Reading Group Choices’ goal is to join with publishers, bookstores, libraries, trade associations, and authors to develop resources to enhance the shared reading group experience. Reading Group Choices is distributed annually to bookstores, libraries, and directly to book groups. Titles from previous issues are posted on ReadingGroupChoices.com. Books presented here have been recommended by book group members, librarians, booksellers, literary agents, publicists, authors, and publishers. All submissions are then reviewed to ensure the discussibility of each title. Once a title is approved for inclusion, publishers are asked to underwrite production costs, so that copies of Reading Group Choices can be distributed for a minimal charge. For additional copies, please call your local library or bookstore, or contact us by phone or email. Quantities are limited. For more information, please visit our website at ReadingGroupChoices.com.

Cover art, Summer Reading by Katie Harnett [2013].

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All Rights Reserved.

Published in the United States by Reading Group Choices LLC

ISBN 978-0-9906899-1-1

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PRAISE FOR READING GROUP CHOICES

“Selecting a book is one of the hardest and most important decisions a group has to make each month. With Reading Group Choices as their guide, online and in print, groups can’t go wrong.” —Julie Robinson, owner, Literary Affairs and founder of The Beverly Hills Literary Escape

“Reading Group Choices is the next best thing to having your own professional facilitator, librarian or bookseller as a part of your reading group. Highly recommended” —Jill A. Tardiff, Women’s National Book Association, National Reading Group Month Chair

“Reading Group Choices continues to be a first-rate resource that book groups anticipate to guide them through the choices to find books that are discussible, enjoyable, and enrich their time together” —Donna Paz Kaufman, Paz & Associates, The Bookstore Training Group

“We have learned over the years that displays are a great way to encourage circulation at our small, rural library. One of our best displays is based on the wonderful literary guide published by Reading Group Choices! Patrons cannot wait to get their... copies and start reading” —Gail N., Sandusky District Library

“Let’s get ready to rumble! The latest Reading Group Choices book has just arrived on my desk, and I’ll be using this to help select the book group titles for next year.... I have to say that I’ve kept every single one of these collections. I go back and look at the older editions to find books my group may have missed” —Kaite S., Book Group

“I’m a reader’s advisor at a public library and we have a service that obtains books for over 100 local clubs. I can attest to the wonderful resource that Reading Group Choices is to our staff and patrons. We always order multiple copies of your annual booklet to share and they get a lot of use. Thank you for your great website and resource for book clubs everywhere” —Connie R., The Sullivan Book Group

When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature. If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of myself in the world, I would do that again by reading, just as I did when I was young.
—Maya Angelou (1928-2014)

Dear Readers,

We are proud to introduce another collection of wonderful books to inspire your book club toward meaningful and lively discussions.

Since April, when I purchased Reading Group Choices, I have received emails from our reading group members with kind words about what we provide, as well as thank you notes for the contests and drawings they have won. In all of these messages, I have noticed a pattern: each person commented on how much they love reading, or how excited they are to read a certain book, or how much they are looking forward to their next reading group discussion. When I email the Favorite Books Contest winners and Spotlight Clubs, and drop the random drawing winners’ packages in the mail each month, it feels like giving gifts; I know our readers will be as excited about the books they have won as I was when I first received them. At Reading Group Choices, we strive to recommend books and provide resources that prompt people to send these unnecessary thank yous. We are happy to hear what books are next on your list, and we are glad that many come from our own guide and website each year.

The 2015 edition once again provides over 50 book recommendations for your group. It includes books by authors and publishers we have featured before, as well as books by debut authors and independent presses from Minnesota to Pennsylvania to North Carolina. There are nonfiction and fiction selections, and some books will be published in 2015, so when you plan your group’s list for the year, you can plan ahead! Also, many of these books will be included in contests on our website this fall and winter so be sure to check the site on the first of each month and sign up for our monthly newsletter to find out what’s new.

Heartfelt gratitude goes to Charlie Mead, and Donna Paz Kaufman and Mark Kaufman of Paz & Associates. Donna and Mark founded Reading Group Choices in 1994. Charlie and his late wife, Barbara, purchased the business in 2005 and carried on Reading Group Choices from 2005 to 2014. I now have the honor to continue Reading Group Choices’ mission to provide fantastic literary resources for book clubs and individuals. I would like to personally thank Charlie, without whose guidance, assistance and encouragement this edition would not have been possible.

As always, we would like to thank you, our readers, for supporting and inspiring us. Thank you as well to our many talented authors, our independent bookseller partners, and our friends in the publishing industry.

Please visit us online at ReadingGroupChoices.com, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and through our downloadable app.

Here’s to another year of happy reading!

Mary Morgan

Reading Group Choices

Contents

About a Girl, Lindsey Kelk

Across a Green Ocean, Wendy Lee

After I’m Gone, Laura Lippman

The Art of Arranging Flowers, Lynne Branard

As Close as Sisters, Colleen Faulkner

Before We Met, Lucie Whitehouse

Blood Will Out: The True Story of a Murder, a Mystery and a Masquerade, Walter Kirn

Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, Helen Fielding

The Circle, Dave Eggers

Claire of the Sea Light, Edwidge Danticat

Crazy Rich Asians, Kevin Kwan

During the Reign of the Queen of Persia, Joan Chase

The End of Innocence, Allegra Jordan

The Engagements, J. Courtney Sullivan

Falling From Horses, Molly Gloss

Family Life, Akhil Sharma

The First Phone Call From Heaven, Mitch Albom

The Fragile World, Paula Treick DeBoard

The Girl You Left Behind, Jojo Moyes

The Goddess of Small Victories, Yannick Grannec

Hades, Candice Fox

Hollow City: The Second Novel of Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children, Ransom Riggs

The Illusion of Separateness, Simon Van Booy

Inferno, Dan Brown

An Italian Wife, Ann Hood

The Jaguar’s Children, John Vaillant

Jewelweed, David Rhodes

The Last Days of California, Mary Miller

The Last Policeman, Ben Winters

Liar’s Bench, Kim Michele Richardson

Little Mercies, Heather Gudenkauf

Local Souls, Allan Gurganus

A Long Time Gone, Karen White

Longbourn, Jo Baker

The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P., Adelle Waldman

The Lowland, Jhumpa Lahiri

Madame Picasso, Anne Girard

MaddAddam, Margaret Atwood

The Magician’s Lie, Greer Macallister

The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon: No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency (14), Alexander McCall Smith

Monday, Monday, Elizabeth Crook

My Accidental Jihad, Krista Bremer

Night in Shanghai, Nicole Mones

The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman

The Paris Architect, Charles Belfoure

Sea Creatures, Susanna Daniel

The Signature of All Things, Elizabeth Gilbert

Someone, Alice McDermott

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, Gabrielle Zevin

The Supreme Macaroni Company, Adriana Trigiani

The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair, Joel Dicker

Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand

We Are Water, Wally Lamb

What I Remember Most, Cathy Lamb

The Wonder of All Things, Jason Mott

ABOUT A GIRL

Lindsey Kelk

Tess Brookes has always been a girl with a plan. But when the plan goes belly up, she’s forced to reconsider. After accidently answering her roommate Vanessa’s phone, she decides that since being Tess isn’t going so well, she might try being Vanessa. With nothing left to lose, she accepts Vanessa’s photography assignment to Hawaii—she used to be an amateur snapper, how hard can it be? Right? But Tess is soon in big trouble. And the gorgeous journalist on the shoot with her, who is making it very clear he’d like to get into her pants, is an egotistical monster. Far from home and in someone else’s shoes, Tess must decide whether to fight on through, or ‘fess up and run...

International Praise for About a Girl:

“Fans of the I Heart series will instantly fall for this gorgeously funny and romantic read.” —Closer

“Perfect for your summer holiday!” —Bella

“Kelk has a hilarious turn of phrase and a sparkling writing style...” —Daily Express

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Lindsey Kelk was a children’s book editor and is now a magazine columnist and author of I Heart New York, I Heart Hollywood, I Heart Paris, I Heart Vegas, I Heart London and The Single Girl’s To-Do List. When she isn’t writing or watching more TV than is healthy, Lindsey likes to wear shoes, shop for shoes and judge the shoes of others. She loves living in New York but misses Sherbet Fountains, London, and drinking Gin & Elderflower cocktails with her friends. Not necessarily in that order.

April 2015 | Trade Paperback | Fiction | 416 pp | $14.99 | ISBN 9780007591411 Harper | harpercollins.com | lindseykelk.com

CONVERSATION STARTERS

Tess and Charlie have been best friends for a decade but when they sleep together it seems to completely derail their friendship. Do you think that two friends can go back to being “just friends” after sleeping together? How do you think their relationship has been affected by their actions?

Tess has been in love with Charlie for as long as they have been friends. Why do you think he never realized?

Why do you think Tess decided to take over her roommate’s identity? How was this action out of character for someone like Tess? Is there a psychological reason behind this decision?

Why do you think that Tess is drawn towards Nick though she is in love with Charlie? Who did you think she should be with? Who would you pick for yourself?

How do you think Tess handles her confession when she comes clean about who she really is? If you were Tess, how do you think you would have handled it? How about if you were Kekipi? If you were Nick, what would you have done?

What do you think that Tess has learned from her experience pretending to be someone else?

In the end Tess must make a choice between her old life and her new. Which do you think Tess should choose? Which would you choose?

ACROSS A GREEN OCEAN

Wendy Lee

After his father’s death, Michael Tang finds himself in possession of a letter sent to his dad from a long-ago friend in China. Without a word to his mother or sister, he empties his bank account and maxes out his credit cards to make the long journey to a remote part of that enormous country. Once there, he’s confronted with the man his father once was, and how the choices he made long ago continue to echo throughout all of their lives. His mother, Ling, never expected to be so lonely. After the sudden loss of her husband, she worries she’s somehow driven her children away—Emily, to long hours and a childless marriage, Michael to a country whose language he doesn’t even speak. Though in many ways they are living the lives Ling and her husband sacrificed so much to give them, Ling has to wonder: was it all worth it? As an immigration lawyer, Emily sees people at their worst. But it’s not until a case ends horribly that she starts to question every choice she’s made—every one, that is, except the one her husband hopes she’ll reconsider.

“As haunting as it is inspiring. Lee creates characters who are each, at times, profoundly flawed and deeply moving. I will not soon forget them.” —Katrina Kittle, author of The Blessings of the Animals

“An emotionally-charged story about fear of censure and how it conceals truths that isolate us even as we crave understanding from the ones we love!’ —Janie Chang, author of Three Souls

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Wendy Lee is the author of Happy Family, which was named one of the top ten first novels of 2008 by Booklist and received an honorable mention from the Association of Asian American Studies. She has taught writing at the Asian American Writers Workshop and served as a mentor with the nonprofit organization Girls Write Now. She lives in Astoria, New York.

February 2015 | Trade Paperback | Fiction | 352 pp | $15.00 | ISBN 9781617734878 Kensington Books | kensingtonbooks.com | wendyleebooks.com

CONVERSATION STARTERS

Ling is afraid that her children’s relationship is doomed to “older sibling-younger sibling rivalry or worse, indifference.” What kind of siblings are Emily and Michael? How has their relationship changed over the years?

Describe Emily and Julian’s marriage. Do they have more issues other than the fact that Julian wants children and Emily doesn’t? In explaining their marital problems, Emily says, “We’ve never had to struggle for anything together, against anything, except our parents’ expectations . . . and that’s not enough to keep two people together.” What part does this play in the dissolution of their marriage?

Michael is constantly testing his relationship with David, from going on a trip without telling him to almost cheating on him. Why does Michael feel the need to push these boundaries? Will Michael and David’s relationship last?

How does Gao Hu remind Emily of her own father? Why did she become an immigration lawyer, and how much of it has to do with her parents? Are these good reasons to pursue a career?

In considering her husband, Ling reflects that she knows “how delicate his stomach was; how loud his snores at night; how his discarded socks looked like cow dung . . . If knowing the most intimate details of someone’s life wasn’t really knowing that person, then what was?” Does knowing these kinds of things about someone mean that you truly know them? How is this different from understanding someone?

While visiting Liao’s home, Michael thinks that maybe Liao, rather than his own father, is the lucky one. Even though he spent fifteen years in a labor camp, what does Liao have in his life that Han did not? What do people lose through the immigration process?

In a sense, Han Tang will always remain an enigmatic person to his wife and children. What kind of closure do they find on their own? How does this help them continue with their lives?

A reason many people immigrate to another country is to make a better life for their children. To many immigrants, this “better life” means traditional spouses, children, and job security—none of which Emily or Michael have by the end of the novel. Is this a betrayal of their parents’ sacrifices? What do the children of immigrants owe their parents?

AFTER I’M GONE

Laura Lippman

When Felix Brewer meets Bernadette “Bambi” Gottschalk at a Valentines Dance in 1959, he charms her with wild promises, some of which he actually keeps. Thanks to his lucrative—if not all legal—businesses, she and their three girls live in luxury. But on the 4th of July, 1976, Bambi’s comfortable world implodes when Felix, newly convicted and facing prison, vanishes. Though Bambi has no idea where her husband—or his money—might be, she suspects one woman does: his mistress, Julie. When Julie disappears ten years to the day that Felix went on the lam, everyone assumes she’s left to join him—until her remains are eventually found. Now, twenty-six years after Julie went missing, Roberto “Sandy” Sanchez, a retired Baltimore detective working cold cases for extra cash, is investigating her murder. What he discovers is a tangled web stretching over three decades that connects five intriguing women. And at the center is the missing man Felix Brewer. Somewhere between the secrets and lies connecting past and present, Sandy will find the truth. And when he does, no one will ever be the same.

“Despite the murder at its center, this is less a suspenseful whodunit than a masterly novel of character, with secrets skillfully and gradually revealed. Revel in the pace and pleasures of this book [...] that should add to Lippman’s literary luster.” —Library Journal (starred review)

“Lippman is a bet you just can’t lose.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Since her debut in 1997, Laura Lippman has been heralded for her thoughtful, timely crime novels set in her beloved hometown of Baltimore. She is the author of twenty works of fiction. She lives in Baltimore, New Orleans, and New York City with her family.

August 2014 | Trade Paperback | Fiction | 352 pp | $14.99 | ISBN 9780062083418 William Morrow Paperbacks | harpercollins.com | lauralippman.net

CONVERSATION STARTERS

We begin the novel with Felix Brewer’s point of view as he goes on the lam, yet we don’t return to Felix until the very last chapter, in which we see Felix through the eyes of his housekeeper, Consuelo. Why do you think the author chose to begin and end the story this way? Is this novel about Felix? Why or why not?

Young Bambi describes herself as a prize, and she certainly knows how to manage the game. What is it about Felix that draws her in so quickly and completely? Do you think his absence for much of their adult life influenced her feelings for him positively or negatively?

When Sandy reminisces about his first date with his departed wife, Mary, he recalls, “He was poised, as if on a tightrope, and things were either going to go very wrong or very right, no in-between” (34). Do you think this kind of perspective is borne out by events in the novel?

One of the benefits of a novel with multiple point-of-view characters is that we see each person’s views. Compare Felix’s perspective of his relationships to Bambi and Julie in the first chapter to the reality these women express. How else does the author use this technique to explore the complexity of other characters’ relationships?

This novel revolves around two “father figure” older male characters: Felix, whose absence anchors the story, and Sandy, around whose investigation the story unfolds. Discuss these two characters. What do you think the novel has to say about the total of our successes and shortcomings at the end of life?

On page 145, Sandy admits with some surprise that “the things [he] thought he remembered best were the things he was getting wrong.” But he also wonders if, as long as they were loving, it really mattered whether his memories were inaccurate. What do you think? How else do memories play a role in the mystery of After I’m Gone?

After the truth is revealed, Bambi muses, “It would be nice if at least one of us got what we wanted. . .At least our kids seem to have” (312). Do any of the characters get what they want? At what cost?

This novel explores what happens to the Brewer women and Julie after Felix’s disappearance. As we ride along on their journey, what did you come to think of these five women? Did your opinion of them, and their actions, change throughout the novel? If so, how? If not, why not?

THE ART OF ARRANGING FLOWERS

Lynne Branard

A moving and eloquent novel about love, grief, renewal—and the powerful language of flowers.

Ruby Jewell knows flowers. In her twenty years as a florist she has stood behind the counter at the Flower Shoppe with her faithful dog, Clementine, resting at her feet. A customer can walk in, and with just a glance or a few words, Ruby can throw together the perfect arrangement for any occasion.

Whether intended to rekindle a romance, mark a celebration, offer sympathy, or heal a broken heart, her expressive floral designs mark the moments and milestones in the lives of her neighbors. It’s as though she knows just what they want to say, just what they need.

Yet Ruby’s own heart’s desires have gone ignored since the death of her beloved sister. It will take an invitation from a man who has flown to the moon, the arrival of a unique little boy, and concern from a charming veterinarian to reawaken her wounded spirit. Any life can be derailed, but the healing power of community can put it right again.

“I devoured this book... There is art and beauty in this story that will linger after the final scene.” —Debbie Macomber, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Rose in Bloom and Starry Night

“An expertly penned and tender tale about the blossoming of hearts amidst the storms of loss and grief!’ —Richard Paul Evans, #1 New York Times and USA Today bestselling author

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Lynne Branard is a pseudonym for New York Times bestselling author Lynne Hinton. She has written more than a dozen books, including Friendship Cake, Pie Town, and Welcome Back to Pie Town.

June 2014 | Trade Paperback | Fiction | 320 pp | $15.00 | ISBN 9780425272718 Berkley | us.penguingroup.com | lynnehinton.com

CONVERSATION STARTERS

Regarding missing a flower delivery, Lucy says “that’s just a mistake that cannot be forgiven.” Why do flowers symbolize something so paramount that missing a delivery would be a disaster? What crucial roles do flowers play in relationships—both romantic and nonromantic—between people?

Ruby makes it clear that she has never been in a serious romantic relationship, though we hear undeniably erotic descriptions of plants as “stems of short, curved, tender blades,” and “white with little narrow lips of purple.” Do you think Ruby expresses her sensuality through her trade? Do you think her passion for flowers is a stand-in for other longings?

Nora and Jimmy are both alcoholics, and their relationship is rooted in the recovery process. How do Ruby and Dan forge a similar (platonic) bond, and what fuels that bond?

Jimmy tells Ruby that she has a reputation for “fixing hearts.” And much later, Nora echoes that the whole town has expressed that sentiment. In “fixing” others’ hearts, how might Ruby have neglected her own? Can empathy overextend into self-neglect?

Dan says that “When I was in space and saw the stars . . . I felt as if I were seeing something of myself . . . I felt as if I were somehow connected to these great beings.” Have you ever felt that kind of ineffable connection that Dan describes? Was it with a person, or a place, or a thing—like Dan’s stars?

Will says, “Sometimes I worry that everybody I love will die.” Many of the characters are either at death’s door or have suffered the tragic loss of a loved one. How do they find ways not to live in the constant fear that Will expresses?

What is the symbolic significance of Clementine’s encounter with the porcupine and Ruby’s interference—and subsequent injury? How is that a watershed moment in Ruby’s life?

The Greeks had four words for love: eros, agape, philia, and storge (in short: romantic love, spiritual love, friendship, and familial love). How do we see these different types of love manifested in Creekside?

AS CLOSE AS SISTERS

Colleen Faulkner

Since the age of twelve, McKenzie Arnold has spent every summer at Albany Beach, Delaware with her best friends Aurora, Janine, and Lilly. The seaside house teems with thirty years of memories—some wonderful, others painful— and secrets never divulged beyond its walls. This summer may be the last they spend together, as Janine contemplates selling her family cottage. For now, all four enjoy morning beach walks and lazy evenings on the porch celebrating Lilly’s longed-for pregnancy and offering support during McKenzie’s greatest crisis. It’s a time for laughter and recriminations, a time to forge a new understanding of a long-ago night when Aurora sealed their bond with one devastating act. And as the days gradually shorten, events will unfold in ways that none of them could have predicted, to make this the most momentous summer of all. In a deeply moving novel filled with heartbreak and warmth, Colleen Faulkner explores the complex ties between four very different women as they move through life together, and apart.

“This deeply moving story of maternal love and renewal will touch your heart. It’s a celebration of the capacity of the human heart to heal itself and embrace change, beautifully written with rare insight.” —Susan Wiggs, # 1 New York Times bestselling author

“Be prepared to weep tears of sorrow as well as tears of joy. This is a novel you won’t soon forget.” —Holly Chamberlin

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Colleen Faulkner lives in Delaware where her family settled more than three hundred years ago. She comes from a long line of storytellers and spends her days, when she’s not writing, running the family farm, reading, and traveling the world. She’s still married to her high school sweetheart and has four children and two grandchildren.

October 2014 | Trade Paperback | Fiction | 288 pp | $15.00 | ISBN 9780758255716 Kensington Books | kensingtonbooks.com | colleenfaulknernovels.blogspot.com

CONVERSATION STARTERS

Would McKenzie, Janine, Lilly, and Aurora have continued to be friends beyond middle school had it not been for Buddy’s death? Why did they grow closer together, rather than further apart?

What do you think of the way McKenzie is handling her terminal diagnosis? Do you think it’s realistic? If you were McKenzie, how would you respond differently?

Do you think that Janine has recovered from the sexual abuse by her father or does that abused child still live in her? Did what Aurora did to Buddy really save Janine?

What are your thoughts on McKenzie’s relationship with her ex-husband, Jared? Is he a good father?

Do you think it’s odd that Janine chose to be a police officer like her father? Do you think it gives her the control she didn’t have as a child? Is law enforcement something that’s “in your blood”?

Why do you think Lilly was a part of the group? What does she add? Is she in the inner circle? Were you surprised by her secret that only McKenzie knew about? Is it always better to share secrets with those you love?

Do you think Aurora is a brave woman? Is she selfish or unselfish? Do you think her strength is real or a facade? Do you know someone with similar characteristics?

Did you think McKenzie’s daughters, Mia and Maura, behave selfishly? Did you think they’d be okay after their mother’s death?

If you could choose two of these women to spend a girls’ weekend at a beach house with, which two would it be? Why?

Do you think what happens to Aurora is an accident? Why or why not?

BEFORE WE MET

Lucie Whitehouse

If you loved Gone Girl and The Husband’s Secret, Before We Met should be your next read.

Hannah has always been wary of commitment, but when she meets Mark, a fellow Brit, one hot New York summer, her ideas change. Within months, they are married, and she has moved back to London to be with him, leaving her life in New York behind. But when Mark fails to return from a business trip, her certainty about their marriage starts to crack. Why don’t his colleagues know about the trip? Who is the woman who keeps calling his office? And why has Hannah’s bank account been emptied? Hannah’s questions will uncover secrets that throw into doubt everything she has believed about her husband, secrets that lead her to a place of violence and fear. Can you ever really know what happened before you met?

