Lunch & Learn

Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, and Joan of Arc were the subject of discussion at the Montecito Bank & Trust Lunch & Learn MClub event with author Victoria Shorr. She has a book called, Midnight: Three Women at the Hour of Reckoning. She calls it creative non-fiction. One of the blurbs reads, “I finished Victoria’s book last night and was absolutely enthralled – the last pages had me sitting bolt upright in bed completely oblivious to anything but Joan of Arc’s last moments. I’ve never read anything like this book.” From Jessica Hindman, who wrote Sounds Like Titanic: A Memoir.

The book tells three stories we thought we knew, but didn’t. They are novelistic biographies telling stories of pivotal moments in the lives of these women. Jane Austen was left penniless after her brother inherited it all. She eventually received a marriage proposal from a wealthy man whom she didn’t love. Did she or didn’t she?

A pregnant Mary Godwin eloped with Percy Shelley at age 16. Eight years later her husband was out to sea. She had lost four babies to miscarriage or early death. Then she received a letter. Did Shelley return or did he not?

Joan of Arc’s saints told her she’d be saved from fire, but it is now the morning of her execution. The English have ordered her to wear a dress instead of the pants she had defiantly worn for years. Does she or doesn’t she?

Victoria’s first novel, Backlands, was named one of Booklist’s top-ten first novels of 2015. She’s proud to have co founded the Pine Ridge Girls’ School in South Dakota, a college prep school for girls on a Native American reservation. They were having 12-year-old girls committing suicide. There have been none since the school was formed.

The MClub will have Captain Karen Kahn May 28 to speak. She is one of the first females hired as a pilot by a major airline. For more information, call Maria McCall at 805.564.7362.