Bakery & books
Baking and historical fiction turn out to be the same job: you take something ordinary — flour, a forgotten diary entry — and give it enough care that other people can taste what you tasted. I write about the lives that didn't make it into the official record, and I bake for the same reason: to make something warm out of what's been left behind.
This page is for the readers among you. Here you'll find my books, the ones I'm pressing into friends' hands, and an invitation to our small book club, which meets — naturally — over something fresh from the oven.
By Anika
Title of Anika's First Novel
Anika
Historical fiction · Placeholder
Two or three sentences of jacket copy go here: the era, the place, the person at the center of the story, and the question that drives it. Keep it short — readers decide in a paragraph.
Title of Anika's Second Novel
Anika
Historical fiction · Placeholder
Jacket copy for the second book. If it's a work in progress, say so — 'coming 2027' with a line about the setting works well and gives readers something to look forward to.
Once a month · Boulder
A small, friendly group that reads mostly historical fiction and meets once a month over coffee and whatever came out of the oven that morning. No experience required, no pressure to finish — come for the conversation.
Next meeting
Read with these in mind
From other authors
Books she returns to, and the ones that come up at every meeting. Ask her about any of them at pickup.
Wolf Hall
Hilary Mantel
Tudor England · 1520s
Hilary Mantel
Thomas Cromwell's rise in the court of Henry VIII, told from inside his head in the present tense.
“The book that made me believe historical fiction could feel this immediate.”
Pachinko
Min Jin Lee
Korea & Japan · 1910s–1980s
Min Jin Lee
Four generations of a Korean family in Japan, and what they carry across borders and decades.
“A family saga that never once feels long.”
Hamnet
Maggie O'Farrell
Stratford · 1580s–1590s
Maggie O'Farrell
The short life of Shakespeare's son and the grief that may have shaped his most famous play.
“Read it for the chapter about the plague's journey to Stratford. Then read it again.”
The Name of the Rose
Umberto Eco
Northern Italy · 1327
Umberto Eco
A murder mystery in a medieval monastery, and an argument about books, laughter, and power.
“For when you want a mystery with footnotes.”
Are you a writer or a reader with a recommendation? Anika loves hearing from both. Email hello@brownbutterbakeryandbooks.com — and if you're hungry while you read, the shop is right here.