“Loved Gone Girl? This is the Brit version... You won’t want to put it down.” —Glamour UK

“Whitehouse’s writing keeps you glued to the page... A gripping tale about ties that bind.” —Holly Chamberlin

“Nail-biting [and] spine-tingling.” —The Observer, Thriller of the Month

“A crackerjack premise that will hook readers from the first page... A gripping cat-and-mouse read.” —Booklist

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Lucie Whitehouse was born in Warwickshire, England in 1975, studied classics at the University of Oxford, and now lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband and daughter. She is the author of The House at Midnight and The Bed I Made.

September 2014 | Trade Paperback | Fiction | 288 pp | $15.00 | ISBN 9781620407646 Bloomsbury USA | bloomsbury.com/us

CONVERSATION STARTERS

At the beginning of the novel, Hannah feels useless for having left her high-powered life in New York and embarrassed by her unemployment and domesticity. Hannah’s feelings of displacement and insecurity fuel her search for Mark’s mistress, but as the lies unfold, her embarrassment blooms into regret. Discuss Hannah’s choice to leave her old life. Do you feel that it was an act of weakness or strength?

Hannah is distraught and furious that Mark, the man she married, could keep such egregious secrets from her. And yet Mark insists that he only kept them “to save [their] marriage” (271). What is fundamentally different about the way they view marital bonds? Discuss the nature of Mark and Hannah’s marriage. How does their dynamic change as Hannah begins to learn more about Mark’s past?

Tom’s uncompromising honesty is refreshing, but often hurtful. Explore the function of Tom’s blunt, no-nonsense approach to life. In what ways does it both contrast and complement Hannah’s flighty yet headstrong nature? Why is Hannah so afraid of Tom’s disapproval?

Hannah kicks herself for never pushing Mark about his past or taking it upon herself to learn anything about him. Do you think Hannah, swept up in her new found love, was negligent or naive? Or do you think she was justified in taking Mark at his word?

When Hannah is unsure if Mark is having an affair, she feels guilty for rifling through his belongings and accosting his friends and coworkers. Even when asking about Nick, she is careful to be respectful of Mark’s feelings. Hannah is wary of overstepping Mark’s boundaries but also hurt that he would withhold information from her. Where is the line between being entitled to the truth and invading someone’s privacy?

When Hannah goes to see Nick and Mark’s parents, she sees a side of Mark’s life he had decided to leave behind forever. Discuss the disparities between Mark’s memories of his childhood and the version Hannah sees in person. How is this trip enlightening for Hannah?

Because of Mark’s expert manipulation of the truth, Hannah is in a constant state of unearthing devastating secrets. What were some of the most suspenseful or surprising moments for you? What techniques does Whitehouse use to build suspense?

BLOOD WILL OUT

The True Story of a Murder, a Mystery, and a Masquerade

Walter Kirn

New York Times Bestseller

Hailed by critics as “one of the best true-crime books... and also one of the best memoirs” (Seattle Times) in recent memory, Walter s unbelievable “Hitchcockian psychological thriller” (Amy Tan) of his fifteen-year friendship with grifter-turned-murderer “Clark Rockefeller” is a one-of-a-kind study in criminal psychology, credulity, and the relationship between a writer and his subject. Both a memoir of being duped by a real-life Mr. Ripley and an investigation into the crimes of a true psychopath, Blood Will Out exposes the dance between con and mark that beats at the heart of the American dream.

“One of the most honest, compelling and strangest books about the relationship between a writer and his subject ever penned by an American scribe.” —Los Angeles Times

“[A] tight, gripping book....[T]his bit ofnoir,from Mr. Kirn about Clark Rockefeller, is just right.” —The New York Times

“[E]quals Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood as a nonfiction novel of crime.” —San Francisco Chronicle

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Walter Kirn is the author of Thumbsucker and Up in the Air, both made into major films. His work has appeared in GQ, New York, Esquire, and The New York Times Magazine.

March 2014 | Hardcover | Nonfiction | 272 pp | $25.95 | ISBN 9780871404510 March 2015 | Trade Paperback | Nonfiction | 272 pp | $15.95 | ISBN 9781631490224 Liveright | wwnorton.com | walterkirn.com

CONVERSATION STARTERS

Do you think there is anything beneath Clark’s ever-shifting facades? Does he have a genuine “personality?”

How does Clark’s life, which is built around the telling of lies, differ from the author’s life as a novelist?

On page 61 the author writes, “‘You can’t cheat an honest man,’ goes the old saying, the notion being that falling for a charlatan requires moral softness in the victim.” Do you think there is a tacit complicity between con and mark?

How do various locales inform the narrative? What does the American West, New York City, or Hollywood represent to Clark and the author?

How do literature and the media influence Clark’s invented personalities? Do you think our general saturation in pop culture helped or hurt his attempts at hoodwinking others?

Did the fact that Clark pretended to be a member of one of America’s wealthiest families make his ruse more believable? Would he have been just as successful pretending to be a member of the middle class?

How does Clark’s proposal of the theory (142) that reality is a “computer program” and life is “an illusion” aid him in his schemes?

Clark is constantly performing an act for those around him. In what ways is the author playing a part? Is he ever aware of his role?

The author says that Clark “spoke from inside my own American mind.” How was Christian Gerhartsreiter able to manipulate Americans through his position as a secret outsider?

Clark tells Walter that the key to manipulating people is “Vanity, vanity, vanity.” Can you think of examples where this is true in the book?

How does the author’s story of the time he got lost in the woods during a snowstorm inform his relationship with Clark?

What methods does Clark use to take advantage of the idea of “Faith in strangers, rewarded in full measure?”

Do you think it’s possible for Clark to feel remorse?

Do you think Clark would have fooled you if you’d come across him?

BRIDGET JONES: MAD ABOUT THE BOY

Helen Fielding

What do you do when your girlfriend’s sixtieth birthday party is the same day as your boyfriend’s thirtieth? Is it better to die of Botox or die of loneliness because you’re so wrinkly? Is it morally wrong to have a blow-dry when one of your children has head lice? Is sleeping with someone after two dates and six weeks of texting the same as getting married after two meetings and six months of letter writing in Jane Austen’s day?

Fourteen years after landing Mark Darcy, Bridget’s life has taken her places she never expected. But despite the new challenges of single parenting, online dating, wildly morphing dress sizes, and rediscovering her sexuality, she is the same irrepressible and endearing soul we all remember. Studded with witty observations about the perils and absurdities of our times—and why one should never, ever text while drunk—Mad About the Boy is both outrageously comic and genuinely moving. As we watch her dealing with heartbreaking loss and rediscovering love and joy, Bridget invites us to fall for her all over again.

“Sharp and humorous.... Snappily written, observationally astute.... Genuinely moving.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Helen has always had a sharp eye for the obsessions and neuroses of our times, a talent much in evidence here—her [Bridget’s] liability rests very much on her believability.” —Anna Wintour, editor in chief of Vogue

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Helen Fielding is the author of Bridget Jones’s Diary and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, and was part of the screenwriting team on the movies of the same names. Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is her fifth novel. She has two children and lives in London and sometimes Los Angeles.

June 2014 | Trade Paperback | Fiction | 496 pp | $15.95 | ISBN 9780345806345 Anchor | randomhouse.com

CONVERSATION STARTERS

Who is “the boy”? Is it who you thought it would be?

How did you react when you read about Mark Darcy’s fate?

Age is a major theme in this novel. Why does Bridget feel the struggles more acutely than some of her contemporaries?

Bridget’s friends deal with aging in different ways. Talitha believes in Botox while Bridget notes that Woney has not done any of this “rebranding” (66). Why do these characters make these decisions?

Dating rules have changed dramatically since Bridget’s last appearance. How well does she adapt?

Bridget is adapting Hedda Gabbler, a story about “the perils of trying to live through men” (17). What is Fielding’s intent with this parallel?

In what ways did Daniel change from the previous books? And how did he stay the same?

Why does Roxster tell Bridget he “hearts” her? (250). Does he really mean “love,” or is this something else?

Mr. Wallaker tells Bridget, “. . . other people’s lives are not always as perfect as they appear, once you crack the shell” (323). How does Bridget finally learn this lesson? What earlier opportunities did she have to learn it?

On page 361, Tom tells Bridget about a survey: “It proves that the quality of someone’s relationships is the biggest indicator of their long-term emotional health—not so much the ’significant other’ relationship, as the measure of happiness is not your husband or boyfriend but the quality of the other relationships you have around you.” How does this bode for Bridget?

At the carol concert, Mr. Wallaker looks at Bridget in a certain way and she realizes she loves him. What finally brings her around?

What is the significance of the owl?

Bridget’s last entry ties up the story in a cozy, comforting way. What do you imagine will happen next?

THE CIRCLE

Dave Eggers

Set on an idyllic, green-lawned campus in California, the Circle is a place where dreams come true. It’s where nearly all of the world’s information is stored and communicated, and through its remarkable ability to synthesize personal data in one place it has completely revolutionized the way individuals interface online. It’s also where Mae Holland, a young ingenue longing for a job with purpose, lands a prime seat among the Circle’s assiduous, yet aboundingly energetic, team. Although she starts off low in the ranks in the Customer Experience (CE) department, answering floods of email queries from Circle users, Mae quickly assimilates into the Circle’s culture of socializing, product perks, and inspirational messages literally etched into her new surroundings: “Dream,” “Imagine,” “Innovate,” “Let’s Do This.” Compared with her hometown in Colorado, the world of the Circle is endlessly more vast and infinitely better than anything Mae has ever imagined. But soon Mae finds herself facing truths about her family, her colleagues, and herself that perhaps were best kept unknown, and her shattering conclusion leaves the reader questioning how fine a line can be drawn between private and public, education and indoctrination, and— ultimately—good and evil.

“Simply a great story, with a fascinating protagonist, sharply drawn supporting characters and an exciting, unpredictable plot... As scary as the story’s implications will be to some readers, the reading experience is pure pleasure.” —Hugo Lindgren, The New York Times Magazine

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Dave Eggers grew up near Chicago and graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is the founder of McSweeney’s, an independent publishing house in San Francisco. His work has been nominated for the National Book Award, the Pulitzer Prize, and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Eggers lives in Northern California with his family.

April 2014 | Trade Paperback | Fiction | 512 pp | $15.95 | ISBN 9780345807298 Vintage | randomhouse.com | mcsweeneys.net

CONVERSATION STARTERS

How does Mae’s behavior during her first days at work foreshadow what happens to her over the course of the novel? In what ways is she an “ideal” employee?

The wings of the Circle are named after different regions of the world and time periods, such as Old West, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, Machine Age, the Industrial Revolution. What do these names say about the company’s vision of historical innovation versus its future-looking work? Is there an inherent hierarchy in these names, despite their apparent equality?Age is a major theme in this novel. Why does Bridget feel the struggles more acutely than some of her contemporaries?

In what ways does Annie motivate Mae in terms of the level of success that can be achieved at the Circle? Does Mae consider Annie’s position the product of Annie’s ambition, or something she imbibed from the company’s ethos? How does knowing first about their professional relationship shape your understanding of their shared past?

For a company that thrives on order and efficiency, the Circle also seems to endorse loose and extravagant socializing. What do these two seemingly opposite values say about what working for them entails? How does Mae’s value set evolve to accommodate these expectations?

Mae’s first serious blunder on the job is failing to respond to and attend Alistair’s Portugal brunch. How does the meeting in Dan’s office set the tone for Mae’s pushing the Circle’s networks on others?

Among the Three Wise Men—Ty, Bailey, and Stenton—who has a vision of what the Circle can—and should—do that seems most viable? In the end, is this trifecta of power able to prevent tyranny? What might the novel’s conclusion say about man’s reaction to power—even when humanity is apparently subsumed under technology?

We see Mae involved with three very different men throughout the novel: Mercer, Francis, and Kalden. While they are on the surface wildly different, what might you say are traits they share that reveal what Mae is looking for in a relationship—and how do they satisfy these needs in their own ways? Does Mae ever seem truly happy?

CLAIRE OF THE SEA LIGHT

Edwidge Danticat

A New York Times Book Review and Washington Post Notable Book, an NPR “Great Read,” a Christian Science Monitor Best Fiction Book, and a Library Journal Top Book

Just as her father makes the wrenching decision to send her away for a chance at a better life, Claire Limyè Lanmè—Claire of the Sea Light—suddenly disappears. As the people of the Haitian seaside community of Ville Rose search for her, painful secrets, haunting memories, and startling truths are unearthed. In this stunning novel about intertwined lives, Edwidge Danticat crafts a tightly woven, breathtaking tapestry that explores the mysterious bonds we share—with the natural world and with one another.

“Haunting.... Writing with lyrical economy and precision, Ms. Danticat recounts her characters’ stories in crystalline prose that underscores the parallels in their lives.” —The New York Times

“Hypnotic.... Danticat creates rich and varied interior lives for her characters Heartbreaking.” —The New York Times Book Review

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Edwidge Danticat is the author of numerous books, including Brother, I’m Dying, a National Book Critics Circle Award winner and National Book Award finalist; Breath, Eyes, Memory, an Oprah Book Club selection; Krik? Krak!, a National Book Award finalist; The Farming of Bones, an American Book Award winner; and The Dew Breaker, a PEN/Faulkner Award finalist and winner of the inaugural Story Prize. The recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, she has been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and elsewhere. She lives in Miami.

July 2014 | Trade Paperback | Fiction | 256 pp | $15.00 | ISBN 9780307472274 Vintage | knopfdoubleday.com/imprint/vintage/

CONVERSATION STARTERS

The opening chapter of Claire of the Sea Light moves backward chronologically through each of Claire’s birthdays, ultimately returning to the present day of the narrative. How does this structure contribute to the book’s sense of time overall, and to its weaving of past and present as more characters are introduced?

What does it mean that Albert Vincent is both the town of Ville Rose’s undertaker and mayor? How are these roles reflected in his relationship with Claire Narcis, Nozias’s wife and Claire’s mother, when she works for him preparing bodies for burial? On page 61 the author writes, “‘You can’t cheat an honest man,’ goes the old saying, the notion being that falling for a charlatan requires moral softness in the victim.” Do you think there is a tacit complicity between con and mark?

That Claire visits her mother’s grave on her birthdays brings poignantly to the fore the notion that life and death are intertwined. In what other ways does that happen in the book? Do ghosts—or chime—have a positive or negative influence over the living?

The sea opens and closes the book, offering powerful images of its destructive and restorative force: the fisherman Caleb is drowned at the book’s beginning, and at the book’s end, Max Junior is spat back from the sea that had “taken [him] this morning” (237). What roles does the sea play in the fates of all the characters in the book? What other myths, stories, and fables come to your mind by this book’s evocation of water?

At one point in the story, Nozias recalls another watery scene, when he and wife Claire Narcis went night fishing, and Claire slipped into the moonlit water to observe a school of shimmering fish. It is from this moment that their daughter, and Danticat’s book, get their name. How does this important memory shape your impression of Claire Narcis, including in what we learn about her by the book’s conclusion?

Although this is fiction, Danticat vividly evokes present-day Haitian culture and society, including its poverty (5), gangs, and restavek children—the child-servitude that Nozias fears for Claire. How do these realities affect your reading of the book and the sense of authenticity of Claire’s story? Of Bernard’s?

CRAZY RICH ASIANS

Kevin Kwan

In an over-the-top, modern-day romance comedy of manners, Kevin Kwan brilliantly captures a world of unimaginable wealth and unrestrained consumption.

Nick Young, born in Singapore, and Rachel Chu, his Chinese American girlfriend, are academics contentedly living in New York City. When Nick invites Rachel to go home with him for the wedding of his best friend, she looks forward to the adventure and to taking their relationship to a new level. She doesn’t know, however, that her handsome boyfriend is the scion of one of Singapore’s richest families—and long-regarded as the most eligible bachelor in a close-knit network of upper-crust families. From his haughty, suspicious mother to embittered ex-girlfriends and wanna-be-wives, to cousins and friends obsessed with the latest fashions and their lavish homes, Rachel finds herself facing challenges and intrigues beyond her wildest imaginings.

Kwan, who grew up among the Singaporean elite, brings a unique sensibility and sharp satirical eye to a delightful and revealing insider’s view of the cultural and social implications of the rise of Asian wealth.

“A dizzily shopaholic comedy.... Wickedly delectable.... Offers refreshing nouveau voyeurism to readers who long ago burned out on American and English aspirational fantasies.... Hilarious.” —Janet Maslin, The New York Times

“[An] instant favorite.... Opulence and zaniness reign.” —O, The Oprah Magazine

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Kevin Kwan was born and raised in Singapore. He currently lives in Manhattan. Crazy Rich Asians is his first novel.

May 2014 | Trade Paperback | Fiction | 544 pp | $15.00 | ISBN 9780345803788 Anchor | randomhouse.com

CONVERSATION STARTERS

Compare how Nick’s mother (21-28, 56) and Rachel’s mother (31-34, 68) react to hearing about their trip to Singapore. What do their reactions reveal about each of them as mothers? What qualities, if any, do they share? What is the significance of the “Chinese Way” (68) in the mothers’ approach to courtship and marriage? Compare this with Rachel and Sophie’s conversation about marriage later in the book (278-79).

Does Nick’s description—“It’s like any big family. I have loudmouthed uncles, eccentric aunts, obnoxious cousins, the whole nine yards” (67)—match the way most of us view our own families? Why doesn’t he tell Rachel more about the background and status of his family before their trip?

What does Rachel’s view of Asian men reveal about the complications of growing up Asian in America (90)? How does Kwan use humor to make a serious point here and in other parts of the novel?

Discuss the role of gossip in the novel. What kinds of rumors do Nick’s friends and family spread about Rachel, and why? How do misunderstandings and misinformation (intentional or not) propel the plot and help define the characters? Consider, for example, the conversations at the Bible study class Eleanor attends (108-109) and the chatter of the guests at Araminta’s bachelorette party (262-70).

Do you see the events surround Colin’s wedding and the ceremony itself as brazen, even crude displays of wealth or are there aspects of the celebrations that are appealing (393-416)? How do they compare to society or celebrity weddings you have read about?

What sort of future do you imagine for Nick and Rachel? Is it possible for Rachel to fit into a world “so different from anything [she’s] used to” (431)? Does Nick fully understand the reasons for her doubts and unhappiness? What supports your point of view?

Why does the author devote different sections of the novel to specific characters? What effect does this have on your impressions of and sympathies for the problems and prejudices that motivate each of them?

DURING THE REIGN OF THE QUEEN OF PERSIA

Joan Chase, Introduction by Meghan O’Rourke

Winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Fiction by an American Author
Joan Chases subtle story of three generations of women negotiating lifetimes of “joy and ruin” deserves its place alongside such achievements as Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping and Alice Munro’s Lives of Girls and Women. The Queen of Persia is not an exotic figure but a fierce Ohio farmwife who presides over a household of daughters and granddaughters. The novel tells their stories through the eyes of the youngest members of the family, four cousins who spend summers on the farm, for them both a life-giving Eden and the source of terrible discoveries about desire and loss. The girls bicker and scrap, they whisper secrets at bedtime, and above all, they observe the kinds of women their mothers are and wonder what kind of women they will become. But always present is the family’s great trauma, the decline and eventual death from cancer of Gram’s daughter Grace.

“Moving, unusual and accomplished... During the Reign of the Queen of Persia is a Norman Rockwell painting gone bad, the underside of the idyllic hometown, main-street, down-on-the-farm dream of Middle America.” —Margaret Atwood, The New York Times

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Joan Chase was born and raised in Ohio. She graduated from the University of Maryland and later enrolled in the Writing Workshop of the University of Vermont. After being turned down by several publishers, During the Reign of the Queen of Persia was released in 1983 and went on to win numerous prizes. Chase is also the author of the novel The Evening Wolves (1990) and the story collection Bonneville Blue (1991).

Meghan O’Rourke is a poet and former editor at the The New Yorker.

April 2014 | Trade Paperback | Fiction | 240 pp | $14.95 | ISBN 9781590177150 NYRB Classics | www.nybooks.com/books

CONVERSATION STARTERS

What do you make of the way Chase presents motherhood and mothering in this book? Does daughterhood ever take importance over motherhood?

What do you make of the non-chronological sequence of the book? Summers seem to blend together in the narrative and memories zip through the text like starlings. Why might Chase present the story this way?

Chase divides the book into five sections, each for a character or couple: Celia, Grandad, Grace and Neil, Elinor, and Gram. Are these characters the most important in the book? If not, what do you think Chase accomplishes in giving them sections? Are the sections telling the story of each character, or is something else at play?

During the cheese scene in the Elinor section, the narrators tell us, “Aunt Elinor looked patient, as one who had seen a wider world, one she constantly made visible to the rest of us—accepting the fact that a wider world might mean a weaker place in the old one” (149). In what other ways does the wider world infringe upon the farm?

How does Chase treat death in this book? Does death become part of the landscape—simply another facet of the otherwise idyllic life on the farm—or interrupt it violently?

How are male characters treated in this book? Are they well-rounded characters with nuanced motivations and conflicts, or are they merely supporting actors, propping up the real work of the female characters? Does this change section to section?

The book is filled with hints of sex, but it rarely discusses the act in a straightforward way. When Gram talks about it, she talks about a violent burden, almost another level of daily abuse, but are there any values placed on sex other than the negative ones?

What does this book tell you about dependence and independence?

THE END OF INNOCENCE

Allegra Jordan

Helen Windship Brooks is struggling to find herself at the world-renowned Harvard-Radcliffe University when brooding German poet Wils bursts into her life. As they fall deeply in love on the brink of WWI, anti-German sentiments mount and Wils’ future at Harvard—and in America—is in increasing danger. When Wils is called to fight for the Kaiser, Helen must decide if she is ready to fight her own battle for what she loves most.

“Downton Abbey has found a brilliant successor in this spellbinding tale of love, death, and war. The finest war fiction to be published in many years.” —Jonathan W. Jordan, bestselling author of Brothers, Rivals, Victors

“This is a wonderful story set around prestigious Harvard College prior to America’s intervention into the Great War and follows a cast of formidable characters into the early 1930s...More than Harvard’s story, it is one of loyalty, love, trust, and betrayal, woven around the war that tore families apart, but eventually drew strength out of long-buried loneliness.” —Carol Hicks, Bookshelf Stores Inc. (CA)

“I was moved to tears—three times...Loved the historical detail...I will be recommending it to everyone. This was wonderful!”—Catherine Coyne, Director, Mansfield Public Library, MA

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Allegra Jordan was a book reviewer for USA Today and head of marketing for usatoday.com for many years. A graduate with honors of Harvard Business School, she blogs in the field of innovation and is a board member of the Harvard Club of the Research Triangle and vice-chair of the Southern Documentary Fund.

