Join us at Lake Forest Book Store as we host accomplished suspense writers Wendy Walker, author of All is Not Forgotten, and Mary Kubica, author of The Good Girl, in Conversation.

Thursday, September 21, 2017 at 6:00 p.m.

Register at Lake Forest Book Store 847-234-4420

Books Available for Purchase and Signing

EMMA IN THE NIGHT, Wendy Walker (due August 8th, 2017) , St. Martins Press, $26.99

"Both twisted and twisty, this smart psychological thriller sets a new standard for unreliable narrators." -Booklist, Starred Review

One night three years ago, the Tanner sisters disappeared: fifteen-year-old Cass and seventeen-year-old Emma. Three years later, Cass returns, without her sister Emma. Her story is one of kidnapping and betrayal, of a mysterious island where the two were held. But to forensic psychiatrist Dr. Abby Winter, something doesn't add up. Looking deep within this dysfunctional family Dr. Winter uncovers a life where boundaries were violated and a narcissistic parent held sway. And where one sister's return might just be the beginning of the crime.

Wendy Walker is a former commercial litigator and investment banker who now works at home in Connecticut writing and raising her children. She is the author of the novels Four Wives, Social Lives and All is Not Forgotten, and is the editor of Chicken Soup for the Soul: Power Moms, Chicken Soup for the Soul: Thanks Mom, and Chicken Soup for the Soul: Thanks Dad.

EVERY LAST LIE, Mary Kubica, Park Row Books, $26.99

New York Times bestselling author of THE GOOD GIRL Mary Kubica is back with another exhilarating thriller as a widow's pursuit of the truth leads her to the darkest corners of the psyche.

Clara Solberg's world shatters when her husband and their four-year-old daughter are in a car crash, killing Nick while Maisie is remarkably unharmed. The crash is ruled an accident...until the coming days, when Maisie starts having night terrors that make Clara question what really happened on that fateful afternoon.

Tormented by grief and her obsession that Nick's death was far more than just an accident, Clara is plunged into a desperate hunt for the truth. Who would have wanted Nick dead? And, more important, why? Clara will stop at nothing to find out--and the truth is only the beginning of this twisted tale of secrets and deceit.

Told in the alternating perspectives of Clara's investigation and Nick's last months leading up to the crash, master of suspense Mary Kubica weaves her most chilling thriller to date--one that explores the dark recesses of a mind plagued by grief and shows that some secrets might be better left buried.

Mary Kubica is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Good Girl and Pretty Baby. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, in History and American Literature. She lives outside of Chicago with her husband and two children and enjoys photography, gardening and caring for the animals at a local shelter.

Join us in welcoming Annie Hartnett, author of RABBIT CAKE to Lake Forest Book Store

In paperback by Tin House Books. $15.95

Friday, September 8th at 6:00 pm

Refreshments will be served

Register for this special event at 847-234-4420

Elvis Babbitt has a head for the facts: she knows science proves yellow is the happiest color, she knows a healthy male giraffe weighs about 3,000 pounds, and she knows that the naked mole rat is the longest living rodent. She knows she should plan to grieve her mother, who has recently drowned while sleepwalking, for exactly eighteen months. But there are things Elvis doesn't yet know--like how to keep her sister Lizzie from poisoning herself while sleep-eating or why her father has started wearing her mother's silk bathrobe around the house. Elvis investigates the strange circumstances of her mother's death and finds comfort, if not answers, in the people (and animals) of Freedom, Alabama. As hilarious a storyteller as she is heartbreakingly honest, Elvis is a truly original voice in this exploration of grief, family, and the endurance of humor after loss.

Annie Hartnett was the 2013-2014 winner of the Writer in Residence Fellowship for the Associates of the Boston Public Library and has received awards and honors from the Bread Loaf School of English, McSweeney's, and Indiana Review. Hartnett received her MFA in Fiction from the University of Alabama, an MA from Middlebury College's Bread Loaf School of English, and currently teaches at Grub Street, an independent writing center in Boston. She lives with her husband and their beloved Border Collie in Providence, Rhode Island.

Presenting her two new cookbooks, No-Bake Desserts: 103 Easy Recipes for No-Bake Cookies, Bars and Treats and Family Favorite Casserole Recipes: 103 Comforting Breakfast Casseroles, Dinner Ideas and Desserts Everyone Will Love (due July 3rd, 2017), Addie Gundry visits Lake Forest Book Store

 Wednesday, July 12th at 6:00 p.m.

