December - The Secret Life of Ceecee Wilkes by Diane Chamberlain - Linda

 4.11  ·   Rating details ·  47,865 ratings  ·  4,049 reviews

In 1977, pregnant Genevieve Russell disappeared. Twenty years later, her remains are discovered and Timothy Gleason is charged with murder. But there is no sign of the unborn child. CeeCee Wilkes knows how Genevieve Russell died, because she was there. And she also knows what happened to the missing infant, because two decades ago she made the devastating choice to raise the baby as her own. Now Timothy Gleason is facing the death penalty, and she has another choice to make. Tell the truth, and destroy her family. Or let an innocent man die in order to protect a lifetime of lies... 

NOVEMBER - The Keeper of Happy Endings by Barbara Davis - Frances

 Date & Time TBD

An enchanting novel about fate, second chances, and hope, lost and found, by the Amazon Charts bestselling author of The Last of the Moon Girls.

Soline Roussel is well schooled in the business of happy endings. For generations her family has kept an exclusive bridal salon in Paris, where magic is worked with needle and thread. It’s said that the bride who wears a Roussel gown is guaranteed a lifetime of joy. But devastating losses during World War II leave Soline’s world and heart in ruins and her faith in love shaken. She boxes up her memories, stowing them away, along with her broken dreams, determined to forget.

Decades later, while coping with her own tragic loss, aspiring gallery owner Rory Grant leases Soline’s old property and discovers a box containing letters and a vintage wedding dress, never worn. When Rory returns the mementos, an unlikely friendship develops, and eerie parallels in Rory’s and Soline’s lives begin to surface. It’s clear that they were destined to meet—and that Rory may hold the key to righting a forty-year wrong and opening the door to shared healing and, perhaps, a little magic.

OCTOBER - The Family Across the Street by Nicole Trope - Jan

Meeting:  Saturday, November 6th at 11:00 a.m. at Venita Rheas

The Family Across the Street by Nicole Trope

Sometimes, the most perfect families are hiding the most terrible secrets. How well do you know the people next door…?

Everybody wants to live on Hogarth Street, the pretty, tree-lined avenue with its white houses. The new family, the Wests, are a perfect fit. Katherine and John seem so in love and their gorgeous five-year-old twins race screeching around their beautiful emerald-green lawn.

But soon people start to notice: why don’t they join backyard barbecues? Why do they brush away offers to babysit? Why, when you knock at the door, do they shut you out, rather than inviting you in?

Every family has secrets, and on the hottest day of the year, the truth is about to come out. As a tragedy unfolds behind closed doors, the dawn chorus is split by the wail of sirens. And one by one the families who tried so hard to welcome the Wests begin to realise: Hogarth Street will never be the same again.

SEPTEMBER - Tahoe Blowup by Todd Borg - Nancy

Detective McKenna is hot on the trail of a murderous arsonist in Tahoe Blowup: An Owen McKenna Mystery Thriller by Todd Borg (Tahoe Deathfall). When the killer kidnaps Owen's girlfriend, intending to burn her and hundreds of other people to death, Owen and his dog Spot have to brave the gun-toting arsonist and a devastating forest fire to save her life.

Meeting held on Nancy's deck and Larry served his infamous (yum) taco salad.  Just Frances, Linda and Nancy this month so Diana Mattix joined us..she even read the book!!  Beautiful weather.

AUGUST - Wicked Ways by Lisa Jackson - Rachelle

Elizabeth and her daughter Chloe grieving the loss of her husband was the main focus of this story. Elizabeth was easily looking like the person who killed her husband. The twist and turns made it impossible to know who really killed him.

The side story with Ravinia coming from the colony to find Elizabeth and tell her she might be in danger, was a good story on its own. The way Ravinia was surviving on her own with little experience outside the colony was really interesting to follow. When she meets the private investigator Rex and becomes his potential side kick, things really fell into place

Meeting held at Linda's house being Rachelle too busy.  Being it was another HOT day we sat inside and discussed the book over muffins.  This month Nancy and Jan only other attendees.

