April 18, 2014 / book clubs, books / 2 Comments »

Unforgettable

Some years back, when I first read The Secret Life Of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, I remember thinking I wanted to be able to do with words what this author had done, and that is construct a compelling story with the perfect mix of simplicity and complexity such that people who read what I wrote would not soon forget it. It wasn’t so much the plot that wowed me as much as it was the way in which it was delivered to me.

A few years after that, when The Mermaid Chair came out, also by Sue Monk Kidd, several people whose opinions matter greatly to me said it was a different kind of book, not one that they loved, and that I probably wouldn’t find the magic in it that I did with Bees. I actually chose NOT to read Mermaid for that very reason: because I didn’t want to mess with the echoes of Bees still swirling in my head. So naturally, when The Invention of Wings released, I was eager, anxious, and hopeful. Would it take me away to literary wonderland as Bees did?

The answer to that is a resounding yes.

When a book hits my sweet spot, it’s usually hard to describe in concrete details how. That kind of book somehow beautifully assaults my senses, viciously yanks on the virtues I hold most dear – like justice and fidelity and sacrificial love – and plants me as firmly in its setting and culture as if I had time-travelled there. It haunts me when I am not reading it and woos me when I am. The characters’ voices linger in my mind and their sorrows and joys feel like my own. A book that hits my sweet spot doesn’t spoon-feed the ending; it suggests the denouement in a way that lets me feel like there are more pages in the book; I just don’t have access to them. The story is not over, and I am not expected to feel like it is.

The story is told in two points of view, that of a Southern slave owner’s daughter and the other, the slave she grows up with. The time of the tale is well before the Civil War. The daughter grows up with a distaste for slave ownership and the will to do what she can to see it end. Here are some of my favorite lines:

“History is not just facts and events. History is also a pain in the heart and we repeat history until we are able to make another’s pain in the heart our own.”

“We ‘re all yearning for a wedge of sky, aren’t we? I suspect God plants these yearnings in us so we’ll at least try and change the course of things. We must try, that’s all.”

“The sorry truth is you can walk your feet to blisters, walk till kingdom-come, and you never will outpace your grief.”

“Sarah was up in her room with her heart broke so bad, Binah said you could hear it jangle when she walked.”

Your heart will bleed reading this book, but it will heal in a way that allows you to remember why you loved it. You’ll be reminded why slavery is one of the ugliest ideas ever, and you’ll be glad there were brave souls who stood up in protest.

Highly recommended.

January 3, 2014 / book clubs, books, On Writing, story / 5 Comments »

I wanted to but I couldn’t

I remember reading once that Harper Lee didn’t write another novel after To Kill a Mockingbird because she knew readers would expect too much with a second book and that kind of pressure was wholly unattractive. Perhaps Margaret Mitchell felt the same way after Gone With the Wind. We readers can be heartless in our desire to be wooed and won at a more breath-taking level than the book before.

Some years ago I read, nay, devoured Diane Setterfield’s The Thirteenth Tale. I told every one I knew who loved fiction to read it, it was such a well-written, captivating tale. I read the book a second time for book club, and then a third time to just study the craft of having a young, idealistic protagonist cross paths with a much older realist; a pairing I wanted for The Shape of Mercy which I wrote in 2007.

I waited and waited for Ms. Setterfield to write a second book, and while I read many other novels in the interim, The Thirteenth Tale remained in my perennial top five. When people would ask me to recommend a book in those in-between years, I would invariably ask, “Have you read The Thirteenth Tale?” and if they hadn’t, I would tell them that was the book they needed to read next.

So when I learned that, after eight years, a new Setterfield book was on the horizon, I gleefully pre-ordered it – months before it was to hit bookstore shelves- and counted the days. Bellman & Black arrived on my doorstep in all its hardback beauty two days after its release. I had to finish another book I was reading and I itched to be done so that I could crack open the Setterfieldian pages and consume them.

I finished the book last night. I can only say that I wanted so very much to be transported to another place with the story, just as I had been before. My expectations were high, perhaps illogically so. Perhaps with The Thirteenth Tale it was the writer’s story, not the story’s writer that so captivated me before. Perhaps it was something unique about me that made The Thirteenth Tale resonate within me, rather than something unique about its author. The prose in Bellman & Black was lovely, Setterfield is still a master, but I never left the room while reading her second book. And I wanted to. Too much so. I wanted to be transported. I was not.