St. Martin's Griffin, $20.00 each (due July 3rd, 2017)

Books will be available for purchase and signing

Register at Lake Forest Book Store 847-234-4420

Addie Gundry shows you how to combine your favorite flavors, from fruit and chocolate to nuts and caramel, into 103 easy no-bake cheesecakes, pies, fruit tarts, candies, cookies, bites, bars, fruit desserts, frozen desserts, gelatin desserts, puddings, and adorable single-serving desserts in a jar. And each dessert is no-bake, so there's no need to take up space in the oven. Combining her professional French culinary training with her love of easy entertaining solutions, Addie translates classic favorites from tiramisu to banana cream pie into easy go-to recipes that you'll use all year round. Learn how to whip up Chocolate Eclair Cake, Mini Lemon Meringue Pies, Strawberry Shortcake in a Jar, and Peanut Butter Cheesecake Bites with ease in Addie's No-Bake Desserts.

From Cinnamon Roll Casserole to John Wayne Cowboy Casserole, the 103 casserole dishes in this cookbook are simple and stress-free, but each is packed with flavor, making them your go-to family favorites to whip up any day of the week. In 103 Family Favorite Casserole Recipes, Addie Gundry shows that a dish doesn't have to be complicated to be creative. You don't need multiple pots and pans to find flavor. And with the proper tools, tips and techniques, anyone can cook memorable meals. She teaches you how to whip up everything from Potato Chip and Chicken Casserole to Strawberry Icebox Casserole to Skinny Cheeseburger Casserole. A casserole is something to be shared--something warm, rich, and worthy of a gathering on its own. Every recipe is paired with a beautiful finished dish photograph that will make readers jump at the idea of casserole night.

Come and enjoy!  Addie will be offering samples of some of her favorite recipes. 

Addie Gundry received her masters in culinary arts at Auguste Escoffier in Avignon, France. She has worked for chefs including Daniel Boulud, Thomas Keller, and Martha Stewart on management, restaurant openings, brand development, editorial, marketing, and sales. In 2015, she won Cutthroat Kitchen on The Food Network. As the executive producer for RecipeLion, Addie creates culinary content for multiple web platforms and communities. She excels at making easy recipes elegant. Her books include Everyday Dinner Ideas, Family Favorite Casserole Recipes, and Festive Holiday Recipes.

Join us at Lake Forest Book Store in welcoming local author Mitchell Granger for a discussion and signing of his debut novel, Jack Stryder and the Lost Library of Alexandria.

Bowker Publishing, $20.00

Wednesday,  June 28th at 6:00 p.m.

Books available for purchase and signing

Refreshments will be served

Register at Lake Forest Book Store 847-234-4420

Before he knew about the war, sixteen-year-old Jack Stryder lived a predictable life. Apart from his nomadic lifestyle and bond with his father, nothing separated him from other kids at school. All of that changes one day, when Jack is attacked in his own high-school and catapulted into a world of mystery and violence. Soon, Jack learns he is a part of an ancient lineage of time-travelers tasked to saving history. In a shadow war to save humanity, Jack must join forces with an organization named the Order the Flame to defend history from their adversaries - the One World Society. Along the way, Jack learns he is a part of a destiny that will change everything about time travel, and more importantly, history forever.

Mitchell Stevens Granger was born in Chicago, Illinois to Ed Granger and Shannen Poulos. Growing up, Granger was an avid tennis player and philanthropist- starting his own non-profit in Chicago. At the age of 24, after graduating from the University of Illinois- Chicago, Granger released his first novel, Jack Stryder and the Lost Library of Alexandria. His inspirations behind his work are his father Ed, his late grandfather David, and the novels he read as a child. He continues to write and plans to release more works soon.

Author Luncheon featuring Fiona Barton, author of The Child

Berkley (due June 27, 2017) $26.00

Wednesday, July 19 2017 at 11:30AM

$50 includes lunch and book 

Reservations required at 847-234-4420

The author of the stunning New York Times bestseller The Widow returns with a brand-new novel of twisting psychological suspense. As an old house is demolished in a gentrifying section of London, a workman discovers a tiny skeleton, buried for years. For journalist Kate Waters, it's a story that deserves attention. She cobbles together a piece for her newspaper, but at a loss for answers, she can only pose a question: Who is the Building Site Baby? As Kate investigates, she unearths connections to a crime that rocked the city decades earlier: A newborn baby was stolen from the maternity ward in a local hospital and was never found. Her heartbroken parents were left devastated by the loss. But there is more to the story, and Kate is drawn--house by house--into the pasts of the people who once lived in this neighborhood that has given up its greatest mystery. And she soon finds herself the keeper of unexpected secrets that erupt in the lives of three women--and torn between what she can and cannot tell.

