September 2013

September does not just mean the end of summer. For some book groups, it means getting back to book group discussion after the summer hiatus --- for others, it's finally time for the entire group to gather after scattered vacation time. Also, it may mean it’s time for making quarterly or semi-annual book selections. Book group meetings give you a chance not just to talk about the book that has been chosen for discussion, but also to share others you have read throughout the month --- or, in this case, over the entire summer. May we suggest that you allocate a portion of your meeting to this kind of book sharing? After all, from your formal conversations, you know a lot about the tastes of the other readers in your group. Consider this an opportunity for you to hear about books from those whose selections you respect --- and a chance to broaden your reading horizons!

By the way, on my staycation two weeks ago, I managed to read eight books! Curious as to what I read --- and enjoyed? Here's my list.

This month, we are offering FIVE chances for you and your group to win some wonderful reads. The first contest book is Moonrise, which was inspired by author Cassandra King’s reading of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca. When Helen Honeycutt falls in love with Emmet Justice, who has recently lost his wife in a tragic accident, their sudden marriage creates a rift between her new husband and his oldest friends, who resent Helen’s intrusion into their tightly knit circle. Someone is clearly determined to drive her away, but who wants her gone, and why? Three lucky groups will win 10 SIGNED copies of the book with special bookplates, along with an opportunity to chat with Cassandra via phone or Skype. To enter, please fill out this form by Thursday, October 3rd at noon ET.

The story is set in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, a place where I have spent some time, and Cassandra captures it so well. Emmet and Helen live in a wonderful house called Moonrise and behind it is an abandoned moon garden that is filled with night flowers, like moonflowers and night jasmine, that Emmet’s deceased wife, Rosalyn, had cultivated. At the end of the book is an essay by Cassandra on planting a moon garden, which I plan to share with my local nursery, Malanga’s Springdale Farm, to see how I can create something like it next year. Click here for the guide and here for our review on Bookreporter.com. Moonrise was one of my summer vacation reads and will be a Bookreporter.com Bets On selection this week.

Our second contest is for Accelerated, Bronwen Hruska’s debut novel that releases in paperback on September 15th. The story centers on single father Sean and his son, Toby, who attends the prestigious Bradley School where everything is accelerated. When the school suggests Sean put Toby on medication for ADD, he thinks this seems unnecessary, but assumes the school knows best. Is this accelerated life worth the risks? Six groups will receive 12 copies of the book, and four of these groups will win a Skype chat with Bronwen. For the chance to be one of these lucky groups, fill out this form by Thursday, October 3rd at noon ET.

I read Accelerated before it released in hardcover, and it haunts me just as the way we push push push kids today on every level maddens me. Click here for the guide and here for our review on Bookreporter.com. I highly suggest you read it with your group, as it will likely spark some big conversations and perhaps even some debates on the topic!

The next contest offers the chance for your group to win copies of Havana Lost, an epic thriller that spans three generations of the same Mafia family. Award-winning author Libby Fischer Hellmann’s 10th novel and third thriller begins on the eve of the Cuban Revolution. In the midst of the chaos, 18-year-old Francesca Pacelli flees from her ruthless Mafia-boss father in Havana to the arms of her lover, a rebel fighting with Fidel Castro. Her father, desperate to send her to safety in the US, resorts to torture and blackmail to find her. Decades later, promises of wealth and power lure the family back to Cuba. Fifteen groups will receive a copy of the book, while three other groups will win three copies of the book AND a Skype chat with Libby. Be sure to enter by filling out this form by Thursday, October 3rd at noon ET.

I have always wanted to go to Cuba, thus a book set there is always of interest to me. A few years ago I flew into the Cayman Islands, and as I disembarked, I immediately was approached by private tour operators asking me if I wanted to make a visit to Cuba. I was soooo tempted! Libby’s writing will drop you right into the country that has been off-limits to Americans for years, and thus her novel is definitely worth exploring! Click here for the guide.

For this month’s "What Are You Reading" contest, we have 12 copies of The Round House by Louise Erdrich, available in paperback on September 24th, to give away to three groups. Winner of the National Book Award and Indies Choice Award, this bestselling and critically acclaimed novel is a tragic tale of injustice that is, unfortunately, an authentic reflection of what happens in our own United States today. After a horrible crime occurs on an Ojibwe reservation in North Dakota, a young boy must become a man while dealing with the transformations his family makes as a result of the atrocity. Don’t miss your chance to win copies of this illuminating adventure. Click here and let us know what your group is reading in September by Thursday, October 3rd at noon ET for a chance to win. We covered the book on Bookreporter.com when it released in hardcover last year, and you can read our review here and the guide here.

