We're so excited to be reading The Turtle House for our August book club! Our discussion of the book will be Tuesday, August 19th at 6:30 pm. This book discussion will be in preparation for the live author event with Amanda Churchill on August 28th at 6:30 pm.
Book Summary:
It’s spring 1999, and 25-year-old Lia Cope and her prickly 73-year-old grandmother, Mineko, are sharing a bedroom in Curtain, Texas, the ranching town where Lia grew up and Mineko began her life as a Japanese war bride. Both women are at a turning point: Mineko, long widowed, moved in with her son and daughter-in-law after a suspicious fire destroyed the Cope family ranch house, while Lia, an architect with a promising career in Austin, has unexpectedly returned under circumstances she refuses to explain.
Though Lia never felt especially close to her grandmother, the two grow close sharing late-night conversations. Mineko tells stories of her early life in Japan, of the war that changed everything, and of her two great loves: a man named Akio Sato and an abandoned Japanese country estate they called the Turtle House, where their relationship took root. As Mineko reveals more of her early life—tales of innocent swimming lessons that blossom into something more, a friendship nurtured across oceans, totems saved and hidden, the heartbreak of love lost too soon—Lia comes to understand the depth of her grandmother’s pain and sacrifice and sees her Texas family in a new light. She also recognizes that it’s she who needs to come clean—about the budding career she abandoned and the mysterious man who keeps calling.
When Mineko’s adult children decide, against her wishes, to move her into an assisted living community, she and Lia devise a plan to bring a beloved lost place to life, one that they hope will offer the safety and sense of belonging they both need, no matter the cost.
A story of intergenerational friendship, family, coming of age, identity, and love, The Turtle House illuminates the hidden lives we lead, the secrets we hold close, and what it truly means to find home again when it feels lost forever.
You may also like the following events from Sanger Public Library:
- This Wednesday, 30th July, 10:30 am, Weather Wiz Kids at Sanger Public Library in Sanger
- Next Tuesday, 5th August, 06:00 pm, The Bird Book: The Stories, Science, and History of Birds with Sanger Public Library in Sanger, Texas
- Next month, 12th August, 02:30 pm, The Bad Guys movie at Sanger Public Library in Sanger
Also check out other
Sports events in Sanger,
Arts events in Sanger,
Literary Art events in Sanger.
