Today’s Spotlight on Bookstores post is written by Jillian Medoff, author of Good Girls Gone Bad, Hunger Point, and her most recent novel - I Couldn’t Love You More. 

I Couldn’t Love You More has garnered rave reviews from readers and media, including this knock-it-out-of-the-park blurb from Kirkus Reviews:

Medoff’s talent for [...]]]>

photo credit Marion Ettlinger

Today’s Spotlight on Bookstores post is written by Jillian Medoff, author of Good Girls Gone Bad, Hunger Point, and her most recent novel - I Couldn’t Love You More. 

I Couldn’t Love You More has garnered rave reviews from readers and media, including this knock-it-out-of-the-park blurb from Kirkus Reviews:

Medoff’s talent for characterization is evident in her latest novel, a richly layered tale about that complicated thing called family…Medoff’s fully realized novel beautifully explores the most important relationships we create: as parent, as sibling, as spouse.

In the novel, a family in suburban Atlanta is torn apart when a shocking chain of events ends in a split-second decision that may place the ‘value’ of one child above another.  This decision of course, has the potential to change the dynamic of the family forever.

Curious about what happens, how the family was led to this point? Read I Couldn’t Love You More, then keep in touch with Jillian Medoff via Facebook and Twitter. She’s eager to meet with book groups in person or via video chat; this can be arranged via her publicist.

Read on to learn about Jillian’s yoyo-like relationship with Barnes and Noble. Fortunately, it ends on a high note!

My Love-Hate-Love Affair with Barnes & Noble

As a long-time resident of Manhattan and Brooklyn, I’ll probably be exiled from New York for selecting big, boxy Barnes & Noble as my most special bookstore. Maybe I’d be forgiven if I was talking about one rogue location that offers a safe haven for working writers, but I’m not. I want to honor the entire Barnes & Noble chain.

 

Falling in Love

Like many novelists, my relationship with Barnes & Noble spans decades. I first became aware of the name “Barnes & Noble” in the 1980’s when I was a student at Barnard. Back then, B&N was just a scrappy college bookstore, so I wasn’t terribly interested; rather, the store didn’t leave much of an impression. It was where I bought textbooks, my favorite Columbia t-shirt (a worn and faded black crew neck), novels to read after exams, and stationary supplies (calendars, maybe? Maps? Who remembers?). In the years that followed, as I went to work and to graduate school where I wrote my first novel, Barnes & Noble continued to expand, acquiring new locations, launching a website, and gaining clout and prestige. By the late 1990’s Barnes & Noble had become the biggest bookseller on the block. The one-time scrappy college store had changed, but I had changed too.

 

My first novel, Hunger Point, was published to great fanfare in 1997. Back then, B&N stores were everywhere, and as a rising literary star, Barnes & Noble was an integral part of my book tour. Along with readings at locations in several cities along the east coast, I also signed books at three stores in New York: by myself at the Astor Place location and as part of group readings at the 23^rd street and Lincoln Center locations. (None of these locations exist anymore, but that’s part of the story, too.)

 

Over the years, Barnes & Noble has been criticized for contributing to the decline of local and independent bookstores. This may be true. But as a first-time novelist, what could be better than seeing your picture in the window and your brand-new hardcover stacked fifty copies high? The stores were well-stocked and well-lit. Most had cafes with coffee and muffins. Who cared if the coffee was weak and the muffins dry? I was living on 24^th street, ten blocks from the multi-story Union Square location. With its enormous music section (now gone), vast selection of stationary supplies (fifty different kinds of journals!), and floors and floors of books, the 14^th street store became my go-to after-dinner destination. I spent hours strolling through the aisles, picking out cards, and moving all the copies of Hunger Point from the 4^th floor Fiction section to the 1^st Floor tables. I was young, a newly minted novelist, and in love with Barnes & Noble. And then things took a turn…

 

The Difficult Years

By the time my second novel, Good Girls Gone Bad came out in 2002, Barnes & Noble and I were at odds. The company, now gargantuan and overextended, was fighting wars on all fronts (the rise of amazn.com and the e-book explosion, falling profits, a new CEO, vicious and expensive lawsuits). These internal management issues were compounded by lousy customer service policies, particularly for authors, particularly for authors whose second novels weren’t getting the same wide reception as their first. Despite Hunger Point’s success, Barnes & Noble wasn’t interested in promoting Good Girls. Several locations had closed (see above), and I wasn’t asked to appear at any that remained. I was now living in Brooklyn, so after much cajoling, I was finally offered a night: Sunday, November 3^rd at the 7^th Avenue store in Park Slope. But I this invitation came with a caveat: I could not have any other author events in Brooklyn.

