MAY 2025 BOOKERS MINUTES &
MUSINGS
Life’s too Short, Abby Jimenez
“Sloan Monroe” Painting,
copper-colored dog on the shore of a lake…
20 Bookers
met for our annual “wine & cheese” evening meeting to toast the end of our
21st year at the home of Debbie Yarger who came to the rescue when
Jane Shaw was feeling under the weather. We hope she feels better and stronger
every day and are so appreciative of Debbie for opening her home to our group. Many
thanks to Kim Nalls for coordinating our hearty food items to soak up our
spirits. We’re happy that Jeana Cunningham decided to celebrate her birthday
with us tonight!
Sunshine:
Barbara
Creach had another successful hip replacement surgery and is doing well. We now
have our own bionic Booker with two new knees and hips, and we hope Melba Holt
is recovering from her recent knee replacement surgery as well.
Business
The
Tri-County Library, 132 E. Market Street, Mabank has three little free library
locations and are always in need of books to stock them. If you can donate,
please drop them by the library during their business hours – Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday, & Friday 8:30-4:30; Thursday, 8:30-6:30; Saturday, 9:00-1:00. Also,
Malakoff Elementary is in need of age-appropriate books to restock their “vending-machine”
type library.
We will
begin our 22nd year on September 9th where we will
discuss our summer read, The Women, by Kristin Hannah. The
selection committee will have met over our break to choose our books for the
2025-2026 year. If you have a book to recommend, please let Jane Shaw, Patty
Evans, Kat Mackey or me know. Our criteria is simple – it must be well-written
and capable of fostering discussion.
A note from Abby Jimenez
While
Vanessa’s character is fictional, Jimenez says she went into this book in awe
of the inspirational real-life activist and YouTuber, Claire Wineland who lived
with cystic fibrosis, an illness she refused to let define her. She used her
platform to inspire and educate, traveling the world encouraging those with
chronic illnesses to find fulfillment and live proudly. She passed away in 2018
at twenty-one from complications after a lung transplant and donated her organs
to those in need.
About the author:
Abby, a
resident of Minnesota, took a complete leap of faith and founded Nadia Cakes
out of her home kitchen in 2007, which is now recognized as an award-winning
cupcake shop and custom cake studio completing her lifelong passion for baking
and a love for beautiful desserts. https://www.nadiacakes.com
While
pregnant with her third baby, Abby decided to take cake decorating classes at a
local craft store. Although her baby arrived before she could finish the
classes, she took what she had learned and started making free cakes for family
and friends which were a big hit and in high demand prompting her to quit her
full-time job to start her own business.
With a
newborn, a 1-year-old and a 2-year-old, all in diapers, Abby set out on two of
the most challenging years of her life. She not only survived those years, but
experienced success and opened a beautiful cake shop in the fall of 2009. It
was so well received that just two months later, Carlos, Abby's husband, quit
his full-time job and joined the family business as CFO. She won the Food
Network’s Cupcake Wars and was featured in two seasons of Fabulous Cakes on
TLC, a British pay-television channel. She is now an international bestselling
contemporary romance novelist who has penned two three-book series novels and
four standalones.
Synopsis
My name is
Vanessa Price, and I don’t live my life like there’ll always be one more day because
I may have the same genetic disease, ALS, as my grandmother, sister, aunt, and
mother although she was killed in a car wreck before experiencing any symptoms
of this death sentence disease. Tomorrow is not a word in my vocabulary. My
career as a famous traveling YouTuber came to a screeching halt when my
addicted half-sister abandoned her newborn on my doorstep and suddenly, I was
this child’s guardian and there didn’t seem to be an instructional manual
included in the package. When this precious bundle began to wail in the wee
hours of the morning, my hunky lawyer-neighbor, Adrian Copeland, came to the
rescue using his innate baby-whispering skills to soothe the child’s despair
within seconds beginning an unfathomable relationship between two polar
opposites – he needs structure…I need a carefree lifestyle.
Do not
feel sorry for me because I’ve been dealt some shitty cards in life. Even
though I most likely will not live past the age of thirty, I’ve witnessed my
sister consumed by the illness, my other sister falling into drugs, and my
father becoming a hoarder, it’s not in my nature to tuck in my tail and give
up. I’m a fighter. Adrian is a workaholic who seldom relaxes or takes time off
for himself… was I the reason he found there was more to life than work? I like
to think so. We have chemistry far beyond a romantic one. As our story unfolds,
my hope is that you will be able to laugh and cry in the same scene and follow
our lead by living each day to the fullest.
Bookers’ input
We all
have our “go-to” genres that satisfy our reading experiences, and it is the
goal of our selection committee to offer a variety of books for us to read. For
this meeting we tested a new format asking each person to rate the novel using
the criteria listed below and tell us why they chose the rating. (Thank you MN!)
5 stars: Order now. Include in your will
4 stars: Borders on your favorite book ever
3 stars: Good beach read
2 stars: Borrow, don’t buy
1 star: Put your money back in the piggy bank.
Our lowest
rating was a 2 – the reason was Vanessa’s life philosophy and not knowing if
she had ALS, she made some extreme decisions like having her tubes tied and
didn’t even consider investigating her hand weakness, assuming it might be a
symptom of the disease. Another rated it between 2 and 3 because it was a
little too fluffy and there were too many “I’s,” although it was a first-person
narrative, and Adrian’s character was a little unrealistic…no one is that
perfect. The 3-rating captured 15 votes ranging from a solid 3 to 3.2, 3.4, and
3.5. The 3’s, including me, were entertained, would read again if needed a good
laugh-out-loud contemporary romance novel with substance. The humor was
infectious, the plot development was well-executed, and the ending, although
predictable, was open-ended leaving the reader to fill in the blanks. The 3.2’s
liked the humor, learning about vlogging (video blogging), and took to heart Vanessa’s
advice to Adrian about his fear of flying – only worry about it on the plane,
not before – a good practice for all who endlessly fret about things; and they
liked that love won in the end. Our 3.4’s and 3.5’s thought it a bit “Hallmarky”
although an enjoyable read – except for the overuse of the word, snorted…Adrian
snorted 34 times in the novel…there are synonyms the author could have used! Another
3.5 loved the reference to The Office television show and thought the
dialogue was snarky…in a positive funny way. Page 260 was brought to our
attention…and for good reason…as Debbie reluctantly read it out loud with only
a slight blush creeping across her face – well done! Our highest rating was a 4
as it was an easy read and she related to parts of the storyline. One question
was asked…would you hand over a baby in the middle of the night to a complete
stranger? Although Vanessa had never met her hunky-lawyer neighbor, she knew he
owned the building, so most likely he wasn’t a serial killer stalking the
hallways for his next prey. If you enjoyed this novel, you might like the rest
of the series: Book 1, The Friend Zone; Book 2, The Happy
Ever After Playlist (being developed for a movie.)
Summertime cheers our souls and refreshes
our minds. Enjoy our break from meeting, not reading.
JoDee
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