Shepherd's Life Check-in

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!  I'm just back in town from a family gathering in California, myself. So I'm a little late, but I wanted to send out a reminder that we are scheduled to meet, this Wednesday at 7pm to discuss The Shepherd's Life.  As always, to help with room set up, please shoot me a quick note if you plan to attend.

Below, I've attached a couple of my own photos from a walking trip through the Lake District a few years back. However, if you really want to get into the mood, you'll want to check out the Herdy Shepherd  Instagram or Twitter feed.  Since the publication of his book, James Rebanks has become a social media phenom.

Herdwick sheep

Fells and ghyll above Windermere

Aaron Thier Tomorrow Night!

Just a quick reminder about Aaron Thier's event tomorrow night at 7pm. Hope you can make it....

Also, a little fun for all you book blurb aficionados out there.....

Mr Peanut Post Mortem

It was a busy event week last week with a great turnout, enthusiastic discussion, and, most importantly, a strong endorsement for Mr Peanut ! :)  I also want to send a special thanks to those of you who came in the previous night for our event with Sarah Smarsh and Linda K Wertheimer to discuss Heartland. So nice for Wellesley Books to get the shout out on Sarah's Instagram for the SRO crowd on such a rainy evening and for the great questions asked by our own Book Group! As I've said before, acknowledgements like this are like gold with publishers and we'll use them to build an even bigger event pipeline down the road.

While we are on the topic of upcoming events, I wanted to make sure you saw the email blast that came out this morning regarding a Bobby Orr: My Life in Pictures book signing that Wellesley Books is hosting on Tuesday, November 6th.  We have not announced the event to the general public yet, but when we do we expect it to sell out quickly.  If you have any interest, please act quickly.



After a lot of back and forth on logistics and timing, I am happy to announce that Aaron Thier will be coming to the store on Wednesday, November 7th, to discuss The World is a Narrow Bridge.  Come get your book signed and get all those questions answered!  The event is free and open to everyone, so bring your friends and loved ones..... However, we ask that you  register for the event here to help us gauge the level of interest.


 And finally, our next Book Group meeting is set for Wednesday, November 28th.  We'll be reading A Shepherd's Life: Modern Dispatches from an Ancient Landscape. James Rebanks takes us through a shepherd's year with the rugged Herdwick sheep in England's Lake District.

Mr. Peanut and Other Sundry Items

Mobius Strip

I hope you are all coming along well with  Mr. Peanut. If you haven't started yet, not to worry, we still have two weeks until the next meeting.  I got a couple of concerned comments about  breaking the 400 page mark, but I think you'll find it moves quickly. I actually have the original hardcover which clocks in at just over 300 pages. So no worries!

I've been in contact with Aaron Thier (The World is a Narrow Bridge) and we are working on a tentative date of Wednesday, November 7th, for him to visit the store.  I'm excited to chat with him and also think he'd be great resource for the aspiring writers among us.  However, I only want to commit if we can get a decent crowd.  Can everyone shoot me a note indicating your level of interest (won't/might/definitely come.) It would be a 7pm event and open to everyone. We'll probably provide some beer, wine, and snacks.

Also, remember the Sarah Smarsh Heartland event is coming on October 2nd.  As I mentioned at the last meeting, this book is a big deal and we're lucky to get her.  Andrew Lowenstein passed on this nice review in the NY Times.   Event is free to attend and will be in the store's used book cellar.

Lastly, I'm attaching this link from Ken Graves to a Vulture.com article on the 100 best books of the 2000s.  (Please substitute the Amazon links with those of your favorite independent bookstore.) :)  Interestingly, the article names 12 "new classics" and we've read 5 of them in our group.  See if you can guess them before you link in.....

Hope all is well and that I'll see you in a couple of weeks.

Questions for Tom Perrotta on Mrs. Fletcher

Hi All,

I spoke yesterday with Tom Perrotta, author of Mrs. Fletcher, after a memorial service for our mutual friend Mike Denneen.  (https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/07/18/mike-denneen-whose-sharp-producing-instincts-guided-musicians-and-bands-dies/MqzJ8Dlgc3lQuZY3XhCX3I/story.html).  Starting twenty years ago, Mike brought together young Boston area musicians and authors (like Tom Perrotta and Denis Lehane) in a reading/performance series called "Earful."  These readings are now held annually at the Mosesian Center for the Arts in Watertown.

I told Tom that our book club had recently discussed Mrs. Fletcher and that, it seemed to me, our reaction was mixed on age/cultural lines (perhaps like reactions to Margo's presentation at the senior center).  Tom was not surprised.

I asked Tom about his motivation for writing this novel, and he said he has always been interested in the evolving state of sexual politics, or where America "is" at any moment.  He noted that although internet porn is completely unknown / shunned by some of our population, it is ubiquitous among an even larger portion of society including most youth.  He was struck by how much porn has changed since we were kids and how it informs today's kids relations with dating and sex.

