July - The After Party by Anton DiSclafani
Give any of these “binge reads” a try, and I think you’ll be eager to discuss them with your book club! A secret drives the narrative, and the period details are just right, really making you feel as if you’re there. Two girls from prominent families grow up inseparable, yet as they reach their teenage years the relationship changes in ways one friend does not foresee.
The glitter and glitz of the 1950s Houston oil-and-money set provide the backdrop to this story of female friendship. Is Rachel, the mysterious recent widow of Philip Ashley’s beloved cousin, out to destroy Philip or to woo him and his fortune? Did the beloved cousin die of an illness or was his death really by nefarious means involving Rachel? These questions drive this tale of passion, love, and mystery set on a Cornwall estate, in a splendidly written gothic romance just as compelling as DuMaurier’s Rebecca. Will Helena be able to exact her revenge? Suspense! Using the survival skills he taught her as a youngster, she tracks him through the wilds of the Upper Michigan Peninsula, all the while trying to understand the bizarre life he forced on her and her mother. Called “a psychological thriller of the highest order,” this novel tells the story of a woman hunting down the father who raised her, after he escapes from prison. The Marsh King’s Daughter by Karen Dionne It’s different from The Girl on the Train, but it nonetheless provides the similar suspense that Paula Hawkins delivers so well. People have assumed suicide as the cause, but two new deaths have cast doubt on this old assumption, and fear now grips the area. Over the years, several women have ended up dead in the river near a small British town. This is a novel of secrets that leaves the reader constantly guessing as to which of its multiple narrators is telling the truth, and which is lying. Here are some I’ve felt that way about recently: After all, isn’t that exactly what we look for in a book club selection? We all want a book that feels like “binge reading” - that is, a book we can’t put down, that pulls us back in and makes us want to ignore everything else and keep reading. Those elements are also what make a great novel and a satisfying discussion. They worked together to propel us forward, compelling us to keep watching. Of course, book-lovers that we are, we found ourselves discussing the classic elements of fiction in the show as we viewed: setting, characters, plot, tone, and theme.
HUNGER BY ROXANE GAY DISCUSSION QUESTIONS SERIES
We finished the five-season series in under two months. Think of a show you’ve “binge-watched.” My husband and I, for example, have been a long time coming down from watching Friday Night Lights.
Special Sales and Office Manager, Parnassus Books Immerse yourself in the lived experience of someone else, and see everyone around you differently when you’re finished. And to me, that is more honest than the happily-ever-afters you see in triumphant weight loss headlines and promises of a get-thin-quick diet. But it also reveals a sense of pride in enduring and living - something that turns all that pain if not to joy, then at least into something bittersweet. At times, it shows us pain we might prefer to look away from. Hunger is a bit different from her previous books it is more raw, more brutal.
I would rank Roxane Gay’s work among the best, and I am so happy to send you her new book, Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body.įor those of you who had the pleasure of reading her essay collection Bad Feminist (which I strongly believe has one of the best titles in recent publishing history), then you know that Gay writes with a truthfulness that gets at the soul of the issue at hand and a dedication to fully exploring her ideas. In literature, there are myriad fascinating accounts in which people have processed their experiences and their twisting journeys of self-worth: how bodies look, how we feel about them, how other people react to them, and how our thoughts about bodies impact our culture. I find it unendingly interesting to see how people deal with something we all have - human bodies.