Perhaps I need to book-club this one to appreciate it properly. Sometimes it’s only after I’ve discussed a book with people that I realize what I missed. Some reader reviewers have said Bellman & Black is too dark; but so was The Thirteenth Tale, so I don’t think for me, that it was because there wasn’t enough light. As a novelist myself I know that in every great story, the main character has to be on a quest, a pursuit to have something he doesn’t have, and he has to overcome recognizable and somewhat relatable obstacles to get it. Doesn’t matter if you are reading Green Eggs and Ham or The Silence of the the Lambs. The protagonist, flawed but likeable, must want something and must overcome opposition to get it. What the character wants must be something we readers understand and WANT them to want. Their opposition must also be understood and recognizable. This is how we become emotionally invested. This is what keeps us turning pages. This is what transports us. The clash of the quest and the character and the conflict must captivate us.

Otherwise you just have words on a page. They can be great words, skillfully placed. But unless they transport, they remain words.

Not a ticket.

Will I read Setterfield again? Absolutely. This one just wasn’t the trip for me.

December 31, 2013 / book clubs, Book of the Year, books, favorite books / 5 Comments »

My favorite reads of 2013

Whenever a year ends and I look back at its days to see which books were my favorite of all those I read, I always get a teensy bit melancholy. Part of me finds it a bid sad that the books that were my favorite have been read. I can’t read them again for the first time. And sadder still? I probably won’t be able to read them again — ever — because of the other thing that makes me a bit blue on the look-back, and that is that the number of books is always less than what I had hoped for. The mantra that there are too many books and too little time has never been more true than this stage of my life. The To-Be-Read pile at my bedside (which could double nicely as a ladder to the stars) is now becoming eclipsed by the invisible tower inside my Kindle. I find it funny and pathetic that earlier this year I bought Orphan Train (yes, one of my other faves for 2013) read it, and then found the dang thing buried on my Kindle – from an earlier purchase in 2013. Sheesh. All that aside, 2013 was a great year for books. Here are my five favorites, in no order at all. It wasn’t easy to pick just five, by the way. I had to look at their covers — in color — and gauge how just the mere visual nudge made me feel inside. Here are the five that made me feel the pull of a magnet at just another glance at their covers…

CUTTING FOR STONE

Here was a book that had been sleeping on the TBR shelf all 2012. I finally pulled it out when it became my local book club’s pick. I remember thinking that I didn’t have time to read a nearly-700-page novel, especially in a squished time frame, and I nearly took that month off from my beloved book club. But Abraham Verghese’s masterpiece had me from the very first page. I simply had to know what would become of the likeable and utterly compelling narrator, Marion Stone. The prose was delicious and there were many lines that cut me to the core. Like this one: “Wasn’t that the definition of home? Not where you are from, but where you are wanted.” And this one: “The key to your happiness is to…own who you are, own how you look, own your family, own the talents you have, and own the ones you don’t. [Otherwise] you’ll die searching, you’ll die bitter, always feeling you were promised more. Not only our actions, but also our omissions, become our destiny.”

THE BOOK THIEF

Here was another that had been on the AYEGTRI pile (Aren’t You Ever Going To Read It!?) I finally did just that after months and months and months of hearing how wonderful a book it was. What finally got me going was I began doing research for a World War II book I was writing. This is quite likely one of the most cleverly constructed novels I’ve read in a long time (as was “Where’d You Go, Bernadette?”) and I was completely taken by the devastating charm of the narrator. That’s all I will say. If you haven’t read it yet, what are you waiting for? And please, do yourself a favor and read the book before you go see the movie.

LIFE AFTER LIFE

Speaking of research for World War II, this gem by Kate Atkinson had me spellbound from the first line. And interestingly enough, this was the only book in 2013 that I had read to me, in that I listened to this book on CD on a long car trip to the Sierras. Perhaps having a plethora of British voices speaking the story to me was what fully captivated me, but I am thinking even if I’d read the print version, I’d still be talking this book’s praises. The premise alone is brilliant, and the execution of that premise is stellar. Can you imagine what it would be like to keep living your life over and over and over again, and being only barely aware that you are doing so? What would you change? What would you run from or run to or run over? This was Time magazine’s number one choice for Book of the Year, and GoodReads Best of 2013 historical fiction award-winner. I would have to concur.

