Subject:  Love

A Seahorse in the Thames by Susan Meissner

The latest book by this author is about various types of love. A girl is in a serious accident that leaves her mentally challenged. Seventeen years later she vanishes. Her doctor falls in love with her and joins the search when she disappears finding many baffling clues. How does love change people, and will they find her?

Our next reader brought in several books that she loved as a child and has held on to. From small cartoon books, westerns, a set of detective stories with a map on the back covers that showed where the action took place.

This led to a discussion of what each of us loved to read as a child, from Nancy Drew to Red Ryder and the Coyote Kids, Classics Illustrate. Whether it was series of books or a stand alone, they broadened our imagination.

Denisovan Origins by Andres Collins and Gregory Little

Subtitled: Hybrid Humans, Göbekli Tepe, and the Genesis of the Giants of Ancient America

This book is about Denisovens’ hybrid descendants interbreeding with Neanderthals 40,000 years ago.

Ok, have they been interviewed by George Noory on Coast 2 Coast AM?

The Super Age: Decoding Our Demographic Destiny by Bradley Schurman

If you haven’t noticed people are living longer now. How can we use their knowledge and what can we expect in the future? Surprisingly not boring and really makes you think — where do I fit in?

See discussion after Capt. Kidd’s wife.

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

Love gone wrong. A famous couple, one night she shoots him and becomes mute. She is put in an institution and her psychotherapist becomes obsessed with the case. Why, why, why?

This book is available at the Grover Beach Community Library

Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson

This takes place in the West Indies. A widowed mother dies and leaves a recording with her lawyer to be played for her children after she dies. The children are left to decide what to do with information about their parent that they never knew. The black cake?  It was a Caribbean recipe that actually had origin in England.

This book is available at the Grover Beach Community Library

The Pirate’s Wife, The remarkable true story of Sarah Kidd by Daphne Palmer Geanacopoulos

The author went to Georgetown University where she focused on woman’s issues and pirates. Who knew Capt. Kidd was married? This book was researched in reverse after hearing Capt. Kidd had a wife in an obscure book. I had no idea that so many records still existed. She manages to put together what must have happened to this resourceful woman. Like Molly Brown she never sank.

This book was donated to the Grover Beach Community Library

This led to a discussion of research done by authors when writing a book. What does it add to a story? What is missing from books not researched? Where do you start researching? 

The Chemistry of Love by Sariah Wilson

This was on Kindle and was picked because of the title. What would happen if a nerdy chemist Cinderella met Stephanie Plum in an old movie with Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn for witty repartee all in a Harlequin novel with a lot of one liners. Funny boy meets girl scene and mood ring lipstick had our reader laughing out loud.

Next Meeting: March 14, 2023 at 10:30 a.m.

Subject: Research:  Have you read a good book that lured you into doing research on a subject? Have you come across some research that led you to a good book or a book on researching various subjects that interests you?