14 Bookers sloshed our way on a short road trip to the home of Penny Callison for this month's meeting in anticipation of Jean Alexander, our reviewer extraordinaire, bringing this novel to life. Unfortunately, life threw her a curve ball and she was unable to join us and yours truly led the review and discussion. Our thoughts and prayers extend to the Alexander family and other members currently dealing with difficult situations.
On the business side:
Our next meeting will be March 11th at the home of Virginia Gandy. Our book is A Storm of Infinite Beauty, by Julianne Maclean. The setting is a lush journey from Nova Scotia to a rustic lodge in Alaska. A Hollywood legend dies tragically at thirty-six, leaving no children, or so the story goes. The curator of her museum is related to the legend and she and a reporter join forces to discover the truth.
Our book selection committee of three works tirelessly reading and selecting worthy books for us to enjoy during our year. 2024-2025 is complete through our summer read, which will be discussed when we resume in September. The 2025-2026 committee will be responsible for selecting 9 books, and Kat Mackey has graciously volunteered to join the team. The criteria are simple. The book must be well written and foster discussion, and our goal is getting out of our comfort zones and exploring various genres.
It is necessary to change our May 13th evening meeting due to a conflict. Hostess, Jane Shaw will recheck her calendar and let us know what works for her. We hope Carla Russo will volunteer to host a meeting for us after her house is complete.
About the Author:
Amanda Prowse, born in London, is touted as the most prolific writer of bestselling contemporary fiction in the UK today. Her thirty-two novels, two non-fiction titles and ten novellas have been published in dozens of languages around the world. She is also a popular television and radio personality and makes countless guest appearances on the BBC national and independent radio stations where she is well known for her insightful observations and infectious humor. The Daily Mail describes her as “the queen of family drama” for her ability to make readers feel as if they are actually in the story.
She is a huge supporter of libraries and having become a proud ambassador for The Reading Agency, works tirelessly to promote reading, especially in disadvantaged areas. Her ambition is to create stories that keep people from turning the bedside lamp off at night with great characters that ensure you take every step with them and craft tales that fill your head so you can't possibly read another book until the memory fades. She narrates Very Very Lucky and her latest, This One Life, detailing what happens when the past catches up with the present and the consequences of choices made, was released in January 2025 with Ever After due out in August.
She describes her books as falling into two categories, “gut punchers” which are tougher grittier reads often based around an issue where an ordinary woman finds herself in an extraordinary situation as readers follow her journey and “marshmallows” slightly easier reads or holiday books. She conducts extensive research before writing on a particular subject but now has a team who verifies the facts. She writes everywhere, carries a notebook and pen and inspiration might come from a song, something she saw through a window or a comment overheard. When asked about the most incredible moment in her career, she said that awards and milestones are rewarding but sitting opposite a woman who was engrossed in one of her books, she thought her heart was going to fly out of her chest…watching her turning the pages, oblivious to her surroundings knowing that she had taken this stranger to a place that came from inside her head.
Synopsis
The author has given us a heartwarming and poignant novel exploring how grief is the price we pay for love. We are drawn into the lives of two very different characters, who in alternating point-of-view chapters, invite us into their worlds asking us to embrace the complexities of life, love, and loss told with a mix of laugh-out-loud humor, tear-jerking sadness, and ultimately hope as we learn how it is possible to find happiness in unexpected places.
Emma Fountain, an only child, a perfect wife and mother of three children with a part-time job is also the caregiver for her recently widowed and ailing mother, and a support system for her best friend. She’s the poster child for a people pleaser as if she is running for Wife/Mom/Daughter/Friend of the year. She realizes her life has hit the full limit mark when she wakes up in IKEA after falling asleep in one of the show beds. When her best friend, Roz, climbs through her bathroom window while she is soaking in a water-less tub behind a locked door accompanied by a bottle of wine, her belief that she can find a way around any obstacle crumbles in the face of a problem she cannot fix, her best friend’s cancer has returned and has spread everywhere.
Recently widowed Thurston Brancher is wallowing in grief after losing his wife of sixty-two years – his joy and sense of purpose has disappeared. She was his background noise, his music, and confirmation that his was a life to be lived as a couple. He was certain he could not go on without her and planned to quietly end his life hoping to be reunited with Mary. His life changed one day after driving his niece to work where he meets and unceremoniously bonds with Emma and an unlikely friendship flourishes. His calming influence starts to bring Emma’s troubles into perspective and in return she lends her sympathetic ear to his loneliness.
What Very Very Lucky tells us is that all those friends or family we have lost too soon have left an imprint of love on our hearts which we carry with us every day. We are often who we are because of them. Shouldn’t we love truly, forgive quickly, laugh hardily, worry less about what takes up space in our heads, be kind always, and remember others have lots going on that they might not want to share. Life is short. Enjoy the ride.
