The Goodbye Quilt by Susan Wiggs

The Goodbye Quilt by Susan Wiggs -Linda Davis's local fabric shop is a place where women gather to share their creations: wedding quilts, baby quilts, memorial quilts, each bound tight with dreams, hopes and yearnings.

Now, as her only child readies for college, Linda is torn between excitement for Molly and heartache for herself. Who will she be when she is no longer needed in her role as mom?
As mother and daughter embark on a cross-country road trip to move Molly into her dorm, Linda pieces together the scraps that make up Molly's young life—the hem of a christening gown, a snippet from a Halloween costume. And in the stitching of each bit of fabric, Linda discovers that the memories of a shared journey can come together in a way that will keep them both warm in the years to come….
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0778313220/ref=rdr_ext_tmb

Our Next Meeting is January 29th 2012 ...........Kelly Bell 

Other Meetings 

February 26th.........Fran Cooley 

March 25th ...............Laurie Roy 

April 29th ..................Julie Bigelow

May 20th ....................Paula Mansour

June 24th...................Elizabeth Raymond 

Room - by Emma Donoghue

Room -  by Emma Donoghue  

Five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it's where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits.

Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it is the prison where Old Nick has held her captive for seven years. Through determination, ingenuity, and fierce motherly love, Ma has created a life for Jack. But she knows it's not enough...not for her or for him. She devises a bold escape plan, one that relies on her young son's bravery and a lot of luck. What she does not realize is just how unprepared she is for the plan to actually work. Link to book on Amazon

Told entirely in the language of the energetic, pragmatic five-year-old Jack, Room is a celebration of resilience and the limitless bond between parent and child, a brilliantly executed novel about what it means to journey from one world to another.

Our next meeting is..... November 20th, 7pm

Our next hostess is..... Joanne Smith 

Our next Book Club Selection is : The Room : a novel  by Emma Donoghue   

Other Meetings - 

January 29th,...........Kelly Bell 

February 26th,.........Fran Cooley 

March 25th ...............Laurie Roy 

April 29th ..................Julie Bigelow

May 20th ....................Paula Mansour

June 24th...................Elizabeth Raymond 

Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan

In her best-selling debut, Commencement, J. Courtney Sullivan explored the complicated and contradictory landscape of female friendship. Now, in her highly anticipated second novel, Sullivan takes us into even richer territory, introducing four unforgettable women who have nothing in common but the fact that, like it or not, they’re family.

For the Kellehers, Maine is a place where children run in packs, showers are taken outdoors, and old Irish songs are sung around a piano. Their beachfront property, won on a barroom bet after the war, sits on three acres of sand and pine nestled between stretches of rocky coast, with one tree bearing the initials “A.H.”
Search inside this book
At the cottage, built by Kelleher hands, cocktail hour follows morning mass, nosy grandchildren snoop in drawers, and decades-old grudges simmer beneath the surface. As three generations of Kelleher women descend on the property one summer, each brings her own hopes and fears. Maggie is thirty-two and pregnant, waiting for the perfect moment to tell her imperfect boyfriend the news; Ann Marie, a Kelleher by marriage, is channeling her domestic frustration into a dollhouse obsession and an ill-advised crush; Kathleen, the black sheep, never wanted to set foot in the cottage again; and Alice, the matriarch at the center of it all, would trade every floorboard for a chance to undo the events of one night, long ago. By turns wickedly funny and achingly sad, Maine unveils the sibling rivalry, alcoholism, social climbing, and Catholic guilt at the center of one family, along with the, often irrational love that keeps them coming back, every summer, to Maine and to each other. Link and the authors blog
October 23rd .........Sue Torosian

The Great Gatsby - By F. Scott Fitzgerald

In 1922, F. Scott Fitzgerald announced his decision to write "something new--something extraordinary and beautiful and simple + intricately patterned." That extraordinary, beautiful, intricately patterned, and above all, simple novel became The Great Gatsby, arguably Fitzgerald's finest work and certainly the book for which he is best known. A portrait of the Jazz Age in all of its decadence and excess, Gatsby captured the spirit of the author's generation and earned itself a permanent place in American mythology. Self-made, self-invented millionaire Jay Gatsby embodies some of Fitzgerald's--and his country's--most abiding obsessions: money, ambition, greed, and the promise of new beginnings. "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter--tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.... And one fine morning--" Gatsby's rise to glory and eventual fall from grace becomes a kind of cautionary tale about the American Dream. 
     It's also a love story, of sorts, the narrative of Gatsby's quixotic passion for Daisy Buchanan. The pair meet five years before the novel begins, when Daisy is a legendary young Louisville beauty and Gatsby an impoverished officer. They fall in love, but while Gatsby serves overseas, Daisy marries the brutal, bullying, but extremely rich Tom Buchanan. After the war, Gatsby devotes himself blindly to the pursuit of wealth by whatever means--and to the pursuit of Daisy, which amounts to the same thing. "Her voice is full of money," Gatsby says admiringly, in one of the novel's more famous descriptions. His millions made, Gatsby buys a mansion across Long Island Sound from Daisy's patrician East Egg address, throws lavish parties, and waits for her to appear. When she does, events unfold with all the tragic inevitability of a Greek drama, with detached, cynical neighbor Nick Carraway acting as chorus throughout. Spare, elegantly plotted, and written in crystalline prose, The Great Gatsby is as perfectly satisfying as the best kind of poem.
Book Summary  and Movie Trailer below
Jay (Robert Redford) and Daisy (Mia Farrow) reminisce.

