2019 Book Club Reads

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why i created a group to turn pages and drink wine

I started a Book Club.

Like actually sent out an email to a group of women and said, let’s start a Book Club…

I remember being like 12 years old and my MOM participating in a Book Club. Which inevitably turned into a wine of the month club. But I remember thinking, that’s what women do when they get old, they start book clubs. Turns out I’m now in those shoes. I am a part of the old people club. At 32 years old. Ha. If my 12 year old self could see me now…

But here’s the thing. I feel like in our current world, we are all craving connection. We are tired of staring at screens all day, playing the comparison game with everyone’s highlight reel and wishing we spent more time with actual live people friends. Oh, wait, is that just me?! This was exactly my motivation behind starting my Book Club. I needed to feel a part of something. To feel connection to other people, their ideas, and the ideas that someone else so carefully crafted on paper. I wanted to turn more actual pages and spend less time clicking. And to be honest, I also needed a night of wine + cheese and girl talk!

Our First Book Club Meeting…

This Book Club of mine is a group of smart, kind, witty, talented business women and creatives who all love to read everything from historical fiction to trashy romance novels you get in the grocery store aisle.  There are 6 of us for now. Not all best friends, just a group of women who love good conversation and a page turner. It might morph into more, or it might stay small and true to itself. Either way, our first meeting last night was FUN. Like, I woke up so happy that I have my own Book Club…with a list of actual books that make me excited for nights by the fire with a chunky blanket and a warm cup of cocoa.

Chosen books for 2019 book club

Here’s whats on tap for 2019 page turners…

MARCH to MAY…

  1. EDUCATEDour first read for March! Heard so many great reviews on this one and can’t wait to dive in! Educated is an account of the struggle for self-invention. It is a tale of fierce family loyalty and of the grief that comes with severing the closest of ties. With the acute insight that distinguishes all great writers, Westover has crafted a universal coming-of-age story that gets to the heart of what an education is and what it offers: the perspective to see one’s life through new eyes and the will to change it.
  2. WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING – Perfect for fans of Barbara Kingsolver and Karen Russell, Where the Crawdads Sing is at once an exquisite ode to the natural world, a heartbreaking coming-of-age story, and a surprising tale of possible murder. Owens reminds us that we are forever shaped by the children we once were, and that we are all subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps.
  3. THE WILD GIRL – Growing up in the small German kingdom of Hessen-Cassel in the early Nineteenth century, Dortchen Wild is irresistibly drawn to the boy next door, the young and handsome fairy tale scholar Wilhelm Grimm.
    It is a time of war, tyranny and terror. Napoleon Bonaparte wants to conquer all of Europe, and Hessen-Cassel is one of the first kingdoms to fall. Forced to live under oppressive French rule, the Grimm brothers decide to save old tales that had once been told by the firesides of houses grand and small all over the land.

JUNE to AUGUST…

  1. A PIECE OF THE WORLD – Told in evocative and lucid prose, A Piece of the World is a story about the burdens and blessings of family history, and how artist and muse can come together to forge a new and timeless legacy.
  2. ONCE UPON A RIVER – Replete with folklore, suspense and romance, as well as with the urgent scientific curiosity of the Darwinian age, Once Upon a River is as richly atmospheric as Setterfield’s bestseller The Thirteenth Tale.
  3. THE FABULOUS BOUVIER SISTERS – A poignant, evocative, and wonderfully gossipy account of the two sisters who represented style and class above all else—Jackie Kennedy Onassis and Lee Radziwill—from the authors of Furious Love.

SEPTEMBER to NOVEMBER…

  1. THE IMMORTALISTS – A sweeping novel of remarkable ambition and depth, The Immortalists probes the line between destiny and choice, reality and illusion, this world and the next. It is a deeply moving testament to the power of story, the nature of belief, and the unrelenting pull of familial bonds.
  2. BEFORE WE WERE YOURS – Based on one of America’s most notorious real-life scandals—in which Georgia Tann, director of a Memphis-based adoption organization, kidnapped and sold poor children to wealthy families all over the country—Lisa Wingate’s riveting, wrenching, and ultimately uplifting tale reminds us how, even though the paths we take can lead to many places, the heart never forgets where we belong.
  3. A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW – Brimming with humor, a glittering cast of characters, and one beautifully rendered scene after another, this singular novel casts a spell as it relates the count’s endeavor to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be a man of purpose.

DECEMBER to FEBRUARY…

  1. THE ONLY WOMAN IN THE ROOM – A powerful novel based on the incredible true story of the glamour icon and scientist whose groundbreaking invention revolutionized modern communication, The Only Woman in the Room is a masterpiece.
  2. THE MAZE AT WINDEMEREBased in Newport. Weaving these intersecting worlds into a brilliant tapestry, Gregory Blake Smith charts a voyage across the ages and into the maze of the human heart.
  3. THE GREAT ALONE – In this unforgettable portrait of human frailty and resilience, Kristin Hannah reveals the indomitable character of the modern American pioneer and the spirit of a vanishing Alaska―a place of incomparable beauty and danger. The Great Alone is a daring, beautiful, stay-up-all-night story about love and loss, the fight for survival, and the wildness that lives in both man and nature.

Rhode Island book club 2019 picks

 

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