Wednesday, April 17, 2024

May: The Persian Pickle Club

We met last night to discuss The Butchering Art. Thanks Corinna for leading the discussion and the yummy wraps to eat while we discussed the book. 

Tracie has picked The Persian Pickle Club by Sandra Dallas for our May Book. Here's some information about the book.

It is the 1930s, and hard times have hit Harveyville, Kansas, where the crops are burning up, and there's not a job to be found. For Queenie Bean, a young farm wife, a highlight of each week is the gathering of the Persian Pickle Club, a group of local ladies dedicated to improving their minds, exchanging gossip, and putting their quilting skills to good use. When a new member of the club stirs up a dark secret, the women must band together to support and protect one another. In her magical, memorable novel, Sandra Dallas explores the ties that unite women through good times and bad.

We hope to see you on Tuesday May 28 at Debby's home at 7:30 for our book discussion!
Happy Reading!

Friday, March 22, 2024

April Book: The Butchering Art

We had a great discussion on Tuck Everlasting and A Gift From the Sea. Thanks Amy for leading the discussion and also for the yummy pound cake topped with fresh berries. 

Corinna has picked our book for April. She chose The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister's Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine by Lindsay Fitzharris. Here is some information about the book: 
In The Butchering Art, the historian Lindsey Fitzharris reveals the shocking world of nineteenth-century surgery and shows how it was transformed by advances made in germ theory and antiseptics between 1860 and 1875. She conjures up early operating theaters―no place for the squeamish―and surgeons, who, working before anesthesia, were lauded for their speed and brute strength. These pioneers knew that the aftermath of surgery was often more dangerous than patients’ afflictions, and they were baffled by the persistent infections that kept mortality rates stubbornly high. At a time when surgery couldn’t have been more hazardous, an unlikely figure stepped forward: a young, melancholy Quaker surgeon named Joseph Lister, who would solve the riddle and change the course of history.

Fitzharris dramatically reconstructs Lister’s career path to his audacious claim that germs were the source of all infection and could be countered by a sterilizing agent applied to wounds. She introduces us to Lister’s contemporaries―some of them brilliant, some outright criminal―and leads us through the grimy schools and squalid hospitals where they learned their art, the dead houses where they studied, and the cemeteries they ransacked for cadavers.

Eerie and illuminating, 
The Butchering Art celebrates the triumph of a visionary surgeon whose quest to unite science and medicine delivered us into the modern world.

We will meet on April 16th at Debby's house at 7:30 to discuss the book. Hope to see you there. 

Wednesday, February 21, 2024

March Books: Tuck Everlasting & Gift From The Sea

Last night we had a great discussion led by Olivia about the book Hello Beautiful. Olivia also had a fun treat to tie-in with the book, donuts and ice cream. 

For March we will be reading and discussing two books. Amy picked Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt and Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh. 

The beloved children’s classic with more than more than 5 million copies in print.

From Newbery Honor and E. B. White Award–winning author Natalie Babbitt, Tuck Everlasting is a spellbinding modern-day masterpiece about immortality, friendship, and growing up that’s sure to be an all-time favorite for every generation.

Is eternal life a blessing or a curse? That is what young Winnie Foster must decide when she discovers a spring on her family’s property whose waters grant immortality. Members of the Tuck family, having drunk from the spring, tell Winnie of their experiences watching life go by and never growing older. But then Winnie must decide whether or not to keep the Tucks’ secret―and whether or not to join them on their never-ending journey.

A staple on home bookshelves and in classrooms and libraries, 
Tuck Everlasting is a timeless story that has captivated readers of all ages for almost half a century.


50th ANNIVERSARY EDITION • With meditations on youth and age, love and marriage, peace, solitude, and contentment, here is an inimitable classic that guides us to find a space for contemplation and creativity in our own lives.

"Gift from the Sea is like a shell itself in its small and perfect form ... It tells of light and life and love and the security that lies at the heart." —New York Times Book Review

Drawing inspiration from the the shells on the shore, Lindbergh's musings on the shape of a woman's life will bring new understanding to readers, male and family, at any stage of life. A mother of five and professional writer, she casts an unsentimental eye at the trappings of modern life that threaten to overwhelm us—the timesaving gadgets that complicate our lives, the overcommitments that take us from our families.

With great wisdom and insight she describes the shifting shapes of relationships and marriage, presenting a vision of a life lived in enduring and evolving partnership. A groundbreaking work when it was first published, this book has retained its freshness as it has been rediscovered by generations of readers and is no less current today.

Looking forward to seeing everyone and discussing these books on Tuesday March 19, at 7:30 at Debby's. 

Wednesday, January 24, 2024

Hello Beautiful - February's Book Pick

 Last night we had book club and our annual book exchange. Here is a list of the books that were exchanged last night. 

The Happy Life of Isadora Bentley by Courtney Walsh

How the Penguins Saved Veronica by Hazel Prior

The Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

In Awe: Rediscover Your Childlike Wonder to Unleash Inspirations, Meanings, and Joy by John O'Leary

One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid

The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston

Beauty: A Retelling of Beauty and the Beast by Robyn McKinley

Everyone left excited to have a new book to read. 

Olivia has picked our book for February. It is Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano. Here is some information about the book: 
William Waters grew up in a house silenced by tragedy, where his parents could hardly bear to look at him, much less love him—so when he meets the spirited and ambitious Julia Padavano in his freshman year of college, it’s as if the world has lit up around him. With Julia comes her family, as she and her three sisters are inseparable: Sylvie, the family’s dreamer, is happiest with her nose in a book; Cecelia is a free-spirited artist; and Emeline patiently takes care of them all. With the Padavanos, William experiences a newfound contentment; every moment in their house is filled with loving chaos.

But then darkness from William’s past surfaces, jeopardizing not only Julia’s carefully orchestrated plans for their future, but the sisters’ unshakeable devotion to one another. The result is a catastrophic family rift that changes their lives for generations. Will the loyalty that once rooted them be strong enough to draw them back together when it matters most?

An exquisite homage to Louisa May Alcott’s timeless classic, 
Little WomenHello Beautiful is a profoundly moving portrait of what is possible when we choose to love someone not in spite of who they are, but because of it.

We will meet on Tuesday February 20 at 7:30 pm at Debby's house to discuss the book. Hope to see you there. 

Monday, January 22, 2024

January Book Club

After several postponements, we are finally having book club to discuss Eight Keys by Suzanne LaFleur. We will meet at 7:30 at Debby's house on Tuesday January 23. 
We will also do a book exchange since we didn't make it happen in December. Bring your favorite book from 2023 (that we didn't read in book club) wrapped, if you would like to participate in the book exchange. Looking forward to reconnecting!

Monday, December 11, 2023

November Book Club Postponed

Debby picked Eight Keys by Suzanne LaFleur for our November book pick. Here is some information about the book:
Elise and Franklin have always been best friends. Elise has always lived in the big house with her loving Uncle and Aunt, because Elise's parents died when she was too young to remember them.  There's always been a barn behind the house with eight locked doors on the second floor.
When Elise and Franklin start middle school, things feel all wrong. Bullying. Not fitting in. Franklin suddenly seems babyish.  Then, soon after her 12th birthday, Elise receives a mysterious key left for her by her father. A key that unlocks one of the eight doors upstairs in the barn.

Unfortunately for book club but fortunately for Debby and Gary, Gary's surgery was scheduled for the week of book club and we don't have a new date yet.  


 

Wednesday, September 20, 2023

October's Book - Dracula


We had a great discussion about West With Giraffes last night. Alecia also made a delicious pumpkin dessert and had ice cream to put on top. 

Melissa has picked Dracula by Bram Stoker for our book for October. Here is some information about the book: 
During a business visit to Count Dracula's castle in Transylvania, a young English solicitor finds himself at the center of a series of horrifying incidents. Jonathan Harker is attacked by three phantom women, observes the Count's transformation from human to bat form, and discovers puncture wounds on his own neck that seem to have been made by teeth. Harker returns home upon his escape from Dracula's grim fortress, but a friend's strange malady — involving sleepwalking, inexplicable blood loss, and mysterious throat wounds — initiates a frantic vampire hunt. The popularity of Bram Stoker's 1897 horror romance is as deathless as any vampire. Its supernatural appeal has spawned a host of film and stage adaptations, and more than a century after its initial publication, it continues to hold readers spellbound.

We will meet at 7:30 on October 17 at Debby's house to discuss the book. Hope to see you there.