August 2014 | Hardcover | Fiction | 320 pp | $24.99 | ISBN 9781492603832 Sourcebooks Landmark | sourcebooks.com | allegrajordan.com

CONVERSATION STARTERS

In the beginning of the novel, Professor Copeland states, “There is loss in this world, and we shall feel it, if not today, then tomorrow, or the week after that.... But there is also something equal to loss that you must not forget. There is an irrepressible renewal of life that we can no more stop than blot out the sun. This is a good and encouraging thought.” Do you believe Copeland’s point of view that this is encouraging? Discuss how this theme emerges throughout the novel.

Riley is a handsome British playboy. Many people find this type of young man very charming. Why? What are his redeeming features?

What does Helen find so lovely and refreshing in Wils Brandl? What does Wils find so attractive in Helen? What do the two characters have in common? How are they different?

Wils, Helen, and Professor Copeland believe in the power of poetry to release energy that can heal the soul. Has this been your experience with poetry? If so, what poets or poems have you found especially healing?

As a German who loves America and has British relatives, Wils must decide whether to fight for his country in WWI against classmates and relatives or forgo his homeland and family to be with Helen. What are your thoughts on how he handled his divided loyalties?

Have you ever had a relationship with someone others would consider “the enemy”? How did you handle this response from others? What were the challenges and advantages of such a relationship?

In the early part of the 20th century, mail in Boston (and America) was routinely searched for obscene materials (like birth control and information about contraception) and its sender punished. How is America different today regarding censorship and privacy?

The Christmas hymn “Silent Night” was sung at the Christmas Truce of 1914 in both German and English. Some call that moment the last gasp of innocence in the world—when a war can be called off by a song. Is this true? Where have you seen innocence and beauty interrupt either physical violence (such as a war) or emotional violence?

THE ENGAGEMENTS

J.Courtney Sullivan

Relationships have as many facets as a diamond. There are those who marry in a white heat of passion, those who marry for partnership and comfort, and those who live together, love each other, and have absolutely no intention of ruining it all with a wedding. Evelyn has been married to her husband for forty years—forty years since he slipped off her first wedding ring and put his own in its place. Delphine has seen both sides of love-the ecstatic, glorious highs of seduction and the bitter, spiteful fury that descends when it’s over. James, a paramedic who works the night shift, knows his wife’s family thinks she could have done better; while Kate, partnered with Dan for a decade, has seen every kind of wedding—beach weddings, backyard weddings, castle weddings- and has vowed never, ever, to have one of her own. As these lives and marriages unfold in surprising ways, we meet Frances Gerety, a young advertising copywriter in 1947. Frances is working on the De Beers campaign and she needs a signature line, so, one night before bed, she scribbles a phrase on a scrap of paper: “A Diamond Is Forever.” And that line changes everything.

A rich, layered, exhilarating novel spanning nearly a hundred years, The Engagements captures four wholly unique marriages, while tracing the story of diamonds in America and the way—for better or for worse— these glittering stones have come to symbolize our deepest hopes for everlasting love.

“Sullivan has written an intricate, beautifully timed novel, so delicious in its gradual unfolding that readers will want to reread it immediately to enjoy the fully realized ties.” —Library Journal

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: J. Courtney Sullivan is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels Commencement and Maine.

May 2014 | Trade Paperback | Fiction | 528 pp | $15.95 | ISBN 9780307949226 Vintage | randomhouse.com | jcourtneysullivan.com

CONVERSATION STARTERS

The Engagements’ epigraph refers to diamonds as “nothing more than an empty cage for our dreams-blank surfaces upon which the shifting desires of the heart could be written.” What does this tell us about the novel we’re about to discuss?

Feminism and the role of women is a recurring theme in The Engagements. Which character’s attitude did you relate to the most?

Two of the novel’s major characters are anti-marriage, with story lines that are decades apart. How does time change society’s attitude toward intentionally unmarried women?

On page 27, Evelyn thinks, “Men made mistakes and when they asked forgiveness, women forgave. It happened every day.” Does this prove true throughout the novel, with other characters?

Did you know that Frances Gerety was a real person? How does that change your feelings about the character?

Why do you think Frances is the only character whose story moves through time?

On page 100, in a section set in 1972, Evelyn thinks, “Since she and Gerald were young, what it meant to be an American had changed. There was so much emphasis on the self now-self over country, self over family, self over all else. Her son was a shining example of the consequences.” How does this play out in more contemporary sections of the novel and with other story lines?

While the novel is about marriage, parental relationships also play a role. Discuss the parenting styles of Evelyn, James, and Kate.

What did you think about Delphine’s reaction to P.J.’s betrayal?

On page 175, Meg says to Frances, “Sometimes it just feels like we can’t tell what we’ve given up until it’s too late.” What other characters could have uttered that line?

On page 275, May says to Kate, “It’s very rare to find anyone who’s absolutely certain that she chose the right ring.” What metaphor is at work here?

FALLING FROM HORSES

Molly Gloss

In 1938, nineteen-year-old ranch hand Bud Frazer sets out for Hollywood. His little sister has been gone a couple of years now, his parents are finding ranch work and comfort for their loss where they can, but for Bud, Echol Creek, where he grew up and first learned to ride, is a place he can no longer call home. So he sets his sights on becoming a stunt rider in the movies—and rubbing shoulders with the great screen cowboys of his youth. On the long bus ride south, Bud meets a young woman who also harbors dreams of making it in the movies, though not as a starlet but as a writer, a real writer. Lily Shaw is bold and outspoken, confident in ways out of proportion with her small frame and bookish looks. But the two strike up an unlikely kinship that will carry them through their tumultuous days in Hollywood—and, as it happens, for the rest of their lives. Acutely observed, Falling from Horses charts what was to be a glittering year in the movie business through the wide eyes and lofty dreams of two people trying to make their mark on the world, or at least make their way in it. Molly Gloss weaves a remarkable tale of humans and horses, hope and heartbreak, narrated by one of the most winning narrators ever to walk off the page.

“I read Falling from Horses in two gulps. The writing is gorgeous, the setting so beautifully realized, both time and place, the narrative voice unforgettable, and all the characters so real and compelling. Tremendous, page-turning...I could not have loved it more.” —Karen Joy Fowler, author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves and The Jane Austen Book Club

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Molly Gloss is the best-selling author of The Hearts of Horses, The Jump-Off Creek, The Dazzle of Day, and Wild Life.

October 2014 | Hardcover | Fiction | 336 pp | $25.00 | ISBN 9780544279292 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | hmhco.com | mollygloss.com

CONVERSATION STARTERS

Bud sets out for Hollywood intending to find work as a movie cowboy. What does he imagine this work will look like? What are his preconceived notions about the Hollywood movie industry?

Much of the novel takes place at the cusp of World War Two. Do you see events in the larger world having much impact on the characters’ lives? How will the war affect each of them?

How is the ranching life of Bud’s childhood different from, or the same as, the ranching life he has seen portrayed in western films?

Lily came to Hollywood determined to become a screenwriter. What qualities did she possess that might have helped her succeed? What roadblocks stood in her way?

Did you think the relationship between Bud and Lily would blossom into romance? What traits in each of them could have led them, instead, toward lifelong friendship?

Parts of the novel are set on a ranch in the 1920s and early 1930s, a time of worldwide economic depression, drought, and technological advances. How were these things changing the way of life for ranchers in the West? Can you think of aspects of ranch life that remain the same today as in the 1880s when Elbert Echol and his wife first settled on their ranch?

Late in the novel, Bud speaks of ways in which “the cowboy stories went wrong,” and he tells us “the humanity has been hollowed out of our movie heroes and villains.” What do you think he means by this? Do you agree with his statements?

Bud has seen violence and death both in his life on the Echol Creek ranch, and in his work as a stunt rider for the movie industry. Explore the differences between these experiences.

FAMILY LIFE

Akhil Sharma

Hailed as a “supreme storyteller” (Philadelphia Inquirer) for his “cunning, dismaying and beautifully conceived” fiction (The New York Times), Akhil Sharma is possessed of a narrative voice “as hypnotic as those found in the pages of Dostoyevsky” (The Nation). In his highly anticipated second novel, Family Life, he delivers a story of astonishing intensity and emotional precision. We meet the Mishra family in Delhi in 1978, where eight-year-old Ajay and his older brother Birju play cricket in the streets, waiting for the day when their plane tickets will arrive and they and their mother can fly across the world and join their father in America. America to the Mishras is, indeed, everything they could have imagined and more: when automatic glass doors open before them, they feel that surely they must have been mistaken for somebody important. Pressing an elevator button and the elevator closing its doors and rising, they have a feeling of power at the fact that the elevator is obeying them. Life is extraordinary until tragedy strikes, leaving one brother severely brain-damaged and the other lost and virtually orphaned in a strange land. Ajay, the family’s younger son, prays to a God he envisions as Superman, longing to find his place amid the ruins of his family’s new life.

“Riveting... Sharma is compassionate but unflinching.” —Sonali Deraniyagala, The New York Times Book Review

“A loving portrait, both painful and honest.” —Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Akhil Sharma is the author of An Obedient Father, winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. A native of Delhi, he lives in New York City.

April 2014 | Hardcover | Fiction | 224 pp | $23.95 | ISBN 9780393060058 February 2015 | Trade Paperback | Fiction | 224 pp | $14.95 | ISBN 9780393350609 W.W. Norton | vwvnorton.com

CONVERSATION STARTERS

The novel opens in the present, when Ajay is forty and his parents are elderly. How does this opening affect your experience of the rest of the novel, which takes place during Ajay’s childhood?

America is marvelous to the Mishra family at first. If tragedy hadn’t struck, do you think that America would have met the Mishras’ expectations for it? Or do you think that at least certain elements of their disillusionment were inevitable?

How does the Mishras’ status as immigrants affect their experience of Birju’s accident? How might their lives following the accident have played out differently if they weren’t strangers in a strange land?

What do you make of Ajay’s conversations with God following his brother’s accident? Describe the God that Ajay invents for himself. How does his God help him, and how doesn’t he? Can you pinpoint the moment in the novel when Ajay stops talking to God?

Describe the process by which Ajay becomes a writer. How does writing change the way he experiences his childhood?

In the aftermath of Birju’s accident, Ajay’s mother turns to religion and his father to alcohol. How are these two coping mechanisms similar or different? Do you think that Ajay’s own way of coping—academic success—has anything in common with his parents’?

Did you find moments in Family Life funny, despite its darkness? What kind of humor does the novel possess?

Describe the prose style in Family Life. What do you think the author achieves through the candor and lack of sentimentality?

On the second anniversary of his brother’s accident, Ajay thinks, “I couldn’t believe that everything had changed because of three minutes” (129). What do you make of this? How does the brevity of the accident itself affect your experience of the passage of time in the novel, which takes place over many years?

Family Life ends in a moment of ambiguity. What is it about this moment and about Ajay’s happiness that tells him he has a problem? Do you think he’ll ever escape or solve it?

THE FIRST PHONE CALL FROM HEAVEN

Mitch Albom

From the beloved author of the number-one New York Times bestsellers Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven comes his most thrilling and magical novel yet—a page-turning mystery and a meditation on the power of human connection. One morning in the small town of Coldwater, Michigan, the phones start ringing. The voices say they are calling from heaven. Is it the greatest miracle ever? Or some cruel hoax? As news of these strange calls spreads, outsiders flock to Coldwater to be a part of it. At the same time, a disgraced pilot named Sully Harding returns to Coldwater from prison to discover his hometown gripped by “miracle fever.” Even his young son carries a toy phone, hoping to hear from his mother in heaven. As the calls increase, and proof of an afterlife begins to surface, the town—and the world— transforms. Only Sully, convinced there is nothing beyond this sad life, digs into the phenomenon, determined to disprove it for his child and his own broken heart. The First Phone Call from Heaven is Mitch Albom at his best—a virtuosic story of love, history, and belief.

“Beautiful and smart. Perhaps the most stirring and transcendent heaven story since Field of Dreams.” —Matthew Quick, New York Times bestselling author of The Silver Linings Play book

“A beautifully rendered tale of faith and redemption that makes us think, feel, and hope—and then doubt and then believe, as only Mitch Albom can make us do.” —Garth Stein, New York Times bestselling author of The Art of Racing in the Rain

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Mitch Albom is a bestselling novelist, screenwriter, playwright, and award-winning journalist. He is the author of five number one New York Times bestsellers.

October 2014 | Trade Paperback | Fiction | 336 pp | $15.99 | ISBN 9780062294401 Harper Paperbacks | harpercollins.com | mitchalbom.com

CONVERSATION STARTERS

Are you surprised by the various reactions from the people who receive the phone calls from heaven?

How do these phone calls from heaven change the small midwestern town of Coldwater? Do you think it would be different if the same thing happened in a major city?

How do the town’s different religious leaders handle the news of the calls? What would you do if you were a spiritual guide like Pastor Warren, and one of your parish members broke such news to you?

One of the most serious concerns of the religious leaders was the idea that, “if people truly believed they were talking with heaven, how soon before they expected to hear from the Lord?” What are the implications of this question? Do you think this is a legitimate concern?

Throughout the novel, Mitch Albom interweaves the story of Alexander Graham Bell and the telephone. Why do you think he includes this? How does it illuminate the novel’s message?

Is Sully a good man? What emotions motivate him when we first meet him? Is he the same person at the end of the novel? Why is he skeptical from the very beginning? Why drives him to find the truth? Are the answers he finds those he was truly looking for?

What advice would you give Sully to help him protect his son, yet help him understand death in the cycle of life?

The role of media and technology plays a big part in spreading the news of the phone calls. Is our instant connectedness ultimately a good thing? What about Amy, the journalist who broke the original story? How does she feel about her role? How does her outlook change as the novel progresses? What factors influence her viewpoint?

Towns like Coldwater face major social and economic problems today. Do these problems make it more likely that people would cling to a miracle like a phone call from heaven?

What propelled Horace to act the way he did? Were his motives pure?

What do you think will happen to the characters and this town? What has the impact of the event had on all their lives? Was the event ultimately positive or negative?

THE FRAGILE WORLD

Paula Treick DeBoard

The Kaufmans always considered themselves a normal, happy family. Curtis is a physics teacher at the local high school. His wife, Kathleen, restores furniture for upscale boutiques. Daniel is away at college on a prestigious music scholarship, and twelve year-old Olivia is a happy-go-lucky kid whose biggest concern is passing her next math test. And then comes the middle-of-the-night phone call that changes everything. Daniel has been killed in what the police are calling a “freak” road accident, and the remaining Kaufmans are left to flounder in their grief. The anguish of loss is isolating, and it’s not long before this once-perfect family falls apart. As time passes and the wound refuses to heal, Curtis becomes obsessed with the idea of revenge, a growing mania that leads him to pack up his life and his anxious teenage daughter and set out on a collision course to right a wrong.

An emotionally charged novel, The Fragile World is a journey through America’s heartland and a family’s brightest and darkest moments, exploring the devastating pain of losing a child and the beauty of finding healing in unexpected ways.

“Assured storytelling propels Deboard’s first novel.” —Publishers Weekly

“Rich and evocative... compelling.” —RT Book Reviews

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Paula Treick DeBoard lives with her husband, Will, and their brood of four-legged creatures in Modesto, California. She received a BA in English from Dordt College, and MFA in Creative Writing from the university of Southern Maine and a practical education from countless students in her English classes over the years.

November 2014 | Trade Paperback | Fiction | 432 pp | $14.95 | ISBN 9780778316763 Harlequin MIRA | harlequin.com | paulatreickdeboard.com

CONVERSATION STARTERS

Was it surprising that Kathleen was able to move on with her life while Curtis couldn’t seem to move past his anger? What causes parents to react differently to tragedies in their family?

Would you be able to forgive a person who caused serious injury or death to a loved one—even if that act was unintentional?

Robert Saenz, although a fictional character, could be all too real. Curtis believes the judicial system has failed where Robert Saenz is concerned. What might be an appropriate punishment for an action— however unintentional—that has such deadly consequences?

Curtis doesn’t seem to believe he could ever cause harm to Olivia or Kathleen, although of course his actions could have a devastating effect on their lives, as well. Does this lack of awareness come from a callousness or insensitivity to others, or is he simply blind to everything but his desire for revenge?

Consider Olivia’s many fears throughout the book. Do these fears seem like a natural reaction to her circumstances, or a sign of a more serious issue? In what ways can fear affect a person?

Why does Kathleen take more responsibility than she deserves for what happens at the end of the book? Why doesn’t Curtis intervene and publicly take responsibility?

When Curtis and Olivia say “Love...Eventually” at the end of the book, do you believe them? Can things work out for the Kaufmans, moving forward?

THE GIRL YOU LEFT BEHIND

Jojo Moyes

Another New York Times bestseller by the author of Me Before You and One Plus One—a spellbinding story of two women united in their fight for what they love most. Paris, 1916. Sophie Lefevre must keep her family safe while her adored husband, Edouard, fights at the front. When their town falls to the Germans in the midst of World War I, Sophie is forced to serve them every evening at her hotel. From the moment the new Kommandant sets eyes on Sophies portrait—painted by her artist husband—a dangerous obsession is born, one that will lead Sophie to make a dark and terrible decision. Almost a century later, Sophie’s portrait hangs in the home of Liv Halston, a wedding gift from her young husband before his sudden death. After a chance encounter reveals the portrait’s true worth, a battle begins over its troubled history and Liv’s world is turned upside all over again.

Moyes (Me Before You) writes with such clarity that one can almost see the eponymous 100-year-old painting at the center of her wonderful new novel.... an uncommonly good love story.” —Booklist

“Lovely and wry, Moyes’s newest is captivating and bittersweet.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Jojo Moyes builds on her strengths in this moving and accomplished new novel. As she did in the best-selling Me Before You, she asks readers to think in fresh ways about a morally complex issue... The Girl You Left Behind is strong, provocative, satisfying fiction.” —The Washington Post

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jojo Moyes is the New York Times bestselling- author of The Girl You Left Behind, Honeymoon in Paris, Me Before You, and The Last Letter from Your Lover. She also writes for a variety of newspapers and magazines. She lives in Essex, England.

June 2014 | Trade Paperback | Fiction | 464 pp | $16.00 | ISBN 9780143125778 Penguin Books | penguin.com | jojomoyes.com

CONVERSATION STARTERS

At one point, the Kommandant asks Sophie if they can just “be two people” (72). What did you make of this—did you ever find yourself sympathizing with the Kommandant or any of the German soldiers? Is there room for sympathy on both sides?

Does Edouard’s portrait of Sophie capture who she already was or who she had the potential to become?

Before you knew the truth about Liliane Bethune, how did you feel about the treatment she received at the hands of the other villages?

Sophie strikes a deal with the Kommandant in hopes that he, in turn, will reunite her with Edouard. Would you be willing to make a similar trade? Would most men appreciate Sophie’s sacrifice?

Unlike Helene, Aurelian angrily condemns Sophie’s relationship with the Kommandant. Why do you think Aurelian reacted as he did?

Have you ever experienced real hunger? If you were a French village in St. Peronne, how far might you go in order to feed yourself and your loved ones?

How did you think Sophie’s story would end? Were you surprised by what Liv uncovered?

Liv feels that she cannot go on without the portrait of Sophie—it is that important to her. Should a material object hold such significance?

Do you think the present-day Lefevre family’s interest in the financial worth of The Girl You Left Behind—and their apparent lack of interest in its beauty—mad their claim any less worthy?

Why does Liv ultimately choose to try to save the painting rather than her home? What would you have done in her position?

Is Paul right to fear that Liv would eventually resent him for the loss of the painting?

In general, if a stolen artwork is legally acquired by its current owner, whose claim is more legitimate: the new owner or the original owner and his or her descendants? Should there be a statute of limitations? What if the current owner is a museum?

THE GODDESS OF SMALL VICTORIES

Yannick Grannec

Princeton, 1980. Kurt Gödel, the most fascinating, though hermetic, mathematician of the twentieth century, has just died of anorexia. His widow, Adele, a fierce woman shunned by her husband’s colleagues because she had been a cabaret dancer, is now consigned to a nursing home. To the great annoyance of the Institute for Advanced Study, she refuses to hand over Gödel’s precious records. Anna Roth, the timid daughter of two mathematicians who are part of the Princeton clique, is given the difficult task of befriending Adele and retrieving the documents from her. As Adele begins to notice Anna’s own estrangement from her milieu and starts to trust her, she opens the gates of her memory and together they travel back to Vienna during the Nazi era, Princeton right after the war, the pressures of McCarthyism, the end of the positivist ideal, and the advent of nuclear weapons. It is this epic story of a genius who could never quite find his place in the world, and the determination of the woman who loved him, that will eventually give Anna the courage to change her own life.

“A model ofnovelistic efficiency which intelligently combines history, theorems, passion, and flamingos.” —Lire

“Suffice it to say that The Goddess of Small Victories is an astonishing novel.” —Le Point

“A first novel as ambitious as it is accessible.” —Le Soir

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Yannick Grannec is a graphic designer, freelance art director, professor of fine arts, and enthusiast of mathematics. The Goddess of Small Victories is her first novel. She lives in Saint-Paul de Vence, France.

October 2014 | Hardcover | Fiction | 464 pp | $26.95 | ISBN 9781590516362 Other Press | otherpress.com

CONVERSATION STARTERS

Why do you think Yannick Grannec chose to write about Kurt Gödel’s life from the perspective of his wife? How does this choice change what we see of Gödel? How is it different from what we might have read had this been a biography of the mathematician?

Anna often reflects on the sense of purposelessness she feels in her life. (See “The sum of little bits of wasted time and the lateness of others added up to a lost life,” (27); “What worries me is that I’m not doing anything with my life,” (183)). How does this relate to her professional ambition and her relationships with Adele, her parents, and Leo? How does it compare to Kurt Gödel’s passion for his work?

How does Adele and Anna’s relationship change over the course of the novel? Why does Adele open up to her and not to any of the other people sent to retrieve the Nachlass? What light does Adele’s story of her life with Kurt shed on Anna’s own life?

On page 29 Adele says, “Humor is requisite for survival, young lady. Especially here.” What purpose does humor serve in the novel?

What is the effect of viewing significant historical events and individuals, such as the Anschluss, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and Albert Einstein’s death, through the lens of Adele and Kurt’s marriage?

Adele, Anna, and Kurt all feel marginalized by their communities Why is Adele able to communicate her lonesomeness to Anna but not to Kurt? In what ways do Anna and Adele’s outcast status differ from Kurt’s?

Adele and Kurt both are more concerned with their personal lives than with the political situations around them. How is this reflected in Anna’s initial preoccupation with getting Kurt’s papers from Adele?

What is the difference between the story Adele tells herself and the account Elizabeth Glinka gives about the Gödels’ home life? Does it alter Anna’s or your understanding of Adele and her life with Kurt?

