Carla hosted this evening’s meeting with Beth, Marilyn, Shirley, Linda, Colette, and Betty in attendance. We were treated to our first ‘butter board’ along with a hot artichoke dip and a variety of nibbles. Dessert was a fresh fruit salad with mini lemon tarts. Marilyn’s book choice this month was Five Little Indians by Michelle Good. Michelle Good is a Cree writer and a member of the Red Pheasant Cree Nation in Saskatchewan. After working for Indigenous organizations for twenty-five years, she obtained a law degree and advocated for residential school survivors for over fourteen y ..read more

Shirley was our host for this February 2024 meeting. Present were Beth, Carla, Colette, Linda, Marg, Marilyn and Shirley.  Betty was not at the meeting but sent her review to Shirley. We discussed Colette's book choice, The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams.  Pip Williams was born in London in 1969 to a Brazilian mother and Welsh father. She grew up in Sydney, Australia. Her first published work was at the age of 15, when she wrote a poem called Fifteen, and submitted it to a local magazine. She found out that she was dyslexic at the age of 17. In order to help his da ..read more

Marg was our host for the first meeting of the 2024 year.  Present were Beth, Betty, Carla, Colette, Linda, Marg, Michèle and Shirley.  Betty presented the book The Mystery of Mrs. Christie by Marie Benedict.  This is the second book we have read by Marie Benedict.  Most of her novels are based on true women and tell the story of women that may not have been known. This novel is about the 11 day disappearance of the author Agatha Christie.  It is written in a different style than her previous books. Agatha had been challenged by her sister to write the unsolvabl ..read more

Michèle was our host for the November meeting and we also had, after our discussion a pot luck dinner to celebrate  the 25th Anniversary of the existence of the Muse & Views Book Club.  We began our meeting with a glass of bubbly offered to us by Janet's husband.  After our discussion we had a great meal provided by all of us!  Present were Beth, Betty, Carla, Colette, Janet,  Linda, Marg, Marilyn, Michèle & Shirley.  All were present.  Shirley presented our book for November, The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Mur ..read more

  We were a small group again this month, Beth, Betty, Carla, Marg and Michèle.   Michèle had homemade blinis with smoked salmon, a lovely garlicky dip and vegetables and olives.   We discussed Carla's book choice, The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery.   L. M. Montgomery, as she was known in the publishing world wrote 20 novels, almost all for young adults, numerous short stories and poems.  She was best known for her series of books Anne of Green Gables and those that followed all set in Prince Edward Island.  They are still widely read in many countrie ..read more

  This list will be updated as members make their choices. January 22 - Colette's choice, Marg hosts February 26 - Betty's choice, Shirley hosts March 25 - Marilyn's choice ,  Carla hosts April 22 - Marg's choice,  Michèle hosts May 27 - Michèle's choice,  Poetry, Linda hosts June 24 - Beth's choice, Colette hosts September 23 - Carla's choice, Marilyn hosts  October 28 - Linda's choice,  Betty hosts November 27 - Shirley's choice, Beth hosts ..read more

A vicious local storm, summer vacations that were already underway, and illness almost forced us to postpone our meeting. We were therefore a small group as Carla, Linda, Betty and Shirley met at our host Colette’s and Beth, whose book choice we were discussing, attended by zoom.  Colette provided some special cheeses (particularly the creamy, dreamy Chateau Bourgogne from Jacobsons) representing countries visited by the characters in the book as well as samosas to spice things up followed by fresh strawberry shortcake.  Our book this month was The End of the Alphabet by ..read more

Linda was our host this month as we discussed Janet’s book choice, Haven by Emma Donoghue. We were missing three of our group, but Marg, Janet, Colette, Marilyn, Carla and Shirley were there to enjoy the food and wine Linda provided as the book was discussed. Our club previously read another of Donoghue’s books, The Wonder, so we were familiar with the author’s style of writing. Janet chose the book following a trip to Ireland where she visited the area where the Skellig are found and which is the setting for this stark book. Ms. Donoghue's books always have well developed char ..read more

Michèle was our host this month.  Present were Beth, Betty, Colette, Linda, Marg, Michèle, Shirley and coming back to the fold, an original member of the BookClub Marilyn.  Michèle served a smoked salmon mousse on cucumber slices, a garlic dip with veggies and devilled eggs. A chocolate, strawberry cream dessert was served.  Of course wine was available and tea.  We discussed Marg's book choice The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman.  Mr. Osman is a television and radio personality who in 2020 published his first crime fiction novel.  It became an instant succ ..read more

 Carla was our host this month.  We were a small group, Carla, Colette, Linda and Michèle.  We discussed Michèle's book choice Violeta  by Isabel Allende. Isabel Allende was born in Peru where her diplomat father was stationed as the representative from Chile.  She moved back to Chile with her mother when she was 3 years old.   She was educated in private English schools.  She married Miguel Frias in 1962 and had 2 children.  She married twice more, her most recent marriage is to American lawyer Roger Crukas in 2019.  She now lives in California an ..read more