James Patterson and his wife Susan Patterson, took on a packed crowd at the Madison Public Library Wednesday, April 22, to talk about their upcoming book, “The Mother-Daughter Book Club.”
The book follows four long-time college friends who live in the same dorm at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Decades later, the four friends and their five daughters get together in Lake Como, Italy for a book club weekend. Doug Moe, one of Wisconsin’s best known journalists, presented alongside the Pattersons.
A notable aspect of the talk was the Pattersons affiliation with UW-Madison. Susan was an All-American swimmer for Wisconsin in the late 1970s, while James married into the fandom.
“I had to sign a badger prenup. I have to watch every single football, basketball, volleyball and ping pong game. I have to be here,” Patterson said during the book talk.
During the talk, the Pattersons highlighted key details in their book, discussed the nine main characters and went over their writing process. Their favorite part of writing — their ‘research’ trip to Lake Como.
“One of the things we figured out right away, in terms of where most of the action should be, was Lake Como because then we had to go and visit to do the research,” Patterson said.
The talk ended with lots of questions from the audience and heartfelt statements from people the Pattersons knew from Susan’s time in Madison. Susan's old swimming coach from Wisconsin even got to chime in, reminding her of a specific swim meet she swam in.
The Pattersons’ message at the end of the night was a powerful one, with Susan getting emotional due to many questions regarding her mother, for whom she wrote a book for after she passed away. The Pattersons spoke deeply about the importance of motherly figures, saying that it was one of the biggest motivations to write many of their books.
“I just think you need to remember to let them know that they’re important to you. You don’t want to think about it when it’s too late,” Susan said.