 

My second book experience was nothing like my first. Having spent five years working on a novel that the largest retailer in the world wouldn’t actively promote left me defeated and frustrated. Money was tight, and my publisher would only pay for a very limited time in the coveted front-of-the-floor tables. I was eight months pregnant, still working a day job, and didn’t have the time or resources to go from store to store around the country, moving Good Girls from the Fiction section in the back to the front tables. Barnes & Noble, I decided, was everything people claimed: obnoxious, indifferent to writers, and dismissive of communities, especially local business. But what could I do? I was an author with a failing novel. I needed Barnes & Noble even if Barnes & Noble no longer needed me. Stuck in a no-win situation, I watched my book tank. And yet, I did have one small moment of vindication: My daughter, Mollie, arrived two weeks early. I went into labor on a blustery morning in November, and was forced to cancel my one and only Barnes & Noble event.

 

A Tearful Reunion

The past decade has been hard, and humbling, for Barnes & Noble. It’s also been hard, and humbling, for me. And while it took a lot of effort on both our parts, Barnes & Noble and I have made our way back to each other—mostly because of my daughter. Despite my last-minute 2002 cancellation, B& N forgave me, and over time, I forgave B&N. In fact, for the past ten years, the 7^th Avenue Park Slope location has become Mollie’s second home. I can’t count how many afternoons I spent with her as an infant, then a toddler, and now a big kid, sitting on the little stage in the children’s section, reading—and not buying—book after book after book. I’ve met friends in the café for coffee (not as weak anymore now that it’s Starbucks) and muffins (still dry, sadly). And now, after ten years of rejections, I’ll finally be promoting a third novel, I Couldn’t Love You More. Thankfully, Barnes & Noble likes the book, and has ordered multiple copies. Although I won’t be reading at the 7th Avenue store, (authors can appear at B&N only if that reading will be their sole event in New York City, or if they’re a well-known celebrity, which God knows I’m not), I still love Barnes& Noble, and I believe in its own way, Barnes & Noble still loves me. Everyone knows that for any long-term relationship to work, you have to accept your partner’s foibles, however maddening they may be.

I recently read Rhoda Janzen’s Mennonite in a Little Black Dress for our neighborhood book group. This was a memoir that surprised me by how much I enjoyed it – I’ll admit that I was predisposed to a “prove yourself to me” attitude when I saw the endorsement from [...]]]>

photo of persimmon from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persimmon

I recently read Rhoda Janzen’s Mennonite in a Little Black Dress for our neighborhood book group. This was a memoir that surprised me by how much I enjoyed it – I’ll admit that I was predisposed to a “prove yourself to me” attitude when I saw the endorsement from Elizabeth Gilbert front and center on the cover. Indeed, I did enjoy it and appreciated Janzen’s humor and skilled writing; full review coming, but, in the meantime, don’t judge a book by its blurb!

In the memoir, Janzen talks about “shame-based” foods — those dishes that were a staple in her Mennonite community, but which caused her embarrassment when she packed them (in re-used wax paper and a tin bucket) for lunch at her public elementary school. Now, as an adult, she realizes that she not only enjoys the taste of these foods, but that they evoke pleasant childhood memories.

One of these foods is Persimmon Cookies as told by Rhoda’s mom (p. 11 in the etcetera section in the back of the paperback edition):

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup white sugar
• 3 ripe persimmons
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon cloves
• 1 cup chopped pecans, toasted at 375′ for 7 minutes
• 1 cup raisins

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350′
• Cut out the tops of the persimmons as if they’re tomatoes. Spoon out the pulp and throw the skin away. Mix the teaspoon of soda into the persimmon pulp and set it aside.
• Cream your butter and sugar. Add the eggs and mix. Now stir in the persimmon pulp. Combine dry goods and add to persimmon mixture.
• Don’t skip the raisins! They’re good in this recipe! Plump them up in the microwave for 30 seconds and add them with the toasted nuts. Bake about ten minutes.

