Summer Events, Summer Reading & Summer Eats

Book News & Recipes

Dear Friends,

I’ve got Old Glory fluttering among the limelight hydrangeas by my front door, and blueberry bushes bursting with berries in my backyard. It’s July!

If you know anything about me, you know I love decorating for the seasons, and the Fourth of July is no exception. I’ve collected vintage flags and bunting for years, and I’ve already got my dining room mantel decked out with ALLL the stars and stripes.

After a hectic season of celebrating grandson Griffin’s graduation from middle school, and the flurry of activities last month surrounding our son Andrew’s backyard wedding to his beautiful bride Meghan, (and a not-so-fun bout of Covid), I’m ready to kick back and sink into those lazy hazy days of summer.

I’ve mostly cleared my calendar so I can get back to working on my book for next summer—two estranged sisters take a life-changing trip to Ireland to uncover secrets about a mysterious family portrait, and to explore their family roots—but I do have a few fun upcoming events to tell you about.

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Upcoming Events

My friend Sarah MacLean’s new novel, These Summer Storms, is a long-awaited departure from her New York Times bestselling historical romances, and I can’t wait to be in conversation with her during her book tour stop in Atlanta.

Join Me & Sarah MacLean

We’ll be together at Eagle Eye Books on Wednesday, July 16th. Get tickets HERE!

This is Sarah’s first contemporary novel, and this one is as juicy as a counter-ripened Georgia peach. Here’s the elevator pitch:

A dead billionaire, an inheritance game, a family with its fill of juicy secrets, and a romance (or two) that match the heat of a Rhode Island Summer.

Yum? Right?

Attend the F&F Book Club Anniversary Weekend

And I hope you’ll check out the fabulous weekend that the Friends & Fiction Book Club has planned in Atlanta coming up the first weekend in August to celebrate their fifth anniversary. The fun kicks off the evening of Friday, August 8th with a happy hour with Ron Block and special guests at the Lazy Dog in Dunwoody. Details on that event HERE. On Saturday, August 9th they have a Sweet Tea Social planned at Poe & Company Bookstore in Milton. Get tickets for that HERE. Then on Saturday evening Brenda & Lisa will host a fabulous event with five author guests (me, Kimberly Brock, Lauren Connolly, Colleen Oakley & Vanessa Riley) at the Atlanta History Center’s Margaret Mitchell House. You can get tickets for that HERE. Come make a weekend of it! Brenda & Lisa have arranged for hotel room doscounts at Le Méridien Atlanta Perimeter in Dunwoody. You can get all the deets about the entire weekend on the Book Club’s Facebook page HERE.

Meet Me & Karin Slaughter

I’ll also be in convo with my good friend Karin Slaughter on Sunday, August 10th. Join us at the Woodstock Arts Theater in downtown Woodstock, GA where we will be hosted by our friends at FoxTale Book Shoppe.

You can always stay abreast of all my in-person and virtual events by visiting my website Events & Appearances page.

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Summer Reading Recommendations

In the meantime, my TBR stack is groaning with an overflow of summer reads. Here’s a sampling of what I’m digging into:

Brooke Lea Foster’s Our Last Vineyard Summer (Out now!)
Meg Waite Clayton’s Typewriter Beach (Out now!)
Megan Abbott’s El Dorado Drive (Out now!)
Adriana Trigiani’s The View from Lake Como (Coming July 8)
Susan Wiggs’s Wayward Girls (Coming July 15)
Lisa Scottoline’s The Unraveling of Julia (Coming July 15)

Of course, I’ve already devoured my Friends and Fiction pals’ newest releases, but if you’ve somehow missed them, it’s not too late.

Patti Callahan Henry’s The Story She Left Behind.
Kristy Woodson Harvey’s Beach House Rules.
Kristin Harmel’s The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau.
Also, ahem, the paperback of Summers at the Saint is out now, too!

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Summer Eats

Mr. MKA got an early start on his garden this year because of the before-mentioned backyard wedding, so we already have an abundance of yellow squash, zucchini, cucumbers and peppers. We picked our first ripe tomato earlier this week, and I’ve already got tomato pie on my mind. Luckily, I’ve got a great recipe for it in my Beach House Cookbook. You can order it HERE.

And those blueberries! Last summer we took a wonderful trip to the coast of Maine, and I brought back copies of one of my all-time favorite children’s picture books, Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey to gift two very special babies in our neighborhood. Maine might be known for blueberries, but it might surprise you to learn that Georgia is the third biggest blueberry producer in the country, behind Washington and Georgia. Blueberry production here far outranks peaches.

We began planting blueberries in our garden several years ago, and after a slow start, our bushes are finally yielding enough for us—and the birds. We’ve been making blueberry muffins and cobblers, but I recently found this recipe for blueberry pie bars on the always-reliable New York Times Cooking app. I switched out pricey store-bought shortbread cookies for inexpensive pecan sandy cookies for the base and crumble topping, although vanilla wafers would work too, and I added a teaspoon of lemon zest to the blueberry filling and a tablespoon of fresh lemon juice and more lemon zest to the cream cheese layer—and because I’ve got plenty of berries, I added another half cup of berries.

My family declared them a success, so I’m planning on taking my version to our neighborhood Fourth of July parade gathering this week. Give it a try and let me know what you think!

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Coming up on Friends & Fiction

We’ve got an incredible Summer season of author interviews planned on The Friends & Fiction Show!

From July 9th - September 26th, we will have a new show every week. We air in video format on Wednesday nights at 7pm ET on our Facebook group page and YouTube channel. And all interviews are published to our podcast on Fridays. Join us on Instagram and subscribe to our Substack newsletter so you never miss a thing!

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Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok for more news and photos of me, my family, our dogs, my junk finds, and our cooking adventures—and maybe even a faux family portrait or two.

That’s all for now.

All best,

MKA

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Stay in Touch

And of course, don’t forget to follow me online to see what kind of good trouble I’m getting into!

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