Discover Mystic Brews & Literary Views
Welcome to Mystic Brews & Literary Views, a unique book club tailored for women who love witchy fiction, historical fiction, and novels featuring strong female characters. Here, literature meets enchantment, and every discussion is complemented by the perfect cup of tea.
Build lasting friendships and share your passion for literature in our welcoming community. Whether you're new to reading or a seasoned bibliophile, our diverse group embraces all levels of reading experience. Engage in thought-provoking discussions, exchange book recommendations, and participate in fun literary activities together. Friends of the Forest Book Club offers more than just books—it's a supportive sisterhood where your love for reading flourishes.
Join us today and become part of our enchanting community of book lovers.
Discover Mystic Brews & Literary Views
Discover Mystic Brews & Literary Views
The Magic of Our Literary Circle
Embark on a journey through the enchanting worlds of literary fiction with our expertly curated selection of books, designed to transcend the bounds of the ordinary. Explore our 2024/2025 lineup and lose yourself in the mesmerizing stories at your own pace. Our book club offers the ideal sanctuary for those who cherish reading, providing a space to connect with like-minded individuals who share a love for literature, engaging discussions, and a sense of community among women.
As passionate readers, we recognize the transformative power of a compelling book—its ability to whisk us away to different realms, introduce us to unprecedented viewpoints, and imprint a lasting impact on our lives. It is with this understanding that we've meticulously selected each title for our book club, embracing a diversity of perspectives and themes, ensuring that every reading experience is not just a pastime but a journey to be cherished.
Engaging Discussions
Our gatherings offer a unique mix of relaxed, personal, and stimulating discussions. We’ll explore characters' journeys and underlying themes as we uncover symbolism and deeper meanings together. With every gathering, you can expand your literary perspective and enrich your reading journey.
Indulge in Exquisite Tea Pairings
Each month, you will receive a tea that pairs with the following month’s selection. Savor our expertly selected blends, which harmonize flawlessly with our literary explorations. Let the aromas and flavors transport you as you absorb the essence of the stories we unravel together. We’ll discuss each tea's unique qualities and how they enhance the reading experience at every meeting.
Delightful Nibbles
Echoing Virginia Woolf's sentiment, "One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well," we believe that delicious food is not just ideal but essential for a successful book club gathering. Anticipate refreshments thoughtfully paired with the book's theme, offering the perfect accompaniment to a lively literary discussion.
Cozy Monthly Gatherings in Inviting Settings
Join us in the comfort of private homes once a month, where warm hospitality and stimulating conversations await. These inviting environments offer an ideal setting for cultivating friendships with other book lovers who share an appreciation for the subtle intricacies of literature and tea. As with every Friends of the Forest gathering, you can expect special touches every month.
Our Mystic Brews & Literary Views book club limits its membership to six women to maintain an intimate setting.
This informal book club is a blend of casual, intimate, and thought-provoking conversations.
Book club gatherings last 2 1/2 hours. Plan 30 minutes for food, tea, and catching up with friends, an hour for a more structured discussion, and the final 30 minutes for more informal discussion and socializing.
Our ground rules:
Agree to disagree. Be gracious! There is no one way to experience or interpret a book. In fact, differing opinions are good.
Our structured discussion time is limited to the book.
Please don’t dominate the conversation.
Members are encouraged to bring light nibbles inspired by the book, although this is not required.
Certain months will feature celebrations or themes aligned with holidays, including Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas/Yule, and Wheel of the Year observances.
We warmly invite you to support our monthly gatherings with a donation of $10, or whatever you can comfortably contribute, to help us cover the costs of tea, food, and the special touches we plan for each gathering.
How Our Literary Circle Works
Reading Selections for 2024/25
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Thursday, September 26, 2024 | Hester
"A hauntingly beautiful––and imagined––origin story to The Scarlet Letter." ––People
WHO IS THE REAL HESTER PRYNNE?
