The Literary Wineaux Society

Synopsis: The Barnes family is in trouble. Dickie’s once-lucrative car business is going under―but Dickie is spending his days in the woods, building an apocalypse-proof bunker with a renegade handyman. His wife, Imelda, is selling off her jewelry on eBay and half-heartedly dodging the attention of fast-talking cattle farmer Big Mike, while their teenage daughter, Cass, formerly top of her class, seems determined to binge drink her way through her final exams. As for twelve-year-old PJ, he’s on the brink of running away. If you wanted to change this story, how far back would you have to go? To the infamous bee sting that ruined Imelda’s wedding day? To the car crash one year before Cass was born? All the way back to Dickie at ten years old, standing in the summer garden with his father, learning how to be a real man? Amazon Link.

Book Details
Published: August 15, 2023
Page Count: 656 Pages
Audiobook: 26 hours, 10 minutes

Further Reading and Viewing

• The New Yorker - The Bee Sting: A Family Saga of Desperation and Denial
• The Booker Prizes - Interview with Paul Murray "If a book is gripping, then you don't care about the page count"
• VIDEO - Service95 Dua Lipa in Conversation with Author Paul Murray
• VIDEO - Paul Murray's Book Talk at Politics & Prose Bookstore

NOTE: This is a very long book. Longer than "All the Colors of the Dark" but not as long as "A Little Life". So, please don't fret if you don't finish it. Come anyways to book club and enjoy the good company and wine.

LOCATION: Mise En Place
COST: $25 per person, guided curated wine tasting to match theme of the book. Includes charcuterie to share. Fee paid directly to Lynn, the owner at time of tasting.

Jetsetting Wineauxs: Wineauxs Around the World
- I've teamed up with Craig over at Hidden Tracks to take us on an adventure in wine each time focused on a different country or wine region. Here's how this event will work...

• Bring your play passport you received at last month's wine-tasting event. If you're new to this event I will gift you a passport (play passport) and I will stamp it with the country's stamp. Craig will guide us through the tasting by educating us on the wines, the region and so much more.

What will you share? Each person must bring an interesting factoid about the country -- arts, culture, politics, scandal, history, anything you find that can contribute to being immersed in the country. You will have up to two minutes to share your facts. Here are some examples:

• origin of a famous dish or chef
• Historical figures in politics
• famous personalities, actors, performers
• seldom heard facts on historical landmarks
• Art and artists, books/authors
• scandals, true crime
• trends and movements - political/religious/fashion/architecture
• please do not bring any facts about wine specifically; stories about wine are fine.

Here are the details:
Destination: South Africa
Wine Tasting Cost: $25 (paid at tasting)
A guided tasting of wines
Paired bites
Location: Hidden Tracks Bottle Shop (Uptown Phoenix). The wine tasting will be indoors due to summer temps.

I am opening this up to 25 people. So I encourage you to sign up and experience our second destination of the Jetsetting Wineauxs Experience. Craig is an awesome host and is excited to put this on for us.

I was inspired by July's book club theme of a new book that's being released in June about the friendship between fashion designers Kate Spade and Elyce Arons. This tiktok video (which you can stream via YouTube) was what prompted me to research Elyce Arons after she gave a home tour of her inspiring West Village, NYC apartment, that's bursting with personality.

I really wanted to have her book be a part of The Literary Wineaux Society's library of books and so I ran wild with the theme of BESTIES/BEST FRIENDS and chose six more books that stick to the theme. Most of the books are older titles, but a couple are new releases. I hope you find something you might like to read among them. I've uploaded the book covers in photos and added the Amazon links for further research.

Please cast your vote in the comments below. You have until June 15 to make your selection.

And the nominees for BESTIES/BEST FRIENDS are.....

