Join us for WOMEN IN THE KITCHEN (where we belong), a fundraiser benefiting Julie Valentine Center and WREN Group on Tuesday, April 18, from 7:30-9PM.
We’re getting our lady friends together to show some support for South Carolina women and the local organizations who put them first. Join us for a fantastic evening of food and drink, donated by some of the best female chefs in Greenville. Your ticket includes specially-prepared snacks from these fine establishments, as well as a couple fun beverages to go pair with your plate:

Christina Barest of Naked Pasta

Meredith Bost of Resident Diner

Katie Cheney of Hester General Store

Elizabeth McDaniel of Larue Fine Chocolate

Teryi Youngblood Musolf of Camilla Kitchen

Leslie Urbina of Camilla Kitchen

Over the course of the evening, after hours in the bookstore, we’ll have the chance to hear from members of the Julie Valentine Center and WREN about their mission and how we can help. Chefs are donating their time and product, and the proceeds from ticket sales will go equally to each organization. So join us at M. Judson, where everybody belongs.

Join us for an evening with author Katy Simpson Smith as we celebrate her book The Weeds! Lush, intoxicating, and teeming with mischief, The Weeds is a tense, mesmerizing page-turner about science and survival, the roles women are given and have taken from them, and the lives they make for themselves. Hear more about the book and Katy’s writing process as we enjoy a book-inspired cocktail with her. This is a ticketed event.

Your ticket includes admission, a cocktail, and a copy of the book.

BOOK SUMMARY

Two women, connected across time, edge toward transgression in pursuit of their desires.

A Mississippi woman pushes through the ruin of the Roman Colosseum, searching for plants. She has escaped her life, apprenticed herself to catalog all the species growing in this place. Crawling along the stones, she wonders how she has landed here, a reluctant botanist amid a snarl of tourists in comfortable sandals. She hunts for a scientific agenda and a direction of her own.

In 1854, a woman pushes through the jungle of the Roman Colosseum, searching for plants. As punishment for her misbehavior, she has been indentured to the English botanist Richard Deakin, for whom she will compile a flora. She is a thief, and she must find new ways to use her hands. If only the woman she loves weren’t on a boat, with a husband. But love isn’t always possible. She logs 420 species.

Through a list of seemingly minor plants and their uses—medical, agricultural, culinary—these women calculate intangible threats: a changing climate, the cost of knowledge, and the ways repeated violence can upend women’s lives. They must forge their own small acts of defiance and slip through whatever cracks they find. How can anyone survive?

Lush, intoxicating, and teeming with mischief, Katy Simpson Smith’s The Weeds is a tense, mesmerizing page-turner about science and survival, the roles women are given and have taken from them, and the lives they make for themselves.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Katy Simpson Smith was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. She is the author of the novels The Story of Land and Sea, a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice and one of Vogue’s Best Books of 2014; Free Men; and The Everlasting, a New York Times Best Historical Fiction Book of 2020. Her writing has appeared in The Paris Review, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Oxford American, Granta, Literary Hub, and elsewhere. She received a PhD in history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars, and is also the author of We Have Raised All of You: Motherhood in the South, 1750-1835. She lives in New Orleans.

REVIEWS

A Most Anticipated Book of 2023 at Literary Hub
A Most Anticipated LGBTQ Book of the Season at Electric Literature

“Luminous . . . A lyrical meditation on power, need, and love.”
—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“Erudite, playful, and filled with fury about gender inequality, [The Weeds] can be recommended to readers of cli-fi and feminist literary fiction.”
—Booklist

“[A] centuries-spanning story . . . Katy Simpson Smith muses on the constraints and choices of women trying simply to survive.”
—Eliza Smith, Literary Hub

“Ingenious . . . Potent details bring [The Weeds] to vibrant life . . . Readers will enjoy stopping to smell the clematis.”
—Publishers Weekly

“A novel that repurposes the old-school botanical survey as a way of sorting through curiosity and desire in their rawest forms, set against the high-romantic backdrop of the Roman Colosseum in plant-strewn, crumbling ruin.”
—Sam Bett, Literary Hub

“[A] subtle, intelligent work.”
—Library Journal

Join us for an afternoon of sizzling burger, live music, refreshing beverages, an awesome kid zone, and more! Sample and vote for your favorite burger. We’ll be on the corner of West Main St and Daniel Morgan Ave starting at 12 until the last burger is sold. Admission is free. Tickets are required to purchase food, beverage, and kid zone activities.

