August 2026 Bookclub News

 

 

Henri Bendel's

Dear Bookclub,

Our 'summer night out' melted into a 'summer night in' as our little group relaxed into an air conditioned booth at the Veranda eschewing the horrible heat outside. Reminiscing about our early department store experiences, we could not reach back far enough to touch the "Glamour and Power at the Dawn of American Fashion" the aptly subtitled description of Julie Satow's "When Women Ran Fifth Avenue". From Karen's Northwest view, to Martha's L.A. and NYC memories, Julie's Chicago stores and my Pittsburgh Kaufmann's, the variety of tales mimicked the variety and depth offered by department stores; a trait hard to find now in the world of homogenized shopping and online accessibility. Our coming of age was defined by shopping malls, a world evolved from the creative, competitive fashionable Fifth Avenue. 

We enjoyed Satow's accounts of Hortense Odlum, Dorothy Shaver and Geraldine Stutz. The stories of their successes and obstacles, typical of the times, gave us an appreciation for how far women have come in business and life.  Hortense sadly reflected that her experience was not one of her choosing and she felt the failure of her marriage showed that you could have career or family but not both. Perhaps her Floyd was just not a great guy.

Demolition of Bonwit Teller’s flagship store, 1980. One of the two Rene Paul Chambellan Dancing Lady bas-reliefs.

 

Speaking of not great guys, the construction of the Trump Tower in the early 1980's on the site of the Stewart and Company/Bonwit Teller building involved shady destruction of beautiful art deco pieces on the building, promised to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Donald Trump decided the proper removal of the pieces was too costly and demolished them to the shock of those who valued the art. Please read more about the building's history and enjoy the pictures and stories of Bonwit Teller:

https://drivingfordeco.com/stewart-and-company/ 

 

As a child, my sister and I loved to sit on a blue, silk brocade living room sofa and pore over two huge volumes of New Yorker cartoon anthologies. There are newer ones today but these were published eons ago. One of our favorites:

 

 

The phrase, "I say it's spinach, and I say the hell with it",  originated in my mind as the caption of a cartoon published in The New Yorker on December 8, 1928, drawn by Carl Rose and captioned by E.B.White. Lost on us at the time was that this was a play on the American idiom implying "rubbish" or "nonsense".

 

Satow's chapter, 'Fashion is Spinach', telling of the  Parisian copy houses, brought a whole new light to this gag cartoon. I found it fascinating that smuggling, covert sketching, and outright stealing were par for the course. Elizabeth Hawes memoir "Fashion is Spinach: How to Beat the Fashion Racket" revealed her passion for revamping the industry. Please enjoy more on the cartoon and phrase, followed by a link to learn more about Hawes:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_say_it%27s_spinach 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Hawes 

 

Our little group decided to put two new selections onto the calendar since several months have passed without recommendations. Selected:

October "Calamity Club" Kathryn Stockett

November "Theo of Golden" Allen Levi

Up next: 

Happy reading,

LK
 

July 2026 Bookclub News

 

Dear Bookclub,

Homa and Ellie ignited our imaginations, delivering a Tehran unfamiliar to our group through the story of a friendship woven over thirty years. The influences, both women's history as we know it and the unique experience of the Iranian environment during that period, were deftly crafted into Marjan Kamali's well-liked novel, "The Lion Women of Tehran". 

Meanwhile, another friendship woven over decades was ours to enjoy as Cheri Navidi and Jacky Izadi joined our groups and shared stories. Both being married to Iranian engineers, their insights into the Persian culture widened our impressions, deepened our understandings, and frankly, entertained us. Many thanks to Julie for arranging their attending and huge gratitude to both women for being our noble speakers!

