November 2025 Bookclub News

Sue's Friendsgiving November 2024

 

Dear Bookclub,

This time last year, our bookclub gathered for a Friendsgiving at Sue's not knowing how much our world would change before our next opportunity to repeat the tradition. Lynne hosted this year and an outpouring of grief for our departed friend blended with remembrances emphasizing the importance of our deep connection. 

 

 

 

Fredrik Backman's, "My Friends", aptly titled, veered into a world of challenged, complicated friendships told through an imaginative story, at once touching and difficult. I found myself amazed, laughing out loud and weary. Ultimately, wishing it had been tighter, I don't think I will easily forget the story and forgive the dragging.   

 

Homer

 

Herrara

Owen

The painting is truly a fictional character. Winslow Homer's "Three Boys on the Shore", Lauren Herrara's "The One" and Caryn Owen's abstract seascape are each stunning in their own way. The reader got to form a unique vision of "The One of the Sea",  a curious aspect to one's understanding of the painting's power in Backman's book. I still really wanted to find the actual work! 

Backman

 

Please take two minutes to watch this entertaining video of Backman discussing the use of art, humor, and emotion in his writing:

 https://youtube.com/shorts/OzUDefQvPMM?si=3T_3LsTwdWWdeRDy

 

Lynne's suggestions for an upcoming read:

"Twice" Mitch Albom

"Good Night, Irene" Luis Alberto Urrea *chosen

"Atmosphere" Taylor Jenkins 

 

 

Happy reading,

LK 

October 2025 Bookclub News

 

 

 

 

Dear Bookclub,

 

Another classic autumn bookclub meeting at Karen's yielded a fantastic turnout. Regretfully, I was unable to attend but will report what I have learned about the evening and discussion of Brendan Slocumb's "Violin Conspiracy":

 

from Diane -  "The food, the wine, the discussion and the FRIENDS(!) were the perfect mix for a memorable fall evening!"

 

from Karen: "Good discussion all the way around. I filled them in on Brendan's resume as there were some doubters in the group!" 

 

 

There is no doubt that Slocumb is passionate about his story and the role music has is his life. Please enjoy hearing Brendan's PBS Newshour interview, sharing his very believable, real-life experiences with prejudice and challenge on his journey with the violin:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNxuUICjjDw 

 

Discover more about Slocumb, his books, his podcast:

 

https://www.brendanslocumb.com/

 

 

Finally, the music! The International Tchaikovsky Competition, held in Russia every four years, was first held in 1958 with American Van Cliburn being the winner. Conceived during the cold war, the concept was to spotlight performing arts as an appeal for peace. The competition has expanded over the decades to now include vocalists, brass and woodwinds. Fascinating photos and history can be found on the website for the 2023 competition:

https://tchaikovskycompetition.com/en/about/ 

 

Brendan did not ever compete in the competition, as he professes in this violin excerpts-sprinkled interview with Asma Khalid on "All Things Considered": 

 

https://www.npr.org/2022/01/28/1076514270/the-violin-conspiracy-shows-what-it-can-be-like-to-play-classical-music-while-bl 

 

Karen's suggestions for an upcoming read:

 

"Good Night Irene" Luis Alberto Urrea

 

"Let's Call Her Barbie" Renée Rosen *chosen

 

"All the Stars in the Heavens" Adriana Trigiani

 

 

Up next:

 

 

 

Happy reading,

LK 

 

September 2025 Bookclub News

 

 

 

18718 Olmeda Place                                                                                                                                                                          San Diego, CA 92128

September 19, 2025 

August 2025 Bookclub News

 

 

Dear Bookclub,

One of us 'struggled with the book initially', another thought 'beetle! please make it something else', and yet another 'didn't want to like the book', but all came around and enjoyed Rachel Joyce's quirky "Miss Benson's Beetle". The overall tale became predictable but the inner tale revealed gem after gem of witticisms, beautiful prose, laugh-out-loud dialogue and a glorious audible. Martha, Lori and I enjoyed our summer-night-out bookclub meeting at the Winery, indifferent to the nagging heat, respecting Margery and Enid's New Caledonia climate tolerance.  Please enjoy the above re-imagining of our gathering à la 'clean-up', apologies to Slim Aarons.

  

Miss Benson's elusive golden beetle may be related to the golden tortoise beetle, 'native to the Americas and broadly distributed'. Check out the interesting characteristics of this 'gold bug':

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

Unable to verify a golden beetle in New Caledonia, I did peruse 28(!) pages of the 46 pages on the iNatiralist website under the country's insect species before giving up:

https://www.inaturalist.org/places/new-caledonia#page=1&taxon=47158 

But I did find a: 

striped lady bug!

