The Sisters of Book Row

A compelling, well-researched novel of historical fiction set in a 1915 Manhattan bookstore run by three smart, fiercely independent sisters.

As she did in her novels The Colony Club and The Tiffany Girls, Shelley Noble once again probes provocative feminist themes in The Sisters of Book Row. This authentically rendered novel of historical fiction explores one family’s ardent passion for books and literature—and the quest for women’s rights.

In 1915, a conglomerate of independent bookstores once filled Fourth Avenue in Manhattan. This included Arcadia Rare Bookshop—a vigorous shop run by the three Applebaum sisters who each bring unique personal gifts to the family business. The sisters, all smart and independent, share a complicated bond. And they each have personal secrets embedded in their hearts. The oldest and most intellectual, Olivia, works behind the scenes as an antiquarian specialist. Daphne, the outgoing middle sister, runs the front end of the shop. And Celia, the youngest, pulls up the slack doing whatever’s required, while also working underground with a group that covertly promotes “women’s health” issues via Margaret Sanger, the foundress of Planned Parenthood. At a time in history when society policed and raided “extremist views,” Celia starts to hide leaflets and pamphlets tied to women's rights in books and other literary ephemera. Her actions soon pose a risk for the family business that also jeopardizes other neighboring bookstores, as well.

 

Noble has crafted a compelling character-driven story that may be set in the early 20^th Century, but the underlying themes explored will resonate deeply with readers today.

The Sisters of Book Row by Shelley Noble

William Morrow (Harper Collins), $18.00 paperback, 9780063423916, 384 pages

Publication Date: March 3, 2026

To order this book on Bookshop.org, link HERE

 

Learn more about Shelley Noble HERE

The Optimists

A witty, poignant novel about a stand-out 8^th Grade English teacher who traces the ascendency of a notably gifted student and how his life affected hers--and vice versa. 

Teachers--and the gifts they bring to their students and vice versa--reside at the center of The Optimists. This eccentric, character-driven story is written by Brian Platzer (Bed-Stye is Burning; The Body Politic), who based his protagonist on a real-life teacher and mentor who changed his own life. 

Rod Keating was once a dedicated, creatively inventive, inspiring and joke-telling 8th grade English teacher at St. George Episcopal School in Lower Manhattan. Clever and perceptive--a real stand-out with the students--Mr. Keating always dreamed big. However, when he suddenly becomes infirm at the age of 70, he commits to writing a novel about his life—namely his teaching career and the impact of one very gifted (yet often troubled) student, Clara Hightower. Mr. Keating saw something special in Clara when they first met in the late 1980s. He watched her develop from a bright, conniving child, accelerate academically in high school, and witnessed her success in becoming a star of Silicon Valley, an animal rights activist, and finally, a terrorist. 

A staggered timeline and brisk pacing mark Platzer’s lively, stream-of-conscious-style narrative. A cast of well-drawn, off-beat supporting players deepen the tender wit, heart, and intimacy of this poignant, original story that probes the meaning of life and death and how ordinary people often connect in extraordinary ways.

The Optimists by Brian Platzer

Little, Brown and Company, $29.00 hardcover, 978-0316576956, 304 pages

Publication Date: February 24, 2016

To order this book on Bookshop.org, link HERE

 

Learn more about Brian Platzer HERE

 

First Love, Second Draft

With only about two months to go until the official OPENING DAY for Major League Baseball…this book is a great “season” appetizer, especially for reader-baseball fans… 

A wholesome, sweet love story about how a couple, divorced for five years, gets a second chance to fall in love all over again.

 

Becca Kinzer treats readers to a wholesome, sweet romance that brings together a couple divorced for five years in First Love, Second Draft.

 

Forty-two-year-old Gracie Parker of Alda, Illinois is a blocked romance writer. She’s also hobbling around, sidelined from a freak accident that injured her hip. She struggles to pay her medical bills and those of her ailing father. With Gracie in need of cash flow, her nephew slyly rents a refurbished cabin on her property to her ex-husband, Noah Parker, a 40-year-old, sidelined Major League pitcher for the Seattle Mariners plagued with issues of his own—including still carrying a romantic torch for Gracie.

 

Noah returns to town, offering to help Gracie convalesce in the hope he might also convince her to help him write his sports memoir. In reuniting, the couple begins to learn things they never knew about each other while also coming to terms with what drove them apart—Gracie was focused on a having a baby she couldn’t have and thus became resentful of Noah whose passions were with baseball. When Noah is asked to pitch for the World Series, the strides to rebuild the couple’s relationship are suddenly challenged and emotional wounds from the past once again resurface. 

 

With great tenderness, Kinzer (Dear Henry, Love Edith; Love in Tandem) delivers enough literary curve balls and changeups to keep readers fully invested in a hopeful story aimed on the prospect of new beginnings in life and in love.

 

First Love, Second Draft by Becca Kinzer

Tyndale Fiction, $17.99 paperback, 9781496489029, 320 pages

Publication Date: April 15, 2024

To order this book on Bookshop.org, link HERE

 

Learn more about author Becca Kinzer HERE