Author Event: Mary Liza Hartong

Join us on Wednesday, August 14th at 6:15 pm when we have Mary Liza Hartong in-store, discussing her book Love and Hot Chicken.

Tickets are 'pay what you want'! You do not have to pay anything, but every dollar helps us keep the lights on and keep books in your hands. Once you 'purchase' your free tickets, your name will be added to the guest list. Spots are limited, so please don't forget to snag your tickets!

This event is standing room only, but you may bring a camping/folding chair, cushion, or pillow if you like, or get cozy on our floor! Feel free to bring non-alcoholic drinks but please do not bring any food.

Copies of Love and Hot Chicken will be available for purchase at the event, but ordering in advance is always your best bet to make sure you can secure a copy. Order a copy for pickup or shipping here!

About Love and Hot Chicken:

The Chickie Shak is something of a historical landmark. Red clapboard walls, thriving wasp population, yard-toilets resplendent with sunflowers. My best friend Lee Ray and I used to come after our softball games and snag a picnic table while our mammas ordered the home team special. Truth is, most people around here order the same thing until the day somebody throws their ashes off a roller coaster at Dollywood. The line snaked around the building far as you could see, a real parade of diversity hobnobbing in the parking lot from noon until night.

When PJ Spoon returns home for her beloved daddy’s funeral, she doesn’t expect to stick around. Why abandon her PhD program at Vanderbilt for the humble charms of her hometown, Pennywhistle, Tennessee? She tells herself it’s to help her brokenhearted Mamma, but PJ’s own heart’s not doing too good either. She impulsively takes a job as a fry cook at Pennywhistle’s beloved Chickie Shak, where locals gather for Nashville-style hot chicken.

Then fate shakes up PJ’s life again. While the town rallies around the terribly retro and terribly fun Hot Chicken Pageant, PJ finally notices her cute redheaded coworker Boof, a singer-songwriter with a talent as striking as her curly hair.

While PJ and Boof fall for each other, Boof’s search for her birth mother—a Pennywhistle native—catapults the budding couple into a mystery that might be better left unsolved. When the Chickie Shak pageant takes off, old rivalries and new friendships in Pennywhistle lead to unexpected fireworks, and new beginnings.

About Mary Liza Hartong:

Mary Liza Hartong lives and writes in her hometown of Nashville. She graduated from Dartmouth College with a degree in English and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She also holds a master's from Dartmouth in Creative Writing and a master's from the University College Cork in British and American Literature via Fulbright grant. Mary Liza is the aunt of five boisterous nieces and a proud member of the queer community. When she's not writing, you can find her combing yard sales for treasures with her wife, Bridget. Love and Hot Chicken is her first novel.