JULY- No book Club - Janice

 No book club this month

JUNE - Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng - Erin

Intensely complex, multi layered, and intricately plotted Little Fires Everywhere is a profoundly complicated and jarring read about motherhood, freedom, and the human experience. When unconventional artist Mia and her fifteen year old daughter, Pearl, move to Shaker Heights, Ohio their lives dramatically change.

Meeting cancelled due to only Nancy and Jan able to come.

May -If Angels Fall by Rick Mofina - Linda

Tom Reed is a crime reporter with The San Francisco Star, whose superb journalistic skills earned him a Pulitzer nomination. But years later Reed’s life is coming apart. His editor wants him fired. His wife has left him to wrestle with his demons. Alone, Reed is tormented by the fear he may have caused the suicide of an innocent man suspected of murdering a two-year-old girl.

Reed’s friend on the case is legendary San Francisco Homicide Inspector, Walt Sydowski, who has one of California’s highest clearance rates. He is also a lonely widower haunted by the fact he cannot solve the girl's heartbreaking death.  Both men grapple with the past while they race the clock to learn the truth behind a several new abductions that have anguished the Bay Area, in this acclaimed thriller set in the late 1990s. (less)

Meeting was schedule for Linda's patio but cancelled  due to scheduling conflicts.  Book to be discussed with June book.

2021 Rotation

 2021 ROTATION

 January:  Rachelle - The Widow's Cabin by L. G. Davis

 February:  Nancy - Where the Forest Meets the Stars by Glendy Vanderah

 March:  Jan - The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson

 April:  Frances - The Light through the Leaves by Glendy Vanderah

 May:  Linda - If Angels Fall by Rick Mofina

 June:  Erin - Pretty Little Liars by Celeste Ng

 July:  Janice - No book club

 August: Rachelle - Wicked Ways by Lisa Jackson

 September: Nancy - Tahoe Blowup by Todd Borg
 October: Jan - The Family Across the Street by Nicole Trope

 November: Frances - The Keeper of Happy Endings by Barbara Davis

 December: Linda - The Secret Life of Cee Cee Wilkes by Diane Chamberlain

APRIL - The Light through the Leaves by Glendy Vanderah - Frances

In a moment of crisis, Ellis Abbey leaves her daughter, Viola, unattended—for just a few minutes. But when she returns, Viola is gone. A breaking point in an already fractured marriage, Viola’s abduction causes Ellis to disappear as well—into grief, guilt, and addiction. Convinced she can only do more harm to her family, Ellis leaves her husband and young sons, burying her desperate ache for her children deeper with every step into the mountain wildernesses she treks alone.

In a remote area of Washington, a young girl named Raven keeps secrets inside, too. She must never speak to outsiders about how her mother makes miracles spring from the earth, or about her father, whose mysterious presence sometimes frightens her. Raven spends her days learning how to use her rare gifts—and more important, how to hide them. With each lesson comes a warning of what dangers lie in the world beyond her isolated haven. But despite her mother’s cautions, Raven finds herself longing for something more.

As Ellis and Raven each confront their powerful longings, their journeys will converge in unexpected and hopeful ways, pulled together by the forces of nature, love, and family.

Book Club on Frances patio...byo bag lunch :-)  She has chairs/table. 

Fun visit talking about the book that we all liked on Frances' patio.  We missed Erin (class) and Rachelle (golf lessons).  All agreed the book was too tidy at the end and giving the baby to her mother not the smartest idea, but.....

MARCH - The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson/Jan

In 1936, tucked deep into the woods of Troublesome Creek, KY, lives blue-skinned 19-year-old Cussy Carter, the last living female of the rare Blue People ancestry.

The lonely young Appalachian woman joins the historical Pack Horse Library Project of Kentucky and becomes a librarian, riding across slippery creek beds and up treacherous mountains on her faithful mule to deliver books and other reading material to the impoverished hill people of Eastern Kentucky.

