July Book Club: Summer Love Stories

What I read, what I wore, what I created + announcing August's Book Club theme!

Hope everyone had a special month of reading! 

This post serves as our official July book club “meeting,” where we’ll share the books we read and the creative ways we immersed ourselves in our stories.

July’s Theme: Summer Love Stories

If you’re just joining us, you can learn more here. And even if you’re reading this later in the summer, feel free to join the conversation whenever you like.

How to Participate

I’ll pose a series of questions below along with my responses. You’re welcome to answer as many as you like or simply share your reflections. 

By leaving a comment, you’ll be entered into a drawing for a special book-related prize at the end of the summer. You can also earn extra entries by:

🫶 Becoming a paid subscriber

❤️ Hearting this post

🧵 Sharing how you creatively paired your book with an outfit, recipe, party, or craft

Feel free to link to Instagram posts, TikToks, blogs, Substacks or any other places where you’ve shared! I’m excited to hear about your reading adventures!

What Did You Read?

I chose This Summer Will Be Different, by Carley Fortune.

What made you choose this book?

You might remember this post, where I shared my first introduction to Carley Fortune, with her debut, Every Summer After — a story that sparked an idea for the book I’m writing now. Needless to say, I’m a fan!

Last summer, I read Carley’s second novel, Meet Me at the Lake, and after falling in love with that story, her books have become auto-buys for me.

What were your thoughts?

I can’t not start with this. This Summer Will Be Different was SPICY, much more so than Carley’s first two books.

When it comes to gratuitous sex scenes, language and violence in any story — book, movie, or television — I’m all about it as long as it is purposeful and not used for shock value. In this story, it absolutely worked as main characters Lucy and Felix’s relationship began as a physical one that evolved into more.

Overall, I was medium on the romantic parts of the story and much more invested in the setting, Prince Edward Island, home of the Anne of Green Gables stories and the show Avonlea, that I grew up (and was obsessed with) watching.

I loved how Carley incorporated bits of Lucy Maude Montgomery’s world into this story without it taking away from the main storyline. Her descriptions, especially of Island life, oysters, and the beaches felt reminiscent of Cape Cod, where I spent my summers growing up (and is also the setting for the book I’m writing).

Between the three stories Carley has shared so far, Every Summer After still remains my favorite, but this was a great read, and would recommend it, especially if you love cozy beach-towns.

Bringing the Story to Life

👗 Costume

It’s easy to see that Carley wrote the main character of Lucy in a way that pays homage to Anne of Green Gables, namely in that she often wears her hair in braids and that she sleeps in a nightgown. What she does once the nightgown comes off is when things take a turn from the Anne stories. 😂

My hair is short and fine so when I do braids, I kind of look like a toddler, so here’s my take on Lucy’s style, folding my braids underneath into an updo — or is this a down-do?

Lucy also wears a lot of feminine dresses, especially ones that are white, lacy and romantic. There was one scene where she described going on a date in a yellow sundress with buttons, and I immediately flagged it as something I’d wear — and already owned!

🍪 Snack

I did not make a snack to accompany this book, mostly because all I wanted was oysters (love interest Felix is an oyster shucker) and I wasn’t about to attempt that in my home kitchen.

There’s another recurring snack pairing in the story that I would enjoy, especially around a fire pit: rye (which I would take as a good bourbon) and peanuts.

🎨 Project

I feel it important to report that June’s project looks exactly the same as it did a month ago and that I’m seeing zero sprouts from the seeds I planted.

I fear that this month’s floral attempt is not much better. There are mentions of wildflowers throughout This Summer Will Be Different, so I thought I’d put together a bouquet that looks a little more rustic that I’d typically choose, including sunflowers which make me think of summer.

The result is a little…unruly? Wild? Unpredictable?

I’m spinning it to be perfectly reflective of Lucy and Felix’s relationship and maybe for August’s book club, I’ll choose to create something that doesn’t involve plants.

Next Time on Book Club

I’m taking my love of cinema to new heights next month as I head to Los Angeles for a 10-day trip to visit my sister and brother in law. We have my movie-related activities on our agenda and I expect to return extra excited to talk about all things film.

📽️🍿🎞️ Our theme for August will be: Let’s go to the Movies

Read a book based on a movie, a story that’s being adapted for the screen, novels about the film industry, a non-fiction read, or any other way you’d like to interpret the theme.

It can be a book you’ve already read or a new story. Whatever brings you joy! I look forward to seeing what you read and create next month. 

Save the date! Our August Book Club “Meeting” post goes live on Sunday, August 18th.

✍️ Creative Exercises/Journal Prompts

1. Put together a date night outfit inspired by one of your favorite romance stories.

2. Send or share a copy of your favorite love story with one of your reading besties.

3. Reflect on your personal summer romances. Do they live up to the ones you read about in books?

   

☀️ Five good things

When we can recognize the things that bring us the most joy, we invite more of them into our lives. Here are five things that made me happy this week. Share yours below!

Five good things that happened this week:

1. Film to Table, the podcast I co-host with my sister experienced some exponential growth on YouTube this week after the release of our Mean Girls episode, and we are elated and excited to keep growing this project.
   

   If you’re not yet following, we’d love for you to connect with us!
   🎧 Follow to listen
   📺 Follow to watch
   

2. I survived my week of recovery from the Moxi Laser treatment I had done last week and am so pleased with how smooth my skin feels. I have two more of them lined up for August and September and will continue to report on the results.

3. I adored listening to this inspiring interview with the actor Ke Huy Quan. It’s never too late to achieve your dreams!

4. I took myself on a solo movie date to see Fly Me to the Moon and absolutely loved it. I’ll be sharing more in next week’s What I Loved in July post. :)

5. A bunch of the books I requested earlier in the summer all became available at the same time from my library. The best kind of problem to have!

💬 Share your intention

Whether it’s a giant leap, a tiny to-do list item, a habit change, or something else, there is power in accountability, and this is a safe space to share your aim. Some weeks, we’ll fail, others we’ll soar, but with support, we’ll always keep going together.

Until next week, get out there and make something beautiful.

Michelle

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