The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams

 In early March seven lucky members met at Betsy’s home to discuss her book

“The Reading List” by Sara Nisha Adams. This book is set in Wembley, England.

and is a heartwarming novel about a list of recommended novels mysteriously found in a

library book which is circulated among the diverse patrons of a small library.

The novel celebrates the old school joys of reading and getting emotionally involved

with fictitious characters and learning from them.

The novel develops a friendship between lonely Mukesh Patel and Aleisha a teen summer

worker at the library.  Sometimes you have to step out of your comfort zone in order to combat 

loneliness and depression. We discussed the role of a library and the importance of

keeping them open in this digital age.

It turns out that  Mukesh’s deceased wife, Naina, was the one who distributed the list around 

the neighborhood. She was able to share her love of reading not only with her family but

with the community at large. The author created a second reading list of novels and Kathy gave

us a printout of that list, We had a lively discussion not only about the book but about what being

a member of our reading group does for us on a personal level.

Now the reason I said we were a lucky group of seven was because of Betsy’s culinary delights.

We had a delicious Ina Garten inspired seafood chowder and a wonderful mixed salad followed by

Strawberry topped cheesecake. There were cocktails to start, wonderful dinner wine and a fine

Cognac finish. The bar was set very high by Betsy who used her fine chinaware and cutlery.

Carol sent in her choice, “ The Girl With The Seven Names” by Hyeonseo Lee.

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams

For our January 2024 read Sarah chose the Dictionary of lost words written 

by Pip Williams, an Australian author..

It is a historical fiction novel about the compilation of the Oxford dictionary, the suffrage 

movement  for women’s voting rights, and World War I.

Some of the characters are real and others are fictitious.

As it turns out the project was male dominated and also excluded words used by the lower class. Many

words  associated with women and common people were left out.

In the absence of computers it was a very tedious process .

The place where the compilation took place was called a scriptorium.

Esme is a child who picks up word slips dropped on the floor, usually ones

that are left out of the dictionary as they are deemed inappropriate. She saves these in a chest

and eventually they are published in the dictionary of lost words.

We all agreed this was a unique find on Sarah’s part and it shed a lot of light on

what is entailed in the opus of compiling a dictionary. 

We finished the evening with two kinds of soups, hearty bread and plenty

of wine both red and white.

Betsy chose “The Reading List” by Sara Nisha Adams

The Ride of Her Life by Elizabeth Letts

In December we met at Kathy’s home to discuss her book entitled

“The Ride of Her Life” by author Elizabeth Letts.

This is a story based on true events based on the life of Annie Wilkins.

At age 63, Annie a single woman is diagnosed with tuberculosis and is

hospitalized and was given just a few more years to live.

She owns a failing farm in Minot, Maine and owes back taxes and was offered a 

spot in a charitable state institution.

Rather than just give up, Annie prepares to ride west on horseback

to fulfill her dream of seeing the Pacific Ocean.

Annie has one horse and her dog and very little funds. It’s the early 1950’s.

Towns were becoming cities and roads were turning into highways.

Annie is met with many acts of kindnesses from strangers and is offered food, lodging, and 

veterinarian services for free. Due to TV coverage she becomes somewhat of a celebrity

and ends up on the Art Linkletter show in Hollywood.

This is a story of bravery, courage and faith.Annie completes her journey fraught

with many perils and hardships only with the help of strangers who

became life long friends.

 She lives for many years beyond her diagnosis aided financially by the money

she made on the Art Linkletter show.

Many people liked all the historical facts and all admired the strength that

Annie possessed and felt she was inspiring.

Kathy had great pizza and salad and led a good discussion.

Sarah chose a book called, “The Dictionary of Lost Words” by Pip Williams.

Mad Honey by Jody Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan

 In September Doug hosted at my house to discuss his choice “Mad Honey” which was a collaboration

of two authors and also narrated by two different characters. The book also flips between the past and the present.  This book shed a lot of light on transgender issues which is becoming quite a commonplace event today. It is the story of a young transgendered girl who falls in love with a young boy. She has kept her sex change a secret from him. The boy and his father both have a history of violence,  The young girl is found dead and the young man is accused of her murder so now there is a gripping court case. It makes for a suspenseful and gripping read.

