"The American Heiress" Book and Tea Club

338 Replies
Serenity said

@ Yssah: hi ~ on another discussion thread you asked me to share or swap some Earl Grey blends I mentioned. I do have one of those teas, and I will send you a sample. I am not currently doing any swapping, thanks.

yssah said

yay, thanks Serenity!

Serenity said

You are welcome!

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Still waiting on the book from the library. Got one of the tea swaps. Thank you generous black tea sender.

I didn’t pick a tea for each character. I only had a little to send. Getting different teas for the characters was a nice idea. I’m saving mine for when I get the book.

Alphakitty said

The tea for characters was most likely me, since I am in the same group as you ^^

I finally made it to the London Tea Room yesterday. I’ll be mailing tea to the 2 of you & three whales tomorrow. I didn’t assign characters to the teas, I just picked a few that I thought would be interesting, or somehow seemed related. I hope you enjoy them!

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Alphakitty said

I finished the book a couple days ago, and ended up enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would after my impression of the first few chapters~ Pretty excited to talk about it, especially the ending.

TeaLady441 said

That’s great. I gave up waiting for the library copy and bought the kindle version last night. I expect to get my samples mailed out tomorrow… (sorry for the delay to those in my group)

I feel like it’s been weeks since I finished the book, LOL. I’ve already read 2 books since then! Hopefully I won’t forget everything I read before the discussion starts…

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Serenity said

I hope everyone is enjoying their reading. Check out this painting, The Thoughtful Reader by Franz Dvorak (scroll down a bit, past the blog’s heading):
http://my-museum-of-art.blogspot.com/2012/03/franz-dvorak-thoughtful-reader.html

Josie Jade said

Very pretty! She looks very deep in thought. . .I don’t think she’s reading The American Heiress, haha. Maybe Anna K, since that required so much thinking!

Alphakitty said

Beautiful! Makes you wonder about what she is reading.

On a related note, it amazes me that the women of that period in Britain had to wear their hair up all the time. I mean you see it in pictures, but it’s one of those things I never really thought about until it was mentioned. I have really thick hair, having it up for long periods of time actually hurts my scalp—I don’t think I would do well in that time period!

yssah said

love how the sun lights upon her hair

That is nice!

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Serenity said

Caption this:
http://www.vaasapages.com/pics/art/GustavEdelfelt/Under-the-Birches350x268.jpg

“Have you got to the part where Cora and…”
or
“Can you stop reading so we can go back and get some tea?”

yssah said

no fair, where did you get that chair to sit on?

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TeaLady441 said

I just got my from tea swap in the mail! Thanks Tealover58 – it smells great. I hope my samples reach everyone this week, and that you enjoy the tea. (It was risky bc I bought the tea just for the book and hadn’t tried it before!)

I’m about 2/3 of the way through the book. How about everyone else?

I want to comment on the novel but I will hold my tongue… :P

Serenity said

Hi, I finished it. I look forward to discussing it!

Josie Jade said

Just finished a few days ago! Can’t wait to discuss it also, the 15th seems so far away!

yssah said

between half and 2/3 :)

I finished a few weeks ago

Val said

I’ve deliberately not finished it so I don’t forget anything :)

TeaRunner said

About 75%. Pacing myself to finish by the 15th, even though I am seriously distracted by the weird book I came across recently: “What happened to Anna K” – kind of a contemporary version of Anna Karenina. it is not a great book, but I find it fascinating how the author finds contemporary equivalents to original events – Vronsky’s horse race/The New York Marathon is my favorite.
But looks like most of you also have the habit of reading a few books at the same time… What else are you reading right now?

I’m reading the ‘Rowan Gant’ Series, currently about half way through book 2, “Never Burn a Witch”. The author, Murv Sellers, lives in the St. Louis area, & the books take place in St. Louis, which is kind of fun. They are basically mystery novels, with the main character being a modern day Witch, who helps the cops solve esoterically related crimes. A little more gory than I like at times, but an interesting read.

Josie Jade said

I’m reading novel by Kate Furnivall, “The White Pearl”. I really enjoyed her books that were set in Russia, and this one takes place during WWII in Malaysia. :)

Serenity said

Everyone’s books sound so interesting! I am reading No Name by Wilkie Collins. It’s a long book, and very “sensational” as they would say during Collins’ time. Lots of drama. I’m enjoying it very much. I just finished Sex Changes by Christine Benvenuto. It is a memoir about a woman who has three children and is happily married, until her husband reveals that he wants to change his gender. The writer does a skillful job of being respectful of people who make this choice in general, but being completely upfront about how devastated she was. Even more troubling was how his personality changed, he became obsessed with gender issues and became very cold, uncaring and unstable. It was one of those I can’t put it down reads!

Alphakitty said

I am finishing up The Devil In Silver, which is rather bizarre (in a good way). I was expecting straight horror but it’s instead part horror, part black comedy, part social commentary on NYC.

TeaLady441 said

Ok – I just finished today! I wish we were discussing it now, but I’m sure that I’ll remember the important bits. I just noticed discussion questions at the end of the novel – I wonder if you all have those? That’d be a good jumping off place I suppose!

I’m ready to read the next Wheel of Time book and to finally finish the series but the hardcover is $20 (doable!) but also SUPER MASSIVE. I want the ebook but that’ll be out in April. #whines Not sure what to read instead.

Serenity said

Cavocorax, I have the questions and author interview at the end of my copy, too.
I have to make a list of all these books everyone is mentioning!

TeaRunner said

This is what I am doing, too! Jotting down some titles for life after “The American Heiress”… I could easily identify with some of your choices, some are books I would not normally even look at – but you are my trusted book club buddies – I think I will investigate further even those originally-totally-out-of-the-question titles…
Love my book club!

TeaLady441 said

Oooh – some of those books sound pretty good. I just grabbed Cloud Atlas today from the library and then realised the Wachowski brothers made a movie adaptation of it. Guess they liked it to, so I’m sure that’s a good sign.

I have Cloud Atlas on my Netflix cue, but would also like to read the book first, just so I know what’s going on, LOL :)

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All my Book Club teas have come in the post.
I’m getting the book from the library later today.

Serenity said

Sweet!

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I am really enjoying the ease of this book after my two experiences with Russian novels, AK and Crime and Punishment. When we were reading AK, I wanted a tea glass like they use in Russia….I found three at my local thrift store last week!

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Just a couple more days before we finally get to start the book discussion! How’s everyone coming along?

TeaLady441 said

All done and rarin’ to discuss! Also, I’m looking forward to our next book, whatever that will be.

TeaLover58 said

Not done yet, but I already have stuff to talk about!

Josie Jade said

So ready to discuss! I hope I remember everything, I’ve read a couple of books since then! :)

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Serenity said

Looking forward to our discussion!

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