Anu Recommends #50

Jeff Zentner's adult fiction debut, my children's book, and an author interview

Dear reader,

It felt pretty wonderful to type in #50 in the title of today’s newsletter. I can’t thank everyone enough who have supported this newsletter from the start, and those who have come in and stayed along the way. There’s lots more to come and I cannot wait 😊

World Book and Copyright Day was earlier this week, so I’m resharing this issue from last year for those of you not around then, and those who were but want to revisit it. It includes an explanation of the history and traditions of the day with a mini-essay on what books mean to me, and an old bookish essay about me, my dad, and the books and stories that unite us.

Ready, Set, Bubble! preorder

You may remember me writing a bit about my debut kids’ book in issue #43 and how it was available to preorder in the USA. Well, now I can not only share who the inspiring theme originators are, but we also have a cover!

I cannot wait to share this story about equity in sports inspired by five amazing real-life founders and changemakers: Ashton Keys, Griffin Pinkow, Jenny Nguyen, Nicole Shaia, and Jon Holmes

Illustrations are by the talented, lovely Niall Guite (a Special Olympian athlete for Great Britain), under the guidance of editorial art director Shivani Khot, and there's an SDG fun activity developed by Shikha Tandon, OLY. I also had a wonderful concept editor in Laura Monahan.

Preorder link (US): https://www.ladderworks.co/products/pre-order-get-set-bubble

Preorder link (UK): https://niallguite.com/products/pre-order-ready-set-bubble

Interview with Amy Lin for Write or Die Magazine

I wrote about Amy’s debut, a grief memoir about the sudden loss of her young, healthy husband and its aftermath in issue #48. Now I can finally share this wonderful chat that I was privileged to have with her.

Link: https://www.chillsubs.com/writeordie/interviews/amy-lin

And now for this issue’s spotlight title!

Colton Gentry’s Third Act by Jeff Zentner

For the newcomers, here’s where I tell you why Jeff is an auto-buy author for me. Everyone else who read issue #33 already knows 😃

I had this listed as one of my most-anticipated releases of 2024, so you can imagine my excitement when I received an advance review copy to read! (Thank you Jeff’s Grand Central Publishing publicists!) I tried to wait closer to pub day to dive in, but only made it to early February 😅

Publisher’s blurb

"A story of love, healing, and second chances ” (Emily Henry) following a down on his luck country musician who, in the throes of grief after a shocking loss, moves back home and rekindles a relationship with his high school sweetheart, from award-winning author Jeff Zentner.

Colton Gentry is riding high. His first hit in nearly a decade has caught fire, he’s opening for country megastar Brant Lucas, and he’s married to one of the hottest acts in the country. But he’s hurting. Only a few weeks earlier, his best friend, Duane, was murdered onstage by a mass shooter at a country music festival. One night, with his trauma festering and Jim Beam flowing through his veins, Colton stands before a sold-out arena crowd of country music fans and offers his unfiltered opinion on guns. It goes over poorly.
 
Immediately, his career and marriage implode. Left with few choices or funds, he retreats to his rural Kentucky hometown. He’s resigned himself to has-been-dom, until a chance encounter at his town’s new farm-to-table restaurant gives him a second shot at a job working in the kitchen with Luann, his first love, who has undergone her own reinvention. Told through perspectives alternating between his senior year of high school, his time coming up with Duane as hungry musicians in Nashville, and the present, COLTON GENTRY’S THIRD ACT is a story of coming home, undoing past heartbreaks, and navigating grief, and is a reminder that there are next acts in life, no matter how unlikely they may seem. 

Before I share my thoughts, I wanted to offer these words by Jeff himself that give a beautiful insight into him, his life and career so far, his stories, and why he writes. He posted them on the Goodreads page for the book.

One of the wonders of moving through this world is how unpredictable it can be. You end up in places you never imagined, doing things that were never part of your plan. And sometimes it all works to your greater joy.

