Book Signing Central

KRYS MALCOLM BELC is the author of The Natural Mother of the Child: A Memoir of Nonbinary Parenthood, and of the flash nonfiction chapbook In Transit. His recent essays have been featured in The Kenyon Review, Electric Literature, The Arkansas International, and elsewhere. Krys is the memoir editor of Split Lip Magazine. He lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota and is the current Edelstein-Keller Writer-in-Residence at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.

About the Book:

From the author of The Natural Mother of the Child, an exquisite memoir about an amateur home cook’s hard and fast descent into an obsession with food celebrities, including Dessert Person Claire Saffitz, Smitten Kitchen’s Deb Perelman, Pioneer Woman Ree Drummond, and Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa

When the pandemic sends Krys Malcolm Belc and his young children home to live their lives on laptops, he turns to internet chefs for comfort and inspiration. It begins with Stella Parks and her 46 YouTube videos in which she teaches viewers how to make classic, nostalgic American treats like Cheez-Its, Klondike Bars, and Texas sheet cake. But the recipes aren’t enough—Belc needs to watch her showcase each ingredient, explain its importance, and weigh each item on a scale. His fixation on recipe videos, and the women who produce them, start to feel like the only thing that makes sense.

Most of life has been put on pause, but food is the one thing that continues to change day to day, season to season. Belc captures the joy and pleasure of cooking for a large family, as well as the mundane reality and occasional frustrations that come with simply getting food on the table. In the midst of it all, he feels a spark of inspiration to carry a second baby, a decision that forces him to confront how he has used both the internet and cooking to cope and distract.

Following a trans man whose life is largely structured by keeping the family household running, What I Made for Dinner asks the question we all might ask ourselves while elbow-deep in a roasting chicken: Is having the opportunity to cook meals for your family every day a blessing or a curse?

Kristina Forest “The Summer Girlfriend” Book Launch

Thara2488 — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 16:18:08 +0000

Come celebrate the launch of THE SUMMER GIRLFRIEND with Kristina Forest.

BOOK LAUNCH DETAILS

6/9/2026
Kiss & Tale: A Romance Bookshop
688 Haddon Ave 1st Fl
Collingswood, NJ 08108

Get Tickets Here

About the Author:

Kristina Forest is the USA Today bestselling author of romance books for both teens and adults. She earned her MFA in creative writing at The New School and lives in New Jersey, where she can often be found rearranging her bookshelf.

About the Book:

A fake summer fling between a stand-in girlfriend and a handsome business heir becomes way too real in this glittering new romance by USA Today bestselling author Kristina Forest.

Noelle Lewis doesn’t have time for long walks on the beach, brunch with the girls, or summer vacations. She’s too busy saving up to go back to college. After recently getting laid off from her bookseller job, her main gig is now serving as a “stand-in” bridesmaid, which doesn’t pay enough for the upcoming semester’s tuition. But then the perfect, if not unconventional, opportunity arises…

Jeremiah Smith II, grandson of the founder of Smith’s Sweets—a well-known baked goods company—once lived a life of frivolity. Since his grandfather’s death, Jeremiah’s tried to clean up his act, but it’s hard to focus when his family requests that he join them at their summer house in Heart Beach, New Jersey, where his most painful memory lies. To avoid going there, Jeremiah claims he already has plans with his girlfriend, and of course, his family tells him to bring her. The problem? Jeremiah doesn’t have a girlfriend.

After a chance meeting, Noelle and Jeremiah come to an agreement. He’ll hire her to be his stand-in girlfriend for the weekend, and she’ll use that money toward her tuition. She figures it will be quick, easy money, but as it turns out, Jeremiah’s family is lovely, and Jeremiah is even lovelier. Soon, a weekend agreement turns into an entire summer, and Noelle and Jeremiah will have to keep their hearts in check, or else it’s sink or swim for them both.

Brian Jay Jones “The Capitol” Book Discussion

Thara2488 — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 16:08:39 +0000

Join Brian Jay Jones to discuss “The Capitol.”

BOOK DISCUSSION DETAILS

6/9/2026 at 6pm
BOOKWORKS ON RIO GRANDE LLC DBA BOOKWORKS
4022 RIO GRANDE BLVD NW STE H
ALBUQUERQUE, NM 87107-3100

About the Author:

Brian Jay Jones is the critically acclaimed, bestselling biographer of some of the world’s most iconic creative geniuses. Born in the Midwest and raised in the Southwest, Brian has a degree in English from the University of New Mexico. He spent more than two decades as a public policy analyst and speechwriter for thought leaders and elected officials at all levels of government, including nearly ten years in the US Senate. He presently lives in New Mexico.