Adele believes she was created “to keep a certain genius from slipping away before his time.” In contrast, Anna concludes that “No one has a mission. Adele had loved Kurt; nothing was more important.” With whom do you agree and why?

HADES

Candice Fox

On a dark night in a junkyard on the outskirts of Sydney, Australia, Hades Archer disposes of things other people either don’t want, or cannot face. Old machinery and dead bodies are dismembered with equally cool precision, until two children are delivered for disposal, still alive. Hades nurses them back to health and raises them as his own. They are twins, a boy and a girl, whom he names Eric and Eden.

“Powerful This is an incredible read! A great murder mystery, Dexter would be proud! This is how a crime thriller should make you feel” —The Reading Room

“A frighteningly self-assured debut with a cracker plot, strong characters, and feisty, no-nonsense writing.” —Qantas Magazine

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Candice Fox served as an officer in the Royal Australian Navy. She currently teaches writing at the University of Notre Dame in Sydney, Australia where she lives. She is completing her Ph.D. in literary censorship and terrorism.

February 2015 | Trade Paperback | Fiction | 320 pp | $15.00 | ISBN 9781617734410 Kensington Books | kensingtonbooks.com | candicefoxauthor.com

CONVERSATION STARTERS

A central question in Hades is whether Eric and Eden were made killers because of their childhood trauma, or if they naturally were born with a dark instinct within them. Do you think Eric and Eden were always meant to be killers?

The organ thief in Hades gives those he contacts a difficult choice: in order to save their sick relatives, they have to be willing to sacrifice another human life. Are the people who agree to the plan victims in their own right, or are they just as culpable as the killer?

Jason says, “People care for as long as it’s socially appropriate . . . they love and they hate and they share and they feel guilt as long as they need to, and not a second longer. You can switch that off whenever you want to. You can make it so that you don’t feel anything at all.” Do you agree this quote? Why or why not?

Hades is told from the shifting perspectives of Frank and Hades. How do their perceptions of Eden and Eric differ? How are they the same?

Are there any heroes in Hades?

Hades ultimately makes the decision to raise Eric and Eden as his own children. Can his choice redeem him from his role as Lord of the Underworld?

Martina Ducote was able to escape the killer’s first attack. How did her fight for survival add to the novel? Was her relationship with Frank a wise decision to make?

How do Frank’s feelings toward Eden shift during the course of the novel?

“I hadn’t known then I was dealing with a monster.” Frank voices this opinion about Eden. Do you agree with Frank’s assessment? How could other characters in the novel relate to the quote: Jason? Eric? Frank himself?

Hades’ author, Candice Fox, is the daughter of a prison parole officer father and a mother who fostered over one hundred children. Her background serves as a foundation to her writing. Are there any elements of your lives that have captured your fascination in novels?

HOLLOW CITY

The Second Novel of Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children

Ransom Riggs

The extraordinary journey that began in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children continues as Jacob Portman and his newfound friends journey to London, the peculiar capital of the world. There, they hope to find a cure for their beloved headmistress, Miss Peregrine. But in this war-torn city, hideous surprises lurk around every corner. And before Jacob can deliver the peculiar children to safety, he must make an important decision about his love for Emma Bloom.

Hollow City draws readers in a richly imagined world of telepathy and time loops, of sideshows and shapeshifters—a world populated with adult “peculiars,” murderous wights, and a bizarre menagerie of uncanny animals. Like its predecessor, this second novel in the Peculiar Children series blends thrilling fantasy with never-before-published vintage photography for a one-of-a-kind reading experience.

“...a stunning achievement.” —Boston Globe

“Ideal for fans of Neil Gaiman and Daniel Kraus, Hollow City blends fantasy and horror into a world that will engross readers and leave them eager for more.” —Shelf Awareness

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Ransom Riggs grew up in Florida but now makes his home in the land of peculiar children—Los Angeles. He was raised on a steady diet of ghost stories and British comedy, which probably explains the novels he writes. There’s a nonzero chance he’s in your house right now, watching you from underneath the bed. (Go ahead and check. We’ll wait.) If not, you can always find him on Twitter @ransomriggs. See ReadingGroupChoices.com for the Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children book profile and conversation starters.

January 2014 | Hardcover | Fiction | 396 pp | $17.99 | ISBN 9781594746123 Quirk Books | quirkbooks.com | ransomriggs.com

CONVERSATION STARTERS

At the end of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, the children are starting out on a new, hopeful adventure. Though Hollow City begins where the previous book left off, what has changed about the children’s outlook? Do they still have hope?

Enoch tends to be the antagonist within the group. Do you think Enoch is pessimistic or realistic?

Why do you think the hollows and wights chose to pose as Nazi soldiers? How does this element add to their malicious presence in the book?

The children spend the entire book running away from hollows while trying to make their way to London. Did you think running was the best plan, or should they have tried to stand and fight, or simply hide?

Enoch repeatedly voices the worst-case scenario. Does doing so harm or hurt the group’s progress? Is it better to keep spirits high by sugarcoating the truth or to be completely honest about the situation and prepare to face it?

The Gypsies live separately from the rest of society, much like the peculiar children. What other similarities do you notice between the Gypsies and the peculiars?

The children’s stories of their past are mostly sad, especially Emma’s. How would you react if your friend or family member suddenly developed peculiar powers?

What did you think about Jacob’s eventual decision to leave the peculiar children? What decision would you have made in his place?

Hollow City ends with a spectacular cliffhanger. What do you think will happen in the next book? How will Jacob’s newly discovered powers affect the story?

If the books in the Peculiar Children series were made into films, whom would you cast to play Jacob?

THE ILLUSION OF SEPARATENESS

Simon Van Booy

The characters in Simon Van Booy s The Illusion of Separateness discover at their darkest moments of fear and isolation that they are not alone, that they were never alone, that every human being is a link in a chain we cannot see. This gripping novel— inspired by true events—tells the interwoven stories of a deformed German infantryman; a lonely British film director; a young, blind museum curator; two Jewish American newlyweds separated by war; and a caretaker at a retirement home for actors in Santa Monica. They move through the same world but fail to perceive their connections until, through seemingly random acts of selflessness, a veil is lifted to reveal the vital parts they have played in one another’s lives, and the illusion of their separateness.

“The uncanny beauty of Van Booy’s prose, and his ability to knife straight to the depths of a character’s heart, fill a reader with wonder....There are so many wonderful sentences in this book, a reviewer groans for want of room to list them.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“Masterfulprose....From minimalistic sentences he wrings out maximum impact, stripping away artifice and elaboration in favor of stark, emotional clarity and honesty.” —Boston Globe

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Simon Van Booy is the author of two novels and two collections of short stories, including The Secret Lives of People in Love and Love Begins in Winter, which won the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. He is the editor of three philosophy books and has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, NPR, and the BBC. His work has been translated into fourteen languages. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and daughter.

July 2014 | Trade Paperback | Fiction | 224 pp | $14.99 | ISBN 9780062248459 Harper Perennial | harpercollins.com | simonvanbooy.com

CONVERSATION STARTERS

Define the phrase “illusion of separateness.” The author uses it three times—in the epitaph, as the name of a photo exhibit curated by one of the book’s characters, and as the book’s title. How do all three tie together? What is the author’s message to the reader about “separateness”? Is it part of the human condition that we feel isolated? Describe the ways in which all the characters in the novel are connected.

In your group, have each member play the game “six degrees of separation.” What, if any, links do you share that you had not realized— or consciously recognized—before?

Think about the various characters. How did their choices unite the circle of their connection? Focus on one. What might he or she have done that would have broken the link?

Does it matter that at the end of the novel, the various characters do not recognize their importance to each other? Is it enough that you, the reader, understand the link between them?

At the beginning of the novel, after Martin discovers the truth of his existence, the author writes, “He had been reborn into the nightmare of truth. The history of others had been his all along.” What is the author conveying with these words?

Amelia describes being blind. Do you think that while sight affords us much, it also closes us off to other aspects of life, and makes us “blind” in another kind of way?

Amelia tells us that she believes, “people would be happier if they had admitted things more often. In a sense we are all prisoners of some memory, or fear, or disappointment—we are all defined by something we can’t change.” Do you agree with her? How are each of the characters defined by something they cannot change? How do they adapt to this defining element?

Analyze the structure of the novel. Why do you think the author chose this structure versus straight linear narrative? Would the story have the same emotional impact if it had been told from one or two character’s points of view alone? What makes this a novel rather than a collection of short stories?

INFERNO

Dan Brown

In Inferno, Dan Brown once again offers readers the same heady mix of history, art, symbols, and high-wire tension that catapulted The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons, and The Lost Symbol into international blockbusters. This time the stakes are even higher, as Harvard professor of symbology Robert Langdon must decode the mystery surrounding a virus that has the power to alter the course of human civilization—or possibly end it. Renowned biochemist Bertrand Zobrist has created a virus that will be released in just twenty-four hours and infect the entire human species. Zobrist is a Dante fanatic and he has used references to Dante’s great poem as clues to the location and purpose of the virus. Langdon draws upon his own extensive knowledge of Dante’s poem and of Florence’s splendid art and architecture to decipher Zobrist’s riddle. But will he find the virus in time? What makes Inferno so compelling is not only Dan Brown’s masterful ability to spin a spellbinding tale but his skill at weaving a complex and pressing social issue into the fabric of his narrative.

“A book-length scavenger hunt.... Jam-packed with tricks.”
—The New York Times

“Fast, clever, well-informed.... Dan Brown is the master of the intellectual cliffhanger.” —The Wall Street Journal

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Dan Brown is the author of numerous #1 bestselling novels, most recently Inferno. Previously, The Lost Symbol broke the record for the biggest one-week sale in Random House history for a single title. His earlier title, The Da Vinci Code, is one of the bestselling novels of all time. Mr. Brown was named one of the World’s 100 Most Influential People by Time Magazine. He has appeared in the pages of Newsweek, Forbes, People, GQ, The New Yorker, and others.

May 2014 | Trade Paperback | Fiction | 576 pp | $16.00 | ISBN 9780804172264 Anchor | randomhouse.com | danbrown.com

CONVERSATION STARTERS

What features does Inferno share with Dan Brown’s other Robert Langdon novels: The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons, and The Lost Symbol? In what ways is it different from those earlier works?

Why has Brown used these lines from Dante as an epigraph to Inferno: “The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis”? How does that statement illuminate the novel? What is the particular danger of maintaining moral neutrality in Inferno?

What accounts for the frenetic narrative pace of the novel? How does Dan Brown use chapter endings to create suspense? What other devices create a narrative tension that pulls the reader along?

What are some of the most surprising twists and turns in Inferno?

The brilliant biochemist Bertrand Zobrist asserts some unsettling ideas. He argues that the Black Plague was one of the best things that ever happened to humanity and ushered in the Renaissance. He also believes that the human race won’t survive unless we have another mass extinction event. Is Zobrist right about these issues? Is his solution the lesser of two evils or is it too morally repugnant even to consider?

How does Langdon use his knowledge of literature, art, and symbology to decipher the clues that lead him to the location of Zobrist’s virus? In what ways is Dante’s great poem, The Inferno, central to the novel?

Sienna Brooks is perhaps the most complex character in the novel. How has her past influenced who she has become? Why does she feel that she has finally found a purpose at the end of the book?

In what ways do issues of trust and betrayal play out in Inferno?

What does Dan Brown’s use of a real-life contemporary movement like Transhumanism add to Inferno? Does Transhumanism offer solutions to some of the essential problems that confront the human species?

At the end of the novel, Dr. Sinskey invites Sienna to accompany her to a conference to address world leaders about the virus Zobrist released and discuss the issue of population control. Is there a significance to having two women, rather than two men, assume this role?

AN ITALIAN WIFE

Ann Hood

An Italian Wife is the extraordinary story of Josephine Rimaldi—her joys, sorrows, and passions, spanning more than seven decades. The novel begins in turn-of-the-century Italy, when fourteen-year-old Josephine, sheltered and naive, is forced into an arranged marriage to a man she doesn’t know or love who is about to depart for America, where she later joins him. Bound by tradition, Josephine gives birth to seven children. The last, Valentina, is conceived in passion, born in secret, and given up for adoption. Josephine spends the rest of her life searching for her lost child, keeping her secret even as her other children go off to war, get married, and make their own mistakes. Her son suffers in World War One. One daughter struggles to assimilate in the new world of the 1950s American suburbs, while another, stranded in England, grieves for a lover lost in World War Two. Her granddaughters experiment with sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll in the 1970s. Poignant, sensual, and deeply felt, An Italian Wife is a sweeping and evocative portrait of a family bound by love and heartbreak.

“A big, full-hearted grazie to Ann Hood... She has given us a feast of a story: impressive in its range, sumptuous in its evocations of love and loss, and deeply satisfying.” —Christopher Castellani, author of All This Talk of Love

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Ann Hood is the author of six works of fiction, including the bestseller The Knitting Circle and, most recently, The Obituary Writer, as well as a memoir, Comfort. She is also the editor of Knitting Yarns: Writers on Knitting. The winner of two Pushcart prizes as well as Best American Food Writing, Best American Travel Writing, and Best American Spiritual Writing awards, she lives in Providence, Rhode Island.

September 2014 | Hardcover | Fiction | 288 pp | $25.95 | ISBN 9780393241662 W.W. Norton | wwnorton.com | annhood.us

CONVERSATION STARTERS

From her marriage to her emigration to America to raising her family, Josephine Rimaldi is not a person with a lot of choices in life. Would you consider her to be an unhappy person? Do you think she would consider herself to be unhappy? Has our definition of what happiness is, what choices a person deserves, and what makes for a meaningful life changed in the generations since Josephine’s youth?

Describe how the Rimaldi family’s relationship to the Catholic Church evolves from generation to generation.

Josephine loses a daughter. Martha loses a lover. Elisabetta loses her childhood ambition. Carmine loses his grip on reality. To what extent are Josephine and her children defined by loss? What do they find to live for in the wake of their losses?

Compare and contrast Josephine’s actual affair with Tommy Petrocelli to her daughter Connie’s imaginary affair with Dr. DiMarco. How are the two women’s circumstances different, and how are they similar? What are both women trying to escape?

We see the Rimaldi family affected by three wars over the course of the novel. Which characters are affected directly, and which indirectly? Can we use this family and these characters as a lens through which to understand how each of these wars changed the country overall?

What does it mean to be an “Italian wife”? Does the meaning of that moniker change over the course of the novel for each generation?

When and in what circumstances did your family come to America? Do you feel that you are in touch with your heritage? Did you—or did your parents or grandparents—make an effort to assimilate, like some of Josephine’s children did?

In the novel’s final scene, Josephine and her lost daughter are finally in the same place at the same time. Josephine never knows it, although the reader does. What is unique about the reader’s vantage point in An Italian Wife? How would the novel be different if our perspective was tied to a single character?

THE JAGUAR’S CHILDREN

John Vaillant

From the best-selling author of The Tiger and The Golden Spruce, this debut novel is a gripping survival story of a young man trapped, perhaps fatally, during a border crossing. Hector is trapped. The water truck, sealed to hide its human cargo, has broken down. The coyotes have taken all the passengers’ money for a mechanic and have not returned. Those left behind have no choice but to wait. Hector finds a name in his friend Cesar’s phone. AnniMac. A name with an American number. He must reach her, both for rescue and to pass along the message Cesar has come so far to deliver. But are his messages going through? Over four days, as water and food run low, Hector tells how he came to this desperate place. His story takes us from Oaxaca—its rich culture, its rapid change—to the dangers of the border. It exposes the tangled ties between Mexico and El Norte — land of promise and opportunity, homewrecker and unreliable friend. And it reminds us of the power of storytelling and the power of hope, as Hector fights to ensure his message makes it out of the truck and into the world. Both an outstanding suspense novel and an arresting window into the relationship between two great cultures, The Jaguar’s Children shows how deeply interconnected all of us, always, are.

“The Jaguar’s Children is devastating. It’s at once a literary mystery, an engrossing tour deforce, and a brilliant commentary on humanity’s role in the physical world. The voice that echoes out from that abandoned place Vaillant so masterfully creates won’t leave me!’ —Joseph Boyden, author of Three Day Road and The Orenda

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: John Vaillant’s work has appeared in The New Yorker, the Atlantic, National Geographic, and Outside, among other magazines. His two previous, award-winning books, The Tiger and The Golden Spruce, were international bestsellers.

January 2015 | Hardcover | Fiction | 288 pp | $26.00 | ISBN 9780544290082 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | hmhco.com | thetigerbook.com

CONVERSATION STARTERS

What were Hector’s motivations for leaving Mexico? What were Cesar’s? Did you know much about Oaxaca before you read the novel? If so, how did your perception of the place change over the course of the story? If not, what did you learn and did any of it surprise you?

“Who else can grow all their food—sweets and spices, herbs and medicines, corn and beans and squash, even oil for the hair—on one hectare on the side of a mountain?” What secret is Cesar carrying with him? How will it impact the Oaxacans way of life? At the end of the novel, what is your feeling about whether and how their culture can survive?

Who are the coyotes? Why do they have that name? What role do they play in the novel and how are they implicated in its outcome?

Why is this novel called The Jaguar’s Children? Where do jaguars make appearances throughout the novel and what is their significance? How does Hector’s abuelo’s story fit? Hector recalls: “I asked him once, who will dance the jaguar after him. ‘Whoever carves the mask,’ he said. ‘You know where my tools are.’” Does Hector carve a mask?

Why do you think the author chose this format for Hector’s story— telling it through audio and text files? How did it affect your reading? Discuss the progression of Hector’s time in the water tank. How does the author increase the stakes, show the rising tension, and convey the feeling inside the truck?

What do you believe happened at the end of the novel? Explore the various scenarios that could have played out for Hector. What impact did the change in perspective have on your reading? Why do you think the author made this choice?

The novel explores several periods in the relationship between Mexico and the United States as well as several ways in which these two cultures overlap and influence each other. How has your view on these neighbors changed in the course of the book? Do you see ways in which this relationship might improve?

JEWELWEED

David Rhodes

In Jewelweed, David Rhodes—the beloved author of Driftless—returns to the small town of Words, Wisconsin, and introduces a cast of characters who all find themselves struggling to find a new sense of belonging in the present moment—sometimes with the help of peach preserves or mashed potato pie. After serving time for a dubious conviction, Blake Bookehester returns home, enthralled by the philosophy of Spinoza and yearning for the woman he loves. Having agitated for his release, Reverend Winifred Helm slowly comes to understand that she is no longer fulfilled by the ministry. Winnie’s precocious son, August, and his best friend, Ivan, befriend a hermit and roam the woods in search of the elusive Wild Boy. And Danielle Workhouse, Ivan’s single mother and Blake’s former lover, struggles to do right by her son. These and other inhabitants of Words—all flawed, deeply human, and ultimately universal—approach the future with a combination of hope and trepidation, increasingly mindful of the importance of community to their individual lives.

“Reminiscent of Steinbeck, with a little touch of Michener”—Alan Cheuse, National Public Radio’s All Things Considered

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: David Rhodes worked in fields, hospitals, and factories across Iowa. After receiving an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, he published three acclaimed novels: The Last Fair Deal Going Down (1972), The Easter House (1975), and Rock Island Line (1977). In 1977, a motorcycle accident left him partially paralyzed. In 2008, Rhodes returned to the literary scene with Driftless, a novel that was hailed as “the best work of fiction to come out of the Midwest in many years” (Alan Cheuse). He lives with his wife, Edna, in rural Wisconsin. See ReadingGroupChoices.com for book profiles and conversation starters of Rock Island Line and Driftless.

April 2014 | Trade Paperback | Fiction | 464 pp | $16.00 | ISBN 9781571311061 Milkweed Editions | milkweed.org | davidrhodesauthor.com

CONVERSATION STARTERS

Food is a key element in Jewelweed. Beginning with the breakfast pie Nate eats in the first chapter, food, taste and smell all seem critical to this story. What are some other instances where food is central to the narrative? How has food played an important role in your life?

Early in the novel, Winnie considers “how she might know herself better” (35). In what ways are the other characters trying to know themselves better? Which characters are the most successful?

The characters in Jewelweed all seem to be yearning for freedom. Freedom looks different for each of the characters, but can the concept be distilled? Do any of the characters find the freedom they seek?

Did the justice system fail Blake? Does Jewelweed offer a critique of the system?

There are glimpses of the fantastic throughout Jewelweed—the giant turtle that evades capture, the Wild Boy’s ability to be largely unseen, the extraordinarily lifelike statues Lester Mortal creates and then burns as a way of letting go of parts of his past. How does Rhodes make the ordinary seem extraordinary? Does his writing style evoke the fantastic, or does the content?

What function does the Wild Boy serve? When the details of the Wild Boy are fleshed out as Jewelweed comes to a close, does your opinion of Lester Mortal change?

At one point Blake says to Jacob, “Do you ever think maybe there are some things you weren’t supposed to get over? Things that would take you the rest of your life to work through? ” (209) What hasn’t Blake gotten over? What have other characters been unable to let go of?

Why do Ivan and August have such a strong bond? How does August’s worldview impact his relationship with other characters?

Faith is a central theme in Jewelweed—religious and otherwise. How does Winnie’s faith evolve throughout the course of the book? How does Rhodes create the sacred through language?

Blake mentions experiencing “deathless grief” (423). What does he mean by this? Are there other deathless griefs in Jewelweed?

THE LAST DAYS OF CALIFORNIA

Mary Miller

Fifteen-year-old Jess is on a road trip to the end of the world. Her evangelical father has packed up the family and left their Alabama home behind to drive west in anticipation of the rapture, hoping to save as many souls as possible before the Second Coming. With her long-suffering mother and rebellious older sister, Jess hands out tracts to nonbelievers at every rest stop and gas station along the way. But as doomsday approaches, Jess can’t seem to work up any real fear about the apocalypse when her family’s troubles loom so much larger.

Sporting a “King Jesus Returns!” t-shirt, Jess’s semi-earnest efforts to believe are thwarted by a string of familiar teenage obsessions. From “Will the world end?” to “Will I ever fall in love?” each tender worry is brilliantly rendered with equal emotional weight. With a deadpan humor and savage charm that belies a deep sympathy for her characters, Mary Miller captures the gnawing uneasiness, sexual rivalry, and escalating self-doubt of teenage life in America, where the end always seems nigh.

“[A] terrific first novel.... [W]hy worry about labeling a book this good? Just read it.” —New York Times Book Review

“[A] beautiful examination of youth and family.... Rarely, if ever, have we seen young American womanhood painted in such a raw and honest and heartbreaking way.” —Los Angeles Review of Books

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Mary Miller is the author of the short story collection Big World. Her work has been published in Mcsweeney’s Quarterly, American Short Fiction, Oxford American, and other journals. A former Michener Fellow in Fiction at the University of Texas, she currently serves as the John and Renée Grisham Writer in Residence at the University of Mississippi. This is her first novel.