Along her dangerous route, Cussy, known to the mountain folk as Bluet, confronts those suspicious of her damselfly-blue skin and the government's new book program. She befriends hardscrabble and complex fellow Kentuckians, and is fiercely determined to bring comfort and joy, instill literacy, and give to those who have nothing, a bookly respite, a fleeting retreat to faraway lands.

Met on Jan's deck and brought our own bag lunch.

FEBRUARY - Where the Forest Meets the Stars by Glendy Vanderah - Nancy

In this gorgeously stunning debut, a mysterious child teaches two strangers how to love and trust again.

After the loss of her mother and her own battle with breast cancer, Joanna Teale returns to her graduate research on nesting birds in rural Illinois, determined to prove that her recent hardships have not broken her. She throws herself into her work from dusk to dawn, until her solitary routine is disrupted by the appearance of a mysterious child who shows up at her cabin barefoot and covered in bruises.
The girl calls herself Ursa, and she claims to have been sent from the stars to witness five miracles. With concerns about the child’s home situation, Jo reluctantly agrees to let her stay—just until she learns more about Ursa’s past.  Jo enlists the help of her reclusive neighbor, Gabriel Nash, to solve the mystery of the charming child. But the more time they spend together, the more questions they have. How does a young girl not only read but understand Shakespeare? Why do good things keep happening in her presence? And why aren’t Jo and Gabe checking the missing children’s website anymore?
Though the three have formed an incredible bond, they know difficult choices must be made. As the summer nears an end and Ursa gets closer to her fifth miracle, her dangerous past closes in. When it finally catches up to them, all of their painful secrets will be forced into the open, and their fates will be left to the stars. (less)

JANUARY- THE WIDOW'S CABIN by L.G. Davis - Rachelle

One year ago, Meghan Wilton's husband begged her to help him die. Two months after asking her to do the unthinkable, he was dead.  Now Meghan is on the run with her five-year-old son.  Her new name is Zoe Roberts, and her hiding place is a cabin in the woods of Willow Creek, Tennessee.  Zoe has more than the law to fear.  Someone else wants her found, someone with the money and power to destroy her because she’s a threat to his own freedom.  The only way she can protect herself and her son is by uncovering dark and disturbing secrets that will leave her scarred forever...or get her killed.  To save herself, she must return to the night her husband died.  Is she brave enough to relive the worst day of her life?

DECEMBER - The Keeper of Lost Things - Ruth Hogan - Erin

December - The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan

This is a delightful, charming, and comic read set in London and Brighton which I adored. Laura is a divorced and broken woman for whom intimacy has proved to be a disappointment. She finds employment as housekeeper and assistant to writer Anthony Peardew, who experienced heartbreak with the loss of his beloved Therese on his wedding day. That event has coloured and haunted his entire life, with guilt over a broken promise, a lost communion medal, and led to the enormous collection of lost items which he has found with the hope of reuniting them with their owners. He dies, leaving his home, Padua, to Laura for whom it is a sanctuary, with a condition that she makes efforts to restore the lost items to their true owners. Whilst owning Padua brings security and delight to Laura, the real prize turns out to be the task Anthony sets for it offers Laura a path toward resurrecting her life again, tenuously learning to trust people and connect with the world again.

With faltering steps, Laura befriends the extraordinary girl that is Sunshine, a downs syndrome child who has been bullied. Sunshine is special and has the capacity to see and understand things that elude Laura, particularly when it comes to a irascible and troubled ghost and the lost items. Laura, Freddy, the gardener, Sunshine, and Carrot, a rescued dog, begin to connect as a unit slowly developing the strength to overcome obstacles such as the ugly local rumours concerning Laura. There is a parallel story about Eunice and Bomber, and the tragedies and triumphs that litter their lives through time. The storylines do eventually connect. Interspersed throughout we have entrancing and shocking tales of some of the lost items, and the various situations that the owners found themselves in. Laura, with the help of Freddy and Sunshine, sets up a website documenting the lost collection only to find it becomes so much more than she envisaged.

ZOOM video meeting on January 7, 2021.   Jan unable to join due to mandarin season but liked the book as well.