Colorado authors Lisa Jones, Peter Heller and Helen Thorpe are close friends who’ve been gathering regularly for years in each others' living rooms to discuss the books they’re reading.
Our Book Club segment transports their lively conversations to the CPR studio. Whether the three friends share each others' views or disagree, Book Club gives you a front-row seat as they share their literary passions.
This month Jones, Heller and Thorpe discuss summer reading, and whether the rising temperature is an excuse to dive into lightweight titles.
Jones delves into “chick lit” by reviewing "The Husband’s Secret" by Australian author Liane Moriarty. In the book, a woman stumbles across a letter written by her husband, to be opened only after his death.
“It’s really well written, it’s kind of funny, and it’s so well plotted,” Jones says. “I read this about six weeks ago and I don’t remember it at all.”
“It didn’t stick,” Thorpe says about her experience of reading Moriarty's book. “It’s like cotton candy.”
Thorpe, on the other hand, found middle ground with “Wildwood Imperium” by Colin Meloy, lead singer with the folk-rock group The Decemberists. Thorpe says the book is a page-turner.
“The ‘Wildwood’ books, to me, rise to the level of stuff that I remember, that I revere, that I have on my bookshelves next to my other books," Thorpe says. "That’s kind of the test. Would I put it on the bookshelf next to the books I really love?”
Although Heller picked up “Want Not” from his local bookstore’s “Summer Reading” shelf, he says this book by Jonathan Miles is anything but a shallow story.
“The guy is a marvelous writer,” Heller says. “It’s hilarious and I’ve begun to really care about the characters a lot.”
Stay tuned for the next edition of Book Club when we’ll send our authors out on the streets to discover their next books at a Little Free Library, tiny libraries about the size of a birdhouse.
Lisa Jones is the author of a memoir called “Broken: A Love Story” and she is currently at work on a novel. Peter Heller is the author of five books, including his new novel "The Painter." Helen Thorpe is the author of “Just Like Us: The True Story of Four Mexican Girls Coming of Age in America.” Her new non-fiction book “Soldier Girls,” is coming out this month.
