​​Upcoming Books:
September 17 @Anne
Simon the Fiddler - Paulette Jiles
October 22 @Carol 
The Dutch House  - Ann Patchett
December 3 @Toni
Dear Edward - Ann Napolitano
January 21 @Margi
TBA

Author Bio: 

Paulette Kay Jiles was born in 1943 in Salem, Missouri. She attended college at the University of Missouri–Kansas City, graduating in 1968 with a major in Romance Languages. Jiles moved to Toronto, Canada in 1969, where she worked for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and, subsequently, helped set up native language, FM radio stations with indigenous peoples in the far north of Ontario and Quebec for the next 10 years. In the process, she learned the Ojibwe language spoken by the Anishinaabeg tribes in Ontario and elsewhere.
After marrying Texan Jim Johnson, she moved with him temporarily to San Antonio in 1991. After several years of travel, including living in Mexico, the couple resettled in San Antonio in 1995, buying a house in the historical district.  After her divorce in 2003, Jiles has lived on a 36-acre ranch near Utopia, Texas, about 80 miles west of San Antonio.
Source: Wikipedia

My Book Stack - on the blog

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An overdue library notice prompted me drop everything and read Daisy Jones & the Six, first  DAISY JONES & THE SIX by Taylor Jenkins Reid is a blast from the past. It follows the story of a 70's rock and roll band named Daisy Jones and the Six. The book reveals the band members, agents, and other supporting characters through interviews. The writing feels authentic and  had me scratching my head as to why I didn't recall this group.   
Read BExtraordinaire Blog for more about this book, past books, and other book club updates. ​​
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is reading Simon the Fiddler by Paulette Jiles for September Book Club.​
Simon the Fiddler by Paulette Jiles follows her, bestselling and National Book Award Finalist book, News of the World. This was a Bextraordinaire Book Club favorite. Simon the Fiddler takes us back in time to Texas at the end of the Civil War.  The main character, Simon is a man on a mission after he spots Doris Dillon, for the first time while he plays fiddle at a formal dinner for the officers. Doris is the Irish governess for a Union colonel, under contract and off limits to a lowly fiddle player. This does not stop love or destiny. Simon has a dream of owning property, buying a ring, and marrying Doris Dillon. 

Jiles' descriptions of the adventures of Simon and his band crossing the Texas landscape are vibrant. "The lamps in the saloons burned coal oil or whale oil, the beams overhead creaked in the wind off the Gulf, the streets were incandescent under the gas lamps. Sometimes bats streaked through the white light, moths dance in a city of seagulls and scarred buildings." You find yourself walking those same streets. 

I sped through this book and enjoyed every page. I couldn't wait to see if the star-crossed lovers make it in the end. 

Don't miss this great video, Simon the Fiddler by Paulette Jiles
​April 14, 2020 told by Paulette Jiles

Author Quotes: 
“All my father's family were great talkers and they were great tale spinners, tall tales and wonderful expressions and people would invent all sorts of metaphors. I grew up in a word-conscious society.” From Simon the Fiddler by Paulette Jiles video. 
Book Review:
Music Matters in Paulette Jiles' Simon the Fiddler
The Philadelphia Inquirer
by Rob Merrill, Updated: May 6, 2020
"Jiles’ sparse but lyrical writing is a joy. As the band checks out possible venues in Galveston, Texas, she writes, “To Simon, the world of musical structures was far more real than the shoddy saloons in which he had to play. … It existed outside him. It was better than he was. He was always on foot in that world, an explorer in busted shoes.”​ Read more at