Fiona Barton, the New York Times bestselling author of The Widow and The Child, trains and works with journalists all over the world. Previously, she was a senior writer at the Daily Mail, news editor at the Daily Telegraph, and chief reporter at the Mail on Sunday, where she won Reporter of the Year at the British Press Awards.

Ruth Ozeki’s A Tale for the Time Being has been selected as the title for 2017’s Lake Forest Reads: Ragdale, a one book/one community program.

Welcome Ruth Ozeki for a reading from A Tale for the Time Being and in guided meditation at Lake Forest Book Store.

Penguin Books $17.00

Friday, October 27, 2017 at 6:00 PM

Space is limited so register at 847-234-4420

A brilliant, unforgettable novel from bestselling author Ruth Ozeki shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. In Tokyo, sixteen-year-old Nao has decided there s only one escape from her aching loneliness and her classmates bullying. But before she ends it all, Nao first plans to document the life of her great grandmother, a Buddhist nun who s lived more than a century. A diary is Nao s only solace and will touch lives in ways she can scarcely imagine. Across the Pacific, we meet Ruth, a novelist living on a remote island who discovers a collection of artifacts washed ashore in a Hello Kitty lunchbox possibly debris from the devastating 2011 tsunami. As the mystery of its contents unfolds, Ruth is pulled into the past, into Nao s drama and her unknown fate, and forward into her own future. Full of Ozeki s signature humor and deeply engaged with the relationship between writer and reader, past and present, fact and fiction, quantum physics, history, and myth, A Tale for the Time Being is a brilliantly inventive, beguiling story of our shared humanity and the search for home.

Ruth Ozeki is a novelist, filmmaker, and Zen Buddhist priest. She is the award-winning author of three novels, My Year of Meats, All Over Creation, and A Tale for the Time Being, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her critically acclaimed independent films, including Halving the Bones, have been screened at Sundance and aired on PBS. She is affiliated with the Brooklyn Zen Center and the Everyday Zen Foundation. She lives in British Columbia and New York City.

Ruth Ozeki’s A Tale for the Time Being has been selected as the title for 2017’s Lake Forest Reads: Ragdale, a one book/one community program.

Lake Forest Reads: Ragdale 2017 will culminate with our main event, A Conversation with Ruth Ozeki, ​moderated by Professor of English Davis Schneiderman, Associate Dean of the Faculty, Lake Forest College. 

Thursday, October 26, 2017 at 7:00 PM

Event is free but requires registration at www.lakeforestreadsragdale.org

First 20 adults to register for the Summer Reading Program at Lake Forest Library will receive a copy of A Tale for the Time Being. 

About the book:​ Two characters narrate a Tale for the Time Being; a sixteen-year-old Japanese-American girl living in Tokyo and keeping a diary, and a Japanese-American writer living on an island off British Columbia who finds the diary washed up on the shore after the tsunami in 2011. The Seattle Times called it “a terrific novel that explores quantum physics, military applications of computer video games, Internet bullying and Marcel Proust as well, all while creating a vulnerable and unique voice for the 16-year-old girl at its center. Ozeki has produced a dazzling and humorous work of literary origami.”

About the program: ​Lake Forest Reads: Ragdale is a one book/one community program that fosters a culture of reading and a sense of community in our city. Each year a title is selected from the works of writers affiliated with the Ragdale Foundation, the artists’ residency that has supported authors and their creative process for over 35 years. Program partners create events to help the community deepen their understanding of the chosen book title and encourage discussions in the community. Program Partners include the ​Lake Forest Library, Friends of Lake Forest Library, Lake Forest College, and the Ragdale Foundation. The Lake Forest Book Store is the official bookstore of Lake Forest Reads: Ragdale.

