Tim Talks Books

Here it is! My brand-new website! I always had high hopes for Tim Talks Books, but the last 6 years have been an adventure like something out of the novels I read. This new website features all my past author talks, (most of them you can watch online). You can also support Nantucket’s indie bookstores @nantucketbooks by shopping all the books I recommend, see some of my upcoming events in 2026, @booksbeachandbeyond podcast updates, plus you can sign up for my new Substack and hear all about the books I am loving this year, my home renovation happening now, and my life on Nantucket Island 30 miles out to sea. “Some of my favorite moments are when I am talking and connecting with an author whose book I loved. Getting to know them and their story beyond what’s on the page.” Visit timtalksbooks.com or click link in bio. You can sign up for my substack there or with link in bio as well. Special thanks to Cara Marquis @marquiscreative for all her creative help on this rebrand project.

The Nantucket Hotel & Resort @thenantucket hosted around 200 ladies for “The Perfect Weekend” Elin event this past weekend. One of the highlights was my work husband and podcast co-host @timtalksbooks taught the attendees the choreography by @charmladonna to the song “Criminals” by @meghantrainor featured in the introduction of the Netflix limited series “The Perfect Couple” inspired by my novel of the same name. Here are Tim and me, plus friends and fans in the Nantucket Hotel ballroom dancing our hearts out. Thank you to @septemberfilms for the amazing footage, @billyvossevents for the music, @rebeccalovephotography for the photos, my sister Heather @gps123 and the entire Nantucket Hotel staff for the “perfect” @elinhilderbrand weekend! #elinhilderbrand #meghantrainor #theperfectcouple #danceflashmob

I’m not sure there is anyone else who has inspired me more as a reader than @oprah and today I got to shake her hand and thank her! AND she totally remembered meeting me for the @oprahsbookclub discussion a couple years back for “Demon Copperhead” which blew me away. I also picked the best seat in the house right next to the current @oprahsbookclub author @lizstroutauthor . Make sure to pick up “Tell Me Everything” and check in with Olive Kitteridge and Lucy Barton and Bob Burgess. Thank you @oprahsbookclub @oprahdaily @strandbookstore @threads and @meta Joseph, Mandie, Sarah, Garrett and everyone involved in today’s stellar event. Truly, I will never forget some of Oprah’s words today! Her love of literature is contagious and it was an honor to be there! #oprahsbookclub #Oprah #oprahwinfrey #thestrandbookstore

What an incredible evening @penamerica Literary Gala with my date @elinhilderbrand . The gala was held at the gorgeous Natural History Museum, honored Ann Patchett, and I got to see so many publishing friends, past and upcoming @nantucketbookfestival authors @jenniferfinneyboylan and @rebeccamakkai the list goes on, plus meet @patrickryannyc , who had the most charming introduction for Ann and wrote Buckeye, and also grab a photo with @rachelreidwrites , author of the Heated Rivalry series and @rebeccayarros , author of the Fourth Wing series. What a fantastically fancy night honoring free speech with Pen America. Thank you, Elin for the invitation.

I felt this book in my bones! I lived it. I loved it! If I had to sum up “John of John” by @douglas_stuart in one word I would choose, lyrical. He manages to write about the simplest of moments in the most artistically expressive way. By the author of the Booker Prize winning novel, Shuggie Bain and his sophomore book Young Mungo, this is a tale of a father’s expectations and a son’s desires. Its beauty is in the writing and emotions of the characters that bleed off the page. I know it may seem like I just copy whatever @oprah is recommending but I promise I read this and loved this way before it was an @oprahsbookclub pick Haha! Oprah and I are just kindred readers. Go read “John of John” this month! It’s one of those novels that will stay with me always. Signed copies @nantucketbooks

Brett sits down with Tim Ehrenberg of @timtalksbooks who is also the cohost of the popular book podcast, Books, Beach & Beyond with Elin Hilderbrand, and the President of the Nantucket Book Foundation which produces the Nantucket Book Festival. They discuss his own bookish origin story, his podcast and friendship with Elin as well as the hugely acclaimed book festival. Tim then shares six summer books and one from fall to add to your TBR. This episode is available from your podcast platform of choice or at the link in my bio. The video of this episode is available on YouTube, the link also in my bio Tim’s website: The Nantucket Book Festival: / Books, Beach & Beyond podcast: /

I am headed to NYC for @internationalthrillerwriters “Thriller Fest” this Friday, May 8th at 1:55pm! I’ll be on a panel called “Engage, Post, or Perish” moderated by Abby Dunn of @crimebythebook along with other bookstagrammers @spinesvines @bonechillingbooks @brian.reads @scaredstraightreads + @notesbynnenna ! I hope to see you there!

