Upcoming Events

Open Mind Book Club for Women
February 18 @ 2:00 pm

Join us in a monthly book club to read and discuss books as chosen by the group. Meetings are held the third Tuesday of each month.

The Starfish Sisters:
From the USA Today bestselling author of When We Believed in Mermaids comes an emotional novel about two women facing the betrayals, heartbreaks, and refuge of true friendship.
Phoebe and Suze used to be closer than sisters. Growing up in a quiet and wildly beautiful coastal town in Oregon, they shared everything. Until the secrets they couldn’t share threatened their bond and complicated their lives.
Now, decades later, Suze, a famous actress desperate for safe haven following a brutal attack, is back in town. Phoebe, a successful illustrator and fabric designer, has discovered keeping a secret means she can’t let anyone get close, aside from her beloved granddaughter, Jasmine. As Jasmine’s move to London looms, Phoebe doesn’t know how to face the return of her old friend and all that’s still unsaid between them. Can the two women who’ve never confronted their past do it now when the choice is between healing and survival?
Heartfelt and layered, The Starfish Sisters is a moving story about the complicated nature of female friendship, the joys and heartbreaks of life, and the resiliency and power that women possess.
Book Club Questions –
- The Starfish Sisters is about the relationship between Suze and Phoebe, but their relationship is also intertwined with the girls’ relationships with other characters, namely Beryl and Joel. How do these relationships keep them together? How do they drive the girls apart?
- Is there a difference between blood sisters and sisters of the heart? How do these relationships differ? How are they the same?
- The role of grandmothers plays a big part in The Starfish Sisters. What does this general connection mean to the story? What has it meant in your own life?
- Art in many forms—pain ng, ac ng, gardening, baking—is a stabilizing current in the flow of the book. What do these outlets provide for the characters in the story? What do they provide in your own life?
- What did you think about the use of the girls’ journal as a storytelling technique? Did you like how it gave readers a glimpse into Suze and Phoebe’s history? Why or why not?
- What would you say are the main themes of the book?
- Did you have a favorite character in the book? Who was it and what made you choose this character over all the others?
- What do you think this book says about friendship? About love?
- The Starfish Sisters is considered a work of women’s fic on but there is also a mystery and some romance in the story. What did you think of these other aspects to the book’s plot? Did you like these parts of the book? Why or why not?
- The Starfish Sisters is the first Barbara O’Neal book set on the moody, rocky shore of the Oregon coast. How do you think this se ng contributed to the book?
- Have you read other books by Barbara O’Neal? How does this book compare to her other ones? In what ways is it similar and how is it different?