where to begin? let’s start with yesterday afternoon when I excitedly told my mom I’d purchased an immersion blender, only to be followed a mere few hours later by a butternut squash soup-induced burn so severe I’m still licking my wounds. turns out, that “one last time” making soup using my Ninja blender (DO! NOT! DO! THIS!) ended with a kitchen splattered with what looked like baby food, me in the tub with the left side of my body behind the curtain dousing my arm in cold water and my right side sticking out so I could google, “how do you know if you have a second-degree burn??”
fast forward after some icing and plenty of Biafine and I’m managing just fine, but I have to believe the experience was meant to remind me something. and maybe that’s that we’re all just doing our best every single day. so whether you’re a college student stressed about where your career will land you, a new mom managing to keep your tiny human alive, a retiree trying to figure out your next act in life, or a single woman living alone simply defending herself against violent soup, we each need to give ourselves a bit more credit for just making it through the day. even if we’re just moving forward an inch, that counts for something.
if the above sounds dramatic, I don’t mean it to, but I need to focus on the millimeters of forward momentum, much less the inches. because when I tell you I struggled all day to put together this seemingly straightforward newsletter, I don’t exaggerate. call it a classic case of ennui; when this feeling of deep listlessness sets in for me, it pervades nearly everything in my sight. I find it impossible to complete simple tasks, instead doom scrolling when I know social media will only make me spiral further into comparison mode, in turn, minimizing any of my remaining joy. so if you too are feeling generally down, let’s both put our phones down (well, not until you’re done reading the sunday series!) and remember that these spells always dissapate. if you need a tactic to help visualize getting to the other side, watch this video Nicole sent our @westvillagebookclub group chat about the concept of a 90 day dinner. we just put one on for february, and I can’t wait to see the battles we’ve each won once we get there.
for this month’s IN/OUT list, we have a few special additions from friends who in passing had fun ideas of their own to contribute which you’ll see indicated by “submitted by XX.” if you have ideas for january’s list, I promise to keep the submissions anonymous with your initials, so send them my way!
december IN list
making a cutie little list of all the holiday things you want to do
^actually doing said activities
rewatching The Family Stone (the best holiday movie)
tying velvet bows in your hair
NYC businesses putting big bows on their storefronts!!
being the third wheel to dinner with your friend and her boyfriend (submitted by JR)
the word “eponymous”
writing what you want to read
exchanging cookies with your neighbors (submitted by NG)
sending out holiday cards, single girlies included
having all your friends mailing addresses (see above)
window shopping: seeing the Saks windows is a must in the city!
grounded blue-collar men who text you back (submitted by MH)
knowing the pin to your debit card
being the single older sibling and when your younger sibling is engaged (submitted by AS)
women who drive truck…couldn’t be me since I don’t have a license, but still!
hanging garland strung with lights
lighting a pine-scented candle
buying the roasted chestnuts on the street
getting witchy and clipping magazines to do a vision board for 2024
december OUT list
netflix making us all get our own accounts
the fatigue brought on by mental gymnastics
you hitting your pen while we’re on a walk
you hitting your pen indoors
you hitting your pen at all
white claws
throwing in the towel till the new year
slugging coffee the second your eyes open
being a bad texter (this one’s for me)
being afraid of hot chocolate calories
my promotions tab on gmail being the wild, wild west
overhead lighting
your uncle’s girlfriend calling you “thicc” at dinner, then guessing your weight to the pound
New York Pilates having the audacity to charge $48 for a drop-in class
using your global card as an ID on a daily basis
my uber driver asking me if I carry a taser
being a broken record
using IG DM like it’s LinkedIn direct mail
the guy who does the back-cracking TikTok lives
being gluten free by choice as a diet
meet Tim Ehrenberg
pivoting into book talk, I was thrilled to connect with Tim, co-host of one of my favorite podcasts in addition to all of the other hats he wears on the island of Nantucket! for those who’ve been, you know that ACK is truly heaven on earth, so we got into all of it from his work at Nantucket Book Partners (speaking of, congratulations to Alexis for winning the stack of Tim’s recent faves!), the Nantucket Book Festival, and what Tim’s perfect Sunday on the island would look like from morning to night.
Kayla Douglas: Tim, tell us a bit more about your origin story and how you wound up living and building your career on dreamy Nantucket.
Tim Ehrenberg: Before washing ashore on Nantucket in 2013, I was a song and dance man traveling the world in various shows, most notably a USO tour to Baghdad, Iraq in 2010. I hung up my dancing shoes when my college sweetheart proposed to me. We considered several places to get married and ultimately settled on Nantucket Island, which, up until that point, I had never traveled to. We spent the month before the wedding in a little cottage downtown and fell so in love with it that we moved there in the Spring of 2013 and bought a house in the Fall of 2013. We have now been “islanders” for ten years.
My career on Nantucket started with a marketing business I created called “Brand New – Nantucket” offering “brand-new” and innovative ways for businesses to be featured online and around the island. At its peak, the business had about twelve different clients, but my true passion of books took over, and now I just focus on the literary landscape of Nantucket through the bookstores, the Book Festival, Tim Talks Books, and the podcast, Books, Beach, and Beyond.
KD: You wear many hats in the literary world, including podcast co-host of Books, Beach, & Beyond, acting as Marketing Director for Nantucket Book Partners, and helping to market the Nantucket Book Festival. What does a typical day in your life look like?
TE: I always start my morning by reading a few pages of a book. I feel like that really jump-starts my day. And then it’s full speed ahead with everything literary! From coming up with promotional items to include with book purchases from Nantucket Book Partners to book signings at Nantucket’s two bookstores to inviting authors to the annual Nantucket Book Festival in June to racing to the podcast studio to record an interview with Elin. There aren’t enough hours in the day, but I am so passionate about books that it doesn’t always seem like work.