Besides learning a lot about hormone therapy and the surgical details of transgender techniques we learned about bees. There was a parallel between the bee colony and the human colony. What we do learn is that a parent has to have strength and love and conviction to deal with a child who is convinced he or she needs to be transgendered. Many of us parents were happy that we did not have to deal with these challenges.

Doug led a well prepared discussion.and brought us great pizzas and many bottles of wine.

Kathy chose a book called  “ The Ride of Her Life” by Elizabeth Letts.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

 In August we met at Donna's new home in Westfield to discuss her book choice

the steamy "Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo" by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Donna had

several quiches and homemade bread accompanied by good wine being poured by

our sommelier Don.

This was a great beach read full of gossipy Hollywood glamour. Evelyn is an aging

movie legend who hires a young reporter to write her memoirs. She has been married 7

times and each marriage helped to further her career or was one of subterfuge to hide her

lesbian affair with another actress. This was supposed to be loosely based on the life of

Elizabeth Taylor.

There is a back story and a mystery as to why this unknown reporter was handed this plum

assignment. It was a fun juicy read.

Doug chose a Jody Picoult book called "Mad Honey" for the next read.  

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

 In June, we met at Laura's home where Linda hosted. Linda had prepared

for the discussion and being a retired Literature teacher she did a fantastic job in 

leading. This was also the author's debut novel and she grew up in the Pacific

Northwest where the novel is set. She was inspired to write this novel when she

saw a video of an Octopus opening a locked box in order to get a treat, The idea

of Marcellus the  main character who is a remarkably bright creature came to her,

The story is about an Octopus who is captured and lives in an aquarium but

he is bored and makes nightly excursions out of his tank to get  more delectable

food items from the other tanks as well as some Chinese food he happens upon.

Marcellus observes humans everyday and has many wry observations of their

behavior, 

He forms a relationship with Tova, a  grieving cleaner who has lost her son,

husband and brother. She has no family left and is an inscrutable, strong Swedish

lady who is in her 70's, Marcellus helps solve the mystery of her son's death.

He also connects her with her grandson Cameron who is searching for his

unknown father, Cameron is a hapless young man who up to this point has not

been very responsible in life. With the help of Ethan, a gregarious local store keeper

and Tova who both show him kindness and love he is learning to do things right.

You have to love this book and the Giant Pacific Octopus who risks his short

life to help all these humans some of which he says are remarkably bright creatures.

Linda had a variety of salads such as chicken, eggs, grapes, and broccoli. She ended

with a wonderful pie and fudge. This was all accompanied by wine while we sat at

Laura's beautifully set table. The dynamic duo of Linda and Laura set the

bar high for Donna who is our next hostess. She chose a book called The

Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins.

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

In May, we met at Madeleine's home to discuss her book

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. This book is set

in the 1960's when women were not well respected in the

male dominated scientific workplace. Elizabeth Zott is a

research chemist working at Hastings laboratory. She is

treated more like a secretary rather than an equal except

for Calvin Evans a brilliant Nobel prize winner who falls

in love with her mind. They have a wonderful relationship

but then he dies leaving her with an unexpected daughter.

Elizabeth has to leave her research position because her

boss molests her and she is struggling  as a single mom

to raise her very bright daughter. Bonnie starts to host

a TV cooking show called Supper at Six which becomes

a huge hit because it begins to empower women to live

their best lives and to pursue their dreams. 

We were encouraged to share stories of personal experiences

in the workplace that might have been similar to Elizabeth's.

This book was witty, and sometimes even hilarious. It was

the author's debut novel. The book was full of charm, energy

and hope. It tackles feminism, resilience and features a great

dog. It was a book to savor.

Madeleine had nibbles for our discussion and lots of

wine to accompany our many Cosco treats of sandwiches,

salads and cookies. 

Linda chose a book called Remarkably Bright Creatures

for our next read.