 

Finally, a word about Rachel Joyce. The author has a long list of accomplishments, including writing many afternoon plays for BBC Radio 4, as well as major adaptations of all the Bronte novels, and Henry James. In 2007 she jointly won the Tinniswood Award for best original audio drama. We loved her 2018 novel, "The Music Shop"! Explore more here:

https://www.rachel-joyce.co.uk/

 

Chosen for an upcoming read:

"My Friends" Fredrik Backman

 

Up next:

Happy reading,

LK
 

 

July 2025 Bookclub News

 

 

Dear Bookclub,

Fortified with two bottles of summery white wine, the Fab Four got down to business for the July Summer-Night-Out at the Bernardo Winery. My one-time late-night fantastical plan to subvert the winery's kitchen dinner with a Barefoot Contessa meal was squelched by reality. Perfect roast chicken, vegetable slaw, and coconut cupcakes, my old favorites, sounded divine - no such luck(I wasn't ready).  We dined on snazzy pizza and salad. Ina Garten's memoir, "Be Ready When the Luck Happens" drew our chat into the realm of the eras Ina's story told. With apologies to Taylor:

Lover: Jeffrey

Fearless: Buying The Barefoot Contessa

Reputation: Established

Evermore: Cookbooks published 'her way'

Speak Now: the Biography 

Our relating to her eras was centered on the 1960's/early 70's feminism era with our connection to the career/marriage dilemma.  Reminisces about old boyfriends, career paths, and college experiences tied our connection to her early years. Memories jumped at me in Proust Effect, recalling events with the foods I'd made during her cookbook era.

We wondered about the spin that is customary to autobiographies. Garten's story fascinated us and her inclusion of a challenging childhood felt genuine yet the shaping at times felt a bit unreal. This woman 'makes her own luck', as my mother-in-law would say.

 

As the enveloping darkness bid us to finish up, we batted around suggestions from tiny folded bits, deciding upon an entertaining and thought-provoking page-turner for our upcoming selection.

 

"The Violin Conspiracy" Brendan Slocumb *chosen

"At the Edge of the Haight" Katherine Seligman

"My Friends" Fredrik Backman

"The Lost Bookshop" Evie Woods

"My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry" Fredrik Backman

"Taste" Stanley Tucci

"Good Night Irene" Alberto Luis Urrea

"Let's Call Her Barbie" Renée Rosen

"Darling Beasts" Michele Gable 

 

Up next:

 

Happy reading,

LK 

 

 

 

 

 

A Little Experiment July 2025

Dear Bookclub,

Some of you may have experienced a strange block to our blog:

 

 

Agreeing to continue allows normal access. My guess is some AI-bot has oddly flagged this post yet nothing offensive is in our blog. 

Rest assured.

I have successfully published "my other bookclub blog" today without any block. Let's see how this one goes!

 

Happy reading,

LK  

June 2025 Bookclub News

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May 2025 Bookclub News

 

 

 

 

Dear Bookclub,

An evening at Lori's new princess-cottage thrilled our little group as we tucked in to discuss Elizabeth Strout's "Tell Me Everything". Treated to a delicately delicious supper, the atmosphere emphasized the sweet luxury of bookclub friendship. Armed with elaborate character charts to decipher the Strout community, we got down to business and marveled at the web of relationships and the variety of personalities:

 

     

Strout's prolific output had us tied up in recalling what we had and hadn't read of her bookshelf. "Olive Kitteridge" was most widely read and the winner of Strout's 2009 Pulitzer Prize. Here is a list of her other titles:

Publication Order of Olive Kitteridge Books

Olive Kitteridge	(2008)
Olive, Again	(2019)

Publication Order of Amgash Books

My Name Is Lucy Barton	(2016)
Anything Is Possible	(2017)
Oh William!	(2021)
Lucy by the Sea	(2022)
Tell Me Everything	(2024)

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Amy and Isabelle	(1998)
Abide with Me	(2006)
The Burgess Boys	(2013)

Meanwhile our discussion tried to hone in on the meaning of the book and if in fact, despite many poignant conversations and well-developed characters, the lack of a point was the point indeed. Kate put a smile on our faces reminding us that the last line was Lucy Barton telling Olive Kitteredge that "Love is love." All that for that! I must admit that I enjoyed the romp and have been listening to the other books, gratefully entertained and distracted while I slog through chores.

 

The following excerpt from a 2017 New Yorker article illuminates Strout's comedic influence:

She had always been interested in standup comedy, and it occurred to her that what’s funny is true. “That’s why people respond, because the unspeakable is getting said,” Strout told me. “So I thought to myself, What would happen if I put myself in that kind of pressure cooker where I was responsible immediately for having people laugh?” She enrolled in a standup class at the New School, which required students to perform at the Comic Strip. She was terrified before going onstage. “My whole routine, I made so much fun of myself for being an uptight white woman from New England,” Strout said. “And the incredible part is it worked.”  

