Dear Bookclub,
An evening at Julie's for our August gathering is a sweet summer memory by now. Harlan Coben's "Missing You" provided the background for a stimulating conversation punctuated by Julie's roving taste treats. Moving from patio seating to patio dining to formal dining room, we feasted along the way, discussing the cyber thriller. Julie 'axed' us to 'unearth' all the subplots:
Suggested selections for January by Julie:
"Fault in Our Stars" by John Green
"The Language of Flowers" by Vanessa Diffenbaugh *chosen
♫ "It's that time of year....♫ daaaa dum de dum ♪" ........
Karen and Kate, our holiday committee are pleased to announce that our holiday party will be on Saturday December 13 at 7 PM (that's 12/13/14!) at the Country Club of Rancho Bernardo in the Fireside Room. We will have a cash bar and appetizers. Specifics are still being formulated but it is official. Please mark your calendars! Our book selection will be the absolutely fantastic "The Boys in the Boat" by Daniel James Brown". Thank you K & K!
Coming up: Our September meeting is on the 18th at Lynn T.'s! Please RSVP to Lynn.
M.L. Stedman's "The Light Between Oceans" has been on the
New York Times bestseller list for weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks and is soon to be a major motion picture from Spielberg’s Dreamworks. Gregory Coles from the New York Times, 'Inside the List' (August 10 2012), states:
DARKNESS AND LIGHT: Some writers crave publicity, while the very hint of
it makes others curl into a defensive ball like hedgehogs or pill bugs.
M. L. Stedman — whose new novel, “The Light Between Oceans,” enters the
hardcover fiction list at No. 7 — is a hedgehog. The book carries no
author photograph, and only a brusque biography: “M. L. Stedman was born
and raised in Western Australia and now lives in London. ‘The Light
Between Oceans’ is her first novel. Go away.” (O.K., so I added the last
sentence myself.) Stedman has mostly shunned press interviews as well —
but not entirely, and because this is the age of the Internet it’s
possible for a determined reader to track down a couple of profiles that
ran in her native Australia this spring. They are, refreshingly, less
about her personality than her novel, the story of a World War I veteran
who moves with his wife to a remote island for work as a lighthouse
keeper. “There is something that appeals to the human psyche about
lighthouses because of their isolation,” Stedman told The Sydney Morning
Herald in March. “Their presence offers up a marvelous set of
dichotomies the human imagination likes to explore — darkness and light,
safety and danger, stasis and movement, isolation and communication.
The story throws up the role of isolation on morality — when you don’t
see the impact of your actions. Perhaps it’s easier to fool yourself
when you cannot see the face of those who are affected by what you do.”
The article does offer a few glimpses of the private Stedman (the “M”
stands for Margot, and she has worked as a lawyer), but for the most
part she stands her ground with admirably Pynchonian resolve. “Details
of my life won’t really shed light on the story,” she said. “I’d much
rather let readers focus on the book and their own experience of it.”
Yikes! This publicity pic looks like she cut it out of the school librarian directory.
OK - enough..... Please enjoy the book....
Happy Reading,
LK