KD: What inspired launching your podcast Books, Beach, & Beyond in partnership with Elin Hilderbrand?
TE: I have worked closely with #1 Best-selling author and “Queen of the Beach Read” Elin Hilderbrand since 2018. She calls me her “work husband,” a title I proudly wear. She is coming up on her final Nantucket novel, Swan Song, in 2024. Last year, she said, “When I retire, we should start a podcast.” I called her in March of this year and said, “I think we should start it now,” and she agreed. Although we both wondered where we would find the time…I contacted my friend Emme Duncan to have N Magazine produce it, and the rest is history. It’s been a lot of work but so much fun. Elin and I love talking books with each other, and I have been so honored to talk to so many of my favorite authors and bookish people through this project.
KD: For those considering planning a trip to Nantucket around the Nantucket Book Festival, what advice do you have about maximizing the festival and time exploring the island during peak season?
TE: The great thing about the Nantucket Book Festival is that it’s just before the peak season. July and August are the busiest months here on the island, and June is a bit quieter. Next year’s Festival is June 13–16, 2024, and it’s one of my favorite weekends. People can even hop on the ferry from Hyannis and come over for the day to enjoy our full schedule of author conversations.
KD: Over the years, you've interviewed some of the most talented authors around––if you had to pick just one, which conversation has left the most long-lasting impact? Who is your dream author to interview next (perhaps for season two!)?
TE: Oh, my! This is a difficult question to answer. My interview with Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan from the 2023 Book Festival was one for the books. We laughed. We cried.
I also really connected with Qian Julie Wang, who wrote the memoir Beautiful Country and who I interviewed for the 2022 Festival. Other interviews that stand out for me through the podcast are with Taylor Jenkins Reid, Ann Patchett, and Jenna Bush Hager. Mostly because I want to be book besties with all three of them. However, I guess the most impactful and memorable conversation for me to date was the panel I was on for Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead with Oprah Winfrey! Talking with Oprah and Barbara for Oprah’s Book Club was a pinch-me moment for sure.
My dream author is 100% Stephen King. I was so close to getting the interview this past year, and I am hoping something can happen in the future.
KD: What do you think is something that would surprise readers about the BTS at an independent bookstore?
TE: We do big pre-order campaigns for certain author’s book releases every year. Most notably, Elin Hilderbrand’s annual summer novel. For the last three years, we have sent out 5000+ signed copies of Elin’s book to readers around the world in June. This is all done in a small basement in a small bookstore on a small island 30 miles to sea. It’s a huge project that consists of so many steps to keep it organized and efficient. When publication day draws near, eight USPS vans and two UPS trucks come to pick up the books to get them on the ferry and be delivered around the world. It’s a giant undertaking, and I think readers would be surprised how much time and effort from Elin, me, the bookstore staff, my friends and family, and post office workers goes into it each year. This isn’t a warehouse with robots shipping out your book. It’s the busiest week of my year because all of those thousands of books ship out, and then that weekend is the Nantucket Book Festival.
Want to be one of the lucky readers of those books we send out from Nantucket? To pre-order the limited exclusive edition of Elin’s final Nantucket summer novel Swan Song, coming June 11, 2024, click here. It comes with gorgeous endpapers by my friend and local artist Meredith Hanson and bonus content like a Q&A with Elin and me on her entire career and all 30 books. You can’t get this edition anywhere else! It’s unprecedented that a publisher is printing a special edition for just one indie store, so we are thrilled to promote it.
KD: Tell us about the most recent work of fiction that left you with a book hangover.
TE: My favorite books of this year are Tom Lake by Ann Patchett and Speech Team by Tim Murphy. I just read a galley of Everyone on this Train is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson, coming out in January. I love a whodunnit, and this is a murder mystery set at a Book Festival on a train. Totally up my alley! I am also currently reading Day One by Abigail Dean. She wrote Girl A, which was a favorite of mine from 2020. I think this one might give me a book hangover.
KD: What book is on your TBR that you're most excited to pick up?
TE: Chris Whitaker, who wrote We Begin at the End, is out with a new book next year, All the Colours of the Dark, and I am begging for an early copy to anyone who will listen. My husband and I love to travel, and we are going to Japan this March. I love to read books set where I am traveling, and so I am excited to collect a TBR of books set in Japan.
KD: The Sunday Series was conceptualized as a love letter to my favorite day of the week. If we were with you on Nantucket on Sunday, where would you take us to spend the afternoon?
TE: YAY! Sunday Fundays on Nantucket are the best. I would take you on the Sconset Bluff Walk in the morning (this is a public path on the east shore bluff in the little village of Sconset behind private houses) all the way to Sankaty Lighthouse. Then, to a lunch at my favorite restaurant on the harbor, CRU Nantucket, where we would enjoy CRUcombers (cucumber martinis) and oysters. Then we’d get over to Cisco Brewery and have a drink, hear the live band, and perhaps see Elin since she loves the Brewery on a summer Sunday. Grab a snack at the food carts and head to one of our favorite beaches for the sunset. Change for dinner at Nautilus Nantucket or Galley Beach Restaurant. End the night back where we began in Sconset at The Summer House for piano and a nightcap.
KD: Where can we keep up with the pod and what you're reading?
TE: You can visit booksbeachandbeyond.com or subscribe on Apple or Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. If you like what you hear, please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts. You can also follow us on Instagram @booksbeachandbeyond. Season one has wrapped, but we have a few bonus episodes coming out and then a season two planned for 2024.
To keep up to date on what I am reading, follow me on Instagram @timtalksbooks and @nantucketbooks, and you can shop any book in print at nantucketbookpartners.com. Or visit timtalksbooks.com.