Palmetto Readers

Discussion of ‘The Listeners’ (2025) by Maggie Stiefvater

Fri, Feb 13 · 18:30 EST

Miyabi Japanese Steakhouse, 442 Columbiana Drive, Columbia, SC, US

Due to unforeseen weather conditions, I decided to postpone our discussion of The Listeners from Friday January 23 to Friday February 13.

The 13th is the earliest I can host an in-person book club discussion as I have plans the next couple of Fridays. Sorry to have to do this, but safety always comes first.

Join us for dinner and a discussion of the book The Listeners by Maggie Stiefvater.

Restaurant: Miyabi Japanese Steakhouse - 442 Columbiana Cir, Columbia, SC 29212

Summary (from Goodreads):

January 1942. The Avallon Hotel & Spa has always offered elegant luxury in the wilds of West Virginia, its mountain sweetwater washing away all of high society’s troubles.

Local girl-turned-general manager June Porter Hudson has guided the Avallon skillfully through the first pangs of war. The Gilfoyles, the hotel’s aristocratic owners, have trained her well. But when the family heir makes a secret deal with the State Department to fill the hotel with captured Axis diplomats, June must persuade her staff—many of whom have sons and husbands heading to the front lines—to offer luxury to Nazis. With a smile.

Meanwhile FBI Agent Tucker Minnick, whose coal tattoo hints at an Appalachian past, presses his ears to the hotel’s walls, listening for the diplomats’ secrets. He has one of his own, which is how he knows that June’s balancing act can have dangerous consequences: the sweetwater beneath the hotel can threaten as well as heal.

June has never met a guest she couldn’t delight, but the diplomats are different. Without firing a single shot, they have brought the war directly to her. As clashing loyalties crack the Avallon’s polished veneer, June must calculate the true cost of luxury.

Page Count: 382

Genre: Historical Fiction

Year Published: 2025

This book is available through local public library systems in both physical and electronic formats (Lexington Public Library, Richland County Library.

Bring, at least, 3 observations and 3 questions about the book (keeping this open-ended, but this could include the characters, specific plot details, comparing it to other books, and critiques of the discussed book).

Discussion of ‘The Wedding People’ (2024) by Alison Espach

Fri, Mar 6 · 18:30 EST

Location not specified yet

Join us for dinner and a discussion of the book The Wedding People by Alison Espach.

Restaurant: TBD

Summary (from Goodreads):

It’s a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn wearing a green dress and gold heels, not a bag in sight, alone. She's immediately mistaken by everyone in the lobby for one of the wedding people, but she’s actually the only guest at the Cornwall who isn’t here for the big event. Phoebe is here because she’s dreamed of coming for years—she hoped to shuck oysters and take sunset sails with her husband, only now she’s here without him, at rock bottom, and determined to have one last decadent splurge on herself. Meanwhile, the bride has accounted for every detail and every possible disaster the weekend might yield except for, well, Phoebe and Phoebe's plan—which makes it that much more surprising when the two women can’t stop confiding in each other.

In turns absurdly funny and devastatingly tender, Alison Espach’s The Wedding People is ultimately an incredibly nuanced and resonant look at the winding paths we can take to places we never imagined—and the chance encounters it sometimes takes to reroute us.

Page Count: 367

Genre: Romance, Fiction

Year Published: 2024

This book is available through local public library systems in both physical and electronic formats (Lexington Public Library, Richland County Library).

Bring, at least, 3 observations and 3 questions about the book (keeping this open-ended, but this could include the characters, specific plot details, comparing it to other books, and critiques of the discussed book).

Discussion of ‘The Correspondent’ (2025) by Virginia Evans

Fri, Apr 17 · 18:30 EDT

Location not specified yet

Join us for dinner and a discussion of the book The Correspondent by Virginia Evans.

Restaurant: TBD

Summary (from Goodreads):

Sybil Van Antwerp has throughout her life used letters to make sense of the world and her place in it. Most mornings, around half past ten, Sybil sits down to write letters—to her brother, to her best friend, to the president of the university who will not allow her to audit a class she desperately wants to take, to Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry to tell them what she thinks of their latest books, and to one person to whom she writes often yet never sends the letter.

Sybil expects her world to go on as it always has—a mother, grandmother, wife, divorcee, distinguished lawyer, she has lived a very full life. But when letters from someone in her past force her to examine one of the most painful periods of her life, she realizes that the letter she has been writing over the years needs to be read and that she cannot move forward until she finds it in her heart to offer forgiveness.

Filled with knowledge that only comes from a life fully lived, The Correspondent is a gem of a novel about the power of finding solace in literature and connection with people we might never meet in person. It is about the hubris of youth and the wisdom of old age, and the mistakes and acts of kindness that occur during a lifetime. Sybil Van Antwerp’s life of letters might be “a very small thing,” but she also might be one of the most memorable characters you will ever find.

Page Count: 304

Genre: Fiction

Year Published: 2025

This book is available through local public library systems in both physical and electronic formats (Lexington Public Library, Richland County Library).

Bring, at least, 3 observations and 3 questions about the book (keeping this open-ended, but this could include the characters, specific plot details, comparing it to other books, and critiques of the discussed book).

Discussion of ‘The First Witch of Boston’ (2025) by Andrea Catalano

Fri, May 29 · 18:30 EDT

Location not specified yet

Join us for dinner and a discussion of the book The First Witch of Boston by Andrea Catalano.

Restaurant: TBD

Summary (from Goodreads):

Massachusetts Bay Colony, 1646. Thomas and Margaret Jones arrive from England to build a life in the New World. Though of differing temperaments, cautious Thomas and fiery Margaret, a healer, are bound by a love that has lasted decades. With a child on the way, their new beginning promises only blessings.

But in this austere Puritan community, comely faces hide malicious intent. Wrong moves or words are met with suspicion, and Margaret’s bold and unguarded nature draws scorn. Soon, Margaret is mistrusted as more cunning woman than kind caregiver. And when personal tragedies, religious hysteria, and wariness of the unknown turn most against her, even the devotion Margaret and her husband share is at risk.

Inspired by actual diary entries and court records, The First Witch of Boston is at once the riveting story of a woman unjustly accused and a love story set amid the political and social turmoil of both Old and New England. Harrowing, and with a deep understanding of the human heart, history is brilliantly imagined.

Page Count: 326

Genre: Historical Fiction

Year Published: 2025

This book is available through local public library systems in both physical and electronic formats (Lexington Public Library, Richland County Library).

Bring, at least, 3 observations and 3 questions about the book (keeping this open-ended, but this could include the characters, specific plot details, comparing it to other books, and critiques of the discussed book).