Think Laverne and Shirley, Lucy and Ethel, Lena Dunham and Zosia Mamet are double funny female duos? Well, okay…but you haven’t seen novelist — and goddess of the comic sex scene — Jessica Blau go head to head with the mother of all memoirists — and beloved Baltimore Fishbowl/”Bohemian Rhapsody” columnist — Marion Winik. Don’t despair. Now you can! This Friday night at 7 at the Ivy Bookshop you can see and hear these two witty (and visually pleasing) women writers extraordinaire read excerpts from their latest laughers and ask them to sign your copy. I’m sure they will. Probably they will write something extremely amusing just for you. You might develop a literary crush on one or both. That’s well and good, but don’t reach out and touch them without permission. It’s not that kind of book party. Here’s what will happen.
Friday night you will find out why comedic novelist Nick Hornby, in his regular book column for The Believer, raved about Blau’s third novel, saying, “The book that made me happiest this month was Jessica Anya Blau’s picaresque, properly funny, unpredictable, and altogether irrepressible The Wonder Bread Summer; it made me so happy that after I’d read it, in two days flat, I bought everything I could find by the same author.”
You’ll come to understand why Marion Winik’s amazingly candid and engaging essays — many of which you’ve read in early form at our site — are recommended summer reading by The Los Angeles Times.
But perhaps even more importantly, you’ll find out why you were put on this earth: to laugh with good people and to enjoy good literature.
How much will this life-changing party cost you, dear reader? Would you believe me if I told you the party is free of charge? This is not a joke. Nor is this: I’ll be hosting and I really do hope to see you there. I will be accepting tips, incidentally.
Here’s a link to more Highs in the Low Fifties book events featuring MW. And here’s her great trailer, directed by David Grossbach. The Ivy Bookshop is at 6080 Falls Road.
