Our April Selection

Dear Members, Weather-wise, it looks like we're going to be in a long hull. Never fret, for the coming of April means May, and the coming of May means June, which signifies that summer will return!!! So keep holding on, and in the meantime we've got some great Spring reads coming up, beginning with our latest book club pick. Thank you to everyone who came out for brunch at The Rivoli on Sunday. It was wonderful to catch up and to talk about our previous pick, The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner. Overall, if asked how we would like the book, we would honestly have picked the Goodreads vote of an  "it was okay" stance. Well-written, well-informed as this place takes place in the 1970s between Italy, New York City and spaces in between. Some of the characters were hard to love, while others such as Sandro's father, wished that there were more elaboration of his part. We all agreed that reading this book needed a certain mentality to sift through. The author certainly gives the book a certain personal touch, which is obvious when she writes about art, New York City, and bikes. See you next month!

This Month's Selection! Thank you to everyone who submitted their votes! It was close tie with The Good Luck of Right Now.With a very high rating on Goodreads and praise from many individuals including Oprah (it's not only her book club that's making The Invention of Wings their pick!) one things's for sure: it needs aMatchbook seal of approval! Happy reading! Summary: Hetty "Handful” Grimke, an urban slave in early nineteenth century Charleston, yearns for life beyond the suffocating walls that enclose her within the wealthy Grimke household. The Grimke’s daughter, Sarah, has known from an early age she is meant to do something large in the world, but she is hemmed in by the limits imposed on women. Kidd’s sweeping novel is set in motion on Sarah’s eleventh birthday, when she is given ownership of ten year old Handful, who is to be her handmaid.We follow their remarkable journeys over the next thirty-five years, as both strive for a life of their own, dramatically shaping each other’s destinies and forming a complex relationship marked by guilt, defiance, estrangement and the uneasy ways of love. As the stories build to a riveting climax, Handful will endure loss and sorrow, finding courage and a sense of self in the process. Sarah will experience crushed hopes, betrayal, unrequited love, and ostracism before leaving Charleston to find her place alongside her fearless younger sister, Angelina, as one of the early pioneers in the abolition and women’s rights movements. Inspired by the historical figure of Sarah Grimke, Kidd goes beyond the record to flesh out the rich interior lives of all of her characters, both real and invented, including Handful’s cunning mother, Charlotte, who courts danger in her search for something better. This exquisitely written novel is a triumph of storytelling that looks with unswerving eyes at a devastating wound in American history, through women whose struggles for liberation, empowerment, and expression will leave no reader unmoved.

Book Swap! Our next meeting will commence this season's Book Swap! Just in time to do some Spring cleaning for your bookshelves...and acquire some new reads! I have an extra copy of Rene Denfeld's The Enchanted to give away as well as some other reads I would like to share with you all. Everyone is welcome to contribute!