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July 2025 Bookaccino Live Signup

Links to https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_aKbl2W87STW4kdZ2QdeRyA.

Beatriz Williams Book Group Event

Links to https://tbrnetwork.com/podcasts/bookreporter-talks-to/bookaccino-live-book-group-with-beatriz-williams/.

May 31, 2025

This year has been such a great one for reading. I know that I can barely keep up, let alone get ahead. I feel like every week there is another book that I want to discuss with my group.

We will be reading SALTWATER by Katy Hays for our next discussion. Then, for the following month, we already have decided that we will be talking about THE MARTHA’S VINEYARD BEACH AND BOOK CLUB by Martha Hall Kelly. A few of us met Martha a couple of years ago at an event that took place at the Bellamy-Ferriday House & Garden, so selecting her book, which is just out this week, was an easy decision. (See the guide later in this newsletter.)

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Fiona Davis Event Signup

Links to https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ipJcjxcMR0-h6T3qbGIohA.

Daria Lavelle, author of Aftertaste

Konstantin Duhovny’s father died when he was 10, and ghosts have been hovering around him ever since. Kostya can’t exactly see the ghosts, but he can taste their favorite foods. Flavors of meals he’s never eaten will flood his mouth, a sign that a spirit is present. Kostya has kept these aftertastes a secret for most of his life, but one night, he decides to act on what he’s tasting. He discovers that he can reunite people with their deceased loved ones --- at least for the length of time it takes them to eat a dish that he’s prepared. But as his kitchen skills catch up with his ambitions, Kostya is too blind to see the catastrophe looming in the Afterlife. And the one person who knows Kostya must be stopped also happens to be falling in love with him.

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Kristina McMorris, author of The Girls of Good Fortune

Oregon, 1888. Amid the subterranean labyrinth of Portland's notorious Shanghai Tunnels, a woman awakens in an underground cell, drugged and disguised. Celia soon realizes she's a "shanghaied" victim on the verge of being shipped off as forced labor. Although well accustomed to adapting for survival --- being half-Chinese, passing as white during an era fraught with anti-Chinese sentiment --- she fears that far more than her own fate hangs in the balance. As she pieces together the twisting path that led to her abduction, revelations emerge of a child left in peril. Desperate, Celia must find a way to escape and return to a place where unearthed secrets can prove deadlier than the dark recesses of Chinatown.

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Meg Mitchell Moore, author of Mansion Beach

It’s the beginning of the summer, and Nicola Carr has just arrived on Block Island, RI, eager for a fresh start and some R&R. But her plans for a tranquil summer are derailed as the extravagant parties from the grand home next door pique her curiosity. She soon discovers that the home belongs to Juliana George, an enigmatic entrepreneur with a past shrouded in mystery. Juliana George, CEO and founder of a hot fashion-tech company, is at the top of her game. She’s spending the summer on Block Island preparing for a major IPO. But she’s chasing her dreams in more ways than one. This summer she hopes to rekindle a flame with a man from her past --- a man who has a surprising connection to her neighbor, Nicola.

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Chris Pavone, author of The Doorman

Chicky Diaz is everyone’s favorite doorman at the Bohemia, the most famous apartment house in the world. But gathered in the Bohemia’s bowels, the building’s almost entirely Black and Hispanic working-class staff is taking in the news that just a few miles uptown, a Black man has been killed by the police, leading to a demonstration, a counterdemonstration, and a long night of violence across the tinderbox city. As Chicky changes into his uniform for tonight’s shift, he finds himself breaking a cardinal rule of the job. Tonight, he’ll be carrying a gun, bought only hours earlier, but before he knew of the pandemonium taking over the city. Chicky knows that there’s more going on in his patch of sidewalk in front of the Bohemia than anyone is aware of.

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Martha Hall Kelly, author of The Martha's Vineyard Beach and Book Club

In 2016, 34-year-old Mari Starwood travels to Martha’s Vineyard with nothing but a name on a piece of paper: Elizabeth Deveraux. Mari isn’t sure what to expect when she finally makes it to the reclusive artist’s stunning waterfront property, but she is shocked to find out that her relationship to the island runs deeper than she ever thought possible. In 1942, the Smith sisters are faced with the impossible task of holding their family farm together during WWII as the U.S. Army arrives on Martha’s Vineyard and their brother ships out to fight on the front lines. In an attempt at normalcy, the girls start a book club that soon grows in both number and influence. But their lives are upended when a mysterious man washes up on the shore, and they find themselves questioning who they can truly trust in these turbulent times.

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Editorial Content for Aftertaste

Book

Aftertaste

Teaser

What if you could have one last meal with someone you’ve loved, someone you’ve lost? Combining the magic of UNDER THE WHISPERING DOOR with the high-stakes culinary world of SWEETBITTER, AFTERTASTE is an epic love story, a dark comedy, and a synesthetic adventure through food and grief.

Promo

What if you could have one last meal with someone you’ve loved, someone you’ve lost? Combining the magic of UNDER THE WHISPERING DOOR with the high-stakes culinary world of SWEETBITTER, AFTERTASTE is an epic love story, a dark comedy, and a synesthetic adventure through food and grief.

About the Book

What if you could have one last meal with someone you’ve loved, someone you’ve lost? Combining the magic of UNDER THE WHISPERING DOOR with the high-stakes culinary world of SWEETBITTER, AFTERTASTE is an epic love story, a dark comedy, and a synesthetic adventure through food and grief.

A food story to binge.
A ghost story to devour.
A love story to savor.

Konstantin Duhovny is a haunted man. His father died when he was 10, and ghosts have been hovering around him ever since. Kostya can’t exactly see the ghosts, but he can taste their favorite foods. Flavors of meals he’s never eaten will flood his mouth, a sign that a spirit is present. Kostya has kept these aftertastes a secret for most of his life, but one night, he decides to act on what he’s tasting. And everything changes.

Kostya discovers that he can reunite people with their deceased loved ones --- at least for the length of time it takes them to eat a dish that he’s prepared. He thinks his life’s purpose might be to offer closure to grieving strangers and sets out to learn all he can by entering a particularly fiery ring of Hell: the New York culinary scene. But as his kitchen skills catch up with his ambitions, Kostya is too blind to see the catastrophe looming in the Afterlife. And the one person who knows Kostya must be stopped also happens to be falling in love with him.

Set in the bustling world of New York restaurants and teeming with mouthwatering food writing, AFTERTASTE is a whirlwind romance, a heart-wrenching look at love and loss, and a ghost story about all the ways we hunger --- and how far we’d go to find satisfaction.