Ann Patchett & Emma Straub

Books, Beach, & Beyond

Hosts Elin Hilderbrand and Tim Ehrenberg kick off season four of Books, Beach, & Beyond with returning guests Ann Patchett and Emma Straub.

Key takeaways

• Emma Straub's new novel, American Fantasy, was informed by her research experience on a boy band cruise.
• Ann Patchett discusses how her sense of childhood remains extended due to her role as a caregiver for her elderly mother.

Main topics

• Bookstore ownership realities
• Childhood nostalgia and bookstores

Notable quotes

I'll go wherever Emma goes. I follow her like a plague.

Conclusion

An engaging, warm episode that celebrates the enduring magic of the li

Transcript preview

Speaker 4 (0:01) Hi, book lovers. This is Ellen Hildebrand, bestselling author of over 30 books, including Swan Song and The Five Star Weekend. We're back for season four. Speaker 1 (0:09) That's right. And this is Tim Ehrenberg, creator of Tim Talks Books. And you're listening to season four of Book Speech and Beyond, presented by N Magazine. We're Speaker 4 (0:17) so excited to be bringing you another fabulous season where we'll be talking about the wonderful world of books with guests from bestselling authors to publishing industry insiders to book influencers and much more. Speaker 1 (0:29) Because there's nothing Ellen and I love more than chatting about books. And our favorite question to ask each other is, what are you reading? Speaker 4 (0:35) But Speaker 1 (0:36) as our listeners know, we go even further here on this show, exploring the craft of writing, the process of book publishing, and that wonderful connection a reader has with their favorite author or cherished book. Speaker 4 (0:46) But before we head into our episode, we want to take this opportunity to thank our incredible premier sponsors, Nantucket Book Partners, Book of the Month, and Little Brown. Speaker 1 (0:56) Without their generous support, we wouldn't be able to bring you these fascinating conversations with some of the most dynamic leaders from the book world. So thank you. And Speaker 4 (1:04) now, on to the show. Speaker 4 (1:08) Hi, Ellen. Hi, Tim. I Speaker 1 (1:10) can't believe it's season four. I know. Speaker 4 (1:12) That's crazy. Does Speaker 1 (1:14) it seem like four seasons to you? I mean, it will Speaker 4 (1:16) at the end. I feel like I can't believe it. It's gone really fast. We Speaker 1 (1:23) have just spoken to, I mean, it's blown my mind, our guests. Speaker 4 (1:27) I know. I would say, oh, there's no one left to interview except we have such an amazing lineup this year. Speaker 1 (1:31) Yes, we do. We do. Okay. How has your year been? Speaker 4 (1:35) It's been a pretty quiet winter. I went to Miami and hung out with my daughter for five weeks. And then I went to St. John as usual. One exciting thing that's sort of been keeping me busy is that the Five Star Weekend is coming out on July 9th from Peacock. Oh, my God. Speaker 1 (1:50) Incredible. And I Speaker 4 (1:51) am co-hosting the companion podcast for that. And so I flew to Los Angeles, did a week interviewing. There, and I'm going to New York next week. Speaker 1 (2:00) That's incredible. How do we watch it? Just on all the podcasts? It'll be, Speaker 4 (2:02) yep. It'll come on after the show. It'll say to watch, after each episode, there'll be a companion podcast that Speaker 1 (2:08) is corresponding. And you've watched the whole show, right? Speaker 4 (2:11) I've seen the whole thing. And? I mean, it's so good. It's so, first of all, it's aesthetically the most beautiful show you will ever see. Set on Nantucket. Anybody who loves Nantucket, including our producer, to see Nantucket on the screen correctly, authentically, it makes you well up with tears because you're like, that is where I live. Speaker 1 (2:32) Yeah. It Speaker 4 (2:33) is so beautifully shot. And anyone who's ever been to Nantucket or who wants to come will absolutely love it. And then the, you know, the show itself is just, he was very closely to the book, has the most amazing cast, Jennifer Garner, Darcy Carden, Chloe Sevigny, Regina Hall, Gemma Chan, Timothy Oliphant. The list goes on. Speaker 1 (2:54) Wow. It's going to be so good. And your readers deserve to see Nantucket on the screen like you write about it. Because obviously there's such a heart that you bring to each one of your books that you'll see that on there. And Five Star Weekend is just one of my favorites of yours. And I think of so many people. They Speaker 4 (3:08) did a very, very, very good Speaker 1 (3:09) job. We can't wait. What about your year? I am in the middle of a house renovation. Yes, Speaker 4 (3:16) you are. Speaker 1 (3:16) And you did not warn me. how hellish of house renovations are. I Speaker 4 (3:20) know I did. You know I did. Speaker 1 (3:22) Now, were you able to let go a lot more than I am? Because I think I'm there like three times a day saying, what about this? What about that? Speaker 4 (3:29) I mean, I rented the house next door when we did my upstairs. It's so stressful, but you just sort of have to dissociate. And the other thing I'm going to tell you, because