September 2014 | Trade Paperback | Fiction | 256 pp | $14.95 | ISBN 9780871408419 Liveright | wwnorton.com | maryumiller.tumblr.com

CONVERSATION STARTERS

Jess spends a lot of time describing the food she and her family eat on the road. What does food mean to Jess— why is it so significant, and do you think the kind of food she eats says something about her?

Jess believes that Elise’s looks make life easier for her. Do you agree? How would you describe Jess’s body image? Why do you think she is so observant of other peoples’ appearances?

What were your first impressions of each of the Metcalfs? How did your impressions change? Did any characters surprise you?

Jess doesn’t rebel as openly against religion as Elise does. How would you describe Jess’s faith? Do you think her belief in God changes?

After Jess’s experience with Gabe, Elise tells her, “You’re stronger than I am.” What makes Elise say that? Why doesn’t Jess believe it?

Describe each Metcalf’s attitude toward the Rapture. Why do they go on the trip? Do they believe the end of the world is only days away?

Jess’s mother is an enigmatic character. What do you think makes her tick? How would you describe her relationship with Jess? With Elise? Do you think her daughters know her well?

Does Jess’s experience of being a teenager remind you of your own? Do you relate more to Jess or to Elise, or to another character entirely?

What do you think drives Elise’s rebellious and reckless attitude? What drives Jess’s relative caution? Does the close proximity of the road trip seem to alter their behavior?

During the trip, Jess has her first two sexual experiences. What precipitates each encounter? What does Jess get out of them, and how do they affect her?

How would you characterize Jess and Elise’s relationship? When is it strongest and when most fragile? Is it a typical sibling relationship?

Why do you think the novel is called The Last Days of California?

How does the road trip change each of the Metcalfs? What do you think happens to them after the close of the novel? What kind of future do you see for Jess?

THE LAST POLICEMAN

Ben H. Winters

What’s the point in solving murders if we’re all going to die soon, anyway? Detective Hank Palace has faced this question ever since asteroid 2011GV1 hovered into view. There’s no chance left. No hope. Just six precious months until impact. The Last Policeman presents a fascinating portrait of a pre-apocalyptic United States. The economy spirals downward while crops rot in the fields. Churches and synagogues are packed. People all over the world are walking off the job—but not Hank Palace. He’s investigating a death by hanging in a city that sees a dozen suicides every week—except this one feels suspicious, and Palace is the only cop who cares. The first in a trilogy, The Last Policeman offers a mystery set on the brink of an apocalypse. As Palace’s investigation plays out under the shadow of 2011GV1, we’re confronted by hard questions way beyond “whodunit.” What basis does civilization rest upon? What is life worth? What would any of us do, what would we really do, if our days were numbered?

“...sharp, funny, and deeply wise.” —Slate.com

“A promising kickoffto a planned trilogy. For Winters, the beauty is in the details rather than the plot’s grim main thrust.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Ben H. Winters is the author of The Last Policeman trilogy. The Last Policeman, the first book in the trilogy, was the recipient of the 2012 Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America; it was also named one of the Best Books of 2012 by Amazon.com and Slate. Countdown City, the second book, was an NPR Best Book of 2013 and the winner of the Philip K. Dick Award. See ReadingGroupChoices.com for book profiles and conversation starters for Countdown City (Book II) and World of Trouble (Book III).

July 2012 | Trade Paperback | Fiction | 336 pp | $14.95 | ISBN 9781594746741 Quirk Books | quirkbooks.com | benhwinters.com

CONVERSATION STARTERS

Do you think Ben H. Winters paints a convincing picture of Concord, New Hampshire, and of the world at large with only six months until the asteroid might collide with the earth?

The economy is spiraling downward while crops rot in the fields. Churches and synagogues are packed. People all over the world are walking off the job—but not Hank Palace. What do you think motivates Hank to remain dedicated to his work? And is his character realistic?

Hank has finally attained his lifelong goal of becoming a detective but his promotion is due to the fact that all of his colleagues are quitting. Do you think Hank feels the need to prove himself in order to make his dream of being a detective real and fulfilled?

When you learned of how the hospital is handling the patients, how did you react?

Hank has a complicated relationship with his sister and doesn’t like her husband. Were you surprised when Hank took on the risk of looking for Nico’s husband?

Hank has a brief but intimate relationship with Naomi. Is love at the end of the world possible?

Toward the end of the book Hank finds himself alone and seems to be OK with it. Are you surprised that he took in Houdini as a pet?

This novel is a mash-up of mystery and science fiction. If you’re a fan of mystery and not science fiction, did any of the science fiction aspects of the book appeal to you? (Vice versa for the science fiction fans.)

Do you think that Hank, or anyone else, might survive the impact of the asteroid? Or do you believe Hank’s days truly are numbered?

If you knew there were only six months before the apocalypse, what would your bucket list look like?

LIAR’S BENCH

Kim Michele Richardson

In the summer of 1972, Ella Whitlock is found hanging from the rafters of her own home. Everyone in Peckinpaw, Kentucky assumes that Ella’s no-good, junkie of a husband did the deed, or that she just grew tired of enduring his abuse. In the wake of this devastating loss, Ella’s 17-year-old daughter Mudas (Muddy for short) discovers strange clues hidden amongst her mama’s hair ribbons and recipe cards.

Determined to uncover the truth and clear her mama’s name, Muddy enlists the help of her friend Bobby Marshall and follows the clues to Hark Hill Plantation, home of the rich and crooked Roy McGee, the long-rumored leader of a gambling and prostitution ring. Though Bobby passes for white, he has mixed Indian and Black heritage (his great-great grandmother, a slave, was hanged on Hark Hill plantation nearly a hundred years before), a fact which complicates his friendship with Mudas and makes it difficult for them to be seen in public together. In spite of this bigotry, Mudas and Bobby seek comfort in each other’s arms. On the trail to find her mama’s killer, they uncover corruption so deep that it is rooted to yesterday’s sorrows—her mama’s death and the hundred-year-old lynching of Bobby’s grandmother. If Mudas doesn’t piece together the past and present—and fast—she might find herself in a pine box just like her mama.

“One of those rare books I wish I had written. Southern storytelling at its finest. A must read for those who love a nail-biting suspense.” —Ann Hite, author of Ghost On Black Mountain and Georgia Author Of The Year 2012

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Kim Michele Richardson is a volunteer for Habitat for Humanity and an advocate for the prevention of child abuse and domestic violence. She is the author of the memoir The Unbreakable Child. Liar’s Bench is her first novel.

September 2014 | Trade Paperback | Fiction | 256 pp | $14.95 | ISBN 9780871408419 Liveright | wwnorton.com | maryumiller.tumblr.com

CONVERSATION STARTERS

The South of 1972 was not far removed from Freedom Riders, police dogs, and water blasts attacking peaceful protesters. How does the Civil Rights Movement influence Mudas? How does it affect her actions, her fears, and her relationship with Bobby?

Kentucky straddles the “deep” South and the Midwest’s industrial heartland. Mama was torn between those two worlds. Bobby also feels the pull of the big city and dreams of “getting out” of Peckinpaw. Muddy also has high hopes for herself, but she feels a deep connection with her hometown. Do you think she will live out her days in Peckinpaw? Or will her aspirations take her elsewhere?

In the large majority of divorces, mothers retain primary custody of the children. In Liar’s Bench, Muddy remains in her father’s care, which would have been particularly unusual in the ’70s. Is Adam a good father? Does his gender make him ill-equipped to parent a teenage girl? How might have Mudas’ life turned out differently if she had continued to live with her mother?

Liar’s Bench is infused with descriptions of the plants, the sky, the soil, the birds, and their songs. Have we, today, lost the ability to see, feel, and appreciate our natural surroundings? Have we become disconnected from nature?

Today we live in the age of information. Everything is accessible, right at our fingertips. Consider how Muddy’s story would be different if it happened today. Would it be easier for her to find out the truth about her mama’s death? Or would the wealth of information be a smoke screen, making it harder than ever to distinguish fact from fiction?

Title IX is a portion of the Education Amendments of 1972 that states (in part) that “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance. . .” Today, it’s hard to imagine there was a time when girls couldn’t participate in school sports because of gender. Are there any current policies that we will look back on, fifty years from now, and find unfathomable? Is this how we define progress?

LITTLE MERCIES

Heather Gudenkauf

In her latest ripped-from-the-headlines tour de force, New York Times bestselling author Heather Gudenkauf shows how one small mistake can have life-altering consequences.

Veteran social worker Ellen Moore has seen the worst side of humanity—the vilest acts one person can commit against another. She is a fiercely dedicated children’s advocate and a devoted mother and wife. But one blistering summer day, a simple moment of distraction will have repercussions that Ellen could never have imagined, threatening to shatter everything she holds dear and trapping her between the gears of the system she works for. Meanwhile, ten-year-old Jenny Briard has been living with her well-meaning but irresponsible father since her mother left them, sleeping on friends’ couches and moving in and out of cheap motels. When Jenny suddenly finds herself on her own, she is forced to survive with nothing but a few dollars and her street smarts. The last thing she wants is a social worker, but when Ellen’s and Jenny’s lives collide, little do they know just how much they can help one another.

“The portrayal of the frenzied speed of a mother’s life leading ultimately to tragedy is similar to Lisa Genova’s Left Neglected, but with the additional horror of every parent’s worst fear: harming their own child. This novel is full of hope...Recommend to those looking for a quick read with lots to discuss; ideal for book groups.” —Library Journal

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Heather Gudenkauf is the author of the New York Times and USA Today bestselling novels One Breath Away, These Things Hidden and The Weight of Silence. She lives in Iowa with her husband, three children and a very spoiled German Shorthaired Pointer named Maxine. She is currently working on her next novel.

July 2014 | Trade Paperback | Fiction | 320 pp | $15.95 | ISBN 9780778316336 Harlequin MIRA | harlequin.com | heathergudenkauf.com

CONVERSATION STARTERS

Like many parents, Ellen struggles to balance her personal and professional lives. Discuss how you face maintaining that precarious balance.

Ellen’s former client Jade steps in to save Avery’s life and Ellen finds herself being seen as an unfit mother. Talk about this reversal of roles. How do you think this changed Ellen’s view of the parents she works with and how they think of Ellen?

Discuss the ways parenthood and adult-child relationships are portrayed in the novel. Think about Jenny’s relationships with her father, mother, Maudene, her father’s friend, girls, and Ellen’s relationship with her own children and the children she works with.

Ellen’s distractions have catastrophic effects on her daughter’s health, her family, and her professional life as a social worker. Talk about a time when you may have had a close call in your life. How did you feel? How did the experience change you?

Ellen is charged with a felony and potentially faces a prison sentence. Do you think she should have to serve time behind bars?

What scenes or developments in the novel affected you most?

Adam quickly forgives Ellen for leaving Avery in the hot car. How would you react in a similar situation? Does Ellen deserve forgiveness? Do you think she will be able to forgive herself?

Maudene places herself in a precarious situation by taking a wayward Jenny into her home. Discuss the possible implications of this decision. What would you have done if faced with a similar situation?

How do Ellen and Jenny change over the course of the novel? Which character changes the most, which the least?

How did your opinion of Jenny’s mother change over the course of the novel?

In Jenny’s young life she has already faced so many obstacles: poverty, abuse, struggles with school, a runaway mother and an unpredictable father. What do you think will become of Jenny?

What does the title Little Mercies mean to you?

LOCAL SOULS

Allan Gurganus

New York Times Book Review Notable Book of 2013

In Local Souls, Allan Gurganus offers us three linked novellas, set in legendary Falls, North Carolina—site of his beloved Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All. We find the small town revolutionized by freer sexuality, loosened family ties, and secular worship. Gurganus celebrates those citizens who stayed home but uncovers certain old habits—adultery, incest, obsession—very much alive in this “Winesburg, Ohio” with high-speed Internet. Writing about erotic hunger and social embarrassment with Twain’s knife-edged glee, Gurganus dramatizes the passing of Hawthorne’s small-town America. He brings the twisted hilarity of Flannery O’Connor kicking into our new century. Each novella “delivers an ending of true force” (John Irving). Each deepens the luster of Gurganus’s well-known empathy and laughter. His dark comedy gives us indelible characters worth loving. Here is a universal work about a village.

“A tour deforce in the tradition of Hawthorne. It shows that Gurganus’s vast creative and imaginative powers, still rooted in the local, are increasingly universal in scope and effect. The book is an expansive work of love.” —New York Times Book Review

“This book underscores what we have long known—Gurganus stands among the best writers of our time.” —Ann Patchett

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Allan Gurganus’s books include White People and Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All. Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Gurganus is a Guggenheim Fellow and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Adaptations of his fiction have earned four Emmys. A resident of his native North Carolina, he lives in a village of six thousand souls.

May 2014 | Trade Paperback | Fiction | 352 pp | $15.95 | ISBN 9780871407788 Liveright | wwnorton.com | allangurganus.com

CONVERSATION STARTERS

“Fear Not” opens and closes at the scene of a high school play. How does this framing device—and the perspective of the first-person narrator—affect your reading of the story? Did you feel closer to, or further from, the action of the story than you would have if there had been no first-person narrator? In what way did the frame lend the of theater and drama?

The character Fearnot is given her nickname before the events of her story unfold. How does your understanding of that name change over the course of the story? How do her actions and experiences reflect and affect the meaning of her name?

Fearnot breaks two major sexual taboos over the course of her story. How does the second reflect, answer, or, possibly, redeem the first? What did you make of the revelation at the end, about who the couple at the theater turned out to be? Were you surprised?

In “Saints Have Mothers,” Jean Mulray’s relationship to her daughter, Caitlin, is characterized by jealousy, resentment, and possibly a hint of eroticism, in addition to pride and maternal love. How does this novella—like the previous one—explore what is forbidden and unspoken in family relationships? Did you empathize with Jean’s complicated feelings towards her daughter as much or more than you empathized with Fearnot’s feelings towards her son?

Describe the role that the larger community of Falls plays in “Saints Have Mothers.” How are Jean and Caitlin perceived by their peers in town? How does that perception affect them and their relationship, and how does it change over the course of the novella?

Shortly after Caitlin returns, Jean says, “Like the rest of Falls, I had turned my child into someone ideal then immortal” (163). What do you make of this? How does the flesh-and-blood Caitlin who returns alter Jean’s—and your—perception of the “ideal then immortal” Caitlin that they were imagining in her absence?

Describe the effect of the flood in “Decoy.” How does it change Doc Roper? How does it change Bill? With regard to Bill’s memories of his father, what is the significance of the fact that The River Road has been destroyed?

A LONG TIME GONE

Karen White

When Vivien Walker left her home in the Mississippi Delta, she swore never to go back, as generations of the women in her family had. But in the spring, nine years to the day since she’d left, that’s exactly what happens—Vivien returns, fleeing from a broken marriage and her lost dreams for children.

What she hopes to find is solace with “Bootsie,” her dear grandmother who raised her, a Walker woman with a knack for making everything all right. But instead she finds that her grandmother has died and that her estranged mother is drifting further away from her memories. Now Vivien is forced into the unexpected role of caretaker, challenging her personal quest to find the girl she herself once was.

But for Vivien things change in ways she cannot imagine when a violent storm reveals the remains of a long-dead woman buried near the Walker home, not far from the cypress swamp that is soon to give up its ghosts. Vivien knows there is now only one way to rediscover herself—by uncovering the secrets of her family and breaking the cycle of loss that has haunted them for generations.

“[A] dedicated artist...Karen White’s talent is ripe for the taking.” —The Huffington Post

“White’s dizzying carousel of a plot keeps those pages turning, so much so that the book can—and should be—finished in one afternoon, interrupted only by a glass of sweet iced tea.” —Oprah.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Karen White is the New York Times bestselling author of After the Rain, The Time Between, Folly Beach, Falling Home, and such Tradd Street novels as Return to Tradd Street, The Strangers on Montagu Street and The Girl on Legare Street. She grew up in London but now lives with her husband and two children near Atlanta, Georgia.

June 2014 | Hardcover | Fiction | 432 pp | $25.95 | ISBN 9780451240460 New American Library | us.penguingroup.com | karen-white.com

CONVERSATION STARTERS

“Home means so many different things . . . It’s where your people are.” The author creates such a dynamic sense of place for the reader through sensory details and evocative objects such as the heirloom black bed, the watermark from the flood, and the lost diary. What things or memories evoke “home” for you?

Does Vivien get the closure she needs with her mother once she returns home? How do Bootsie’s death, Carol Lynne’s dementia, and Viviens reliance on prescription drugs complicate things?

What is the effect of Carol Lynne’s dementia on those around her? What was it like to encounter Carol Lynne only through her diary?

In one of her diary entries, Carol Lynne notes, “There’s something in the ways of mothers and daughters, I think, that makes us see all the bad parts of ourselves.” Do you think this is true? How does this apply to the Walker women? Does each woman grow emotionally from this realization?

“Because it was something I’d been born with, a poison in the blood I’d inherited from my mother and she from hers and way on back before anybody alive could still remember.” When they left home, what ghosts was each Walker woman chasing? What made each woman return?

Carol Lynne’s diary also reveals the following sentiment: “[Bootsie] just smiled and told me to wait until I become a mother, and then I will understand that my real destiny will be decided by those not yet born.” What does Bootsie mean by this? How do children shape the futures of the Walker women?

Did you suspect the identity of the body earlier in the novel? How does this “ghost” affect the lives of the Walker women?

How does the author use objects or heirlooms such as the watch and ring to unite the characters’ stories across multiple generations? Is there an heirloom you’ve inherited that is loaded with meaning or inspires curiosity about the past?

Did you have any trouble shifting between time lines, which run from the 1920s to the present day? Which era or woman’s story was your favorite?

LONGBOURN

Jo Baker

A New York Times Book Review Notable Book, a Seattle Times Best Title, a Christian Science Monitor Best Fiction Book, a Miami Herald Favorite Book, a Kirkus Best Book of the Year

In Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen painted an unforgettable portrait of the Bennet family and their adventures in courtship and love, all set against the background of their country estate, Longbourn. Now, in a wonderfully fresh perspective on life at Longbourn, Jo Baker goes behind the scenes and down the stairs to introduce the servants who kept the household running and the Bennets comfortable and blissfully oblivious to everyday toil. The staff at Longbourn is in many ways a family: Mrs. Hill, the motherly housekeeper; her husband, who sees to tasks both inside and outside the mansion; Sarah, the hardworking housemaid; and young Polly, the naive, often distracted assistant to Mrs. Hill and Sarah. When a new footman named James Smith arrives, things change for all of them-especially for the independent-minded Sarah, whose initial disdain for James gives way to feelings she has never experienced before. As the household frets over the future of the family estate, the Bennet girls navigate the complexities of finding husbands, and Sarah awakens to her own romantic choices. Jo Baker reveals both the vast distance between and intimate connections among the inhabitants of Longbourn. A brilliant reimagining of Austen’s beloved novel, Longbourn is also a portrait of the disappointments, dreams, struggles, and secrets of the lower classes that stands entirely on its own.

“Rich, engrossing, and filled with fascinating observations.... If you are a Jane Austen fan... you will devour Jo Baker’s ingenious Longbourn.” —O, The Oprah Magazine

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jo Baker was born in Lancashire, England. She is the author of The Undertow, The Mermaid’s Child, and The Telling.

June 2014 | Trade Paperback | Fiction | 352 pp | $15.95 | ISBN 9780345806970 Vintage | randomhouse.com

CONVERSATION STARTERS

“He was such a frustrating mixture of helpfulness, courtesy and incivility that she could indeed form no clear notion of him” (39). What lies at the heart of Sarah’s confusion about James? Are her feelings based on misapprehensions of James’s attitude toward her?

Despite the great difference between their stations in life, in what ways are both Sarah and Elizabeth defined by the social strictures of the time? Are their assumptions about what they can and cannot achieve dictated by society or do they reflect their individual personalities?

Discuss the significance of the discoveries Sarah makes when she explores James’s room (64-65). What does the scene reveal about Sarah’s grasp of the emotional complexities behind James’s carefully constructed facade? In what respects is this a turning point?

What similarities are there between the progression of the courtships of Sarah and James and of Elizabeth and Darcy? What part does pride play in the way Sarah initially responds to James? Is Elizabeth guilty of the same kind of misplaced pride in her initial rejection of Darcy?

In addition to the descriptions of the backbreaking work the servants perform, how does Baker illustrate the more subtle yet no less humiliating aspects of being a servant? What interactions between the Bennets and the staff bring out the true nature of the relationship between the classes?

Baker continues her story a bit beyond the ending of Pride and Prejudice. Do you find her speculations about what happens to Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, their daughter Mary, Mr. and Mrs. Hill, and Polly, satisfying (325-27)?

Does a reader’s enjoyment of Longbourn depend on a familiarity with Pride and Prejudice? How does Baker assert an independent voice and vision while using the framework of Austen’s novel?

Several books inspired by Pride and Prejudice have been published. How does Longbourn compare to other books you have read about the Bennets and Darcys? Why have reworkings of Austen become so popular?

THE LOVE AFFAIRS OF NATHANIEL P.

Adelle Waldman

A debut novel by a brilliant young woman about the romantic life of a brilliant young man.

Writer Nate Piven’s star is rising. After several lean and striving years, he has his pick of both magazine assignments and women: Juliet, the hotshot business reporter; Elisa, his gorgeous ex-girlfriend, now friend; and Hannah, “almost universally regarded as nice and smart, or smart and nice,” who holds her own in conversation with his friends. When one relationship grows more serious, Nate is forced to consider what it is he really wants.

In Nate’s 21st-century literary world, wit and conversation are not at all dead. Is romance? Novelist Adelle Waldman plunges into the psyche of a flawed, sometimes infuriating modern man—one who thinks of himself as beyond superficial judgment, yet constantly struggles with his own status anxiety, who is drawn to women, yet has a habit of letting them down in ways that may just make him an emblem of our times. With tough-minded intelligence and wry good humor The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P. is an absorbing tale of one young man’s search for happiness—and an inside look at how he really thinks about women, sex and love.

“Adelle Waldman just may be this generation’s Jane Austen.”
—The Boston Globe

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Adelle Waldman is a graduate of Brown University and Columbia University’s journalism school. She worked as a reporter at the New Haven Register and the Cleveland Plain Dealer, and wrote a column for the Wall Street Journal’s website. Her articles also have appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The New Republic, Slate, and The Wall Street Journal, among other national publications. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

May 2014 | Trade Paperback | Fiction | 256 pp | $15.00 | ISBN 9781250050458 Picador | us.macmillan.com | adellewaldman.com

CONVERSATION STARTERS

How does Nate see himself, and how does this differ from the way his girlfriends see him? What is your view of Nate? Does he come off as pretentious? As a womanizer? Are you able to sympathize with his thoughts or actions? If you had to summarize what his main character flaw is, what would you say?

