PORT TOWNSEND — In Joy for Beginners, our heroine Kate invites six close friends over for dinner.
It’s September, and Kate is celebrating the fact that she has survived a life-threatening illness.
Her friends challenge her to take it a step further: go on a whitewater rafting trip down the Grand Canyon with her daughter.
Kate is reluctant until her friend Marion makes her an offer: If she’ll take on the rapids, each of the other women will likewise do something, in the coming year, that scares her.
Deal, Kate says. But she adds a caveat: Since she didn’t get to choose her challenge, Kate gets to choose the ones her friends take on.
That’s the start of the latest novel from Erica Bauermeister, the newly relocated author who will give a free talk at 6:30 tonight at the Port Townsend Library Learning Center, 1256 Lawrence St.
Bauermeister, who moved from Seattle to Port Townsend this summer, is also author of The School of Essential Ingredients, her debut novel about eight women who learn recipes — and then some — in a cooking class together.
Other credits include co-authorship of 500 Great Books by Women and Let’s Hear It for Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14.
Tonight’s event is for all ages, and more information can be found by phoning the Port Townsend Library at 360-385-3181.