1. We Might Just Make It After All: My Best Friendship with Kate Spade by Elyce Arons (non-fiction) - A memoir that details the friendship that began in college and went on to become co-founders of the multi-billion dollar fashion company as they came of age in 1990s New York. Arons first met Katy Brosnahan in a University of Kansas dorm room, she had no idea that this polo-shirt wearing Missouri girl would not only become her best friend, but also change the course of her life. Within a decade they'd be scraping by in NYC, working day jobs to spend nights building a new line of handbangs that would one day revolutionize the accessories industry. Amazon Link

2. My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante (fiction) - The New York Times published their best books of the century (the last 25 years) and this novel was #1. It's the first book of a series and is also a series on HBO. It tells the story of a lifelong friendship between Lila and Elena that begins in the 1950s on the outskirts of Naples, Italy. This first novel follows the friends from their fateful meeting as ten-year-olds through their school years and adolescence. Through the lives of these two women, Ferrante tells the story of a neighborhood, a city, and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between two women. Amazon Link.

3. The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali (fiction) - In 1950s Tehran, seven-year-old Ellie lives in grand comfort until the untimely death of her father, forcing Ellie and her mother to move to a tiny home downtown. Lonely and bearing the brunt of her mother's endless grievances, Ellie dreams for a friend to alleviate her isolation. Luckily, on the first day of school she meets Homa, a kind her with a brave spirit. Together the two young women come of age and pursue their own goals for meaningful futures, but as the political turmoil in Iran builds to a breaking point, one earth-shattering betrayal will have enormous consequences. Amazon Link.

4. The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue (fiction) - A funny novel about friends, lovers, Ireland in chaos, and a young woman desperately trying to manage all three. Rachel is a student working at a bookstore when she meets James, and it’s love at first sight. James soon invites Rachel to be his roommate and the two begin a friendship that changes the course of both their lives forever. Together, they run riot through the streets of Cork city, trying to maintain a bohemian existence while the threat of the financial crash looms before them. Amazon Link

5. The Drowning Woman by Robyn Harding (fiction) - Lee Gulliver never thought she’d find herself living on the streets, but when her restaurant fails, and she falls deeper into debt, she parks in a secluded spot by the beach to lay low and plan her next move—until early one morning, she sees a sobbing woman throw herself into the ocean. Lee hauls the woman back to the surface, but instead of appreciation, she is met with fury. The drowning woman, Hazel, tells her that she wanted to die, that she’s trapped in an abusive marriage. Bonded by disparate but difficult circumstances, the women soon strike up a close and unlikely friendship. And then one day, Hazel makes a shocking request: she wants Lee to help her disappear. It’ll be easy, Hazel assures her, but Lee soon learns that nothing is as it seems, and that Hazel may not be the friend Lee thought she was. Amazon Link.

6. Lady Tan's Circle of Women by Lisa See (fiction) - This is one of my favorite historical fiction authors. See is brilliant at researching historical periods and people. According to Confucius, “an educated woman is a worthless woman,” but Tan Yunxian—born into an elite family, yet haunted by death, separations, and loneliness—is being raised by her grandparents to be of use. Her grandmother is one of only a handful of female doctors in China, and she teaches Yunxian the pillars of Chinese medicine alongside a young midwife-in-training, Meiling. The two girls find fast friendship and they vow to be forever friends, sharing in each other’s joys and struggles. But when Yunxian is sent into an arranged marriage, her mother-in-law forbids her from seeing Meiling and from helping the women and girls in the household. Yunxian is to act like a proper wife and stay forever within the walls of the family compound, the Garden of Fragrant Delights. Amazon Link

7. My Friends by Fredrik Backman (fiction) - Most people don’t even notice them—three tiny figures sitting at the end of a long pier in the corner of one of the most famous paintings in the world. But Louisa, an artist herself, knows otherwise and she is determined to find out the story of these three enigmatic figures. Twenty-five years earlier, in a distant town, a group of teenagers find refuge from their difficult home lives by spending their days laughing and telling stories out on a pier. These lost souls find in each other a purpose. Out of that summer emerges a transcendent work of art, that will unexpectedly be put into eighteen-year-old Louisa’s care. She embarks on a surprise-filled cross-country journey to learn the story of how the painting came to be. The closer she gets to the painting’s birthplace, the more she feels compelled to unleash her own artistic spirit, but happy endings don’t always take the form we expect in this fresh testament to the transformative power of friendship and art. Amazon Link