The Author Events Series presents Jeannine A. Cook  | It's Me They Follow 

In Conversation with Elizabeth Wellington 

An allegorical love story — a modern day Alchemist meets The Never Ending Story —set in a world where a book shopkeeper becomes a reluctant matchmaker, bringing soulmates together through books.

It’s Me They Follow is an allegorical love story set in a not so distant past. It follows The Shopkeeper, a bookseller and reluctant matchmaker. Helping others find love through books comes easily for The Shopkeeper, until it is time for her to find love for herself.

She secretly yearns for her first customer, ME, who took both her most prized book and a piece of her heart when he left. But just when she begins to lose hope, she discovers that she may hold the key to her own happily ever after as well.

Real life Shopkeeper and author Jeannine A. Cook has conjured a magical story that is a book within a book within a book. Soon, readers will find themselves falling under the same love spell as her customers and characters. In this magical bookshop where the line between fiction and reality blurs, stories and real life intertwine in an enchanting and moving narrative about human connection, the power of storytelling, and the spirit of love.

Jeannine A. Cook is the founder and owner of three avant-garde bookshop concepts, Harriett’s in Philadelphia; Ida’s in South Jersey; and Josephine’s, a literary installation in Paris. She holds an MFA from Drexel University. She is the author of the novel It’s Me They Follow.

Elizabeth Wellington is an Emmy-winning lifestyle columnist, essayist, and reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer. A graduate of New York University, she has degrees in journalism and English literature. She has been a journalist for 30 years, starting her career at The News & Observer, covering small towns and historically black colleges. She became a fashion columnist in 2000 and moved to Philadelphia in 2002 to become the Inquirer’s fashion columnist, covering runways and red carpets in New York, Los Angeles, and Paris as well as presidential inaugurations. Her role was expanded to lifestyle columnist in 2018. Elizabeth lives in Philadelphia with her cantankerous cat, Spots. She was born and raised in the real home of Hip-hop: Jamaica, Queens, New York. She loves New Edition, A Tribe Called Quest, sharp cheddar, red wine, and sushi.

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