The Kilbourn Public Library Book Club is reading All the Stars in the Heavens by Adriana Trigiani for the June book selection.  In this spectacular saga as radiant, thrilling, and beguiling as Hollywood itself, Adriana Trigiani takes us back to Tinsel Town's golden age--an era as brutal as it was resplendent--and into the complex and glamorous world of a young actress hungry for fame and success.


Brimming with larger-than-life characters, both real and fictional--including stars Spencer Tracy, Myrna Loy, David Niven, Hattie McDaniel and more--it is the unforgettable story of one of cinema's greatest love affairs during the golden age of American movie making.


What made the Golden Age of Hollywood and the films it produced so alluring?  Why were the films particularly popular during the Great Depression?


Loretta is drawn to the movies at the age of four when she first appears in one. What compels her to such work?  What characteristics make her such a successful actress even well beyond the age when women usually struggled to work in Hollywood?


Examine the powerful and extensive relationship between Loretta and Clark Gable.  What is each drawn to in the other?  In what ways is their romance typical of or different from many in Hollywood at the time?  What limits the relationship?  What might explain the longevity despite these limits?


How is each of the men significant to Loretta----Spencer Tracy, Clark Gable, David Niven--similar or different?  Why are there so few good husbands and fathers among the men of Hollywood?


What's the nature of being a fan of a movie star?  What does such a relationship provide despite its one-sided nature?  At what point might being a fan be unhealthy?


Let us know what you thing about All the Stars in the Heavens.

This month the book club will be reading Vanessa Diffenbaugh's novel The Language of Flowers.  A mesmerizing, moving, and elegantly written novel, The Language of Flowers beautifully weaves past and present, creating a vivid portrait of an unforgettable woman whose gift for flowers helps her change the lives of others even as she struggles to overcome her own troubled past. 


After a childhood spent in the foster-care system, Victoria Jones is unable to get close to anybody, and her only connection to the world is through flowers and their meanings.  Now eighteen and emancipated from the system with nowhere to go, Victoria realizes she has a gift for helping others through the flowers she chooses for them.  But an unexpected encounter with a mysterious stranger has her questioning what's been missing in her life.  And when she's forced to confront a painful secret from her past, she must decide whether it's worth risking everything for a second chance at happiness.


What potential do Elizabeth, Renata, and Grant see in Victoria that she has a hard time seeing in herself?


While Victoria has been hungry and malnourished often in her life, food ends up meaning more than just nourishment to her. Why?


One of the major themes in The Language of Flowers  is forgiveness and second chances--do you think Victoria deserves one after the things she did (both as a child and as an adult)?  What about Catherine? And Elizabeth?


The novel touches on many different themes (love, family, forgiveness, second chances).  Which do you think is most important?  And what did you think was ultimately the lesson?


At the end of the novel, Victoria learns that moss grows without roots. What does this mean, and why is it such a revelation for her?


Knowing what you now know about the language of the flowers, to whom would you send a bouquet and what would you want it to say?


Let us know what you think of The Language of Flowers.