Archives - Weekly Update

Yesterday I drove to Watchung Booksellers to see Theresa Brown talk about her book, HEALING: When a Nurse Becomes a Patient. It was my first in-store book event since February 2020. HEALING looks at Theresa’s life both as a nurse and as a breast cancer patient. She alternates talking about her own experience as a patient with chapters about her caregiving, and she shares brilliant insight into both sides of the world of medicine. She was interviewed brilliantly by N. West Moss, the author of FLESH & BLOOD: Reflections on Infertility, Family, and Creating a Bountiful Life. You can see me with Theresa above. It’s nice to see live book events coming back. I love this bookstore, which is near my hometown, and I was so happy to get to say hi to one of the store’s owners, Margot Sage-EL, who has co-owned the store for as long as Bookreporter has been around.

My husband enjoys reading, but he prefers thick tomes about subjects like the American Revolution, Lincoln, the Civil War and World War II. He does listen to reading recommendations from me, and I very carefully hone my selections. I wanted him to read WHAT HAPPENED TO THE BENNETTS by Lisa Scottoline so we could talk about it. I was fascinated by what happens when you go into witness protection. So last week, I was stalking him as he read yet another book about the American Revolution. At one point, he told me he had about 40 pages left. I said, “Let me tell you how it ends.” He gave me a look that said, no matter what I learned in fourth-grade history that I now wanted to share, he was going to finish this book.

When we left off last week, I literally was racing out the door to see Sally Hepworth, who was in Maplewood, NJ to talk about her new book, THE YOUNGER WIFE. I had met Sally in the summer of 2019...you know, those long-ago days when there were in-person events? What a way to get back out on the town! She is from Australia, and I so wish she lived closer. We had what is never enough time catching up; I would love to have her spend a weekend here.

I am sneaking in on the tail end of National Library Week to celebrate. I still remember the hours I spent at my local library when I was growing up. I remember the bookmobile coming to the corner and eagerly waiting for it to arrive. I always took out the maximum number of books allowed. 

As I got older, I would take the bus downtown to the BIG library. I remember when the huge new addition was finished in the late '60s, and all the patterns for browsing changed as I moved over to the “new building” when searching for adult books. There are so many memories from there; some day I need to stop by there again.

Growing up, my boys used to get the biggest kick out of whether I would call March a lamb/lion month or a lion/lamb month in this newsletter. I confess to not even being able to remember the beginning of March, but I know it is exiting like a lion. Seriously, the storms last night were quite insane.The lightning was flashing, the trees were swaying, and some power was lost in our area. 

I was moderating Simon & Schuster’s Spring 2022 AuthorFest event last night with guests Janet Evanovich and Nelson DeMille. All afternoon, I was monitoring the wind and rain reports with fingers crossed. It is very hard to type with crossed fingers! Luckily, the worst of the storms held off, and I had a terrific conversation with both of them. I hope some of you were there. If not, we will be sharing a video soon. In the meantime, above you can see a screenshot of the event that was captured by one of the attendees, KC Davis. Thanks, KC!