The Ladies Explorers Society of Books and Bars

ABOUT THE BOOK

Seventeen-year-old Victoria Nash runs the household on her family’s peach farm in the small ranch town of Iola, Colorado—the sole surviving female in a family of troubled men. Wilson Moon is a young drifter with a mysterious past, displaced from his tribal land and determined to live as he chooses.
Victoria encounters Wil by chance on a street corner, a meeting that profoundly alters both of their young lives, igniting as much passion as danger. When tragedy strikes, Victoria leaves the only life she has ever known, fleeing into the surrounding mountains, where she struggles to survive in the wilderness with no clear notion of what her future will bring. As the seasons change, she also charts the changes in herself, finding in the beautiful but harsh landscape the meaning and strength to move forward and rebuild all that she has lost, even as the Gunnison River threatens to submerge her homeland—its ranches, farms, and the beloved peach orchard that has been in her family for generations.
Inspired by true events surrounding the destruction of the town of Iola in the 1960s, Go as a River is a story of deeply held love in the face of hardship and loss, but also of finding courage, resilience, friendship, and, finally, home—where least expected. This stunning debut explores what it means to lead your life as if it were a river—gathering and flowing, finding a way forward even when a river is dammed.

Since I will be out of town for the July meetup, one of our founding Explorers has agreed to lead the charge. I'm sad to miss it but you will all be in good hands.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Everything's Fine is the debut novel by Cecilia Rabess, a sharp and poignant story about a Black liberal woman, Jess, and a white conservative man, Josh, who fall into an unlikely romance while working at Goldman Sachs in New York City. Set against the backdrop of a politically fractured America from 2008 to 2016, the book explores themes of race, class, ambition, and identity, questioning if love can overcome deep-seated political and cultural differences, especially as the political landscape shifts with the 2016 election.

“Does love conquer all? Does it now? Did it ever? These are questions Cecilia Rabess asks in her nimble, discerning debut…The ending of Everything’s Fine is one of the best I’ve read in years.” —The New York Times