May 6 ~ Mary Kay Andrews (The Homewreckers) at Pawleys Plantation ($60 w/bk)
Summer begins with Mary Kay Andrews, in The Homewreckers, a delightful summer listen about flipping houses, and finding true love…Hattie Kavanaugh went to work helping clean up restored homes for Kavanaugh & Son Restorations at eighteen; married the boss’s son at twenty; and was only twenty-five when her husband, Hank, was killed in a motorcycle accident. Broken hearted, but determined to continue the business of their dreams, she takes the life insurance money, buys a small house in a gentrifying neighborhood, flips it, then puts the money into her next project. But that house is a disaster and a money-loser, which rocks her confidence for years to come. Then, Hattie gets a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: star in a beach house renovation reality show called The Homewreckers, cast against a male lead who may be a love interest, or may be the ultimate antagonist. It’s a question of who will flip, and who will flop, and will Hattie ever get her happily-ever-after. Filled with Mary Kay Andrews’ trademark wit, warmth, junking trips, and house porn, The Homewreckers is a summer beach delight.
Tuesday, May 10 ~ Virginia & Dana Beach (Sandy Island … forever) at Ocean One ($35)
CLASS Publishing’s collaborative book of essays and images about Sandy Island, one of America’s largest, undeveloped islands, is now in its second edition, having sold out the first. The intent was to provide a satisfying armchair appreciation of what has been preserved and why it matters. Previous Moveable Feasts featured several of the book’s contributors, including Susan Hoffer McMillan, Robin Salmon, Linda Ketron, and Anne Malarich. We are delighted to host Virginia Beach, the essay author of “Saving Sandy Island,” and Dana Beach, one of the history makers of the efforts to guarantee the conservation of the island. If you already have a first edition, bring it for them to sign ~ they weren’t available during the pandemic! If you don’t have a copy yet, this book is a significant contribution to our local history and a beautiful “keeper.”
*May 13 ~ Chris Bohjalian (The Lioness) at DeBordieu Colony Clubhouse ($60 w/bk)
A luxurious African safari turns deadly for a Hollywood star and her entourage in this riveting historical thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of The Flight Attendant. Tanzania, 1964. When Katie Barstow, A-list actress, and her new husband, David Hill, decide to bring their Hollywood friends to the Serengeti for their honeymoon, they envision giraffes gently eating leaves from the tall acacia trees, great swarms of wildebeests crossing the Mara River, and herds of zebras storming the sandy plains. Their glamorous guests—including Katie’s best friend, Carmen Tedesco, and Terrance Dutton, the celebrated Black actor who stars alongside Katie in the highly controversial film Tender Madness—will spend their days taking photos, and their evenings drinking chilled gin and tonics back at camp, as the local Tanzanian guides warm water for their baths. The wealthy Americans expect civilized adventure: fresh ice from the kerosene-powered ice maker, dinners of cooked gazelle meat, and plenty of stories to tell over lunch back on Rodeo Drive. What Katie and her glittering entourage do not expect is this: a kidnapping gone wrong, their guides bleeding out in the dirt, and a team of Russian mercenaries herding their hostages into Land Rovers, guns to their heads. As the powerful sun gives way to night, the gunmen shove them into abandoned huts and Katie Barstow, Hollywood royalty, prays for a simple thing: to see the sun rise one more time.
May 20 ~ Joy Callaway (The Greenbrier Resort) at Kimbel’s, Wachesaw ($35)
Set at The Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, in both 1908 and 1946, Callaway (author of The Fifth Avenue Artists Society and Secret Sisters) tells the story famed interior designer Dorothy Draper and how the historic retreat and the love she found there as a young woman influenced her bold shift from illustrious New York socialite to world-renowned decorator. 1908: The Greenbrier has been Dorothy Tuckerman’s escape for as long as she can recall—a summer resort nestled in West Virginia where American aristocracy can just be, a retreat surrounded by wilderness, unprotected by gates . . . a place completely unlike her home in Tuxedo Park, New York. This season, however, she’s nineteen, and the summer comes riddled with expectations that threaten to trap her within another set of walls—including an unwelcome marriage proposal from a family friend. But when an Italian racecar driver, Enzo Rossi, appears at The Greenbrier with his uncle, a former financial minister of Italy, igniting suspicion and upending everyone’s plans, Dorothy must come to terms with her definition of liberty, the price it may cost to be truly free, and a newly ignited passion to transform the very walls that once held her captive. Thirty-eight years later, Dorothy Draper returns to her beloved resort as the head of the first ever interior design firm, world famous and divorced from her high-profile physician husband. But The Greenbrier of 1946 is hardly the glamorous place she once knew. Transformed into a hospital during the war, the hotel is beaten, sterile, and in complete shambles. As Dorothy struggles to complete the most important project of her career, old secrets surface—secrets that threaten to snag the very fabric of the life she’s built—and she must come face to face with the girl she once was, the woman she’s become, and the resort that changed it all.
May 27 ~ Sarah McCoy (Mustique Island) at Inlet Affairs ($35)
From the New York Times bestselling author comes a compulsive, sun-splashed voyage of self-discovery with a wealthy divorcee and her two headstrong daughters in 1970s Mustique, the world’s most exclusive private island, where Princess Margaret and Mick Jagger were regulars and long-held secrets are the buried treasures.
All Moveable Feast reservations are to be made through CLASS (www.ClassAtPawleys.com, or 843.235.9600, or linda@classatpawleys.com).