BELFAST — Left Bank Books, in downtown Belfast, invites the public to a free talk and book signing by acclaimed writer Sarah Perry on Friday, Feb. 7, at 6 p.m., at the bookshop. The event will celebrate Perry’s just-released collection of essays, Sweet Nothings: Confessions of a Candy Lover, a fun and sophisticated collection of micro essays that catalogs the simple and not-so-simple pleasures of the eclectic world of candy.

"Throughout, readers will delight in whimsical illustrations by Forsyth Harmon," said Left Bank, in a news release.

Sweet Nothings is organized by seventeen different candy colors, from the chewy reds of Twizzler, to the purple of the jelly bonbon in the Whitman’s Sampler, to the orange of Life Savers Crème Savers, and each entry is a meditation on taste and texture, a memory unlocked. Everyone’s favorites, and least favorites, are carefully considered, including Snickers and Trader Joe’s Peanut Butter Cups, as well as the beloved Good n’ Plenty and Werther’s Originals.

Perry believes that candy is inextricably tied to the seasons of our lives, challenges the very idea of “junk” food, and posits taking pleasure as seriously as a means of survival. Sweet Nothings moves associatively, touching on pop culture, art, culinary history, philosophy, body image, and class-based food moralism.

Perry is the author of the memoir After the Eclipse, a New York Times Editors’ Choice, a Poets and Writers Notable Nonfiction Debut, and a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers pick. Her essay “In Praise of the Gas Station Pie” was a nominee for the 2024 M. F. K. Fisher Distinguished Writing Award from the James Beard Foundation. She holds an MFA in nonfiction from Columbia University and teaches in the graduate program in creative writing at Colorado State University.

Seating for this event is limited and reservations are strongly recommended by calling the bookshop (207-338-9009) or sending an email to: info@leftbankbookshop.com. Ample parking is available in front of the shop and in an adjacent public parking lot.