Book Discussion Group Title List
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January
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THE
SECRET BETWEEN US
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February
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BREAKFAST
WITH BUDDHA In
order to settle his parents’ estate, Otto and his loopy sister, Cecilia,
must drive to the family homestead in North Dakota. Then Cecilia tells him
she's giving her half of the farm to her guru, the maroon-robed Volya
Rinpoche, and that she wants Otto to drive him there.
After a fit of skeptical rage, he accepts, and this spiritual
road-trip novel is off and running. In
an effort to westernize his passenger—and amuse himself—he decides to
show the monk some "American fun" along the way. Merullo
takes the reader through the small towns and byways of Midwestern America,
which look unexpectedly alluring through Rinpoche's eyes. Well-fed Western
secularist Otto is only half-aware that his life might need fixing, and
his slow discovery of Rinpoche's nature, and his own, make for a
satisfying read. |
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LITTLE
HEATHENS Recounted
in a luminous narrative filled with tenderness and humor, Kalish’s
memoir of her childhood shows how the right stuff can make even the
bleakest of times seem like “quite a romp.” |
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TILT-A-WHIRL A
billionaire real estate tycoon is found murdered on the Tilt-A-Whirl at a
seedy seaside amusement park in the otherwise quiet town of Sea Haven, New
Jersey. Jon
Ceepak, a former MP just back from Iraq, has joined the Sea Haven police
department. Far
from forgetting the horrors of war, he is to lead the investigation,
partnered by Danny Boyle, a twenty-four-year-old, part-time summer cop who
narrates the novel.
At
first Ceepak's personal code of honor only amuses or annoys the cynical
Boyle. But as he (and we) get to know the former soldier, the portrait of
a true hero emerges. Grabenstein brilliantly evokes the endearing
seediness of a Jersey Shore town in summer, but it's his development of
the Ceepak-Boyle relationship that elevates this award-winning first novel
in Grabenstein’s Jersey Shore series above the pack. |
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May
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THE
ALCHEMIST This simple, yet eloquent
parable celebrates the richness of the human spirit. A young Spanish
shepherd seeking his destiny travels to Egypt where he learns many
lessons, particularly from a wise old alchemist. The real alchemy here,
however, is the transmuting of youthful idealism into mature wisdom. The
blending of conventional ideas with an exotic setting makes old truths
seem new again.
The story of the treasures Santiago
finds along the way teaches us about the essential wisdom of listening to
our hearts, learning to read the omens strewn along life's path, and,
above all, following our dreams. |
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TIME
IS A RIVER Mia
Landan, a cancer survivor, returns to Charleston after a fly-fishing
retreat and finds her husband in bed with another woman. Shocked,
Mia rushes back to the mountains where she'd been fishing and seeks the
help of fly fisherman Belle Carson, who offers her the use of a ramshackle
cabin for the summer.
At first, the solitude isn’t easy, and Mia has to overcome some
major fears. Her real healing begins after she discovers the
long-forgotten diary of Kate Watkins, Belle’s grandmother, who allegedly
murdered her lover and who also lived in the cabin.
Mia feels a strange kinship with the woman who, like her, suffered
fears, betrayal, the death of loved ones, and a fall from grace -- yet
found strength, compassion and, ultimately, forgiveness in her isolation.
Monroe infuses her characters with warmth and vitality in this
exquisite, multi-layered novel. |
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July
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RED
LEATHER DIARY |
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The
Pleasure Was Mine
is a moving account of how an irascible man named Prate Marshbanks endures
the slow loss of his beloved wife and finds his way back to life. In a
wonderful story about the meaning of family and the power of love, Hays
beautifully captures a husband's grief as he watches his beloved wife slip
into Alzheimer's. The author has rendered an unforgettable character in
Prate, who, as he copes with his wife’s illness, establishes new bonds
with his widowed son and grandson. The
novel illuminates one of the toughest challenges a family may face
but with his deft touch for humor and generous sympathy for his
characters, Tommy Hays reveals the chance for fresh starts where we
thought there were only endings. It’s
a tender, affecting story, simply but powerfully told. |
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THE
GOLD COAST Long Island’s Gold Coast, which
once held the greatest concentration of wealth and power in America, is
practically a character here. We
learn some of its storied history and see how its inhabitants live their
lives in mansions which have seen better days.
We find out what happens to John Sutter, a WASPy disillusioned Wall
Street lawyer when Frank Bellarosa, a Mafia crime boss moves in next door.
Initially, he shuns him but he is drawn by the mobster’s forceful
personality and consents to represent him in a murder case.
Sutter’s beautiful wife Susan becomes involved in more ways than
one. With authentic settings
and real people, the novel provides an entertaining view of the lives of
the rich and famous. |
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Rennie Stroud looks back to
1942, when she was 13, in this powerful coming-of-age novel. That year,
the U.S. government opened a Japanese internment camp outside Ellis, CO,
less than a mile from where Rennie and her family farmed sugar beets.
Rennie observes the prejudice of some of the townspeople as well as her
parents' strong moral code. Her father, Loyal, not only shows open
support for the Japanese, whom he views as Americans, but offers to hire
them to work on the farm. When a young girl is murdered, suspicion
naturally turns to the camp, and the town is divided by fear. |
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Emma
Corrigan has kept her
job at Panther Cola for nearly a year, has the perfect boyfriend and hopes
for a promotion to marketing executive.
On an unusually turbulent return flight from a disappointing client
meeting, in a terrified state, she confesses her innermost secrets to the
good-looking stranger sitting beside her.
When she shows up at work the next morning, she is horrified to
discover that her mystery man is none other than the revered and brilliant
Jack Harper, American CEO of Panther Cola.
The
author of the Shopaholic trilogy, with her wicked humor, buoyant charm and
optimism intact, offers up
this delightful novel filled with her trademark wit. |
