October 2025 ESO Book Club Meeting
2025-10-23 17:00 - 18:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Zoom
CFWC ESO BOOK CLUBReggie Mattox, CFWC Chairman
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November 2025 Book Club
2025-11-19 18:00 - 19:30 | Rancho Grande El Toro Mexican Cuisine, 825 Williamston Street, Vista, CA, 92084, United States
Our next book is Ariel Lawhon “Frozen River” chosen by our member Donna DiM. This book has everything, love, loss, rape, lies, family, womans career, prejudice, mystery, bad weather, horses, falcons, watermills, frozen river, legal property issues, real estate fraud, sleep deprivation and the tough life in the New American colony. I loved this book.
When a man accused of rape turns up dead, an Early American town seeks justice amid rumors and controversy. Lawhon’s fifth work of historical fiction is inspired by the true story and diaries of midwife Martha Ballard of Hallowell, Maine, a character she brings to life brilliantly here. As Martha tells her patient in an opening chapter set in 1789, “You need not fear….In all my years attending women in childbirth, I have never lost a mother.” There are compelling scenes of labor and delivery, particularly one in which Martha has to clean up after the mistakes of a pompous doctor educated at Harvard, one of her nemeses in a town that roils with gossip and disrespect for women’s abilities. Supposedly, the only time a midwife can testify in court is regarding paternity when a woman gives birth out of wedlock—but Martha also takes the witness stand in the rape case against a dead man named Joshua Burgess and his living friend Col. Joseph North, whose role as judge in local court proceedings has made the victim, Rebecca Foster, reluctant to make her complaint public. Further complications are numerous: North has control over the Ballard family’s lease on their property; Rebecca is carrying the child of one of her rapists; Martha’s son was seen fighting with Joshua Burgess on the day of his death.
Lawhon weaves all this into a richly satisfying drama that moves suspensefully between childbed, courtroom, and the banks of the Kennebec River.The undimmed romance between 40-something Martha and her husband, Ephraim, adds a racy flair to the proceedings. (Outlander, anyone?) Knowing how rare the quality of their relationship is sharpens the intensity of Martha’s gaze as she watches the romantic lives of her grown children unfold.
There is an endnote with detailed background which makes this book a part of history.

December 2025 Book Club
2025-12-17 18:00 - 19:30 | CA
The book for December is Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver. Bring your favorite book wrapped in brown paper with a short description of the nature of the book (mystery, romance, historical fiction, self care) for our “Blind Book Exchange.”

January 2026 Book Club
2026-01-21 18:00 - 19:30 | Rancho Grande El Toro Mexican Cuisine, 825 Williamston Street, Vista, CA, 92084, United States

January 2026 ESO Meeting
2026-01-22 17:00 - 18:00 | Zoom
CFWC ESO BOOK CLUBReggie Mattox, CFWC Chairman
Yes, we are having our ESO Zoom meeting Thursday, January 22, 2026, at 3 p.m. (California time). You probably wonder why Reggie is saying that, well, our speaker is from Florida! Judy Pearson! She is the author featured in the October ESO Newsletter. The book she will be speaking about is Radical Sisters: Shirley Temple Black, Rose Kushner, Evelyn Lauder; and the Dawn of the Breast Cancer Movement. This is a story of reliance, innovation and an unyielding commitment to change. Shirley, Rose, and Evelyn fulfilled a movement to save lives. Judy is also author of The Wolves at the Door: the True Story of America’s Greatest Female Spy, a Historical Fiction. If you are interested in joining the afternoon event let Reggie Mattox know and the link to the zoom meeting will be sent to you. You are welcome even if you are not an ESO member.
Reggie Mattox
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February 2026 Book Club
2026-02-18 18:00 - 19:30 | Rancho Grande El Toro Mexican Cuisine, 825 Williamston Street, Vista, CA, 92084, United States
February Book – Swan Song by Elin Hilderbrand is the grand finale to her beloved Nantucket series, wrapping up the beachy, drama-filled world she’s built over many novels. The story follows Ed Kapenash, the island’s police chief on the brink of retirement, whose plans are disrupted when a wealthy couple’s mansion burns down, and their personal assistant goes missing.
As Ed investigates, the novel weaves together personal secrets, community gossip, and the luxurious yet often tumultuous lives of Nantucket’s residents. With familiar characters and a rich setting, Swan Song offers a captivating mix of mystery, relationships, and the charm of a tight-knit island community.

