One Last Stop by Casey McQuinston (St. Martin's Griffin)

Sometimes you want a fun, slightly angsty novel with a little bit of magic sprinkled in for a pleasant afternoon read. If that is the case, this is the sapphic romance novel you were looking for.

- C.B.


Books in A Bar Spring and Summer 2022

During June, July, and August 2022, we read the following books:

Crossing to Saftey by Wallace Stegner (Modern Library)

Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann (Vintage)

City of Thieves by David Benioff (Penguin)

          


Martinis on Mars Cocktail Chats on Science Fiction

Science Fiction is one of the most popular genres in publishing. The stories combine fantastic elements such as time travel, invasion by alien pieces, and much more; they provide an escape and challenge us to think deeply about our world.

Michael Wells and Eric Henry are enthusiastic readers of science fiction. They will host 3 cocktail hour "chats" this spring to introduce you to science fiction and discuss 2 famous science fiction works, "War of the Worlds" by H.G. Wells and "All Systems Red" by Martha Wells. Unfortunately, neither of these authors is related to Michael!

Thursday, April 14th: Overview of the Science Fiction Genre, 5-6 PM

Thursday, May 12th: Discussion of "War of the Worlds" by H.G. Wells, 5-6 PM

Thursday, June 16th: Discussion of "All Systems Red" by Martha Wells, 5-6 PM

Each chat will be conducted over Zoom, and details on joining the chats will be emailed to participants in advance of the meeting.

Register by clicking on the calendar event on our Event page, email at info@appletree-books.com, or call 216.791.2665 

So grab a cocktail, sit in a comfy chair and join us as we explore other worlds.

 


Susan, Linda, Nina, & Cokie - Lisa Napoli (Harry N. Abrams)

In the years after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, women in the workplace still found themselves relegated to secretarial positions or locked out of jobs entirely. This was especially true in the news business, a backwater of male chauvinism where a woman might be lucky to get a foothold on the "women's pages." But when a pioneering nonprofit called National Public Radio came along in the 1970s, and the door to serious journalism opened a crack, four remarkable women came along and blew it off the hinges.
Susan, Linda, Nina, and Cokie is journalist Lisa Napoli's captivating account of these four women, their deep and enduring friendships, and the trail they blazed to becoming icons. They had radically different stories. Cokie Roberts was born into a political dynasty, roamed the halls of Congress as a child, and felt a tug toward public service. Susan Stamberg, who had lived in India with her husband who worked for the State Department, was the first woman to anchor a nightly news program and pressed for accommodations to balance work and home life. Linda Wertheimer, the daughter of shopkeepers in New Mexico, fought her way to a scholarship and a spot on-air. And Nina Totenberg, the network's legal affairs correspondent, invented a new way to cover the Supreme Court. Based on extensive interviews and calling on the author's deep connections in news and public radio, Susan, Linda, Nina, and Cokie will be as beguiling and sharp as its formidable subjects.


The Barbizon: The Hotel That Set Women Free - Paulina Bren (Simon & Schuster)

Liberated from home and hearth by World War I, politically enfranchised and ready to work, women arrived to take their place in the dazzling new skyscrapers of Manhattan. But they did not want to stay in uncomfortable boarding houses. They wanted what men already had--exclusive residential hotels with maid service, workout rooms, and private dining.

Built in 1927, at the height of the Roaring Twenties, the Barbizon Hotel was designed as a luxurious safe haven for the "Modern Woman" hoping for a career in the arts. Over time, it became the place to stay for any ambitious young woman hoping for fame and fortune. Sylvia Plath fictionalized her time there in The Bell Jar, and, over the years, it's almost 700 tiny rooms with matching floral curtains and bedspreads housed, among many others, Titanic survivor Molly Brown; actresses Grace Kelly, Liza Minnelli, Ali MacGraw, Jaclyn Smith; and writers Joan Didion, Gael Greene, Diane Johnson, Meg Wolitzer. Mademoiselle magazine boarded its summer interns there, as did Katharine Gibbs Secretarial School its students, and the Ford Modeling Agency its young models. Before the hotel's residents were household names, they were young women arriving at the Barbizon with a suitcase and a dream.

Not everyone who passed through the Barbizon's doors was destined for success--for some, it was a story of dashed hopes--but until 1981, when men were finally let in, the Barbizon offered its residents a room of their own and a life without family obligations. It gave women a chance to remake themselves however they pleased; it was the hotel that set them free. No place had existed like it before or has since.


A Milkweed Chronicle - Emilie Buchwald (Milkweed Editions)

The formative years of Milkweed Editions – a story told by its co-founder. In the 1970s and ‘80s, as major New York publishing houses were consolidating and growing ever larger, small nonprofit presses and journals emerged. With a variety of missions, literary, social, political, these small publishers shared a desire to prioritize quality over quantity. One was Milkweed Chronicle, the literary and visual arts journal launched in 1980 by writer Emilie Buchwald and artist R.W. Scholes in Minneapolis that would become Milkweed Editions

A Milkweed Chronicle is the first-person account by cofounder Emilie Buchwald of how the journal morphed into an award-winning nonprofit literary press. It is the story of writers who established Milkweed’s reputation for excellence in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction—and especially, by the mid-1990s, in books about the natural world. And it is also the story of the editors and staff who established and first achieved Milkweed’s mission of publishing transformative literature.


Be Frank With Me - Julia Claiborne Johnson (William Morrow & Company)

A sparkling talent makes her fiction debut with this infectious novel that combines the charming pluck of Eloise, the poignant psychological quirks of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, and the page-turning spirit of Where d You Go, Bernadette.

For years, the reclusive literary legend M. M. Mimi Banning has been holed up in her Bel Air mansion. But after falling prey to a Bernie Madoff-style ponzi scheme, she s flat broke. Now Mimi must write a new book for the first time in decades, and to ensure the timely delivery of her manuscript, her New York publisher sends an assistant to monitor her progress. The prickly Mimi reluctantly complies with a few stipulations: No Ivy-Leaguers or English majors. Must drive, cook, tidy. Computer whiz. Good with kids. Quiet, discreet, sane.

When Alice Whitley arrives at the Banning mansion, she s put to work right away as a full-time companion to Frank, the writer s eccentric nine-year-old, a boy with the wit of Noel Coward, the wardrobe of a 1930s movie star, and very little in common with his fellow fourth-graders.

As she slowly gets to know Frank, Alice becomes consumed with finding out who Frank s father is, how his gorgeous piano teacher and itinerant male role model Xander fits into the Banning family equation and whether Mimi will ever finish that book.

Full of heart and countless only-in-Hollywood moments, Be Frank with Me is a captivating and unconventional story of an unusual mother and son, and the intrepid young woman who finds herself irresistibly pulled into their unforgettable world."


Rules of Civility by Amor Towles (Penquin Books)

In Amor Towles' early novel we are transported to the decadent sometimes debauched New York City of the year 1938. The sassy tone and staccato style of Katie Kontent's narrative reminds one of Fitzgerald's world of music and late nights in neighborhood decades from gentrification. The sweet finale of friends claiming friends, saying their name at the start of each day, however, recalls a more gentle voice and reminds us all that a photograph is just the first line of the story.

- H.S.


Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead (Random House)

Whitehead’s colorful cast of characters come to life in 1960s Harlem. Ray is a furniture salesman with a criminal past that keeps in the shadows of his present life.

- K.F.


The Push by Ashley Audrain (Penguin Books)

This book has both suspense and depth, as Audrain explores the complex emotions of motherhood when there is a bond with one child and not with another. The reader is left to wonder whether her daughter is truly evil or if the narrator is losing her mind.

- K.F.