About the Book:

An in-depth exploration of history of the US Capitol building and the incredible personalities who built it, full of dramatic stories and surprising facts; a powerful testament to what the Capitol has meant to generations of Americans and how it has endured.

The Capitol is a unique biography of a place, encompassing architecture, history, politics, popular culture, and race in a fascinating exploration of our Capitol’s secret past, one rife with political intrigue, assassination attempts, thwarted bombings, and gunmen on the run. Never mind ghostly cat prints, mysteriously bloodstained steps, and charming “fairy doors” that have delighted visitors for hundreds of years.

Spanning three centuries of American history, the book focuses on iconic and notable names and personalities from the past—from George Washington to Davy Crockett to Ronald Reagan—as well as countless colorful characters readers may not have heard of before, with a focus on restoring the narratives of enslaved people and recognizing their contributions.

The story of the Capitol is the story of America itself, and, for the first time, that story will be told in this sweeping, aspirational biography of the building at the very heart of the American experiment.

James Ellroy “Red Sheet” Author Event

Thara2488 — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 15:51:33 +0000

Join in an author event with James Ellroy on “Red Sheet.”

AUTHOR EVENT DETAILS

6/9/2026 at 7pm
Chevalier’s Books
133 N Larchmont Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90004

About the Author:

JAMES ELLROY was born in Los Angeles. He is the author of the Underworld U.S.A. Trilogy: American Tabloid, The Cold Six Thousand, and Blood’s A Rover; and the L.A. Quartet novels: The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential, and White Jazz. He is also the author of two other Freddy Otash novels, Widespread Panic and The Enchanters. He was awarded the 2022 Los Angeles Times Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement. He lives in Colorado.

About the Book:

From Bestselling, award-winning author James Ellroy (“The neo-noir eminence of L.A. crime fiction.” –The New Yorker) a gritty, fast-paced historical crime thriller set in 1962 Los Angeles during the aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

“The Freddy Otash novels will be mentioned … as some of Ellroy’s best work.” —NPR

It’s late October 1962. The Cuban Missile Crisis has just concluded. The Russkies blinked and pulled their ICBMs out of Cuba. Attorney General Robert Kennedy fears reprisals from seething commies. He orders a red probe and puts the LAPD on the job.

Freddy Otash is injudiciously named the lead investigating officer. He’s a stone-cold criminal with police sanction and a harrowing dope habit. He homes in on a red-front trade union. There’s a murder on Halloween night. It may link to ex-VP and current gubernatorial candidate Richard Nixon and two commie snuffs from eight years back. Freddy’s overworked and overamped. He’s running the probe, and Bob Haldeman and John Ehrlichman—Tricky Dick Nixon’s head goons—have hired him to keep Nixon away from the smear-minded press.

L.A. is coming unglued. Ex-cop/lawyer Tom Bradley is running for a city council seat and pushing the Rumford Fair Housing Act. Playboy kingpin Hugh Hefner is along for the ride, out to exploit racial tension and peddle untold copies of his smut rag.

Red Sheet is James Ellroy’s most crazed kamikaze run and a daring, subversive work of fiction.

Matt Haig “The Midnight Train” Author In Conversation

Thara2488 — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 15:45:03 +0000

Join for an evening with Matt Haig, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the novels The Midnight Library, The Life Impossible, and How to Stop Time, as well as the acclaimed memoirs Reasons to Stay Alive and Notes on a Nervous Planet.

EVENT DETAILS

6/9/2026 at 7:30pm
Chicago Humanities Festival @ Athenaeum Center for Thought & Culture Talk, Q&A, Signing
2936 N. Southport Ave
Chicago, IL 60657

Get Tickets Here

About the Author:

Matt Haig was born in Sheffield, England. His novels include The Humans, How to Stop Time, and The Midnight Library, which has been a number one New York Times bestseller and sold more than fourteen million copies world-wide. His non-fiction works include his award-winning mental illness memoir Reasons to Stay Alive and The Comfort Book. His most recent fiction, The Life Impossible, was a New York Times bestseller. He has also written several children’s books, including A Boy Called Christmas, which became a major feature film. His work has been published in fifty-six languages and he is an advocate for literacy, libraries, and better mental health provision for everyone.

About the Book:

When your life flashes before your eyes, where would you stop?

No one can change the past, but the Midnight Train can take you there.
The chance to re-live the moments that meant most.
To see what kind of person you really were.

For Wilbur his best days were with Maggie, the love of his life. On his honeymoon in Venice.