Our fifth and final contest is one that will be exclusive to our registered book clubs this month. 150 groups will win one copy of The Preservationist --- a riveting psychological thriller releasing on October 10th about three people whose dark pasts are beginning to catch up with them --- along with an opportunity for the author, Justin Kramon, to personally visit their book club meeting. Many of you may remember Justin from when his debut novel, Finny, was published back in 2010. Justin traveled to meet soooo many of our book groups --- and he looks forward to doing more of that in the weeks and months to come! Groups that have registered with us by Tuesday, September 24th will have the chance to win. If your group is not registered with ReadingGroupGuides.com, click here to register.

Along with these contests, we’re featuring a number of guides that we’d like to tell you about. First up is MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood. Bringing together Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood, this final book in Atwood's speculative fiction trilogy points toward the ultimate endurance of community and love. MaddAddam combines adventure, humor and romance to create a moving and dramatic conclusion to this internationally celebrated dystopian series. Click here for the guide, and be sure to catch up on the previous books if you haven’t already.

In her second novel, screenwriter Dianne Dixon draws inspiration from a mysterious childhood dream to craft a story of protecting --- and betraying --- those we love. In The Book of Someday, California girl Livvi Gray has always been haunted by a terrifying nightmare of an eerily beautiful stranger in a shimmering silver dress. Shortly before Livvi’s 30th birthday, she will come face to face with the stranger from her dream, an encounter that will not only alter her future, but change much of what she thinks she knows about the past. Click here for the guide and here for our review on Bookreporter.com. My Bookreporter.com Bets On commentary will be available this weekend; this truly is a special book, and the ending could be the subject of a lot of discussion. No reading ahead!

NW, Zadie Smith’s latest novel now available in paperback, follows four Londoners as they try to make adult lives outside of Caldwell, the council estate of their childhood. From private houses to public parks, at work and at play, their London is a complicated place, as beautiful as it is brutal, where the thoroughfares hide the back alleys and taking the high road can sometimes lead you to a dead end. Click here for the guide and here for our review on Bookreporter.com.

In 1963, mathematician Edward Norton Lorenz coined the butterfly effect, the idea that a butterfly flapping its wings could cause a hurricane by altering seemingly inconsequential elements of the world around it. In Approaching the Speed of Light, author Victoria Lustbader applies this theory to the lives of four New Yorkers. Jody is a likable young man, but a secret history has left him scarred and broken inside. His buried secrets hold him back until his trajectory crosses the path of three very different women, who, in their own ways, hold out the tantalizing possibility of healing, connection…or self-destruction. Click here for the guide, along with our review on Bookreporter.com and my Bets On commentary. Many of you may remember Victoria’s work from her last book, Stone Creek, which was featured here. Approaching the Speed of Light is very, very different. I really admire the way she approaches storytelling.

When Robert Morgan’s novel Gap Creek was published in 1999, it became an Oprah Book Club Selection and an instant national bestseller. But what of the years that followed? What did the future hold for these memorable characters? The Road from Gap Creek holds the answers to these questions, as Morgan takes us back into their lives, telling their story and the stories of their children through the eyes of their youngest daughter, Annie. Click here for the guide. And maybe read both books for your discussion?

Claire Nagy’s love for Forster Baumsarg, the only son of prominent California citrus ranchers, is so strong that not even the tragic death of her son Joshua at kidnappers’ hands, her alienation from her two daughters, or the dissolution of her marriage can pull her from the ranch she’s devoted her life to preserving. But in The Forgetting Tree by Tatjana Soli, Claire is about to face her greatest struggle: an illness that threatens to take her very life. Click here for the guide. On Bookreporter.com, we’re giving 20 readers the chance to win a copy of the book, which is now available in paperback. To enter, please fill out this form by Tuesday, September 24th at noon ET.

Available for the first time as a paperback original is The Suite Life by Suzanne Corso, which follows poverty-stricken Samantha Bonti as she struggles to find love and success “over the bridge” in Manhattan. Alec, a successful Wall Street banker, seems to be the answer to her dreams. Suddenly finding herself in the excessively decadent and wholly unfamiliar world of Manhattan’s elite, Samantha begins to wonder if she will ever feel at home on the opposite side of the bridge. But when a risky business move coincides with a market crash, Alec’s fortune begins to slip away, and Samantha is left scrambling to pick up the pieces of her swiftly crumbling fairy tale. Click here for the guide.