For more Weekend Cooking, visit Beth Fish Reads; you’ll find links to cookbook reviews, recipes from novels, kitchen tips and tricks, maybe even a food-centric movie review.

Who and what is the book about (back-of-the-book blurb):  This intense new novel follows a middle-aged man as he contends with a past he has never much thought about—until his closest childhood friends return with a vengeance, one of them from the grave, another maddeningly [...]]]>

• The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Knopf (October 5, 2011)
• ISBN-13: 978-0307957122

Who and what is the book about (back-of-the-book blurb):  This intense new novel follows a middle-aged man as he contends with a past he has never much thought about—until his closest childhood friends return with a vengeance, one of them from the grave, another maddeningly present. Tony Webster thought he’d left all this behind as he built a life for himself … But he is then presented with a mysterious legacy that obliges him to reconsider a variety of things he thought he’d understood all along, and to revise his estimation of his own nature and place in the world.

This is novel so compelling that it begs to be read in a single sitting; it has stunning psychological and emotional depth and sophistication.

Where and when does it take place:  “School is where it all began…” says the narrator of The Sense of an Ending. “School” is a 1960s high school in central London to which the pack of four boys travel each day. There were three in their tight unit initially, then Adrian Finn joined the school and their group of friends.

After we get to know the characters (especially Adrian, Tony, and Tony’s girlfriend – Veronica), the novel moves ahead to university days, then middle age.

What would I say to a friend who asked me about it: This is a novel that I had avoided (for a bit, anyway) because of all the hoopla surrounding it. The Sense of an Ending won the 2011 Man Booker Prize, and has been a steady seller at the bookshop, raved about by the manager and others who had read it. I wanted to read and enjoy/judge it on its own merits, rather than being caught up in the crowd mentality. Well, I’m very glad that I finally took an afternoon to read it!

This is a deceptively slim novel – 163 pages packed with what is truly a masterpiece of words, sly plot, and character. I love that the book is written in the first person; we’re privy to the thoughts of Tony Webster, as he muses about life, makes discoveries, and tries to make sense of what is happening around him.

Tony’s relationship with Adrian is fairly brief, but intense. There’s a bit of hero-worship when Adrian joins the school and their little clique of boys. Adrian is super smart, questions everything, and has a philosophical answer to anything that’s asked of him. He dares to contradict or engage their professors in a gentlemanly debate, but it’s done in a respectful way, and the professors, too, admire and respect him.

The bulk of the novel takes place after the boys have left high school, but the groundwork for the rest of the novel is laid there, as Julian Barnes constructs these relationships and personalities. Honestly, the less you know about the actual plot going into the book, the more you’ll take from it, as you discover his clever ways.

Why did I read it: See above I was compelled to read it, and am so glad that I went into it with blinders on to the many press citations and potential spoilers that are out there.

A few favorite passages: So many! I have about a dozen Post-it flags sticking out from the pages! I’ve chosen three to share here that don’t reflect on the plot at all, except to show the types of things that occupy Tony’s mind as the novel plays out.

School-boy musings (p. 16); note the lauding reference to Adrian at the end:

This was another of our fears; that Life wouldn’t turn out to be like Literature. Look at our parents – were they the stuff of Literature? At best, they might aspire to the condition of onlookers and bystanders, part of a social backdrop against which real, true, important things could happen. Like what? The things Literature was all about: love, sex, morality, friendship, happiness, suffering, betrayal, adultery, good and evil, heroes and villains, guilt and innocence, ambition, power, justice, revolution, war, fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, the individual agains society, success and failure, murder, suicide, death, God. And barn owls. Of course, there were other sorts of literature [note the lowercase l here] – theoretical, self-referential, lachrymosely autobiographical – but they were just dry wanks. Real literature was about psychological, emotional, and social truth as demonstrated by the actions and reflections of its protagonists; the novel was about character developed over time. That’s what Phil Dixon had told us anyway. And the only person … whose life so far contained anything remotely novel-worthy was Adrian.

