Patricia Falvey (The Girls of Ennismore) at Sea View Inn
Irish-born Falvey shares her third novel which depicts the intertwining lives of a family of Anglo-Irish gentry and their servants at a time in Irish history when the aristocracy is under threat both from growing economic hardship and incipient nationalist rebellion. It juxtaposes the gentry’s sense of entitlement against the servants’ not so guarded resentment of their employers whose ownership of Irish lands was achieved by conquest. The contrast of the natural wit, passion and mercurial charm of the native Irish with the formal, restrained behaviors of the gentry, makes for a natural conflict that offers both drama and humor.
Can Art Help Create a Better Society?
Thursday April 20
4:30 PM | Johnson Auditorium(WALL 116)
Writer and speaker Mark Rodgers is principal of the Clapham Group, a company that seeks to influence culture in a political and societal context. His work over the years has included outreach to “culture creators,” and in that role he has worked closely with musical artists Bono and the Fray and actress Patty Heaton. Rodgers served as the third-ranking Republican leadership staffer in the U.S. Senate for six years, overseeing strategic planning and strategic communications, and was noted for his work on issues such as poverty alleviation and the global spread of AIDS.
Presented by: The Jackson Family Center for Ethics and Values
Free and open to the public.
– See more at: https://www.coastal.edu/culturalarts/#sthash.cyhDzxX5.dpuf
April 21 ~ Julie James (The Thing About Love) at Ocean One, Litchfield, $30
The New York Times bestselling author of Suddenly One Summer blows the covers of two FBI agents who can’t hide who they are from each other. FBI agents Jessica Harlow and John Shepherd have a past. The former lawyer and cocky Army Ranger clashed during their training at Quantico and gladly went their separate ways after graduating from the Academy. Six years later, the last thing either of them expects is to be assigned to work as partners in a high-profile undercover sting.
April 28 ~ Kristy Woodson Harvey (Slightly South of Simple) at Myrtle Beach Marriott, Grande Dunes, $30
From the next “major voice in Southern fiction” (New York Times bestselling author Elin Hilderbrand) comes the first in an all-new series chronicling the journeys of three sisters and their mother – and a secret from their past that has the potential to tear them apart and reshape their very definition of what it means to be a family.
Wendy Wax (One Good Thing) at Pawleys Plantation
USA Today bestselling author brings us the fifth in the Ten Beach Road series, a story of four women trying to rebuild more than their lives… Embroiled in a battle to regain control of their renovation-turned-reality TV show, Do Over, Maddie, Avery, Nikki and Kyra find themselves holding tight to the frayed ends of their friendship and relationships. Maddie must face the realities of dating a rock star once again topping the charts and deal with her hapless ex-husband, while Avery is caught up in family drama even as she attempts to transform a tiny cottage into a home for the newly impoverished heiress who helped bankroll their last renovation. Put on bedrest, a hugely pregnant Nikki can’t quite believe love can last, or trust in her own maternal instinct. And Kyra, who has secretly put Bella Flora at risk in an attempt to salvage Do Over, must decide whether to accept a desperately needed bail out from her son’s famous father that comes with far too many strings attached… But friendship is made for times like these, to keep each other – and their dreams – from crumbling.
Stephanie Danler (Sweetbitter) at Ocean One, Litchfield
Shot from a mundane, provincial past, Tess comes to New York in the stifling summer of 2006. Alone, knowing no one, living in a rented room in Williamsburg, she manages to land a job as a “backwaiter” at a celebrated downtown Manhattan restaurant. This begins the year we spend with Tess as she starts to navigate the chaotic, enchanting, punishing, and privileged life she has chosen, as well as the remorseless and luminous city around her.
MONDAY, May 15, 5-7 PM: Cocktail Reception/Benefit ~ Dorothea Benton Frank
(Same Beach, Next Year) at Pawleys Plantation, $60*
Join us for a pre-launch party (book release date is May 16!) at one of our favorite venues for wine and appetizers for a talk by one of our favorite authors to benefit one of her favorite causes, The Family Justice Center in Georgetown. New York Times bestselling author Dorothea Benton Frank returns to her magical Lowcountry of South Carolina in a bewitching story of marriage, love, family, and friendship that is infused with her warm and engaging earthy humor and generous heart. One enchanted summer, two couples begin a friendship that will last more than twenty years and transform their lives. A chance meeting on the Isle of Palms, one of Charleston’s most stunning barrier islands, brings former sweethearts, Adam Stanley and Eve Landers together again. Their respective spouses, Eliza and Carl, fight sparks of jealousy flaring from their imagined rekindling of old flames. As Adam and Eve get caught up on their lives, their partners strike up a deep friendship – and flirt with an unexpected attraction – of their own. Year after year, Adam, Eliza, Eve, and Carl eagerly await their reunion at Wild Dunes, a condominium complex at the island’s tip end, where they grow closer with each passing day, building a friendship that will withstand financial catastrophe, family tragedy, and devastating heartbreak. A dazzling celebration of the infrangible power of friendship, the enduring promise of summer, and the indelible bonds of love. *This event is $60 and includes the book, the opportunity to chat with Dottie while sipping wine and nibbling tasty appetizers, and a donation to the center for abused women and children.
Mary Kay Andrews (The Beach House Cookbook) at Kimbel’s, Wachesaw
You do not have to own a beach house to cook like you’re at the beach. You don’t actually even have to be at the beach. The recipe for beach house cooking, according to Mary Kay, is nothing more than easy, accessible, fresh, tasty dishes. Long on taste and enjoyment, short on stress or mess. The Beach House Cookbook is filled with recipes that have become her family’s traditions, including some new concepts (Frozen Key Lime Bars, Mr. Beach Ceviche, and Quickles, her grandma’s Quick Pickles). You can be assured of a few belly laughs along the way preparing and filling all those summer tummies!
Michelle Gable (The Book of Summer) at Inlet Affairs
This bestselling author has who has transported us to Paris with The Paris Apartment and I’ll See You in Paris, now turns her generation-jumping eye on Nantucket where physician Bess Codman has returned to her family’s compound, Cliff House, for the first time in four years. Her great-grandparents built Cliff House almost a century before, but due to erosion, the once-grand home will soon fall into the sea. Though she’s purposefully avoided the island, Bess must now pack up the house and deal with her mother, a notorious town rabble-rouser, who refuses to leave. The Book of Summer unravels the power and secrets of Cliff House as told through the voices of Ruby Packard, a bright-eyed and idealistic newlywed on the eve of WWII, the home’s definitive guestbook, and Bess herself. Bess’s grandmother always said it was a house of women, and by the very last day of the very last summer at Cliff House, Bess will understand the truth of her grandmother’s words in ways she never contemplated.
Standing on the banks of the Black River, Mansfield Plantation is a living testament to antebellum rice plantations. In 1718, it started as a five-hundred-acre land grant near the upstart village of Georgetown. The main house was built around 1800, and the plantation soon grew to nearly one thousand acres. John and Sallie Middleton Parker returned the property to the Man-Taylor-Lance-Parker family, a line of ownership dating back 150 years. Ongoing preservation projects ensure that future generations can explore and appreciate one of the most well-preserved rice plantations in America. Plantation historian Christopher C. Boyle captures the spirit of Mansfield Plantation and unravels the many mysteries of its past.