The Literary Wineaux Society OC

Amazon Link

Book Details:
Page Count: 356
Publish Date: October 6, 2026
Audiobook: 14 hours, 23 minutes. Narrated by Megan Tusing (she narrates a lot of the Freida McFadden books)

Location:
Bru Market & Grill
Bottomless Mimosas! (Yay!) and Yummy Brunch Menu!

Peck & Peck by Bonnie Garmus (Fiction)
It’s 1982, New York City. Crime is on the rise, muggings are in the streets, and Batter Gray, recent college graduate with a skill that no one wants—an “ear” for poetry—is worried about his future. While all of his friends have real jobs, he’s folding T-shirts at the Gap. As for love? No. Not unless you count Sallie Mae, the student loan tyrant. He hears from Sallie all the time.
But when Batter gets a dream job at Peck & Peck, the most prestigious poetry quarterly in the world, his life moves into the literary fast lane. Soon Batter is knee-deep in the secret war between the two Editors-in-Chief, the famous Peck brothers—twins and enemies—as well as being privy to the private affairs of their thirty-nine editors, whose professed mission is the same: Find originality. Reward creativity. Burn the rest. And by burn, they mean incinerate. Because at Peck & Peck, “good” isn’t good enough, “interesting” doesn’t cut it, plagiarists aren’t tolerated, and parolees run the mailroom. Still want to submit your poem? Go with God. Amazon Link

Book Details

• Page Count: 432
• Publish Date: October 13, 2026
• Audiobook: 17 hours, 44 minutes. Narrated by Seth Numrich (Stephen King's Fairy Tale)

Further Reading and Viewing
Watch: NPR Podcasts: Bonnie Garmus on her New Novel 'Peck & Peck'
Read: Bonnie Garmus on Writing a Coming-Of-Age-Novel of Poets and Poetry

Book Club Location
Bricco Cucina & Wine Bar. Check out their Menu!
Two people to a check. Maximum four checks to a table. Separate payments accepted on each check. Diane, who works there, is super accommodating.

LOCATION
Bru Grill & Market. Check out their brunch menu!!

RSVP
Small group book club. Limited to 6-8 people. Please sign up early and update your RSVP if you can not make it to allow others to attend if there is a waitlist. Thank you :)

1. 'The Marriage Portrait' by Maggie O'Farrell
Florence, the 1550s. Lucrezia, third daughter of the grand duke, is comfortable with her obscure place in the palazzo: free to devote herself to her own artistic pursuits. But when her older sister dies on the eve of her wedding to the ruler of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio, Lucrezia is thrust unwittingly into the limelight: the duke is quick to request her hand in marriage, and her father just as quick to accept on her behalf. Having barely left girlhood behind, Lucrezia must now enter an unfamiliar court. Perhaps most mystifying of all is her new husband himself, Alfonso. Is he the playful sophisticate or the ruthless politician before whom even his formidable sisters seem to tremble? As Lucrezia sits in constricting finery for a painting intended to preserve her image for centuries to come, one thing becomes worryingly clear. In the court’s eyes, she has one duty: to provide the heir who will shore up the future of the Ferranese dynasty. Until then, for all of her rank and nobility, the new duchess’s future hangs entirely in the balance. Amazon Link

2. 'The Pirate Queen' by Ariel Lawhon
Grace O’Malley was born to be a sea captain. But despite her natural skill on the water, Grace learns early that her dreams of a life at the helm are not compatible with the expectations of her noble family. As the only daughter of a powerful chieftain, her role is to secure a strong alliance and bear children. But when she’s sent to foster with a nearby clan, Grace falls for a clever and open-minded second son—a man she cannot have. Married off against her will to a brutal warrior, Grace performs her duty, all the while gathering followers loyal to her, and consolidating her husband’s power, only to be ousted from his lands. But this betrayal offers Grace the opportunity to return to sea, finally leading clan O’Malley’s mighty fleet. Just as she finds true independence, Queen Elizabeth’s incursions into Ireland grow bolder and Grace must fight to defend her land, her ships, and the people she loves most against the cruel and power-hungry English deputies, who will stop at nothing to check her influence. Amazon Link