Meg Cabot continues her Heather Wells mystery series for adults with The Bride Wore Size 12. Heather is used to having her cake and eating it, too, but this time she may be out of luck. Her cake's gone missing…along with the wedding planner she's hired for her upcoming nuptials to hunky P.I. Cooper Cartwright. But Heather has even bigger problems: A pretty freshman has turned up dead after an all-night back-to-school rager, and every student in the dorm where Heather works is a possible suspect. This one sounds like quintessential Meg! Click here for the guide.

Our final featured guide is for Constance by Rosie Thomas, whose previous novel The Kashmir Shawl was spotlighted on Bookreporter.com. When Connie hears the news that her sister, Jeanette, is dying, the last thing she wants is to leave her home and return to London. As a child, she was aware only of the differences between herself and her sister. One of them was dark, the other sunny. Yet they both fell in love with the same man. But with the bitterness of betrayal still between them, Connie and Jeanette have to learn to forgive each other. Click here for the guide.

Some of our readers attended the Hachette Book Group’s "Book Group Day" on Saturday, and we will be interviewing them for the site. We love the chance to share experiences like this with our readers. A few upcoming book festivals to note. Brooklyn readers, the Brooklyn Book Festival will be Sunday, September 22nd. The National Book Festival in Washington, DC is September 21st-22nd. The Texas Book Festival in Austin, Texas, is October 26th-27th. The Boston Book Festival is October 17th-19th. The 30th Anniversary of the Miami Book Fair takes place from November 17th-24th, with the Street Fair on November 22nd-24th. Lots of opportunities here to meet and talk to authors. If I am missing an upcoming book fair, let me know!

Here’s to a great month of reading….and discussing….

Carol Fitzgerald ([email protected])

PS. When you use the links below to purchase books, you also support ReadingGroupGuides.com as we have affiliate arrangements with each of them. Please consider this when shopping for books online!

 

We are celebrating the release of Moonrise --- in which a newlywed discovers a secret that forces her to decide if she can ever trust or love again --- with an exciting contest. Three groups will win 10 SIGNED first editions of the book with special bookplates, along with an opportunity to chat with the author, Cassandra King, via phone or Skype. To enter, please fill out this form by Thursday, October 3rd at noon ET.

More about Moonrise:
When Helen Honeycutt falls in love with Emmet Justice, who has recently lost his wife in a tragic accident, their sudden marriage creates a rift between her new husband and his oldest friends, who resent Helen’s intrusion into their tightly knit circle. Hoping to mend fences, the newlyweds join the group for a summer at his late wife’s family home in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains. Helen soon falls under the spell not only of the little mountain town and its inhabitants, but also of Moonrise, her predecessor’s Victorian mansion. But the harder Helen tries to fit in, the more obvious it is that she will never measure up to the woman she replaced.

We are celebrating the September 15th paperback release of Accelerated --- in which a single dad and his son discover what lies beneath the gilded facade of an elite Upper East Side private school --- with a special contest. Six groups will receive 12 copies of the book, and four of these groups also will win a Skype chat with the author, Bronwen Hruska. To enter, please fill out this form by Thursday, October 3rd at noon ET.

More about Accelerated:
Everything at Bradley is accelerated --- their facilities rival the best universities, their third graders read at sixth grade levels, and here the chess champ is the school bully. A single dad and struggling artist, Sean finds himself thrust into the crush of power-mom pick-ups and ladies who lunch. But at least his son Toby is getting the best education money can buy, right? Then Sean starts getting pressure from the school to put Toby on medication. What happens when keeping up is no longer enough? When success is not enough? When the pressure to exceed eclipses all else?

We are celebrating the release of Havana Lost --- an epic thriller set largely in Cuba that spans three generations of the same Mafia family --- with a special contest. Fifteen groups will receive one copy of the book, while three other groups will win three copies of the book AND a Skype chat with the author, Libby Fischer Hellmann. To enter, please fill out this form by Thursday, October 3rd at noon ET.

