Books & Bites: Lunchtime Book Club

Take a break and join us for Books & Bites, a new monthly book club at the Owls Club designed to fit right into your lunch hour! Perfect for members who are still working or anyone looking to enjoy lively discussions, each session will focus on a different book selected by our club host to kick things off. Bring a lunch, bring your thoughts, and connect with fellow members over shared stories and ideas. 

January: The Secret Life of Sunflowers by Marta (Dana) Molnar. Late 19th century Netherlands-When Hollywood auctioneer Emsley Wilson finds her famous grandmother’s diary while cleaning out her New York brownstone, the pages are full of surprises: the diary isn’t her grandmother’s. It belongs to Vincent van Gogh’s sister-in-law, who inherited van Gogh’s paintings. They were all she had, and they weren’t worth anything. She was a 28-year-old widow with a baby in the 1800s, without any means of supporting herself, living in Paris, where she barely spoke the language, yet she managed to introduce van Gogh’s legacy to the world. With Emsley’s business failing, an unexpected love turning up in her life, and family secrets unraveling, can she find answers in the past?

February: The Shape of Mercy by Susan Meissner. A blend of contemporary and historical fiction, mystery, and romance. Set in present-day Santa Barbara and also in colonial America. Leaving behind a life of privilege to strike out on her own, Lauren Durough breaks with convention and her family’s expectations by choosing a state college over Stanford and earning her own income over accepting her ample monthly allowance. She takes a part-time job from 83-year-old librarian Abigail Boyles, who asks Lauren to transcribe the journal entries of her ancestor Mercy Hayworth, a victim of the Salem witch trials. Almost immediately, Lauren finds herself drawn to this girl who lived and died four centuries ago. As the fervor around the witch accusations increases, Mercy becomes trapped in the worldview of the day, unable to fight the overwhelming influence of snap judgments and superstition, and Lauren realizes that the secrets of Mercy’s story extend beyond the pages of her diary, living on in the mysterious, embittered Abigail. The strength of her affinity with Mercy forces Lauren to take a startling new look at her own life, including her relationships with Abigail, her college roommate, and a young man named Raul. But on the way to the truth, will Lauren find herself playing the helpless defendant or the misguided judge? Can she break free from her own perceptions and see who she really is?