Host An Unforgettable Book Club Party

Evangeline, a young cloistered novice, intercepts a strange letter in her duties at St. Rose Convent leading to an encounter with art historian Verlaine.  Verlaine is researching the 1943-1944 correspondence between Mrs. Abigail Aldrich Rockefeller, patron of the arts and wife of John D. Rockefeller, Jr.,  and Mother Innocenta, the abbess of St. Rose Convent at the time.  Together, Evangeline and Verlaine uncover an ultra secret society and enter a dark and dangerous world.Angelology by Danielle Trussoni is filled with biblical intrigue and gothic mystery, fallen angels and their offspring, good vs. evil, and a race against time to find an ancient, powerful object hidden away years ago by Abby Rockefeller.

Book Club Ideas

Plan an angel themed book club party for Angelology, despite the fact that most of the angels encountered in Angelology are much closer to Lucifer than a cute little winged cherub.

Decorations

Angel wing party invitations are easy to make.  This angel wing template can be found on-line.  Print your invitations out on heavy white paper.  Add your party details and decorate with silver or white glitter, or tiny white feathers to make them extra special.

Cover your party table with a white table cloth, white boa feathers, white pillar candles encircled with white feathers or glittery white tinsel, and little battery-powered tea lights.

Attire

We love to dress up at our book club parties, so if your book club does the same, be sure to whip up some of these easy-to-make angel halos for your guests.  All the materials can be found at a craft store and it took just 5 minutes to put one of these halos together.  This idea was found at usedeverywhere.com.

Materials:  white boas with small feathers, 12 gauge jewelry wire, a glue gun (a must!), a pair of needle nose pliers, scissors, and head bands.

Picture 1 – Halo Support:  Cut 2 pieces of wire about 14-inches long.   Take one of the pieces of wire and bend it in half, then starting at the center of the head band wrap the wire tightly in both directions a couple turns around the headband.  Make a little bend on each to support the halo.  Take the second piece of wire and form it into a circle, hooking the ends together.  Secure the halo to the ends of the support and crimp down the ends.

Picture 2 – The Feathers:  Measure and cut a length of white boa to fit the top of the headband.  With glue gun in hand, attach it to the top of the headband.   Take another, longer length of boa and wind it tightly around the halo wire, starting and finishing at the back.  Overlap both ends just a bit and secure them together with a bit of glue.  That’s it!

You can even find angel wings to wear, if you want to really get decked out.

Music

A lyre is similar to a small harp, however, it is played by strumming with a plectrum (similar to a guitar pick), rather than plucking with the fingers, as a harp is played.  I couldn’t find any lyre music online, but did find Healing from the Harp by musician Sally Fletcher.  This music had me almost feeling the healing powers from St. Michael’s lyre, the object desperately sought  by the angelologists and Nephilim in Angelology.

Book Club Menu

This angel-themed menu was easy to plan and easy to prepare.

Heavenly Scallops and Angel Hair Pasta

Golden Parmesan Halos

Ethereal Angel Food Cake

Send guests home with little bags of angel kisses.  Angel kisses are a scrumptious meringue cookie that I bake at Christmastime.  For this angel-themed party, I substituted white baking chips for the chocolate, and reduced the vanilla to 1 teaspoon.

Angel Kisses

Our hero Verlaine enjoyed his Corona beer and I had some extra white feather boas … so I grabbed a few koozies, glued on some feathers, popped in a Corona and viola!

Book Club Resources

Ratings at the time this post was published

Discussion

1. Did you find Angelology reminiscent of  The Da Vinci Code or any other of Dan Brown’s novels?  If so, in what ways?  In ways was Angelology different?
2. Discuss the role that real-life Abigail Rockefeller played in this story.  Were you able to trust her motives?
3. Did you feel any characters lacked development?  If so, which characters did you want to know more about and why?
4. The angels of the Bible are described as quite fearsome, as noted in Angelology.  Why, then, do you feel angels have so often throughout the years been depicted as gentle little cherubs?
5. Why do you feel Gabriella and Angela withheld so much information from Evangeline?  Was it to protect her or something else?

Purchase Angelology at your favorite bookseller

The Author

Danielle Trussoni was born in La Crosse, Wisconsin and graduated form the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  She is the author of’ Falling Through the Earth: A Memoir, which was awarded the 2006 Michener-Copernicus Society of America Award, a BookSense pick and one of The New York Times Ten Best Books of 2006.  Angelology is Trussoni’s first novel.

Visit author Danielle Trussoni’s website.

Other Works by Author and Recommended Reading

More on Angelology…

The upcoming Angelology movie to set for release in 2013 (Sony).  Hmmmm …. I’m wonder which actors will be playing which roles.  This movie should be a major hit and will surely have some incredible special effects. 

Trussoni is currently (at post publish time) working on Angelopolis, the sequel to Angelology.  I’m definitely curious to follow where she is taking her hero and heroine.