt and covert missions came to a head on the shores of Hawaii. His first landing there was harmonious, but when Cook returned after mapping the coast of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, his exploitative treatment of the Hawaiians led to the fatal encounter.

Kirkus Reviews,in a starred review, says,“An acclaimed historian takes to the sea in this rousing tale of exploration … Sides draws on numerous contemporaneous sources to create a fascinating, immersive adventure story featuring just the right amount of historical context … Lusciously detailed and insightful history, masterfully told.” 

More About the Author:  Hampton Sides is an award-winning editor of Outside and the author of the bestselling histories Hellhound on his Trial, Blood and Thunder, and Ghost Soldiers. He lives in New Mexico with his wife, Anne, and their three sons.