Musings on middle age and where life has taken him (p. 70):

So when time delivered me all too quickly into middle age, and I began looking back over how my life had unfolded, and considering the paths not taken, those lulling, undermining what-ifs, I never found myself imagining – not even for worse, let alone for better – how things would have been … And I never regretted my years … Try as I could – which wasn’t very hard – I rarely ended up fantasising [yes, British spelling] a markedly different life from the one that has been mine. I don’t think this is complacency; it’s more likely a lack of imagination, or ambition, or something. I suppose the truth is that, yes, I’m not odd enough not to have done the things I’ve ended up doing with my life.

Tony questions “character” of himself and others, and whether it continues to grow (change? improve?) over time (p. 139):

Does character develop over time? In novels, of course it does: otherwise there wouldn’t be much of a story. But in life? I sometimes wonder. Our attitudes and opinions change, we develop new habits and eccentricities; but that’s something different, more like decoration. Perhaps character resembles intelligence, except that character peaks a little later: between twenty and thirty, say. And after that, we’re just stuck with what we’ve got. We’re on our own. If so, that would explain a lot of lives, wouldn’t it? And also – if this isn’t too grand a word – our tragedy.

What else can I add: The back-of-the-book-blurb indicates that the novel “begs to be read in a single sitting.” What it doesn’t tell you is that you’ll then want to take another afternoon to re-read it and find beautiful language and structure that you may have missed the first time around.

The author events at #booktopiaVT were “sessions,” – small groups devoted to conversation about a particular book or topic. Aside from authors discussing a specific title, there was one session about writing about place (Howard Frank Mosher and Sarah J. Henry talked about their Vermont settings – perfect, since we [...]]]>

Michael Kindness and Leslie Maitland

The author events at #booktopiaVT were “sessions,” – small groups devoted to conversation about a particular book or topic. Aside from authors discussing a specific title, there was one session about writing about place (Howard Frank Mosher and Sarah J. Henry talked about their Vermont settings – perfect, since we were in Vermont!); another was “bookseller speed dating” with the staff at Northshire Bookstore; and another was a demonstration/explanation of their Espresso Book Machine. The Living in Booktopia book that I shared in my “book haul” post was printed on the Espresso.

One session I attended was with Leslie Maitland, discussing the personal story in her book, Crossing the Borders of Time: A True Story of War, Exile, and Love Reclaimed. The session was held in the dining room at the Inn at Manchester – I didn’t get a panoramic of the room, so you’ll have to imagine 25 avid book readers gathered in comfy dining chairs (with the scent of Frank’s impressive ‘country breakfast’ still lingering in the air).

Ms. Maitland is a former New York Times investigative reporter, and has worked in the paper’s Washington Bureau as a national correspondent. This background fueled her curiosity (and gave her the know-how and resources) to follow-up on a story she had heard all her life — that of her mother’s “lost love,” who she separated from when her Jewish family was forced to flee Europe at the start of WWII. Maitland’s mother, Janine, was engaged to this Frenchman named Roland, and was never able to fully let go of her longing for him.

Maitland’s book looks at the history of the period and the journey of this specific family; she also pieces together the puzzle of what happened to Janine and Roland in the half century since they parted. History, memoir, love story, in one impressively researched package, complete with family photos, memorabilia, maps, and other visuals … what more could you ask for!?

Here’s the publisher’s synopsis:

On a pier in Marseille in 1942, with desperate refugees pressing to board one of the last ships to escape France before the Nazis choked off its ports, an 18-year-old German Jewish girl was pried from the arms of the Catholic Frenchman she loved and promised to marry.  As the Lipari carried Janine and her family to Casablanca on the first leg of a perilous journey to safety in Cuba, she would read through her tears the farewell letter that Roland had slipped in her pocket: “Whatever the length of our separation, our love will survive it, because it depends on us alone. I give you my vow that whatever the time we must wait, you will be my wife. Never forget, never doubt.” 

