Newsletter for The Happy Bookers Club, July 4^th, 2013

Just wanted to send one quick message out to everyone concerning the book choice for September’s return meeting.  If you were at Casona’s last month, you already know the book we decided to reunite with is The Paris Wife by Paula McLain. A deeply evocative story of ambition and betrayal, The Paris Wife captures a remarkable period of time and a love affair between two unforgettable people: Ernest Hemingway and his wife Hadley.

Some of us have read this selection and it is an adventurous peek at the marriage of Ernest Hemingway and his first wife, Haddy.  The story is told through her eyes and I believe, using her journals as reference as to give an authentic and personal account of their time together.  I also think it is a good summer read.

 One more thing:  I’d like to make the suggestion of reading The Great Bridge, by David McCullough.  Since it is 608 pages, I would recommend it for November’s choice:

Summary:  John Roebling, a German immigrant who pioneered suspension bridge design and wire cable manufacturing, envisioned and sketched a bridge across the East River from Brooklyn to Manhattan.  Roebling had his toe crushed by a boat pushing up against a New York pier and died from tetanus.  His son Washington (“young Roebling”), a Civil War hero, completed the design and supervised construction of the bridge between 1869 and 1883.  Washington Roebling was almost killed and suffered decades of impairment to his personality and lifestyle by a case of decompression illness or “the bends”.  He ended his days managing the family’s very successful wire and cable manufacturing business.
The author is probably best known for his doorstop biography of President Truman, but in this book, he tells a quintessential American story: how the Brooklyn Bridge came to be. There had been talk of a bridge over the East River for about as long as there were people on either side of it, but it was thought to be an absurd, impossible idea until John Roebling figured out how to span the busy, turbulent waterway. "I haven't been able to drive past or fly over the bridge the same way since," says  Art Williams. "We're often in a big hurry and we make cell phone calls in cars as we pass over it, but it seems a sacrilege to me now to do anything but stop and give this bridge its due.”

Thanks for all your support and friendship over the years, enjoy your summer time and stay safe, healthy and cool!

Let’s discuss,  Joyce