Transcript / LoLT: The American Writers Museum and Two New Books — 09 May 2025

This is a transcription of LoLT: The American Writers Museum and Two New Books — 09 May 2025

[cheerful music]

Melissa: Coming up, a steamy summer romance by the lake.

David: A teenager gets obsessed with a little detail in a famous painting.

Melissa: Plus, our Distraction of the Week. I’m Mel.

David: I’m Dave. This is The Library of Lost Time.

Melissa: In 1980, a YA book called ‘Love is Like Peanuts’ by Betty Bates was published. At the time, I loved that book. If it came out now, it would probably be canceled and review-bombed.

Melissa: Here’s the setup: A 14-year-old girl named Marianne accepts a summer job as a babysitter for a young girl with developmental disability. Catsy, her ward, is sweet and funny — and after initially being uncomfortable, Marianne grows to love Catsy. Catsy’s 18-year-old brother Toby is at home, on break from prep school, and before you can say summer romance, the babysitter Marianne and Toby are hot and heavy. She is very curious about things like making out. But Toby is responsible and puts on the brakes.

Melissa: Two things in this book made a permanent impression on my hippocampus. One: The kids go to a Fourth of July parade with a cooler full of drinks and sandwiches. The description of the sandwiches has never left my brain. I looked it up on the Internet Archive, and I remembered it almost word for word. Here’s the sentence: ‘They’re about two inches thick with tons of roast beef and lettuce and some kind of tangy sauce.’ I mean, why did that stick? What is wrong with me? I can’t remember vice presidents’ names or friends’ birthdays, but the phrase ‘tangy sauce’ in a terrible book from 45 years ago? Ingrained forever.

Melissa: Two: The second thing is the meaning of the title, which comes from a line on page 16. Marianne wonders why her mom is so concerned about her blossoming relationships with boys. ‘I can’t figure out why she’s so worried about me,’ she says. ‘I mean, she seems to think that love is like peanuts, that once you get started, you want more and more.’

Melissa: I have no idea how or why I got my hands on ‘Love Is Like Peanuts,’ but I do know that I was 12 years old and utterly transfixed by the first love in that book.

Melissa: Why am I telling you this? Because I’ve been chasing that 12-year-old pre-teen girl summer-reading high ever since.

Melissa: And this week, a book came out that just might fill that particular niche for adults. It’s ‘One Golden Summer’ by Carley Fortune. I’ve only read a sample so far, but it seems like a grown-up version of a sun-filled, boat-rides-on-the-lake, gazing-into-each-others-eyes kind of romance. The sort of book that inspires you to make a pitcher of iced tea, park your butt under a tree or in front of a fan, and read until it’s done.

Melissa: Here’s the setup: The heroine is a photographer named Alice. When she was 17, she spent one magical summer at her Nan’s cottage on a lake. When her grandmother falls and breaks her hip, the adult Alice returns for another summer — to cheer up her Nan and to rekindle her own creative spark. When she meets Charlie — charming, handsome, green-eyed Charlie — her grandmother tries to play matchmaker. But Alice and Charlie are committed to being only friends with benefits… or are they?

Melissa: The setting is Barry’s Bay, a real lakeside town in rural Ontario, Canada. The author Carley Fortune set a previous book there: ‘Every Summer After.’ That one has the tagline, ‘Six summers to fall in love. One moment to fall apart. A weekend to get it right.’ The story is told over six summers in the past and one weekend in the present. It has 4 stars after 673,189 reviews on Goodreads. The new book ‘One Golden Summer’ was named a most anticipated book of 2025 by the Today show, E! News, Buzzfeed, and Us Weekly.

Melissa: This could be fun if you’re looking for a super summer romance vibe that might give you some nostalgic vibes. It’s ‘One Golden Summer’ by Carley Fortune.

Melissa: I should also mention that the Internet Archive has a copy of ‘Love is Like Peanuts.’ I’m simultaneously tempted and scared to read it. But if anyone out there is curious, the internet has got your back. I’ll put the link in show notes — along with a link to an excerpt from ‘One Golden Summer.’

David: Fredrik Backman has a new book. You might recognize his name from A Man Called Ove, Beartown, or Anxious People. All three were big books — really well-loved. A Man Called Ove alone has over a million ratings on Goodreads. I suspect that, for a bunch of people, all I need to say here is, “‘Fredrik Backman has a new book.’

David: But, for everybody else … the new book is called ‘My Friends.’ It starts with a teenage girl named Louisa. She’s kind of brilliant and kind of messy — the best kind of complicated. One day, she spots something odd in a famous painting: in the far corner, out on a tiny pier, there are three shadowy figures, just barely visible. And Louisa cannot stop thinking about them. Who are they? Why are they there? What’s their story?

David: Those questions kick off a journey — across the country, but also across time — as Louisa chases this little mystery through multiple generations. She’s unraveling the story behind the painting. But she’s also digging into the lives of the four friends connected to it. And in the process, she ends up learning a lot about grief, love, legacy, and what it means to be seen by the people who know you best.

David: The story moves between past and present — from teenage summers by the sea to the more complicated age of adulthood. And at its heart, it’s about how we carry the people we’ve loved — or lost — long after they’re gone. Sometimes literally, sometimes in memory, sometimes in tiny ways we don’t even notice. It’s also about the power of art — the way a painting, a gesture, a sentence, can leave a mark long after the moment has passed. Kind of like a friendship.

