Book Club launching 9/19 with Spectacular Things

Beck Dorey-Stein

Novelist Beck Dorey-Stein will help launch the Woodfords Club’s fall dinner series with a public talk at 7 p.m., Friday, September 19 – right after the first dinner of the season. Our neighbors at the Friends of Woodfords Corner and Back Cove Books are co-sponsors. The book store is offering a 10 percent discount if you say you’re a book club member.

The South Portland author’s novel Spectacular Things is the story of two sisters who persevere after the tragic loss of their soccer loving mother. The athletically gifted younger sister Cricket is helped to become a national level soccer star by her brilliant older sister Mia, who sacrifices much to raise her.

The novel has been getting national attention, and was selected for Reese’s Book Club, a part of the Reese Witherspoon daily talk show. Since the July 30 Press Herald story about Beck and her book, it has gone to the top of the Sunday Telegram’s local best sellers. The novel is set in a version of Greater Portland and you’ll recognize Becky’s Diner and many local landmarks.

I’ve been recommending the book to all my friends.  It’s a great story with vivid characters, an engaging glimpse of the big time women’s soccer world, the grueling path to the soccer summit, and it is a wonderful portrayal of family love. It’s fantastic. It doesn’t have one false note. This is a terrific book.

The talk will be open to the public and will help launch the new Woodfords Club book club. Establishing a book club was highly rated in our recent survey about activities at the club.

Beck Dorey-Stein grew up in Narberth, Pennsylvania, and served as a White House stenographer from 2012 to 2017.  Her memoir From the Corner of the Oval, was a New York Times bestseller. She taught high school English for three years. Her previous novel is Rock the Boat. She moved to South Portland five years ago and is now married, with a three-year-old.   –Peter Morelli