Isobel Gamble is a young seamstress carrying generations of secrets when she sets sail from Scotland in the early 1800s with her husband, Edward. An apothecary who has fallen under the spell of opium, his pile of debts have forced them to flee Glasgow for a fresh start in the New World. But only days after they've arrived in Salem, Edward abruptly joins a departing ship as a medic––leaving Isobel penniless and alone in a strange country, forced to make her way by any means possible.
When she meets a young Nathaniel Hawthorne, the two are instantly drawn to each other: he is a man haunted by his ancestors, who sent innocent women to the gallows––while she is an unusually gifted needleworker, troubled by her own strange talents. As the weeks pass and Edward's safe return grows increasingly unlikely, Nathaniel and Isobel grow closer and closer. Together, they are a muse and a dark storyteller; the enchanter and the enchanted. But which is which?
In this sensuous and hypnotizing tale, a young immigrant woman grapples with our country's complicated past, and learns that America's ideas of freedom and liberty often fall short of their promise. Interwoven with Isobel and Nathaniel's story is a vivid interrogation of who gets to be a "real" American in the first half of the 19th century, a depiction of the early days of the Underground Railroad in New England, and atmospheric interstitials that capture the long history of "unusual" women being accused of witchcraft. Meticulously researched yet evocatively imagined, Laurie Lico Albanese's Hester is a timeless tale of art, ambition, and desire that examines the roots of female creative power and the men who try to shut it down.
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Wednesday, October 30, 2024 | Practical Magic
*25th Anniversary Edition*—with an Introduction by the Author!
The Owens sisters confront the challenges of life and love in this bewitching novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Rules of Magic, Magic Lessons, and The Book of Magic.
For more than two hundred years, the Owens women have been blamed for everything that has gone wrong in their Massachusetts town. Gillian and Sally have endured that fate as well: as children, the sisters were forever outsiders, taunted, talked about, pointed at. Their elderly aunts almost seemed to encourage the whispers of witchery, with their musty house and their exotic concoctions and their crowd of black cats. But all Gillian and Sally wanted was to escape. One will do so by marrying, the other by running away. But the bonds they share will bring them back—almost as if by magic...
“Splendid...Practical Magic is one of [Hoffman's] best novels, showing on every page her gift for touching ordinary life as if with a wand, to reveal how extraordinary life really is.”—Newsweek
“[A] delicious fantasy of witchcraft and love in a world where gardens smell of lemon verbena and happy endings are possible.”—Cosmopolitan
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Thursday, November 21, 2024 | When We Were Dragons
A GOODREADS BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
A fiery feminist fantasy tale set in 1950s America where thousands of women have spontaneously transformed into dragons, exploding notions of a woman’s place in the world and expanding minds about accepting others for who they really are."Ferociously imagined…and as exhilarating as a ride on dragonback." —Lev Grossman, bestselling author of The Magicians Trilogy
"Completely fierce, unmistakably feminist, and subversively funny." —Bonnie Garmus, bestselling author of Lessons in Chemistry
In the first adult novel by the New York Times bestselling author of The Ogress and The Orphans, Alex Green is a young girl in a world much like ours, except for its most seminal event: the Mass Dragoning of 1955, when hundreds of thousands of ordinary wives and mothers sprouted wings, scales, and talons; left a trail of fiery destruction in their path; and took to the skies. Was it their choice? What will become of those left behind? Why did Alex’s beloved aunt Marla transform but her mother did not? Alex doesn’t know. It’s taboo to speak of.
Forced into silence, Alex nevertheless must face the consequences of this astonishing event: a mother more protective than ever; an absentee father; the upsetting insistence that her aunt never even existed; and watching her beloved cousin Bea become dangerously obsessed with the forbidden.
In this timely and timeless speculative novel, award-winning author Kelly Barnhill boldly explores rage, memory, and the tyranny of forced limitations. When Women Were Dragons exposes a world that wants to keep women small—their lives and their prospects—and examines what happens when they rise en masse and take up the space they deserve.