Her writing does reflect this therapeutic stand-up style. I hope an understanding of Strout opens your understanding of her work.

 

Lori's suggestions for an upcoming selection:

"All the Colors of the Dark" Chris Whitaker

"The Wedding People" Alison Espach

"Miss Benson's Beetle" Rachel Joyce *chosen

 

Up next: 

 Happy reading,

LK 

April 2025 Bookclub News

 

 

Dear Bookclub,

Right there. On the cover. 'Jeanine Cummins Bestselling author of AMERICAN DIRT'. Casually chatting after our meal and deep dive into our April selection, "The Outside Boy", someone mentioned that this is the author of "American Dirt". I was flabbergasted! Did I expect an 'Irish' writer?

How did this amazing feat escape me... Cummins, the center of the 2020 Oprah-selection-controversy, is clearly a gifted writer. Not an Irish writer or Puerto Rican writer(both in her heritage), a Spanish writer (she was born in Spain), or an 'American' writer - she is a writer able to create work across many cultures. 

Cummins weathered the race storm stirred up by Latin writers, as many felt she was inaccurate in writing the Latino immigrant experience, since she identified as 'mostly white'. Without re-visiting the whole of the controversy, the point of exclusion was noted yet this is fiction and a great book was written.  

 

 

From Wikipedia:

Some also claimed that Cummins had previously identified as white but re-branded herself as Latina with the publication of the book, pointing to a line in a 2015 New York Times op-ed in which Cummins stated "I am white." Most did not refer to the entire statement in the op-ed, however, which was about the murder of Cummins's cousins by a group of three black and one white men and included the line "I am white. The grandmother I shared with Julie and Robin was Puerto Rican, and their father is half Lebanese. But in every practical way, my family is mostly white."

 

As readers, we benefit from the depth of her work and leaning away from ethnicity. "The Outside Boy" was well-liked. We relished the descriptions, the beauty and heartache of Christy. The travellers and the dichotomies of their moral codes and that of the Catholic Church set us to pondering the gray areas. The boy who chose outside could not help but leave us with a renewed appreciation for different perspectives, once again. The above is from a book of photography "Irish Travellers: Tinkers No More" by Alen MacWeeney:

https://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2012/11/05/164364134/documenting-the-irish-travellers-a-nomadic-culture-of-yore 

 

My suggestions for an upcoming read:

"Be Ready When the Luck Happens: A Memoir" Ina Garten *chosen

"The Violin Conspiracy" Brendan Slocumb

"Travels With George: In Search for Washington and his Legacy" Nathaniel Philbrick 

Please check out the above mentioned memoir, "A Rip in Heaven", to recognize Cummins' varied styles.

https://www.amazon.com/Rip-Heaven-Memoir-Murder-Aftermath/dp/0451210530 

 

 

 

Up next:

 

 

Happy reading,

LK

March 2025 Bookclub News

 

 

Dear Bookclub,

Martha's round table held steady and even as we negotiated Percival Everett's novel "James". Huck and Jim, however, were roiled by their Mississippi negotiations as Everett satirically portrayed his re-imagined version of Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn".  We loved it.

 

 

Everett's art: language, social commentary and historic truths bundled into a package we will long hold as a high standard of a truly great work. Both the audible and the written word vine together to form a stunning literary masterpiece. 

Tracy Nguyen for The New Yorker

Everett's talents beyond his writing include being an accomplished abstract painter, a jazz guitarist, a horse trainer, a tracker, and a cowboy.  He and his wife, Danzy Senna, are professors at USC.

 

Danzy Senna

Danzy sent me into a maze of googling. I can only imagine the workings of this relationship as she has an amazing trail. I read her memoir, "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" about her parents' mixed-race marriage and am intrigued by her fiction. I will not subject you to the hours of threads I have followed but I will share this entertaining, short and illuminating interview of Everett with Seth Myers (you will not be disappointed):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZMabgZZtZc

Finally, my quest to find out how Percival and Danzy met, yielded a lengthy piece (pre-"James") from Project Muse:  "An Overview of Everett's Life and Career"  by Derek Maus. I did not learn a thing about their meeting. Please enjoy perusing:

https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/244/oa_monograph/chapter/2283518  

 

Martha's selections for an upcoming read:

 

'Lady Tan's Circle of Women" Lisa See

"Leave Only Footprints" Conor Knighton

"Tell Me Everything" Elizabeth Strout *chosen

 

 **** Alert ****  We decided to flip May and June suggestions so we will have a breezier read for our La Jolla Anniversary Trip. 

Up next:

 

 

 

Happy reading!

LK