VILA BOOK CLUB
Please join us for the next meeting of the VILA Book Club sponsored by iBUG Today. We will be discussing the following book.
The Lost Summers of Newport by Karen White, DB108913
2019: Andie Figuero has just landed her dream job as a producer of Mansion Makeover, a popular reality show about restoring America's most lavish historic houses. Andie has high hopes for her latest project: the once glorious but gently crumbling Sprague Hall in Newport, Rhode Island, summer resort of America's gilded class--famous for the lavish "summer cottages" of Vanderbilts and Belmonts. But Andie runs into trouble: the reclusive heiress who still lives in the mansion, Lucia "Lucky" Sprague, will only allow the show to go forward on two conditions: One, nobody speaks to her. Two, nobody touches the mansion's ruined boathouse.
1899: Ellen Daniels has been hired to give singing lessons to Miss Maybelle Sprague, a naive young Colorado mining heiress whose stepbrother John has poured their new money into buying a place among Newport's elite. John is determined to see Maybelle married off to a fortune-hunting Italian prince, and Ellen is supposed to polish up the girl for her launch into society. But the deceptively demure Ellen has her own checkered past, and she's hiding in plain sight at Sprague Hall.
1958: Lucia "Lucky" Sprague has always felt like an outsider at Sprague Hall. When she and her grandmother--the American-born Princess di Conti--fled Mussolini's Italy, it seemed natural to go back to the imposing Newport house Nana owned but hadn't seen since her marriage in 1899. Over the years, Lucky's lost her Italian accent and found a place for herself among the yachting set by marrying Stuyvesant Sprague, thealcoholic scion of her Sprague stepfamily. But one fateful night in the mansion's old boathouse will uncover a devastating truth... and change everything she thought she knew about her past. As the cameras roll on Mansion Makeover, the house begins to yield up the dark secrets theSpragues thought would stay hidden forever. 13 hours, 14 minutes
WHEN: Thursday, June 13, 2024, 6:30 to 8:00 PM Central Time
Facilitator: Angie Panzica
The VILA Book Club is held on the Zoom conference platform.
Join the Zoom meeting:
https://zoom.us/j/7428486329?pwd=M003RmZaa3pTbWRlZ00xbSs4YTlmUT09
One tap mobile from a smartphone: +1 346 248 7799,,7428486329# US
Dial from a landline: +1 346 248 7799 US
Meeting ID: 742 848 6329, Password: 369978
Future book readings for the next couple of months are as follows. Note: all books are available on NLS BARD.
July 11
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, DB46882 (Gail Greenberg) An American missionary family lands in the village of Kilanga in the Congo in 1959, and the cultural confrontation begins immediately. The mother and four daughters react to their new environment, the villagers respond to their new preacher, and the family dynamics change. All of this is intensified by the Congo's own political turmoil. 19 hours, 21 minutes
August 14
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, DB107538 (Gail Greenberg) In the early 1960s, chemist Elizabeth Zott has a lot of challenges as the only woman on her team at Hastings Research Institute. She falls for colleague Calvin Evans, but the double standards of the day eventually have her looking for a new chapter outside academia, hosting a television cooking show. 11 hours, 57 minutes.