The book has landed! 🌊⛱️☀️

The Martha's Vineyard Beach and Book Club is out now!

She’s here: The Martha’s Vineyard Beach and Book Club!

The launch party in Fairfield, CT, my old hometown, on Tuesday night was beyond fabulous! Thank you to all the wonderful readers (160 of you!) who came out to the Fairfield Public Library. What a great outpouring of love—I’ll never forget it.

The Martha’s Vineyard Beach and Book Club is available now from all retailers: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Bookshop.org.

If you’ve already bought the book, leaving a positive review on Amazon and/or Goodreads helps more readers discover the book! As you all know, this story was inspired by mom’s life on Martha’s Vineyard, so it’s a very personal novel for me. Your support means the world to me!

The Boston Globe interviewed me this week about some of the fascinating history I uncovered while writing my new novel:

Q. I'm curious: In your acknowledgments, you reference your mom's stories about "Martha's Vineyard Sign Language." What's that?

A. Oh! My mom was fascinated with that. There was a gene for deafness that came from England back when people first settled on Martha's Vineyard. [Over generations] there was a prevalence of deafness. My mother remembered, growing up, a lot of people were deaf and used "Martha's Vineyard Sign Language."

Even hearing fishermen out on the sea would use it. The sign for "cod fish" - you draw your fingers down from your chin like a beard. Or poking one finger out from your forehead, that swordfish. That is not American Sign Language. It's Martha's Vineyard Sign Language. My mom talked about going to church with half the people signing.

Click here to read the full interview! (paywalled for Boston Globe subscribers)

Reading with Robin

Thank you to Robin Kall Homonoff for hosting me last night in Rhode Island and to her daughter Emily for this fabulous video of the event!

emilyhomonoff

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Book Club Guide

Have you chosen The Martha’s Vineyard Beach & Book Club for your book club pick?

I created a free book club guide that includes discussion questions, a complete list of every book mentioned in MVBABC, and my grandmother’s recipes. Click here to check it out!

Giveaway winners

Thank you to everyone who pre-ordered a copy of The Martha’s Vineyard Beach and Book Club! I will notify the two winners by email this week.

Catch me on tour

My R.J. Julia and Hickory Stick Bookshop events are sold out, but there are still tickets available for Parnassus Books, the St. Louis County Library, and the Ladies of Summer event at Barrett Bookstore in CT.

Check out my full tour schedule below!