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Friday, December 20, 2024 | The Lost Bookshop
The Keeper of Stories meets The Lost Apothecary in this evocative and charming novel full of mystery and secrets.
‘The thing about books,’ she said ‘is that they help you to imagine a life bigger and better than you could ever dream of.’
On a quiet street in Dublin, a lost bookshop is waiting to be found…
For too long, Opaline, Martha and Henry have been the side characters in their own lives.
But when a vanishing bookshop casts its spell, these three unsuspecting strangers will discover that their own stories are every bit as extraordinary as the ones found in the pages of their beloved books. And by unlocking the secrets of the shelves, they find themselves transported to a world of wonder… where nothing is as it seems.
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Thursday, January 30, 2025 | The Invisible Life of Addie Larue
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
USA TODAY BESTSELLER
NATIONAL INDIE BESTSELLER
THE WASHINGTON POST BESTSELLER
In the vein of The Time Traveler’s Wife and Life After Life, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is New York Times bestselling author V. E. Schwab’s genre-defying tour de force.
Recommended by Entertainment Weekly, Real Simple, NPR, Slate, and Oprah Magazine
#1 Library Reads Pick―October 2020
#1 Indie Next Pick―October 2020
BOOK OF THE YEAR (2020) FINALIST―Book of The Month Club
A Life No One Will Remember. A Story You Will Never Forget.
France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever―and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets.
Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world.
But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name.
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Thursday, February 27, 2025 | The Covenant of Water
OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • SUBJECT OF A SIX-PART SUPER SOUL PODCAST SERIES HOSTED BY OPRAH WINFREY
From the New York Times-bestselling author of Cutting for Stone comes a stunning and magisterial epic of love, faith, and medicine, set in Kerala, South India, following three generations of a family seeking the answers to a strange secret.
“One of the best books I’ve read in my entire life. It’s epic. It’s transportive . . . It was unputdownable!”—Oprah Winfrey, OprahDaily.com
The Covenant of Water is the long-awaited new novel by Abraham Verghese, the author of the major word-of-mouth bestseller Cutting for Stone, which has sold over 1.5 million copies in the United States alone and remained on the New York Times bestseller list for over two years.
Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on South India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere. At the turn of the century, a twelve-year-old girl from Kerala’s long-existing Christian community, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her forty-year-old husband for the first time. From this unforgettable new beginning, the young girl—and future matriarch, known as Big Ammachi—will witness unthinkable changes over the span of her extraordinary life, full of joy and triumph as well as hardship and loss, her faith and love the only constants.
A shimmering evocation of a bygone India and of the passage of time itself, The Covenant of Water is a hymn to progress in medicine and to human understanding, and a humbling testament to the difficulties undergone by past generations for the sake of those alive today. It is one of the most masterful literary novels published in recent years.
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Thursday, March 27, 2025 | Weyward
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
WINNER OF TWO GOODREADS CHOICE AWARDS (Best Debut Novel & Best Historical Fiction)
An Indie Next March 2023 Pick • A LibraryReads March 2023 Pick • An Amazon "Best Books of the Year So Far" 2023 Pick
"A brave and original debut, Weyward is a spellbinding story about what may transpire when the natural world collides with a legacy of witchcraft." ––Sarah Penner, New York Times bestselling author of The London Séance Society
I am a Weyward, and wild inside.
2019: Under cover of darkness, Kate flees London for ramshackle Weyward Cottage, inherited from a great-aunt she barely remembers. With its tumbling ivy and overgrown garden, the cottage is worlds away from the abusive partner who tormented Kate. But she suspects that her great-aunt had a secret. One that lurks in the bones of the cottage, hidden ever since the witch-hunts of the 17th century.