Jacky and Cheri

 

Blending my two bookclubs is always a cause for celebration. The luncheon delightfully brought me the opportunity to try relevant recipes the author shared (see link below) and revisit the significance of food in the novel.

https://marjankamali.com/wp-content/uploads/Recipe-Booklet_LION-WOMEN-OF-TEHRAN_Kamali-Marjan.pdf 

 

Kamali's passion for Persian food surfaces in her inclusion of two food blogs she shared in the interview link below. As a 2022 National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, Marjan Kamali is interviewed in the link, discussing her novel, "The Stationery Shop". Please enjoy listening to her talk about the Persian culture and "the centrality of poetry in the lives of Iranians and Iranian-Americans, living on the hyphen between Iranian and American, her plans for the 2022 NEA Literature Fellowship, and the absolute joy of writing about the food at the heart of Persian culture".

 https://www.arts.gov/stories/podcast/marjan-kamali

Apologies for inadequate photography of our event - never my strong suit! But here is a smattering to remember the day:

 

Up next:

Happy reading,

LK 

June 2026 Bookclub News

 

Dear Bookclub,

A Novel Group descended upon La Jolla to celebrate our 36+ years of friendship, page-turning, glass-clinking, deep-thinking(!) and talk, talk, talking. It was a fantastic time. Kicking off with a royal tour of Warwick's, Nancy and Madeline led us around the store and beyond, sharing history of the shop, tales of their journeys, authors, books, buyers and La Jolla. We loved every minute of it. Culminating in a study of the mural on the back wall of the building, identifying the authors included in the Warwick's history was thrilling. 

Nancy Warwick presenting

Our exploration of the area had us meandering through shops and finding the murals listed on the La Jolla Mural self-guided tour. My proposed future mural is featured above. Warwick's mural honoring the 125 years (2021) is featured on merch; we were each given a bookmark with the Lori Mitchell work. 

 

 

https://www.lorimitchellart.com/

 

Please enjoy reading more about Lori Mitchell on her website, which is where I found our beloved Nutmeg cafe depicted in her 'Coffee and Chai' page.

 

The Novel Group getaway would not have been perfection without so many stars lined up: Diane's enthusiastic R&D, Kim's presence, the weather, our hearty attendance, Evan Friss' "The Bookshop", The Grand Colonial Hotel, delightful cocktails, newborn seal pups, etc.! I am so grateful!

May we continue to delight in our future adventures!

Up next:

 Happy reading,

LK 

May 2026 Bookclub News

 

 

Dear Bookclub,

Martha's May evening for bookclub was magical.  Treated to a perfectly curated small bites selection designed around our book's theme, seeded breads and crackers were poised for additions of cheeses, shrimp and tinned fish. 

Martha's house, Martha's food, Martha's smart wrap -but not Martha

Sitting at a table aside the illuminated pool, we delved into the world Charlotte McConaghy created with its haunting nature-inspired backdrop to a psychological thriller. "Wild Dark Shore" was Shearwater, an island loosely based on the sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island, complete with a research base. Focused on the richly developed characters in the novel, we wondered about the choices made, plausibility of situations, and the possible future outcomes. Karen was frustrated by Row's death but in truth, death was prominent in the fabric of the plot and a happier ending was just another victim. We would have loved a map but this image of Macquarie Island helped me envision a setting.

 

 Macquarie Island

 

 

The scientific aspect and descriptions of nature in "Wild Dark Shore" was very appealing to our readers. The concept of the seed vault sent me researching. Please enjoy this website about how seed banks work:

 

https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/seed-bank.htm 

Svalbard Global Seed Vault

 

https://www.regjeringen.no/en/topics/food-fisheries-and-agriculture/svalbard-global-seed-vault/id462220/

Embedded in the above webpage is a fascinating 5 minute video of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.... please, please watch (and bookmark it for any future time when you are warm and need to cool off).

 Martha's suggestions for an upcoming read:

"At the Edge of the Haight"  Katherine Seligman

"The Mighty Red" Louise Erdrich *chosen

"Erotic Stories for Punjabi Women" Balli Kaur Jaswal

 

Up next:

 

Happy reading,

LK 

 

 

April 2026 Bookclub News

Dear Bookclub,

Diane's evening was spectacular from the greet of a "Good Night and Good Luck" champagne cocktail to The Briar Club playlist (there is one on Amazon Music):

https://music.amazon.com/user-playlists/9643405bbeec4e659e63176054c72491sune?referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F 

 

After catching up, we settled down to business, sharing our favorite characters and a memories-of -boardinghouse-stays discussion. This morphed into college reminisces, naturally!

