The Weekly Catch Up
What is a book you would read over?
As my 15-year-old son begins reading all of the classics in his English lit class, it’s been great fun to watch him discover some of the books I grew up loving. Case in point: The Catcher in the Rye. When I held his little eight pound body for the first time in 2010, I never thought I’d someday be analyzing the meaning of Holden Caufield’s inner monologue with him, so it’s been a hoot. It also got me thinking: If I could go back and re-read any novel for the first time, what would it be?
This is a magical idea. Imagine picking up Joan Didion’s Slouching Toward Bethlehem for the very first time and getting lost in her words? I often think of The Great Gatsby (3.9 stars on Good Reads. What?!) as one of my all time favorite books. The idea of discovering Jay Gatsby all over again is exhilarating in that nerdy author kind of way.
But I think the book I would select is A Hundred Summers by Beatriz Williams. Really! You’ve heard me talk about this novel quite a bit and there’s an important reason: It was the first time I read a historical novel and thought: This is the kind of novel I want to write. Glamorous setting. Fascinating characters. Intriguing point in American history. If I could read Beatriz’s novel for the first time now, I’d read it with the eyes of an editor. How did she build the story? What traits did she give her two female characters and how did she use scene to show their transformation over that fateful summer? I swear I would take notes.
Maybe I should read it anyway, just for the heck of it. Great idea, me!
Breaking News!
The paperback for my book All of the Summers in Between, a starred pick by Library Journal, is out today! Katie Couric Media says: "This one had me racing to turn the pages. Thea, a local teen, meets Margot, a wealthy summer resident, and the two form an unlikely friendship tested with unimaginable twists and turns. I won’t say more — except pick it up... and cancel your plans for the rest of the week!"
Plus, I adore this blurb by one of my favorites Patti Callahan Henry: "Another engaging and thrilling novel for summer! With a bygone-Hamptons setting, deep friendships that return in a roar, and love that can survive it all, Brooke Lea Foster carries us with skill and suspense into a glittering world [that] has it all: mystery, friendship, secrets, enchanting setting, and of course love. With a reminder that women must find what is most important at the core of their own lives, make room in your beach bag for this mesmerizing book.”
Best Part of My Week
It’s been my dream to grow roses up my white picket fence in my backyard for years. I’m not sure why it’s taken me so long to plant them but my husband and I finally did for Mother’s Day. It was backbreaking work. We broke a sprinkler head! We didn’t mulch! But we have four fragrant English rose bushes growing right along my fence. I’ll need to give it a few years, of course, before they climb the pickets, but I can’t wait until they come into themselves.
Another high: Oh my goodness. My kids Mother’s Day presents were the cutest. My son wrote me this heartfelt card that was a tear jerker all about how I’ve been there for him whenever he needed me. My 10-year-old made me a front page of a newspaper that featured an article about what a great mom I was. It made all of those runny noses and late night fevers of this past winter vanish in an instant.
The kids also asked me some of the questions from The New York Times list called something like “Questions to Grow Closer to Your Mom.” One of them was “What is your favorite part about being a mother right now?” I told them that I love how much they want to talk to me. When they were little, I used to follow them around and tell them all sorts of stories. Now they follow me around and chatter on about friends, their teachers, annoying assignments, what they want me to make for dinner. After hearing that, their faces took on that proud expression from knowing that they were doing something that made them lovable to me.
We’re going to drive to an antique market with my mom this weekend, and we decided we’re going to ask my mom all of the same questions in the car.
Worst Part of My Week
We went to see Michelle Zauner’s (Crying in H Mart!) band Japanese Breakfast this past Friday in Brooklyn. OMG the concert was so good. Her voice is ethereal and she literally sat in a giant clam shell singing. Ha! But the worst part was there was this one concert goer who was so rude. We were in the balcony and there’s no seating, so everyone just kind of huddles together to try to see.
There was an old guy with a very young girlfriend (no judgement) watching in one alcove along with several other people. I saw an opening where I could sneak in between him and this other guy and see a little better. I was not going to block anybody. I’m petite and I wasn’t going to stand in front of anyone at all, but as I tried to say excuse me and slip in between him and another person, he angled his body and boxed me out. Like literally would not let me pass. I turned to say excuse me and try a different angle and he literally pushed backwards into me and just blocked me entirely.
It was so weird and so rude and I was SO exasperated that I started laughing because I couldn’t believe somebody would do that. My friend, Sara, was super ticked off and was ready to tell him off, but I don’t like confrontation with strangers. Has anyone else noticed that people are so stressed these days (thanks to the uncertainty of the economy, scary policies, etc) that they’re doing such bizarre things. Another time this week I watched a woman back her giant SUV into a sports car at the gym and zoom off. Couldn’t she have left a note on their car just in case there was damage? Are we in an era that lacks common decency?
Media Diary
What I’ve Been Watching: “Your Friends & Neighbors” with Jon Hamm. The show was filmed in gargantuan houses a few towns away from where I live, and it’s been fun to track the scenery. It’s also super addictive since it’s about rich people behaving badly, which is my favorite!
What I’ve Been Reading: Meg Mitchell Moore’s Mansion Beach! Meg is going to be featured in these pages soon and I’m loving hew latest novel (also about rich people behaving badly) in Block Island, Rhode Island. Coincidentally, my husband and I were married on that island at the Spring House Hotel.
An Article Worth Sharing: I absolutely adored the essay by Lena Dunham (Girls) in The New Yorker called “Breaking Up With New York.” There are so many little gems in here about growing up, making it in the city, how it can bring out the best and worst of people. I listened to her reading it while I went for a run and it kept me engaged for the length of the twenty-five minute essay.
Podcast I’m enjoying: “How to Act Like an Extrovert” from The Happiness Lab. This episode is so fascinating. I’m part of a podcast club that listens and discusses a podcast the way you might a book club. We all had to take the Meyers-Briggs Personality Test too. No surprise on my findings. I’m the same personality type I was when I first took it at age twenty when my mentor administer it to me. ENFP (Extrovert, Intuitive, Feeling, Perceptive.) Doesn’t that sound like a writer? Ha!
Psst, a little secret: You can preorder a signed copy from Bronx River Books.
My favorite local booksellers Jessica and Mark at Bronx River Books are taking preorders for my latest book Our Last Vineyard Summer beginning tomorrow May 14th. I will write the book out to whoever you’d like me to, or I can write you a personal note inside if you want a copy all to yourself.
If you’re interested in ordering a copy, click here! I’ll also sign copies of any of my novels if you'd like to read them all. :) An author’s dream.
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Jane Eyre!! Over and over again!