A Slate of Signings at Mitchell’s
by Suzanne Daub
This August, Mitchell’s Book Corner at 54 Main Street is the place to be for book lovers and literary enthusiasts. This independent bookstore will be buzzing with excitement as it welcomes a stellar lineup of authors for book signings that promise to delight readers of all tastes. Whether you’re a fan of historical narratives, contemporary fiction, fascinating non-fiction, or engaging memoirs, there’s something for everyone’s reading list.
This Saturday, August 3, Nantucket resident and New York Times Best Selling Author Nathaniel Philbrick will meet readers and sign books at Mitchell’s from 10:30 am to 11:30 am. Philbrick has written and edited more than a dozen books about Nantucket history, sailing, and American history. He was the founding director of Nantucket’s Egan Maritime Institute and is a research fellow at the Nantucket Historical Association. His books have won many distinguished awards (Mayflower was a finalist for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in History), and have inspired documentaries and films.
Philbrick conducts extensive research for each book, and his writing style is lively and engaging. Whether he’s recounting what really happened at the Little Bighorn, how George Washington led his troops to victory, or what it’s like to survive a months at sea after a shipwreck, his masterful storytelling heightens the drama, illuminates twists of fate, and brings to life the people who, for most of us, were just a few sentences in a history book.
“I’m trying to get you into the story in a way that you’re visualizing it,” Philbrick explained in a previous interview. “In my research process, I look for concrete details so that you’re emotionally experiencing it, not just intellectually. There must be an emotional content to identify, establishing a sense of what it was like to be alive then. All our lives have drama, and when I find an extraordinary situation, I try to make it human. Sometimes just one little detail will unlock a situation in a new way.”
This Wednesday morning, August 7, from 11 am to 12 noon, Mitchell’s Book Corner will host Elin Hilderbrand, author of more than 30 bestsellers set on Nantucket. Hilderbrand’s novels, known for their island settings, compelling characters, summer romance, and family drama, have earned a loyal following. Swan Song, her latest release and the last of her Nantucket summer novels will be a highlight of this signing event. Whether you’re a longtime fan or new to her work, meeting Hilderbrand promises to be a delightful start to your day. Her signings, held at Mitchell’s most Wednesdays this season, draw large crowds, so organizers will cut off the line at 11:40 am.
Alongside Elin Hilderbrand this week, author Catherine Newman will meet readers and sign her newest novel Sandwich, a tender, witty tale of a woman in mid-life examining motherhood during a family vacation. In addition to Sandwich, Newman is the author of how-to books for kids, memoirs, and two other novels. Warm and relatable, Newman describes herself as an author who has “written about kids, parents, teenagers, food, cooking, love, loss, gender, eating, death, sex, politics, books, babies, snakes, foraging, relationships, crafts, holidays, travel, and fortune telling for lots of magazines, newspapers, and online publications, including the New York Times, O the Oprah Magazine, The Boston Globe, Romper, Self, The Huffington Post, FamilyFun, Parents, and Full Grown People.
In the evening from 5 to 6 pm that same day, Wednesday, August 7, the public is invited to join the Nantucket Conservation Foundation and Tim from Tim Talks Books when they host a book signing at Mitchell’s Book Corner with award-winning author Sy Montgomery and naturalist illustrator Matt Patterson.
Montgomery has written 34 non-fiction books about our natural world for adults and children, has worked with National Geographic TV, and speaks frequently at schools, libraries, museums, and universities. She travels widely, and her intrepid in-person research has resulted in many exciting and perilous situations— she’s been described in The Boston Globe as “part Indiana Jones and part Emily Dickinson.” Her astonishing book The Soul of an Octopus was Nantucket’s selection for One Book, One Island 2023.
Montgomery will be accompanied at this signing by talented naturalist artist Matt Patterson, who illustrated Sy Montgomery’s Of Time and Turtles and many other books. Both Montgomery and Patterson are featured speakers at the Nantucket Conservation Foundation’s annual meeting on August 8 at 5 pm in the Great Harbor Yacht Club.
Upcoming book signings at Mitchell’s Book Corner at 54 Main Street will feature several authors a week, including: Anita McBride on August 8 from 10:30 am to 12 noon; Hank Phillippi Ryan on August 9 from 10:30 am to 12 noon; Nancy Thayer and Brooke Lea Foster on August 11 from 10:30 am to 12 noon; Griffen Dunne on August 15 from 10:30 to 11:30 am; Debi Lily on August 17 from 10:30 am to 12 noon; and Neil King, Jr. on August 18 from 10:30 am to 12 noon.