Discussion:
Most read/finished and liked/loved….one liked but sort of on the fence overall…iffy.
The question was asked, in your wildest dreams would you ever be so tired and stressed to fall asleep in a bed in the middle of a department store? Our hostess confessed to falling asleep at a very long red light and had a friend who took a catnap in the stall of a bathroom. Teachers are indeed overworked! We discussed the well-drawn cast of characters, our favorites, non-favorites, and how, if any way, they evolved from the beginning introduction to the end of the book. Emma Fountain, an exhausting character who refused to hand off the responsibility baton – but in the end she learned how to say no. Her husband Brendan, a supportive husband and father, was the post that anchored the family who finally put his foot down and expressed his feelings and frustrations with his wife’s obsession with fixing everyone’s problems. Martha, the eldest was consumed by frivolous things and interestingly she chose her “soulmate” Sergio, who was a clone of her father. Reggie, the middle child, a high schooler who struggled with depression and fitting in came full circle when Thurston counseled him on the importance of learning to facilitate his dream of becoming a chef. We discussed the unusual meals that were prepared by this family wondering what type of restaurant would Chef Reggie fit in? Alex, the youngest, was on an athletic scholarship to a very fancy private school which his parents could not afford. His selfishness and desire to have everything his classmates had were on display when he was embarrassed at the car his dad was driving when he picked him up. There was little sympathy for his plight in life. One of the most endearing characters in the book was a landslide choice – Thurston Brancher (a ripened gent who predictably pulled at our Jane Shaw’s heartstrings.) He was wallowing in grief after his wife passed – his life of harmony disappeared when she did. His character made an impact on everyone’s life he touched and his unlikely friendship with Emma was the starting point to his healing and moving on after Mary. Roz, Emma’s “delinquent twin” embraced everything life threw her way. She added a laugh out loud, cry your eyes out character to the novel, offering her decision not to treat her returning cancer, but just live each day like it was her last. Her journey provoked emotional and personal stories of fighting battles that sometimes cannot be won, and the importance of doing so your way. No one confessed to having a friend who would climb through their bedroom window while they were behind a locked bathroom door soaking in a waterless tub nursing a bottle of wine. We were all clueless to the romantic relationship between the opinionated and often cruel and obnoxious Margery, Emma’s mother, and her fidgety, nosey neighbor, Gordon. Love or companionship sometimes blooms inside loneliness. Roz was trying to prove Emma was a goody two-shoes when she asked what is the worst crime that deserves a public flogging – to which Emma and I concur – folding the corner of a page over in a book to mark your place!
Emma’s mismatched dinnerware took front and center many times in the novel, especially with the VIP green plate. The author used this as symbolism – a visual reminder of the chaos of her family life – all the meals, the squabbles, every emergency, the dash for forgotten things, or picking up someone or dropping them off because they were in the wrong place. But what happened when she broke the plate? She put a piece of it in a vase in the kitchen window to remind her of her old life and with the green plate broken, the symbolism was she had turned the page to new beginnings.
Ms. Prowse satisfied those who love all the loose ends tied up making a happy-ever-after-ending reality. It was a several tissue event for me as the blended families (Emma, Reggie, Alex, Roz in a wheelchair, Brendan, Martha, Sergio, and Bruce alongside June, a pregnant Nancy and husband Andrew, Gordon, Margery and Gordon’s niece, Flick-the car park policewoman) gathered at Thurston’s for the inaugural Merrydown Boxing Day Rounders Match. Boxing Day is celebrated after Christmas day, known as the Day of Goodwill. It originated in the UK and is celebrated in many parts of Europe. Thurston had put on the last of his shirts Mary had laundered for him and went about the daily business of living without his wife, grateful for the sixty-two years they had together. Thurston announced he and Mary had always dreamed of looking out their window to see a large family gathered in the field. “Days like this make us all realize that time together is precious, and we are all very very lucky.” Several more tissues were required when Thurston and June saw Mary in the bedroom window – she’s waiting for him. He began to sing loud and clear, and all the characters knew whatever life had in store for them, they would face it together. One astute Booker asked if anyone thought that Thurston had died in this scene because he saw his Mary in the window and heard her voice clearly in his head. Because June saw it too, we decided that scenario would not be feasible…but the question got our attention for sure. Also, one last comment was how old Nancy was – based on her mother’s age, she might have been 50…a little too old to be pregnant – food for thought. I love how our Bookers dive into books! Thanks to everyone for supporting and enjoying our little book club!
Happy Reading,
JoDee
