Our April Selection

"A book in one hand, admiring the springtime breeze..." View this email in your browser

Matchbook Book Club presents The April Edition Dear Members, Already we're into the first week of May- and again so many incredible things have taken place: firstly including moving into my new space: which means a new potential space to host the book club in! Many of us will either be doing a bit of travel, checking out new events, rekindle a classic film noir, or perhaps explore a different part of the city on a sunny day! Whatever it is, be sure to enjoy the simple things. Speaking of travels: I wanted to give everyone the heads-up that I will be away from May 13th- May 29th and as I will be away, the book club will be taking a short bookish break for the month of May. It would be even more fun: as this coming June will be our book club's FIFTH anniversary (hooray!!) Stay tuned though as I will provide a Doodle for earlier June dates and location. Huge apologies! In the meantime, have a wonderful upcoming weekend and I will see you all very, very soon! Joanne Thank you to all who came out to our last meeting at the Drake One Fifty! We had a lovely time enjoying our brunch- some a little too much (blueberry scones anyone?!) We discussed our latest read, A Whole Life by Robert Seethaler, which I'm very proud to say that it has made it to the Man Booker International Prize shortlist! Overall, it was a very lovely read enjoyed by all, writing was well done, the story was memorable, and the characters were touching. A book that is worthy of passing on to a friend! In light of Mother's Day coming up, I figured we would play on the theme of Memorable Mothers in Literature! Thank you to all who submitted their votes. And the winner:  Summary: “I am Eva Delectorskaya,” Sally Gilmartin announces, and so on a warm summer afternoon in 1976 her daughter, Ruth, learns that everything she ever knew about her mother was a carefully constructed lie. Sally Gilmartin is a respectable English widow living in picturesque Cotswold village; Eva Delectorskaya was a rigorously trained World War II spy, a woman who carried fake passports and retreated to secret safe houses, a woman taught to lie and deceive, and above all, to never trust anyone. Three decades later the secrets of Sally’s past still haunt her. Someone is trying to kill her and at last she has decided to trust Ruth with her story. Ruth, meanwhile, is struggling to make sense of her own life as a young single mother with an unfinished graduate degree and escalating dependence on alcohol. She is drawn deeper and deeper into the astonishing events of her mother’s past—the mysterious death of Eva’s beloved brother, her work in New York City manipulating the press in order to shift public sentiment toward American involvement in the war, her dangerous romantic entanglement. Now Sally wants to find the man who recruited her for the secret service, and she needs Ruth’s help. Restless is a brilliant espionage book and a vivid portrait of the life of a female spy. Full of tension and drama, and based on a remarkable chapter of Anglo-American history, this is fiction at its finest. P.S. I picked up a copy at BMV for only $6.99! So make sure you stop by the nearest BMV location near you! I will have poetry in my life. And adventure. And love. Love above all. — Tom Stoppard, Shakespeare in Love