Cake with Katie No. 12: Tim Ehrenberg

Welcome back to Cake with Katie! This month, we are joined by a very special guest: Tim Ehrenberg of Tim Talks Books. As his Instagram name suggests, wherever Tim goes, he’s talking about books! From his podcast with Elin Hilderbrand and influence on the Nantucket literary scene to book festivals and morning show appearances, Tim is passionate about sharing his favorite reads with the world. Delivered with his signature charm, today Tim is talking his top book recs (spanning classics from his childhood to upcoming beach reads), the authors and fictional characters he’d like to share cake with, plus life on Nantucket and his history with Elin!

Since it’s the start of summer and beach read season—and the most fun time of year to be a reader—I thought it was only fitting to have the most fun guest yet for this month’s edition of Cake with Katie. I would say no offense to any of my previous guests, but I know they won’t take it, as chances are all the authors probably know Tim, love him, and would agree!

I was first introduced to Tim via Elin Hilderbrand’s acknowledgements section in 28 Summers (review here + side note: Does anyone else always read the acknowledgements after finishing a book?), where she thanks her “work husband,” Tim Ehrenberg. I somehow missed the “work” part and spent a good chunk of time assuming Tim and Elin were married. After I followed Tim on Instagram, I quickly figured out he is happily married to his husband, Santi, and that Elin is a dear friend, and I fell in love with his love of literature from afar. Since then, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Tim in person, sharing a cucumber martini (sans vodka for me, as I was pregnant during my time on Nantucket), and confirming he’s even better in real life!

Tim has carved out the most unique book lover’s career path, and he’s done it all with the best backdrop—the idyllic island of Nantucket he calls home. To steal a line from Harry Styles, Tim has a book for every situation. He reads all genres and shares them enthusiastically online and in print through N Magazine, where he’s penned a “Need to Read” article in every issue for the past decade.

Together with Elin Hilderbrand, Tim co-hosts the Books, Beach, & Beyond podcast, where they’ve interviewed Emily Henry, Ann Patchett, Sarah Jessica Parker, Ina Garten, Nicole Kidman, and many more bookish stars (Keep your eyes peeled for one of our favorites, Carley Fortune, coming on the podcast this season!).

Tim is also president of the Nantucket Book Foundation, which presents the annual Nantucket Book Festival every June, and the marketing, events, and e-commerce director for Nantucket Book Partners.

Somehow, despite all of these roles and responsibilities, Tim still manages to read and provide thoughtful commentary on an eye-watering number of books. He was a bookstagrammer before it was a thing, and he’s a testament to the enduring power of connection that comes with a love and appreciation for reading!

I am lucky enough to be surrounded by many book lovers in my life, but I have found such a kindred spirit in Tim. There’s no better feeling than meeting a fellow book lover who shares an equal desire to spend their days talking fictional characters and authors while sipping something delicious. We joke that we are brother and sister separated at birth, but every time I share a photo with Tim, people ask if we’re married (Can you imagine how insane our library would be?!). Speaking of libraries, Tim is currently renovating his home on Nantucket and adding a library that will make any bibliophile swoon. All this to say, I look up to Tim, admire the career he’s created for himself, and aspire to be half the moderator he is whenever I do an event.

OK, enough gushing. Whether you’re a longtime Tim Talks Books fan or new to Tim, I think you’ll love this interview!

Tim: First off, I just have to say how much I adore you, Katie. You have this quality where everyone feels like they would be your best friend, and I enjoy listening to you talk about anything on Instagram. I never skip a story. Congratulations on building such an amazing community!

(Katie: This is where I blush!! Nonstop!!)

Katie: As always, dessert first! What’s your favorite cake of all time?

Tim: I have two answers. One I think will be appreciated and respected by all your subscribers, and the second is so bad I can’t believe I am writing it—you probably won’t even want to publish it! Haha! Every year on my birthday, I ask for a Funfetti cake. I love every bite, and it reminds me of my childhood birthdays.

My more refined palate’s answer is Julia Child’s Reine de Saba flourless chocolate almond cake. My husband is an incredible baker, and he has mastered Julia’s “Queen of Sheba” cake!

Katie: Now you get to take that cake, plus some champagne, and share it with any author—living or dead… who is it going to be? Let’s also hear what fictional character from any book you’d choose for this sweet soiree!

Tim: This is tough, and I have so many answers, but I have to say Stephen King. He has been one of my favorite authors since fifth grade, and I have read everything he has published. I have so many questions for him, and he is dodging my interview requests. His books are part of our culture, even if you don’t read him. I wonder if Stevie King would prefer a Funfetti cake or the Reine de Saba?

