
What we’re about
What is the Literary Wineaux Society?
We are a wonderful group of wine lovers and book lovers who meet up for monthly book club and other events. Our book clubs happen once a month at a local wine bar on a Wednesday.
How it works? I, Tiffany the host, nominate seven books under one random theme and the group votes on the book they wish to read for that month by placing their vote in the comments. While reading the book is optional (I mean, you gotta come for the great wine!). The list of books are usually a diverse grouping with a mix of fiction and non-fiction (as long as it sticks to the theme).
The Hemingway Cocktail Society: This is a spinoff of the Literary Wineaux Society. I schedule events once a month where we visit swanky cocktail bars around OC. You'll find these events also on this group's page.
Wineauxs on the Water: We will take a tour around Newport Harbor on an electric Duffy boat while wine tasting on the boat. Each guest will bring a bottle of wine aboard that coincide's with the theme of the wine tasting aka French wines.
Buzz Books and Bubbles: another spinoff of our core book club. A smaller group which reads and discusses buzz books of the moment while sipping on champagne.
Membership: New in January 2025, the Literary Wineaux Society will become a membership-fee-based group with an annual fee of $10 due every year. Newbies to the group get 30 days to test the waters before having to pay the annual fee. If you'd rather pay via PayPal, Venmo, Zelle, or Apple Cash please message me for details. Note: if you pay through meetup.com, the charge may appear as WineBingeTV - that's me!
Group Etiquette: Book Club is an investment of time and money. If you are RSVP'd to an event and there is a waitlist, please be mindful of your RSVP and update it as soon as you know you will not be able to make it, so people on the waitlist can have time to read the book. Thank you in advance for your courtesy.
Social Media: Follow us on Instagram @literarywineauxsociety
Upcoming events (2)
See all- LWS August Book Club: 'Salt Water' by Katy HaysFive Vines Wine Bar, San Juan Capistrano, CA
You voted and August Book Club selection is....
'SALT WATER' by Katy Hays
In 1992, Sarah Lingate is found dead below the cliffs of Capri, Italy, leaving behind her three-year-old daughter, Helen. Despite suspicions that the old-money Lingates are involved, Sarah’s death is ruled an accident. And every year, the family returns to prove it’s true. But on the thirtieth anniversary of her death, the Lingates arrive at the villa to find a surprise waiting for them—the necklace Sarah was wearing the night she died.
Haunted by the specter of that night, the paranoid, insular Lingate family begins to crack, and Helen seizes the opportunity with the help of Lorna Moreno, the family assistant. But then Lorna disappears, and the investigation into Sarah’s death is reopened. Everyone who was on Capri thirty years ago remains a suspect—Helen’s controlling father, Richard; her rarely lucid aunt, Naomi; her distant uncle, Marcus; and their circle of friends, visitors, and staff. Even Lorna, her closest ally, may not be who she seems. As long-hidden secrets about that night boil to surface, one thing becomes clear: Not everyone will leave the island alive. Combining a glittering, dark atmosphere, morally-gray characters, and mind-bending twists, Saltwater is an exploration of the corrupting effects of generational privilege and the lengths people go to protect a legacy—and how no one can hold a grudge like family. AMAZON LINK“Full of chills and darkness.”—Oprah Daily
“Fans of family dramas and thrillers will devour this tense, suspenseful novel.”—Woman’s WorldBook Details
- Page Count: 336
- Audiobook: 11 hours, 49 minutes. Narrated by Allyson Ryan (Long Bright River), Cassandra Campbell (Where the Crawdads Sing), Carlotta Brentan (The Sicilian Inheritance)
- Published: March 25, 2025
Further Reading and Viewing
- Watch: Barnes & Noble Events: Katy Hays Discusses Salt Water Rachel Hawkins
- Watch: Katy Hays Discusses Salt Water at Poisoned Pen Bookstore
- Read: Saline and Secrets - Publisher's Weekly Interviews Katy Hays
Location
- Five Vines Wine Bar in the SNUG Room
RSVP
- PLEASE update your RSVP ahead of event if you are unable to make it
Volunteers Welcome!
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A non-refundable deposit is required to book this room so anyone willing to be on the same check with me at time of order would be greatly appreciated. XO
- September Book Club: Theme - CALIFORNIA - VOTE NOW!!!Five Vines Wine Bar, San Juan Capistrano, CA
For September Book Club we are keeping close to home with the theme...
CALIFORNIA.The following 7 nominees all take place in California -- northern, central and southern. CAST YOUR VOTE in the comments below. Make sure to vote before the cutoff date - Sunday, September 6.
I've provided links to Amazon for further research and uploaded the book covers in photos.
