I’m so Westchester. A 30-minute express train could get me into Grand Central with ease, but it seems like such a hassle to go into the city for things. Plus, I like my car. The traffic is a headache and the parking is worse. So I just avoid it.
Invitations like these ones have been coming across my email screen for a while now. Probably the best one was Emily Giffin, an amazing chick-lit author and I was so thrilled, until I saw the address. I reserved a spot and thought, I’ll suck it up and go for Emily Giffin. I never went, because it was on a hot, disgusting day in June and it wasn’t in Westchester.
Lucky for us, Westchester has the first Barnes & Noble concept store in the country. An added bonus is that I can walk to it. A concept store, complete with a restaurant (and a well respected chef) and a bar, a patio with a fire pit and bocce balls. It’s amazing and it’s going to have events that you’d expect to find in the city, right here in our backyard. My friend Aleesia wrote this article about the store: http://westfaironline.com/83462/barnes-noble-opens-concept-store-restaurant-in-eastchester/
Sophie Kinsella has been writing for us ladies since we were in our 20s. She’s the author of the Shopaholic series we all enjoyed reading. She will be at B&N in Eastchester on Feb 7th for a signing, wine and snacks and whatever else a concept store offers their loyal readers and shoppers. You can purchase tickets by following this link.
http://www.randomhousebooks.com/event/girls-night-out-new-york/
I’m thrilled too, that I’ve been asked to interview her prior to the event. I need to spend the weekend figuring out exactly what one asks a best-selling author when given the opportunity. This will be a first!
From #1 internationally bestselling author comes a new novel that is part love story, part workplace comedy, and part witty critique on the judgments we all make in a 
social-media obsessed culture
Admit it – we’ve all been guilty of tweaking our online lives. Whether it’s the post of the perfect cake (while the first several attempts burned in the oven) or staging the ideal selfie (after softening the lights and changing the angle), we can all own up to styling and re-styling our online lives at some point.
With more than 35 million copies in print and nearly 500,000 followers on Facebook, #1 internationally bestselling author Sophie Kinsella has won praise and fans across the globe for her sharply observed characters and uncanny ability to tap into the zeitgeist. In her new novel, MY NOT SO PERFECT LIFE (A Random House Hardcover to be published on February 7, 2017), Kinsella takes on our complicated relationships with social media and the age-old adage of the grass always being greener—especially if you can use the right filter.
Everywhere Katie Brenner looks, someone else is living the life she longs for—particularly her boss Demeter Farlowe. Demeter is brilliant and creative, lives with her perfect family in a posh London townhouse, and wears the coolest clothes. Katie’s life, meanwhile, is a daily struggle—from her dismal rental to her oddball flatmates to the tense office politics she tries to negotiate. No wonder Katie takes refuge in her not-quite-true Instagram posts, especially as she firmly believes that one day, she will have that real life if she just works hard enough. But when Demeter suddenly fires Katie, she must put those dreams on hold and moves back home to her family’s farm, where she helps them set up a luxe “glamour camping” business. Worlds collide when Demeter and her family unexpectedly turn up as a guests and as the stakes for Katie’s future get higher, she must question her own assumptions about what makes for a truly meaningful life.
Sophie Kinsella is celebrated for her vibrant, relatable characters and her storytelling gifts. In MY NOT SO PERFECT LIFE, she brings us the relatable heroine, Katie Brenner and her pursuit of that perfect, styled life—IRL or online.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
In addition to the Shopaholic series, SOPHIE KINSELLA is the author of the standalones I’ve Got Your Number, Can You Keep A Secret?, The Undomestic Goddess, Remember Me?, Twenties Girl, and Wedding Night.She lives in England with her family, where she is working on her next standalone novel.
I'm a fourth-generation native of Westchester County where I attended college locally, spent ten years as a teacher and is now a "stay-at-home" mom raising my daughter and son in the same town that I grew up in. I enjoy reading, shopping and being the "go-to-girl" for my family and friends.
