J. Ryan Stradal in conversation with Kate Gibson

About the Book:

From the New York Times bestselling author J. Ryan Stradal, 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 Mariel’s family for decades, but it also caused a rift between mother and daughter that never quite healed.

Ned is also an heir—to a chain of home-style diners—and 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. Can they find a way to rebuild their lives, and will the Lakeside Supper Club be their salvation?

In this vanishing world of relish trays and brandy old-fashioneds, New York Times bestselling author J. Ryan Stradal has given us a story full of his signature winning, honest yet fallible Midwestern characters as they grapple with love and tragedy, hardship and hope—and what their legacy will be when they are gone.

About the Authors:

J. Ryan Stradal is the author of New York Times bestseller Kitchens of the Great Midwest, which won the American Booksellers Association Indie's Choice Award for Adult Debut Book of the Year, and the Midwest Booksellers Choice Award for the year's top novel. His second novel, the national bestseller The Lager Queen of Minnesota, won the WILLA Literary Award for Fiction and was a finalist for the Heartland Booksellers Award. His third and newest novel, Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club, was also a Heartland finalist, and became a national bestseller the first week of its release. His shorter writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Guardian, among other places. Born and raised in Minnesota, he now lives with his family in California.

Kate Gibson is one half of the pair hosting ABC Audio podcast The Book Case with Kate and Charlie Gibson, which combines her love of authors, reading and her father.  She is currently obtaining a Masters degree in Library and Information Sciences from St. Kate’s University in St. Paul.  Up until this enrollment she pursued (despite her parents loving and well-intentioned entreaties) a career in television (mostly as a culinary show producer and executive in public media).  She is the high-strung and devoted mother of two amazing children (10 and 5) and the wife of a talented audio engineer and producer (which is convenient for a woman who wants to pursue a career in literary podcasting).