About the author: Ruth Ozeki is a novelist, filmmaker, and Zen Buddhist priest. She is the award-winning author of three novels, My Year of Meats, All Over Creation, and A Tale for the Time Being, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her critically acclaimed independent films, including Halving the Bones, have been screened at Sundance and aired on PBS. She is affiliated with the Brooklyn Zen Center and the Everyday Zen Foundation. She lives in British Columbia and New York City.

Join Lake Forest Book Store in welcoming local author Lori Rader-Day celebrating her most recent novel, The Day I Died.

William Morrow & Company $14.99

Wednesday, July 26, 2017 at 6:00 p.m.

Register at Lake Forest Book Store 847-234-4420

Anna Winger can know people better than they know themselves with only a glance--at their handwriting. Hired out by companies wanting to land trustworthy employees and by the lovelorn hoping to find happiness, Anna likes to keep the real-life mess of other people at arm's length and on paper. But when she is called to use her expertise on a note left behind at a murder scene in the small town she and her son have recently moved to, the crime gets under Anna's skin and rips open her narrow life for all to see. To save her son--and herself--once and for all, Anna will face her every fear, her every mistake, and the past she thought she'd rewritten.

Lori Rader-Day, author of The Day I Died, The Black Hour, and Little Pretty Things, is the recipient of the 2016 Mary Higgins Clark Award and the 2015 Anthony Award for Best First Novel. Lori’s short fiction has appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Time Out Chicago, Good Housekeeping, and others. She lives in Chicago, where she teaches mystery writing at StoryStudio Chicago and is the president of the Mystery Writers of America Midwest Chapter. 

Jennifer Smith, author of Windfall

(Delacorte Press $18.99, due May 2, 2017)

Wednesday May 10th at 6:00 p.m to 7:00 p.m.

Refreshments will be served.

Register at Lake Forest Book Store 847-234-4420

Please join Lake Forest Book Store in welcoming accomplished author and former Lake Forest High School attendee Jennifer Smith as she presents her new novel for young adults, Windfall.

Alice doesn't believe in luck--at least, not the good kind. But she does believe in love, and for some time now, she's been pining for her best friend, Teddy. On his eighteenth birthday--just when it seems they might be on the brink of something--she buys him a lottery ticket on a lark. To their astonishment, he wins $140 million, and in an instant, everything changes. At first, it seems like a dream come true, especially since the two of them are no strangers to misfortune. As a kid, Alice won the worst kind of lottery possible when her parents died just over a year apart from each other. And Teddy's father abandoned his family not long after that, leaving them to grapple with his gambling debts. Through it all, Teddy and Alice have leaned on each other. But now, as they negotiate the ripple effects of Teddy's newfound wealth, a gulf opens between them. And soon, the money starts to feel like more of a curse than a windfall. As they try to find their way back to each other, Alice learns more about herself than she ever could have imagined . . . and about the unexpected ways in which luck and love sometimes intersect. 

Jennifer Smith is the author of seven novels for young adults, including The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight. She is a former student at Lake Forest High School and later earned a master's degree in creative writing from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Her work has been translated into thirty-three languages. She currently lives in New York City. 

Lake Forest Book Store welcomes Lauren Wolk to discuss her new book Beyond the Bright Sea.

Lauren Wolk, author of Beyond the Bright Sea

Dutton Books for Young Readers $16.99

Tuesday, May 9 at 4:00 p.m to 5:00 p.m.

Register at Lake Forest Book Store 847-234-4420

From the author of Newbery Honor-winner Wolf Hollow, the moving story of an orphan, determined to know her own history, who discovers the true meaning of family. Twelve-year-old Crow has lived her entire life on a tiny, isolated piece of the starkly beautiful Elizabeth Islands in Massachusetts. Abandoned and set adrift in a small boat when she was just hours old, Crow's only companions are Osh, the man who rescued and raised her, and Miss Maggie, their fierce and affectionate neighbor across the sandbar. 
Crow has always been curious about the world around her, but it isn't until the night a mysterious fire appears across the water that the unspoken question of her own history forms in her heart. Soon, an unstoppable chain of events is triggered, leading Crow down a path of discovery and danger. Vivid and heart-wrenching, Lauren Wolk's Beyond the Bright Sea is a gorgeously crafted and tensely paced tale that explores questions of identity, belonging, and the true meaning of family. -Kirkus Reviews, starred review 

Lauren Wolk is an award-winning poet and author. She was born in Baltimore and has since lived in California, Rhode Island, Minnesota, Canada, and Ohio. She now lives with her family on Cape Cod.