Reading With Robin Galentine’s Event at Maven’s

What’s better than a cozy dinner of matzo ball soup with your besties? Add in an author chat with bestselling Massachusetts-based author Tova Mirvis just two days after the release of her latest novel We Would Never (Simon & Schuster), and you’ve got yourself one Galentine’s Day for the books. Robin Kall, AKA Reading With Robin, has teamed up with Lauren Sugarman to hold the event on February 13 at Maven’s Delicatessan, Sugarman’s family’s modern traditional Jewish eatery, which has quickly become a go-to for anyone craving everything from knishes and kugel to Reubens and rugelach. For over 20 years, Kall has turned a love of reading into her livelihood, connecting readers and writers through author events and interviews, book clubs, giveaways, a podcast, and online platforms, under both Reading With Robin and The Cardigan Connection. Kall also assembles recommendations as a contributor to our “Rhody Reads" column, where this month she includes We Would Never. If the blurb piqued your interest, now is your chance to get a signed copy and half sandwich. RobinKall.com/tickets

Your Galentine’s Event with author Tova Mirvis seems like the perfect match of culture and camaraderie. What should attendees look forward to? 

Indeed! Attendees can look forward to a fun evening filled with entertaining conversation, delicious food, new friends, and always the unexpected!

You include Mirvis’ We Would Never in your January “Rhody Reads,” and the release date is just two days before your event. How exciting to be part of the book launch! How did this come to be?

As a book influencer, I read nine months to a year or so ahead of a book’s publication date. When I sat down with We Would Never last summer, I just knew we had to host Tova Mirvis here in Rhode Island. It sounds cliche, but I really did not put this book down. There is also a follow up Zoom book club meetup with Tova and me on March 12 and that’s when all the spoilers come out.

How did you select Maven’s to be the setting for this event? 

The first thing I do after deciding that I want to host an author is plan the location. In the more than 20 years that we have been bringing authors to Rhode Island, I can say that choosing a location takes the most thought. We know our audience. We hosted a fabulous event at Maven’s last year with cookbook author Micah Siva when Nosh was published. We had such a great time working on the event with Jason and Lauren Sugarman that I knew we’d be back when the right book presented itself. 

Along with an autographed copy of the book, guests will get a choice of soup with half sandwich or salad, and dessert. What do you plan to order?

I love this question! I’m a salad girl, though I might need to have a matzo ball as well. We made sure that there is something for everyone. 

Tell us about the “show” part of this dinner and show event.

Tova and I will be in conversation for 20 minutes or so. We’ll talk about the inspiration for the story, which is a whole other story, and some of the fun facts that didn’t make the cut, plus whatever else pops into my head. We’ll have time for a few questions and then Tova will personalize and autograph books.