it costs an unknown ticket, which is probably top five most expensive places to do anything in the world. It is so expensive. And you just have to remind yourself, doesn't, it's not going to, like you're feeling like I'm going to be broke for the rest of my life is not going to last. It's not going to last. Speaker 1 (3:54) Well, thank you. Because I almost was going to have to ask you if I could move in. Right. Yeah. Speaker 4 (3:59) I feel like. Speaker 1 (4:00) Well, it's a lot, but it's fun. And it's definitely. I Speaker 4 (4:03) can't wait Speaker 1 (4:03) to Speaker 4 (4:03) see it when it's done. Speaker 1 (4:04) I'm going to have a whole party. And that's Speaker 4 (4:07) forever. Like what does last is the renovation. What doesn't last is the anxiety about the renovation. Once you have your house, you'll be like, this was the best money I ever Speaker 1 (4:14) spent. Speaker 4 (4:14) Yeah. Speaker 1 (4:15) Well, thank you. Okay, normally, Ellen, we'd talk about our favorite books and what we've been loving in 2026. But I want to bring our guests into that conversation. But before we get to our guests, I want to talk to you about our favorite places, bookstores. Now, we have two outstanding bookstores on Nantucket owned by the same person, our friend Wendy Hudson, Nantucket Bookworks and Mitchell's Book Corner. What I love about them is that they are different. Where the tagline is, you have to visit both for the full story. Right. And they've been our sponsor from the very beginning on this. What do you love about Mitchell's and Bookworks? Speaker 4 (4:46) Other than they're my second, they're just my home away from home. I can remember, okay, so I can remember my very first summer on Nantucket, which was 1993. And I went into both Mitchell's and Bookworks, but I remember going into Bookworks and looking between, I believe it was, you know, Ernest Hemingway and Victor Hugo. And I'm like, someday my book's going to be right there. And Speaker 1 (5:08) it sure is. Speaker 4 (5:09) It is now. 32 of them. At the time, it seemed kind of far Speaker 1 (5:12) -fetched. What about bookstores you had growing up? Speaker 4 (5:16) So I was thinking about this question. I'm not sure who's old enough on this to remember B. Dalton. In the 80s, in my town, there was but one place to buy books, which was B. Dalton and the Mall. Speaker 1 (5:31) Yeah, we had one too. I Speaker 4 (5:32) didn't have an independent bookstore in my hometown. That said, as you know, well documented, my dad and stepmom would take us to the Cape every summer for the month of July. And Brewster Bookstore was right up the lane. And my sister and I used to walk. Together, we got a dollar a day for an allowance. And we used to save our till we had three or four dollars. And then we'd walk up to Brewster bookstore and buy paperback books. And the only fight Heather and I have ever had in our entire life, I was 13, she was 10. We would each buy books. And then I read so fast that I would read both of my books. And then she would still be on her first book. So I'd read her second book before she'd even opened it. Speaker 1 (6:14) Oh, I love that. She was not Speaker 4 (6:15) happy. Is Speaker 1 (6:16) that the same bookstore you sign it now in the summer? Yeah. Okay, well, to kick off our season four, we have two returning guests. They are also both bookstore owners, and they both have new books this year. Who do we have with us? Speaker 4 (6:30) Emma Straub is the New York Times bestselling author of seven books for adults. The novels This Time Tomorrow, All Adults Here, The Vacationers. I loved it. Modern Lovers, Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures, and the short story collection Other People We Married. And new on shelves this year, American Fantasy. She and her husband own Books for Magic, an independent bookstore in Brooklyn, New York. Speaker 1 (6:54) And Anne Patchett is the author of novels, most recently the number one New York Times bestseller, Tom Lake, and new on shelves this week, Whistler. Also many works of nonfiction and children's books. She has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the Penn Faulkner, the Women's Prize for Fiction in the UK, and the BookSense Book of the Year. Her novel, The Judge House, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee, where she is the owner of Parnassus Books. Welcome Anne and Emma. Speaker 2 (7:22) Hi. Hi. How are we, friends? Speaker 1 (7:25) Thank you so much for returning to Book Speech and Beyond. Speaker 2 (7:28) I was so happy to come back. And I'll go wherever Emma goes. I follow her like a plague. Speaker 3 (7:36) Anne wishes that she followed me like a plague when I clearly follow her like a plague. Anne couldn't get rid of me if she tried. Honestly, I wonder what you would have to do. Like, it would be so hard. You would need, like, Some like heavy duty adhesive remover, like rubbing alcohol. I don't know what it would take to get me unstuck. Remember the last Speaker 4 (8:00) time we saw you, Emma, you were at Anne's house trying on her clothes or I don't know what you were doing, but it Speaker 1 (8:06) was fun. I was very strategic with this ask because I was like, how am I going to get them back? Oh, I'll have them together. There's no way to say no. Speaker 2 (8:13) No, no. Anybody could get us like a pizza bar in Toledo could get us together if they invited. us both. I used to say that Emma was my little sister until I did the math. And I realized that Emma is the daughter that I had very ill. Speaker 1 (8:30) Oh my gosh. Speaker 4 (8:31) Is Speaker 2 (8:32) that possible? Speaker 1 (8:33) Guys, I want to start. So Ellen and I were just talking about bookstores we loved. And I want to talk about the bookstores that you grew up with and then what you loved about them and what makes them important for your own now that you own today. Let's start with Emma. Speaker 3 (8:46) Yeah. Okay. So I grew up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, which, you know, is like if you picture You've Got Mail, you know, that was like the 90s on the Upper West Side, but pretty close, pretty close. They did a pretty good job. I had two. There was one, there was a children's bookstore called Eeyore's, Speaker 4 (9:07) which was about two blocks away from my house where we went all the time. But Speaker 3 (9:11) because my parents were the way my parents... I would say I spent more time at the general bookstore, which was called Endicott, which was on Columbus Avenue and 82nd Street and is now for a little while. It was a book culture and now it's a strand, I believe. The same space has been several different bookstores. But I loved it so much because it had several rooms. that I could sort of wander through. And Matt Dillon lived on the Upper West Side. And I used to see him in the bookstore and I would follow him around. So I Speaker 4 (9:54) was Speaker 3 (9:54) probably like 10 years old. Like, I don't know what I thought I was going to get out of Matt Dillon. I'm dead. But he was so handsome. Oh my God. I think of him, he probably wasn't there every time I went there, but in my memory, He is, you know, like wearing a leather jacket. So does Matt Speaker 1 (10:15) Dillon make you a reader? Straight Speaker 4 (10:16) out of the Outsiders, dude. Speaker 3 (10:18) Yeah, I mean, it had nothing to do with... Straight out of the Outsiders. It had nothing to do with anything. It was just Matt Dillon. That's my origin story. And I've never told it until now. I've never been brave enough to share the real story until now. So thank you. I Speaker 1 (10:32) hope he's listening. Thank you for feeling comfortable enough. Speaker 2 (10:35) Have you ever met him? Emma, because it would be so you to be like, and now Matt Dillon is my best friend and we go to brunch with our kids. Speaker 3 (10:44) Yeah, that's true. I would. I would definitely if I ever saw him. I think I would say that to him. Speaker 2 (10:52) What about you, Anne? So there was a little store, tiny, like it couldn't have been more than I swear. I don't think it was more than 500 square feet called Mills. And there were. Three Mills locations, two of which I frequented on an almost daily basis. One of them was near our school, and my sister and I, after school, would, in our little Catholic school uniforms, walk over and we would go to Fido's. Wait, no, it was Joan's Pet Shop. We would look at the puppies. We would go to the pharmacy and have French fries and Cokes, and then we would go to Mills Bookstore. And they always knew me. And they were so nice. But then there was another Mills, equally tiny, near the grocery store where my mother shopped. So every time my mother went to the grocery store, which was often, I would peel off, go to Mills, and then she would come and pick me up when she was done. I Speaker 1 (11:49) love that. Speaker 4 (11:51) Dreamy, dreamy. So much nostalgia. Speaker 1 (11:53) And I feel like our childhood bookstores are where we'd get books. Speaker 4 (11:56) Exactly. They all have stories, you know. Speaker 1 (11:58) And Speaker 3 (11:59) I think it's also that like, I mean, what you just said, Anne, is that like the people knew you. Yes. I think that that is such an important part of independent bookstores that it's not just the space that you're interacting with. It's the humans who occupy those spaces and they know you and they know what you like and they know what you've read. It feels like magic every time. Speaker 2 (12:25) The woman who knew me was Stephanie Freudenthaler. Oh my gosh. And then when they opened up Davis Kid, closed Mills, and Davis Kid was a big store, Stephanie Freudenthaler went to Davis Kid. She was my bookseller, you know, way into adulthood. Then she went to a retirement home. And when we opened Parnassus, Stephanie Freudenthaler, like 90 and deaf, was coming to our events. Wow. Wow. Speaker 1 (12:55) Love. Love. I think so many people say, I want to own a bookstore. And I know people look at me and like, I want to read books for a living. And I'm like, wow, sometimes I don't even have time to actually read the books. What do you think there's people out there listening don't realize about owning a bookstore? Like the number one thing. Speaker 2 (13:13) Anne. So