When this book releases, I will have been a writer of fiction for just over ten years. Before that, I was a musician and to make my living doing that was my greatest dream. But the music industry is cruel and if you find yourself crossing the threshold of age thirty without having hit it big, you may reasonably assume it won’t ever happen for you.

I crossed that threshold without hitting it big.
My dreams of musical stardom in a shambles around me, I began looking for something I could do that would feed my creative spirit. So I started teaching guitar to teenagers at Tennessee Teen Rock Camp and Southern Girls Rock Camp. This experience taught me that I love the way young adults love the art that they love, full-throated and unabashed in their fervor. It made me want to create art for them. But at that point I was old enough to be Billie Eilish’s father. So what to do?
Why, turn to the one art form accommodating of my then-unforgivably advanced age of thirty-six: writing books. Over a span of five years, I wrote four books for young adults. I had a blast doing it—it made me glad I’d failed at music. However, there was a story I wasn’t getting to tell in that space—one where someone plans for years on taking one path, and his dreams wither on the vine and force him to take another path that ultimately results in even greater joy. My story.

But it wasn’t really my story, as I quickly found out once I started writing. It was Colton’s story. And Luann’s story. And Petey’s story. You know how I know? Because I, as someone indifferent to football, wrote a book centering a former high school football star. Because I, as someone who’s only ever previously written about misfits and outcasts, wrote a book about a grown-up homecoming king. And that’s where the magic of writing fiction lies—creating characters and watching them take over, and realizing how many people face the same struggles that you yourself might feel alone in.

I hope you sense that magic reading this story of high highs and low lows; of small towns and big dreams; of sultry Southern nights and fireflies; of country music and cast iron cookware; of life’s second chances and third acts. I hope you cry a little and fall in love a little more and most of all, get really hungry. I’m serious. You’re allowed to hate this book, but you’re not allowed to say the food in it doesn’t sound good.

Oh, and in case the two footnotes don’t offer sufficient reassurance, let me assure you here: Petey will not die in this book.

Thank you to Jeff’s publicists at Grand Central Publishing for the ARC.

Why I recommend this book

I brought so many expectations to this book despite my most rational efforts not to that I was a little afraid that it wouldn’t live up to them.

Conclusion: I should never have doubted Jeff.

There are a couple of different past storylines in this one. Colton’s and Luann’s teen years were smooth and sparkling, as expected and befitting this award-winning author of young adult fiction. But in the adult storylines, especially the one in the present, it was all kinds of wonderful to see a different side to Jeff’s writing that better suited the rawer, uncertain, infinitely more flawed and life-battered adult characters who still harbored hope, however tiny and unknown, and are given a chance at redemption and reinvention.

Other things I loved: Jeff’s trademark gift of creating characters we root for even when they're being stubborn and annoying, his ability to write about difficult topics without seeming preachy (there is a fantastic portrayal of alcohol addiction and sobriety), the distinct and individual narrative voice and dialogue, the unabashedly beating heart running through its characters and story, the kindness, generosity, and care he offers to his characters, and of course the poet in him composing vivid descriptions that make the American South come alive with all of its serious issues but also its beauty and wonder.

And oh my gods the description of the food! Please don’t read this hungry. Even months on, my mouth waters just thinking about it, and I wish Luann’s farm-to-table had a Mumbai branch.

This book’s working title was Honeysuckle Summer, which the romantic part of me wished it had retained into publication, but the now titular Colton Gentry is no less charming or engaging, so here’s my full-throated recommendation to dive in.

Out on April 30, 2024.

You can follow Jeff on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/jeffzentner.

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Please feel free send in recommendations—books, movie, TV shows, authors to interview, ideas of what you’d like me to write on. Let me know what you’re currently reading and watching, send me rants/ramblings/excited monologues, GIFs and memes (especially them) and more. Just drop me a line and turn this into a conversation, even if just to say hi and let me know what you thought of the latest issue. Or share this with someone you think might enjoy it. I always enjoy hearing from you 😊

Take care and I’ll see you next on May 12!

Anu

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You can find me on Twitter at @AnuNande (follow for all the football chatter) and on Instagram at @booksinboston.