As far as a fictional character to join us… Dobby the house-elf from Harry Potter, maybe? I love that elf. Can Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot and Benji from Fredrik Backman’s Beartown series join us? What a weird collection of guys eating Funfetti cake and drinking champagne together.

Side note: I can’t believe this whole guest list I just curated is four dudes when most of my best friends are girls. LOL! I am going to change my answer. I want to go to Barry’s Bay (to the lake this summer) with Carley Fortune and Katie Shober. We would have more fun, I think, than I would have with the world’s best horror writer, a house-elf, an old Belgian detective, and a closeted hockey player.

Katie: What is your “&”—your bubbly to your beach reads—your must-have indulgence, comfort, or ritual to go along with whatever you’re reading?

Tim: I love reading with my morning coffee. If I am going out, I will get ready a little earlier to enjoy a few chapters with my dirty martini. I feel like Club Bubbly subscribers will understand this, but I love reading in a recently cleaned room. Is that weird?

We are currently in the middle of a house renovation, and I am finally going to have the home library I have always dreamed of with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves on every wall. This will be the “bubbly to my beach reads!” I can’t wait to see the finished room and read in this space any chance I get—if I survive this renovation process, that is.

Katie: What is the first book you remember falling in love with?

Tim: I can’t name just one. I loved the Oz series by L. Frank Baum (the original books). I loved Roald Dahl books like Matilda, The Witches, and The BFG. I remember crying my eyes out at Where the Red Fern Grows and Summer of the Monkeys by Wilson Rawls. I devoured every single one of Agatha Christie’s mysteries. I vividly remember the day I snatched Accident by Danielle Steel off my mom’s bookshelf, and I felt so grown up when I started reading it. And then It by Stephen King! It’s over 1,000 pages, and I read it way before I should have been reading a book about a satanic clown, but it really ignited my love for coming-of-age stories and long books to get lost in.

Katie: Do you have a beloved quote from a book that you always return to?

Tim:

“What he knew, he knew from books.”

–Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life

Put it on my tombstone.

Katie: What’s your favorite book you’ve read this year?

Tim:

• Kin by Tayari Jones

• Whistler by Ann Patchett (Katie’s review here)

• Good People by Patmeena Sabit

• Lost Lambs by Madeline Cash

• The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout

• More Than Enough by Anna Quindlen

• The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett

Katie: What book would you recommend to someone in a reading rut who wants to get back into it?

Tim: I always read a good mystery if I am in a rut. If you are looking for a book that is new this year, Good People by Patmeena Sabit is so propulsive with quick chapters that I think would pull anyone out of a rut. Harlan Coben’s mysteries have always gotten me out of any reading slumps. If I really can’t focus on a new book, I will reread portions of my favorite books. I just reread some of East of Eden by John Steinbeck the other day, and I really enjoyed revisiting that story.

Katie: Your taste in books is so varied—it seems like you’ll try anything! How do you decide what to read next? And what are you planning to read next with beach read season upon us?

Tim: Yes! I read everything! Mystery. Romance. History. Fantasy. Young Adult. Memoir. Classics. Romantasy. (Katie, remember when we didn’t know each other, and I couldn’t find a copy of Fourth Wing and I wrote to you, saying, “How do I find a copy with the black dragon pages?” And you mailed me yours! This truly began our forever friendship. If you are all wondering if Katie really is that sweet, she is!)

I prioritize my favorite writers, so if they have something new, I will read those first. Then I need to read for work, the podcast, upcoming interviews, the Nantucket Book Festival, and the book article I write every month in N Magazine—so that takes up a lot of reading time.

I have a bunch of books coming out this fall that I have ready to read at the beach this summer. Jodi Picoult’s Hollow Bones (I’m in the middle of this right now, and it’s amazing!), American Hagwon by Min Jin Lee, and Partita by Barbara Kingsolver. Liane Moriarty is out with a sequel to Big Little Lies called Big Little Truths, and as soon as I have that in my hands, I will drop everything to read it. Of course, I will be reading Elin Hilderbrand and Shelby Cunningham’s sequel to The Academy, The Thoroughbreds, to find out what was in Cinnamon’s email. The Shampoo Effect by Jenny Jackson is probably my favorite beach read of the season recommendation though.

Katie: I think I can speak for many BR&B readers when I say visiting—let alone living on—Nantucket is a dream. What is your favorite part of living on the island?