“Dating is probably the most fraught human interaction there is. You’re sizing people up to see if they’re worth your time and attention, and they’re doing the same to you . . . We submit ourselves to these intimate inspections and simultaneously inflict them on others and try to keep our psyches intact.” Do you agree with this summary of the nature of dating? Is it as overwhelming as it is described, or is it really not “that big of a deal” as Nate believes?

The book delves into the psyche of a man, yet it is written by a woman. What effect does this have on the overall conversation and tone of the narrative? How would it be different if a man had written the book?

Do the male and female characters in the book seem to behave in ways that conform to or differ from our evolving conceptions of gender roles? Does the book present a world in which men and women are equal? If not, what inequalities seem to persist?

Despite the fact that Nate initially found Hannah to be different from the other women he dated, his attitude toward her eventually begins to change. Do you think there is a legitimate reason for this change? Or does it reflect a limitation of Nate’s? What do you think keeps the relationship going after the initial excitement has died down?

Discuss the idea of being seen through others’ eyes in the context of the book. Throughout this novel, we see Nate’s views on others and also his thoughts on how people view him. Do you feel that it is a natural feeling to be validated through others’ opinions? Do we need reassurance from our partners in order to accept ourselves?

What do you think Nate takes away from each relationship, if anything? At the end of the novel, is Nate in a relationship that will last?

THE LOWLAND

Jhumpa Lahiri

New York Times Book Review Notable Book • Time Top Fiction Book • NPR “Great Read” • Chicago Tribune Best Book • USA Today Best Book • People Top 10 Book • Barnes and Noble Best New Book • Good Reads Best Book • Kirkus Best Fiction Book • Slate Favorite Book • Christian Science Monitor Best Fiction Book • National Book Award Finalist • 2013 Man Booker Prize Shortlist

Subhash and Udayan, brothers born fifteen months apart, come of age in post-World War II Calcutta. The newly won independence from Britain and the partition establishing Pakistan as a separate country has left India struggling with political turmoil; the age-old problems of poverty and class divisions remain a source of social unrest and conflict. The brothers share the adventures and innocent rivalries of childhood, but when Udayan, the younger, more daring brother, joins a radical political group in college, the tie between them begins to unravel. Subhash chooses a different, safer path, leaving India to do postgraduate research in oceanography in Rhode Island. As Subhash slowly adjusts to life in America, Udayan becomes ever more deeply involved with the revolutionary movement at home. In a letter to Subhash, he writes of his marriage to Gauri and his hope that his brother will come home one day to meet her. But it is a shattering tragedy that eventually brings Subhash back to his childhood home and into a strange, life-changing relationship with the young woman who captured his brother s heart.

“[Lahiri’s] finest work so far... At once unsettling and generous... Shattering and satisfying in equal measure.” —The New York Review of Books

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jhumpa Lahiri is the author of three previous works of fiction: Interpreter of Maladies, The Namesake and, most recently, Unaccustomed Earth.

June 2014 | Trade Paperback | Fiction | 432 pp | $15.95 | ISBN 9780307278265 Vintage | randomhouse.com | jhumpalahiri.net

CONVERSATION STARTERS

“Udayan was the one brave enough to ask them for autographs...He was blind to self-constraints, like an animal incapable of perceiving certain colors. But Subhash strove to minimize his existence, as other animals merged with bark or blades of grass” (11). How do the differences between the boys both strengthen and strain the tie between them?

Does Subhash’s decision to make it “his mission to obey (his parents), given that it wasn’t possible to surprise or impress them. That was what Udayan did” (11) follow a pattern common among siblings? What part do their parents play in fostering the roles each boy assumes?

What does Udayan’s reaction to Subhash’s decision to go to America (30) and Subhash’s admission that he wanted to leave Calcutta “not only for the sake of his education but also . . . to take a step Udayan never would” (40) convey about the balance between admiration and envy, support and competition, that underlies their relationship? Do you think that Udayan is manipulative, or does Subhash misread him?

What aspects of the immigrant experience are captured in Subhash’s first impressions of Rhode Island? How do his feelings about school and his roommate bring to light both his pleasure and uncertainties about his new independence? In what ways does Udayan’s letter add to his ambivalence about the choice he has made (47)?

What does Subhash’s affair with Holly convey about his transition to life in America (65-83)? What does it reveal about his emotional ties to his old life and family?

The novel presents many kinds of parents—present and absent, supportive and reluctant. What questions does the novel raise about the challenges and real meaning of being a parent?

In an interview, Lahiri said, “As Udayan’s creator, I don’t condone what he does. On the other hand, I understand the frustration he feels, his sense of injustice, and his impulse to change society” (NewYorker.com) Does the novel help you see more clearly the reasons for destruction and deaths revolutionary forces perpetrate to attain their goals? How do you feel about Udayan after reading the novel’s last chapter?

MADAME PICASSO

Anne Girard

The mesmerizing and untold story of Eva Gouel, the unforgettable woman who stole the heart of the greatest artist of our time.

When Eva Gouel moves to Paris from the countryside, she is full of ambition and dreams of stardom. Though young and inexperienced, she manages to find work as a costumer at the famous Moulin Rouge, and it is here that she first catches the attention of Pablo Picasso, a rising star in the art world.

A brilliant but eccentric artist, Picasso sets his sights on Eva, and Eva can’t help but be drawn into his web. But what starts as a torrid affair soon evolves into what will become the first great love of Picasso’s life. With sparkling insight and passion, Madame Picasso introduces us to a dazzling heroine, taking us from the salon of Gertrude Stein to the glamorous Moulin Rouge and inside the studio and heart of one of the most enigmatic and iconic artists of the twentieth century.

“[Filled] with colorful accounts of the social scene in turn-of-the-century Paris...[Girard] ably marries history, art, and romance here as Eva remains broadly rendered and famous figures shine.” —Booklist

“Early twentieth century Paris and Picasso’s lost love come to enchanted, vivid life in Madame Picasso. With a deft eye for detail and deep understanding for her protagonists, Anne Girard captures the earnest young woman who enthralled the famous artist and became his unsung muse.” —C.W. Gortner, bestselling author of The Queen’s Vow

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Anne Girard is a writer and historian with degrees in English literature and clinical psychology. She has spent extensive time in Paris and lives in California with her husband and children.

September 2014 | Trade Paperback | Fiction | 432 pp | $14.95 | ISBN 9780778316350 Harlequin MIRA | harlequin.com | annegirardauthor.com

CONVERSATION STARTERS

Fernande Olivier and Eva Gouel were both, for a time, the object of Pablo Picasso’s obsession. How were the two women different? How were they similar? What do you think were the elements that drew him to them?

In the novel, a fair amount of attention is paid to Guillaume Apollinaire’s poetry. What do you think Eva found so appealing in it?

At one point in the story, Eva finally sleeps with Louis. Did you sympathize with her motivation, or did you feel sorry for Louis, who was being misled? Were her actions out of self-preservation or defiance? Did you find Louis Markus a sympathetic character?

A tense conversation takes place in Ceret between Picasso, his former mistress Fernande and their friends, who side with her. Did you find yourself sympathizing with Fernande at that point in the story? Did you believe that she truly had learned her lesson and wished to reconcile with him? If so, what made her a sympathetic figure for you?

While Eva was immortalized in several of Picasso’s Cubist works, there is no known classically painted, or sketched, image of her by Picasso, yet there are many of Fernande and every other prominent woman in his life before and after. What are the possible reasons for this?

What did you make of the way some of Picasso’s friends, such as the Pichots, refused to betray Fernande for Eva, even knowing that Fernande had been unfaithful, while others, such as Max, Gertrude and Alice, warmed to Eva and even became her devoted friends? Is it impossible to be an impartial friend in that sort of circumstance?

Religion is a common theme in the book. What do you make of Picasso’s troubled spiritual journey, from his feelings of anger after the death of his sister to his feelings of betrayal over the impending loss of Eva? How do you think his feelings of spite toward God contributed to his actions throughout the novel, particularly during Eva’s illness?

Prior to reading Madame Picasso, what were your perceptions of Pablo Picasso as a historical figure? Were those perceptions informed by the many biographies of his life, by popular culture (i.e. movies or television documentaries), or his art? How, if at all, were those perceptions changed by reading this novel?

MADDADDAM

Margaret Atwood

A New York Times Notable Book, A Washington Post Notable Book, A Best Book of the Year: The Guardian, NPR, The Christian Science Monitor, The Globe and Mail

Bringing together Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood, this thrilling conclusion to Margaret Atwood’s speculative fiction trilogy points toward the ultimate endurance of community, and love.

Months after the Waterless Flood pandemic has wiped out most of humanity, Toby and Ren have rescued their friend Amanda from the vicious Painballers. They return to the MaddAddamite cob house, newly fortified against man and giant pigoon alike. Accompanying them are the Crakers, the gentle, quasi-human species engineered by the brilliant but deceased Crake. Their reluctant prophet, Snowman-the-Jimmy, is recovering from a debilitating fever, so it’s left to Toby to preach the Craker theology, with Crake as Creator. She must also deal with cultural misunderstandings, terrible coffee, and her jealousy over her lover, Zeb Zeb has been searching for Adam One, founder of the God’s Gardeners, the pacifist green religion from which Zeb broke years ago to lead the MaddAddamites in active resistance against the destructive CorpSeCorps. But now, under threat of a Painballer attack, the MaddAddamites must fight back with the aid of their newfound allies, some of whom have four trotters. At the center of MaddAddam is the story of Zeb’s dark and twisted past, which contains a lost brother, a hidden murder, a bear, and a bizarre act of revenge.

“Lights a fire from the fears of our age.... Miraculously balances humor, outrage, and beauty.” —The New York Times Book Review

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Margaret Atwood, whose work has been published in thirty-five countries, is the author of more than forty books of fiction, poetry, and critical essays.

August 2014 | Trade Paperback | Fiction | 416 pp | $15.95 | ISBN 9780307455482 Anchor | randomhouse.com | margaretatwood.ca

CONVERSATION STARTERS

Why are Adam and Zeb so different? Or, are they more similar than they first seem?

The MaddAddamites set about building a basic community for themselves, one that meets the need for food, clothing, shelter, and an energy source. If you were in this position, would you do things differently? Should children be taught elementary survival skills?

What comment, if any, do you think Margaret Atwood is making about environmentalism in this book, through organizations like Bearlift? Or does Bearlift suffer simply from the human flaws that appear in all organizations, no matter how well-meaning?

The Internet has an almost physical presence in MaddAddam—the “lilypads,” the game Intestinal Parasites. Do you think this is where the Internet is heading? Is it becoming a “real” entity of its own?

Is Toby right to trust Zeb? Do you think Zeb’s feelings for Toby are genuine?

Toby teaches Blackbeard to write. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? What consequences do you think this will have for the Crakers and their new world?

Margaret Atwood’s trilogy often portrays humans and our future grimly, but it is also both funny and profane. Is Atwood’s gallows humor effective?

What parallels do you see between the events of MaddAddam and recent events in our real world? Are Atwood’s three dystopian books exaggerated or could they really be our future?

Despite having seemed violent and disposed to eat humans, the Pigoons ultimately display more compassion than many of the humans in MaddAddam. Is that because the Pigoons are animals, or is it because of the implanted human tissue in their brains?

The Crakers seek stories from Jimmy and Toby to explain the world. What do these stories say about how myths are formed? Is the desire for religion innate within us? What do you think MaddAddam is saying about our need for gods and how religions are created?

THE MAGICIAN’S LIE

Greer Macallister

The Amazing Arden is the most notorious female illusionist of her day, renowned for sawing a man in half. One night, with policeman Virgil Holt in the audience, she swaps her saw for a fire ax. A new trick or an all-too-real murder? When a dead body is discovered, the answer seems clear. But under Holt’s interrogation, what Arden’s story reveals is both unbelievable and spellbinding. Even handcuffed and alone, she is far from powerless. During one eerie night, Holt must decide whether to turn Arden in or set her free... and it will take all he has to see through the smoke and mirrors.

“A little taste of The Night Circus, and little salt of Water for Elephants, The Magician’s Lie by Greer Macallister is a wonderful combination of magic, vaudeville and the drama of a secret life. Is her story real, or an illusion? Are her magic acts true, or a magician’s lie?” —Annie Philbrick, Bank Square Books, Mystic CT

“The Magician’s Lie is a rich tale of heart-stopping plot turns, glittering prose, and a cast of complex, compelling characters. Reader beware: those who enter Macallister’s delicious world of magic and mystery won’t wish to leave.” —Allison Pataki, New York Times bestselling author of The Traitor’s Wife

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Greer Macallister was raised in the Midwest. She is a poet, short story writer, playwright and novelist whose work has appeared in publications such as The North American Review, The Missouri Review, and The Messenger. Her plays have been performed at American University, where she earned her MFA in Creative Writing. She currently lives with her family in Brooklyn.

January 2015 | Hardcover | Fiction | 320 pp | $23.99 | ISBN 9781402298684 Sourcebooks Landmark | sourcebooks.com | greermacallister.com

CONVERSATION STARTERS

The action of The Magician’s Lie alternates between a single night in 1905, with Arden imprisoned by Officer Holt, and the story of her life that Arden is telling him, which ranges over a number of years. Did you find one storyline more intriguing than the other?

As the novel opens, Virgil Holt has just received the bad news that the doctor won’t operate on the bullet lodged near his spine. Do you think he would have behaved differently if he were uninjured?

“The law is perfect. The men in charge of executing it are not.” Officer Holt decides early on that if Arden is innocent, it’s his responsibility to free her instead of turning her in, since the courts can’t be trusted. Do you think he should have turned her in either way?

After Ray breaks Arden’s leg, preventing her from dancing for Bonfanti and entering ballet school, she says, “There were so many what-ifs.” What do you think would have happened if he hadn’t done this?

Arden is suspicious of rich people at several points in the book, and feels she can only fit in at Biltmore as a servant. Yet she was raised in wealth by her grandparents. Why do you feel she identifies so strongly with the life she led starting at age 12 instead of her life before that?

Adelaide Herrmann isn’t close to the people who work for her, except for Arden. Why does Adelaide choose Arden as her protege?

“I let him damage me and try to heal that damage, with his delusions of magic. I talk a good game about risk, but when it all came down to it, I chose something awful and safe.” When Ray threatens Clyde, Arden gives up, and allows him to hurt her and essentially keep her captive. Did she have other options? What could she have done instead?

As the book ends, Holt has resolved to begin living his life anew, without letting his fear of death get in the way. Do you feel he has been profoundly changed by his experience with Arden? Or do you think these resolutions will fade in the harsh light of day? Where do you think Arden and Clyde’s story might go from the ending onward?

Whether or not Arden is telling Officer Holt the truth is a key question throughout the book. When did you most believe her? Were there times where you were sure she was lying?

THE MINOR ADJUSTMENT BEAUTY SALON

No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency (14)

Alexander McCall Smith

Fans around the world adore the bestselling No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series and Precious Ramotswe, Botswana’s premier lady detective. Ramotswe navigates her cases and personal life with wisdom, humor, and help from her loyal associate, Grace, and the occasional cup of tea. Modern ideas get tangled up with traditional ones in the fourteenth installment in the beloved No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series. Precious Ramotswe has taken on two puzzling cases. First she is approached by the lawyer Mma Sheba, who is the executor of a deceased farmer’s estate. Mma Sheba has a feeling that the young man who has stepped forward may be falsely impersonating the farmer’s nephew in order to claim his inheritance. Then the proprietor of the Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon comes to Mma Ramotswe for advice. The opening of her new salon has been shadowed by misfortune. Not only has she received a bad omen in the mail, but rumors are swirling that the salon is using dangerous products that burn people’s skin. Also, associate detective Mma Makutsi, of ninety-seven per cent fame, is pregnant! With genuine warmth, sympathy, and wit, Alexander McCall Smith explores questions about married life, parenthood, grief, and the importance of the traditions that shape and guide our lives.

“The intrepid proprietor of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency in Botswana is determined to remain as steadfast as a constellation in the night sky. But Alexander McCall Smith’s beloved sleuth comes to accept the inevitability of change in The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon.” —The New York Times Book Review

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Alexander McCall Smith is the author of the beloved, bestselling No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, the Isabel Dalhousie series, the Portuguese Irregular Verbs series, the 44 Scotland Street series, and the Corduroy Mansions series.

June 2014 | Trade Paperback | Fiction | 272 pp | $14.95 | ISBN 9780307473004 Anchor | randomhouse.com | alexandermccallsmith.co.uk

CONVERSATION STARTERS

What is the novel saying about friendship, in particular the friendship between Mma Ramotswe and Makutsi?

Kirkus Reviews has compared Alexander McCall Smith’s books to “a warm, understated serving of comfort food.” How is this novel like comfort food? And what role does comforting food play in McCall Smith’s No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency novels?

Mma Ramotswe believes that “babies—ordinary babies—liked to look at the sky, or watch chickens, or suck on blankets. They did not want to add.” What do you think about this view of child rearing? If you’ve read 44 Scotland Street, compare this view with that of Bertie’s mother.

Take a closer look at McCall Smith’s chapter titles. What do they add to the story? Do you think the author has fun coming up with them?

Discuss superstitions in this book and in the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series more generally. There are still many people in Botswana (and throughout the world) with strong local superstitions. What are Mma Ramotswe’s and Mma Makutsi’s views on them?

Though the novel celebrates the birth of Mma Makutsi’s baby, it mourns the loss of Mma Ramotswe’s and Gwithie’s. What is the place of grief in this novel?

“It’s just that sometimes it all gets too much for women and it would help a great deal if their husbands could be a little bit more modern,” says Mma Potokwane to Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni. Discuss this quote. What do you think about the relationship between Mma Ramotswe and Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni? Is it a traditional relationship or a modern one? Compare this quote and the relationships in the novel in light of the cultural conversations around recent books such as Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In and Debora Spar’s Wonder Women.

Mma Ramotswe holds back and doesn’t tell Mma Makutsi how intensely she misses her while she’s out on maternity leave, and how much she values their friendship. Why doesn’t she say everything she was thinking, and why does the author say that, “our heart is not always able to say what it wants to say and frequently has to content itself with less”? Why is the word not spoken just as important as what is voiced?

MONDAY, MONDAY

Elizabeth Crook

In this gripping, emotionally charged novel, a tragedy in Texas changes the course of three lives. On an oppressively hot Monday in August of 1966, a student and former marine named Charles Whitman hauled a footlocker of guns to the top of the University of Texas tower and began firing on pedestrians below. Before it was over, sixteen people had been killed and thirty-two wounded. It was the first mass shooting of civilians on a campus in American history. Monday, Monday follows three students caught up in the massacre: Shelly, who leaves her math class and walks directly into the path of the bullets, and two cousins, Wyatt and Jack, who heroically rush from their classrooms to help the victims. On this searing day, a relationship begins that will eventually entangle these three young people in a forbidden love affair, an illicit pregnancy, and a vow of secrecy that will span forty years. Reunited decades after the tragedy, they will be forced to confront the event that changed their lives and that has silently and persistently ruled the lives of their children. With electrifying storytelling and the powerful sense of destiny found in Ann Patchett’s Bel Canto, and with the epic sweep of Jess Walter’s Beautiful Ruins, Elizabeth Crook’s Monday, Monday explores the ways in which we sustain ourselves and one another when the unthinkable happens.

.. [E]loquent... Monday, Monday opens with a random, hideous act, but thankfully the novel isn’t about that moment or the gunman. The shooting sets in motion an entire lifetime of relationships; from an act of violence springs love, friendship, loss, forgiveness and survival.” —San Antonio Express News

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Elizabeth Crook is the author of three previous novels. The Night Journal won a Spur Award from Western Writers of America and a WILLA Literary Award from Women Writing the West. She lives in Austin with her family.

April 2014 | Hardcover | Fiction | 352 pp | $26.00 | ISBN 9780374228828 Sarah Crichton Books | us.macmillan.com | elizabethcrookbooks.com

CONVERSATION STARTERS

Before reading the book did you know about the incident of the University of Texas sniper in 1966? Do you know anyone who was personally touched by the tragedy?

When you see mass shootings on the news today, do you consider how you would react if you were there? Do you believe you would put yourself in harm’s way to aid others, as Jack and Wyatt did?

Why do you think there was such a long time span between the UT tower shootings in 1966 and the tragedy at Columbine in 1999, and then, after Columbine, such a rapid escalation in school shootings?

Shelly and Wyatt both suffer guilt about their love affair. Do you feel that the powerful and unique circumstance in which they first met excuses the affair, or merely explains it?

Which characters, if any, might have been happier at the end of the book if Wyatt had initially divorced Elaine, married Shelly, and together they had raised Carlotta?

Was Shelly wrong to want to keep Carlotta in her life? Was it a selfish request she made of Jack and Delia during the encounter at Aquarena Springs, given that she could not see how it would turn out? Was it selfish, or generous, toward Carlotta? Would you have made the same request?

If you were in Carlotta’s place, would you have wanted to search for your biological parents earlier in your life than she chose to? Or perhaps not at all?

Of all the scenes in the book, which one, for you, was the most emotional?

Extraordinary events in the course of the story cause the characters to evolve dramatically. With which character, by the end, did you most identify?

What do you think is the overall theme of the book? What is the commentary on life?

Does the final scene, in which Shelly goes up into the tower and looks down at Austin and thinks back on her life and the ways it was changed by what happened from the tower, seem to you sad, or uplifting?

MY ACCIDENTAL JIHAD

Krista Bremer

Fifteen years ago, Krista Bremer was a surfer and an aspiring journalist who dreamed of a comfortable American life of adventure, romance, and opportunity. Then, on a running trail in North Carolina, she met Ismail, sincere, passionate, kind, yet from a very different world. Raised a Muslim-one of eight siblings born in an impoverished fishing village in Libya—his faith informed his life. When she and Ismail made the decision to become a family, Krista embarked on a journey she never could have imagined, an accidental jihad: a quest for spiritual and intellectual growth that would open her mind, and more important, her heart.

“A bold piece of writing (and thinking) by an incredibly brave woman.” —Elizabeth Gilbert, author of The Signature of All Things

“Lucid, heartfelt and profoundly humane, My Accidental Jihad navigates the boundaries of religion and politics to arrive at the universal experience of love.” —G. Willow Wilson, author of Alif the Unseen

“Utterly absorbing... A beautiful book.” —Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Krista Bremer is the associate publisher of The Sun magazine and the recipient of a Rona Jaffe Foundation award. Her essay on which this book is based, “My Accidental Jihad,” received a Pushcart Prize. Her essays have been published in O: The Oprah Magazine, More magazine, and The Sun, and she’s been featured on NPR and in the PBS series Arab American Stories.