Kate Quinn's "The Briar Club" - part patchwork quilt of characters well-developed, part murder-mystery, part cookbook, all à la 1950's, delighted our group. With a nod to the Pillsbury bake-off, Diane created two amazing canapés; one with spinach and artichoke and the other with spinach and lamb - unbelievably wonderful (and barely visible in the picture below as I had already destroyed the supply at this end of the table).

 

When I say created, I mean Diane impressively researched Pillsbury Bake-off recipes and re-imagined. Please check out the history of the contest:

https://www.pillsbury.com/bake-off-contest/history-of-the-pillsbury-bake-off-contest 

Eleanor Roosevelt presenting in 1949 at first Bake-off

The Briarwood House in Quinn's novel was itself a character. In the spirit of that fantasy, Diane's inclusion of Lina's 8-layer honey cake gets my vote for the most-honored guest, seated at the head of the table:

stunning and dreamily delicious!

 

Quinn's novel was appreciated for spinning a tale that included just about every issue, politically and socially of the era and not wearing us out in the process. Her box-checking nearly tipped the book into the ridiculous but it worked for us. We read well, we discussed well and we ate well. Thank you Kate Quinn and Diane!

sweater girls

 

Diane's suggestions for an upcoming read:

"Theo of Golden" Allen Levi

"What the Bears Know" Steve Searles and Chris Erskine

"When Women Ran Fifth Avenue" Julie Satow *chosen

 Up next:

Happy reading,

LK
 

 

March 2026 Bookclub News

 

Dear Bookclub,

There were doughnuts. My fingers were merrily putting one into my mouth, so no pictures of those. Irene would have been flabbergasted to serve the charcuterie Lori presented. Pictured below as the centerpiece, with our round-tabled gang, the platter astounded and got us rolling to discuss Luis Alberto Urrea's "Goodnight, Irene".

 

Urrea's novel was very well-liked by all. Our appreciation was much enhanced knowing the author's mother, Phyllis McLaughlin Urrea, and her best friend, Jill Knappenberger, were the inspiration for Irene and Dorothy, the main characters. But mind-blowing appreciation came to us through Julie, who shared that her parents were friends with Jill in Illinois. Knappenberger was remembered as a bright no-nonsense woman and indeed, Urea was able to visit and interview her when she was 95 years old. 

from The News-Gazette

https://usveterans.news-gazette.com/veteran/those-who-served-red-cross-driver-knew-value-of-morale-boost-during-battle-of-bulge/ 

Jill Knappernberger (1918-2020)

https://www.knappenberger.net/jill-pitts-knappenberger/

This interview is from a University of Illinois Alumni Association event, quite long, but I encourage you to listen to as much as you can to hear Urrea tell more about his mother's story:

https://www.youtube.com/live/KDm-NiXG3OA 

Posted by Urrea on Facebook before the event, his joy at meeting Knappenberger is apparent!

   

Phyllis McLaughlin

Phyllis McLaughlin, bottom right, with troops during World War II. Her friend Jill Pitts Knappenberger is the tall woman standing in the back.Credit...Family Photograph

 

The above photo is from an excellent NY Times essay, Luis Alberta Urrea's "My Mother Returned from World War II a Changed Woman". Please learn more about Luis' experience as a child of this amazing woman and his revelation about the toll the war had on her:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/12/opinion/women-ww2-redcross-clubmobile.html

Luis Alberto Urrea, prolific and unique, surprised me with this novel. His other works more familiar to us... "Into the Beautiful North", "The Hummingbird's Daughter", "The House of Broken Angels"... all emphasize his insight into the bridging of his Mexican-American heritage. Exploring Urrea's website reminded me of his depth, with the list of non-fiction works and poetry pushing beyond the more well-known fiction titles. Check him out! https://luisurrea.com/about/

And be sure to investigate this one, in the spirit of curiousity-inspired bookclub dives:

https://luisurrea.com/books/wandering-time-western-notebooks/

 

Lori's suggestions for an upcoming read:

"The Lion Women of Tehran" Marjan Kamali *chosen

"The Names" Florence Knapp 

"Endurance" Frank A. Worsley 

 

 

 

Up next:

 Happy reading,

LK