Book Club Meeting

Our next meeting will be Sunday, February 26 at 12:30pm in the comfort of your own home via Zoom!
We will be discussing Susan Coll’s: Bookish People

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86496045868?pwd=RFlmRytBeXZnbHZkbHkwcGFaMEgvUT09

Meeting ID: 864 9604 5868

Passcode: 1955

SYNOPSIS

A perfect storm of comedic proportions erupts in a DC bookstore over the course of one soggy summer week—narrated by two very different women and punctuated by political turmoil, a celestial event, and a perpetually broken vacuum cleaner. 

Independent bookstore owner Sophie Bernstein is burned out on books. Mourning the death of her husband, the loss of her favorite manager, her only child’s lack of aspiration, and the grim state of the world, she fantasizes about going into hiding in the secret back room of her store.

Meanwhile, renowned poet Raymond Chaucer has published a new collection, and rumors that he’s to blame for his wife’s suicide have led to national cancellations of his publicity tour. He intends to set the record straight—with an ultra-fine-point Sharpie—but only one shop still plans to host him: Sophie’s.

Fearful of potential repercussions from angry customers, Sophie asks Clemi—bookstore events coordinator, aspiring novelist, and daughter of a famed literary agent—to cancel Raymond’s appearance. But Clemi suspects Raymond might be her biological father, and she can’t say no to the chance of finding out for sure.

This big-hearted screwball comedy features an intergenerational cast of oblivious authors and over-qualified booksellers—as well as a Russian tortoise named Kurt Vonnegut Jr.—and captures the endearing quirks of some of the best kinds of people: the ones who love good books.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Susan Coll’s most recent novel, Bookish People, was published by Harper Muse in August, 2022. She is also the author of the novels The Stager, Beach Week, Acceptance, Rockville Pike, and karlmarx.com.

Her work has appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Times, NPR.org, theatlantic.com, The Millions, and a variety of other publications including The Asian Wall Street Journal and the International Herald Tribune. Her novel, Acceptance, was made into a television movie starring the hilarious Joan Cusack.

Susan is the president of the PEN/Faulkner foundation. She is the recipient of 2022 and 2023 grants from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. She teaches an intensive year-long novel workshop at The Writer’s Center, and worked as the Events and Programs Director at Politics & Prose Bookstore in Washington, DC, for five years, where she is now an Events Advisor.

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