Friday, April 10, 2026 at 7:00 PM
Skylight Books, Los Angeles
 **From _New York Times_ bestselling author of _This Time Tomorrow_, an irresistible story about what happens when your teenage fantasy comes true after you’re already an adult.** When the _American Fantasy_ cruise ship sets sail for a four-day themed voyage, aboard are all five members of a famous, nineties-era boy band and three thousand screaming women who have worshipped them since childhood. Feeling slightly out of place amid this crowd is Annie, newly divorced, turning fifty with an empty nest, and here on a lark to appease her sister. Yet when the lights come up and the idols of her youth begin to sing, something is unlocked. Call it memory. Call it nostalgia. Call it the chemical reaction of hormones, hope, and sexual reawakening. Between the slushy alcoholic drinks, the familiar music, and the throngs of middle-aged women acting like lovesick teenagers, Annie finally reconnects to a long-submerged part of herself. By the time she meets one of the band members—not just a celebrity but someone in need of a friend—she has accessed a new sense of possibility. In a smart and incisive book packed with laugh-out-loud reflections on fame, aging, marriage, and middle age, Emma Straub delivers a richly textured story that shows us real passion is never truly lost, that what we love makes us who we are, and that deep meaning can sometimes be found in a sea of screaming fans. **Emma Straub** is a Guggenheim fellow and the _New York Times_ bestselling author of seven books for adults, including _American Fantasy, This Time Tomorrow_, _All Adults Here_, _Modern Lovers_ and _The Vacationers_. She and her husband own Books Are Magic, an independent bookstore in Brooklyn, New York. **Susanna Hoffs** graduated from U.C. Berkeley with a degree in Art. In 1981 she co-founded The Bangles, with whom she recorded and released a string of chart-topping singles including “Manic Monday,” “Walk Like an Egyptian,” “Hazy Shade of Winter,” and “Eternal Flame” (which she cowrote), before embarking on a critically acclaimed solo career. She also wrote, recorded music for, and appeared in the Austin Powers movies, and played herself on Season 1 of “The Gilmore Girls.” _This Bird Has Flown_ is her first novel. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, filmmaker Jay Roach.