Ariel Lawhon Book Group Event
November 23, 2024
Our last book club pick for the year is BE READY WHEN THE LUCK HAPPENS, and we are planning a fun evening with a potluck holiday celebration. I am looking forward to seeing what reading Ina Garten's memoir inspired us to plan for food and beverages. I highly recommend the audio edition of this book, which is read by Ina and is about a lot more than food!
I took away a couple of great business lessons. Take a look at your business to see what is worth spending time on, and where you may be spending time that is not valuable. For Ina, it was realizing that she was spending 95% of her time on catering, which brought in 5% of the revenue. This was a BIG revelation. I always kick myself when I see my own version of this and think, How did I not see this sooner? The best part about the holidays --- after the frenzy of shopping, wrapping and baking --- is the time I have available to think instead of just doing.
Editorial Content for The Fabled Earth
Book
Teaser
Southern mythology and personal reckoning collide in this sweeping story inspired by the little-known history of Cumberland Island when a once-in-a-century storm threatens the natural landscape.
Promo
Southern mythology and personal reckoning collide in this sweeping story inspired by the little-known history of Cumberland Island when a once-in-a-century storm threatens the natural landscape.
About the Book
Sometimes the truth is found in a folktale.
1932. Cumberland Island off the coast of Southern Georgia is a strange place to encounter the opulence of the Gilded Age, but the last vestiges of the famed philanthropic Carnegie family still take up brief seasonal residence in their grand mansions there. This year’s party at Plum Orchard is a lively group: young men from some of America’s finest families who come to experience the area’s hunting beside a local guide, a beautiful debutante expecting to be engaged by the week’s end, and a promising female artist who believes she has meaningful ties to her wealthy hosts. But when temptations arise and passions flare, an evening of revelry and storytelling goes horribly awry. Lives are both lost and ruined.
1959. Reclusive painter Cleo Woodbine has lived alone for decades on Kingdom Come, a tiny strip of land once occupied by the servants for the great houses on nearby Cumberland. When she is visited by the man who saved her life nearly 30 years earlier, a tempest is unleashed as the stories of the past gather and begin to regain their strength. Frances Flood is a folklorist who has come to Cumberland Island seeking the source of a legend --- and also information about her mother, who was among the guests at a long-ago hunting party. Audrey Howell, briefly a newlywed and now newly widowed, is running a local inn. When she develops an eerie double exposure photograph, some believe she’s raised a ghost --- someone who hasn’t been seen since that fateful night in 1932.
Southern mythology and personal reckoning collide in this sweeping story inspired by the little-known history of Cumberland Island when a once-in-a-century storm threatens the natural landscape. Faced with a changing world, two timelines and the perspectives of three women intersect where a folktale meets the truth to reveal what Cumberland Island has hidden all along.
Editorial Content for The Grays of Truth
Book
Teaser
Inspired by true events involving one of Baltimore’s most powerful families, THE GRAYS OF TRUTH is the story of one woman’s quest for answers in her fight for redemption --- and to save the man she loves.
Promo
Inspired by true events involving one of Baltimore’s most powerful families, THE GRAYS OF TRUTH is the story of one woman’s quest for answers in her fight for redemption --- and to save the man she loves.
About the Book
From bestselling historical true-crime author Sharon Virts comes a gripping tale of murder and deceit.
In Reconstruction-era Baltimore, members of the city’s elite keep turning up dead. Below the polished surface of high society, there are illicit affairs, jilted lovers, financial hardships and countless motives for murder. When Jane Gray Wharton’s husband, Ned, dies unexpectedly while overnighting at his brother’s home, Jane has no reason to question the circumstances of his death. But on a visit to the same house a few weeks later, both Jane and her daughter fall gravely ill, and Jane begins to suspect foul play.
Though a trained chemist and former nurse, Jane is haunted by a history of delusion, loss and institutionalization. As the unexpected and devastating deaths begin to multiply, Jane’s grip on reality starts to slip. When a respected army officer falls terribly ill after visiting the Whartons’ Baltimore home, Jane’s greatest fears become all too real. The time has come to act. But who will believe her? And can she even trust her own mind?
Inspired by true events involving one of Baltimore’s most powerful families, THE GRAYS OF TRUTH is the story of one woman’s quest for answers in her fight for redemption --- and to save the man she loves.