Join us for an evening of cocktails and conversation with National Book Award-winning author Charles Frazier and his beautiful new novel, The Trackers. A sweeping Depression-era story of art, aspiration, intrigue and the American dream, this is a literary event we’re over-the-moon excited about. Your ticket includes admission, a cocktail in the spirit of the story, and a copy of the book, as well as an after-hours bookstore evening with Charles.

For this event, all books will be presigned and personalized (if you wish) through the link below. Charles’s other titles are also available for sale and signature, but books will not be signed in person.

BOOK SUMMARY

Deep in Depression-era America, painter Val Welch travels westward to the rural town of Dawes, Wyoming, where he’s landed a New Deal assignment to create a mural representing the region for their new Post Office. A wealthy art lover named John

Long and his wife Eve have agreed to host Val at their sprawling ranch. Rumors and intrigue surround the couple: Eve left behind an itinerant life riding the rails and singing in a western swing band. Long holds shady political aspirations, but was once a WWI sniper—and his right hand is a mysterious elder cowboy, a vestige of the violent old west.

One day, Eve flees home with a valuable painting in tow, and Long recruits Val to hit the road with a mission of tracking her down. Journeying from ramshackle Hoovervilles to San Francisco nightclubs to the swamps of Florida, Val’s search for Eve narrows, and he soon turns up secrets that could spark formidable changes for all of them.

In The Trackers, singular American writer Charles Frazier conjures up the lives of everyday people during an extraordinary period of history that bears uncanny resemblance to our own. With the keen perceptions of humanity and transcendent storytelling that have made him beloved for decades, Frazier has created a powerful and timeless new classic.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Charles Frazier grew up in the mountains of Western North Carolina. Cold Mountain, his highly acclaimed first novel, was an international bestseller, won the National Book Award, the ABBY Award, the Heartland Award, the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction, and was adapted into an Academy Award-winning film by Anthony Minghella in 2003. He is also the author of Thirteen Moons, Nightwoods, and Varina.

REVIEWS

“Charles Frazier’s Cold Mountain is the most impressive and enthralling first novel I have read in a long time. It is a magnetic story, ambitious in scope, with richly developed characters and beautiful evocations of landscape. Though set in an earlier time, it is contemporary in the profoundest sense, with resonance of A Farewell to Arms.”

—Willie Morris

“Strikingly beautiful . . . In its vivid evocation of a time and place, its steady storytelling momentum, and its unabashed affirmation of a fiction that takes moral choice seriously, Cold Mountain calls to mind Snow Falling on Cedars.”

—Newsday

“Thirteen Moons brings this vanished world thrillingly to life… One of the great Native American, and American stories, and a great gift to all of us, from one of our very best writers.”

—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“Nightwoods is unsettling stuff, tense and eerie and brutal. . . .Nightwoods is no typical thriller. It hits hard because you come to care so much about the characters, all of them drawn with that precise enchanted prose. By the book’s climactic scenes in the shadowy mountain forest that gives Nightwoods its title, the unhurried, poetic suspense is both difficult to bear and impossible to shake.”

—Entertainment Weekly

We have always loved the way food and wine tell stories from the table. So we’re teaming up with our friends at Mission Grape to highlight new winemakers, pairing their bottles with inspired food from the mastermind of Chef Teryi Youngblood Musolf for a really special evening. Welcome to Big Wine Nights with Camilla Kitchen, super-exclusive chef-centered wine dinners we host in our beautiful event space, The Gallery at M. Judson.

Chef Teryi and her team at Camilla Kitchen have put together a fabulous menu paired with some of our favorite wines from Mission Grape— each course is like a little love story— and Danny Baker will be on hand to talk about the people, land and grapes behind each bottle. Wines will be available for sale by the bottle and by the case at a 15% discount. Take a look at the menu below and get your tickets today!

