Posted by Alex Dunn on
Are you part of a book club or looking to start one? The Witch of Willow Sound by Vanessa F. Penney makes a great book club pick! A modern, fast-paced, feminist, and sometimes even funny East Coast gothic with fresh regional folklore about a woman searching for her missing elderly aunt, long suspected to be a witch by the local villagers. Book Club Questions (Spoilers ahead!) Imagine yourself away from the world in a cozy cottage in the forest. Your own version of Willow Sound, just for you. Outside the window, wildflowers sway. Door locked. Candles lit. You sink into the soft...
Posted by Alex Dunn on
Are you part of a book club or looking to start one? Off Menu by Amy Rosen makes a great book club pick! In Amy Rosen’s debut novel, Off Menu, hilarity and heartbreak are dished out in equal measure. Mid-20s Ruthie navigates learning what she wants, who to love, and how to laminate pastry in this Heartburn meets Bridget Jones’s Diary adventure for the next generation. Book Club Questions Is there a character you related to the most? Who and why? How did you feel when Dean came back into Ruthie’s story? Did you relate to the friendships between Ruthie,...
Posted by Alex Dunn on
Are you part of a book club or looking to start one? As Little As Nothing by Pamela Mulloy makes a great book club pick! In the tumultuous year before WWII breaks out, a plane crashes on an English country lane and four people are brought together in the aftermath. The novel uses its interplay of voices to explore early feminism and resilience, the strength of new bonds, and the various ways we reinvent ourselves. Book Club Questions Instead of focusing on the war itself as so many historical novels do, Mulloy has chosen to set As Little as Nothing in...
Posted by Alex Dunn on
Are you part of a book club or looking to start one? Same Ground by Russell Wangersky makes a great book club pick! A personal tale of parallel journeys separated by almost two centuries — by car, in Wangersky’s case, and on mule and foot in the case of his great-great-grandfather William Castle Dodge. Book Club Questions Same Ground is many things — a modern-day odyssey looking for roots and belonging, a portrait of contemporary heartland America, a quintessential North American road trip. Did one aspect resonate with you most? If so, which one and why? Have you ever taken a crazy...
Posted by Alex Dunn on
Are you part of a book club or looking to start one? My Road from Damascus by Jamal Saeed makes a great book club pick! Humorous, witty, horrific, and poetic, Jamal Saeed’s story is Syria’s story: surviving 12 years in brutal military prisons, an enchanted childhood, his loves, Syria’s deadly upheavals, and his family’s escape. Book Club Questions My Road from Damascus suggests that a writer may move freely within the space of their life rather than along a chronologically arranged line of experiences, creating scenes in which childhood and old age are juxtaposed. We can say the same about sorrows, joys, despair, and...