More about Havana Lost:
On the eve of the Cuban Revolution, headstrong 18-year-old Francesca Pacelli flees from her ruthless Mafia-boss father in Havana to the arms of her lover, a rebel fighting with Fidel Castro. Her father, desperate to send her to safety in the US, resorts to torture and blackmail as he searches the island for her. So begins the first part of a spellbinding saga that spans three generations of the same family. Decades later, the family is lured back to Cuba by the promise of untold riches. But pursuing those riches brings danger as well as opportunity, and ultimately, Francesca’s family must confront the lethal consequences of their choices.

Let us know what your group is reading in September, and you will be entered in a giveaway to win multiple copies of a book for your group! Our latest prize book is The Round House by Louise Erdrich, the National Book Award-winning novel about a boy on the cusp of manhood who seeks justice and understanding in the wake of a terrible crime that upends and forever transforms his family. We have 12 copies of the book, which will be available in paperback on September 24th, to give away to three groups. Enter here by Thursday, October 3rd at noon ET for your chance to win copies for you and your group members.

More about The Round House:
One Sunday in the spring of 1988, a woman living on a reservation in North Dakota is attacked. The details of the crime are slow to surface because Geraldine Coutts is traumatized and reluctant to relive or reveal what happened, either to the police or to her husband, Bazil, and 13-year-old son, Joe. In one day, Joe's life is irrevocably transformed. He tries to heal his mother, but she will not leave her bed and slips into an abyss of solitude. Increasingly alone, Joe finds himself thrust prematurely into an adult world for which he is ill prepared.

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.
 

California girl Livvi Gray has always been haunted by a terrifying nightmare of an eerily beautiful stranger in a shimmering silver dress. Shortly before Livvi’s 30th birthday, she will come face to face with the stranger from her dream, an encounter that will not only alter Livvi’s future, but change much of what she thinks she knows about the past. The Book of Someday tells Livvi’s story in parallel with that of a brilliant Boston photographer named Micah and a young Long Island wife and mother named AnnaLee.

-Click here to read our review on Bookreporter.com.
 

Set in northwest London, Zadie Smith’s brilliant tragicomic novel follows four locals --- Leah, Natalie, Fox and Nathan --- as they try to make adult lives outside of Caldwell, the council estate of their childhood. In private houses and public parks, at work and at play, these Londoners inhabit a complicated place, as beautiful as it is brutal, where the thoroughfares hide the back alleys and taking the high road can sometimes lead you to a dead end. Depicting the modern urban zone --- familiar to city-dwellers everywhere --- NW is a quietly devastating novel of encounters, mercurial and vital, like the city itself.

-Click here to read our review on Bookreporter.com.
 

Jody is a likable young man getting by in New York City at the turn of the millennium. On the surface, he seems to have it together, with friends, family, a decent job, and a steady string of girlfriends. But a secret history has left Jody scarred and broken inside, lacking faith in the future or himself. Like the ceaseless pull of a black hole, his buried secrets hold him back, defining him, until his trajectory crosses the path of three very different women, who, in their own ways, hold out the tantalizing possibility of healing, connection…or self-destruction.

-Click here to read our review on Bookreporter.com.
 

When Claire Nagy marries Forster Baumsarg, the only son of prominent California citrus ranchers, she knows she's consenting to a life of hard work, long days and worry-fraught nights. But her love for Forster is so strong, she turns away from her literary education and embraces the life of the ranch, succumbing to its intoxicating rhythms and bounty until her love of the land becomes a part of her. Despite having survived the most terrible of tragedies, Claire is about to face her greatest struggle: an illness that threatens not only to rip her from her land but take her very life.

-Click here to enter a contest on Bookreporter.com and win a copy of the book.
 

Far away from her home in England --- and a heartbreak she can never truly escape --- Connie has carved out a new life for herself in idyllic Bali. When she hears the news that her sister Jeanette is dying, the last thing she wants is to leave her home and return to London. As a child, she was aware only of the differences between herself and her sister. One of them was dark, the other sunny. Yet they both fell in love with the same man.

But with the bitterness of betrayal still between them, the sisters have to learn to forgive each other. Do the bonds of shared childhood lie deeper than they had believed? And, surrounded by family, can Connie make her peace with who she really is --- and who she loves?

-Click here to read more about the book.
 