Before he gave it all away.

He wishes he could go back and live differently. But to do so risks everything . . .

A magical, time-travelling love story, from the world of The Midnight Library.

Andrew Sean Greer “Villa Coco” Book Launch

Thara2488 — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 15:33:39 +0000

Join Andrew Sean Greer for “Villa Coco” book launch.

BOOK LAUNCH DETAILS

6/9/2026 at 7:00 PM
92NY with Alexandra Schwartz
1395 Lexington Ave
New York, NY 10128

Get Tickets Here

About the Author:

ANDREW SEAN GREER is the bestselling author of seven previous works of fiction, including the Pulitzer Prize winner Less and its companion, Less Is Lost. He lives in San Francisco and Venice, Italy.

About the Book:

Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Less, showcases his wit, sophistication, and deep knowledge of focaccia in this tale of a young man who takes an unspecified job with a charismatic elderly Baronessa at her crumbling villa in the Tuscan hills.

A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF THE YEAR: People, TIME, Esquire, Oprah Daily, Lit Hub, Seattle Times

“No one writing in English is funnier or more charming than Andrew Greer. Every sentence in this novel sings.” —David Sedaris, author of Happy-Go-Lucky

“An absolute delight.”—Elif Batuman, author of Either/Or

“Such a sunny book.”—Kate Atkinson, author of Shrines of Gaiety

An aspiring archivist determined to begin a “serious” life after an undistinguished undergraduate career takes up residence in the Italian countryside. Here, he becomes the all-purpose assistant to the Baronessa, known to her friends as Coco, a defiantly youthful and naturally flamboyant woman of ninety-two. Amid a chaotic and colorful milieu of gin-swilling princesses, incomprehensible handymen, roaming boarhunters, nuns, and other local wildlife, our young man does his best to catalog the villa’s extensive collection of art and antiques—although he notices that things seem to go missing from right under his nose.

Despite himself, he tumbles into an affair with a married man, complicating his future plans considerably. And when the Baronessa loses someone close to her, he becomes an unwitting accomplice in the acceleration of Coco’s great and final plan: to locate the love of her life and be reunited before it’s too late. Told with the signature wit, charm, and humanity that made Less an international phenomenon, Villa Coco is a dazzling, sun-soaked ode to life itself, a meditation on how seriously we ought to take ourselves, and a bawdy Mediterranean ballad about becoming who we’ve always wanted to be.

Tomás Q. Morín “Cat Love” Book Event

Thara2488 — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 12:44:28 +0000

Join in a book event with Tomás Q. Morín on “Cat Love.”

BOOK EVENT DETAILS

6/9/2026 at 7:00 pm
BOOK PEOPLE 6TH AND LAMAR
603 N LAMAR BLVD
AUSTIN, TX 78703-5413

About the Author:

TOMÁS Q. MORÍN is the author of the memoirs Let Me Count the Ways, winner of the 2023 Vulgar Genius Nonfiction Award, and Where Are You From: Letters to My Son, as well as the poetry collections Machete, Patient Zero, and A Larger Country. He is coeditor, with Mari L’Esperance, of the anthology Coming Close: Forty Essays on Philip Levine, and a translator of The Heights of Macchu Picchu by Pablo Neruda. He is a fellow of the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

About the Book:

A contemporary dystopian elegy narrated by a cat imprisoned in a Schrödinger’s box, by the prizing-winning poet and memoirist whose writing “cuts to the core with electrifying force” (The Free-Lance Star).

“Cat Love is more charming than seems humanly possible, which works out because it is narrated by a cat. A delightful novel!” —Rivka Galchen, author of Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch

“Notes from Underground meets Kafka’s ‘The Burrow,’ only it’s an experiment with the most charming, erudite cat in literature narrating this funny, moving meditation on life, pop culture, and love, that’s also a truly original, page-turning delight to read.” —Fernando A. Flores, author of Brother Brontë

The indelible cat heroine of this unexpected tale recalls her life with “the Mustache,” her beloved owner. Trapped in a one-way mirrored box, displayed in a classroom for people who must contemplate her fate as part of their training to become “Emotional Support Humans,” she weaves a self-soothing paean to the poetry, music, and creature comforts she shared with her Mustache—the best products of a society that has gone off the rails in its violence and intolerance.

The trainees in the room, a motley crew our kitty describes with a novelistic flair of her own, are assigned to consider what they feel about her. They also argue about whether there’s really a cat in there, or are they just being manipulated? Their daily required quizzes are as poignant and witty as our narrator herself. Meanwhile, the mystery of her cat-kidnapping is revealed to us, along with her potential next move on a more spectral plane.

