Archives - Weekly Update

Yesterday, as I interviewed Kate Morton in Australia via Zoom after interviewing Kristin Hannah in Seattle via Zoom on Wednesday night, I thought of how much the life of authors and our relationships with them have changed over the last two decades. And I am not sure if we just take it for granted. Let’s flash back to when you snail-mailed an author via the publisher and typically did not hear back. Or when you had to go to a bookstore or library event to maybe meet an author, and they only traveled to big cities. I could go on and on, but I think every once in a while we want to step back and take a moment to see how our relationships with those who write the books that we love have changed --- and be grateful for that!

My husband is away playing golf this week, and he was on a business trip last week. So over the weekend, we were ships in port before passing again in the night. When he travels, I am so undisciplined about eating dinner. Last night, I walked downstairs from my office at 9:00. When no one says, “Five minutes to dinner,” I do not get myself to the kitchen in a timely manner. While I love to cook and entertain, the idea of cooking for one means pizza on English muffins, or macaroni and cheese with Hatch chiles from Trader Joe’s, or cheese and crackers. You see a theme here, right? There are leftovers in the fridge and lots of things I could make, but I embrace my inner mouse-like cravings.

On Tuesday night, I had such a fun evening at the screening of “The Last Thing He Told Me”. We saw one episode, and there was a panel afterwards with Laura Dave, Jennifer Garner, Josh Singer (who is Laura’s husband; he won an Oscar for writing Spotlight), and Lauren Neustadter from Hello Sunshine. I loved the book (it was a Bookreporter.com Bets On selection), and it really feels like there was a dream team on the adaptation. I am looking forward to seeing more episodes! It airs on Apple TV+, with the first two episodes kicking off tonight.

I have been juggling two books this week --- and I am enjoying both immensely.

The first is HOMECOMING by Kate Morton, which is now in stores. I am about 100 pages in, and I am completely swept up in the story. I interviewed Kate years ago, and she told me that place is always the thing that she imagines first when she is writing a book. And once again, she writes vividly about it in this book. As the pandemic started, she headed from London to Australia with her husband and three boys. They had planned a vacation there, but once they arrived, they quarantined for two weeks and decided to stay there, living on a small farm. She immediately felt drawn to a new story just from being in this place.