The following guides are now available on ReadingGroupGuides.com:

Accelerated by Bronwen Hruska: A single dad and his son discover what lies beneath the gilded facade of an elite Upper East Side private school.
Approaching the Speed of Light by Victoria Lustbader: Victoria Lustbader’s latest novel is a thoughtful, deeply moving tale about the things we cannot leave behind --- and how, sometimes, we have to go through the black hole to come out the other side.
Aunty Lee’s Delights: A Singaporean Mystery by Ovidia Yu: This delectable and witty mystery introduces Rosie “Aunty” Lee, feisty widow, amateur sleuth and proprietor of Singapore’s best-loved home cooking restaurant.
The Book of Someday by Dianne Dixon: The Book of Someday is a vivid and compelling story of three women whose lives are mysteriously connected and irrevocably changed by the devastating events of one summer.
The Bride Wore Size 12 by Meg Cabot: With her nuptials to PI Cooper Cartwright only weeks away, Heather Wells is already stressed. And when a pretty coed turns up dead, Heather is sure things can't get worse --- until every student in the dorm where she works is a suspect, and Heather's long-lost mother shows up.
Carly’s Gift by Georgia Bockoven: From the author of Things Remembered and The Year Everything Changed comes a moving novel about a love that lasts forever.
Clara’s Heart by Joseph Olshan: Clara’s Heart is a powerful novel about the bond between a West Indian housekeeper and a lonely young man.
Constance by Rosie Thomas: Over three decades of writing, bestselling novelist Rosie Thomas has earned an untold number of awards and glowing critical praise. Her latest novel, Constance, is a powerful story of a woman's anguished reckoning with her past.
The Fallen Snow by John J Kelley: In a gripping tale of self-exploration and atonement, The Fallen Snow evokes the unpredictability of life in 1918 through mesmerizing descriptions and fully realized characters.
The Forgetting Tree by Tatjana Soli: A New York Times Notable Book of 2012 from the bestselling author of The Lotus Eaters, The Forgetting Tree is a novel of a California ranch family and the enigmatic caretaker who may destroy them.
Havana Lost by Libby Fischer Hellmann: On the eve of the Cuban Revolution, headstrong 18-year-old Francesca Pacelli flees from her ruthless Mafia-boss father in Havana to the arms of her lover, a rebel fighting with Fidel Castro. Her father, desperate to send her to safety in the US, resorts to torture and blackmail as he searches the island for her.
MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood: MaddAddam is the brilliant conclusion to the trilogy Margaret Atwood began with Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood. If you didn't read the first two, fear not: Ms. Atwood has included a very handy introduction to MaddAddam called "The Story So Far."
Man Alive! by Mary Kay Zuravleff: Man Alive! is a warm, funny and profoundly original novel about a family dealing with disaster.
Moonrise by Cassandra King: When Helen Honeycutt falls in love with Emmet Justice, a charismatic television journalist who has recently lost his wife in a tragic accident, their sudden marriage creates a rift between her new husband and his oldest friends, who resent Helen’s intrusion into their tightly knit circle.
The Preservationist by Justin Kramon: From the award-winning author of Finny comes a riveting psychological thriller about three people whose dark pasts are beginning to catch up with them.
The Road from Gap Creek by Robert Morgan: One of America’s most acclaimed writers returns to the land on which he has staked his literary claim to paint the indelible portrait of a family in a time of unprecedented change.
Someone by Alice McDermott: From National Book Award–winning author Alice McDermott comes a fully realized portrait of one woman’s life in all its complexity.
Songs of Willow Frost by Jamie Ford: Shifting between the Great Depression and the 1920s, Songs of Willow Frost takes readers on an emotional journey of discovery.
The Suite Life by Suzanne Corso: The follow-up to Suzanne Corso’s debut novel, Brooklyn Story, chronicles Samantha Bonti’s life as a young woman from Brooklyn struggling to rise above her poverty-stricken background and find love and success “over the bridge” in Manhattan.
Tinderbox by Lisa Gornick: When you invite a stranger into your home, you never know who’s really coming in.
Wonder Women: Sex, Power, and the Quest for Perfection by Debora L. Spar: Fifty years after the Equal Pay Act, why are women still living in a man’s world?

Please note that these titles, for which we already had the guides when they appeared in hardcover, are now available in paperback:

Oddly Normal: One Family's Struggle to Help Their Teenage Son Come to Terms with His Sexuality by John Schwartz: Oddly Normal is a heartfelt memoir by the father of a gay teen, and an eye-opening story for families who hope to bring up well-adjusted gay adults.
Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon: Telegraph Avenue is a big-hearted and exhilarating novel that explores the profoundly intertwined lives of two Oakland, California families, one black and one white.

The following guide is now available for Christian book groups: