4 min read
Women’s lit: Check out these six new books from Boston-area female authors
Boston is full of juxtaposition. Are we more of a town or a city? A sports haven or an academic hub? The truth is, we’re all of it and more. Local female authors and their recent book releases continue to prove this point with an academic and business-savvy text on diversity in the workplace, a knitting guide interspersed with original fairy tales, cocktails created by women mixologists, and more.
Kate Bowler
New England Invite: Fresh Feasts to Savor the Seasons
$29.95; amazon.com
Photo: globepequot.com
Hostess with the mostess: Don’t have Thanksgiving at your house without reading this
Fans of Boston lifestyle blog Domestikated Life will be pleased to get their hands on more of author Kate Bowler’s perfectly curated tips on how to host a dinner party, special meal, or holiday event with New England Invite: Fresh Feasts to Savor the Seasons. Published earlier this month, the book includes 70 seasonal and festive recipes for the novice cook, with styled photos and additional guides on hosting and presentation. Bowler is currently on a local book tour with book signings and readings at various shops around New England now through December.
Carol Fulp
Success Through Diversity: Why the Most Inclusive Companies Will Win
$26.95; amazon.com
Photo: beacon.org
Flip the script: A must-read for any business executive trying to change workplace dynamics
Carol Fulp, president and CEO of The Partnership, Inc., a New England organization for the recruitment and retention of multicultural professionals, recently published Success Through Diversity: Why the Most Inclusive Companies Will Win. The book’s foreword is written by Deval Patrick, former governor of Massachusetts.
As an expert on business leadership and strategy, Fulp makes the argument for how people of different races and ethnicities are an essential asset to any company by outlining case histories of corporate cultures at Eastern Bank, John Hancock, and PepsiCo. She also provides a guide for what businesses must do in order to maintain their competitiveness by diversity hiring and leadership development.
Misty Kalkofen and Kirsten Amann
Drinking Like Ladies: 75 Modern Cocktails from the World’s Leading Female Bartenders
$24.99; amazon.com
Boston bartenders Kirsten Amann and Misty Kalkofen traveled the world picking up cocktail recipes, mostly from other female bartenders, and put them together in this book with toasts to trailblazing women in history. Some of the subjects, such as Mexican-American activist Jovita Idár, have previously gone unrecognized.
Part history book, part recipe book, Drinking Like Ladies also includes mixology tips, including how to properly stir and shake ingredients. You can’t go wrong with any drinking advice from Amann and Kalkofen.
Both women are founding members of the Boston chapter of Ladies United for the Preservation of the Endangered Cocktail, a charity cocktail club. Kalkofen has spent over 20 years studying cocktail history and culture, and bartending at places such as Drink in Fort Point. Amann has over 15 years of experience consulting for liquor brands and wrote her first cocktail book, The Screaming Orgasm, in 2012.
Grace Dane Mazur
The Garden Party: A Novel
$27; amazon.com
Photo: penguinrandomhouse.com
Novel idea: Dreamy elements and witty characters make up this book’s plotline
Boston native Grace Dane Mazur was previously set on the path of biology as a former postdoctoral researcher of silkworms when she decided to pursue writing instead. Mazur is the author of titles such as Hinges: Meditations on the Portals of the Imagination and Trespass: A Novel. Additionally, she has taught fiction writing at the Harvard Extension School.
The Garden Party centers on the union of two families at a wedding rehearsal dinner. The Cohens are a set of “impractical intellectuals,” academics and artists, while the Barlows are a clan of lawyers; each family attempts to set aside their differences for the sake of the marriage. Meanwhile, mystical forces in the surrounding forest are at play, reminiscent of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Alice and Lisa Hoffman
Faerie Knitting: 14 Tales of Love and Magic
$26.99; amazon.com
Cousins Alice Hoffman and Lisa Hoffman combined their respective passions and skill sets to create Faerie Knitting: 14 Tales of Love and Magic, a book with an appropriate 14 original knitting patterns interwoven with original fairy tales. Alice is the author of more than 30 works of fiction, including The Rules of Magic and Here on Earth, and lives near Boston.
Lisa is a knitwear designer and teacher living in New York City. Each magical tale features a powerful heroine and corresponding garment or accessory, which the reader will learn how to make. The knitting instructions can be followed by both beginner and advanced knitters.
Barbara Delinsky
Before and Again: A Novel
$27.99; amazon.com
Photo: barbaradelinsky.com
Triple threat: Secrets, tragedy, and scandal make for a dramatic page-turner
Nothing’s more intriguing than a mysterious woman with a secret past—the focus of Boston-bred Barbara Delinsky’s latest novel, Before And Again. The protagonist, Mackenzie Coopers, suffers a tragic loss after texting while driving and takes on a new identity in a different town in an attempt to escape her guilt. But she’s soon caught in the middle of another scandal involving a powerful man’s Twitter account, and her past comes back to haunt her. A juicy read for those evening tub soaks or work commutes on the train.
