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Meet the AViD Author – J. Ryan Stradal
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7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
J. Ryan Stradal | Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club
@ Central Library
Join the Des Moines Public Library and Beaverdale Books as they present J. Ryan Stradal and his newest book, Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club–a story of a couple from two very different restaurant families in rustic Minnesota, and the legacy of love and tragedy, of hardship and hope, that unites and divides them.
Mariel Prager needs a break. Her husband Ned is having an identity crisis, her spunky, beloved restaurant is bleeding money by the day, and her mother Florence is stubbornly refusing to leave the church where she’s been holed up for more than a week. The Lakeside Supper Club has been in her family for decades, and while Mariel’s grandmother embraced the business, seeing it as a saving grace, Florence never took to it. When Mariel inherited the restaurant, skipping Florence, it created a rift between mother and daughter that never quite healed.
Ned is also an heir—to a chain of home-style diners—and while he doesn’t have a head for business, he knows his family’s chain could provide a better future than his wife’s fading restaurant. In the aftermath of a devastating tragedy, Ned and Mariel lose almost everything they hold dear, and the hard-won victories of each family hang in the balance. With their dreams dashed, can one fractured family find a way to rebuild despite their losses, and will the Lakeside Supper Club be their salvation?
In this colorful, vanishing world of relish trays and brandy Old Fashioneds, J. Ryan Stradal has once again given us a story full of his signature honest, lovable yet fallible Midwestern characters as they grapple with love, loss, and marriage; what we hold onto and what we leave behind; and what our legacy will be when we are gone.
Beaverdale Books will have copies available for sale and signing.
About the Author
J. Ryan Stradal’s NYT bestselling debut, Kitchens of the Great Midwest, won the 2016 American Booksellers Association Indie’s Choice Award for Adult Debut Book of the Year, the 2016 SCIBA award for the year’s best fiction title, and the 2016 Midwest Booksellers Choice Award for debut fiction. His second novel, The Lager Queen of Minnesota, was an instant national bestseller.
Born and raised in Minnesota, he now lives in Los Angeles. He likes books, craft beer, wine, root beer, sports, and peas.
This event is co-hosted by the Des Moines Public Library as part of its annual AViD (Authors Visiting in Des Moines) Author Series.