We are so excited to spend an evening talking about the highly anticipated new thriller from the USA Today and #1 bestselling author of The Perfect Marriage and One of Us Is Dead author Jeneva Rose! Colleen Hoover herself says You Shouldn’t Have Come Here is “Everything I want in a thriller. Sexy, shocking, and tense with an ending I never saw coming.” We’ll enjoy a cocktail as we listen to Jeneva talk about her book and her writing process. Join us!

Your ticket includes admission, a cocktail, and a copy of the book.

BOOK SUMMARY

Grace Evans, an overworked New Yorker looking for a total escape from her busy life, books an Airbnb on a ranch in the middle of Wyoming. When she arrives at the idyllic getaway, she’s pleased to find that the owner is a handsome man by the name of Calvin Wells—and he’s eager to introduce her to his easygoing way of life. But there are things Grace discovers that she’s not too pleased about: A lack of cell phone service. A missing woman. And a feeling that something isn’t right with the ranch.

Despite her uneasiness, the two bond and start to fall for one another. However, as her departure date nears, things change for the worse. What began as a playful romance soon turns into a complicated web of lies. Grace grows wary of Calvin as his infatuation for her seems to have morphed to obsession. Calvin fears that Grace is hiding something from him—including her reason for staying at his ranch to begin with. Vacation flings typically end in heartbreak, but for Grace and Calvin, it’ll be far more destructive.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jeneva Rose is the internationally bestselling author of The Perfect Marriage and One of Us Is Dead. Her work has been translated into more than a dozen languages and optioned for film and television. Originally from Wisconsin, she currently lives in Chicago with her husband, Drew, and her English bulldog, Winston.

REVIEWS

“Everything I want in a thriller. Sexy, shocking, and tense with an ending I never saw coming. Jeneva Rose is the queen of twists.”Colleen Hoover, #1 New York Times bestselling author

“A page-turner from start to finish with a whiplash of a twist ending, Rose has cemented her place as a must-read author for fans of domestic thrillers. Sexy, sizzling, and suspenseful.”Jennifer Hillier, USA Today bestselling author of Things We Do in the Dark and Little Secrets
“Jeneva Rose’s latest is a cat-and-mouse thriller, rustic Airbnb style. Throw in sexy romantic tension between narrators Grace and Calvin, and you have an unputdownable story where the suspense accelerates with every page turned. The twist at the end is brilliantly unexpected. This story will make you think twice about your next vacation rental, and about being a host. Sexy, shocking suspense.” Kaira Rouda, USA Today bestselling author
“A dark, suspenseful psychological thriller with a great premise and masterful use of twists. Rarely have I read a book where I have switched allegiance with characters so frequently and still got my prediction wrong. It’s a pitch-perfect sinister read and begging for a sequel.”John Marrs, USA Today bestselling author of The One
“[An] intriguing thriller…A sinister undercurrent runs throughout, and while the reader is privy to each narrator’s thoughts, there are a few land mines buried along the way to the surprise ending. Rose should win new fans with this one.”Publishers Weekly

Join us for a book-inspired wine tasting!

We pair the qualities of each wine with a book that shares the same spirit. Your ticket to the tasting, apart from the tastes, includes your choice of one of the featured books. Bottles of the featured wines will be for sale at great prices, too.

This event is a crowd favorite, serving as a great date, a perfect girls night out, or treat to yourself. Buy your ticket now and join us on Thursday, April 27th!

Greer Relief Week Fundraiser

• Where: Barberitos at 2801 Wade Hampton Blvd
• When: April 28th from 12pm-8pm
• What: Giving Back 20%

This meal will only happen if at least 20 commitments to eat are made by April 25, 2023.

Warning: This event has a maximum number of guests. Sign up early to avoid being placed on a waiting list or missing out on the event.

Join us this SUNDAY the 30th at 9:00 am (or later if 9 is too early) for a breakfast beverage at Cohesive Coffee in Greenville!

To find us, look for the small Italian flag in the middle of our table.

We look forward to your getting together with us for another gathering featuring great breakfast drinks and interesting conversation.
I would like to invite you to consider joining my other groups if they interest you. I would love to have you join.

