Butler Women of Wisdom Book Club

Hi Everyone,   What a beautiful Thanksgiving we were blessed with in Western Pennsylvania; I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday and the pleasantly warm November days. We even had a beautiful day for our book club’s annual Christmas Home Tour on November 19. Becky, Cheryl, Ginnie, Jody, Lori and I attended the tour as well as junior member, Kristen Barnhart, and my sister Theresa Beck. Our tour included extravagant homes such as Doug Bell’s with a brick oven on a detached rotunda overlooking his wooded property and unique homes like Carol Foster’s with its antique baby-dolls, heirloom clothes, and furnishings. Highlighting our day was St. Paul’s Roman Catholic Church which featured stained glass windows handcrafted in Munich, Germany; exquisitely carved triptych altars, the first of their kind, designed to close during Holy Week; and flooring and altars constructed of marble from Conamara, Italy, inlaid with glass mosaics. We were shocked to learn that the total cost f...

Hi Everyone, I’m sincerely sorry that I waited so long to put out this email for our October book club. The date is looming, Tuesday, October 18, and many of you have no idea what we’re reading. That’s poor book club management, I will say so myself. Regardless of my irresponsibility, we will be meeting at Red Lobster for our seventh anniversary dinner. Yes, book club has been together for seven years and this month marks our 75 th book. We are reading Fifth Avenue 5 AM by Sam Wasson. The book is a work of nonfiction which serves to enlighten the reader with little known facts about Audrey Hepburn and the making of the film Breakfast at Tiffany’s . We will meet at 6:30 PM to discuss our October selection. Last month’s book Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson was a hit with our group. The Major, the main character, is a dignified elderly Englishman. His former duty as an officer in the British military and his upbringing in a f...

Hi Everyone, During the last week of August, the Butler Women of Wisdom Book Club has been very active. First, on Tuesday, August 23; Becky, Cheryl, Ginnie, Lori, and I met at my house for a discussion of the novel The Paris Wife by Paula Mclain. Later, on the following Sunday, August 28, a few of us, Ginnie, Sharon, and I, along with Sharon’s daughter and daughter-in-law, met at the Regal Cinema to see the film version of one of our former book club selections, The Help .  The characters from the novel The Help were cast appropriately in the movie with very convincing actresses playing the key roles. Unlike many books made into film, the movie followed the original plot, I thought, fairly closely. I highly recommend that you make a movie date and check it out. It contains both scenes that will make you laugh and scenes that will make you cry. My favorite parts are those that depict the sisterhood between the black “help” and their fa...

Ciao Everyone! As I literally tossed and turned last night due to an oversized Panera Bread coffee and Barb’s mindful words from last night’s meeting to “send out the email as soon as you get home,” I’m writing this strung out on sleep apnea and giving all of you a full two month start toward reading our next book. At our Wednesday, June 22 meeting we selected The Paris Wife: a Novel by Paula McLain as our August title. We will meet on Tuesday, August 23, at my house at 6:30 pm to discuss the book. If everyone can bring a French dish or appetizer, it will make for a thematic evening! Members in attendance at our June meeting were Barb, Becky, Sharon, Lori, and me. Our title The Dirty Life by Kristin Kimball provided us with ample fodder for discussion. We were baffled by this author and narrator as she shared her story of giving up a professional lifestyle in the big city in exchange for the daily toil and hardship of farm living. We decided that her relationship with a man li...

Hi Everyone, The summer days are longer, but I still can’t seem to find time to write, so again I am sorry for the long delay. Book club will be here in just a few days on Tuesday, June 21 at 6:30 PM, so I hope you open this email early enough to get started on our June selection, The Dirty Life by Kristen Kimball. I am changing our location from Mama Rosa’s to Panera Bread since, if the weather is pleasant, we can enjoy eating and discussing outdoors. The May book club met at Mama Rosa’s Restaurant on Tuesday, May 31 to discuss the book Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. In attendance were Barb, Cheryl, Ginnie, Jody, Lori, and myself. As the book was recently made into a movie, Jody opted to see the cinema version. It was interesting to hear how Hollywood translated the book into film. I am anxious to see it, although the “nursing home” setting is missing, a part of the book I viewed as vitally important. Jody, however, having not read the book, still enjoyed the movie. If ...

Salve Everyone!       Butler Women of Wisdom met on Wednesday, April 27, at Mama Rosa’s...