Old Palm News

Lazy summer mornings over coffee on the lanai, or sunny afternoons on the beach, or breeze-swept evenings in a hammock—these are the perfect moments for curling up with a good book. The Ladies Book Club here at Old Palm Golf Club made some wonderful choices for their summer reading moments. The “Accidental Empress” by New York Times bestselling author Allison Pataki is a far-reaching and fascinating novel about the geo-political upheavals of mid-nineteenth century Europe, the duplicitous Hapsburg Imperial Court and the young Bavarian Duchess Elizabeth who falls in love with her sister’s betrothed, the Emperor Franz Joseph. “Sisi,” as she was called, is a legendary figure in Austria to this day. This is the story of how the Austo-Hungarian “Fairy Princess” navigated an enchanting yet challenging life and times amidst a powerful family as the wife of a man whose empire covered most of Eastern Europe. “The Forgetting Time” is Sharon Guskin’s thought-proving debut novel that entwines the lives of a single mother, her seemingly precocious pre-school son who wants his “other mother” and an academic at the end of his life who seeks answers. Christina Baker Kline says about the mysterious contemporary novel, “What if what you did mattered more because life happened again and again, consequences unfolding across decades and continents? A relentlessly paced page-turner and a profound meditation on the meaning of life.” Finally, “The Black Calhouns” examines the family history of author Gail Lumet Buckley, the daughter of the late singer and actress Lena Horne. Subtitled “From Civil War to Civil Rights with One African American Family,” this 2016 book follows two branches of a family—one that stayed in the South, and one that migrated to Brooklyn, New York— and in so doing relates important historic events of a post-Civil War America. With a biography, contemporary fiction and family memoir on their bedside tables, the Ladies Book Club will have much to talk about when they resume on November 9 at 4 p.m. in the Ladies Lounge! Residents are welcome to mingle and join in the discussion.