1. Greenville wine social meetup. This meetup is a wine and appetizer potluck social gathering. A wine theme is selected for each. https://www.meetup.com/greenville-wine-social-meetup-group/
2. Greenville Social Bicycle Rides. We engage in low-speed group tours of neighborhoods, bicycle trails (such as the Swamp Rabbit Trail), bikeable streets, and occasional “pub crawls.” This meetup is a once-a-month (or more!) event.

https://www.meetup.com/greenville-social-bicycle-rides/

Join us for Empower Hour, a one-hour program and facility tour where you will experience firsthand the YWCA’s work to bridge gaps in earning power, education, health & wellness and access to childcare.

Empower Hours take place twice a month on the first and third Tuesday at 11:30 am.
Lunch is served as part of our Empower Hour, so reservations are required.

To make a reservation: contact Elizabeth Alvandi, Advancement Assistant, at (828) 254-7206 ext. 103 or [email protected].

We are so excited to spend an evening with Patti Callahan Henry and her new novel, The Secret Book of Flora Lea! This story follows the lives of two sisters, Hazel and Flora, after they are evacuated from London as part of Operation Pied Piper during World War II. When Flora suddenly goes missing in the English countryside, she’s presumed drowned— until 20 years later, when a children’s book arrives to the London bookshop where Hazel works, based on the secret fairy tale only the sisters shared.
Hear more about the story and Patti’s writing process over book-inspired book-inspired cocktails with her. This is a ticketed event.

Your ticket includes admission, a cocktail, and a copy of the book.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Patti Callahan Henry is the New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of several novels, including Surviving Savannah and Becoming Mrs. Lewis. She is the recipient of the Christy Award, the Harper Lee Award for Alabama’s Distinguished Writer of the Year Award, and the Alabama Library Association Book of the Year. She is the cohost and cocreator of the popular weekly online live web show and podcast Friends and Fiction. A full-time author and mother of three, she lives in Alabama and South Carolina with her family. Find out more at PattiCallahanHenry.com.

BOOK SUMMARY

When a woman discovers a rare book that has connections to her past, long-held secrets about her missing sister and their childhood spent in the English countryside during World War II are revealed.

In the war-torn London of 1939, fourteen-year-old Hazel and five-year-old Flora are evacuated to a rural village to escape the horrors of the Second World War. Living with the kind Bridie Aberdeen and her teenage son, Harry, in a charming stone cottage along the River Thames, Hazel fills their days with walks and games to distract her young sister, including one that she creates for her sister and her sister alone—a fairy tale about a magical land, a secret place they can escape to that is all their own.

But the unthinkable happens when young Flora suddenly vanishes while playing near the banks of the river. Shattered, Hazel blames herself for her sister’s disappearance, and she carries that guilt into adulthood as a private burden she feels she deserves.

Twenty years later, Hazel is in London, ready to move on from her job at a cozy rare bookstore to a career at Sotheby’s. With a charming boyfriend and her elegantly timeworn Bloomsbury flat, Hazel’s future seems determined. But her tidy life is turned upside down when she unwraps a package containing an illustrated book called Whisperwood and the River of Stars. Hazel never told a soul about the imaginary world she created just for Flora. Could this book hold the secrets to Flora’s disappearance? Could it be a sign that her beloved sister is still alive after all these years?

As Hazel embarks on a feverish quest, revisiting long-dormant relationships and bravely opening wounds from her past, her career and future hang in the balance. An astonishing twist ultimately reveals the truth in this transporting and refreshingly original novel about the bond between sisters, the complications of conflicted love, and the enduring magic of storytelling.

BOOK REVIEWS

“A world war and a fairy tale collide in the British countryside in 1940–and Patti Callahan Henry is the perfect novelist to explore how the living are forever changed. The Secret Book of Flora Lea is a treasure: moving, surprising, and deeply evocative of an England that everyday walked the tightrope between heartbreak and hope. –Chris Bohjalian, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Lioness and The Flight Attendant

“Deft, lyrical and supremely satisfying, The Secret Book of Flora Lea isn’t so much a departure for Patti Callahan Henry as it is a culmination of her gifts as a novelist. This is a book about difficult history and unsinkable hope, ordinary magic in the form of love, and about how our stories can save and sustain us in the most trying moments of our lives. Callahan’s plot will keep you guessing even as her characters steal your heart. I loved it.” –Paula McLain, author of The Paris Wife and When the Stars Go Dark

