BOOK LOVERS BOOK CLUB: “ONE ITALIAN SUMMER” BY REBECCA SERLE

This month’s Book Lovers Book Club selection – which also ties into our 2023 Conversations with Authors Series interview with Rebecca Serle – is One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle. Book Lovers Book Club attendees are encouraged at this meeting to share one suggested question for Anne’s interview with the author this month! If you wish to RSVP for the Conversations with Authors event featuring Rebecca Serle and One Italian Summer, please do so at this link:  Conversations with Authors Zoom event featuring Rebecca Serle

Amazon Summary for One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle:  “When Katy’s mother dies, she is left reeling. Carol wasn’t just Katy’s mom, but her best friend and first phone call. She had all the answers and now, when Katy needs her the most, she is gone. To make matters worse, their planned mother-daughter trip of a lifetime looms: to Positano, the magical town where Carol spent the summer right before she met Katy’s father. Katy has been waiting years for Carol to take her, and now she is faced with embarking on the adventure alone. But as soon as she steps foot on the Amalfi Coast, Katy begins to feel her mother’s spirit. Buoyed by the stunning waters, beautiful cliffsides, delightful residents, and, of course, delectable food, Katy feels herself coming back to life. And then Carol appears—in the flesh, healthy, sun-tanned, and thirty years old. Katy doesn’t understand what is happening, or how—all she can focus on is that she has somehow, impossibly, gotten her mother back. Over the course of one Italian summer, Katy gets to know Carol, not as her mother, but as the young woman before her. She is not exactly who Katy imagined she might be, however, and soon Katy must reconcile the mother who knew everything with the young woman who does not yet have a clue. Rebecca Serle’s next great love story is here, and this time it’s between a mother and a daughter. With her signature “heartbreaking, redemptive, and authentic” (Jamie Ford, New York Times bestselling author) prose, Serle has crafted a transcendent novel about how we move on after loss, and how the people we love never truly leave us.”

The titles chosen by Adult Services Librarian and host, Anne Crawford, for the Book Lovers Book Club represent an array of genres, new and longtime authors, and a variety of viewpoints all in the spirit of encouraging lively discussion! These monthly selections, including this month’s book, are available for checkout with a SJCPLS library card in a variety of formats, both physical (via SJCPLS’s catalog) and downloadable (via Overdrive). All adults are invited to join the Book Lovers Book Club!  No RSVPs are required. Please call us at our Library at (904) 827-6950 with any questions you may have.

After each meeting, several Book Club attendees (“The Lunch Bunch”) go out to lunch together at a nearby restaurant to enjoy further discussion and opportunities to build friendships. All Book Club attendees are invited and very welcome to participate in these gatherings anytime it works for you!

Thank you to the Friends of the Ponte Vedra Beach Branch Library for generously sponsoring our library’s Book Lovers Book Club.