The Weekly Catch Up

5 favorite Italy photos + Oprah + celebrity book club news

We flew in from Rome last Wednesday. It was bittersweet leaving a city I fell head over heels in love with, heat wave and all. On our last night, we went to the home of a chef named Luka who taught us to make homemade pasta and tiramisu and served us crisp white wine and juicy peaches—and it was all so, well, perfect, that it was hard to board a plane the next day. But then nine hours later, as soon as my family and I descended and glimpsed the Manhattan skyline while touching down at JFK, my heart swelled for a different reason. I was home.

And I was home with a new book out.

Our Last Vineyard Summer was recently featured in Oprah Daily (woot!), People magazine ran an article about my sisters (double woot) and Sweet Magnolia’s star Annaliese Judge chose my novel as her July book club pick. Jumping up and down on that one!

I also got the compliment of my life when Woman’s World magazine chose Our Last Vineyard Summer as one of its Top 13 Beach Reads of Summer. You guys, when I tell you that what the editors wrote made me tear up, I’m not lying. This quote is going up on my inspiration board so whenever I doubt myself I can read it again and again. Here it is:

“Brooke Lea Foster’s Our Last Vineyard Summer is a quiet powerhouse of a novel—deeply atmospheric, emotionally resonant and steeped in the history and heartbreak of generational womanhood.” —Woman’s World magazine

Oh! And as if that didn’t make my year, Women’s Health magazine plucked All the Summers in Between off the shelf and named it a Best Beach Read of Summer alongside greats like Richard Powers The Overstory, Christ Whittaker’s All the Colors of the Dark, Alison Espach’s The Wedding People and Annabel Monaghan’s It’s a Love Story. HUGE compliment! HUGE.

Now back to my favorite photos of our Italian summer vacation.

The Story Behind the Photo:
We booked a tour around Rome in a 1965 vintage Fiat. I thought it would be so cool because my latest novel is partly set in 1965 and I love that time period. In the description of the tour, it said we would drive around Rome and stop at good vantage points for some photos. I thought that meant that we would snap selfies. When the tour began, a professional photographer showed up (embarrassing!) and said he would be shooting pictures of us. OMG, my teenage son wanted to kill me. The photographer had him posing in front of the car with his hand in one pocket, he was getting us to pose as a family around the miniature car—all of this cheesy stuff but we got so many laughs out of it. Plus, we got this keeper of my husband and me. It captures our relationship perfectly and I love that you can see how much fun we still have together.

The Story Behind the Photo:
When we first arrived at our hotel in Lake Como, the attendant took us up to our room. We were on the second floor of this beautiful old villa and had these really unique windows that opened up to a small balcony. My little one and I went out there to take a look at the lake and my husband snapped this picture. I’m going to frame this and put it above my nightstand. I love how he was able to capture the best part of being a mom in a single frame. Side note: George Clooney’s villa is across the way!

The Story Behind the Photo:
Since my son is a teenager he’s not exactly Mr. Affectionate. Sure, he sometimes falls against me on the couch when we’re watching TV hoping for an impromptu snuggle, but for the most part, he barely lets me kiss him goodnight these days. I told him that I only wanted one gift from him this trip: A picture of me giving him a kiss on the cheek. We were crossing over a pedestrian bridge in Venice when I planted one right on him. He’s a good sport because he’s a sweetheart at his core. You can tell that he’s not thrilled but I love it so much! To me, it really captures the push and pull of parenting a teenager. Let me go, he says, and yet don’t ever let me go.

The Story Behind the Photo:
Our hotel in Lake Como had the most incredible dock for swimming. Since it was so hot, we jumped in over and over again. Cannonball! Then we’d sit in these gorgeous orange chairs and read. There was also a shaded overhang that had these comfy water resistant poufs that you could lounge in so we spent the day, reading, swimming and ordering lemon sodas. I loved the simplicity of the day, and the kids talked about it for the remainder of the trip. Sloooooow is sometimes best when traveling. I’m constantly reminding myself that since I get FOMO and want to do and see everything. But isn’t the days where you sit still that you end up remembering most?

The Story Behind the Photo:
Lastly, my son begged to sleep in one day so my husband and I got up with my little one and we went to this coffee house in Rome that we’d read about called Caffe Sant Eustachio. It’s something like 200 years old and it supposedly serves the best espresso with a secret recipe that involves the barista mixing in the perfect amount of sugar. We sat at one of these sweet little tables on the cobblestone square and ordered apricot pastries and espressos. So memorable, in part, because of the people watching. Men in suits riding Vespas to work. Women in heels navigating the cobblestones. An Australian family next to us making plans for the day. History all around. I loved this moment and won’t soon forget the smell, the heat and the flavors. Yes, the coffee was amazing!

Media Diary

What I’m Reading: Typewriter Beach by Meg Waite Clayton. I LOVE this novel about 1960s Hollywood so much. I feel like Meg wrote it just for me. Ha!

What I’m Watching: In summer I don’t watch that much TV — we tend to play games on the porch or read in comfy chairs with the windows open and crickets chirping. But my niece is begging me to start “Love Island.” Should I?

Podcast I’m Listening to: Elin Hilderbrand’s interview with Adam Ross, writer of Play World. It’s a recording from the Nantucket Book Festival that she aired on her podcast Beach, Books and Beyond. It’s beyond interesting too with insights into why he wrote the novel he did. A fabulous conversation between two incredible writers.

Article Worth Reading: New York Magazine did a fascinating piece called “Kyoto Has Zero Zen” about how Japan has become the latest victim of overtourism. The opening photo of Americans wandering Kyoto in kimonos grabbed my attention. Such a good read since it shows how everyone is drawn to the tranquil spaces of Japan but an abundance of people is making those places anything but.

As always, if you enjoy reading Dear Fiction, please click the “heart” icon at the top of this email. It helps other literary folks find our bookish community of readers! xo Happy Summer, everyone!