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Email: admin@GFWCRISouthCounty.com
Mailing Address:
GFWC-WCSC
PO Box 5684
Wakefield, R.I. 02880
Phone: 401 365-4392
BOOK & AUTHOR LUNCHEON
2026
September 16, 2026 – 11am
Dunes Club, 137 Boston Neck Road
Narragansett, RI
The GFWC Women’s Club of South County is pleased to announce our 26th Annual Book & Author Luncheon. As our signature fundraiser, this event raises vital funds for nonprofit grants, scholarships for women in need, and community investments throughout South County.
Please join us at the Dunes Club for an inspiring afternoon featuring award-winning authors. We are also excited to welcome back Carly Callahan, Executive Director of the United Theater, as our Emcee.
Your presence and generosity, along with the support of our local businesses, with sponsorships and donations, allow us to continue improving our local community.
PRESENTING...THE 2026 AUTHORS
Lisa Gardner
YOU’LL BE SORRY is a standalone thriller filled with spine-chilling secrets. For Raquel and Theo Collins, it appeared to be love at first sight. Raquel, a renowned interior designer, and Theo, a brash financial wizard, met and married in a matter of months, only to confront a terrible tragedy. Now, unbearably aware of the distance between them, they’ve come to a remote town staying at a family lodge that was once a crown jewel of the mountains to begin anew. Thirty years before parents and four children vanished and the mystery endured. Not everyone is happy about a new family in the old home and its hidden past may have returned with a vengeance. Raquel and Theo face a daunting choice of what to believe, who to trust, and how to survive.
Lisa Gardner, a #1 New York Times bestselling thriller novelist, began her career in food service, but after catching her hair on fire numerous times, she took the hint and focused on writing instead. A self-described research junkie, she has transformed her interest in police procedure and criminal minds into a streak of internationally acclaimed novels, published across 30 countries. Her novel, The Neighbor, won Best Hardcover Novel from the International Thriller Writers. She has also been honored for her work with animal rescue and at-risk children. An avid hiker, gardener and cribbage player, Lisa lives with her family in New England.
Julie Gerstenblatt
THE STARGAZER OF NANTUCKET is a page-turning adventure following 18-year-old Winifred, daughter of renowned merchant captains Nell and Peter Starbuck, who longs to join her parents on their final voyage to China in 1851. Forbidden from the journey, Winnie stows away with them, sailing straight into danger and deception to confront a family secret that could change everything. Loosely based on the Starbucks, one of the founding families of Nantucket and inspired by historical events – including the maiden voyage of the famous clipper ship, Flying Cloud – this book is the perfect New England seafaring tale. It delivers a vivid, immersive voyage into the past – one that feels especially resonant as America approaches its 250th anniversary. The Stargazer of Nantucket invites readers to reflect on the forces that shaped our nation’s rise — and the cost of that ascent.
Julie Gerstenblatt is the author of Daughters of Nantucket, which won the New England Society Book Award for Fiction. She holds a doctorate in curriculum and instruction from Teachers College, Columbia University and has taught everything from middle school English to graduate studies. Her essays have appeared in Huffington Post and Grown & Flown, among others. A native New Yorker who has been visiting Nantucket since childhood, Julie now lives in coastal Rhode Island with her family and one very smart shichon poo.
Alyson Richman
THE MISSING PAGES is a rich, lyrical novel that reminds us that books are as eternal as the soul. A ghost in a library. A story waiting to be told. In 1912, Harry Widener, a promising and passionate book collector, boards the Titanic holding tight to a priceless volume he’s just purchased in London. After catastrophe strikes the ship, Harry’s last known words are that he must return to his cabin to retrieve his latest treasure. Neither the young man nor the book are ever seen again. Honoring her son’s memory, Harry’s mother builds the Harry Widener Memorial Library at Harvard to house his extensive book collection and ensure his legacy. Decades later, Violet Hutchins, a Harvard sophomore recovering from her own great loss, is working as a page at the Widener Library. When mysterious things begin happening, Violet wonders if Harry Widener’s ghost is trying to communicate with her to uncover a long-buried secret.
Alyson Richman graduated from Wellesley College with a degree in art history and Japanese studies. She is an accomplished painter and her novels combine her deep love of art, historical research, and travel. Alyson's novels have been published in 25 languages and have reached the bestseller lists both in the United States and abroad. She lives on Long Island with her husband and two children, where she is currently at work on her next novel.
*A portion of the sale of each of these books is donated back to GFWC Women’s Club of South County, a 501(c)(3) organization, who will use the proceeds toward grants to nonprofits in South County and for scholarships to women in need. Books will be available for sale at the luncheon and authors will be available to sign your books. If you choose to go to Wakefield Books and purchase any of these books, rather than ordering online, please be sure to mention that you are buying books for the GFWC Women’s Club of South County’s Book & Author Event.