A new month means new books! I’m pretty excited about the August book club selections. There is a marvelous independent book store in Oklahoma City called Commonplace Books. A few weeks ago, after dropping David off at the airport I made a little visit. This is the sort of place where the books are carefully curated and there is a resident dog.
I could easily spend a whole afternoon and a ridiculous amount of money there but my time was limited and I promised myself before I went in that I would only buy three books. These are the books I selected. Enjoy!
(*Note: The bookstore is temporarily closed for repairs after someone drove right through the front of it. Fortunately no one was hurt.)
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LWD AUGUST BOOK CLUB SELECTIONS
The Art of the Wasted Day by Patricia Hampl
The Art of the Wasted Day is a picaresque travelogue of leisure written from a lifelong enchantment with solitude. Patricia Hampl visits the homes of historic exemplars of ease who made repose a goal, even an art form. She begins with two celebrated eighteenth-century Irish ladies who ran off to live a life of “retirement” in rural Wales. Her search then leads to Moravia to consider the monk-geneticist, Gregor Mendel, and finally to Bordeaux for Michel Montaigne–the hero of this book–who retreated from court life to sit in his chateau tower and write about whatever passed through his mind, thus inventing the personal essay.
The Trip to Echo Spring: On Writers and Drinking by Olivia Laing
In The Trip to Echo Spring, Olivia Laing takes a journey across America, examining the links between creativity and alcohol in the work and lives of six extraordinary men: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, John Berryman, John Cheever, and Raymond Carver. Captivating and highly original, The Trip to Echo Spring strips away the myth of the alcoholic writer to reveal the terrible price creativity can exert.
Love and Ruin: A Novel by Paula McLain
In 1937, twenty-eight-year-old Martha Gellhorn travels alone to Madrid to report on the atrocities of the Spanish Civil War and becomes drawn to the stories of ordinary people caught in the devastating conflict. It’s her chance to prove herself a worthy journalist in a field dominated by men. There she also finds herself unexpectedly—and unwillingly—falling in love with Hemingway, a man on his way to becoming a legend.
What’s better than curling up with a good book and a delicious cup of tea? And when the tea is named “Reading Nook“? Perfection.
Plum Deluxe “Reading Nook” tea blend
PREVIOUS LWD BOOK CLUB CHOICES:
These books sound great. The Art of the Wasted Day has been on my amazon wish list.
I hadn’t heard of it but the bookstore had it on a display table and it sounds really intriguing.
Interesting choices for this month. The bookstore sounds nice. Hope it’s not going to cost them too much to repair the damage and get it back to how it was when you visited.
I looked at their Instagram last night and it looks like they are back to business – sort of. They still have some work to finish but at least they are open. We are going to be in the city next week so I may try to run by and check it out.