Book Club: Virginia Woolf, Ernest Hemingway and T.H. White

(Photo: Courtesy of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Simon & Schuster, and Penguin Random House)Colorado authors Lisa Jones, Peter Heller and Helen Thorpe are close friends who’ve been gathering regularly for years in each others' living rooms to discuss the books they’re reading.  

 

Our Book Club segment transports their lively conversations to the CPR studio.

 

Whether the three friends share each others' views or disagree, Book Club gives you a front-row seat as they share their literary passions.

 

In this month’s episode, the trio discusses the books that inspired them to become writers.

 

Thorpe’s inspiration as a writer can be traced back to “To The Lighthouse” by Virginia Woolf, a book that follows the Ramsay family to their summer home in the Hebrides on the Isle of Skye. 

 

“This book just blew me away,” Thorpe says. “It’s the intimacy of it and the way that you get the deepest internal feelings of the characters, and you’re going inside each one of these characters in quick succession. It’s really extraordinary.”

 

Ernest Hemingway’s short story collection “In Our Time” stirred an 11-year-old Peter Heller so much that he wanted to hop on a train to northern Michigan, where many of the book’s stories take place, and start writing.

 

“I started reading this book and my jaw just dropped. I was just totally blown away and something alchemical happened. I just wanted to write like this guy,” Heller says.

 

Meanwhile, Jones speaks about “The Once and Future King” by T.H. White, an Arthurian legend novel first published in 1958. Jones says this story was important to her as a child because she realized books could be used as an escape from everyday life.

 

“Don’t you think that’s what books do for us?” Jones asks. “It’s a refuge and it’s a place where we can find some sense and some company in a way.”

 

To hear this week's episode of Book Club on air, tune in to The Colorado Art Report on Friday May 30 at 10:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m.

 

We also want to hear from you: When you were young, what did your parents read to you? Please share your bedtime story memories by emailing us.

 

Get ready for the next edition of Book Club when our authors will discuss summer reads. On the roster: “The Husband’s Secret” by Liana Moriarty, “In the Light of What We Know” by Zia Haider Rahman and “Want Not” by Jonathan Miles.

 

Lisa Jones is the author of a memoir called “Broken: A Love Story” and she is currently at work on a novel. Peter Heller is the author of five books. His novel "The Dog Stars" was a bestseller. His new novel, "The Painter," came out this month. Helen Thorpe is the author of “Just Like Us: The True Story of Four Mexican Girls Coming of Age in America,” as well as a forthcoming non-fiction book “Soldier Girls.”