Join us Thursday November 9th at 6:30 pm as we welcome Jedidiah Jenkins to the store to discuss and sign Mother Nature: A 5,000-Mile Journey to Discover If a Mother and Son Can Survive Their Differences.

Jedidiah Jenkins Event Reservation

When his mother, Barbara, turned seventy, Jedidiah Jenkins was reminded of a sobering truth: Our parents won’t live forever. For years, he and Barbara had talked about taking a trip together, just the two of them. They disagree about politics, about God, about the project of society—disagreements that hurt. But they love thrift stores, they love eating at diners, they love true crime, and they love each other. He wanted to step into Barbara’s world and get to know her in a way that occasional visits hadn’t allowed.

They landed on an idea: retrace the thousands of miles Barbara trekked with Jedidiah’s father, travel writer Peter Jenkins, as part of the “Walk Across America” book trilogy that became a sensation in the 1970s. Beginning in New Orleans, they set off for the Oregon coast, listening to podcasts about outlaws and cult leaders—the only media they could agree on—while reliving the journey that changed Barbara’s life. Jenkins discovers who she was as a thirty-year-old writer walking across America and who she is now, as a parent who loves her son yet holds onto a version of faith that sees his sexuality as sin.

Along the way, he peels back the layers of questions millions are asking today: How do we stay in relationship when it hurts? When do boundaries turn into separation? When do we stand up for ourselves, and when do we let it go?

Tender, smart, and profound, Mother, Nature is a story of a remarkable mother-son bond and a moving meditation on the complexities of love.

Jedidiah Jenkins is the New York Times bestselling author of To Shake the Sleeping Self and Like Streams to the Ocean. A graduate of USC and Pepperdine University School of Law, Jenkins began his professional career with the nonprofit Invisible Children, where he helped orchestrate multinational campaigns to end the use of child soldiers in central Africa. His parents, Peter and Barbara Jenkins, are the authors of the bestselling A Walk Across America series. He is the executive editor of Wilderness magazine. Jenkins’s work has appeared in The Paris Review and Playboy, and he has been covered by National Geographic.

Jason Blitman (he/him) is an arts professional who primarily works as a theatre director and arts and culture producer, most recently directing Xanadu for San Diego Musical Theatre. Jason produces and co-hosts the new book podcast, Gays Reading, with guests like Nathan Hill, Angie Kim, R. Eric Thomas, Jeopardy champion Amy Schneider, and many others. He also produces and hosts Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan’s podcast, 76West where his recent guests include Gabrielle Zevin, Jenny Jackson, Emily St. John Mandel, and Steven Rowley. Jason was the Associate Artistic Director for TheaterWorksUSA and has worked artistically at The Public Theatre, The Old Globe, and New York Philharmonic