“A spellbinding tale of hope and perseverance, The Secret Book of Flora Lea is as enchanting and whimsical as the Whisperwood fairytale hidden within its pages. It reminds us that a happily-ever-after isn’t out of reach—so long as we heed the tiny voice within, whispering that the real magic of the story may be closer than we think.” —Sarah Penner, New York Times bestselling author of The Lost Apothecary and The London Seance Society

“Two sisters, dual time periods, a magical secret place, an abiding mystery–The Secret Book of Flora Lea is an enchanting story of survival against all odds. With her trademark warmth and a feather-light touch, Patti Callahan Henry weaves together events both real and imagined. Transporting, heartfelt, and atmospheric.” –Christina Baker Kline, New York Times bestselling author of Orphan Train and The Exiles

The Secret Book of Flora Lea is a beguiling blend of hope, mystery, and true familial love. It exposes the deep wounds of a family tragically separated because of war. Told in an utterly fresh way with dual timelines and a host of unforgettable characters, this is a story that is both necessary and satisfying through the last page. Powerful and spellbinding!” –Sadeqa Johnson, Internationally bestselling author of The House of Eve and The Yellow Wife

Some of the most fun we have at M. Judson comes from our collaborations with Mission Grape and Camilla Kitchen, where we let the food and wine do the storytelling. One afternoon amongst the bottles, Chef Teryi got to talking about her not-so-distant tradition of Runaway Fridays, where a person might sneak off for a midday margarita and be all the better for it. And we figured we can do better than that.

So join us for our end-of-week getaway in The Gallery at M.Judson: Runaway Friday Wine Lunch. We’ll pair three wines from the same producer with three small plates from Camilla Kitchen, get some delicious education from Danny Baker and Chef Teryi, as well as a sweet little treat to go.

Wines will be for sale, tickets will be limited!

Rhythm on the River offers Powdersville’s neighbors a free, fun filled family day. Featuring Lauren Hall and the Rhythm City Band, #ROTRPVL will also have the ever-popular KidsZone, with face painting, balloon artists, games and activities for all ages. Shop from over 20 local makers, and of course, indulge in the food, dessert, and drink trucks.
Don’t miss out on May 6th from 3-8pm at Dolly Cooper Park in Powdersville. Visit RhythmOnTheRiver.org for more information!

Join Pastry Chef Leslie on Sunday, May 7th at 2:00 pm for a baking class!

If you’ve had anything bread-based from Camilla Kitchen, you know the magic that is Pastry Chef Leslie’s baking. Now she wants to share that with all of you! This will be an intimate class held in the Gallery (4th floor) of M. Judson for ten people, where you’ll prepare your bread from start to almost finish. While you’ll bake your cake at home (and get all those good smells), you’ll still get to end the baking class with a tasting. What a lovely way to spend a Sunday!

Your ticket covers the cost of ingredients and instruction, with the option to add on the featured cookbook.

ABOUT THE BOOK
In this revolutionary book, award-winning pastry chef Anna Higham encourages you to approach making a dessert as you would savory cooking: engaging your senses, tasting, seasoning, and letting your ingredients shine. Exploring ingredients season by season, Anna outlines a repertoire of ways to cook each one to magnify flavor and taste. She shows you how to work with fruit; construct a dessert; and examine seasoning, structure, and texture—helping you really understand the “how” and “why” of dessert cooking. Featuring over 150 recipes for cakes, jams, mousses, and more, as well as over 45 plated desserts, The Last Bite celebrates seasonal cooking and eating with irresistible, innovative recipes—from fig leaf ice cream in fall to elderflower vinegar meringue in spring. Let Anna blow away your preconceptions about what your desserts can be and taste like with this inspiring, groundbreaking book.

ABOUT THE BREAD

Christina Tosi of US bakery Milk Bar will always be associated with freeze-dried sweetcorn. Her Milk Bar pie (also known as Crack Pie) made liberal use of it in powdered form, so it’s impossible not to reference her whenever I use it in a recipe. It really does add an inexplicable intensity to all manner of desserts. This cake is all about texture: crispy edges from the sugar, gooey centre from all the butter, and the gravelly crunch of polenta. It will taste intensely “corny” in all the best ways.