How’s everyone doing on their reading goals for 2023? Personally, I’m ready to lose myself in a pile of holiday rom-coms. If you’ve got any recs for me, drop them below! I’m getting in a holiday mood early with our latest book club selection…
Our November Book is Little Women by Louisa May Alcott!
A few months ago, my book club came to the staggering realization that — while we love Greta Gerwig’s book-to-screen adaption of Little Women — almost none of us had actually read the book.
What’s more, Hello Beautiful by Ann Napalitano, a modern interpretation of Little Women, was one of my favorite reads of the year. So if I wasn’t already overdue for a read of Louisa May Alcott’s beloved classic, I really am now.
For anyone unfamiliar, Little Women follows the four March sisters — Jo, Beth, Amy, and Meg — as they grow up in New England during the Civil War.
Starting this month, I’m also thrilled to announce that you’ll be able to read and discuss along with my book club for free on Fable. We’ll have spoiler-free opportunities to chat about the book broken up by chapter. And, going forward, this is where we’ll vote on what we are reading, too, so I hope you’ll download join in on the fun.
Earlier this week, my book club met in person to discuss the October book, My Murder by Katie Williams. This thriller leaned much more sci-fi/dystopian than we anticipated, and I really do think the cover blurb was misleading. Yes, the book certainly did contain dark humor, but mostly it was just dark.
Where the blurb got it completely right was calling this book utterly original. I read a lot in the mystery/thriller genre, and I can’t say I’ve ever read a book quite like Williams’. I found the writing to be exceptional, and the twists totally unexpected (though one member of book club shared she guessed it right away.) While I was upset for 75% of the book — reading about murder will do that to a person — by the end, I felt oddly hopeful.
Themes of motherhood, the perfect victim, and what it means to be a woman in our society are heavy in My Murder, and I haven’t stopped thinking about this story since I closed the book last week. Thank you to
for suggesting we read it.One more book rec for you…
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
Easily one of my favorite books of the year. I listened to the audiobook this past week — narrated by Meryl Streep — and from chapter one through the final words, I had goosebumps. Like, even now just thinking about this beautiful story I feel tears behind my eyes.
Via the Amazon description “In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family's orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew.”
Emotionally rich, this novel is a gift, especially for those of us who have ever fallen in love with and within a play.
at all times we are overdue for a little women reread!!