Posted by Alex Dunn on
Are you part of a book club or looking to start one? Cattail Lane by Fran Kimmel makes a great book club pick! Rudderless Nick Ackerman’s life changes when he discovers he has a 14-year-old son — who also comes with a grandmother with dementia. A heartwarming tale of second chances and how families are lost, found, and built anew. Book Club Questions Cattail Lane has multiple narrators, but do you think there is a clear protagonist? Who do you think changes most over the course of the novel? What impact does Sarah have on Billy and Nick’s developing relationship,...
Posted by Alex Dunn on
Are you part of a book club or looking to start one? Lake Burntshore by Aaron Kreuter makes a great book club pick! A comedic and heartrending novel about a summer of momentous change at a Jewish sleepover camp in Southern Ontario’s cottage country. It celebrates, satirizes, and complicates the contemporary Jewish world through the rarefied locale of a Canadian summer camp. Book Club Questions Lake Burntshore is about one summer at a Jewish sleepover camp. Do you relate to the teens and young adults at Camp Burntshore? Does it remind you of your adolescence? Among the large cast of characters, which...
Posted by Alex Dunn on
Are you part of a book club or looking to start one? The Beauty of Us by Farzana Doctor makes a great book club pick! A campus YA novel with a diverse cast of characters. Evoking elements of My Dark Vanessa (Kate Elizabeth Russell) and The Red Word (Sarah Henstra), this novel unravels the complexities of consent, racism, power dynamics, social anxiety, and the struggles with sexuality that so many teens face in an accessible and story-forward way. Book Club Questions How do the alternating perspectives in the novel affect how you feel about the story? What did you like or dislike...
Posted by Caroline Suzuki on
Are you part of a book club or looking to start one? Far Creek Road by Lesley Krueger makes a great book club pick! Tink Parker is an adventurous, nosy, and very funny nine-year-old living a happy suburban life. But it’s 1962. The Cold War is slowly building toward the Cuban Missile Crisis, the world is in danger of ending, and Tink’s innocence comes under threat as she stumbles on neighborhood secrets and affairs. Book Club Questions Far Creek Road begins as Tink Parker makes friends with eight-year-old Norman, who has just moved into her suburban neighborhood. What do you think of Tink...
Posted by Caroline Suzuki on
Are you part of a book club or looking to start one? Gin, Turpentine, Pennyroyal, Rue by Christine Higdon makes a great book club pick! Four working-class Vancouver sisters, still reeling from the impact of World War I and the pandemic that stole their only brother, are scraping by but attempting to make the most of the exciting 1920s. Gin, Turpentine, Pennyroyal, Rue is a love story — but like all love stories, it’s complicated … Book Club Questions Why did the author choose the words gin, turpentine, pennyroyal, and rue for the title of this book? What does the book say about “family”? How...