Kalisha Buckhanon's Blog - Posts Tagged "summer-book"

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Thank you for being here. Already the early interest, attention and praise for SPEAKING OF SUMMER is similar to UPSTATE- now 14 years old this year and with renewed discussions due to its National Book Foundation's 2018 Literature for Justice selection.

For those who were not picked to win one of 10 copies in January's SPEAKING OF SUMMER giveaway, enjoy a short excerpt of the novel in the meantime. Here, the main character Autumn Spencer tries to articulate the anguish of not knowing where her other half has gone.

Excerpt of Speaking of Summer by Kalisha Buckhanon

I had left Summer’s fingerprints on her dressing mirror. I joyfully borrowed her clothes. If I breached her journals or notes or emails, I heard her voice saying her old words and I felt better. I washed her scent from her pillowcases, sheets, and comforter. I switched her bedding and moved in to her room, to feel she was still here. My bedroom, the smaller one facing the brick gangway, never invited the breeze. Now it was just my dressing closet, in need of a good sweeping and dusting. The comforter crumpled and twisted at the foot of my Ikea bed. I finally threw out a rank coffee cup with spoiled cream and a saucer of pizza crusts on the nightstand. One day, I stomped from Summer’s bed to smash down my digital alarm clock, automatically set to go at 7 a.m. I arose around noon now, later in rain.

Her absence clogged my head with memories of our life together, now separated. I just wanted to know she was okay, alive, because without that assurance my mind produced a steady carousel of conjecture. Each stop was dark, terrifying, and sad. I drifted from most so-called friends. None of them knew what to say. Sadly, I suspected some suspected me. I failed to return calls from back home, not that I received many. I felt betrayed, and guilty. I wanted to know what I had done, or what someone else did. I didn’t want to intrude on her new life, if she wanted to start over so fresh I was unwanted. We had, after all, estranged from our history and nearly our own mother, before the inevitable. Our last parent’s dying left us no choice but to repair the breaches. With our whole history and origins dwindled, it was possible one more lost person might not add up to much...

SPEAKING OF SUMMER is released from Counterpoint Press on July 30, 2019.

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Thank you Good Readers for making Speaking of Summer #25 of 200 in the Goodreads Most Popular Books of July 2019. Would love to see it at #1! If you have not already, add #SummerBook to your "Want To Read" Shelf and Lists today. As always, stay updated here or https://www.Kalisha.com/Summer for more news, events and extras.

SPEAKING OF SUMMER has had an incredible week of recommendation and praise from top publications. Check out the articles below and be sure to share!

25 Best Beach Reads of the Year so Far | O Magazine... "This mysterious novel is well worth the wait."

10 Books We’re Dying To Toss Into Our Summer Totes | Essence... "A voice for the invisible."

The Most Anticipated Crime Books of Summer | LitHub’s CrimeReads... "A deeply felt, searching portrait of twin sisters."

The 25 best beach reads of 2019 | New York Post

Visit Kalisha.com for a selection of praise for SPEAKING OF SUMMER from the nation's top media, including TIME, USA Today, Essence and O Magazine. Enjoy this preview below.

9 mysteries and thrillers to give you an adrenaline rush this summer | Journal Sentinel

There’s something for everyone in this summer reading list… | Herald Standard

20 of the Season’s Hottest New Books | USA Today

19 Unmissable Books to Read This Summer | The National

29 Summer Books To Get Excited About | Buzzfeed

The Best Books to Read for Summer | The Fine Line Magazine

The Ultimate Summer Books Preview | LitHub

The 16 Best Mysteries Coming This Summer | BookBub

LitHub’s Most Anticipated Books of Summer | LitHub

Ten Books From Small Presses You Should Read This Summer | The Brooklyn Rail

40 New Thrillers Out This Summer | Bustle

32 Books You Need to Read This Summer | TIME Magazine

50 New Books Of Summer 2019 To Read By The Pool, In The Park, And On The Beach | Bustle

45 Books to Keep You Reading All Summer Long | Minneapolis Star Tribune

25 Best Beach Reads of the Year so Far | O Magazine

10 Books We’re Dying To Toss Into Our Summer Totes | Essence

The 25 best beach reads of 2019 | New York Post

The Most Anticipated Crime Books of Summer | LitHub’s CrimeReads

Join Book Clubs across the nation in discussing, selecting and spotlighting SPEAKING OF SUMMER as a July Pick of Sisters in Crime: "Crime From Sea to Shining Sea," at Book Club Central. See it at: http://ow.ly/9Rwt50uS8DE.

Get the book singled as one of summer's top mystery, crime and thrillers for Crime Reads, Bustle, Publishers Weekly and more: https://www.kalisha.com/summer.

SPEAKING OF SUMMER reveals its first lengthy excerpt in FICTION Magazine, published out of City University of New York. The portion, “Searching on 147th Street,” captures heroine Autumn Spencer’s desperation to find her sister Summer in the legendarily colorful Harlem, New York, neighborhood. CLICK HERE to read it, and share with friends.

Fiction is a literary magazine founded in 1972 by Mark Jay Mirsky, Donald Barthelme, Jane Delynn, and Max Frisch. 

In its early years, Fiction was published in tabloid format and featured experimental work by such writers as John Barth, Jerome Charyn, Italo Calvino, Ronald Sukenick, Steve Katz, Russell Banks, Samuel Beckett, and J.G. Ballard. It later took the form of a more traditional paperback literary magazine, publishing short works by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Reinaldo Arenas, Isaac Babel, Donald Barthelme, Mei Chin, Julio Cortazar, Marguerite Duras, Natalia Ginzburg, Clarice Ginzburg, Jamaica Kincaid, Clarice Lispector, Robie Macaulay, Robert Musil, Joyce Carol Oates, Manuel Puig, John Yau, and others.

Get an early start on the book that's already a Sisters in Crime Book Club Central July pick with even more picks in Essence, O Magazine, TIME, USA Today, Washington Post, the BBC, Cosmopolitan, Entertainment Weekly, Publisher's Weekly, Booklist (starred review), Crimereads, Mystery Scene and more.

Just join Kalisha's email newsletter before 8:00 p.m. Monday, July 29. You will have the first chapter emailed to you!

On newsstands now! The August 2019 issue of O: The Oprah Magazine featuring SPEAKING OF SUMMER as a featured book this summer. Reviewer Tayari Jones, Women’s Prize for Fiction winner of the Oprah's Book Club Pick AN AMERICAN MARRIAGE, praises the novel because it aims to "raise universal questions about mental illness, racism and love."

Buy this issue to see Jones's essay "My Sister, Myself" and share the review online here at O Magazine.

Speaking of Summer's July 30 release continued a streak of events, media and praise as one of the most anticipated novel releases of 2019. Thank you for following here, rating and reviewing. Here are a few highlights to enjoy:

Look for Event Photos on Kalisha's Instagram and Facebook.

Kalisha appears next in Chicago (9/18), St. Louis (9/21) and Minneapolis (9/26). Check out Event Listings.

Interviews:
All of It with Alison Stewart (radio)
Dreamleapers with Harriette Cole (radio)
Write or Die Tribe
Chicago Review of Books

Reviews:
Chicago Defender
Audiofile Magazine
Write or Die Tribe
Shelf Awareness
Pen America
New City

More nice listings in Chicago Sun-Times, The Skimm, Bustle and The Booklist Reader.