Blue Bicycle Books

Join us Mon., March 12, 12 pm for lunch at 5 Faber, as Caitlin Macy discusses her new novel Mrs. (Little, Brown, hb., 352 pp., $27). Tickets are $31 for the three-course luncheon and talk, or $58 including a signed copy of the book.

Get tickets here.

In the well-heeled milieu of New York’s Upper East Side, coolly elegant Philippa Lye is the woman no one can stop talking about. Despite a shadowy past, Philippa has somehow married the scion of the last family-held investment bank in the city. Then, into her precariously balanced life, come two women: Gwen Hogan, a childhood acquaintance who uncovers an explosive secret about Philippa’s single days, and Minnie Curtis, a newcomer whose vast fortune and frank revelations about a penurious upbringing in Spanish Harlem put everyone on alert.

When Gwen’s husband, a heavy-drinking, obsessive prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office, stumbles over the connection between Philippa’s past and the criminal investigation he is pursuing at all costs, this insulated society is forced to confront the rot at its core and the price it has paid to survive into the new millennium.

Caitlin Macy is the author of The Fundamentals of Play and Spoiled. A graduate of Yale, she received her MFA from Columbia. Her work has been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, O, and Slate, among other publications. She lives in New York City with her husband and two children.

Join us Sat., March 3, 3:30 pm as Cathy Cleary will share the stories behind the recipes in The Southern Harvest Cookbook (History Press, pb., 160 pp., $25).

The southern garden produces delights in all four seasons, from asparagus to tomatoes, apples to collard greens. Make use of the bounty of your garden or farmers’ market with new twists on familiar favorites. Recipes for Apple Radish Salad and Bacon Apple Burgers break up a fall parade of crisps and crumbles. Instead of roasting, make Whiskey Braised Sweet Potatoes or Sweet Potato Peanut Stew and add greens to Shrimp and Grits. Recipes for preserving herbs, pickling peaches and berry jams mean that your harvest will never go to waste. Let experienced gardener and cook Cathy Cleary walk you through four seasons of fresh, flavorful cooking.

Cathy Cleary began cooking and baking at the ripe age of four. In 2000, she opened the West End Bakery Café in West Asheville, which quickly became an iconic eatery, and in 2014 published The West End Bakery and Café Cookbook to satisfy requests to share her recipes. Cathy and her husband own a small farm outside Asheville where they grow as much food as possible.

Join us Fri., Feb. 23, 12 pm for lunch at 5 Faber, as Peter Zheutlin discusses his new book Rescued (Penguin Books, pb., 256 pp., $16). Tickets are $31 for the three-course luncheon and talk, or $47 including a signed copy of the book.

Get tickets here.

In the follow-up to his New York Times bestseller Rescue Road, acclaimed journalist Peter Zheutlin offers a heartwarming and often humorous new look into the world of rescue dogs. Sharing lessons from his own experiences, Zheutlin reveals the surprising and inspiring life lessons rescue dogs can teach us, such as:

– How to “walk a mile in a dog’s paws” to get a brand-new perspective
– Living with a dog is not one continuous Hallmark moment—but it’s never dull!
– Why having a dog helps you see your faults and quirks in a new light, even if you can’t “shed” them completely
– How to set the world right, one dog at a time

Peter Zheutlin is a freelance journalist and author whose work has appeared regularly in The Boston Globe and The Christian Science Monitor. Mr. Zheutlin has also written for The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, AARP Magazine and numerous other publications in the U.S. and abroad. He is the author of the bestseller Rescue Road: One Man, Thirty Thousand Dogs and a Million Miles on the Lost Hope Highway (Sourcebooks, 2015). Peter is a graduate of Amherst College and Boston College Law School and resides in Massachusetts with his wife, author Judy Gelman.

Join us Fri., Feb. 2, 12 pm for lunch at High Cotton (199 East Bay St.), as Christina Baker Kline discusses her newest novel A Piece of the World (William Morrow, hb., 320 pp., $28).

Tickets ($31) are available here.

An instant New York Times bestseller, A Piece of the World delves into the relationship between the artist Andrew Wyeth and the subject of his best-known painting, Christina’s World. As she did in Orphan Train, Christina Baker Kline interweaves fact and fiction in a powerful novel that illuminates a little-known part of America’s history. Bringing into focus the flesh-and-blood woman behind the portrait, Kline vividly imagines the life of a woman with a complicated relationship to her family and her past, and a special bond with one of our greatest modern artists.

Christina Baker Kline has written six other novels–Orphan Train, Orphan Train Girl, The Way Life Should Be, Sweet Water, Bird in Hand, and Desire Lines–and written or edited five works of nonfiction. Orphan Train spent more than two years on the New York Times bestseller list, including five weeks at # 1, and was published in 40 countries.

Join us Fri., Jan. 26, 12 pm for lunch at High Cotton (199 East Bay St.), as South Carolina native Michel Stone discusses her newest novel Border Child (Nan A. Talese, hb., 272 pp., $27).

Tickets ($31) are available here.

About the book: For Héctor and Lilia, pursuit of the American Dream became every parent’s worst fear when they were separated from their infant daughter as they crossed from Mexico to the United States. Now they must try to get her back. Border Child drops readers into the whirlwind of the contemporary immigrant experience, where a marriage is strained to the breaking point by the consequences of wanting more for the next generation. With great empathy and a keen awareness of current events, Michel Stone delivers a novel of surpassing sensitivity and heart.

About the author: Michel Stone has previously published a novel called The Iguana Tree, as well as more than a dozen stories and essays in various journals and magazines. She is a 2011 recipient of the South Carolina Fiction Project Award. She is a graduate of Clemson University with a Master’s Degree from Converse College, and she is an alumna of the Sewanee Writers Conference. Raised on Johns Island, Michel now lives in Spartanburg.