Books
Fiction Book Club in Coconut Grove!
Books & Books in Coconut Grove is proud to present a Fiction Book Club hosted by our very own bookseller extraordinaire, Katherine Wakefield. The February 2026 pick is Booker Prize winning author George Saunders's novel Vigil (Random House, $28.00). A spiritual successor to Lincoln In the Bardo (Random House $29.00), Vigil explores the perils of unfettered capitalism and climate change with Saunders's characteristic humor, sensitivity, and imagination.
Can't make it? Order your copy of Vigil online HERE.
This event will take place at Books & Books in Coconut Grove. RSVP is free, but please only register if you intend to join us as space is limited. This is an authorless event, and please come prepared to discuss the novel.
Not for the first time, Jill “Doll” Blaine finds herself hurtling toward earth, reconstituting as she falls, right down to her favorite black pumps. She plummets towards her newest charge, yet another soul she must usher into the afterlife, and lands headfirst in the circular drive of his ornate mansion.
She has performed this sacred duty 343 times since her own death. Her charges, as a rule, have been greatly comforted in their final moments. But this charge, she soon discovers, isn’t like the others. The powerful K. J. Boone will not be consoled, because he has nothing to regret. He lived a big, bold, epic life, and the world is better for it. Isn’t it?
George Saunders is the author of thirteen books, including the novel Lincoln in the Bardo, which won the Booker Prize, and five collections of stories, including Tenth of December, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, and the recent collection Liberation Day (selected by former President Obama as one of his ten favorite books of 2022). Three of Saunders’s books—Pastoralia, Tenth of December, and Lincoln in the Bardo—were chosen for The New York Times’s list of the 100 Best Books of the 21st Century. Saunders hosts the popular Story Club on Substack, which grew out of his book on the Russian short story, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain. In 2013, he was named one of the world’s 100 Most Influential People by Time. He teaches in the creative writing program at Syracuse University.
Katherine Wakefield is a native Miamian and lifelong book lover. She was a part-time bookseller while in college studying music, and after a fifteen-year sojourn in Germany teaching English and voice, she returned to Miami and to putting books into the hands of eager readers. She marked her tenth year of employment at Books and Books this past December, having worn many hats including, but not limited to, OG staff at the Arsht and Coconut Grove locations, merchandiser, event host, offsite bookseller, storybook reader, and general bookslinger. And, up next, book club leader. She finds the most rewarding aspect of working at Books and Books is being in the company of such excellent, interesting people who contribute immeasurably to the vibrancy and well-being of literary Miami
