October 22, 2024 | Posted by Kelley Fitch

Dear Gentle Reader,

Early voting has started in our state, and we encourage you to get your vote on! Clickhere to go to the North Carolina Board of Elections to find out about locations and hours of polling places.

This Saturday at 11am, beloved author, musician and professor Bland Simpsonreturns with Clover Garden: A Carolinian’s Piedmont Memoir. Sarah is reading and loving this history/ travelogue of what we are missing as our area explodes with growth. Please join us for what promises to be a wonderful morning.

On Sunday, October 27th at 2pm, we conclude our 2024 Poetry Series with the North Carolina Poetry Society for the year with Jenny Bates, Elio Soldi, and David Radavich. Never fear, we are ready for the New Year and have early readings for 2025 already lined up. On Sunday, January 26th, join us as Paul Jones, M. Scott Douglass, and Anna Lewis read.

Tickets to our luncheon on Thursday, November 7th for When Southern Women Cook with Toni Tipton Martin, Morgan Boling, KC Hysmith, and Leoneda Ingeare moving quickly. We are celebrating this gorgeous tome that will certainly be on everyone’s cookbook list. With recipes from America’s Test Kitchen and historical context, this first of its kind cookbook celebrates Southern Cuisine and its heroes past and present. To learn more or purchase tickets, click here.

Last Thursday we held our first Book Club Night in ages. It would seem to have been a runaway success as it was agreed upon to do this again in “winter-spring.” As promised, here’s the list of recommendations that people attending said their book clubs enjoyed or had good discussions about:

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Last Light Over Oslo by Alix Rickloff
Northwoods by Daniel Mason
Bee Sting by Paul Murray
Deacon King Kong and The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
James by Percival Everett
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
Claude & Camille: A Novel of Monet by Stephanie Cowell
This is Happiness by Niall Williams

And here’s the list of books we recommended:

Fiction

I am One of You Forever   Fred Chappell
I Have Some Questions for You Rebecca Makkai
The Lost Boy of Santa Chionia  Juliet Graves
The Ministry of Time  Kaliane Bradley
Nettle & Bone T. Kingfisher
Playground  Richard Powers

Nonfiction

Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef  Gabrielle Hamilton
The Elements of Marie Curie: How the Glow of Radium Lit a Path for Women in ScienceDava Sobel
Solito   Javier Zamora
The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook  Hampton Sides
Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World  Henry Grabar
Spying on the South: An Odyssey Across the American Divide   Tony Horwitz

Also mentioned

Indigo Field  Marjorie Hudson
Memorial Days Geraldine Brooks
Small Things Like These Claire Keegan
What I Ate in One Year   Stanley Tucci

And many more!

The holidays are closing in. We have discretely pulled out our holiday cards and puzzles for those early birds to dig into.

All the best from the Usual Suspects,

Pete, Johanna, Sarah, Tyler, Beth, Amy and Keebe