Book club enjoying good reads since ’63
May 5, 2009
Madelyn Larsen (top) reads her review of ‘Schultz and Peanuts: A Biography’ as another Belle Arts Book Club member looks at the final ‘Peanuts’ strip that ran in The Seattle Times. By David Hayes
In 1963, some members from the Church Women’s Organization were looking to form a club to get better acquainted.
Discarded were dinner clubs and bowling teams. They instead went with Mary Wells’ idea of a book club. Thus, the Belle Arts Book Club was born.
“It never crossed my mind that it could survive this long,” said Wells, 85, a resident of Bellevue since 1962. “I think it’s the fact that we all enjoy good literature and most of us belong to the same church.”
The group has kept its membership at a constant 24, as most homes can’t accommodate larger numbers, she said. About one-third of the membership, open to Eastside residents, hail from Issaquah. At 49, Connie Stromberg is one of the youngest members. She said what’s kept her in the club after 10 years are lively discussions about a variety of topics.
“At one point, we had a discussion on capital punishment,” recalled Stromberg, a past president. “We had a member whose brother was a governor of a state. Her conversations with him with his years of experience dealing with death penalty cases added so much to our discussion that it enriched the whole evening.” Read more
Local author transfers main character to Issaquah
April 28, 2009
Sibella Giorello, whose newest novel ‘The Rivers Run Dry’ takes place in Issaquah, poses in front of the welcome sign to downtown. By David Hayes
Many fictional thrillers promise a main character who promises to leave no stone unturned while trying to solve the mystery. Author Sibella Giorello has crafted a main character whose job is to literally turn over stones at a crime scene — forensic geologist Raleigh Harmon. Read more
Duo self-publish guestbook to record ‘Happenings’
March 9, 2009
Rebecca Byus (left) and Kristi Gage display their self-published book ‘Happenings: A Guest Book of Sorts.’ Contributed
Kristi Gage and Rebecca Byus don’t so much consider themselves as authors as they are publishers. That’s because their book, “Happenings: A Guest Book of Sorts,” has but one page of type with the rest containing a distinct lack of content. And that’s just the way they intended it.
“Our inspiration was to make something from our shared passion,” said Gage, a mother of two who runs her own business from her Issaquah home.
“We wanted to make a journal for the home, where guests could leave written comments from events, that you could leave on the coffee table as an elegant keepsake,” said Byus, also a mother of two who runs her own financial planning business. Read more
Author leads intense, unorthodox journey in ‘Twelve Stones’
February 23, 2009
Barbara Carole
Searching for life’s answers took Barbara Carole, of Issaquah, around the world.
Raised in a bucolic Long Island community, she knew a traditional suburban lifestyle was not for her. At 18, she set out on her own, spending her college tuition money on a ticket to Paris. A strong-willed, tough-minded individual, she would later live in Muslim villages with her painter husband and work with undersea explorer Jacques Cousteau before embarking on a career in advertising and marketing in Los Angeles.
Carole has compiled her voyage of discovery — complete with hard times, poor decisions and colorful adventures — in a gritty memoir. Read more
