gmhTODAY 01 gmhToday Mar Apr 2015 | Page 85

Terroir by Sheila Scobba Banning Rating: The Unbound Book Club of Morgan Hill meets monthly for dinner and books. Surrounding visiting Terrior author Sheila Banning (seated, center) are mem- bers Laura Lundy (left) and Theresa Kiernan (right). Back row, (l-r): Laurie Dineen, Carol Carr, Sherry Hemingway, Nancy Neyer-Kinoshita, Aimee Ledwith and Lisa DeSilva. Missing: Deborah Morton-Padilla and Janet Thompson. SILICON VALLEY READS – Author Visit Book of Unknown Americans, a novel about Panama, by Cristina Henriquez is a 2015 Silicon Valley Reads selection. The author will speak March 24 at the Morgan Hill Library and March 28 at the Gilroy Public Library. WHAT OTHER BOOK CLUBS ARE READING: • BookSmart Book Lovers Club, Morgan Hill – • Books with Dessert, Morgan Hill Library – • Gilroy Library Book Club – • Eagle Ridge #1, Gilroy – • Eagle Ridge #3, Gilroy – • Unbound, Morgan Hill – The Martian by Andy Weir Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henriquez Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty Tales of a Female Nomad by Rita Golden Gelman G M H T O D A Y M A G A Z I N E Gilroy’s own Martin Ranch Winery on Redwood Retreat Road was the inspiration for the locale of Terroir, a novel about a winemaker dealing with her own extraordinary pinot noir and her equally complicated life. The local setting and the ode to superb wine make this a delicious read. While it is interesting to read familiar local names in the Acknowledgements section, author Sheila Banning of Sunnyvale makes it perfectly clear that, “This is a work of fiction. That means I made it all up.” In her book and during her recent visit to the Morgan Hill book club “Unbound,” she said of herself, “The infusion of authentic detail helps breathe life into fiction, but don’t confuse that with autobiography. If you insist on looking for something in the book that really happened, pick the sex scenes.” Terroir is the story of Suzanne Mathews, a respected winemaker in the Santa Cruz Mountains appellation, on the verge of producing a pinot noir destined to become a legend. The possibility of fame and fortune for the boutique winery also has the attention of her soon-to-be ex-husband and a circling venture capital shark. If that weren’t enough, Suzanne’s sister in Iowa has ousted her hospice worker and chosen to face death on her own terms. The book’s finest attribute is deep detail about the winemaking process, which is well blended into the story. Each chapter starts with the definition of a wine term, such as brix, inoculation, cold soak, malolactic fermentation or racking, and then the chapter includes Suzanne working with that aspect of the process. The book will have you rummaging for pinot in your wine storage. In addition, there’s the snarky dialogue of two maverick sisters, an old flame and an uncommon solution for divorce. The book club gave it an all thumbs-up, a rare occurrence in any book club. MARCH / APRIL 2015 gmhtoday.com 85