The Literary Wineaux Society OC

We Might Just Make It After All: My Best Friendship with Kate Spade by Elyce Arons(non-fiction) - A memoir that details the friendship that began in college and went on to become co-founders of the multi-billion dollar fashion company as they came of age in 1990s New York. Arons first met Katy Brosnahan in a University of Kansas dorm room, she had no idea that this polo-shirt wearing Missouri girl would not only become her best friend, but also change the course of her life. Within a decade they'd be scraping by in NYC, working day jobs to spend nights building a new line of handbangs that would one day revolutionize the accessories industry. Amazon Link

Page Count: 304 pages
Audiobook: 9 hours, 25 minutes narrated by the author
Published: July 17, 2025
⚠️ Please be aware of trigger warnings. Content will include talk of suicide.

Further Reading and Viewing....
This tiktok video (which you can stream via YouTube) was what prompted me to research Elyce Arons after she gave a home tour of her inspiring West Village, NYC apartment, bursting with personality.

• Video: Good Morning America Interview with Elyce Arons
• Read: Town & Country Magazine - Why I had to tell the story of my best friend Kate Spade
• Read: Marie Claire - Elyce Arons Hopes You Remember Kate Spade as She Does

Location: Five Vines, San Juan Capistrano, in the SNUG room.

Please make sure to update your RSVP if you are unable to make it!

1. 'The Amalfi Curse' by Sarah Renner - (author of 'The Lost Apothecary') - Powerful witchcraft. A hunt for sunken treasure. Forbidden love on the high seas. Beware the Amalfi Curse…Haven Ambrose, a trailblazing nautical archaeologist, has come to the sun-soaked village of Positano to investigate the mysterious shipwrecks along the Amalfi Coast. But Haven is hoping to find more than old artifacts beneath the azure waters; she is secretly on a quest to locate a trove of priceless gemstones her late father spotted on his final dive. Upon Haven’s arrival, strange maelstroms and misfortunes start plaguing the town. Is it nature or something more sinister at work? Amazon Link

2. 'The View From Lake Como' by Adriana Trigiani - Jess Capodimonte Baratta is not living the life of her dreams. Not even close. In blue-collar Lake Como, New Jersey, family comes first. Recently divorced from Bobby Bilancia, “the perfect husband," Jess moves into her parents’ basement to hide and heal. Jess is also a talented draftswoman in the marble business. Fueled by her lost dreams, Jess takes fate into her own hands and escapes to her ancestral home, Carrara, Italy. From the shadows of the majestic marble-capped mountains of Tuscany, to the glittering streets of Milan, and on the shores of enchanting Lake Como (the other one), Jess begins to carve a place in this new/old world. Amazon Link

3. 'Salt Water' by Katy Hays - In 1992, Sarah Lingate is found dead below the cliffs of Capri, Italy, leaving behind her three-year-old daughter, Helen. Despite suspicions that the old-money Lingates are involved, Sarah’s death is ruled an accident. And every year, the family returns to prove it’s true. But on the thirtieth anniversary of her death, the Lingates arrive at the villa to find a surprise waiting for them—the necklace Sarah was wearing the night she died. Haunted by the specter of that night, the paranoid, insular Lingate family begins to crack, and the investigation into Sarah’s death is reopened. Everyone who was on Capri thirty years ago remains a suspect. Amazon Link

4. 'Tartufo' by Kira Jane Buxton - After nearly losing the election to a geriatric donkey, newly installed Mayor Delizia Miccuci can’t help but feel like the sun has finally set on the rural Italian village of Lazzarini Boscarino. Tourists only stop by to ask for directions, Nonna Amara’s cherished ristorante is long shuttered, and the town hall is disgustingly overrun with glis glis poo—even Postman Duccio has been disgraced. All that’s left is Bar Celebrità, a rustic establishment where weary locals gather to quibble over decades-long disputes, submit their poor stomachs to bartender Giuseppina’s volcanic espresso, and wonder what will become of the place where together they’ve spent their entire lives. Little do the villagers know that local truffle hunter Giovanni Scarpazza has just happened upon something that could change everything. A truffle—un tartufo, that is—sits beneath the soil with the power to either be the greatest gift or the foulest curse the village has ever seen. Amazon Link

5. 'Dolce Vita Confidential: Fellini, Loren, Pucci, Paparazzi, and the Swinging High Life of 1950s Rome' by Shawn Levy - (non-fiction) In the dizzying wake of World War II, Rome skyrocketed to prominence as an epicenter of film, fashion, photography, and boldfaced libertinism. Artists, exiles, and a dazzling array of movie talent rushed to Rome for a chance to thrive in this hotbed of excitement. From the photographers who tailed the stars to the legends who secured their place in cinematic fame, Dolce Vita Confidential resurrects the drama that permeated the streets and screens of Rome. Amazon Link.

6. 'Room on the Sea: Three Novellas' by André Aciman - From the author of 'Call Me By Your Name' comes three stories -- two set in Italy and one in New York. The short fictions deal with the heart-wrenching vicissitudes of amorous ambivalence, in André Aciman's inimitably nostalgic, lyric style."The Gentleman from Peru" tells the story of the life-changing encounter of a group of friends with an enigmatic solitary guest in a hotel on the Amalfi Coast. "Room on the Sea" is a dialogue between a man and a woman who meet on jury duty and embark on a complex relationship. "Mariana" is a modern retelling of a famous seventeenth-century novel about a love affair between a nun and a swashbuckling, unreliable aristocrat. No one writes about the ups and downs, the yeses and nos, of contemporary love like Aciman. As The Times (London) writes: ”You don't so much read André Aciman's novels as tumble breathlessly into them.“ Amazon Link

7. 'The Villa' by Rachel Hawkins - As kids, Emily and Chess were inseparable. But by their 30s, their bond has been strained by the demands of their adult lives. So when Chess suggests a girls trip to Italy, Emily jumps at the chance. Villa Aestas in Orvieto is a high-end holiday home now, but in 1974, it was known as Villa Rosato, and rented for the summer by a notorious rock star, Noel Gordon, up-and-coming musician, Pierce Sheldon, and Pierce’s girlfriend, Mari, and her stepsister, Lara. There, Mari writes one of the greatest horror novels of all time, and the summer ends with Pierce’s brutal murder. As secrets from the past come to light, equally dangerous betrayals from the present also emerge––and it begins to look like the villa will claim another victim before the summer ends. Inspired by Fleetwood Mac, the Manson murders, and the infamous summer Percy and Mary Shelley spent with Lord Byron at a Lake Geneva castle––the birthplace of Frankenstein––The Villa welcomes you into its deadly legacy. Amazon Link