The Vista Womens Book Club February selection is “Swan Song” by Elin Hilderbrand.Many of our members are familiar with the author and the story location in Nantucket. Iconcur that this book is a page turner and a great book to take to the beach, read onvacation, or dip into in your spare time during the day. There are current contemporarytopics, beach scenes, the wealthy newcomers, the snooty locals and a final casebefore Chief Police Ed’s retirement. The newcomers Richardson’s $22 million summerhome goes up in flames while the Richardsons were out on their yacht for a lavishcelebration, and the big mystery is their personal assistant Coco is missing from theyacht.The book was full of lavish parties and beach swims with the locals and the verywealthy.The book mentions some of the swanky cocktail food served along with some creativeparty decorations – a detail I found fascinating.We welcome new members to our book group. If you have not finished the book, cometo our book meeting anyway. I bring the previous books we have read and they areavailable to borrow if you are interested.One benefit of our group is that we are getting to know each other and have some greatstories to share. It is important in life to get out, socialize, laugh and shareexperiences.Thanks to Liz to bringing the Hobnob cookies that were mentioned in our January bookselection. Very tasty.

March 2026 Book Club
2026-03-18 18:00 - 19:30 | Rancho Grande El Toro Mexican Cuisine, 825 Williamston Street, Vista, CA, 92084, United States
March Book – North Woods by Daniel Mason
The novel’s events span a period from the mid-1600s to the present day and transpire against the backdrop of a single location: a fictional region of western Massachusetts known simply as the “north woods”. Many different characters inhabit this spot, first in a rustic cabin and later in a yellow house built next to the cabin. The text tells the stories of each generation largely through limited third-person narration from the perspective of the principal character living there during a particular era. Some segments of the novel unfold through first-person narration in the form of letters or memoranda written by the main character of a particular section. The book follows the lives of a varied set of characters over a broad swath of US history.

April 2026 Book Club
2026-04-15 18:00 - 19:30 | Rancho Grande El Toro Mexican Cuisine, 825 Williamston Street, Vista, CA, 92084, United States
April 2026 – Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger
This book is a mystery and coming-of-age novel narrated from the perspective of Frank Drum and set in Minnesota. The plot centers on a series of deaths that strike the fictional town of New Bremen in 1961. For thirteen-year-old Frank Drum it was a grim summer in which death visited frequently and assumed many forms. Accident. Nature. Suicide. Murder.
Told from Frank’s perspective forty years after that fateful summer, Ordinary Grace is a brilliantly moving account of a boy standing at the door of his young manhood, trying to understand a world that seems to be falling apart around him. It is an unforgettable novel about discovering the terrible price of wisdom and the enduring grace of faith.

May 2026 Book Club
2026-05-20 18:00 - 19:30 | Rancho Grande El Toro Mexican Cuisine, 825 Williamston Street, Vista, CA, 92084, United States
May Book – Educated by Tara Westover
Educated is a 2018 memoir by American author Tara Westover. Westover recounts overcoming her survivalist Mormon family in order to go to college and emphasizes the importance of education in enlarging her world. She details her journey from her isolated life in the rural mountains of Clifton, Idaho to completing a PhD program in history at the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. She started college at 17 having had no formal education. She explores her struggle to reconcile her desire to learn with the world she inhabited with her father.
On September 13, 2020, The New York Times reported that the book had spent 132 consecutive weeks on the Hardcover Non-Fiction Best Seller list.[2] It won a 2019 Alex Award and was shortlisted for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, PEN America‘s Jean Stein Book Award, and two awards from the National Book Critics Circle Award.[3]

