Chesterbrook Area Book Club

Book - The Bourbon Thief by Tiffany Reisz
Wine - a favorite wine (optional)
Location - Sushi Nami in Wayne (NOT Paoli)

If you want, bring a favorite wine to share with the group.

When Cooper McQueen wakes up from a night with a beautiful stranger, it's to discover he's been robbed. The only item stolen—a million-dollar bottle of bourbon. The thief, a mysterious woman named Paris, claims the bottle is rightfully hers. After all, the label itself says it's property of the Maddox family who owned and operated Red Thread Bourbon distillery since the last days of the Civil War until the company went out of business for reasons no one knows… No one except Paris.

In the small hours of a Louisville morning, Paris unspools the lurid tale of Tamara Maddox, heiress to the distillery that became an empire. But the family tree is rooted in tainted soil and has borne rotten fruit. Theirs is a legacy of wealth and power, but also of lies, secrets and sins of omission. The Maddoxes have bourbon in their blood—and blood in their bourbon. Why Paris wants the bottle of Red Thread remains a secret until the truth of her identity is at last revealed, and the century-old vengeance Tamara vowed against her family can finally be completed.

Book - Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
Wine - N/A - restaurant has a full bar
Location - Teresa’s Cafe in Wayne

*** This is for lunch at 1 PM ***

A small book with a big message. Every word was perfectly placed, and every line was beautifully written. There is a rhythm, a musicality to the writing that propels its powerful imagery towards the intended targets.

It is 1985 in a small Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man faces into his busiest season. Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery which forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church.

Small Things Like These is heart wrenching because it is based on true events, but it is a celebration of the Christmas spirit, compassion and hope against a backdrop of persecution, hardship, and ill treatment of too many young women in Ireland.

The book was adapted into a film starring Cillian Murphy.