I know it's been a while, but I wanted to make you aware of an exciting event that's happening in Pittsburgh this weekend. The West Jefferson Hills Historical Society is hosting an Author Showcase at the Jefferson Hills Municipal Building, which also houses the Jefferson Hills Library. I'll be there with over two dozen Pittsburgh authors who write women's fiction, historical fiction, romance, fantasy, young adult, children's books, memoir, poetry, and non-fiction. The event will include a Children's Book Nook with activities and a prize drawing, a drawing for the adults who get their event passports stamped at all the author tables, and three different food vendors. It's going to be tons of fun for readers of all ages! To see the full list of authors attending the event, please click on the lick below. The time and location of the event can be found on the flyer.
BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS
It's been a busy summer that didn't allow for as much writing and reading as I would have liked, but I do have some wonderful books to share with you. Three are historical fiction, and one is contemporary women's fiction. I'm especially excited about Woman of Valor by Lynne Golodner because it introduced me to a culture I knew little about and explored some very important themes about family and faith. Below is the blurb I wrote for the back cover of Lynne's book.
Set in a world most will never experience, Lynne Golodner’s fascinating novel about an Orthodox Jewish woman’s fight to protect her children from a threat within her community explores the most universal of themes. This thought-provoking story of a marriage in crisis raises tough questions about family love and loyalty, devotion to one’s faith, and what it means to truly belong to a community. A deeply relatable tale in an intriguing setting.
—Tammy Pasterick
Woman of Valor is being released on September 26, 2023, and I will be participating in Lynne's virtual launch being held that morning at 11 am. You can click on the link below to register for the event.
After a devastating breakup with her college sweetheart, John Hogan, budding journalist Sally Sterling dives into her work at Chicago Magazine to escape her sorrows. When her editor assigns a series of stories on local ethnic communities, starting with the Orthodox Jewish enclave of Skokie, Sally stumbles into a world she never knew she needed. Although her mother is Jewish, Sally was raised in a wealthy Christian suburb of Detroit as the daughter of one of Michigan’s prominent senators. Religion was the furthest thing from her mind.
As the women welcome her into a world that feels more like home than anything she’s known, Sally is hooked. A year later, she meets Barry Lieberman on a blind date and falls fast. Over the next eight years, Barry and Sally build a happy life full of passion, partnership, and parenthood. She reconnects with her Jewish grandparents, who move to Chicago to be closer to her. Still, Sally retains her passion for running along the shores of Lake Michigan.
And then, Sally’s life takes an unexpected turn. John finds her online, and Sally learns that her eldest son, Donny, has been physically abused at school. While Barry is equally angered, they have different ideas about what to do, putting them at odds for the first time in their marriage.
Lonely in the rift with her husband and exhausted from battling the community grapevine, Sally seeks distraction in John’s apologies. When she realizes her mistake, Sally tells John to leave—but he won’t. What happens next throws everything into a tailspin.
Will Sally lose the happiness she so carefully constructed? Or could this shakeup be just what she needs to finally define her life for herself?
It’s 1910, and Catherine Ogden is aching to live a creative and meaningful life. That’s not easy to do when her aunt and uncle—and all of New York society—consider a good marriage to be the pinnacle of feminine achievement. But when Catherine visits Oakview, the Northern California estate of handsome bachelor William Brandt, she thinks that it might be possible to satisfy her family’s hopes as well as her own. In that beautiful place, she finds the promise of a new start and the opportunity to use her artistic gifts in designing the garden. But as Catherine is drawn into William’s hidden life, as well as the secrets of his estate staff, she discovers that Oakview holds both more opportunity and more risk than she ever imagined. It will take all her courage—and the lessons of some shocking revelations from the past—to choose the path that leads to real freedom.
Full of rich period detail and complex characters, and set against an unforgettable backdrop, The Seeing Garden explores what it takes for a woman to discern the path to her most authentic life.
Vene feels like she and her mother have always been at odds—since she was a child, the first word she used to describe Olivia was “cold.” When news of her mother’s imminent death comes, Vene returns to her family’s home in Napa to see if their strained relationship can be mended, only to find Olivia as harsh as ever and their reconciliation seemingly unreachable.
But when Vene stumbles upon Olivia’s old cookbook, she discovers a passion within her mother she didn’t know existed. The clipped tone and quick judgments of her dying mother don’t match the young woman whose voice she finds between the pages—one that tells a story of romance, longing, duty, and aching heartbreak. Curiosity consumes Vene, and she embarks on an intimate journey to learn about the Olivia she never got to meet—before it’s too late.
A captivating story told in alternating perspectives a half-century apart, One Friday in Napa explores the pains and joys of devotion as two women learn the price of loyalty, the power of secrets, and the meaning of sacrifice.
Rare-book dealer Ashlyn Greer’s affinity for books extends beyond the intoxicating scent of old paper, ink, and leather. She can feel the echoes of the books’ previous owners―an emotional fingerprint only she can read. When Ashlyn discovers a pair of beautifully bound volumes that appear to have never been published, her gift quickly becomes an obsession. Not only is each inscribed with a startling incrimination, but the authors, Hemi and Belle, tell conflicting sides of a tragic romance.
With no trace of how these mysterious books came into the world, Ashlyn is caught up in a decades-old literary mystery, beckoned by two hearts in ruins, whoever they were, wherever they are. Determined to learn the truth behind the doomed lovers’ tale, she reads on, following a trail of broken promises and seemingly unforgivable betrayals. The more Ashlyn learns about Hemi and Belle, the nearer she comes to bringing closure to their love story―and to the unfinished chapters of her own life.
Tammy Pasterick is the award-winning author of Beneath the Veil of Smoke and Ash, a historical novel set in 1910s Pittsburgh. She lives on Maryland’s Eastern Shore with her husband, children, chocolate Labrador retriever, and a very bossy French bulldog.