He had similar observations about gender politics and identity.  Our children live with different concepts and pronouns, he said, and these are starting to bubble up in our society.  In the novel, he tried to bring these themes to the surface.  I told him about wild carpool conversations after my daughter's gender studies class at Wellesley High School this year... 

The setting of Mrs. Fletcher was secondary to his aims but also autobiographical, as Tom's son had left for college a few years ago.  Tom based the character of Brendan on a composite of his son's friends (Tom's son actually thought the treatment of Brendan was mild). 

I commented that the arc of some of the characters seemed unfinished (Brendan becoming a plumber, Eve getting married again) and conventional.  I asked him how this would change for the HBO series for which Tom is currently writing the screenplay.  He said the TV series will be edgier by necessity, but he hasn't yet decided how the characters will end up.  It seems that TV gives authors a chance to rethink or extend characters.

Finally, for those of you who won't recommend this book to your wives, he said his wife had some misgivings too.  All in all though, he seemed happy with the novel and its reception.

Living on Tokyo Time

It's the middle of the night as I write this because I'm recently back in town after spending a little more than a week in Japan during a massive heat wave.  Given it's been a while since I checked in, I wanted to remind everyone that our next meeting is scheduled for this coming Wednesday, August 1st at 7pm. We'll be discussing Tom Perotta's Mrs. Fletcher, (which i realize might test the boundaries of our discussion diplomacy!)  Anyway, I hope you can make it and, as always, if you are planning to attend please shoot me a brief note.

After a recent stall in my reading, I used the long plane rides (and the surprisingly poor film selections on JAL) to reboot with several excellent books.  A couple were courtesy of a recent Boston Globe Bibliophiles article featuring Mallory Ortberg who, somewhat topical with our current reading selection, is transitioning and so also goes by the name of Daniel. Bibliophiles, like the NY Times Book Review By the Book column, features interviews with authors regarding their reading habits. While often predictable or dull, these interviews can occasionally offer some real nuggets.  Ortberg, who writes the Dear Prudence modern personal advice column for Slate.com, recommended a selection of historical comedies of manners that have so far all been gems.  I enjoyed both Nancy Mitford's Love in a Cold Climate and Excellent Women by Barbara Pym on the flight.

Thumb's up. "Surprise!"

However, the true revelation for me on the trip was The World is a Narrow Bridge, by Aaron Thier.  This young author so deftly juggles such a broad scope of grand existential topics with hilarious observations of modern daily life that I found myself continuously flipping back to his photo trying to figure out how old he could possibly be.  The book is so relevant and "of the moment" given our current state of affairs that, in a departure from tradition, I'm pre-announcing our next book group selection. It's brand new and hardcover, but I hope you'll pick it up for the next meeting because in so many different ways I DESPERATELY NEED TO DISCUSS THIS BOOK!


One last disclosure.  Usually when I travel I look to bring back something interesting for us to sample. However, in a true testament to current trends in popularity in spirits, Duty Free was completely sold out of all Japanese single malt whiskies at Narita. I'll try to find a compelling substitute.  Hope to see you soon.....

This classic not available on JAL

Stream of Consciousness after a Fever Dream

Meant to follow up late last week but I was still licking my wounds after our meeting and then I was in Atlanta over the weekend for my daughter's college graduation. Thanks again for the lively debate over Fever Dream.  We had several new participants as well as a few return visitors after extended absences. Great to have everyone there!  It was one of our larger groups, but I thought the discussion flowed pretty freely given the divided views on the book. I'm glad we read it!

Our next meeting will be on Wednesday, June 20th.  We'll be reading Gringos by Charles Portis, one of my all-time favorite authors and books.  I hope you can make it.

If you remember, at the meeting there was some extended conversation about a New Yorker piece that featured a selection of diary entries from George Saunders on his development as a writer. As promised, I'm passing on a link to My Writing Education: A Time Line.  Incidentally, Saunders's mentor, Tobias Wolff, is mentioned frequently throughout the article.  I recently found a copy of Wolff's memoir, This Boy's Life in our Used Book Cellar.  I highly recommend it.  It could be a future Book Group selection.

While I'm on the topic of notable recent reads, The New Yorker had a terrific article  on Rachel Kushner, here writing style, and her phenomenal new book The Mars Room.  You'll remember we read (and liked) The Flamethrowers a few years back. This is better.

Lastly, we are very excited to host Dave Eggers (Hologram for the King) on last minute's notice at the store next Wednesday, May 23rd for a pop-up book signing and meet-and-greet from 12 noon until 1:30pm.  I've met Dave several times, he's relaxed and very down to earth.  He wants to come in, hang out, and talk books in a casual, informal setting. If you can find some time to get there, I think it's well worth the effort.  (At the very least, you can explain the reason for your vote :) ) It would also help the Wellesley Books profile and our ability to continue to bring in big name authors for events.  A few years back, several of you stopped in to meet Rachel Kushner in a similar manner when she came by the store on short notice during her tour for The Flamethrowers.  I hope some of you can find the time to get there next week.

As always, I look forward to hearing from you all and hope you can make the meeting in June.

George and Paula in the early years