You're Invited to Book Club Next Monday, 3/25. Author Angela Correll is sending us a video! Come one, come all!
Friends! Fill your car with your best buddies and head to Middletown United Methodist Church next Monday night for what will be a super fun book club meeting. We will be discussing Angela Correll’s novel, Granted. Angela is making us a personalized video which will also add to our evening.
Granted is the third of the May Hollow Trilogy, following Grounded and Guarded. While they’re all stand-alones, they’re each excellent reads packed with characters you’ll quickly become attached to.
Angela hails from Danville, Kentucky. She and her husband, Jess currently live in Stanford. They have several businesses in Stanford. We will also be showing a video about some of these projects they’ve taken on and I know you will be impressed. They’re a fascinating couple. You may just decide to take a road trip there asap!
Several of my friends and I enjoyed the drive over to Stanford not too long ago, ate lunch at their restaurant, The Bluebird Cafe, toured some of their guest homes (Wilderness Road Guest Houses) and we managed to get into trouble (!!!) by making multiple purchases at Angela’s gift shop, Kentucky Soaps and Such. (Don’t miss the goat’s milk soap and body cream. It’s to die for.)
Since Granted often discusses good ole’ down home country cooking, we’re suggesting we bring similar treats such as country ham biscuits, etc. I couldn’t begin to count the number of pies Annie’s Grandmother Beulah made, or the fried chicken, or the multiple delicious sounding meals. Between the church suppers, Beulah’s many meals, and their gardening and farming, food plays a large role with their little community.
We readers don’t just stay in the state of Kentucky, watching Annie and Jake juggle multiple plot twists, including putting together their upcoming wedding. We get to hop the pond and travel to the lovely area of Tuscany in Italy for their wedding! Delightful!
Annie’s father proves to be one character you dislike and don’t trust. He defines narcissism while poor Annie keeps believing he will do what he says.
Faith plays a large role in the story as well. We learn many a lesson in endearing ways which are all excellent reminders. At one point when discussing her farm, Beulah tells Annie, “It all belongs to God—I’m simply a steward, here for a little while…”
While planning their wedding, Annie “recalled her favorite verse, the one she struggled with the most: ‘Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.’ She did cast her anxiety on him, but many times she picked it right back up again. That was what she had done all month. Lord help me in my unbelief, she prayed, because unbelief was the very root of it.”
A huge sense of community comforts us readers and in the Author’s Note, Angela tells us, “While I’m certainly an advocate of small-town life, I also realize this same type of community can be experienced in New York, Los Angeles, and other major cities through the local neighborhoods, which seem like small towns within big cities.”
Angela closes with this quote: “President Lyndon B. Johnson once said, ‘It’s nice to live in a place where people know when you are sick, love you while you are alive, and miss you when you die.’” Amen!
Grab your friends and come join us next Monday night, March 25th from 6:30-8:00 p.m. at Middletown United Methodist Church. Please rsvp to Nancy Tinnell at (502) 345-8839 and bring your favorite down-home-delight if time allows.
We look forward to seeing you and hearing what will prove to be a great discussion as well as enjoying the two videos.
‘Til next time!