The Laydown Diaries: April 21, 2026

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]Hi everybody, it's Ann Patchett, Nemo Van Devender at Parnassus Books with our new best friend. Do you want to hold my paw? Yes, I do.

[00:00:07]>> Kate Milford and she's here with her new book Rialto. It's hard to hold a paw picture book but you know, we have skills. She was a bookseller. I mean, she grew out of it unlike the rest of us here but you were a bookseller first at Barnes & Noble and then at the original >> That is correct but I don't think you ever grow out of it. I don't Do you Do you think like I always come back into a bookstore and immediately I'm like All right, what like what cool stuff can I find but also does anyone need me to shelf? Right. Do you just like automatically start straightening the stacks?

[00:00:42]>> Um I mean, if I I see someone knock a book aside, I'm right up behind them to put it back in for sure. Do you ever like knock them with the book? No, you Um You know, I should because I don't work there. No one could get mad at me. Like I would be a drive-by >> [laughter] >> book whacker. Okay, you're a former bookseller with fantastic earrings. Tell us about your book.

[00:01:02]>> [laughter] >> Oh, thank you.

[00:01:05]Um yeah. [clears throat] There you go.

[00:01:07]>> This is This is Rialto. Um so, this is a book that is set in a town in Missouri that has an abandoned amusement park outside of it and the story goes that in the 1980s overnight a forest came up and swallowed both the town and the park and the town's okay but the park has never been reentered since and that is the state of play when our heroes um Ivy and Dahlia Bicker come to Rialto for a summer vacation. And Ivy is 14. She is a mystery fan. She absolutely loves puzzles. Her sister Dahlia is 12 and Dahlia is an artist but she also struggles with some anxiety and depression as many of us do.

[00:01:46]>> going to say Really? Yeah.

[00:01:48]>> [laughter] >> Um And she's doing okay though but Ivy, her older sister is very much remembering the way things were when they were younger and maybe holding on to traditions and kind of trying to be helpful helpful a little bit too much.

[00:02:00]And so, this vacation is meant to be a little bit of a break. Um but then they get into Rialto and the house where they're staying is owned by family friends who just sort of inherited this house from um Aunt Jess, a mysterious Aunt Jess. And Aunt Jess has left Remy who is 14 um a series of bequests to give out to her friends.

[00:02:19]>> Okay. And um the girls decide to help them out with this and it becomes clear as they give them out that these bequests are related to that night in 1988 when the whole world changed and things that were believed to be sort of town folklore maybe start to seem more real and the girls kind of determine that if they're really going to help Remy with this, they have to maybe try to believe in magic.

[00:02:40]>> Okay. All right, that's amazing.

[00:02:42]>> And it has the It has a map. It has a map and you're off to do school visits with Ryan as soon as we're done. So, thank you and we're going to get done so you can get to the schools. Thank you for having me. Share the good news.

[00:02:55]>> Thank you, buddy.

[00:02:56]>> Um that's exciting. We have a lot of exciting things to tell you. One thing that I want to tell you is Jesmyn Ward who we love has a new book coming out.

[00:03:08]It's a book of essays and it's I have to look at it because it's an unusual word on witness and despair and she is going to be in conversation on May 18th with ZZ Packer at Fisk. Get those tickets.

[00:03:21]This woman has won the National Book Award twice. Um she's the best of the best. Also, The Left and the Lucky, Willy Vlautin. Willy's going to be here tomorrow and hey Nashvillians, you know what Willy does for a living? He's a musician. He brings his friend the guitar and it's going to be an incredible event and I love this book and this is our FEC pick. So, if you like music and you like literature, please come tomorrow. It's a free ticket. You just need to go sign up. And a book I just finished reading this weekend, Jodi Kantor, How to Start. How to start. You're going to see this thing everywhere. This is one of those little graduation books full of pithy wisdom and advice except this one actually matters and it's about the anxiety um and terror of being a young person coming out of college right now and trying to find a job and how hard it is and I love Jodi Kantor so much for not sugarcoating this reality but just giving it to us straight.

[00:04:31]I think that people are going to feel so seen by this. She gave the graduation address at Columbia. This is not her graduation address. This is all the things she was thinking about and learning that went into it. Great book.

[00:04:45]Best book ever, James Percival Everett, now in paperback. Get your book club together. The Ten by E.A. Hanks. Really enjoyed this. It's a non-fiction book.

[00:04:54]This is Tom Hanks's daughter and she is driving the Ten all across the country and getting in touch with her past. And Liddy, Jane Smiley, The Further Travels and Adventures of Liddy Newton. We all remember Jane from A Thousand Acres.