Five years later – her fierce desire to reunite with Roland first obstructed by war and then, in secret, by her father and brother – Janine would build a new life in New York with a dynamic American husband.  That his obsession with Ayn Rand tormented their marriage was just one of the reasons she never ceased yearning to reclaim her lost love.

Investigative reporter Leslie Maitland grew up enthralled by her mother’s accounts of forbidden romance and harrowing flight from the Nazis. Her book is both a journalist’s vivid depiction of a world at war and a daughter’s pursuit of a haunting question: what had become of the handsome Frenchman whose picture her mother continued to treasure almost fifty years after they parted? It is a tale of memory that reporting made real and a story of undying love that crosses the borders of time.

A Books on the Nightstand podcast features Leslie Maitland and Crossing the Borders of Time. You can also read the transcript of Maitland’s visit to the Diane Rehm Show. And, of course, you will want to read the book — hot off the presses in the past few weeks from Other Press.

In the rest of the country, it’s much like any other day.

But, around here, it’s a state holiday (banks, schools closed), and it’s not unusual to see people dressed [...]]]> A few photos from last Monday – this was Patriots’ Day in the state of Massachusetts … also known as the day the Boston Marathon is run.

In the rest of the country, it’s much like any other day.

But, around here, it’s a state holiday (banks, schools closed), and it’s not unusual to see people dressed in Revolutionary War era dress, including these soldiers who marched down the street in front of the bookshop.

Rumor has it that they were pacing as they waited for the Pulitzer Prize winners to be announced; when no fiction winner was determined, our booksellers handsold their favorites.

Later in the parade (and further down the timeline), Louisa May Alcott (aka, Jan Turnquist, director of the Orchard House) marched down Main Street, where one forward-thinking parade-goer wore this pithy bit of wisdom on her tee shirt.

There is SO MUCH to [...]]]> I’m back from #booktopiaVT – that’s the twitter hashtag for the 3-day ‘readers retreat’ for listeners of the Books on the Nightstand podcast. We spent Friday thru Sunday in gorgeous Manchester, Vermont; three inns and the rambling Northshire Bookstore were the venues for intimate sessions that brought authors and readers together.

There is SO MUCH to share about the weekend – so much! Fun people, books, interesting conversations, books, beat-the-clock outlet shopping, books …

In the interest of brevity – and in hoping to unpack and hide the evidence in various bookshelves, nightstands, and other horizontal surfaces around the house – I’m going to write a few short posts about #booktopia over the next several days … first up is the haul of books I purchased:

• Learning to Swim by Sarah J. Henry – a literary thriller set in upstate New York. Sarah was a #booktopiaVT author
• Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen … because my neighborhood book group will discuss this on Wednesday, and I’m down to the wire!
• Banishing Verona by Margot Livesey … because I love her writing, and I’ve yet to read this novel (and needed to rescue the hardcover from the remainder table!)
• Living in Booktopia – a compilation of the ‘booktopia’ vision as imagined by Booktopia participants from the three retreats in Manchester, Oxford, and Santa Cruz. This was printed on the Espresso Book Machine at Northshire Bookstore, and is available on their website.
• Defending Jacob by William Landay – I loved this novel, a mystery/thriller set in metro Boston; I was on the edge of my seat as I read the final few chapters. I picked this up as a gift. Bill was a #booktopiaVT author.
• Don’t Know Much about Literature by Kenneth C. Davis. We have a number of the ‘Don’t Know Much About … ” books, and I thought this was the perfect title to add to our collection. Ken was a #booktopiaVT author.
• .
• The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits – a short fiction collection from Emma Donoghue, the author of Room (and another remainder rescue!)
• We Need to Talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver – because my #booktopiaVT roommate looked at me in disbelief when I confessed I hadn’t read anything by Lionel Shriver
• The End of Your life Book Club by Will Schwalbe – a fun surprise in our #booktopiaVT welcome packets! This is an advance copy of a memoir that’s coming out in October. Ann says ‘if you liked Tuesdays with Morrie or The Last Lecture, this is for you!’
• An Iliad by Alessandro Baricco – reading Madeline Miller’s The Song of Achilles has made me not fear the Greeks! One day I’ll revisit Homer’s Iliad and recover from the trauma I endured in high school.
• Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry – oh, this wasn’t a purchase at Northshire Bookstore; this was my win in the Yankee Swap we played on Friday afternoon. What a fun way to get to know the other #booktopiaVT participants – we each brought a wrapped book and played a literary version of Russian Roulette (or musical chairs; choose your metaphor). I haven’t read Wendell Berry, but know him as a poet … this book of prose was “stolen” four times during our Yankee Swap, so I feel like I got a winner!
• .
• History of a Pleasure Seeker by Richard Mason. No, you’re not seeing double; I bought one for myself and one for a gift. Richard was a #booktopiaVT author.
• Don’t Know Much about Space and Don’t Know Much about American History by Kenneth C. Davis … because I had to bring home something for the kids!