1619: Altha is awaiting trial for the murder of a local farmer who was stampeded to death by his herd. When Altha was a girl, her mother taught her their magic, a kind not rooted in spell casting but in a deep knowledge of the natural world. But unusual women have always been deemed dangerous, and as the evidence of witchcraft is laid out against Altha, she knows it will take all her powers to maintain her freedom.
1942: As World War II rages, Violet is trapped in her family's grand, crumbling estate. Straitjacketed by societal convention, she longs for the robust education her brother receives––and for her mother, long deceased, who was rumored to have gone mad before her death. The only traces Violet has of her are a locket bearing the initial W and the word weyward scratched into the baseboard of her bedroom.
Weaving together the stories of three extraordinary women across five centuries, Emilia Hart's Weyward is an astonishing debut, and an enthralling novel of female resilience.
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Thursday, April 24, 2025 | The Once and Future Witches
"A gorgeous and thrilling paean to the ferocious power of women. The characters live, bleed, and roar. "―Laini Taylor, New York Times bestselling author
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Winner of the British Fantasy Award for Best Fantasy Novel • Named One of the Best Books of the Year by NPR Books • Barnes and Noble • BookPage
In the late 1800s, three sisters use witchcraft to change the course of history in this powerful novel of magic, family, and the suffragette movement.
In 1893, there's no such thing as witches. There used to be, in the wild, dark days before the burnings began, but now witching is nothing but tidy charms and nursery rhymes. If the modern woman wants any measure of power, she must find it at the ballot box.
But when the Eastwood sisters―James Juniper, Agnes Amaranth, and Beatrice Belladonna―join the suffragists of New Salem, they begin to pursue the forgotten words and ways that might turn the women's movement into the witch's movement. Stalked by shadows and sickness, hunted by forces who will not suffer a witch to vote―and perhaps not even to live―the sisters will need to delve into the oldest magics, draw new alliances, and heal the bond between them if they want to survive.
There's no such thing as witches. But there will be.
An homage to the indomitable power and persistence of women, The Once and Future Witches reimagines stories of revolution, motherhood, and women's suffrage—the lost ways are calling.
Praise for The Once and Future Witches:
"A glorious escape into a world where witchcraft has dwindled to a memory of women's magic, and three wild, sundered sisters hold the key to bring it back...A tale that will sweep you away."―Yangsze Choo, New York Times bestselling author
"This book is an amazing bit of spellcraft and resistance so needed in our times, and a reminder that secret words and ways can never be truly and properly lost, as long as there are tongues to speak them and ears to listen."―P. Djèlí Clark, author The Black God's Drum
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Thursday, May 29, 2025 | The Consequence of Anna
The Instant #1 Bestseller, nominated for a PULITZER PRIZE . . . Inspired by a TRUE STORY . . . Soon to be a MAJOR MOTION PICTURE.
“An intense and emotional read!” – Rhys Bowen, New York Times bestselling author of The Tuscan Child
Reminiscent of The Thorn Birds, The Light Between Oceans, and Lady Chatterley’s Lover – poignant, heartbreaking, and unforgettable.
"SHAMED BE THE WOMAN WHO ALLOWETH SUCH A SIN!"
Set against the sprawling backdrop of 1930s Australia, Anna May Shahan is a wild child raised on a lush farm by the sea, always barefoot and playing in her neighbor’s secret garden. Her Aboriginal nanny teaches her the ways of the land, and she grows up to be a quirky, eccentric, and sweet woman. But she is not without her demons, as she struggles with bizarre behaviors and a haunting, dark side.
Soon after marriage, Anna inherits Sugar Alexandria, her family’s sheep station, and she and her Irish husband James lead a simple, hardworking life. That is until Anna’s beautiful widowed cousin Lottie returns from London after being absent for over a decade. Lottie confesses to Anna her heart’s greatest desire to have a child, and Anna, in fear of losing her beloved cousin again, seeks to grant her wish by means of her own husband. What happens next brings devastating consequences for them all . . .