June 2026 Book Club
2026-06-17 18:00 - 19:30 | Rancho Grande El Toro Mexican Cuisine, 825 Williamston Street, Vista, CA, 92084, United States
June 2026 Lisette’s List by Susan Vreeland
In this story we follow the life of Lisette, a young Parisian woman who is forced torelocate to a small Provence village when her husband’s only living relative, an oldgrandfather who reared him, writes to tell them he is failing and needs Andre to care forhim. This is a blow to Lisette who had been about to follow her passion for art by gettinga job in a gallery. She consoles herself with the knowledge that Pascal owns seven
paintings by famous artists since he used to work in the ochre mines of his town, laterselling the pigments produced by the ochres, which put him in touch with artists. Thisinitial part of the book, concentrates on painting.
Then WW2 comes along Andre goes off to fight, hides the paintings before he goesand, does not tell his wife where they are hidden. After the war Lisette goes looking forthe paintings and has some unfortunate losses. She and Andrè lived an inspiring lovestory, and Lisette was just simply a good soul (she was raised by a nun after all).

July 2026 Book Club
2026-07-15 18:00 - 19:30 | Rancho Grande El Toro Mexican Cuisine, 825 Williamston Street, Vista, CA, 92084, United States
July 2026 Crying in “H” Mart by Michelle Zauner.
In this exquisite story of family, food, grief, and endurance, Michelle Zauner provesherself far more than a dazzling singer, songwriter, and guitarist. With humor and heart,she tells of growing up one of the few Asian American kids at her school in Eugene,Oregon; of struggling with her mother’s particular, high expectations of her; of a painfuladolescence; of treasured months spent in her grandmother’s tiny apartment in Seoul,where she and her mother would bond, late at night, over heaping plates of food.

August 2026 Book Club
2026-08-19 18:00 - 19:30 | Rancho Grande El Toro Mexican Cuisine, 825 Williamston Street, Vista, CA, 92084, United States
August 2026 Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson
In Furiously Happy, a humor memoir tinged with just enough tragedy and pathos tomake it worthwhile, Jenny Lawson examines her own experience with severedepression and a host of other conditions, and explains how it has led her to live life tothe fullest. Furiously Happy is about depression and mental illness, but deep down it’sabout joy―and who doesn’t want a bit more of that?

September 2026 Book Club
2026-09-16 18:00 - 19:30 | Rancho Grande El Toro Mexican Cuisine, 825 Williamston Street, Vista, CA, 92084, United States
Sept, 2026 James by Percival Everett
A brilliant, action-packed reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, both harrowingand darkly humorous, told from the enslaved Jim’s point of view, soon to be a featurefilm by Steven Spielberg.
When Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separatedfrom his wife and daughter forever, he runs away until he can formulate a plan.Meanwhile, Huck has faked his own death to escape his violent father. As all readers ofAmerican literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raftdown the Mississippi River toward the elusive and unreliable promise of the Free Statesand beyond.
Brimming with the electrifying humor and lacerating observations that have madeEverett a literary icon, this brilliant and tender novel radically illuminates Jim’s agency,intelligence, and compassion as never before.