Link

This months book club is  September 25th.....Joyce Charpentier
Upcoming:
October 23rd .........Sue Torosian
November 20th ....Joanne Smith
December is a Pass  - Happy Holidays

Oprah recommends - 18 Books to Watch for in September 2011

Oprah recommends - 18 Books to Watch for in September 

Upcoming book clubs

September 25th.....Joyce Charpentier   

October 23rd .........Sue Torosian

November 20th  ....Joanne Smith

December is a Pass !!

To sign-up for Jan-May contact Lori Roy.

Beachcombers by Nancy Thayer - July/August Read

Beachcombers by Nancy Thayer
Check out this wonderful video of Nancy Thayer on Surfside beach which is featured in the novel and as she reads from Beachcombers:

Reflections from Nancy.
Twenty-seven years ago, I’d been divorced for three years. I lived with my small son and daughter, our two cats and one dog, in a Massachusetts college town. I’d dated a bit, unsuccessfully, and I was feeling so pessimistic about romance that I decided I’d forget men and buy a horse. Seriously.

Then I came to Nantucket for the first time to visit a friend, and I met a friend of hers--a man named Charley, tall, blue-eyed, kind, who read books and owned a record store. We sat up all night talking, and now we’ve been married twenty-five years.

Since then I’ve believed in the healing power of this island. And also in the healing power of change. Of taking a chance. Of dragging ourselves out of our pity pit and trying something new.

In Beachcombers, Marina comes to the island to heal. She meets a wonderful man--and she meets his three adult daughters, who are dealing with their own fears, losses, and desires. Emma has lost her fiancé, her job, her plans, her dreams. She’s come home defeated, hopeless and apathetic. Lily, the baby, wants glamour and excitement and pretty clothes. She also wants someone else to do the dishes. Abbie, at thirty, the oldest, has been the nurturer ever since their mother died when Abbie was fifteen and Lily was only seven. Abbie hasn’t had a chance to consider what she wants, and she’s surprised when she finds that what she wants is a man who’s already taken.

Healing isn’t an easy process, and change isn’t easy either, as the sisters and Marina discover. The four women strive and dream and discover that life has surprises in store for them. It’s like beachcombing--you never can guess what’s going to be lying there, waiting for you. Or whether you’re going to be brave enough to take what life offers, or strong enough to take it all. Only seashells on the beach can be lifted away easily and free.

I’ve dedicated this book to my younger sister, Martha, who has always been so important in my life. I’m fascinated by sisters, and by families. It seems that those we struggle with are often the ones who also heal us--and who care that we are healed. There are many kinds of romantic and family love in Beachcombers, as in life.

This book was recommended by Fran Cooley.

The next book club is
Sunday August 28th, 2011 - Hosted by: Mary Marotta
Watch the movie The Help before book club (here is the trailer and link to local times) so we can discuss the movie!  The Help was our book club selection in January 2010.

Oprah recommends - 18 Books to Watch for in September 

Upcoming book clubs

September 25th.....Joyce Charpentier   

October 23rd .........Sue Torosian

November 20th  ....Joanne Smith

December is a Pass !!

To sign-up for Jan-May contact Lori Roy.

Kiss the Girls by James Patterson

Our book selection for the month of June is .....  Kiss the Girls by James Patterson Here is a quick review of the book from Amazon. Casanova is a collector of something rare and beautiful....women. When he sees one he thinks is both beautiful and rare, he takes them and keeps them in his personal collection. The problem comes when he takes a family member of Alex Cross, a dectieve. Alex is soon on the case to get back the one he loves. There are also murders across the coast on the opposite side of the states. Could there be two serial killers wanting to out do each other? Or are they working together? If so, how can Alex Cross stop them both? I suggest that you read the book if you want to find out. Alex Cross is an interesting character. I liked how he had an instant bond with Kate. It seems that Kate and Alex we're almost a mirror image of each other. When it comes to fiction, it's important to have "good" good guys, but I feel it's more important to have better bad guys. Patterson accomplishes this. Cassanova and The Gentleman are *incredible* some of the things that Casanova does is out right creepy. The style that Patterson writes in take a little getting used to. It's in both first and third person. When you get used to that, it's a sinch to read.   The chapters are quick and short.

Next Book Club is - June 26th @Fran Cooley's.
Other Recommendations this week
Julie recommends Cutting for Stone by  Abraham Verghese