David: If you’ve read Fredrik Backman before, you’ll recognize his voice immediately. He has this very specific tone that’s hard to describe but instantly familiar once you hear it. His narrators are usually third-person — thoughtful, dryly funny, and just a little back-door snarky. He writes with compassion, but he’s not overly sentimental. He’s kind to his characters, even when they’re being difficult.

David: Here’s the very first paragraph of My Friends, just to give you a taste:

Louisa is a teenager, the best kind of human. The evidence for this is very simple: little children think teenagers are the best humans, and teenagers think teenagers are the best humans, the only people who don’t think that teenagers are the best humans are adults. Which is obviously because adults are the worst kind of humans.

David: My teenage self reads that and thinks, ‘Exactly.’ My adult self reads that and thinks, ‘Yeah… I can see why you think that.’

David: Backman’s other signature move is the emotional sneak attack. He’ll introduce a character who seems cranky, or difficult, or kind of closed off — and you think you know who they are. Then three chapters later, he’ll quietly peel back the curtain and show you why they’re that way. And it will absolutely level you. He’s good at the slow reveal. The emotional wallop you don’t see coming — until suddenly, you’re wiping your eyes in public and muttering, ‘It’s just allergies, I swear.’

David: If you’ve never read Backman before, this might be a great place to start. It has all the warmth and humor and heartbreak he’s known for. The early reviews have been glowing. And if you have read him before? Then I’ll just say it again: Fredrik Backman has a new book. It’s called ‘My Friends.’ And it’s out now.

David: And now our Distraction of the Week.

David: Let’s say you find yourself in Chicago. Maybe you’ve eaten your weight in deep-dish pizza, seen the Cubs, gotten wonderfully lost in the Museum of Science and Industry, visited the Picasso baboon … and now you’re wondering what to do with yourself.

David: Let me recommend the American Writers Museum. Now I know some of you might be thinking: A writer’s museum? Don’t we just call those libraries?

David: No! This is different. This is not a hush-hush, card catalog kind of museum. This is a modern museum. It’s interactive. It’s joyful. It’s bright. And it celebrates the wild, sprawling, complicated art of writing in America — and what it means to all of us.

David: The museum is right on Michigan Avenue, about a ten minute walk from the Art Institute. If you go, you will find all sorts of delightful things.

David: There’s a permanent exhibit called ‘American Voices.’ That’s a sweeping timeline of 400 years of American writing – from Indigenous oral traditions all the way up to contemporary voices. There’s a huge wall of rotating quotations. You can pick out your favorite.

David: There’s also a space called the ‘Mind of a Writer’ gallery. That will let you have a peek at how different writers have gotten their work done – there’s a display of notebooks, early drafts, and writing rituals. You can sit down at a vintage typewriter and bang out your next draft. Or just look like a tortured genius. As you wish.

David: But the thing that initially caught my eye was a special exhibit that’s running through November. It’s called, ‘Level Up: Writers and Gamers.’ Level Up explores the intersection of storytelling and gaming. Gaming! In a literary museum! Let’s go!

David: Level Up explores the overlap between storytelling and video games. How game designers create immersive worlds, how player choices shape the narrative — how gaming has become its own kind of literature. The exhibit looks at everything from old-school text adventures like Zork to modern, cinematic epics like The Last of Us and God of War.

David: There are concept maps, and character trees, and concept art. There are vintage consoles. There are playable games. For me, it sounds like one of the many floors of heaven. I love this bridge between high and low culture, or really, just between different kinds of storytelling. I’m firmly in the ‘games are art” camp,’ and it’s exciting to see a literary museum making space for the writers behind these games, giving them the same love and respect we give novelists and poets.

David: If you can’t get to Chicago in person, you can visit online. There’s a section of Virtual Exhibits on their website. You can dig into author profiles — Ray Bradbury, Frederick Douglass. They’ve got an exhibit honoring immigrant and refugee writers. And they’ve got a surprisingly detailed literary timeline in the ‘American Voices’ display. You can visit from your couch; it’s all pants optional, bring your own snacks.

David: But if you are in Chicago — and you’re free this Tuesday — you’re in for a treat. The museum is hosting an in-person event called ‘Get Lit: The Grown-Up Book Fair.’ And yes, it is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a school book fair — but with cocktails. There will be wine. There will be tote bags. There will be passionate discussions about backlist titles and beautiful cover design. You can browse new releases, meet your new favorite indie bookseller, and bask in that glorious ‘I wasn’t going to buy anything and now I have four books and a bookmark’ energy.

David: It’s fun. It’s literary. It’s community. If you can, check it out!

David: So, whether you’re a lifelong bookworm, or a video game lover, or a curious traveller, or just someone who likes being around smart people doing cool things with words — the American Writers Museum is for you. Put it on your map. I think you’re going to love it.

Melissa: Visit strongsenseofplace.com/library for more on the books we talked about today and details about the exhibits at the American Writers Museum.

David: Thanks for joining us in the Libary of Lost Time. Remember to visit your local library and your independent bookstore to lose some time yourself.

Melissa: Stay curious. We’ll talk to you soon.

[cheerful music]

Top image courtesy of American Writers Museum.