There were four other #booktopiaVT authors whose books I had prior to the weekend: Madeline Miller and The Song of Achilles, Leslie Maitland and Crossing the Borders of Time, Howard Frank Mosher and The Great Northern Express, and Susan Cain and Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking.

And, if there’s one thing better than seeing a favorite author with fellow fans, it’s the opportunity to create a newly-minted fan. I had just this experience last week – what [...]]]> If there’s one thing better than seeing a favorite author at an event/reading, it’s seeing that author with your own little gang of fellow fans.

And, if there’s one thing better than seeing a favorite author with fellow fans, it’s the opportunity to create a newly-minted fan. I had just this experience last week – what fun it was to introduce my BFF to the writing of Adriana Trigiani … and to the author herself!

Robin Kall - "Reading with Robin"

The event was organized (magnificently!) by Robin Kall, aka “Reading with Robin,” who has hosted a book-based talk show on a Rhode Island radio station for over ten years. Several times a year, Robin hosts author events at local halls and restaurants, allowing her listeners to see/hear the authors in person.

When I saw that Adriana Trigiani was going to be featured (and, in fact, that this was the closest Adriana would be to me in the Boston area), I knew that this was something special which called for a road trip. It also called for a VIP to ride shotgun with me, so I invited my friend Donna, telling her that I wanted to treat her for National Girlfriend’s Day (which, Donna informed me, is actually in August, not April, but she was willing to overlook my poorly organized calendar!).

Thus, the Great Rhode (Island) Trip was born! Kind of like Thelma and Louise, but without Brad Pitt (and with a much happier ending!).

We planned easy dinners and arranged rides for our kids (7 between the two of us) to and from hockey try-outs, band concerts, baseball practice and playdates, and hit the road around 4:30 last Thursday afternoon.

The event was at West Valley Inn in West Warwick, Rhode Island; about an hour and a half south, without traffic. To get an idea of how nonsensical that phrase, “without traffic,” was at 4:30 on Rte. 128/95 that afternoon, know that one of my tweets read something like “I’ll never get used to the breakdown lane being open for driving during rush hour. #scary.”

Donna packed a picnic dinner for our drive – those drinks are a smoothie concoction of cucumber, apples, and pineapples (and you thought I was drinking another Shamrock Shake, didn’t you!?); we also enjoyed cheese and crackers, sliced apples, and champagne grapes. Classy stuff for a swagger-wagon! Time flies while you’re having fun … and chatting, which is what we did for 75 miles (and again on the ride home!). We made it to the event in good time, and even saw a rainbow on the drive down … go ahead, say it, “how cool is that?!”

The hall was packed! P-A-C-K-E-D packed! We were seated auditorium style, and, while I didn’t count heads, I would guess there were 400-450 people in the room. The event opened with Robin introducing herself and telling a bit about Adriana’s most recent novel, The Shoemaker’s Wife. In essence, this is the fictionalized account of her grandparents’ story, from their days in Italy to their lives in Little Italy – no spoilers!

Then Adriana walked into the room – she is a rock star! Everyone was up on their feet, clapping and waving … she was waving right back … and hugging … and chatting. She must have know half the people in the room, and made the other half feel just as welcome.

