Book Club Extraordinaire
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  • Past Reads
    • 2021 >
      • The Mysteries
      • The Long Petal of the Sea
      • The Silent Patient
      • The Broken Heart of America
      • The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek
    • 2020 >
      • Where the Crawdads Sing
      • Death of a Red Heroine
      • Age of Light
      • Beneath the Scarlet Sky
      • Next Year in Havana
      • What the Wind Knows
      • Simon the Fiddler
      • The Dutch House
      • Dear Edward
    • 2019 >
      • Caleb's Crossing
    • 2018 >
      • Educated
      • To Have and To Have Not
    • 2017 >
      • A Gentleman in Moscow
    • 2016 >
      • The Mare
      • Fates and Furies
    • 2015 >
      • Citizens of London
      • Euphoria
      • The Blue Flower
      • Being Mortal
      • Waiting for Snow in Havana
      • All that is Solid Melts into Air
      • All the Light We Cannot See
    • 2014 >
      • On Such a Full Sea
      • A Canticle for Leibowitz
      • The Luminaries
      • The Lowland
      • Alice Munro shorts
      • The Goldfinch
      • The Round House
      • Salvage the Bones
    • 2013 >
      • The Monuments Men
      • Wild
      • The Great Fire
      • A Time of Gifts
      • Sweet Tooth
      • The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
      • To the End of the Land
      • The Casual Vacancy
      • Canada
      • The Light Between Oceans
    • 2012 >
      • One Amazing Thing
      • Bossypants
      • The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
      • Rules of Civility
      • Cutting for Stone
      • Just Kids
      • Red Badge of Courage
      • Lost on Treasure Island
      • The Reluctant Fundamentalist
      • The Children's Book
    • 2011 >
      • The Cellist of Sarajevo
      • Food Rules
      • Freedom
      • Unbroken
      • The Painted Veil
      • The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
      • Elegance of the Hedgehog
      • Soul Mountain
  • Highlights
    • The Complete List
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Books for the
Reader Extraordinaire 

​​Upcoming Books:
February 18 @Sue
A Long Petal of the Sea - Isabel Allende
March  18 @Hilary

Circe - Madeline Miller
April 22 @Jeri Lynn

Before We Were Yours - Lisa Wingate

May 20 @Debra
The Silent Patient - Alex Michaelides
June 24 @ Anne

Broken Heart of America  - Walter Johnson
September 16 @Maitand

Middlemarch - George Eliot

Author Bio: 

It is very strange to write one’s biography because it is just a list of dates, events, and achievements. In reality, the most important things about my life happened in the secret chambers of my heart and have no place in a biography. My most significant achievements are not my books, but the love I share with a few people—especially my family—and the ways in which I have tried to help others.
When I was young, I often felt desperate: so much pain in the world and so little I could do to alleviate it! But now I look back at my life and feel satisfied because few days went by without me at least trying to make a difference.
In any case, here is my full biography and a short summary.
​Source: Isabel Allende

My Book Stack - on the blog

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The Book of Lost Friends takes us to Louisiana in 1875 during the time of reconstruction after the Civil War. It tells the story of Hannie, a freed slave, whose mother and family were taken and one by one sold as slaves. Hannie is determined to find her family. She uses the “Lost Friends” advertisements published in Southern newspapers after the Civil War to help families reunite with their loved ones. 
Read BExtraordinaire Blog
 for more about this book, past books, and other book club updates. ​​





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is reading The Long Petal of the Sea  by Isabel Allende for February Book Club.​
A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende is another masterpiece from one of my favorite writers.  Allende tells the story of over 2,000 refugees that fled Spain for Chile during the occupation by Franco and his Nationalist forces during the Spanish Civil War. Many of the refugees  were personally selected by the famous Chilean Poet Pablo Neruda to cross the ocean on the S.S. Winnipeg in which he chartered for the voyages.  Allende novel spans the years from 1938 to 1994. She weaves Neruda's poetry throughout the book. Allende was 31 years old at the time of the coup. Her father's cousin was President Salvador Allende. At the time she was writing articles for Chile's first feminist magazine. On the occasion of meeting Pablo Neruda, he gave her some career advice. He suggested that she write novels instead of articles since she had a penchant for exaggeration. We are thankful she took his advice.  I enjoyed this book for the storytelling  and the poetry, making this book a powerful  read. Another interesting read associated with this novel is a biography called, "Neruda- The Poet's Calling" by Mark Eisner. 

Isabel Allende, " A Long Petal of The Sea" from Politics and Prose, January 23, 2020
Author Quotes: 
"It’s so important for me, finding the precise word that will create a feeling or describe a situation. I’m very picky about that because it’s the only material we have: words. But they are free. No matter how many syllables they have: free! You can use as many as you want, forever."
― Isabel Allende 
14 Life-Affirming Quotes from Isabel Allende 
Bustle 
By Alex Heimbach
Sep. 25, 2015
Book Review:
 NPR has a wonderful review, 'A Long Petal of the Sea' Finds Love in a Time of Chaos by Marcela Davidson Aviles. January 27, 2020
"But don't be fooled into thinking this story is a history text cloaked as a novel. We fall slowly in love with Roser and Victor as they fall slowly in love with each other. This then, is the luminescence of Allende's writing: She takes us on an intimate journey in the midst of crashing worlds, but even so, the journey is a reckoning --Roser and Victor must conduct a recognizance of their surroundings, of people they meet, even of themselves, in order to survive. And this introspection, so necessary for survival, delivers something unexpected: A falling into love, and the discovery of one's capacity for wonder in a world gone mad."

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  • Home
    • BExtraordinaire Roster
    • BExtraordinaire Calendar
    • RSVP
  • Blog BExtraordinaire
  • Past Reads
    • 2021 >
      • The Mysteries
      • The Long Petal of the Sea
      • The Silent Patient
      • The Broken Heart of America
      • The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek
    • 2020 >
      • Where the Crawdads Sing
      • Death of a Red Heroine
      • Age of Light
      • Beneath the Scarlet Sky
      • Next Year in Havana
      • What the Wind Knows
      • Simon the Fiddler
      • The Dutch House
      • Dear Edward
    • 2019 >
      • Caleb's Crossing
    • 2018 >
      • Educated
      • To Have and To Have Not
    • 2017 >
      • A Gentleman in Moscow
    • 2016 >
      • The Mare
      • Fates and Furies
    • 2015 >
      • Citizens of London
      • Euphoria
      • The Blue Flower
      • Being Mortal
      • Waiting for Snow in Havana
      • All that is Solid Melts into Air
      • All the Light We Cannot See
    • 2014 >
      • On Such a Full Sea
      • A Canticle for Leibowitz
      • The Luminaries
      • The Lowland
      • Alice Munro shorts
      • The Goldfinch
      • The Round House
      • Salvage the Bones
    • 2013 >
      • The Monuments Men
      • Wild
      • The Great Fire
      • A Time of Gifts
      • Sweet Tooth
      • The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
      • To the End of the Land
      • The Casual Vacancy
      • Canada
      • The Light Between Oceans
    • 2012 >
      • One Amazing Thing
      • Bossypants
      • The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
      • Rules of Civility
      • Cutting for Stone
      • Just Kids
      • Red Badge of Courage
      • Lost on Treasure Island
      • The Reluctant Fundamentalist
      • The Children's Book
    • 2011 >
      • The Cellist of Sarajevo
      • Food Rules
      • Freedom
      • Unbroken
      • The Painted Veil
      • The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
      • Elegance of the Hedgehog
      • Soul Mountain
  • Highlights
    • The Complete List
  • ReaderRec