[00:05:12]Again, one of our best writers. The Fullness of Time, Marrying the Day by Birdsong, Bloom, Shadows and Stars, Kathy Haines, the kind of stuff I read.

[00:05:23]And Underlake by Aaron McCoy.

[00:05:27]They break the dam and make a lake and the people who don't want to leave, they just go under the lake. Think about it.

[00:05:34]Lindsey, what you got? Not Underlake but on a cruise.

[00:05:38]>> [laughter] >> Um another shout-out to Emma Straub.

[00:05:43]American Fantasy is such a delightful book. Will I ever go on a cruise? No.

[00:05:46]But will I reread this book? Yes, I loved it. Shout-out to Emma.

[00:05:50]Um as of today, we have a new book from Xochitl Gonzalez, Last Night in Brooklyn which is kind of a Gatsby retelling but we're in Brooklyn and it's 2007. Super excited for that one. We have a memoir from Jayne Anne Phillips who won the Pulitzer for Night Watch um I'm novel.

[00:06:05]This is a memoir of her life called Small Town Girls.

[00:06:08]Out in paperback today, a book that I love, Mutual Interests, Olivia Wolfgang Smith with a new cover um turn-of-the-century lavender marriages.

[00:06:17]Loved this book. Uh local bestie, Hannah Whitten's Nightshade God is now also out in paperback um and she has a horror novel coming out later this summer. So, check that out. You can pre-order it through us. And another paperback, read short stories, man. Everybody should read more short stories and if you do, you should read Brad Watson's short stories, There Is Happiness. These stories are so weird. They're so weird but they're so good and they will reconfigure your brain. So, read some short stories but specifically these short stories. And kicking over to Elise. Hi everyone. You know, first comes for Well, what comes first is shout-outs. So, we have Carrie from Wisconsin and Barbara from Sarasota and Nancy Van Devender who I believe is a cousin of Nemo's. So, shout-out to them.

[00:07:01]I also want to say a big shout-out to Emma and Kate. So, Emma Straub, we have signed copies, American Fantasy and such a wonderful event also with Kate with Kate Bowler. This is Joyful Anyway and all of those people who watched the videos who mentioned that to me, the thousands of people that came in. So, thank you all for watching. Tonight, hey 4:30, guess who's here? Kate Milford. We love you, Kate. [cheering] Rialto. See you tonight. Then tomorrow, I'll see you tomorrow, too, because Willy Vlautin. This is The Left and the Lucky. Love love love this book so much.

[00:07:38]Music, talking about books. I don't know. It doesn't get better than that.

[00:07:42]Then we have join Jordan Ritter Khan and this is American Man and this is from four men, very different backgrounds, what it's like to be a man and this is almost filled up. So, get online right now. And then Friday, Ana Holey's Had Enough and this is Randy Smith and she starts a very secret band book club at the library. We love this, a great young Independent Bookstore Day.

[00:08:15]>> [applause] >> So, we all got together. We have wonderful events but the shop dogs got together, too, and they decided who would they like to see. You know, who they would like to see? Clifford the big red dog is actually going to be here because that's how That's how we roll, right, Nemo?

[00:08:32]That's right and you know what we also love? We love Clifford. We love Nemo and we love Ryan. Ryan, what you got?

[00:08:38]>> Thanks, Elise. Hi everyone. Some new middle grade out today, The Genie Game by Jordan Ifueko, YA author. This is our first middle grade about a girl who finds out she's part of a genie organization that's granting wishes.

[00:08:52]Theft of the Ruby Lotus by Sunyatee Discoopta. This is a museum heist set in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

[00:09:00]Girls Lore by Melanie Dale. This is a girl who thought thinks that her town just has some folklore that brings tourists but finds out something dark is really happening there.

[00:09:10]And Found Sound by Meg Wolitzer and her son Charlie Panic about a boy who finds a box marked open me with headphones and an audio player and takes a real little trip around New York City to solve a mystery.

[00:09:28]The Whale's Tale and the Other Side of the Story by A Book to Read from Front to Back and Back to Front by Kate Messner and Brian Biggs. This is a whale's tale and an otter. Which one is correct? Baby-Sitters Club fans, new book out today, Dawn on the Coast, number 19. Come get it. Divergent is 10 years old and we have a special edition by Veronica Roth.

[00:09:54]Oh, please come after school today if you can to see Kate Mess Kate, excuse me, Kate Milford at 4:30 with Kristen Tubb and Friday Eda Halliwell has had enough. Randy Smith with Sharon Cameron.

[00:10:07]Thanks for listening. These will all be on the new release page.