A literary achievement and the most emotionally gripping book of the year, The Consequence of Anna is a complex historical family saga, intertwined with the haunting mystery of Anna’s mental illness and the secrets, lies, and revelations revealed through the hidden passions of Lottie and James. Layered with lush romance, obsessive love, the strong bond of female friendship, and the frightening effects of altruistic intentions gone wrong, this provocative and powerful allegory cuts through rules and boundaries and proves the old adage that no good deed goes unpunished!
Perfect for fans of Kristin Hannah, Kate Morton, and Ellen Marie Wiseman.
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Thursday, June 26, 2025 | Remarkable Creatures
From the New York Times bestselling novelist, a stunning historical novel that follows the story of Mary Anning and Elizabeth Philpot, two extraordinary 19th century fossil hunters who changed the scientific world forever.
On the windswept, fossil-strewn beaches of the English coast, poor and uneducated Mary learns that she has a unique gift: "the eye" to spot ammonites and other fossils no one else can see. When she uncovers an unusual fossilized skeleton in the cliffs near her home, she sets the religious community on edge, the townspeople to gossip, and the scientific world alight. After enduring bitter cold, thunderstorms, and landslips, her challenges only grow when she falls in love with an impossible man.
Mary soon finds an unlikely champion in prickly Elizabeth, a middle-class spinster who shares her passion for scouring the beaches. Their relationship strikes a delicate balance between fierce loyalty, mutual appreciation, and barely suppressed envy, but ultimately turns out to be their greatest asset.
From the author of At the Edge of the Orchard and Girl With a Pearl Earring comes this incredible story of two remarkable women and their voyage of discovery.
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Thursday, July 31, 2025 | The Secret Life of Sunflowers
"This book draws all the emotions out of you. I went from tears to snorting with laughter. It was both lighthearted and heart breaking, yet it inspires me to live my best life! " Michelle Cox
When Hollywood auctioneer Emsley Wilson finds her famous grandmother's diary while cleaning out her New York brownstone, the pages are full of surprises. The first surprise is, the diary isn't her grandmother's. It belongs to Johanna Bonger, Vincent van Gogh's sister-in-law.
Johanna inherited Vincent van Gogh's paintings. They were all she had, and they weren't worth anything. She was a 28 year old widow with a baby in the 1800s, without any means of supporting herself, living in Paris where she barely spoke the language. Yet she managed to introduce Vincent's legacy to the world.
The inspiration couldn't come at a better time for Emsley. With her business failing, an unexpected love turning up in her life, and family secrets unraveling, can she find answers in the past?
“This book was so much more than I had expected, and I had high expectations... one of the most beautiful stories I've read in years." Kaela Stokes
"It touched something in my soul." Audrey McDonald
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Thursday, August 28, 2025 | The Rose Garden
NEW YORK TIMES AND USA TODAY BESTSELLER!
"I've loved every one of Susanna's books! She has bedrock research and a butterfly's delicate touch with characters―sure recipe for historical fiction that sucks you in and won't let go!"―DIANA GABALDON, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Outlander
A riveting and romantic journey through time, The Rose Garden drops a modern woman into the middle of a historical fiction novel when she's thrown back to 18th century Cornwall―only to find that might just be where she belongs.
After the death of her sister, Eva Ward leaves Hollywood and all its celebrities behind to return to the only place she feels she truly belongs, the old house on the coast of Cornwall, England. She's seeking comfort in memories of childhood summers, but what she finds is mysterious voices and hidden pathways that sweep her not only into the past, but also into the arms of a man who is not of her time.
Soon Eva discovers that the man, Daniel Butler, is very, very real and he draws her into a world of intrigue, treason, and love. Inside the old British house, begins to question her place in the present, she realizes she must decide where she really belongs: in the life she knows or the past she feels so drawn towards.
A brilliant escape that gives one woman the chance to time-travel and find her place in British history, The Rose Garden presents Susanna Kearsley's signature combination of romance and fascinating historical fiction at its very best.