Editor Jenny Jackson’s latest project is a promising debut novel: her own.

On this week’s episode, Jenny Jackson joins us to discuss Pineapple Street (Pamela Dorman/Viking, March 7), a vibrant comedy of manners centering on the rooted and rich Stockton family of Brooklyn Heights. Jackson, a vice president and executive editor at Alfred A. Knopf—known for shepherding the works of Kevin Kwan, Emily St. John Mandel, Chris Bohjalian, Gabrielle Zevin, Helen Ellis, and Cormac McCarthy, among others—serves a delicious buffet of family secrets from the rotating POVs of Stockton daughters Darley and Georgiana, and their sister-in-law, Sasha.

Here’s a bit from Kirkus’ review of Pineapple Street: “A wealthier cousin of Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney’s The Nest, Knopf editor Jackson’s fiction debut is a comedy of manners charting the fates of the Stockton siblings and their spouses, circling around the house where they grew up in Brooklyn Heights, now inhabited by Cord and his wife, Sasha, who is referred to as the Gold Digger by Cord’s sisters, Darley and Georgiana. That’s unfair, though: Sasha signed a prenup.…From the opening scene, where Sasha’s mother-in-law shows up to dinner with an entire replacement menu and a revised ‘tablescape,’ Jackson has a deft hand with all the passive-aggressive interactions that are so common in family life, perhaps particularly in this socio-economic stratum.…Rich-people jokes, cultural acuity, and entertaining banter keep this novel moving at a sprightly pace as the characters learn their lessons about money and morals.”

Jackson and host Megan Labrise touch on why Pineapple Street has a prelude instead of a prologue; the three Stockton women—Darley, Georgiana, and Sasha—whose perspectives guide us; what makes Sasha’s perspective particularly important to the story Jackson wanted to tell; introducing readers to an unfamiliar world; the advantages of writing from multiple POVs; writing about marriage; Jackson’s working relationship with her editors; her bad writing habit; and much more.

And in a sponsored interview, Labrise welcomes back Jordan Scott and Sydney Smith, author and illustrator of My Baba’s Garden (Neal Porter Books, March 7), a poignant new picture book from the creators of I Talk Like a River. “This tale based on Scott’s boyhood experiences with his Polish grandmother traces the daily routines of a child and their beloved Baba,” Kirkus writes in a starred review, calling My Baba’s Garden a “quiet, tender, and profoundly moving celebration of intergenerational love.”

Then editors Laura Simeon and Mahnaz Dar share their top picks in books for the week.

Editors’ picks:

Nearer My Freedom: The Interesting Life of Olaudah Equiano by Himself by Monica Edinger and Lesley Younge (Zest Books)

The Tree and the River by Aaron Becker (Candlewick)

Also mentioned on this episode:

Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo” by Zora Neale Hurston, ed. by Deborah G. Plant (Amistad/HarperCollins)

How To Heal a Broken Wing by Bob Graham (Candlewick)

Thanks to our sponsors:

The Glass Witch by Sara Raztresen

Secrets of the Under-Under World: Creatures by P.S. Whatever

To the Front: Grandfathers’ Stories in the Cause of Freedom by Michael M. Van Ness

Family Curse Field Notebooks (1880-2020) by Tenacity Plys

From Scratch: Adventures in Harvesting, Hunting, Fishing, and Foraging on a Fragile Planet by David Moscow & Jon Moscow

Fully Booked is produced by Cabel Adkins Audio and Megan Labrise.