Host An Unforgettable Book Club Party

The residents and military men of Folly Beach spend their weekends shagging on the pier to the music of The Very Best of The DriftersThe Drifters and

In the book it mentions that shag is the South Carolina state dance.  Click here for instructions on how to shag.

What to Wear

Among Lulu’s treasures were a tortoise shell barrette and 14k Yellow Gold Diamond Sand Dollar Pendant (1/10 cttw, G-H Color, I1 Clarity), 18necklace and BottleTree.com, LLC” target=”_blank”>bottle trees.   She learned about bottle trees through Jim, who grew up on a plantation and would see slaves put bottles on trees to scare away evil spirits.  The  sunflower bottle tree below would be a fun and colorful decoration.  Don’t forget to stick notes in the bottles!

I wasn’t going to lug a bottle tree to the beach, so the table was decorated in a beach theme with sand dollars and colored (supposed to be sea) glass.   I also used a little glass jar of sand to represent the jar of sand from Folly Beach that helped remind Emmy’s mom where she came from.   Page told Emmy that she would always be able to come back home but “that would be a lot like planting a rose in the dessert; you’d survive but you’d never really bloom.”

The box that held Lulu’s treasures sounded so beautiful.  I searched the internet but could not find one similar to Lulu’s.  It was a lacquered box with hand painted flowers decorating the lid and a red velvet interior.  Any treasure box would be a great tabletop decoration along with sand dollar earrings, tortoise shell barrette, roller skate key, penny, handkerchief, lace hair ribbon, and a gold ring with a black onyx square on top.

My sister found the old rusted lighthouse at a garage sale, which reminded me of the old lighthouse in the book.

The military personnel and party goers on  Folly Beach Pier liked to drink Pabst Beer and Coca Cola, so I served these in a Vintage Coca ColaVintage Coca-Cola memorabilia would also make great decorations.   Coca Cola was a favorite drink in the book but they often weren’t able to enjoy it due to the sugar ration.  There was a Coca-Cola Vintage Mirror Horizontal Waitress with Coke

Book Club Menu

I based the menu on the food Peter and Maggie had on their first date:

• Fried Shrimp with Red Sauce. I also made some Tartar Sauce.  Gotta have tartar sauce with hush puppies.
• Hush Puppies
• Cole Slaw

I considered making turtle eggs, but that is probably outlawed in this day and age.

Dessert was Mini Blackberry Cakes with Blackberry (Mint) Tea, which is what Maggie and Peter had on their picnic.   You could also base your main menu on the food they had on their picnic which was fried chicken and unsweetened corn bread (because of the sugar ration).

Whenever I make a recipe I like to try to put the ingredients together in different ways for a more interesting presentation or because I want more of certain ingredients.  I also made a blackberry cake parfait with the same ingredients that you find in the mini blackberry cakes.

Blackberry Cake Parfait

Book Club Resources

Ratings at the time this post was published

Reviews

“Like many of her novels, On Folly Beach is a novel full of emotion – sadness and happiness and yet hopeful at the same time. There is also a great mystery that weaves the past with the present in a way that will keep you turning the pages to find out exactly what happened and how it relates to the present day and those in it.” – Peeking Between the Pages Blog

“I enjoyed so many elements of this story – the great characters, the setting (South Carolina’s lowcountry!), the mystery and the history.  I think most readers will enjoy the bookstore setting and the literary references throughout the book.” – BermudaOnion’s Weblog

Discussion Questions

1. One main theme of this book is knowing when one has waited long enough to move on after the loss of a loved one.  One of my  favorite quotes in the book was when Emmy’s mom said  “Love doesn’t have a time span.  Only pain does.”   Can you relate to this quote?  What other life lessons can be learned from this story?
2. Did you like how the story was told from two different time periods?  Did you have a hard time following the storylines?
3. Did you learn anything about WWII that you did not previously know?
4. Who was your favorite character?  Did you find any similarities between the main characters,  Emmy and Lulu?
5. Were you surprised by the ending?  Would you have liked a different ending?

Purchase On Folly Beach at your favorite bookseller

The Author

“I grew up being a voracious reader and it was a natural step to turn my interest to writing. I have published 12 award-winning and bestselling novels since 2000, with two more books planned for 2011 including the third book in the Tradd Street series out in November.  I write what others have termed “grit-lit”–southern women’s fiction, as well as a contemporary paranormal mystery series set in Charleston. All of my books are set in the US South, and feature a female protagonist at a crossroads in her life.   I live near Atlanta, Georgia with my husband, two children, a guinea pig and the cutest 4-year-old Havanese dog, Quincy, whom readers may recognize as General Lee in the Tradd Street series.”

More about Karen White

Folly Beach: A Brief HistoryFolly Beach: A Brief Historyby Stringer-Robinson

• Edge of America: Folly Beach, a Pictorial HistoryEdge of America:  Folly Beach, A Pictorial History by James William Hagy

Folly Beach is an island outside Charleston Harbor.  There were some restaurants mentioned in the book and I was surprised to see some of them actually existed, such as Folly Beach Crab Shack.  Andre’s was also a real restaurant, but has been replaced with a condo complex.

I loved the historical references in the book.  Here is a video of a divers filming a sunken German u boat off the coast of the Carolinas.  They really were there!  Here is also more information about the Duquesne spy ring.

Join Emmy and Heath and watch the 2010 Perseid meteor shower which should peak sometime around August 12.

Maggie’s favorite movie was Gone with the Wind (Two-Disc 70th Anniversary Edition)Gone with the Wind, to rent and have a night filled with self-absorbed southern belles.  Cat, the villain of the book,  liked to imitate Scarlett O’Hara’s facial expressions….beeatch.