Loving Frank by Nancy Horan not only sparked a great, in-depth discussion, but led club members to read other works about famed architect, Frank Lloyd Wright such as Death in a Prairie House: Frank Lloyd Wright and the Taliesin Murders by William R. Drennan.

The widely-read post Wives and Lovers can be found here.  This selection complete with discussion questions has received over 1,000 hits in the past year.

These is my Words, written entirely in diary form by Nancy Turner, has also found favor with club members.  The post Pioneer Woman can be found here.

Told entirely in  letter format by Mary Ann Shaffer, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society sparked a great deal of interest and a lively discussion.

One book club member wished that the fictional characters would indeed inhabit the aforementioned island, because she would love to visit with them to learn more about their war-time experience.  Click here for The Next Step – Discussing the Book.

The holiday season brings with it a chance to relive Christmases past and present.  Books read and discussed for our December meeting  include The Christmas Train by David Baldacci, The Christmas Box by Richard Paul Evans and Red Bird Christmas by Fannie Flagg. Of the three mentioned, Red Bird Christmas rated as number one.

The post, It’s Unanimous, proclaimed our love for Mma Precious Ramotswe, the main character of the The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency.

More information about its prolific author, Alexander McCall Smith, can be found here.

What are some of your favorites?

An educated woman, Mamah (nickname for Martha) collected a BA from the University of Michigan in 1892. A free thinker even then she penned essays supporting the fledgling Women’s Movement in the late 19th century.

But marriage to a balding electrical engineer, ripped the 30-year-old
woman from the world of academia in Port Huron, Michigan, and plunked her down in Oak Park, Illinois, back in her father’s house.

Instead of being a ‘handmaiden to knowledge’ and ‘doctor of the soul’, she became a mother, twice over to her deceased sister’s child, Jessica, and her own son, John, born in 1902.  A daughter, Martha, was added to the family in 1905.

No longer a translator who spoke six languages fluently, but a diaper changer extraordinaire who hustled to keep the dark old house clutter free to please her husband.

That’s when Edwin Cheney began campaigning for a modern home and Frank Lloyd Wright entered the picture.

Wright’s desire to create architecture, “that was true–something that emerged like a plant from the earth” awoke Mamah’s youthful interest in nature fostered by her amateur-naturalist father.

Nancy Horan, author of Loving Frank commented, “I think what (Wright) saw in Mamah was a very attractive woman, a woman with a great deal to say–curious about the world in the way he was.”

Loving Frank chronicles the real-life love affair of the two sycophants. An affair which began during the planning stages of a garage to complement the Cheney’s home and continued until her death in 1914.

The lover’s scandalous behavior also forms the last section of The Women, T. C. Boyle’s 2009 novel dealing with the wives and mistresses of the renowned architect.

Writing in reverse order, Professor Boyle opens the book with Olga Ivanova Lazovich (aka Olgivanna), Wright’s last wife, before moving backward to wife number two, Miriam Noel and finishing off the text with Mamah.

About 30 years younger than the Oak Park architect, the dancer from Montenegro,  apparently learned to co-habit with Wright at Taliesin in a way no other women had.  After several stormy years at its beginning, their marriage lasted until his death in 1959 and produced one daughter, Iovanna.

While  grieving over the loss of Mamah and trying to  recreate their love nest in Spring Green, Wisconsin, Wright took up with Maude Miriam Noel, a noted, upper-crust sculptress.   Their tumultuous marriage lasted only six months since the sexually charged morphine addict couldn’t abide being overshadowed by her celebrity husband.

Sadly, Katherine, Wright’s tenacious wife of 20 years, is mentioned in only one passage of The Women.

No matter which novel your group chooses to read and discuss, either will furnish a wide variety of topics to hash over during your monthly gathering.

Suggested discussion questions for Loving Frank can be found here.

At the present time, no discussion questions could be found online for The Women.