sitting down with a book: a q&a with jenny rosenstrach and andy ward
(from our march “field notes from the tillerman” newsletter. sign up to receive the next one here!)
One of my favorite parts of innkeeping is meeting and connecting with the wonderful people passing through. Sometimes they return again and again and over time you share an evening cocktail, a tableside chat, a morning coffee, phone calls, text messages and offsite visits.
-Kate
Today’s q & a is with a couple who showed up our very first fall with their daughter Abby who was starting her freshman year at Middlebury College. We became fast friends and now, going on 5 years, we are scheming up collaborations even though Abby has graduated and their visits are less frequent. Meet Jenny and Andy- book lovers extraordinaire. Jenny Rosenstrach of the beloved newsletter and blog Dinner a Love Story as well as The Weekday Vegetarian cookbooks. Andy, the adored Vice President & Publisher at Penguin Random House and the giver of so many of the wonderful books in our bookshelf here at The Tillerman- thank you Andy. Jenny and Andy are all around warm, generous & delightful human beings I feel lucky to call friends.
First off, most importantly, what did you have for breakfast today and what are you doing for dinner tonight?
Cottage cheese standing up in front of the refrigerator and of course my morning coffee walk. In the late morning there was a sautéed cabbage and apple snack. Tonight I am making a black bean soup from the 40th anniversary copy of the Union Square Café cookbook. I have a distinct memory of that soup and I want to recreate it – there was definitely a shot of sherry involved.
Now onto books…what book have you read that you would put in the category “Brilliant but not up my alley”
The cult following of My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante amazes me. I want to love it but I am underwhelmed by it and appear to be one of the few people who doesn’t understand the appeal of her books.
Which book made you want to hide out from the world and not stop till it was over? That kept you up till the wee hours..
The Correspondent by Virginia Evans, I couldn’t get over it. I was resistant to it because it was so popular but SO glad I got over that, it was wonderful.
Loved and Missed by Susie Boyt
Which book could you not shake – that just stuck with you for better or worse ?
The Correspondent - I finished it at night and couldn’t sleep because I was so moved and sad – it was deeply sad. It made me think about my mother, being a mother, aging, the texture of my relationships, am I giving enough to the world, am I showing up enough in my relationships?
Which book upset you? challenged you? And while you couldn’t stop reading it perhaps you also wanted to throw it across the room.
Next of Kin by Gabrielle Hamilton – Her writing is so poetic and lyrical, and I owed it to her to read it but it was very dark and very upsetting and hard to read. She is just not afraid to go there and speaks of the estrangement she has had from almost everyone in her family.
Which character from which book did you miss the most? Like you wish they were a friend or a part of your family? Someone you would sit on the stoop with and chat.
Polly from Anna Quindlen’s new book More Than Enough. She is an upper west side dwelling, NYC English teach and book lover – I felt like I knew her.
Which book made you laugh out loud?
David Sedaris always does but most recently Sandwich by Catherine Newman.
Do you either of you see writing a novel in your future?
Hard no for Andy but for me, I want to but I don’t know how. I have tried to but it’s a muscle I haven’t yet exercised enough, I still might – it is a bucket list item and always will be.
Anything that you are just excited to share or talk about in general before we go?
To follow the subject of my own writing – The Book of Alchemy by Suleika Jaouad has been really great to get my writing muscles going in a different direction – she just gives great advice like don’t use a computer – go long hand because the delete button is your enemy or write about something you have always been scared to write about.
It has really great prompts and I highly recommend it for anyone who thinks they a have story in them.
And for Andy- what is he is working now and excited to put out into the world?
The irony of being a book editor is that I read very little outside of what we publish here at Random House, so forgive me if this list is a little narrow or self-serving. But in my defense, Random House does happen to have an amazing year of fiction coming in 2026, so many books that I am in love with. Including but definitely not limited to: a new Elizabeth Strout novel, The Things We Never Say, one that features a whole new cast of characters; a haunting and ambitious novel from Emma Cline, told from the perspective of an Alzheimer’s patient who has gone to Switzerland to end his life (just trust me on this); Every Story is A Love Story by Imbolo Mbue, which moves from New York to Cameroon and back again; a new Daniel Mason novel called Country People (set in Vermont, no less!), his first since the sublime North Woods; and the second novel from George Saunders, Vigil, which came out last month and is about a deathbed reckoning and which brings every ounce of his willingness to grapple with the big questions to bear — which sounds like a perfect way to spend an afternoon by the fireplace at the Tillerman.