RVA Classic and Contemporary Book Club

October calls for a spooky read!! We will meet at Brecotea near the intersection of Courthouse Rd and Midlothian Turnpike. As always, be sure to enter the physical address of Brecotea (11544 Busy St) into your GPS so you arrive at the correct location :)

From Goodreads:
Ben and Marian Rolfe are desperate to escape a stifling summer in their tiny Brooklyn apartment, so when they get the chance to rent a mansion in upstate New York for the entire summer for only $900, it’s an offer that’s too good to refuse. There’s only one catch: behind a strange and intricately carved door in a distant wing of the house lives elderly Mrs. Allardyce, and the Rolfe's will be responsible for preparing her meals.

But Mrs. Allardyce never seems to emerge from her room, and it soon becomes clear that something weird and terrifying is happening in the house. As the suspense builds towards a revelation of what really lies behind that locked door, the Rolfes will discover that their cheap vacation rental comes at a terrible cost...

The basis for a classic 1976 film adaptation and an acknowledged influence on Stephen King’s The Shining, Burnt Offerings is one of the most original and scariest haunted house novels ever written.

From Goodreads:
The Blue Castle, one of L. M. Montgomery’s few adult works of fiction, is a heartwarming tale of love, self-discovery, and second chances. Valancy Stirling, a young woman of twenty-nine, has spent her entire life living in the shadow of her overbearing mother and gossipy extended family. She has never dared to defy their low expectations of her or attempted to gain independence and had long abandoned any hope of marriage. But when she receives a devastating diagnosis, Valancy decides it’s time to take control of her life and live it to the fullest. As she embarks on a journey of self-discovery, Valancy encounters a cast of quirky, vividly drawn characters who help her kindle a newfound passion for life.

With its charming and relatable characters, and its beautifully written prose, The Blue Castle is a timeless and captivating read about an endearing heroine breaking free of the constraints of society, the expectations of a judgmental family, and her own past.

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We will meet at the Brecotea near the intersection of Courthouse Rd and Midlothian Turnpike. Be sure to enter the physical address of Brecotea (11544 Busy Street) into your GPS so that you arrive at the correct Brecotea, as the GPS tends to prefer the other locations :) See you there!!

'Tis the season for sharing a beloved book of your choice with a fellow book club member :) If you would like to participate in the book swap portion of the meeting, please bring a gently used edition of one of your favorite books, wrapped or in a bag. The book swap is optional- you do not have to bring a book to attend the meeting. Location is TBD!

From Goodreads:
A beloved, bestselling classic of humorous and nostalgic Americana—the book that inspired the equally classic Yuletide film and the live musical on Fox. The holiday film A Christmas Story, first released in 1983, has become a bona fide Christmas perennial, gaining in stature and fame with each succeeding year. Its affectionate, wacky, and wryly realistic portrayal of an American family’s typical Christmas joys and travails in small-town Depression-era Indiana has entered our imagination and our hearts with a force equal to It’s a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street. This edition of A Christmas Story gathers together in one hilarious volume the gems of autobiographical humor that Jean Shepherd drew upon to create this enduring film. Here is young Ralphie Parker’s shocking discovery that his decoder ring is really a device to promote Ovaltine; his mother and father’s pitched battle over the fate of a lascivious leg lamp; the unleashed and unnerving savagery of Ralphie’s duel in the show with the odious bullies Scut Farkas and Grover Dill; and, most crucially, Ralphie’s unstoppable campaign to get Santa—or anyone else—to give him a Red Ryder carbine action 200-shot range model air rifle. Who cares that the whole adult world is telling him, “You’ll shoot your eye out, kid”? The pieces that comprise A Christmas Story, previously published in the larger collections In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash and Wanda Hickey’s Night of Golden Memories, coalesce in a magical fashion to become an irresistible piece of Americana, quite the equal of the film in its ability to warm the heart and tickle the funny bone.