It’s been such a privilege serving as the Board President of the Nantucket Book Foundation for the last three years. If you’re on our mailing list, you should be receiving our 2026 Fundraising Appeal soon with photos of favorite festival moments over the last 15 years plus this note from me on it. Please consider a donation and a gift today by visiting nantucketbookfoundation.org. Once upon a time—15 years ago to be exact—our founders brought a bold idea to life: the Nantucket Book Festival. What began in 2012 as a celebration of storytelling has grown into the Nantucket Book Foundation, a vibrant community of readers and writers united by the transformative power of literature. Over the past 15 years, we have built one of the country’s premier book festivals. Our audiences have been captivated by literary legends like Margaret Atwood and Bob Woodward; moved to tears by Min Jin Lee and the Coe brothers; and mesmerized by Louise Penny and Ocean Vuong. We’ve gathered to meet our literary heroes, and discover new voices that expand our understanding of the world. We continue to support Nantucket’s students and the next generation by inspiring young minds with our school programs, Children’s Book Day, and the Nantucket Book Mobile. Connection is at the heart of everything we do. Join us as we write this continuing story! Whether through our signature Book Festival or our work with students, we are writing a lasting literary legacy with Nantucket as our setting—one page, one reader, one conversation at a time. Thank you for supporting the Nantucket Book Foundation’s mission. By making a donation, you directly contribute to our ability to bring world-class authors to the island, provide free and accessible programming, and foster a love of reading among people of all ages. Your support is the very ink that will write our next chapter of the Nantucket Book Foundation story.

The first @nantucket_magazine of the season is on stands now and it features 50 years of Nantucket’s Daffodil Festival AND 10 of my Top Books of 2026 so far. 📚 Lost Lambs by @madelinecash 📚 Kin by @tayari 📚 More Than Enough by @annaqwrites 📚 Good People by @patmeenasabit 📚 A Violent Masterpiece by @jordan_harper_yo 📚 American Fantasy by @emmastraub 📚 London Falling by @praddenkeefe and coming in May: 📚 The Calamity Club by @kathrynstockettauthor 📚 The Things We Never Say by @lizstroutauthor 📚 John of John by douglas_stuart Which ones have you read ? Which are you excited to read? Thank you N for featuring my “Need to Read” for the last 10 years. I can’t believe I have been writing this column for a decade. 📚📚📚

Captain’s View #Nantucket

Hooray! The cat’s outta the bag! “Go Gentle” by @mariasemple is the newest @oprahsbookclub pick and it is a fabulously quirky read, perfect on a park bench in springtime. I had the absolute pleasure hanging out with Maria Semple in Aspen last fall and she is just as delightful, insightful, and fun as her novels. In “Go Gentle” we meet Adora Hazzard. A Stoic philosopher (who knew I would enjoy all the philosophy in this book?) and divorcée, who lives a contented life on New York City’s Upper West Side. Having discovered that the secret to happiness is to desire only what you have, she’s applied this insight to blissful effect: relishing her teenage daughter, the freedom of being solo, and her job as a moral tutor for the twin boys of an old-money family. She’s even assembled a “coven”—like-minded women who live on the same floor in the legendary Ansonia—and is making active efforts to grow its membership. Adora’s carefully curated life is humming along brilliantly until a chance meeting with a handsome stranger. Soon, her ordered world is upended by black-market art deals, secret rendezvous, and international intrigue . . . and her past—which she has worked so hard to bury—lands like a bomb in her present. Inflamed by unquenchable desire, Adora finds herself a woman wanting more: and she’ll risk everything to get it. Adora Hazzard’s journey of self-discovery will grip you from the start. Romantic, hilarious, intelligent, and bursting with the stuff of life, Go Gentle is a thrilling story of one woman’s mid-life transformation, cementing Maria Semple in the pantheon of our most exciting and important contemporary writers.

On shelves now “The Ending Writes Itself” by @evelynclarkewrites (@veschwab + @catclarkewriter )! I love a whodunit mystery and I love books that get into the inside baseball of publishing and writers. This is the perfect combo of both. Imagine all your favorite writers on a season of “Traitors!” Don’t miss this one for pure joie de vivre or I guess, joie de reading! 😉