2026 Rhody Reader Box by Ink Fish Books
2026 Rhody Reader Box by Ink Fish Books
Featuring The Stargazer of Nantucket by local author Julie Gerstenblatt
The Rhody Reader Box from Ink Fish Books, is a celebration of all things Rhode Island and it’s back for 2026, featuring local author Julie Gerstenblatt’s historical fiction novel The Stargazer of Nantucket, a USA Today Bestseller, along with locally made products by Juniper Hill Apothecary, Jaffal Chocolates, Ocean State Spice & Tea Merchants, and Beaded Bookmarks by Irene. Order your Ink Fish Books custom designed 2026 Rhody Reader Box today. Makes a great gift for the reader in your life! Boxes are available for in-store pickup or shipping in the US.
Your purchase of the Rhody Reader Box supports the Rhode Island Humanities. Rhode Island Humanities seeds, supports, and strengthens public history, cultural heritage, civic education, and community engagement by and for all Rhode Islanders.
Choose from two Rhody Reader Box editions.
The Starbuck Edition includes the following:
1 signed copy of The Stargazer of Nantucket.
1 custom hand-poured, small-batch soy wax candle made exclusively to compliment The Stargazer of Nantucket, in the driftwood scent—made with love in Bristol, Rhode Island, by Juniper Hill Apothecary.
A comforting yet minimally processed chocolate bar from local bean-to-bar chocolate company, Jaffal Chocolates, which transforms carefully sourced cacao beans into delightful chocolate bars that are vegan, gluten-free, and made in Warren, Rhode Island from only three simple ingredients—cacao, sugar, and cacao butter.
A fragrant and delicious tea blend crafted to spread joy and inspire all who sip to be as creative and bold as the blends they drink—from The Ocean State Spice & Tea Company, a locally owned business in Providence, Rhode Island.
1 handmade beaded bookmark created exclusively for The Stargazer of Nantucket. Each bookmark has an anchor charm.
Your purchase of the Rhody Reader Box supports the Rhode Island Humanities located in Providence, Rhode Island.
The Nantucket Edition, includes the following:
Everything in the The Starbuck Edition, plus a copy of Gerstenblatt’s first historical fiction novel,The Daughters of Nantucket, a New England Society Book Award Winner for fiction.
About the Author
Julie Gerstenblatt is the author of Daughters of Nantucket, which won the New England Society Book Award for Fiction, and The Stargazer of Nantucket, a USA Today Bestseller. She holds a doctorate in curriculum and instruction from Teachers College, Columbia University and has taught everything from middle school English to graduate studies. Her essays have appeared in Huffington Post and Grown & Flown, among others. A native New Yorker who has been visiting Nantucket since childhood, Julie now lives in coastal Rhode Island with her family and one very smart shichon poo. Find her at https://www.juliegerstenblatt.com/
About the Book
The Stargazer of Nantucket
From award-winning author Julie Gerstenblatt, an epic tale of adventure on the high seas, a spunky stowaway, and a family confronting the past to secure their future.
Massachusetts, 1851
Winifred Starbuck wants only one thing: to join her parents on their final merchant voyage—from Nantucket Island to bustling San Francisco, then across the glittering Pacific to the distant ports of China. Yet renowned trade captains Nell and Peter Starbuck have forbidden their daughter from coming aboard on the adventure of a lifetime. So Winnie does what any strong-willed eighteen-year-old would do: she stows away.
Once the ship sets sail, Winnie is plunged into turbulent waters, treachery, and the thrill of life on the high seas. As she drifts farther from shore, and closer to fabled Canton port, she uncovers a long-buried secret—one that reveals the truth behind her parents’ desperate fear. And as she continues to chart her own course, she’ll have to plumb the depths of her courage to take on a world far bigger—and more dangerous—than she ever imagined.
Praise
“Filled with tension, excitement, and brilliant plot twists, the story moves at a breakneck pace against the backdrop of Gerstenblatt’s meticulous research. Luminous."
—Fiona Davis, New York Times bestselling author of The Stolen Queen
"Julie Gerstenblatt’s extraordinary new novel, The Stargazer of Nantucket, held me spellbound. Her tale of a young woman and her mother traveling on a merchant clipper ship from Nantucket to China in the 1800s is both intimate and worldly, brilliant with love, loss, humor, and pirates, too. Julie Gerstenblatt is our female James Michener, our American Ken Follett, and I can’t wait to see what she does next."
—Nancy Thayer, New York Times bestselling author of Summer Light on Nantucket
"A starry-eyed and gripping ocean adventure about a young Nantucket woman who must prove herself to her doubting father, The Stargazer of Nantucket is a sweeping story of love, fortune and how far we'll travel to discover who we're meant to be. An absolute delight!"
—Brooke Lea Foster, author of Our Last Vineyard Summer
"Julie Gerstenblatt is a magnificent storyteller. The Stargazer of Nantucket is the best kind of maritime fiction—brilliantly imagined, inspired by real events—a bold transcendent love story of adventure, shifting loyalties and secrets, and a heart-pounding race for treasure and trade.... A gorgeous sweeping novel of a mother’s fierce commitment to her daughter and her passion for the freedom of the sea."
—Dawn Tripp, nationally bestselling author of Jackie