The St Julie Book Club meets on the first Wednesday of the every month at 1:00 pm in the Great Room. Books are noted for the next several months. Check this space often for the newest additions to the list.
Suggestions for books are always welcome.
Book Club dates and book summaries May 3, 2023 – December 6, 2023
May 3 Brooklyn by Colm Toibin
June 7 The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
July 5 It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover
August 2 Fools and Mortals by Bernard Cornwell
September 6 The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
October 4 The Searcher by Tana French
November 1 The Guest List by Lucy Foley
December 6 The Christmas Bookshop by Jenny Colgan
The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck follows the life of Wang Lung from his beginnings as an impoverished peasant to his eventual position as a prosperous landowner. He is aided by his equally humble wife, O-Lan, with whom he shares a devotion to the land, to duty, and to survival. Buck combines descriptions of marriage, parenthood, and complex human emotions with depictions of Chinese reverence for the land and for a specific way of life.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Good-Earth-novel-by-Buck
It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover – Lily hasn’t always had it easy, but that’s never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. So, when she feels a spark with a neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily’s life suddenly seems almost too good to be true. Ryle is assertive, stubborn, sensitive, brilliant, and has a soft spot for Lily. But Ryle’s complete aversion to relationships is disturbing. As Lily finds herself becoming the exception to his “no dating” rule, she can’t help but wonder what made him that way in the first place. As questions about her new relationship overwhelm her, so do thoughts of Atlas Corrigan—her first love and a link to the past she left behind. When Atlas suddenly reappears, everything Lily has built with Ryle is threatened. With this bold and deeply personal novel, Colleen Hoover delivers a heart-wrenching story that combines a captivating romance with a cast of all-too-human characters. It is an unforgettable tale of love that comes at the ultimate price.
https://www.bookbrowse.com/bb_briefs/detail/index.cfm/ezine_preview_number/11808/it-ends-with-us
Fools and Mortals by Bernard Cornwell – In the heart of Elizabethan England, Richard Shakespeare dreams of a glittering career in one of the London playhouses, a world dominated by his older brother, William. But he is a penniless actor, making ends meet through a combination of a beautiful face, petty theft and a silver tongue. As William’s star rises, Richard’s onetime gratitude is souring and he is sorely tempted to abandon family loyalty. So when a priceless manuscript goes missing, suspicion falls upon Richard, forcing him onto a perilous path through a bawdy and frequently brutal London. Entangled in a high-stakes game of duplicity and betrayal which threatens not only his career and potential fortune, but also the lives of his fellow players, Richard has to call on all he has now learned from the brightest stages and the darkest alleyways of the city. To avoid the gallows, he must play the part of a lifetime . . . .https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/34522371
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. – What if, instead of having to live your one life one day at a time, you could sample every life you could possibly have? Would you be happier? Would you find “the one?” The life in which everything fits? The book follows Nora Seed, a British woman in her mid-30s, who is deeply depressed. One night, she decides to commit suicide, but the overdose of sleeping pills sends her into a library between life and death. As time stands still, Nora gets to sample countless lives she could have lived, and by the end of it, one thing is clear: Nora wants to live.
https://fourminutebooks.com/the-midnight-library-summary/
The Searcher by Tana French – Cal Hooper thought a fixer-upper in an Irish village would be the perfect escape. After twenty-five years in the Chicago police force and a bruising divorce, he just wants to build a new life in a pretty spot with a good pub where nothing much happens. But when a local kid whose brother has gone missing arm-twists him into investigating, Cal uncovers layers of darkness beneath his picturesque retreat, and starts to realize that even small towns shelter dangerous secrets.
The Guest List by Lucy Foley – A wedding celebration turns dark and deadly in this thriller reminiscent of Agatha Christie. On an island off the coast of Ireland, guests gather to celebrate two people joining their lives together as one. Every detail has been expertly planned and will be expertly executed. But perfection is for plans, and people are all too human. As the festivities begin, resentments and petty jealousies begin to mingle with the reminiscences and well wishes. And then someone turns up dead. Who didn’t wish the happy couple well? And perhaps more important, why?
The Christmas Bookshop by Jenny Colgan – Laid off from her department store job, Carmen has little cash and few options. The prospect of spending Christmas with her perfect sister Sofia, in Sofia’s perfect house with her perfect children and her perfectly ordered yuppie life does not appeal. Frankly, Sofia doesn’t exactly want her prickly sister Carmen there either. But Sofia has yet another baby on the way, a mother desperate to see her daughters get along, and a client who needs help revitalizing his shabby old bookshop. So, Carmen moves in and takes the job. Thrown rather suddenly into the inner workings of Mr. McCredie’s ancient bookshop, Carmen is intrigued despite herself. The store is dusty and disorganized but undeniably charming. Can she breathe some new life into it in time for Christmas shopping? What will happen when a famous and charismatic author takes a sudden interest in the bookshop—and Carmen? And will the Christmas spirit be enough to help heal her fractured family?
All are welcome to join us!