etched in sand/girl, unbroken: regina calcaterra @ book club

It was definitely one of those meant to be moments. I’ve been posting on instagram and FB a picture of each book I read as I finish them. (you can follow me on instagram at bsquaredphoto if you’d like). I read a lot during off season. Like, a LOT. At least a book a week. There’s no rhyme or reason to the books I read, my choices are a big mix- horror, romance, smut, mystery, fiction, non-fiction, thrillers, historical, biographies- anything that catches my interest. I saw a recommendation for the book Etched in Sand written by a survivor from Long Island and knew it was one for me. I read it super fast because it was so good and then went right into the “sequel” Girl, Unbroken. They were both amazing, moving, inspiring, heart breaking and just wonderful. I’m not a book reviewer (I just like what I like and share them for anyone else interested) so I’m not going to say much about them other than READ THEM!

As it turns out, one of my client/friends from Manhasset saw that I just read both books and happened to be in a book club where the author, Regina, was going to be speaking about her books. And being the awesome person that she is, my friend Alexandra invited me along! I got to listen to Regina speak about her book, her work, her life and was just as amazed in person as I was reading her books. Probably more so. Not that it matters to the story, but the woman is gorgeous on top of being so intelligent, hard working, inspiring and just NICE. How someone is all of those things after going thru everything she did is just absolutely unexplainable. Her spirit left me moved. A big thank you to the hostess for the evening, Jill. She was so sweet allowing me to come to her home for the evening and crashing the book club! (Jill is in the red in the front row seated next to Regina in the middle in black. My friend Alexandra is in the back row on the left in orange.)

Seriously, people. Read the books.