October 2026 Book Club
2026-10-21 18:00 - 19:30 | Rancho Grande El Toro Mexican Cuisine, 825 Williamston Street, Vista, CA, 92084, United States
October 2026 The Southern Book Clubs Guide to Vampire Slaying by GradyHendrix
Steel Magnolias meets Dracula in this New York Times best-selling horror novel about awomen's book club that must do battle with a mysterious newcomer to their smallSouthern town. Patricia Campbell’s life has never felt smaller, her husband is aworkaholic, her teenage kids have their own lives, her senile mother-in-law needsconstant care, and she’s always a step behind on her endless to-do list. The only thingkeeping her sane is her book club, a close-knit group of Charleston women united bytheir love of true crime. At these meetings they’re as likely to talk about the Mansonfamily as they are about their own families.
One evening after book club, Patricia is viciously attacked by an elderly neighbor,bringing the neighbor’s handsome nephew, James Harris, into her life. James is welltraveled and well read, and he makes Patricia feel things she hasn’t felt in years.But when children on the other side of town go missing, their deaths written off by localpolice, Patricia has reason to believe James Harris is more of a Bundy than a Brad Pitt.The real problem? James is a monster of a different kind—and Patricia has alreadyinvited him in.
Little by little, James will insinuate himself into Patricia’s life and try to take everythingshe took for granted—including the book club—but she won’t surrender without a fightin this blood-soaked tale of neighborly kindness gone wrong.

November 2026 Book Club
2026-11-18 18:00 - 19:30 | Rancho Grande El Toro Mexican Cuisine, 825 Williamston Street, Vista, CA, 92084, United States
Nov 2026 Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry
Alice Scott is an eternal optimist still dreaming of her big writing break. HaydenAnderson is a Pulitzer-prize winning human thundercloud. And they’re both on balmyLittle Crescent Island for the same reason: to write the biography of a woman no onehas seen in years—or at least to meet with the octogenarian who claims tobe the Margaret Ives. Tragic heiress, former tabloid princess, and daughter of one of themost storied (and scandalous) families of the twentieth century.
When Margaret invites them both for a one-month trial period, after which she’ll choosethe person who’ll tell her story, there are three things keeping Alice’s head in the game.One: Alice genuinely likes people, which means people usually like Alice—and she hasa whole month to win the legendary woman over. Two: She’s ready for this job and thechance to impress her perennially unimpressed family with a Serious Publication.Three: Hayden Anderson, who should have no reason to be concerned about losing thisbook, is glowering at her in a shaken-to-the core way that suggests he sees her ascompetition.
But the problem is, Margaret is only giving each of them pieces of her story. Pieces theycan’t swap to put together because of an ironclad NDA and an inconvenient yearningpulsing between them every time they’re in the same room. And it’s becomingabundantly clear that their story—just like the tale Margaret’s spinning—could be amystery, tragedy, or love ballad . . . depending on who’s telling it.

December 2026 Book Club
2026-12-16 18:00 - 19:30 | Rancho Grande El Toro Mexican Cuisine, 825 Williamston Street, Vista, CA, 92084, United States
Dec 2026 The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife
“A funny, heartfelt story about found family and seeing the silver lining in life. Fans of AMan Called Ove and Remarkably Bright Creatures will especially enjoy this newnovel.”—Library Journal. A zany case of mistaken identity allows a lonely old man onelast chance to be part of a family in this warm, life-affirming debut novel.Frederick Fife was born with an extra helping of kindness in his heart. If he borrowedyour car, he’d return it washed with a full tank of gas. The problem is, at age eighty-two,there’s nobody left in Fred’s life to borrow from, and he’s broke and on the brink ofeviction. But Fred’s luck changes when he’s mistaken for Bernard Greer, a missingresident at the local nursing home, and takes his place. Now Fred has warm meals inhis belly and a roof over his head—as long as his look-alike Bernard never turns up. Denise Simms is stuck breathing the same disappointing air again and again. A middle-aged mom and caregiver at Bernard’s facility, her crumbling marriage and daughter’shealth concerns are suffocating her joy for life. Wounded by her two-faced husband, shevows never to let a man betray her again.
As Fred walks in Bernard’s shoes and learns about his past, Denise uncovers clues thatthreaten to reveal his identity. Will she expose the truth before Fred can return a brokenlife to mint condition? Bittersweet and remarkably perceptive, The Borrowed Life ofFrederick Fife is a hilarious, feel-good, clever novel about forgiveness, redemption,second chances and finding family.
