Page 129
“The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” can be found in The Complete Short Stories (Everyman’s Library) by Mark Twain.
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
Page 134
Captain Boomer, Alice’s most popular ice cream parlor, gets its name from the upbeat captain in Moby-Dick.
Page 135
Charming Billy by Alice McDermott — a publishing friend once told me that no one read from her books better than Alice McDermott.
Page 143
“The Bible. Or Tuesdays with Morrie.”
Although Friedman’s answers suggest that he is not particularly well read, Amelia might have compared The Late Bloomer to Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom when her job was to sell it for Knightley Press.
Page 145
The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
Page 147
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Page 156
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party by M.T. Anderson
A Good Man-darin is Hard to Find is indeed a nail polish color from OPI.
Page 157
Part of the passage (“Someday, you do not know when, you will be driving down a road…”) from The Late Bloomer that Leonora Friedman reads at the wedding is a slightly rewritten version of one that appears on page 241 of my first adult novel, Margarettown. Margarettown is no longer in print.
Thank you for mentioning M.T. Anderson. The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing is an astonishing book, and I recommend his books to others whenever possible, and no one ever listens to me. I feel a tiny bit vindicated seeing you mention this book.