Tim: You just said it best! Nantucket is a dream. It feels like a dream when you are here. It feels like a fantasy place conjured up by one of our favorite writers, like Hogwarts, Narnia, or Oz. It’s one of the most special places in the world, and even after living here for over a decade, I appreciate every moment, every window box, and every cobblestone. Nantucket is timeless. The preservation of the island, the way the houses all match, the hydrangeas and roses, the beaches, the people, the community, the festivals… it’s my happy place in every way!

Kali: How did you get started working with Elin?

Tim: Hi Kali! I first met Elin in the summer of 2012 at Cisco Brewers right before my husband and I got married on Nantucket. She signed my copy of Summerland (her new novel in 2012) with: “Happy Wedding Day to Tim and Santi!” I never thought I would see her again.

Santi and I fell so in love with Nantucket that we decided to move there in 2013, and I started a marketing business. Two of my clients were the bookstores here on Nantucket: Mitchell’s Book Corner and Nantucket Bookworks. When COVID happened in 2020, no one could get books from bigger chains or from a certain place I won’t name. It starts with an A (Sorry, shop local all the way!). Books weren’t considered essential items (GASP from all of us bookworms out there!). We offered a special signed copy of Elin’s novel that year: 28 Summers (Katie’s favorite!). Since then, we have offered a special exclusive package for all of Elin’s books—signed and personalized, with a little extra gift you can’t get anywhere else. We have sold and shipped thousands and thousands and thousands of Elin’s books off our little island and little bookstores 30 miles out to sea. For Swan Song, we shipped out 12,000 preorders of a special edition the publisher created just for us at Nantucket Book Partners. It was the biggest project to manage, and I’m so proud of it. Signing all those books meant Elin and I spent a lot of time together over the years, and from there, a friendship and podcast formed.

Cara: What is your favorite Elin book?

Tim: If I had to choose just one, The Five-Star Weekend is my favorite. Elin and I spent a lot of time together when she was writing it, so I knew a lot of the developments as she was coming up with them. If you can believe it, my husband, Santi, and I are characters in the book. We are Gigi’s friends, “Tim and Santi,” that pop up throughout the story. So, that was fun to see us in there. I also love to host people here at my house on Nantucket. I come up with iTIMeraries (or full weekend itineraries of all the fun things to see, eat, and drink on Nantucket) just like Hollis does for her five-star weekend. Also, the screen adaptation starring Jennifer Garner is coming out this July, so we are all in full FIVE-STAR mode right now.

I also love The Blue Bistro, 28 Summers, and The Matchmaker, which doesn’t get enough attention.

Lauren: What’s your tried-and-true way of preventing new releases from taking the top spots of your TBR, relegating all others to perpetual downward movement?!

Tim: Unfortunately, I don’t think I do this that well, and I wish I had a tried-and-true way. If something arrives that I am really excited to read, I will move onto it. The issue here is I could be really enjoying what I was reading, but the fresh, new, and shiny book looks more enticing—especially if it’s from one of my favorite writers. I am really a seasonal reader, meaning in the winter I have a lot more time, so I’ll read everything cover to cover from January through March. In the summer, my attention span is a lot shorter, so I have been known to jump around a lot. I’ll come back to books I’ve started in the fall or at the right moment.

Laura: Tim, I love you, and I always trust your recommendations! How do you schedule your time to read so much—what does your day look like?

Tim: Laura, you are so sweet. Thank you. I start and end my day with reading. I always read a few pages with my morning coffee, and I read for hours in bed before I go to sleep. Most people say reading puts them to sleep, but it never really has for me. I get a lot of reading time in then. I will also read anywhere. I go to yoga every day at 4:30 p.m. I get there at 4 and read for half an hour on the yoga mat before class starts. I actually have done a bit of a class while reading a book. Try reading in Downward Dog… it’s therapeutic! The other day, I read a book while I was walking on the beach. I was antsy, so I didn’t want to sit, but I also wanted to read the book. And if you are wondering what book was so good I had to walk and read at the same time, it was Voyagers by Meg Charlton! I also have to fit in work for the bookstores, the book festival, the podcast, and Tim Talks Books during the day too!

Happy summer reading, all!

See…. didn’t you just fall in love with Tim?! I am so grateful that he cleared some time in his busy season for us! You can find Tim on Instagram, where he shares what he’s reading (along with progress on his renovation!), and on his website. Tim has a packed schedule this summer in conversation with some fabulous authors, so if you find yourself on Nantucket, check out his schedule here!

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xoxo, Katie

Editor: Elizabeth Czapski