Tuesday 04/29/2025 at 11:00 AM
N.J. Mastro - FULL!
(Solitary Walker: A Novel of Mary Wollstonecraft) at Caffe Piccolo
"Never apologize for being a strong woman. When life becomes difficult, a woman has two options: run the other way, or walk through the flames. It's the women who walk through the flames I want to talk about. I write and explore historical fiction that brings their stories to life. History includes an abundance of women who stood in the face of danger, who spoke truth to power, who put everything on the line and pressed for change. These female forbearers teach us it's okay, even necessary sometimes, to push against the grain. One such woman was Mary Wollstonecraft, the subject of my debut novel 'Solitary Walker.' No one more than Wollstonecraft exemplifies what Maya Angelou once said, 'Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women.'" Readers of biographical fiction will embrace this carefully researched novel about the woman historians widely consider the world's first feminist. Told against the backdrop of Wollstonecraft's incredible rise as a writer, the French Revolution, and a solo journey along the remote shores of Scandinavia, "Solitary Walker" is the timeless story of a woman forging her own path.
$35

Tuesday 05/06/2025 at 11:00 AM
Stephanie Wilds and Donna Thornton
(Floating Camellias (Rose Hill in Black & White) and The UnEGGspected Gift) at Pawleys Tap House & Grill
Stephanie Wilds' is a layered story, simply told but not simple. With her clear-eyed memory focused on the sweep of societal change, she travels back to the origins of her family roots in the South Carolina horse country, revisiting the traditions and expectations that accompanied life among Aiken's upper class for a child of the sixties. Young Wilds spirals through Rose Hill, the elaborate garden estate of her great aunt where ceremony and strict rules of conduct collide with faltering fortunes, collapsing social barriers, and her artist mother's egalitarian compassion. The cross-cultural relationships between the author and the house and garden staff, as well as the surrounding community "outside the walls," are vividly etched with poignant tonal echoes of "Grey Gardens" and "The Help." In ways, hers was an idyllic childhood; in others, a harsh lesson in the reality of enduring racial and economic divides. For so many sensitive souls, escaping the conflict north or west is the only respite from conditions both intolerable and irreparable. For Stephanie, years away from Rose Hill brought her the skills and vision to return and “make things right.” Her painstaking restoration of the lost gardens – long in ruins and out of the family – as a hired landscaper in service with the original groundskeeper, is a triumphant march against the -isms that plague us. PLUS, a new, immediate favorite as Mother’s Day approaches, Donna Thornton’s "The UnEGGspected Gift." Illustrated with heart and charm by local artist Kay Rugh, the story follows a laying hen who yearns to be a mother only to see each day’s production whisked away, while her guinea hen neighbor – no fan of motherhood – rolls each of her potential babies out of her nest … until the kind farmer sees where the true mothering instinct resides.
$35

Tuesday 05/13/2025 at 11:00 AM
Roger Newman
(Boys) at Quigley's Next Door
Brotherhood is more than skin-deep. After Alex’s family is killed by the Ku Klux Klan during the Great Depression, he takes refuge in the barn of a nearby dairy farm. The family that owns the dairy, including their young son Pete, take in Alex and raise the boys together. Pete and Alex consider themselves brothers and together they navigate the Jim Crow racial intolerance of the rural South, a challenge experienced differently because Pete is White and Alex is Black. Anticipating European war, Pete and Alex join a segregated US Army. The brothers discover their own identities amid the crucible of battle, leading them to separate for many years as they continue their careers in the Army. They finally reunite at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, in 1969. Confronting escalating racial and civilian hostility in response to the Civil Rights and antiwar movements, Alex must find those responsible for the brutal off-base beating of Pete. He must also reengage with his childhood and what it means to be a Black man with a White brother. Roger Newman has presented his thoughtful historical fiction to the Moveable Feast audiences for several years, most recently his Civil War work "Will O' the Wisp: Madness, War and Recompense."
$35

Tuesday 05/20/2025 at 11:00 AM
Lori Gold
(Romantic Friction) at Caffe Piccolo
Sofie Wilde's bestselling fantasy romance series has been breaking bestseller records and readers' hearts for years. She's primed to become a worldwide phenomenon as the tenth and final book is set to debut after the annual romance readers convention takes place in Chicago next week. As buzz continues to build toward the book's release, Sofie is asked to headline the event for the first time, a career milestone. One she won't let anyone take from her, especially "the next Sofie Wilde." That's what they're calling her — Hartley West, the self-published debut author who writes in the style of Sofie Wilde. Except she doesn't actually "write" anything. After Hartley admits to using AI to create her novel, Sofie's ready to watch Hartley be skewered on social media. Except in this unpredictable world, Hartley is instead lauded for being innovative, for being such a skilled editor to take what the AI churned out and massage it into a story that's just as compelling as Sofie's — maybe even more so. After her unhinged rant unintentionally goes viral, Sofie loses her keynote, and she's starting to lose all her support. That loss is Hartley’s gain — as her book sales start soaring, she's given the headliner spot. Sofie is livid. And she's not the only one. As the convention begins, Sofie is surrounded by fellow authors who also fear for their futures, their livelihoods, their art being stripped away, one AI prompt at a time. Something must be done. This has to be stopped. Now. With the clock ticking down to the keynote, Sofie enlists her fellow authors in a plan to stop Hartley, vowing, "'The next Sofie Wilde'—over my dead body. Or hers."
$35

Tuesday 05/27/2025 at 11:00 AM
Tom Poland & Robert Clark
(South Carolina Reflections, A Photographic Journey) at Litchfield Country Club
Award-winning writer and recipient of the Order of the Palmetto Tom Poland and award-winning, oft-published photographer Robert Clark showcase the state's awe-inspiring beauty from the Appalachians to the Atlantic. Culminating their three-decade collaboration, this keepsake book is a stirring visual tribute to one of America's most varied landscapes and favorite destinations. Clark and Poland present the geological grandeur, natural beauty, and cultural diversity the Palmetto State boasts across its 32,000 square miles. From angles high and low, the stunning color images illuminate the state's craggy summits, blackwater swamps, cascading waterfalls, and remote islands. The foreword by New York Times best-selling author Mary Alice Monroe complements the photographs and text. For visitors to the state and especially for generations of proud South Carolinians, "South Carolina Reflections" is a timeless portrait of the wonders of the Palmetto State.
$35