And the nominees are...
1. Not Your China Doll: The Wild and Shimmering Life of Anna May Wong by Katie Gee Salisbury - Set against the glittering backdrop of Los Angeles during the gin-soaked Jazz Age and the rise of Hollywood, this biography celebrates Anna May Wong, the first Asian American movie star, to bring an unsung heroine to light and reclaim her place in cinema history. In her time, she was a legendary beauty, witty conversationalist, and fashion icon. Plucked from her family's laundry business in Los Angeles, Anna May rose to stardom in Douglas Fairbanks' blockbuster The Thief of Baghdad. After years of being typecast in stereotypical roles, she moved abroad in protest starring in many acclaimed films in Paris and Berlin, only to return to the states to speak out about Hollywood's blatant racism, working to reshape Asian American representation in film. This book showcases the vibrant and radical life of a groundbreaking artist. Amazon Link
2. Typewriter Beach by Meg Waite Clayton - (historical fiction) Set in Carmel-by-the-Sea and Hollywood, is an unforgettable story of the unlikely friendship between an Oscar-nominated screenwriter and a young actress hoping to be Alfred Hitchcock's new star. Told in dual timelines, in 1957 rising Hollywood starlet Isabella Giori meets blacklisted screenwriter Leon Chazan after she is sequestered by the studio in a tiny Carmel cottage, the two hop in their roadster and speed down the fog shrouded Big Sur Coast. In 2018, screenwriter Gemma Chazan is in Carmel to sell her grandfather's cottage where she finds a hidden safe full of secrets raising questions about who he really was. Amazon Link
3. 'East of Eden' by John Steinbeck - In this classic American novel, set in the rich farmland of California's Salinas Valley, this sprakling and often brutal novel follows the intertwined destinies of two families -- the Trasks and the Hamiltons whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel. James Dean starred in the 1995 film and Netflix is adapting it again as a limited series with Florence Pugh. Amazon Link
- 'The Imagined Life' by Andrew Porter - Steven Mills has reached a crossroads -- his wife and son have left him and may not return which leaves him determined to find out what happened to hsi own father, a brilliant charismatic professor who disappeared in 1984 when Steve was twelve, on a wave of ignominy. As Steve drives up the coast of California seeking out his father's friends, family members, and former colleagues, the novel gives us a glimpse of his childhood -- his parents' legendary pool parties, the black and white films on the backyard projector, and secrets shared with his closest friend. Each conversation diving deeper into his father's past making it harder for Stephen to recognize his own father and must confront truths about his own life. Amazon Link
5. 'What Kind of Paradise' by Janelle Brown - "The first thing you have to understand is that my father was my entire world" - Growing up in an isolated cabin in Montana in the mid-90s Jane knows only the world that she and her father live in. Her father is elusive about their pasts, giving Jane little beyond the facts that they once lived in the Bay Area and that her mother died in a car accident, the crash propelling him and Jane to move off the grid and raise her in a Waldenesque uptopia. As Jane becomes a teenager, she starts pushing against the boundaries of her restricted world, until one day she realizes that her devotion to her father has made her an accomplice to a horrific crime. She flees Montana to San Francisco to look for answers to her mysterious past and her mother's death. The city is in the midst of seismic change, where her quest to understand herself will force her to reckon with everything she values. Amazon Link.
6. The Island of Last Things by Emma Sloley - Camille has always preferred animals to people. The wild nearly disappeared, but as a zookeeper at the last zoo in the world, on Alcatraz Island, she spends her days caring for playful chimpanzees, gentle tree frogs, and a restless jaguar. Outside, resistance groups and brutal cartels fight to shape the world's future, but Camille is safe within her routines...that is, until a new zookeeper, Sailor, arrives from Paris. They quickly bond and Sailor tells Camille a story of an idyllic secret sanctuary where wild animals roam free. Sailor hatches a reckless plan to smuggle one of the most prized animals off the island to freedom. This dystopian novel is an elegy for a disappearing world and beautiful vision for the future. Amazon Link
7. L.A. Women by Ella Berman - A novel about the complicated friendship between two ambitious writers and the ultimate artistic betrayal, one writing a book about the other's life. Lane Warren has secured a new book deal based on the life of her sometime friend and rival Gala Margolis, a free spirit who has been missing for months. Ten years earlier, Gala was a charming socialite while Lane was a Hollywood outsider amidst the 1960s LA party scene. Gala's stardom began to rise and Lane grew envious. Then Lane did something that would change both their lives. This novel transports readers to the legendary parties and unparalled creativity of the iconic Laurel Canyon. At what cost does great art emerge and who pays the price? Amazon Link.