Hi, I'm Kelsie.
I've been with McLean and Eakin since March of 2022. It still doesn't always seem real that I get paid to talk to customers about books. Besides reading (especially on my front porch), I love skiing, gardening, hiking, and kayaking. My husband and I have a daughter, a dog, a cat, and 10 chickens.
Iona Iverson has taken the same train to her same job everyday for a long time. She sees the same people every day but has never spoken to them. She has a very strict list of rules for commuting. She isn’t going to change. Then an incident takes place on the train that forces her group of familiar strangers to interact. Iona is forced out of her comfort zone and suddenly learning more about the sulky teenager, the beautiful woman, the nurse, and the arrogant man that she sees every day. Iona just may have a whole other side to her as well.This is a wonderful feel-good novel to get you going on your 2023 reading goals. It highlights the power of face-to-face connection that has been such a challenge to come by the last few years. Hours after you’ve finished, you’ll be left thinking about the familiar strangers in your life a bit more gently and even an urge to want to get to know them. This novel is lighthearted enough to take on your winter beach vacation, but likewise powerful enough to lose yourself while cozied up by the fire.
Calling all romance readers! If you haven’t yet discovered Ashley Poston now is the time!Florence Day is a ghost writer for a popular romance writer. She’s been able to turn out bestseller after bestseller until her own relationship fails. Romance is dead. Or is it? She’s just been assigned a new, and totally-cute, editor. She's just met him when he is hit by a car and dies. She then must return to her hometown (also dreadful) after her father, who runs the funeral home, unexpectedly passes away. Book deadline? Forget it. There is no way she is meeting her book deadline. For every emotional reason listed, and for the fact that every time she is home, she is reminded of her ability to speak with ghosts. Her father shared this ability, and now he is gone. So, when her dead editor shows up in her hometown, only she can see him. Maybe romance isn’t dead. But how can it exist when only she can see or speak to her totally-cute, totally-dead editor?I know we often times read romance for its predictability, but I loved this one because I had no idea how it would end. Florence couldn’t possibly end up with her editor when he wasn’t even living! It is low on the spice level, so great for a wide age-range of romance readers. Ashley Poston is also set to release another book this June, The Seven Year Slip. Grab this one now, and add her to your list of new favorite authors. After all, what is better than a book about books?
To be honest, I was hesitant to pick up this book because of its setting in our dystopian-future-of-now. Ng's previous book, Little Fires Everywhere was so brilliant I couldn't pass her up though. I am so glad I didn't let this one get by me!
This novel will hit close to home for many with current events in our country, and there are some great reminders for us all within the pages. Margaret is a poet. Her writing doesn't get much attention until a line from one of her poems appears in a major protest. Totalitarianism reigns in Margaret's country. Exposed as a dissident, she is forced to flee, leaving behind her husband, and her son, Bird. The relationship between Margaret and Bird shines throughout the book, despite the major hardships they face that are beyond their control. Every character involved in this book shows major perseverance, and it is a great example of the power of art and personal relationships in an ever-changing, and often depressing, world. You'll be left with a motivated feeling that anyone of any age has the ability to change the world.
Now is Not the Time to Panic by Kevin Wilson is so perfectly weird. Wilson captures the awkwardness of being a teenager, in a way that will leave your heart fluttering and too-long limbs squirming. Frankie and Zeke become fast friends in a boring Tennessee town that the teens can't wait to leave. As the days of summer vacation stretch out and they need something to keep themselves entertained, they design a poster with the words, "The edge is a shantytown filled with gold seekers. We are fugitives, and the law is skinny with hunger for us." What was supposed to provide a little bit of fun during the summer ends up sending the town into a panic. Who made this poster? What does it mean? The teens are suddenly caught in the middle of a beautifully messy situation that echoes the messiness of coming of age. Can life ever get back to normal? This book will have you recalling the lessons you learned the hard way, the decisions you made that had a lasting impact, and you'll root for Frankie and Zeke until the very last page.
While this book won't be found in our Young Adult section when it is released on November 8th, it is a great one to pick up for parents and teens to read together. As an added bonus, the author explains his personal connection to the poster phrase at the beginning of the book.
You will finish this book wanting to be Elizabeth Zott. Scratch that, you’ll finish this book wanting to be everything that Elizabeth Zott tells you, and women across the country in the early 1960s, you can be. Maybe both... actually, you’ll want to be her dog. How about we settle on friends with Elizabeth and her dog?
In a story brimming with charm, author Bonnie Garmus created a dazzling character in Elizabeth Zott. Elizabeth is a chemist in the late 50s/early 60s who will absolutely not get married to the love of her life. She ends up getting fired after becoming pregnant, and landing a spot as a cooking show host, where she proceeds to teach American women how to cook using solid chemistry techniques. As you may deduce, her viewers end up learning so much more from Elizabeth than rules of the periodic table.
This book has everything you could want: it's just light enough, engaging, unpredictable, and has a dog playing a major role. Historical fiction fans will love it too.
I’m not kidding when I say chemistry was by far my worst subject, and I couldn’t turn the pages of this book fast enough. If you haven’t yet picked up this author's debut, it's one of this summer's major hits, and now is the time to add it to the top of your TBR list!
Be sure to have a box of tissues nearby when you're ready to start Between the Mountain and the Sky: A Mother's Story of Love, Loss, Healing, and Hope by Maggie Doyne.
Maggie, who set off on a less traditional path after high school, tells her story of starting Kopila Valley Children's Home in Nepal and the Blink Now Foundation in the U.S. You'll grow alongside Maggie as you turn the pages, as she faces the growing pains of a young adult that suddenly also has the responsibility of having 50 children and is working to change her corner of the world. She is upfront and honest about learning as she goes, both about the world of non-profit work and about life. Although Maggie experiences so much heartbreak, her honesty about how she got through it (some days, barely) will fill your heart with hope. Maggie is careful to tell her story only, not the stories of the children in the home, which are their stories to tell. You'll finish this book crying, ready to change the world, and with a full, full heart.
The only authorized edition of the twentieth-century classic, featuring F. Scott Fitzgerald’s final revisions, a foreword by his granddaughter, and a new introduction by National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward.
Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read.
The Great Gatsby, F.
“A profound, graceful, and literary work of philosophy and economics, well tempered for our times, and yet timeless. . . . It will change the way you look at the food you put into your body. Which is to say, it can change who you are.” — Boston Globe
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America (Paperback)
#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Splendid and the Vile comes the true tale of the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago and the cunning serial killer who used the magic and majesty of the fair to lure his victims to their death.