Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club

November 1, 2022

In perennial New York Times best-selling Deveraux's My Heart Will Find You, a young woman stranded in Kansas City by the pandemic agrees to serve as caretaker for an isolated older man and finds a book in his library that leads to vibrant dreams of a life and love in the 1870s that could be real (125,000-copy first printing). Gray's Life and Other Love Songs, which tracks a Black family from the Great Migration to 1990s New York, opens with Ozro Armstead taking a walk on his 37th birthday when he inexplicably vanishes; following the LibraryReads pick The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls (60,000-copy first printing). Henry features the couple Harriet and Wyn, who aren't in a Happy Place; they have reluctantly broken up but agree to the pretense that they are still together for their annual getaway with best friends (750,000-copy first printing). Caterer Emma Jansen returns to the bulldozer-ready Long Island estate where she grew up as the estate manager's daughter and encounters both the family's grandson, whom she loved, and chauffeur's son Leo, her best buddy; just like Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina, hence Janowitz's title, The Audrey Hepburn Estate (75,000-copy paperback and 10,000-copy hardcover first printing). Beloved author McCall Smith set out to solve The Enigma of Garlic as he revisits the residents of 44 Scotland Street, Edinburgh, with shenanigans set off by excitement over Big Lou and Fat Bob's wedding. Novak convenes three friends at The Seaside Library 20 years after a tragedy altered their lives--but not, it seems, their rediscovered commitment to one another (100,000-copy paperback and 10,000-copy hardcover first printing). Susan Patterson (Big Words for Little Geniuses) and lyricist/librettist DiLallo are joined by mega-best-selling James Patterson with Things I Wish I Told My Mother, the story of a mother and daughter opening up to each other on a Paris vacation (150,000-copy first printing). Celebrated Southern author Smith returns with Silver Alert, featuring a curmudgeonly older man who refuses to let his life dim, instead setting off on a last glorious journey up the Florida Keys with a younger friend bearing secrets of her own (40,000-copy first printing). After the beloved best sellers Kitchens of the Great Midwest and The Lager Queen of Minnesota, Stradal stays Midwestern culinary with Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club, featuring husband-and-wife Ned and Mariel Praeger and the crises they face regarding the Minnesota family restaurant businesses each has inherited (100,000-copy first printing).

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Starred review from March 1, 2023
Several generations of a family--and their loves, triumphs, and tragedies--depend on a Minnesota supper club. Mariel Prager's past, present, and future is the Lakeside Supper Club on scenic Bear Jaw Lake, Minnesota. Her grandmother Betty loved working there, while Mariel's mother, Florence, wanted no part in it. When Mariel inherits the restaurant, it's devastating to Florence, who dreamed of a different future for her daughter. But the Lakeside is where Mariel wants to spend her time, and that's where she meets her husband, Ned Prager. Ned's from a restaurant family, too--his father owns Jorby's, a diner chain that's rapidly taking over the Midwest and putting family restaurants like the Lakeside out of business. Ned and Mariel clash over their competing dreams for their family--Ned sees a future in Jorby's, while Mariel can't imagine life without the Lakeside. But when an unbearable tragedy changes everything in their lives, the Lakeside becomes more important to them than ever--a home, an escape, and a family. The story alternates among characters' points of view, showing how the family restaurants are viewed as gifts, safe places, or burdens by different generations. While Ned's voice is important, the heart of the book consists of the relationships between the women in the family and their hopes, dreams, and despairs. Stradal, as he did in previous books including The Lager Queen of Minnesota (2019), displays his gift for writing female characters who are fully realized, sometimes unlikable, but always as flawed and compelling as real people. The Midwest setting is written with love and respect, and while the story is often heartbreakingly sad, there's also real warmth and comfort in Stradal's writing. A loving ode to supper clubs, the Midwest, and the people there who try their best to make life worth living.

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