Hi friends! Welcome to the inaugural edition of The Sunday Dish!

Snapshots from the week…

This past week I met with a book club in person for the first time since Covid started a year ago, and it was such a relief to sit around a table with a group of people and talk about books again. We even had one member Facetime in from the beach—that’s dedication! They read and were discussing Glory Road, and I admitted to them that Glory Road (shhhh) may be my favorite of the books I’ve written. (Don’t tell my other books!)

I really love them all, of course, but that book feels the most personal to me. It wasn’t me on any of the pages, or any specific person I know, but the setting, the music, the emotions were all really familiar. I got to go back to high school a little bit in the writing of the story, and I got to spend time back on my grandparents’ red dirt road—at least in my mind—which was really nostalgic.

Another little tidbit from the week:

Sela dressed as Amelia Earhart for her Living Museum at school on Friday. The big bummer is that parents usually get to attend and see all the kids dressed as their person of choice, but due to Covid, parents can’t go into the school. But we got to hear her speech many times and see this cute little peanut all dressed up and ready to fly.

 

What I fell asleep reading last night…

Clearly I was late to the party on this one. Published in 2017 (the same year The Hideaway came out!), the book has a whopping 278K reviews on Goodreads and Reece Witherspoon picked it for her book club after it was released. Many times when a book gets these kinds of accolades, I either skip it or wait a while before reading. I have no idea why. But I finally read it, and I totally get all the praise and hoopla. It’s a fantastic, page-turning book. (Side note: there’s a heaping amount of adult language and situations.)

 

Book(s) releasing next week I have my eye on…

The Sweet Taste of Muscadines by Pamela Terry.
With a cover like that, this book would probably jump right off the shelf and into my hands.

 

The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex.
After falling in love with Cornwall in Rosamund Pilcher’s The Shell Seekers, I’ll read most anything set there. And I think the idea of being a lighthouse keeper is so intriguing.

 

A link or two…

This is a fascinating peek into the life of a lighthouse keeper. (And doubly interesting considering the book I just mentioned that releases next week.)

If supporting independent bookstores is something you try to do, this article gives some great ways to do just that. And after the year we’ve all just had, all independent shops need all the help they can get.

 

Last things… 

My next novel, The One You’re With, releases July 6! If you keep up with any authors, you probably hear them (us) talking a lot about preorders. Why are preorders important, you may ask? Preorders are crucial to a book launch because they tell book buyers, list makers, and other important book people that there are lots of people out there who are interested in the book. More preorders means more people can’t wait for the book to come out! So if you know you will be ordering the book, consider preordering it. You can check my (beautiful new) website for links to preorder the book. And thank you!!

That’s it from me. See you next Sunday!

Love, Lauren