3. 'Ask Not: The Kennedys and the Women They Destroyed' by Maureen Callahan
America's Camelot. The Kennedy name has long been synonymous with wealth, power, glamour, and—above all else—integrity. But this carefully constructed veneer hides a dark truth. Through decades of scandal after scandal—from sexual assaults to reputational slander, suicides to manslaughter—the family and their defenders have kept the Kennedy brand intact. Now journalist Maureen Callahan reveals the Kennedys’ hidden history of violence and exploitation, laying bare their unrepentant sexism and rampant depravity while also restoring these women and girls to their rightful place at the center of the dynasty’s story: from Jacqueline Onassis and Marilyn Monroe to Carolyn Bessette, Martha Moxley, Mary Jo Kopechne, Rosemary Kennedy, and many others whose names aren’t nearly as well known but should be. At long last, Callahan redirects the spotlight to the women in the Kennedys’ orbit, paying homage to those who freed themselves and giving voice to those who, through no fault of their own, could not. Amazon Link

4. 'Henry Tudor Must Die' by Jillian Laine
One queen exiled. Another headed for the gallows. Both hungry for revenge. England’s most infamous queens unite in vengeance against Henry VIII. Anne Boleyn is going to die, and neither her cleverness nor her witchery can save her. So when her late rival, Catalina de Aragón, miraculously appears in her cell at the Tower of London on the eve of her execution, very much alive and offering a daring escape plan, no one is more surprised than Anne. Lina doesn’t have Anne’s magic—but she has just as much hate for England’s wretched king. Severed from her daughter and stripped of all her influence, Lina breathes only for the Hellebore Sisterhood, a clandestine and powerful society with a vested interest in keeping both queens alive . . . and using their particular skills to advance womankind. Anne and Lina’s old rivalries pale in comparison to a common enemy. And they're not alone. Anna von Kleve, Kat Howard, and even Catherine Parr all have their own bones to pick with the king. One by one, they capture their pawns, infiltrating the court and eliminating the men who plotted against them. Amazon Link

5. 'From Here to the Great Unknown' by Lisa Marie Presley and Riley Keough
In 2022, Lisa Marie Presley asked her daughter to help finish her memoir. A month later, Lisa Marie was dead, and the world would never know her story in her own words. Riley got the tapes that her mother had recorded for the book, lay in her bed, and listened as Lisa Marie told story after story about smashing golf carts together in the yards of Graceland, about the unconditional love she felt from her father. About getting dragged screaming out of the bathroom as she ran toward his body on the floor. About living in Los Angeles with her mother, getting sent to school after school, always in trouble. About her singular, lifelong relationship with Danny Keough, about being married to Michael Jackson. About motherhood. About deep addiction. About ever-present grief. Riley knew she had to fulfill her mother’s wish to reveal these memories to the world. This book is written in both Lisa Marie’s and Riley’s voices, a mother/daughter communicating—from this world to the one beyond—as they try to heal each other and reveal the last words of the only child of an American icon. Amazon Link

6. 'Lady Tremaine' by Rachel Hochhauser
Twice-widowed, Lady Etheldreda Verity Isolde Tremaine Bramley is solely responsible for her two children, a priggish stepdaughter, a razor-taloned peregrine falcon, and a crumbling manor. Fierce and determined, Ethel clings to the respectability her deceased husband’s title affords her, hoping it will secure her daughters’ future through marriage. When a royal ball offers the chance to change everything, Ethel risks her pride in pursuit of an invitation for all three of her daughters- only to see her hopes fulfilled by the wrong one. As an engagement to the future king unfolds, Ethel discovers a sordid secret hidden in the depths of the royal family, forcing her to choose between the security she craves and the well-being of the stepdaughter who has rebuffed her at every turn. As if Bridgerton met Circe, and exhilarating to its core, Lady Tremaine reimagines the myth of the evil stepmother at the heart of the world’s most famous fairy tale. It is a battle cry for a mother’s love for her daughters and a celebration of women everywhere who make their own fortunes. Amazon Link

7. Queen of Lombard Street by Lisa Kleypas
Not royalty, but another type of queen...In Victorian England, no woman—not even a brilliant economist like Reina Martin—is allowed to open her own bank account. As the illegitimate daughter of a Spanish immigrant mother, she’s haunted by the memory of living with unpaid grocer’s bills and no coal for the hearth. So together with her mentor, the powerful banker William Farlow, Reina will build the first all-women’s bank, where women can manage their own financial security. Reina is shocked to discover that her enigmatic butler, John Pembroke, is an undercover police detective assigned to investigate Farlow, who’s suspected of financial crime on a scale so massive it could destabilize the British economy. Now Reina faces the choice of betraying her mentor or turning her back on thousands of working-class families who stand to lose everything. Based on real-life trailblazers such as Mary Paley Marshall, Britain’s first female economist, and financial titan Hetty Green, this novel brings to light the hidden history of extraordinary women whose achievements should be celebrated. Amazon Link