THE SECRET KEEPER

Kate Morton is one of my tippy-top favorite novelists ever. I love her style, her voice, her care with words, her attention to detail, the skill of her story weave, and her appreciation for her readers. If you’ve read nothing by her before, can I just gently say, where the Dickens have you been? I loved this book, as I have loved everything she has written. It is also a World War II book, but it’s much more than that. If you like stories with overlapping time periods and special attention given to each of the main characters, you are in for a treat. After you read this one, get your hands on The Forgotten Garden, The House at Riverton and The Distant Hours.

AND THE MOUNTAINS ECHOED

I’ve been a fan of Khaled Hosseini’s story-telling since he whisked me away with The Kite Runner. What I liked best about And The Mountains Echoed might be the very thing that others who’ve read him before didn’t like. And that was the lack of a singular main protagonist on an obvious chronological pursuit of happiness. This story is different, it is more episodic, far less linear than his other two books, and because it was so masterfully done, I loved this aspect of this book. And quotable quotes? They abound in the pages. Like this one: “It’s a funny thing… but people mostly have it backward. They think they live by what they want. But really, what guides them is what they’re afraid of. What they don’t want.” And this one: “For courage, there must be something at stake.” And this one: “They say, Find a purpose in your life and live it. But, sometimes, it is only after you have lived that you recognize your life had a purpose, and likely one you never had in mind.”

So there you have it. My top 5! Were any of these in your top reads for 2013? What were your top 5? I’d love to know!

December 20, 2013 / Blue Heart Blessed, book clubs, books / 2 Comments »

Blue Heart, Big Blessing

So here’s a little story to make you smile. A few years back, I wrote a book about a woman who, after getting stood up at the altar, decides to open a used wedding dress boutique in a brave to attempt to sell her custom-made, dress-of-her-dreams wedding gown. The book, entitled Blue Heart Blessed, was so named because the main character, Daisy, sewed a little blue satin heart that had been blessed by an Episcopal priest, into the inside of each dress she sold, so that those beautiful gowns could be properly repurposed. The story was primarily about Daisy needing to sell her dress and her inability to let it go, but in the meantime, she helped lots of brides find beautiful dresses, each one with a tiny blue heart stitched inside. The uptown boutique was called Something Blue and I situated it in St. Paul. (The book is sadly no longer in print, but it is available as an e-book for a great price and has a fun, new cover!)

Last week, when I held a little contest on my Facebook author page where I offered a print copy of Blue Heart Blessed to a lucky winner who correctly guessed the year I got married (based on a very hip-looking pic of my hubby and me). One of the responses was from a lovely reader named Sarah. Sarah told me that she had loved Blue Heart Blessed when she read it, and that her story was similar to Daisy’s. And she found herself wanting to re-christen a beautiful wedding gown that she had not yet worn as a bride.

She wrote: “My first engagement was much like Daisy’s – we already had the dress, the photographer, the banquet hall, the decorations…and after it ended, I didn’t know what to do with my dress. That’s when my mother suggested making a blue heart. We made a blue heart for my wedding dress and asked my Uncle (who is a pastor) to bless it. I just recently got married in September and we sewed my blue heart into my dress as it was a dress I had purchased when I had been engaged several years earlier. Now, after meeting Andrew, I understand that God has a perfect plan for me and that I just needed to wait and trust in Him.”

She sent me these lovely photos and was so sweetly generous to let me post them here. Thank you, Sarah! And congratulations!

December 6, 2013 / book clubs, Book of the Year, books, Uncategorized / 5 Comments »

It pays to pay attention

So I know my short term memory ain’t what it used to be. I walk into a room and have no idea why I am there and I will meet someone new and within a minute of being introduced will have forgotten their name. But today’s was a first.

I figured out I am reading the wrong book for book club next week. Last month I ordered The Lig ht In The Ruins by Chris Bojhalian for my Kindle without bothering to double-check the email from the book club prez, because of course I remembered what this month’s selection was. It was The Light In The Ruins. I started reading it, got interested, and then happened across the aforementioned e-mail.

