(August) September Book Clubs

September was a double month of book club! Two times the fun!

Month: August 
Hostess: Chrissy
Book: The Weirdness by Jeremy Bushnell
Food: Greek Pizza, cheese and crackers, veggies and dip, fancy cupcakes
Wine of the Night: A luscious merlot


It was a hot fall day the day we met for Chrissy's book club, which seemed appropriate due to the fact that Chrissy had August, although we had to meet in September. The end of August was just so crazy for everyone - vacations, and in the case of Mary, her little baby boy's surgery. Little Will had had surgery just a week before, and was in attendance so we could all coo over him. Chrissy's cats have never seen a baby, and they were very curious about him! He took it all in stride, as he has cats at home himself. 

Speaking of cats, this book. I wish we could say we liked it, but we just didn't. It was not what we expected, which was a Neil Gaiman/Christopher Moore blend. For us, this book just didn't work. I am going to say it was just too weird, even for me. 

We caught up on each other's lives, as it had over a month since we had all been in a room together, hanging out.  All in all, it was a fun, low-key, mellow kind of evening, the kind you would expect from an early September evening, that was warm and humid, even better to have been spent with your close friends.

Month: September
Hostess: Mary
Book: The Beekeeper's Ball by Susan Wiggs
Food: Homemade veggie lasagna, butternut squash soup, chips and salsa, chocolate cake
Wine of the night: A Trempranillo

What a perfect month for a book about honey! Bees are out in full force here in September, as they make their final hurrahs before winter hits. I can't imagine a fall without bees buzzing around the apple cider and donuts! 

It had been another warm fall day, too warm in my opinion, but the evening was cool. We all one by one filed into Mary's house, which was warm and bubbly from the sounds of the soup on the stove.


When the author Susan Wiggs found out that our book club was reading this book, she awesomely sent us a little care package! Inside were coasters, sticks of honey, tea, and bookplates. We loved the coasters, that say "My wine club has a reading problem," especially since we like to call ourselves the Bottle of Wine Book Club.

We all settled down with our soup, eating and talking about this and that. It was fun because we had just gathered together two weeks ago, for Chrissy's book club. It was a double book club month! 

I had fun discussing this book, talking about the flashbacks and how they made me cry. Mary and I disagreed and debated on which book was better, The Beekeeper's Ball, or the first in the series, The Apple Orchard. I firmly believe that Beekeeper's was better, although I did enjoy them both. I feel this one had more feeling, and I liked the main character better as well. I had been curious about her in The Apple Orchard, and was happy when she got her own book. If you want to check out my reviews, you can find them here and here. 

Have any of you read either of these books, or The Apple Orchard? What are your thoughts? 

Book Review: The Beekeeper's Ball by Susan Wiggs

Title: The Beekeeper's Ball
Author: Susan Wiggs
Source: NetGalley

Goodreads Summary:

Isabel Johansen, a celebrated chef who grew up in the sleepy Sonoma town of Archangel, is transforming her childhood home into a destination cooking school—a unique place for other dreamers to come and learn the culinary arts. Bella Vista's rambling mission-style hacienda, with its working apple orchards, bountiful gardens and beehives, is the idyllic venue for Isabel's project…and the perfect place for her to forget the past. 

But Isabel's carefully ordered plans begin to go awry when swaggering, war-torn journalist Cormac O'Neill arrives to dig up old history. He's always been better at exposing the lives of others than showing his own closely-guarded heart, but the pleasures of small-town life and the searing sensuality of Isabel's kitchen coax him into revealing a few truths of his own. 

The dreamy sweetness of summer is the perfect time of year for a grand family wedding and the enchanting Beekeeper's Ball, bringing emotions to a head in a story where the past and present collide to create an unexpected new future. 

My thoughts:

This book was perfect for the springtime mood I have been in. The sun is shining, and I am itching to get outside and plant flowers and do outdoorsy things.This book is book two in the Bella Vista series; the first is The Apple Orchard, which I didn't like quite as much as this book. I think the story line was more developed this time, and the characters as well.

Isabel was my favorite in The Apple Orchard, and I was so happy to read a book about her character. And the food sounded to die for. I want to make or at least eat the bee sting cake that was mentioned in the story. I found a recipe here,  and I am thinking about attempting it this summer.

Isabel is a reserved, organized woman, who grew up practically in paradise at Bella Vista. Her parents died before she was even a week old, and she was raised by her adoring, indulgent grandparents. She loved cooking, and went off to cooking school to pursue her dream of becoming a chef, and now she is back, turning her home into a destination cooking school. And from the sound of it, if this place were real I would want to go myself! Although Isabel seems so together, she is harboring a secret that is preventing her from living her life fully. She closes herself off from love, and prefers her orderly world of her own creation.

When sexy-hot Cormac "Mac" O'Neil bumbles onto her property, you know he is definitely going to shake things up. A journalist and adventurer, he is at Bella Vista to write the biography of Isabel and her half-sister Tess' grandfather Magnus. Isabel mistakes him for a local beekeeper that she has contacted, and this results in a trip to the emergency room. Cormac is anything but safe and orderly, which is intimidating to Isabel. She fights her attraction to him, even as he pursues his attraction to her. He has his own demons, but as he is enveloped into the world of Bella Vista, he does his own soul searching.

When Mac begins the biography on Magnus, the reader is transported back to Nazi occupied Copenhagen, as we hear about Magnus' life under the regime. Later, we also hear about the ordeals that Anneslise shares. Her story actually brought tears to my eyes. Wiggs does an excellent job writing about such sensitive topics in a respectful manner.

I really enjoyed this book. It was a book about family, love and healing,  set in a gorgeous paradise. If you liked The Apple Orchard, you will love this one.