December 2014 | Trade Paperback | Nonfiction | 304 pp | $15.95 ISBN 9781616204495 | Algonquin Books | algonquin.com | kristabremer.com

CONVERSATION STARTERS

How does Krista Bremer’s definition of jihad differ from its common usage in the media—and what does jihad have to do with her love story?

How does Bremer’s understanding of the hijab (head covering) change when she is in Libya? What benefits and drawbacks does she discover in modest Muslim clothing—and what benefits and drawbacks does she identify from the physical exposure she experienced growing up in Southern California?

When she first arrives in Libya, Bremer pities her female Muslim relatives—but she is surprised to discover that they pity her as well. Which aspects of her Western life might they pity, and how does her time in Libya make her rethink notions of freedom and oppression?

How does Bremer’s understanding of feminism and surrender change over the course of the book? Is surrender at odds with feminism? Is surrender synonymous with defeat?

In what ways does Bremer’s marriage change her opinions about diversity and tolerance?

Bremer encounters a dying grandmother during a family gathering in Libya. How does this woman’s experience differ from aging and dying in the United States? What benefits and drawbacks can you identify in her experience?

What are specific examples of Islamophobia in the book? What does Bremer’s experience convey about intolerance and the perception of otherness in the west?

In many ways, this book is about the search for home. What does Bremer convey about home in the final chapter—and do you agree with her definition?

Would you call this a strong marriage? Why or why not?

Do you agree or disagree with Bremer’s assertion that every relationship is bicultural? Which aspects of her struggle are particular to her marriage, and which aspects are universal?

NIGHT IN SHANGHAI

Nicole Mones

Sailing to Shanghai in 1936 to lead a black jazz orchestra, Thomas Greene goes from being flat broke in segregated Baltimore to living in a mansion with servants of his own, and from the classical piano pieces he was trained to play to the toe-tapping swing of the big band era. Song Yuhua is refined, educated, and bonded since age eighteen to Shanghais most powerful crime boss in payment for her father’s gambling debts. Outwardly submissive, she burns with rage, longs for escape, and risks her life spying on her master for the Communist Party. With Shanghai shattered by the Japanese invasion, Thomas and Song find their way to each other and forge a bond from which neither can back down in the turbulent years that follow. Torn between music and survival, freedom and commitment, love and war, they navigate the dangers leading to world war until the moment when they must cast their lots in Night in Shanghai’s final, impossible choice.

“With a magician’s sleight of hand, Nicole Mones conjures up the jazz-filled, complex, turbulent world of Shanghai just before World War II. A rich and thoroughly captivating read.” —Gail Tsukiyama, author of The Samurai’s Garden

“What an incredible thing Mones does in this novel of the compelling sexy, rich and complicated world of historical Shanghai.” —Marisa Silver, author of Mary Coin

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Nicole Mones is the prize-winning author of three previous novels, The Last Chinese Chef, Lost in Translation, and A Cup of Light, which have been published in more than twenty-five countries.

March 2014 | Hardcover | Fiction | 288 pp | $25.00 | ISBN 9780547516172 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | hmhco.com | nicolemones.com

CONVERSATION STARTERS

Before the novel begins, Mones offers this Chinese adage: “An inch of time is worth an inch of gold. An inch of gold cannot buy an inch of time.” This saying comes from an ancient text that imparted life lessons to children. What lesson do you take from it? What do you think it meant to Thomas, Song, and Lin?

Chiang Kai-shek pursued a policy of “first internal pacification, then external resistance” (2), because he thought the Communists posed a greater threat to China than the Japanese invasion. Looking back from today, do you think he was correct? Or do you think Song was right to build her life around opposing this?

Song says, “Jazz was the sun around which this paradise revolved” (2). In the 1930s, jazz was very popular around the world, perhaps the defining music of its era. What do you think has been the defining music of your era? How has that music shaped and enriched your life?

Musician Charlie Parker said, “Music is your experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn.” What living does Thomas have to accomplish before he can finally throw off his fetters at the piano? What makes it possible for him?

“I was reborn first through the movement, and then again, through him. After our time together I knew, no matter where the two of us were, that while he lived, I would never be alone. I knew I would return to him. But just as much, I knew I needed to go north” (180). Many people struggle to find a balance between love and self-actualization. Do you think Thomas and Song made the right decisions? What do you think would have happened to them, and to their feelings for each other, if they had chosen differently?

All the major events in Night in Shanghai actually happened, and except for Thomas Greene, Song Yuhua, Lin Ming, and David Epstein, almost all the book’s characters really lived. The novel ends with a nonfiction-style epilogue. Did the novel’s fidelity to true events affect your perception of the story? Do you think there is something different about a story based on true events?

THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE

Neil Gaiman

A brilliantly imaginative and poignant fairy tale from the modern master of wonder and terror, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is Neil Gaiman’s first new novel for adults since his #1 New York Times bestseller Anansi Boys.

A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother. He hasn’t thought of Lettie in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond (a pond that she’d claimed was an ocean) behind the ramshackle old farmhouse where she once lived, the unremembered past comes flooding back. And it is a past too strange, too frightening, too dangerous to have happened to anyone, let alone a small boy.

A groundbreaking work as delicate as a butterfly’s wing and as menacing as a knife in the dark, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is told with a rare understanding of all that makes us human, and shows the power of stories to reveal and shelter us from the darkness inside and out.

“His prose is simple but poetic, his world strange but utterly believable—if he was South American we would call this magic realism rather than fantasy.” —The Times (London)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Neil Gaiman is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than twenty books for readers of all ages, and the recipient of numerous literary awards, including the Shirley Jackson Award and the Locus Award for Best Novelette for his story “The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains.” Originally from England, he now lives in America.

June 2014 | Trade Paperback | Fiction | 208 pp | $14.90 | ISBN 9780062255662 William Morrow Paperbacks | harpercollins.com | neilgaiman.com

CONVERSATION STARTERS

It would be easy to think of the Hempstocks as the “triple goddess” (the Maiden, the Mother, and the Crone) of popular mythology. In what ways do they conform to those roles? In what ways are they different?

The narrator has returned to his hometown for a funeral (we never learn whose). Do you think that framing his childhood story with a funeral gives this story a pessimistic rather than optimistic outlook?

Because the narrator is male and most of the other characters are female, this story has the potential to become a stereotypical narrative where a man saves the day. How does the story avoid that pitfall?

The story juxtaposes the memories of childhood with the present of adulthood. In what ways do children perceive things differently than adults? Do you think there are situations in which a child’s perspective can be more “truthful” than an adult’s?

One of Ursula Monkton’s main attributes is that she always tries to give people what they want. Why is this not always a good thing? What does Ursula want? How does Ursula use people’s desires against them to get what she wants?

One of the many motivators for the characters in this story is loneliness. What characters seem to suffer from loneliness? How do adults and children respond to loneliness in different ways? In the same ways?

On page 18, the narrator tells us that his father often burnt their toast and always ate it with apparent relish. He also tells us that later in life, his father admitted that he had never actually liked burnt toast, but ate it to avoid waste, and that his father’s confession made the narrator’s entire childhood feel like a lie: “it was as if one of the pillars of belief that my world had been built upon had crumbled into dry sand.” What other “pillars of belief” from childhood does he discover to be false? How do these discoveries affect him?

When the narrative returns to the present, Old Mrs. Hempstock tells our narrator, “You stand two of you lot next to each other, and you could be continents away for all it means anything” (173). What does she mean by this? Why is it “easier” for people, our narrator especially, to forget certain things that are difficult to reconcile?

THE PARIS ARCHITECT

Charles Belfoure

Like most gentiles in Nazi-occupied Paris, architect Lucien Bernard has little empathy for the Jews. So when a wealthy industrialist offers him a large sum of money to devise secret hiding places for Jews, Lucien struggles with the choice of risking his life for a cause he doesn’t really believe in. Ultimately he can’t resist the challenge and begins designing expertly concealed hiding spaces—behind a painting, within a column, or inside a drainpipe—detecting possibilities invisible to the average eye. But when one of his clever hiding spaces fails horribly and the immense suffering of Jews becomes incredibly personal, he can no longer deny reality. Written by an expert whose knowledge imbues every page, this story becomes more gripping with every life the architect tries to save.

“I read so many books this year that I loved... but my favorite was The Paris Architect. A beautiful and elegant account of an ordinary man’s unexpected and reluctant descent into heroism during the second world wan —Malcolm Gladwell, New York Times bestselling author of David and Goliath

“Architect and debut author Belfoure’s portrayal of Vichy France is both disturbing and captivating, and his beautiful tale demonstrates that while human beings are capable of great atrocities, they have a capacity for tremendous acts of courage as well.” —Library Journal

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: An architect by profession, Charles Belfoure has published several architectural histories, one of which won a Graham Foundation Grant for architectural research. He graduated from the Pratt Institute and Columbia University, and he taught at Pratt as well as at Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland. His area of specialty is historic preservation. He has been a freelance writer for the Baltimore Sun and The New York Times. He lives in Maryland.

July 2014 | Trade Paperback | Fiction | 384 pp | $14.99 | ISBN 9781402294150 Sourcebooks Landmark | sourcebooks.com | theparisarchitect.com

CONVERSATION STARTERS

Why did the majority of people in France refuse to help the Jews during World War II?

In the beginning of the novel, Lucien didn’t care about what happened to the Jews. Discuss how his character evolved throughout the novel. How did your opinion of him change?

Many spouses abandoned each other because one was Jewish. What did you think when Juliette Trenet’s husband left her? Is there any defense for what he did?

One reason Lucien helped Jews was to get architectural commissions from Manet. Did you agree with the French Resistance? Did Lucien’s love of design and the need to prove his talent cross the line into collaboration with the enemy?

Discuss the unusual relationship between Lucien and Herzog. Can two men from warring countries be friends?

Lucien was already taking an enormous risk by hiding Jews for Manet; why do you think he agreed to take in Pierre?

What was your impression of Father Jacques? What kind of role do you think faith plays throughout the novel?

Adele had no qualms about sleeping with the enemy. Why would she take such a risk?

Bette could have her pick of men but chose Lucien. Discuss what made him special in her eyes. What are the most important qualities you look for in a friend/significant other? Would you be willing to compromise on any of these qualities? For what?

If you were under the stairs in the Geibers’ place during the Gestapo’s search, how would you have reacted?

Schlegal was disappointed that the people he tortured always talked. What do you think were the motivations behind someone who talked and someone who didn’t? If you were in a situation where someone was trying to get information from you, what would be the final straw to make you talk?

SEA CREATURES

Susanna Daniel

When Georgia Quillian returns to her hometown of Miami, her family in tow, she’s hoping for a fresh start. They’ve left Illinois trailing scandal in their wake, fallout from her husband’s severe sleep disorder. For months, their three-year-old son, Frankie, has refused to speak a word.

On a whim, Georgia takes a job as an errand runner for a reclusive artist, and suddenly the future offers new possibilities: time spent with her intense but kind employer might, it seems, help Frankie find the courage to speak—and help Georgia reconcile the woman she was with the woman she has become. But late that summer, as a hurricane bears down on South Florida, she must face the fact that her decisions may have put her only child in danger.

A gorgeous story that “satisfies on every level” (Amazon Best Book of the Month), Sea Creatures is a mesmerizing exploration of the high stakes of marriage and parenthood.

“A captivating, haunting novel about the complexities of the human heart and its attachments, terrain as slippery and beautiful and disaster prone as Daniel’s South Florida.” —Abraham Verghese, author of Cutting for Stone

“There’s a charmer at the heart of Sea Creatures... Almost like an action-filled, emotional memoir....Gripping.”—Associated Press

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Susanna Daniel was born and raised in Miami, Florida. Her first novel, Stiltsville, was awarded the PEN/Bingham prize for debut fiction. She is a graduate of Columbia University and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and lives in Madison, Wisconsin.

September 2014 | Trade Paperback | Fiction | 336 pp | $14.99 | ISBN 9780062219619 Harper Perennial | Harpercollins.com | susannadaniel.com

CONVERSATION STARTERS

At the book’s opening, Georgia remarks, “It seems to me that what worries us most . . . is least likely to happen, while what is most likely is some unimagined event, and how do we prepare for that?” How would you answer this question?

Talk about Georgia and Graham’s marriage. Are they happy? Could they ever be happy? Was it fair of her to have a child with him? While they are on vacation by themselves, Georgia calls Graham reckless. Is he?

Consider the men in Georgia’s life: Graham, Charlie, Frankie, and her father. Each has distinctive characteristics and limitations. How do these aspects of their characters influence Georgia and her relationships with them?

What draws Georgia to Charlie? Might events have turned out differently if she’d never met him or would her marriage to Graham have changed anyway?

How would you cope with a child like Frankie? Is Georgia doing the right thing by using sign language? Compare Frankie’s interaction with Charlie and with Graham. Why won’t Graham sign with his son?

When Georgia meets Dr. Sonia, her new pediatrician, she tells her that she spends every waking minute with Frankie, and the doctor asks her why. Were you surprised at this question? Is a hovering parent necessarily a good parent?

What impact does receiving Charlie’s mermaid sketch have on Georgia? Were they in love? Could anything have worked out between them?

In thinking back over the events involving Graham and Frankie’s accident, Georgia asks, “Did I betray my own son?” What do you think? Could Frankie’s accident have been prevented? What about Graham—was his fate choice or an accident?

Were you satisfied by the ending? Did it all work out the way it should have? Could it have been any different?

What is the significance of the title?

THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS

Elizabeth Gilbert

In The Signature of All Things, Elizabeth Gilbert returns to fiction, inserting her inimitable voice into an enthralling story of love, adventure and discovery. Spanning much of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the novel follows the fortunes of the extraordinary Whittaker family as led by the enterprising Henry Whittaker—a poor-born Englishman who makes a great fortune in the South American quinine trade, eventually becoming the richest man in Philadelphia. Born in 1800, Henry’s brilliant daughter, Alma (who inherits both her father’s money and his mind), ultimately becomes a botanist of considerable gifts herself. As Alma’s research takes her deeper into the mysteries of evolution, she falls in love with a man named Ambrose Pike who makes incomparable paintings of orchids and who draws her in the exact opposite direction—into the realm of the spiritual, the divine, and the magical. Alma is a clear-minded scientist; Ambrose a Utopian artist—but what unites this unlikely couple is a desperate need to understand the workings of this world and the mechanisms behind all life.

“Gilbert’s sumptuous third novel, her first in thirteen years, draws openly on nineteenth-century forebears: Dickens, Eliot, and Henry James... Gilbert’s prose is by turns flinty, funny, and incandescent.” —The New Yorker

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Elizabeth Gilbert grew up on a family Christmas-tree farm and went on to study political science at New York University. Her first book, a short-story collection titled Pilgrims, was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award. Her first novel, Stern Men, was named a New York Times Notable Book. Her first nonfiction book, The Last American Man, was a finalist for both the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Gilbert achieved superstardom with her 2006 memoir Eat, Pray, Love, which has sold more than ten million copies. Her follow-up memoir, Committed, also topped the New York Times bestseller list. Gilbert lives in Frenchtown, New Jersey.

June 2014 | Trade Paperback | Fiction | 512 pp | $17.00 | ISBN 9780143125846 Penguin Books | penguin.com | elizabethgilbert.com

CONVERSATION STARTERS

The Signature of All Things takes as its first focus not the book’s heroine, Alma Whittaker, but her rough-and-tumble father, Henry. Why do you think Elizabeth Gilbert made this choice in her narration, and why are the first fifty pages essential to the rest of the novel?

What role is played in the novel by the Whittakers’ servant Hanneke de Groot? In what ways is her perspective essential to the story?

Alma postulates that there exist a variety of times, ranging from Human Time to Divine Time, with Geological Time and Moss Time as points in between (170-71). How might these different notions of time help to relate the world of science to the world of miracles? Is the miracle of creation just a natural process that took a very long time?

Gilbert plays with perspective, not only as it relates to time, but also as it relates to space. During the course of the novel, Alma must adapt to dealing with microscopic space as well as global space. At one point, when she plays the part of a comet in a tableau of the solar system, she even becomes figuratively a part of outer space. How do Gilbert’s manipulations of space enrich the experience of reading the novel?

Instead of representing Prudence’s abolitionist husband, Arthur Dixon, as an unambiguous hero, Gilbert presents him as a somewhat cracked fanatic, who impoverishes and even endangers his family in the name of an idea. What do you think of Gilbert’s decision to place the cause of abolitionism, which modern thinkers usually find almost impossible to criticize, in the hands of an asocial, self-denying oddball?

Alma’s decision to devote her life to studying mosses is compared to a “religious conversion” (163). In The Signature of All Things, science and religion often intertwine. Are they ever finally reconciled?

As Alma sails toward Tahiti, the whaler that carries her is nearly sunk by a storm. She feels that this brush with violent death was “the happiest experience of her life” (p. 336). Why might she think this, and what does it tell us about her character?

Alma claims at the end of the novel, “I have never felt a need to invent a world beyond this world. . . . All I ever wanted to know was this world” (497). How has this limitation to her curiosity helped or harmed her?

SOMEONE

Alice McDermott

An homage to the extraordinary transformations experienced in an ordinary life, Someone is the highly anticipated seventh novel from the award-winning author Alice McDermott, beloved for her deft portraits of kinship and memory.

When we first glimpse Marie, who narrates Someone, she is a child in glasses waiting for her father on a Brooklyn stoop. In poignant scenes, Marie experiences powerful transitions, though she stays close to home: bittersweet encounters with an awkward young neighbor named Pegeen, who describes herself as a fool; the heartache and hope of adolescence; her brother’s brief stint as a Catholic priest; and rediscovered courage when she takes on her mother’s role, becoming a wife with a family of her own. Woven through with McDermott’s tender, lyrical voice, this masterly work is a crowning achievement by one of America’s finest writers.

“A fine-tuned, beautiful book filled with so much universal experience, such haunting imagery, such urgent matters of life and death.” —The New York Times

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Alice McDermott is the author of six previous novels, including After This; Child of My Heart; Charming Billy, winner of the 1998 National Book Award; and At Weddings and Wakes, all published by FSG. That Night, At Weddings and Wakes, and After This were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. McDermott lives with her family outside Washington, D.C.

October 2014 | Trade Paperback | Fiction | 240 pp | $15.00 | ISBN 9781250055361 Picador | us.macmillan.com

CONVERSATION STARTERS

Why does the memory of Pegeen resonate so profoundly for Marie? Is there a similar story from your youth that has had a lasting effect on your life?

What does Marie’s mother try to teach her about becoming a fulfilled woman? What exceptional qualities does Marie’s father possess? How does their marriage shape Marie’s vision of her future?

Discuss the novel’s Brooklyn neighborhood as if it were a character. What are its most colorful attributes? How is it transformed over the years while Marie grows up? Do its inhabitants support one another, or is their gossip judgmental?

Why does Marie resist her mother’s attempts to urge her to adulthood, from how to read a recipe to the importance of finding a job?

How is Marie able to look past the tragic death of Mrs. Hanson and focus on the loveliness of Gerty and her baby sister, Durna? Throughout her life, what beauty does Marie find in mothering?

What did Walter Hartnett ultimately get out of his time with Marie? Was she naive to fall for him, or was he powerfully persuasive? What made Tom Commeford a good match for her?

Discuss the story of Margaret Tuohy. How was Marie affected by the bishop’s choice of elegant burial clothes for his sister? What did the experience show Marie about the role of the survivor?

As Gabe tells the story of the woman at his first parish who bought mints before attending church each week, what is revealed about the importance of avoiding assumptions? How do perceptions and misperceptions shape the novel’s storyline?

What is the effect of the novel’s first-person narration? As Marie narrates her life, what changes do you notice in her view of the world— literal ones, as she endures eye surgeries, and symbolic ones?

Discuss Marie’s relationship with her own children. What does she do differently from her parents? What traditions does she carry on? How does McDermott capture the revelations that life and loss bring?

THE STORIED LIFE OF A.J. FIKRY

Gabrielle Zevin

A New York Times Bestseller, a #1 Indie Next Pick, and a #1 LibraryReads Selection

A. J. Fikry, the irascible owner of Island Books, has recently endured some tough years: his wife has died, his bookstore is experiencing the worst sales in its history, and his prized possession—a rare edition of Poe poems—has been stolen. Over time, he has given up on people, and even the books in his store, instead of offering solace, are yet another reminder of a world that is changing too rapidly. Until a most unexpected occurrence gives him the chance to make his life over and see things anew.

Gabrielle Zevin’s enchanting novel is a love letter to the world of books— an irresistible affirmation of why we read, and why we love.

“Entertaining... Engaging and funny.”—The Washington Post

“This novel has humor, romance, a touch of suspense, but most of all love— love of books and bookish people and, really, all of humanity in its imperfect glory.” —Eowyn Ivey, author of The Snow Child

“A wonderful, moving, endearing story of redemption and transformation that will sing in your heart for a very, very long time.” —Garth Stein, author of The Art of Racing in the Rain

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Gabrielle Zevin has published eight novels for adults and young adults, including an American Library Association Notable Children’s Book, Elsewhere. Her novels have been translated into more than twenty languages. She is the screenwriter of Conversations with Other Women, for which she received an Independent Spirit Award nomination. She has also written for the New York Times Book Review and NPR’s All Things Considered. She lives in Los Angeles.

January 2015 | Trade Paperback | Fiction | 288 pp | $14.95 | ISBN 9781616204518 Algonquin Books | algonquin.com | gabriellezevin.com

CONVERSATION STARTERS

Consider the setting. Why do you think Gabrielle Zevin chooses to set the book on an island? How does the island setting reflect A.J.’s character?

Each chapter begins with a description of a short story. Discuss some of the ways the stories relate to the chapters with which they are paired. Is A.J. creating a canon for Maya? How does the book itself function as a kind of canon? If these are A.J.’s favorites, what do they say about A.J. as a reader and as a man?

Lambiase moves from an occasional or nonreader, to a reader, to a bookseller. How do you think becoming a reader changes him? Consider the scene where he decides not to confront Ismay about the backpack. Do you think Lambiase’s reaction is different than it would have been if he hadn’t taken up reading?

At one point, Maya speculates that perhaps “your whole life is determined by what store you get left in.” Is it the people or the place that makes the difference?

When did you become aware that Leon Friedman might be an imposter? What did you make of Leonora’s reasons for hiring him?

Compare Maya’s “fiction” about the last day of her mother’s life to Ismay’s version. Which do you consider to be more accurate and why?

How do you think the arrival of the e-reader is related to the denouement of the story? Is A.J. a man who cannot exist in a world with e-books? What do you think of e-books? Do you prefer reading in e- or on paper?

At one point, A.J. asks Maya, “Is a twist less satisfying if you know it’s coming? Is a twist that you can’t predict symptomatic of bad construction?” What do you think of this statement in view of the plot of The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry? Did you guess who Maya’s father was? If so, what were the clues?