Now, during the intro, Robin had indicated that their could be no photography or videography during Adriana’s performance. Performance? I thought she was going to do the typical author event – talk about the new novel, read an excerpt or two, take questions, etc.  No. It was a performance! Not a scripted song and dance, but a wonderful time (almost two hours!) listening to Adriana talk about her Italian-American heritage and family dynamics, hearing her personal stories, nodding along in recognition, laughing, and laughing, and laughing.

We broke for coffee and dessert, and walked over to where Adriana was talking with some people from the audience. I overheard enough snippets of conversation to cement my earlier impression – half the people in the room had met her at a previous event, the other half was made to feel as if they had met before – she is so warm and welcoming!

Donna and I made our way to the front to say hello; I introduced myself (and the blog name) and was rewarded with an instant wide smile and ‘of course, Dawn, I thought I recognized you!’ Adriana went on to explain to the women standing behind us what a blog is, what bloggers do, and how we can connect with others over books even from a distance.

Thank you, Adriana – for writing the novels that keep us coming back for more … and bringing our friends along for the ride! Thank you, Robin – for organizing such a fun event; the energy in that function hall was incredible! And thank you, Donna – for putting up with my crazy schemes for 40+ years, here’s to many more adventures!

I love breakfast – a great way to start the day and all that. I was never one to skip breakfast, even back in high school when it seemed to be the thing to do (I did often eat a pre-packaged Hostess apple “pie” with a Tab in [...]]]>

The menu board at "In a Pickle"

I love breakfast – a great way to start the day and all that. I was never one to skip breakfast, even back in high school when it seemed to be the thing to do (I did often eat a pre-packaged Hostess apple “pie” with a Tab in the school cafeteria … those were the days!).

A few weeks ago, I read an article in The Boston Globe called “45 Best Breakfast Joints Around Boston.” The accompanying photo gallery has large splashy pics of the specialities for each of the restaurants — don’t look if you’re hungry, or you may find yourself abandoning the laptop to go rummage in the refrigerator (yes, I speak from experience).

Now, I’m not one to “read the list” when it comes to Top Ten for books, and I don’t attempt to read every Pulitzer Prize winner (or Booker, Orange, etc.). I do look at the lists and make a mental note about which I’ve read, which I’ll add to my list, etc.

front row seats!

But this breakfast list grabbed me – wouldn’t it be fun to try to hit as many of these restaurants as possible? I don’t think I’d get to them all — 45 is a big number; even if we had breakfast out every other week, it would take the better part of two years. But, it would be fun to try!

First up – “In a Pickle” on Main Street in Waltham. A friend and I drove in there yesterday for a mid-morning brunch. It’s in a fairly urban area, with metered parking in a garage around the corner. When I saw people loitering on the sidewalk I had a little suburban reaction – “we’re in the city!” It turns out that even at 9:45 in the morning the breakfast rush was still on, and these people were waiting for a seat.

After putting our names on the wait list and getting our pager/buzzer, we went back out to the sidewalk to join the groups waiting in the sun (very nice on a cool Boston morning). Not five minutes later we we paged, and took seats at the counter – the best seats in the house, I tell you, as we had a front row view of the huge griddle and stovetop (ok, and a backside view of the cooks, who had nicely developed biceps from all that pancake flipping!).

my Zorba omelet before ...

The menu? Omelets, breakfast sandwiches, pancakes, etc. But, not the usual … how about coconut banana French toast? or pancakes stuffed with banana slices and warm toasted walnuts (said to be a favorite of the folks at Waltham City Hall)? or buckwheat waffles with fresh fruit? Gah! So many choices – and there’s a lunch menu, too!

I settled on a Zorba omelet – fresh spinach, ripe chopped tomatoes, sliced black olives, and Feta cheese. It was served with home fries (pass the Heinz ketchup!) and choice of toast (English muffin with orange marmalade, thankyouverymuch!). My friend ordered a Western omelet, which was equally delicious.

We left a $20 on the counter to cover the meals and service, happy to have “discovered” a new breakfast spot, and eager to bring the families back to try other items on the menu.

I’m also plotting the next square I’ll check on my Boston Breakfast Bingo Board … your suggestions?

... and after

For more kitchen goodness, visit Beth Fish Reads’ Weekend Cooking!