I need to start with the biggest throat clearing in the world: I haven’t read the year’s buzziest book, Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke.
I’m a little tradwife’d out after the year of The Supper Club Saints and just don’t have the desire to hang with Ballerina Farm. I know a couple of people who have met Burke and said she was absolutely lovely and generous. Clearly, bajillions of people have loved her book so it must have some merit. It could be much, much better than anything I’ll ever write and I have no idea because I have not read it. Okay? Okay.
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If you live under an absolute rock, Yesteryear is about a tradwife (a very thinly veiled Hannah Neeleman, I believe) who gets sent back in time to the prairie days and has to live out the life she painstakingly performs online. There’s a big twist that I read online but won’t share here.
The Supper Club Saints, which came out in May, is about tradwives. Kinda. The book centers on Cass, who’s returning home to her small town after spending two years in a Mommune with a bunch of other aspiring-momfluencers. Some really awful shit went down and now she’s come back to work at her family’s supper club, which she learns they’re selling. She gets a job as a parenting advice columnist and chaos ensues.
Yesteryear is everywhere. The Supper Club Saints is not.
This is not pity marketing. My book did not do as well as Yesteryear because nobody’s did as well as Yesteryear. Anyway, my ideas about book promo are not the standard ones. If I thought I could force through some kind of instant buzz blitz, I would, but I don’t believe it’s possible, so instead I see books as tiny little campfires I tend to, hoping they grow and grow and grow. That’s what’s worked for my career so far, and it’s worked well. My first adult novel, The Funeral Ladies of Ellerie County, was not buzzy at all (I had no blurbs and exactly one trade review) but I earned out within the year, am frequently asked to speak out the book on podcasts and at author events, and continue to see good sales two years later. It was optioned for TV (short lived but hey, I’ll take the compliment + the paycheck). It’s my belief that the same will happen with The Supper Club Saints and if it doesn’t—well. That’s life, which occasionally sucks1.
I can’t really speak on Yesteryear because again, I HAVE NOT READ IT, but when I can speak on is what it’s like to see a book similar to yours absolutely skyrocket, and to wonder why that is. And then: to have the strange experience of many people reaching out to you expressing that your book was a palate cleanser.
Because for as many people enjoyed Yesteryear, there were plenty who didn’t.
Some pieces that have caught my eye lately:
And some things that have been said about The Supper Club Saints, and ONCE AGAIN, I HAVE NOT READ THIS BOOK AND I AM NOT TRYING TO HURT THIS MASSIVELY POPULAR AUTHOR’S FEELINGS BECAUSE SHE IS STILL A HUMAN WHO HAS THEM:
Of course—of course—you can go into Yesteryear’s reviews and see lots and lots of stars. Many people clearly enjoyed the book.
But these palate-cleanser statements have also been emailed to me and sent to me via IG and basically just shoved in front of my face: thanks for trying to understand instead of trying to flatten.
There is a quote from John Steinbeck that has always, always guided my writing: “In every bit of honest writing in the world there is a base theme. Try to understand men, if you understand each other you will be kind to each other. Knowing a man well never leads to hate and nearly always leads to love. There are shorter means, many of them. There is writing promoting social change, writing punishing injustice, writing in celebration of heroism, but always that base theme. Try to understand each other.”
I do not believe the current trend of women pretending they’re completely self-sufficient and fear-mongering other moms online is a good one. But there’s more to it than an evil quest for dollar dollar bills, more to it than empty-headed bimbos in linen dresses, more to it than anger or hate or fear or all of the icky feelings we find under our hearts, the way we find moldy quarters under our couch cushions.
I want to understand these women, and their millions of followers. I want to understand Burke—I’d love to sit down and talk shop with her! I want us all to try and understand each other.
That’s what I hoped to explore with The Supper Club Saints. Thank you so, so much to everyone who gave it a read. 🖤
And to anyone else panicking because their book is being released at the same time as a massive bestseller with incredibly similar themes2: look, friend. No good choices ever came out of existential panic. Tend your own fire. Maybe you’ll be just the palate cleanser someone needs.
Here for the kidlit? My next middle grade novel, Mr. Cooper Didn’t Do It, releases next January and is available for preorder or to add on Goodreads.
Ruby Logan has always wanted to be seen. With a trouble-making older brother and a demanding baby sister, she’s invisible in the middle. So when her teacher Mr. Cooper—a cool, funny guy everyone loves—is forced to shut down his YouTube Channel “Coop’s Class,” Ruby’s one chance at feeling special is shot.
With internet fame off the table, Ruby and her friends focus on an upcoming overnight field trip—until the principal announces it’s cancelled because someone stole the admission fee. Days later, an anonymous tip says to check Mr. Cooper’s desk. To everyone’s shock, the money is there, and Mr. Cooper is removed; investigation pending.
But there’s no way Mr. Cooper did this. Using journalism techniques they learned in class, Ruby and her friends do their own digging to clear his name. As the clues pile up and the suspect list grows, Ruby finally makes some headway. And what she finds will challenge everything she believed. No, Mr. Cooper didn’t steal the money, but he might have done something else. And maybe Ruby knew about it all along…
7/9, Brookfield, WI: I’ll be in conversation with Emily Giffin about her latest book, Love You More, with Boswell Books at the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts. Ticketed event.
8/6, Manitowish Waters, WI: I’ll be at Frank B. Koller Memorial Library at 6:00 PM for a free book talk and Q & A. This is a free event with no registration required, and my books will be available for purchase + signing.
And lastly, a book (or two, or three) I’ve loved lately for…
Picture book fans: We snagged Jonathan Emmett and Poly Bernatene’s The Princess and the Pig from the library and it’s been quite the hit! Prince and the Pauper, but…with a pig.
Middle graders: We’re working our way through EB White’s Charlotte’s Web for our summer family read aloud (K is also doing Fellowship of the Ring with the elder two, which Benjamin has already read) and I can’t put down The Blossoming Summer, a sweet WW2 historical by Anna Rose Johnson.
My kids recommend: Benjamin (10) is in full-on summer mode so it’s Star Wars, Star Wars, Star Wars. I also got him Lionel Messi’s World Cup Triumph, a graphic novel by Chris Barish (recommended by the always-fabulous ) because tis the season. Tess (8) is working her way through Silverwing by Kenneth Oppel, after I finally ripped Odder from her clutches. Bridget (5) has been enjoying many a reread of Mossy by Jan Brett.
Adults: I’ve been on a pretty dang great reading streak lately. Tilt by Emma Pattee was short + intriguing: a pregnant woman is in Ikea when a nearly-apocalyptic earthquake hits Portland and she’s forced to walk home. I blew through it. I’m also listening to Persuasion by Jane Austen via audio (I always prefer Austen as an audiobook!) and tackling Once Upon a Time There Was Truth: Why We Need Fairy Tales by Jack Zipes, an academic look at the historical importance of the fairy tale.
Thanks for reading along!
Coffee With Claire is the newsletter of Claire Swinarski, an Edgar Award nominated author of books for children and adults.
My books for kids: Each and Every Spark | Take It From the Top | What Happened to Rachel Riley | The Kate In Between | What Happens Next
My books for adults: The Supper Club Saints | The Funeral Ladies of Ellerie County
Not to be a brat but I feel like authors forget this: so does every other job, at times
I would also remind everyone of this: readers are readers and if they loved that New York Times bestselling author’s Alien Queen Romance, they will probably want to read another Alien Queen Romance to stay with the vibes! Maybe yours!!! It’s not like we read a book we love and go okay, never reading anything similar to that ever again!!!!!!!
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