Imagine my surprise when I read that the book I am SUPPOSED to be reading is The Light Between Oceans. Sheesh. Back I go, via my fingertips, to the Kindle store to get the right book and thank God for cyberspace because two seconds later I had the correct book and still a whole week to read it.

But dangnabbit, now I’m going to have to pick up Ruins right after book club, even though I’ve a ton of other books on the TBR pile, because I just have to find out who killed Francesca. . .

Now if I had just happened to buy the wrong book that is titled the same as another, I wouldn’t feel so dumb. As in the two novels entitled Life After Life, one by Kate Atkinson and the other by Jill McCorkle, both of which came out at the same time earlier this year (go figure). I’ve not read McCorkle’s yet, although I’ve a signed copy, met her, and heard her speak about this book at a local San Diego event. It’s on that towering TBR pile of mine! I did read Kate Atkinson’s, though, and was blown away. It is incredibly clever, haunting, and compelling. It also just won some big awards from GoodReads and Time magazine, so I am not alone in my praise for it.

All that is to say, if you need a book recommendation, I have four. The answer is “E”, all of the above.

And please tell me you have done what I did . . .

November 1, 2013 / book clubs, books, Uncategorized / 2 Comments »

Story by notes and posts

The first epistolary novel I read as a young adult, at least that I can remember reading, is C. S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters, a classic book-by-epistle about a demon instructing a junior demon on the many ways to quietly trip up us mere mortals, and a book that will no doubt never cease to be in print. That reading was closely followed, by The Fan, a 1977 thriller-type novel about a Hollywood star slowly terrorized by an off-his-rocker devotee and the entire story is told by letters and telegrams. At least that’s what I think the story’s premise was. That particular book appears to have long been out of print.

I like the epistolary novel. Love it, actually. My favorite of late, probably a favorite of many of you is The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society, which I loved, loved, loved.

It’s an intriguing, challenging and unconventional way to tell a story. And I don’t think it’s an easy feat to pull off. I’ve used that device in my own novels and I know how limiting it can be. In fact, I’ve only ever used it to tell part of the book, not the whole thing. In The Shape of Mercy, I used diary. In A Sound Among the Trees, I used letters a Confederate woman wrote to a Yankee cousin and never sent. I remember thinking as I writing Susannah’s letters to her cousin Eleanor in Maine that she was starting to sound like she was narrating the story, not writing a letter. And I didn’t know what to do about it. Letters have a certain feel that is different from narrative.

All that said, I enjoyed Maria Semple’s epistolary Where’d You Go Bernadette. A lot. It was clever, funny, sassy, at times tender and poignant. And if you don’t look too closely at emails that read like narrative, it’s a seamless read that will seriously have you laughing out loud on modes of public transportation.

The story in a nutshell is this: To Bernadette Fox’s husband,”she’s a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she’s a disgrace; to design mavens, she’s a revolutionary architect, and to 15-year-old Bee, she is a best friend and, simply, Mom.Then Bernadette disappears. It began when Bee aced her report card and claimed her promised reward: a family trip to Antarctica. But Bernadette’s intensifying allergy to Seattle—and people in general—has made her so agoraphobic that a virtual assistant in India now runs her most basic errands. A trip to the end of the earth is problematic. To find her mother, Bee compiles email messages, official documents, secret correspondence—creating a compulsively readable and touching novel about misplaced genius and a mother and daughter’s role in an absurd world.”

Some of my favorite lines are these:

“Maybe that’s what religion is, hurling yourself off a cliff and trusting that something bigger will take care of you and carry you to the right place.”

“I felt so full of love for everything. But at the same time, I felt so hung out to dry there, like nobody could ever understand. I felt so alone in this world, and so loved at the same time.”

“People like you must create. If you don’t create, Bernadette, you will become a menace to society.”

A caveat, though. If you are loyal to Microsoft or you’re Canadian you might feel a tad insulted. I don’t live in Seattle so I am not in the know as to how the average Seattleite looks at the MS techno-giant or the international neighbors to the North. Every novelist has to create a context from which her characters spring, even if it’s a fabricated context or overdrawn from reality. Or right on the money. I wasn’t bothered. But I live in San Diego.

If you’re looking for something very different in a novel, and need some levity mixed with drama, pick it up. It’s unlike the last novel you read, I’m fairly certain of that.

Unless you’ve been shopping from this Wiki list of contemporary epistolary novels

And if you have been, do please share your favorite. Let’s chat.

September 20, 2013 / book clubs, books, Goodreads / No Comments »

And the Story Echoed

When I first began to read And the Mountains Echoed, I had to remind myself that the author had told me — as I sat among other eager devotees of his stories — that this book was not like the other two I’d read and devoured. (The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns). He told us it wasn’t a linear creation with page 1 being the beginning and Page 400 being the end of one person’s story. I should not have been surprised by the episodic feel of this book about a brother and his sister, separated by circumstances that cut to the heart.

I wasn’t surprised exactly, but I was a bit disappointed in how dependent I’d let myself become on traditional storytelling. I had to work a little harder to keep the story alive in my head and heart when I wasn’t reading it. I believe that’s my fault, not the author’s, because true to his other two books, Khaled Hosseini is a master of prose.

I should also not have been comparing this book to The Kite Runner, for example, measuring this story’s delivery to that one. If I let myself do that, which I refuse!, I might think this is only a 4-star book. Again, I think that’s more my lazy feed-me-the-story attitude. On its own, comparing it to nothing else, it’s a fabulous book. The ending is nothing short of perfect. I really did love it. Don’t ask me if I liked it as much as Kite Runner and Suns. I liked it as much, only different.

If you’ve not read the premise of Mountains, here’s the gist, from the Goodreads website: “The #1 New York Times–bestselling author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, has written a new novel about how we love, how we take care of one another, and how the choices we make resonate through generations.

“In this tale revolving around not just parents and children but brothers and sisters, cousins and caretakers, Hosseini explores the many ways in which families nurture, wound, betray, honor, and sacrifice for one another; and how often we are surprised by the actions of those closest to us, at the times that matter most.

“Following its characters and the ramifications of their lives and choices and loves around the globe—from Kabul to Paris to San Francisco to the Greek island of Tinos—the story expands gradually outward, becoming more emotionally complex and powerful with each turning page.”

That’s actually a really great way to describe this book – the story expands gradually outward. So don’t plant your feet, or snuggle down into a slumber-like pose. Read and reach outward, friends.

Here are a few of my favorite quotes from this stellar book:

“It’s a funny thing… but people mostly have it backward. They think they live by what they want. But really, what guides them is what they’re afraid of. What they don’t want.”

“For courage, there must be something at stake. I come here with nothing to lose.”

“It was the kind of love that, sooner or later, cornered you into a choice: either you tore free or you stayed and withstood its rigor even as it squeezed you into something smaller than yourself.”

June 7, 2013 / Barnes and Noble, book clubs, books / 2 Comments »

Cutting for Stone: Transported

I am in the stage of writing a new novel where I can think of little else. My mind is as cluttered as my desk. It’s not a good time to ask me any questions that pertain to matters of life and death or hand me a book that is 650 pages long and not related to research.

So when my book club chose Abraham Verghese’s bestselling book CUTTING FOR STONE for this month’s read, I had a little pity party inside complete with unblown-up balloons and sagging streamers. I had heard that it was a phenomenal book and that readers everywhere loved it. But at 658-are-you-kidding-me-pages, I knew there was no way I could find the time to read it when I’ve got ten books about London during World War II that I simply must get to or the writing machine will come to a screeching halt. I didn’t see how I could do it.

I had the book at home already. It had been on my towering TBR pile for a year. I decided to just give it a go. Enjoy as much as I could, skip the book club gathering for June, come back in July with the next pick, and hope it was do-able.

But I was transported on page 1 to a different place; a place where I couldn’t see not finishing it. I was so drawn to the characters, especially the narrator, Marion Stone, that I simply had to know what became of his life. As the research books gathered dust, I came to the heady conclusion that perhaps I was preparing to write after all, by reading this novel instead of all those history books. Verghese had done with beautiful but simple prose what I was trying do every time I sat down to write: Draw my readers into my make-believe-world and convince them it’s real enough to care about.