An elegy to freedom, dignity, and connection for all living beings, this slim novel stirs powerful feelings in the reader as it shows us to ourselves from the other side of the mirror.

Darby Bozeman “Summer’s Never Over” Book Conversation

Thara2488 — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 12:38:33 +0000

Join to celebrate Darby Bozeman’s debut novel, “Summer’s Never Over.”

BOOK CONVERSATION DETAILS

6/9/2026 at 6:00 PM
UNION AVENUE BOOKS
517 UNION AVE
KNOXVILLE, TN 37902-2115

RSVP here

About the Author:

Darby Bozeman grew up in Portland, Oregon, but she’s spent the better part of her adult life in the South. She has a master’s in teaching from the University of Georgia and she taught middle school English for five years. When she’s not reading or writing, she loves acting in community theater and discussing pop culture. She lives in Knoxville with her husband, Bryan, and their cat, Claude.

About the Book:

In this addictive dual-timeline debut novel, a woman confronts her past at the remote Southern summer camp where the tragic death of her fellow counselor may not have been an accident after all.

Five years ago, Greer left her family’s summer camp in the mountains of Georgia and vowed she’d never return. An idyllic season had turned into a nightmare after a mysterious Phantom began stalking the camp—and ended with Greer’s friend and fellow counselor dead. Losing Steph shattered everything, and Greer’s been fleeing from the grief ever since.

But then Greer’s mother dies, and Greer finds herself back at Dread’s Cove, surrounded by the people she was closest to that intense summer. Two ex-boyfriends—one a childhood sweetheart, the other the guy she’s never gotten over—and old friends. Including Margo, Steph’s best friend.

Greer and Margo didn’t leave things on the best of terms. But now, Margo needs her. Margo never believed that Steph’s death in that horrific fire was an accident—and she’s on the trail of an explosive secret Steph took to her grave.

Greer has to make a choice: keep the Cove’s secrets and her own, or finally face the truth about that summer.

Dave Eggers “Contrapposto” Author Meet

Thara2488 — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 12:28:49 +0000

Join in an author meet with Dave Eggers on “Contrapposto.”

AUTHOR MEET DETAILS

6/9/2026 at 7 PM
St. Louis County Library, Clark Family Branch
1640 S. Lindbergh Blvd.
St. Louis, MO 63131

About the Author:

DAVE EGGERS is the author of The Circle, The Monk of Mokha, A Hologram for the King, What Is the What, and The Museum of Rain, among other books. He is the cofounder of 826 National, a network of youth writing centers, and Art + Water, a nonprofit visual art hub on San Francisco’s waterfront. A classically trained artist and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Eggers has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award, and is the recipient of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the American Book Award. In 2024, The Eyes and the Impossible was awarded the Newbery Medal.

About the Book:

A sweeping novel about friendship, love, and the lifelong pursuit of art from Dave Eggers, the award-winning, bestselling author of The Circle, A Hologram for the King, and The Eyes & the Impossible

“Glorious and captivating, with Eggers’ signature humor and precision, Contrapposto tells a big and big-hearted story that counter-positions exquisitely the pain and exhilarations of love and the creative impulse. I loved this novel.” —Lily King, author of Heart the Lover

Cricket Dib, born on the American prairie, has no particular prospects or ambitions until, in grade school, he realizes he can draw. He soon meets a girl, Olympia Argyros, one year older, who is captivating and brilliant and far more worldly. Recognizing his talent, she convinces him to deface, with profound vulgarity, a popular playground. Under her direction, he does it willingly, already in love, and thus begins a sixty-five-year entwining between Cricket and Olympia, encompassing friendship, working partnership and love affair. Together they go to art school—an experience of dubious value—and then navigate the art world for the next fifty years, together and apart.

Contrapposto is a moving and very funny novel about allies and art, and what it means to be an artist. All through their lives, Cricket sees Olympia as his soulmate and destiny, and while she is always his champion, romantically her eyes are always seeking something—and someone—else. Their love changes over the decades, but their commitment to each other, and their search for meaning in the making of art, never wanes. The novel spans the globe, from New York to Thailand, Indiana to Paris, and follows Cricket and Olympia through sickness and health, war and death.

The novel is a wild and beautiful examination of the rules and market forces of the art world, but chiefly it’s about two friends who believe they can change that world, and bring new meaning to it, if only they can start their own movement, dodge charlatans, remain open-eyed and open-hearted, avoid going mad, avoid dying young of rare cancers, stay true to their ideals, and never tire of beauty. Not easy, but not impossible, either.