The author chooses to end the novel with a new sales rep coming to an Island Books that is no longer owned by A.J. What do you make of this ending?

What do you think the future holds for physical books and bookstores?

THE SUPREME MACARONI COMPANY

Adriana Trigiani

New York Times bestselling author Adriana Trigiani takes us from the cobblestone streets of Greenwich Village to lush New Orleans to Italy and back again, from the tricky dynamics between Old World craftsmanship and New World ambition, all amid a passionate love affair that fuels one woman’s determination to have it all.

For more than one hundred years, the Angelini Shoe Company in Greenwich Village has relied on the leather produced by Vechiarelli & Son in Tuscany. This ancient business partnership provides a twist of fate for Valentine Roncalli, the schoolteacher-turned-shoemaker, to fall in love with Gianluca Vechiarelli, a tanner with a complex past... and a secret. But after the wedding celebrations are over, Valentine wakes up to the reality of juggling the demands of a new business and the needs of her new family. Confronted with painful choices, Valentine remembers the wise words that inspired her in the early days of her beloved Angelini Shoe Company: “A person who can build a pair of shoes can do just about anything.” Now the proud, passionate Valentine is going to fight for everything she wants and savor all she deserves—the bitter and the sweet of life itself.

“New York ambition clashes with dolce vita ease in Trigiani’s delicious latest.... Feisty and poignant... Readers will root for Valentine and the lessons she learns—which apply equally to designing elegant shoes and to crafting a rewarding life.” —People

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Adriana Trigiani is an award-winning playwright, television writer, and documentary filmmaker. Her books include the New York Times bestseller The Shoemaker’s Wife, the Big Stone Gap series, and the bestselling memoir Don’t Sing at the Table.

May 2014 | Trade Paperback | Fiction | 352 pp | $15.99 | ISBN 9780062136596 Harper Paperbacks | harpercollins.com | adrianatrigiani.com

CONVERSATION STARTERS

Describe Valentine and Gianluca’s relationship. Is he the true love she has waited for?

What are the biggest obstacles to their happiness as a couple? What are their greatest strengths? What does Val expect from marriage? How does the reality compare?

Is Gianluca a good husband? Is Valentine a good wife? How much can their differences be attributed to age? To gender? To culture? Do you think they found the right balance in their relationship?

Is having such a large and close family like the Roncalli clan a blessing? Are there any downsides? How can families impact our romantic relationships?

Keeping secrets partially define Val and Gianluca’s relationship. What information do they keep from each other and how do they affect the course of their lives? What is the biggest secret?

Gianluca wants them to live in Italy. Why doesn’t Val want to? Is it possible for them to live part time in both NewYork and Italy while still building the business?

Val not only married an older man,she married one who was married before. How do both of these facts shape her marriage? What is it like for her to meet Gianluca’s first wife? Why doesn’t he like to talk about his first marriage with Val? Why does she need to know about his past?

What does building the business mean to Valentine? Is Gianluca right—does she put her ambition ahead of her family?

Were you surprised about the turn of events toward the end of the novel? How does Val handle this change? How does her family help her get through it? Should Gianluca have told her about the house? Didn’t she have a right to weigh in with her opinion? What do you think the future holds for Val?

Discuss the book’s title. Do you think it is appropriate for the story? What did Val gain in this novel? What lessons did she learn?

What did you take away from reading The Supreme Macaroni Company?

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE HARRY QU EBERT AFFAIR

Joel Dicker

The #1 internationally bestselling thriller, and ingenious book within a book, about the disappearance of a 15-year-old New Hampshire girl and, 30 years later, a young American writer’s determination to clear his mentor’s name—and find the inspiration for his next bestseller

August 30,1975: the day fifteen-year-old Nola Kellergan is glimpsed fleeing through the woods before she disappears; the day Somerset, New Hampshire, lost its innocence. Thirty-three years later, Marcus Goldman, a successful young novelist, visits Somerset to see his mentor, Harry Quebert, one of Americas most respected writers, and to find a cure for his writer’s block as his publisher’s deadline looms. But Marcus’s plans are violently upended when Harry is suddenly and sensationally implicated in the cold-case murder of Nola Kellergan—whom, he admits, he had an affair with. As the national media convicts Harry, Marcus launches his own investigation, following a trail of clues through his mentor s books, the backwoods and isolated beaches of New Hampshire, and the hidden history of Somerset’s citizens and the man they hold most dear.

“This sprawling, likable whodunit [is] obvious ballast for the summer’s beach totes.... Dicker keeps the prose simple and the pace snappy in a plot that winds up with more twists than a Twizzler.... [An] entertaining debut thriller” —Kirkus Reviews

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Joel Dicker was born in 1985 in Geneva, Switzerland, where he later studied law, and spent childhood summers in New England. The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair won three French literary prizes, including the Grand Prix du Roman from the Academie Franchise, and was a finalist for the Prix Goncourt.

May 2014 | Trade Paperback | Fiction | 656 pp | $18.00 | ISBN 9780143126683 Penguin | us.penguingroup.com | joeldicker.com

CONVERSATION STARTERS

While you were reading the novel, were you conscious of the fact that it was originally written in French?

Were Harry and Nola in love? Is true love possible between an adult in his thirties and a fifteen-year-old adolescent?

There are no explicit sex scenes between Harry and Nola in the novel. Is it possible that their relationship was unconsummated?

How well do you think Dicker captured small-town American life? Are the Quinns a typical American family?

Is Marcus a reliable narrator?

Do you agree with Marcus’s ultimate decision to write a book about “The Harry Quebert Affair”? What would you have done in his position?

[Spoiler warning: Don’t read ahead if you don’t want to know too much!]

Who was Nola Kellergan: a victim, a seductress, or something else?

Elijah Stern goes to great lengths to atone for the crime he committed in his youth. Did his actions adequately compensate his victim?

Was Harry, in part, to blame for Nola’s death because of the way he misled Jenny Quinn?

How did the truth about The Origin of Evil affect your opinion of Harry? Should he have publicly admitted that it was really written by someone else?

Did you suspect the identity of the true killer?

Were you satisfied that justice had been served?

UNBROKEN

Laura Hillenbrand

#1 New York Times Bestseller • Hailed as the top nonfiction book of the year by Time magazine

In boyhood, Louis Zamperini was an incorrigible delinquent. As a teenager, he channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics. But when World War II began, the athlete became an airman, embarking on a journey that led to a doomed flight on a May afternoon in 1943. When his Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean, against all odds, Zamperini survived, adrift on a foundering life raft. Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater. Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion. His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will.

Appearing in paperback for the first time—with twenty arresting new photos and an extensive Q&A with the author—Unbroken is an unforgettable testament to the resilience of the human mind, body, and spirit, brought vividly to life by Seabiscuit author Laura Hillenbrand.

“A celebration of gargantuan fortitude.. .full of unforgettable characters, multi-hanky moments and wild turns... Hillenbrand is a muscular, dynamic storyteller.” —The New York Times

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Laura Hillenbrand is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Seabiscuit: An American Legend. Hillenbrand’s New Yorker article, “A Sudden Illness,” won the 2004 National Magazine Award. She is a co-founder of Operation International Children, a charity that provides school supplies to children through American troops. She lives in Washington, D.C.

July 2014 | Trade Paperback | Nonfiction | 528 pp | $16.00 | ISBN 9780812974492 Random House Trade Paperbacks | randomhouse.com | laurahillenbrandbooks.com

CONVERSATION STARTERS

Louie’s experiences are singular: It’s unlikely that one person will ever again be in a plane crash, strafed by a bomber, attacked by sharks, cast away on a raft, and held as a POW. And yet the word most often used to describe him is “inspiring.” What does Louie’s experience demonstrate that makes him so inspirational to people who will never endure what he did? What are the lessons that his life offers to all of us?

In Louie’s boyhood, he was severely bullied, then became a delinquent and hell-raiser. In these experiences, did he already display attributes that would help him survive his wartime ordeal? Did he also show tendencies that foreshadowed the struggles he would face postwar?

Louie was especially close to his brother, Pete. If Pete hadn’t been there, what do you think would have become of Louie?

After the war, Louie would say that of all the horrors he experienced in the war, the death of the little duck, Gaga, was the worst. Why was this event especially wrenching for him and the other POWs?

Louie, Frank Tinker, and William Harris planned to escape from Ofuna, walk across Japan, steal a boat, and make a run for China. It was a plan that very likely would have ended in their deaths. Was it foolish, or did it offer a psychological benefit that was worth the enormous risk?

Louie joined a plot to kill the Bird. Was he justified in doing so? Would it have been a moral act? Do you think Louie could have found peace after the war had he killed the Bird?

“Anger is a justifiable and understandable reaction to being wronged, and as the soul’s first effort to reassert its worth and power, it may initially be healing,” Laura Hillenbrand wrote in an article for Guideposts magazine. “But in time, anger becomes corrosive...Louie became so obsessed with vengeance that his life was consumed by the quest for it. In bitterness, he was as much a captive as he’d been when barbed wire had surrounded him.” Do you agree?

Many of us struggle to forgive those who have wronged us, especially since forgiveness is often so difficult to find. What makes it so hard to let resentment go?

WE ARE WATER

Wally Lamb

With humor and compassion, New York Times bestselling author Wally Lamb brilliantly captures human experience through vivid and unforgettable characters struggling to find hope and redemption in the aftermath of trauma and loss.

Annie Oh—wife, mother, and artist—has shaken her family to its core. After twenty-seven years of marriage and three children, Annie has fallen in love with Viveca, the wealthy, cultured, confident Manhattan art dealer who orchestrated her professional success. The two plan to wed in the Oh family’s hometown of Three Rivers, Connecticut, where gay marriage has recently been legalized. But this provokes mixed reactions and opens a Pandora’s box of toxic secrets—dark and painful truths that have festered below the surface of the Ohs’ lives.

Told in the alternating voices of the Ohs—nonconformist Annie; her psychologist ex-husband, Orion; their do-gooder daughter, Ariane, and her rebellious twin, Andrew; and the free-spirited youngest, Marissa—We Are Water is vintage Wally Lamb: a compulsively readable and uplifting masterpiece that digs deep into the complexities of the human heart to explore the ways we search for love and meaning in our lives.

“It’s a sign of a good novel when the reader slowly savors the final chapters, both eager to discover the ending and dreading saying goodbye to the characters. We Are Water is a book worth diving into.” —USA Today

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Wally Lamb is the author of four previous novels, including the New York Times and national bestseller The Hour I First Believed and Wishin’ and Hopin’, a bestselling novella. His first two works of fiction, She’s Come Undone and I Know This Much Is True, were both number-one New York Times bestsellers and Oprah’s Book Club selections.

August 2014 | Trade Paperback | Fiction | 592 pp | $16.99 | ISBN 9780061941030 Harper Perennial | harpercollins.com | wallylamb.net

CONVERSATION STARTERS

Describe Anna and Orion Oh and their relationship. What factors drew them together and what drove them apart? What were your first impressions of each character? Did you see the characters in the same light by the novel’s end? Think about their names. Are they fitting for these characters? What other elements like this did you notice throughout the novel?

Talk about the Oh children. How do each of them relate to their parents? Were Anna and Orion good parents? What makes a good parent? Are they equally culpable for their impact on their children? How much of our lives are shaped by our families, and how much by our own choices? Choose a character or two from the Oh family and use examples from the book to support your thoughts.

Family, tragedy, art, violence, secrets, love, and transformation are the themes at the heart of We Are Water. How are Anna’s secrets both destructive and productive? What about the other family secrets?

As the story unfolds we learn about Anna as a mother and her relationship with Andrew, her only son. Why does she treat him the way that she does? Is she truly aware of her behavior? Why don’t the children tell their father the truth about their mother? Were they protecting her?

Think about Orion. His profession is helping people, watching for signs, recognizing pain and rescuing his patients. How could he miss Anna’s suppressed emotions and those of his children? Was he too busy tending to others to notice his own family’s dysfunction? Could he have truly seen it or by being a part of this family was he too close?

After Anna shares her terrible secret with Andrew, he makes a crucial choice. What do you think of his actions? Was he morally justified? Is it good that he told his father about what happened?

How do each of the Ohs come to terms with who they are? Would you say that they and the novel itself have a happy ending?

Orion mentions an article in the New York Times about scientists who found that reading fiction stimulates the brain in the same way that real life experiences do. Why do you read fiction? Are novels and stories important? Does this experience match your own?

WHAT I REMEMBER MOST

Cathy Lamb

In a new novel rich in grace, warmth, and courage, acclaimed author Cathy Lamb tells of one woman’s journey of reinvention in the wake of deep betrayal. Grenadine Scotch Wild has only vague memories of the parents she last saw when she was six years old. But she’s never forgotten their final, panicked words to her, urging Grenadine to run. The mystery of their disappearance is just one more frayed strand in a life that has lately begun to unravel completely. One year into her rocky marriage to Covey, a well known investor, he’s arrested for fraud and embezzlement. And Grenadine, now a successful collage artist and painter, is facing jail time despite her innocence.

With Covey refusing to exonerate her unless she comes back to him, Grenadine once again takes the advice given to her so long ago: she runs. Hiding out in a mountain town in central Oregon until the trial, she finds work as a bartender and as assistant to a furniture-maker who is busy rebuilding his own life. But even far from everything she knew, Grenadine is granted a rare chance, as potentially liberating as it is terrifying—to face down her past, her fears, and live a life as beautiful and colorful as one of her paintings.

“The blending of three or more generations and the secrets they harbor keeps this story moving briskly, culminating in a satisfying ending that makes us believe that despite heartache and angst, there can be such a thing as happily ever after” —New York Journal of Books on The First Day Of The Rest Of My Life

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Cathy Lamb, the author of Julia’s Chocolates, The First Day of the Rest of My Life, and Henry’s Sisters, lives in Oregon. She is married with three children, and she writes late at night when it’s just her, the moon, and a few shooting stars.

August 2014 | Trade Paperback | Fiction | 498 pp | $15.00 | ISBN 9780758295064 Kensington Books | kensingtonbooks.com | cathylamb.org

CONVERSATION STARTERS

What did you think of What I Remember Most? What 3 scenes best depict Grenadine Scotch Wild’s character?

Which character did you most relate to and why? Was there any part of the book that made you laugh or cry? What was your favorite scene?

Grenadine says, “I’m a crack shot and can hit damn near anything.„I’m a collage artist and painter. ..I used to have a little green house. I sold it. That was a huge mistake. ..I can smash beer cans on my forehead. ..I fight dirty. Someone comes at me, and my instinctive reaction is to smash and pulverize. It has gotten me into trouble. ..I have a temper, my anger perpetually on low seethe, and I have struggled with self esteem issues and flashbacks for as long as I can remember. I can wear four-inch heels and designer clothes like wealthy women, make social chitchat, and pretend I’m exactly like them. I am not like them at all...” Write down, and then share, how you would describe yourself.

Grenadine speaks in the 1st person. However, there are also police and children’s services reports; memos, letters from a doctor, a teacher, and Grenadine; a report card; a court transcript; and 3rd person passages from the point of view of Bucky. Did the structure work for you? Why?

Marley said, “Women are so picky. If you don’t look like Brad Pitt or you’re not rich, they don’t want you.” Grenadine said, “No, they don’t want you, Marley, because you look like you have a baby in your stomach, you’re unshaven, you drink too much, and all you want to do is talk about yourself and whine in that whiny voice of yours. Would you be attracted to you? No? Then why would a woman be?” Why did the author give Grenadine a job at a bar? If she gave you advice while you were drinking a margarita, what would she say to you?

Did you learn anything about living and dying from Rozlyn? Would it have been more realistic, or a better ending for you, if Rozlyn had lived? Why do you think the author chose for her to die?

Grenadine said, “I paint what’s in my head. I’ll twist it up, spin it out, add color, add layers, add collage items, and I keep going until it feels done.” If you made a painting or collage that would tell the story of your life, what would it look like? What materials would you use? What would it say about you? Grab the artist in you and sketch it out.

THE WONDER OF ALL THINGS

Jason Mott

On the heels of his critically acclaimed and New York Times bestselling debut novel, The Returned, Jason Mott delivers a spellbinding tale of love and sacrifice.

On an ordinary day, at an air show like that in any small town across the country, a plane crashes into a crowd of spectators. After the dust clears, a thirteen-year-old girl named Ava is found huddled beneath a pocket of rubble with her best friend, Wash. He is injured and bleeding, and when Ava places her hands over him, his wounds disappear. Ava has an unusual gift: she can heal others of their physical ailments. Until the air show tragedy, her gift was a secret. Now the whole world knows, and suddenly people from all over the globe begin flocking to her small town, looking for healing and eager to catch a glimpse of The Miracle Child. But Avas unique ability comes at a great cost, and as she grows weaker with each healing, she soon finds herself having to decide just how much she’s willing to give up in order to save the ones she loves most.

Elegantly written, deeply intimate and emotionally astute, The Wonder of All Things is an unforgettable story and a poignant reminder of life’s extraordinary gifts

“Mott allows the magic of his story to unearth a full range of feelings about grief and connection.” —Aimee Bender, New York Times bestselling author of The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jason Mott is the critically acclaimed and New York Times bestselling author of The Returned, which was adapted for a network television drama series. A Pushcart Prize nominee, Jason was named by Entertainment Weekly as a writer poised to break big. He holds a BA in fiction and an MFA in poetry and is the author of two poetry collections. He currently lives in North Carolina.

October 2014 | Hardcover | Fiction | 304 pp | $24.95 | ISBN 9780778316527 Harlequin MIRA | harlequin.com | jasonmottauthor.com

CONVERSATION STARTERS

Many characters in the novel feel that Eva has a responsibility to heal others, regardless of the costs to her own well-being. Do you agree or disagree? To what extent do we have a responsibility to help others—both strangers as well as those we love?

Did you find Reverend Isaiah Brown to be a sympathetic character or a villain, or a little of both? Why?

Heather’s motive for committing suicide is ambiguous. Why do you think she took her own life? Do you think she’s a bad mother for doing so? Why or why not?

Ava and Wash have a special kinship that runs much deeper than the average childhood friendship. Why do you think they have such a powerful connection and how does this bond inform the ending of the novel?

Wash’s grandmother withholds crucial information from Wash, in the interest of protecting his childhood. Do you feel she is justified in doing so? Why or why not? How would you handle a similar situation in your own life?

Discuss the significance of the title, “The Wonder of All Things.”

Many in the novel feel that Eva has a responsibility to heal others, regardless of the costs to herself. Do you agree or disagree? To what extent do we have a responsibility to help others—both strangers as well as those we love?

Did you find Reverend Isaiah Brown to be a sympathetic character or a villain? Why?

Heather’s motive for committing suicide is ambiguous. Why do you think she took her own life? Do you think she’s a bad mother for doing so? Why or why not?

Book Group Favorites

Early in 2014, we asked thousands of book groups to tell us what books they read and discussed during 2013 that they enjoyed most. The top ten titles were:

The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman (Scribner)

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (Broadway)

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand (Random House)

Me Before You Jacob by Jojo Moyes (Penguin Books)

The Aviator’s Wife by Melanie Benjamin (Bantam)

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett (Harper Perennial)

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (Alfred A. Knopf)

The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeanette Walls (Scribner)

The Paris Wife by Paula McLain (Ballantine Books)

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed (Vintage Books)

READING GROUP CHOICES’ ADVISORY BOARD

Charlie Mead owned and managed Reading Group Choices from 2005 until 2014. He sold the business to Mary Morgan in April 2014. Charlie’s business partner and wife, Barbara Drummond Mead, co-owned and managed the business until her passing in 2011. From 1972 to 1999, Charlie served at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) and Compaq Computer Corporation, both now part of Hewlett Packard, most recently as vice president of communication accounts worldwide. In 1999, Charlie became vice president of Sales of Interpath Communications Corporation, an Internet infrastructure company, until the company’s sale in 2000. From 2000 to 2005, Charlie owned and managed Connxsys LLC, a communications consulting firm.

Donna Paz Kaufman founded Reading Group Choices in 1994 to connect publishers, booksellers, libraries, and readers with great books for group discussion. Today, the bookstore training and consulting group of Paz & Associates is fully dedicated to assisting people around the globe open, manage, and sell their independent bookstores. To learn more about Paz & Associates, visit PazBookBiz.com.

John Mutter is editor-in-chief of Shelf Awareness, the daily e-mail newsl etter focusing on books, media about books, retailing and related issues to help booksellers, librarians and others do their jobs more effectively. Before he and his business partner, Jenn Risko, founded the company in May 2005, he was executive editor of bookselling at Publishers Weekly. He has covered book industry issues for 25 years and written for a variety of publications, including The Bookseller in the U.K.; Australian Bookseller & Publisher; Boersenblatt, the German book trade magazine; and College Store Magazine in the U.S. For more information about Shelf Awareness, go to its website, shelf-awareness.com.

Mark Nichols was an independent bookseller in various locations from Maine to Connecticut from 1976 through 1993. After seven years in a variety of positions with major publishers in New York and San Francisco, he joined the American Booksellers Association in 2000, and currently serves as Development Officer. He is on the Board of James Patterson’s ReadKiddoRead.com, and has edited two volumes with Newmarket Press—Book Sense Best Books (2004) and Book Sense Best Children’s Books (2005).

Nancy Olson owned and operated Quail Ridge Books & Music in Raleigh, NC from 1981 until it was sold in 2013. The shop has grown from 1,200 sq. ft. to 9,000+ sq. ft and sales of $3 million. The bookstore won three major awards in 2001: Publishers Weekly Bookseller of the Year, Charles Haslam Award for Excellence in Bookselling; Pannell Award for Excellence in Children’s Bookselling. It was voted “Best in the Triangle” in the Independent Weekly and Metro Magazine.

Jill A. Tardiff is Chair and Event Manager of National Reading Group Month (NRGM), a marketing initiative fostered by the Women’s National Book Association (WNBA), a professional development and literacy outreach nonprofit organization. She is WNBA’s Main NGO Representative at the United Nations Department of Public Information and its Social Media Manager. Jill was the Association’s National President (2004-2006) and the New York City Chapter’s President (2000-2006).

Over the past three-and-a-half decades, Jill has held top management positions at Hallmark Cards, Inc., Doubleday Bookshops, and Tiffany & Co., as well as principal of Bamboo River Associates, a retail consultancy serving major Japanese publishers and booksellers such as Shueisha Publishing Co. and Kodansha Ltd. Miraiken Group. She has worked as a reporter and columnist at Shinbunka Weekly, contributing editor at Shueisha Publishing Co. and Publishers Weekly, and advertising manager at Guernica Magazine, Parabola Magazine, and Persimmon Asian Literature, Arts & Culture. Jill is currently involved in the farm-to-table/ farm-to-consumer food movement with professional expertise in artisan and farmstead cheeses, and she provides literary cheese-beverage pairing services to book clubs upon request.