The story in a nutshell is this: Twin brothers, Marion and Shiva Stone, are born of a “tragic union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon at a mission hospital in Addis Ababa. Orphaned by their mother’s death in childbirth and their father’s disappearance, and bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution.But it’s love, not politics — their passion for the same woman — that will tear them apart and force Marion to flee his homeland and make his way to America, finding refuge in his work at an underfunded, overcrowded New York City hospital. When the past catches up to him, wreaking havoc and destruction, Marion has to entrust his life to the two men he has trusted least in the world: the surgeon father who abandoned him and the brother who betrayed him.” (from the author’s webpage).

It was an absolutely delicious book, an all-time favorite for me, so rich in sensory details that I can’t wait to head to San Diego’s Asmara Eritrean Restaurant and try all the food mentioned in the book.

And quotable lines? Lots. Here are a few faves:

“Wasn’t that the definition of home? Not where you are from, but where you are wanted”

“The world turns on our every action, and our every omission, whether we know it or not.”

“The key to your happiness is to…own who you are, own how you look, own your family, own the talents you have, and own the ones you don’t. [Otherwise] you’ll die searching, you’ll die bitter, always feeling you were promised more. Not only our actions, but also our omissions, become our destiny.”

The most amazing thing, and that which I will take away most as a writer, is the deft way Verghese fed me nearly 700 pages of story and left me feeling like I had only just begun to eat when the meal was done.

November 11, 2011 / book clubs / 2 Comments »

And the winner is. . .

Congrats to Brandi of Faith in Fiction Book Club! Thanks to the random number generator at www.random.org, you and your book club are the lucky winners of eight copies of A Sound Among the Trees, Pearl’s Caramel Cake (made by yours truly) and a phone-in convo at your book club when you gather to discuss the book! Thanks to all who entered; it was so much fun to read about your clubs and the books you have read. My club – we call ourselves the Zip Its – is gathering for lunch today at Soup Plantation (no meeting without eating!) so it’s a good day to award the winner! Have a great weekend, everyone! And Brandi, we need to chat, so I will be emailing you 🙂

October 31, 2011 / A Sound Among the Trees, book clubs / 23 Comments »

Calling all book clubs!

To celebrate the release of A Sound Among the Trees, (still under $10 bucks at Christianbook.com!) I am giving away a set of EIGHT copies of the book to one lucky book club! I will also Skype or phone in to the club the night (or day) they discuss the book. And because my own book club’s mantra is No Meeting Without Eating, I will even make and send Pearl’s Caramel Cake (when you read the book, you will know who Pearl is!) as a yummy edible gift to the winning club. Here’s what you need to know to enter the drawing:

Post a comment to this blog and tell me 1. How long your book club has been together AND 2. What your favorite book club book has been to date.
You don’t have to be the leader of your club to enter and your other club members can post a comment, too, to increase your club’s chances of winning. (Just one comment per person, though, and I must limit this giveaway to US dwellers. My profound apologies, international friends…)
The contest will run from now until Friday, Nov 11 at 9 AM Pacific, which is the day my fabulous book club will meet. Your comment will be given a number (based on when you enter your comment) and At 9 AM on November 11, I will let random.com choose the winner by number!
Make sure that you check back on November 11 to see who the winner is, because it could be you!
I will pack up the eight books and send them to the winner, and I will sign them based on the names the winner gives me. It will be the winner’s joy to pass out the books to their other club members.
After you’ve read the book and are ready to discuss it, I will send you Pearl’s Caramel Cake to arrive in time for your meeting. And we can decide then if you would like a phone call or a Skype session with your group!

If you aren’t in a book club, this would be a great way to start one. All you need are six or seven people who live near enough to meet, and who enjoy books and talking about them. Start a club! You have ten days to gather some reading friends together before the November 11 deadline. And I bet you will want to stay together after you’ve read this book and found out how wonderful it is to read a book with friends and then talk about it. And eat something fun.

I love my book club gals. I’ve been in this club for four years and our favorite book to date is probably Kathryn Stockett’s The Help. Other faves have been The Art of Racing in the Rain, The Thirteenth Tale and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. We call ourselves the Zip It Book Club because when we get together we have a very hard time NOT talking to each other and our leader is forever having to tell pairs of us to “zip it” so that we can all participate in the same conversation! No joke. If she didn’t tell us to zip it we would never actually get to the book. . . We are discussing A Sound Among the Trees on November 11. Guess what I am bringing to the food table? Hint: There’s caramel in it . . .

Let the giveaway begin!! Start posting to this post!!

Category: book clubs