Say gang, so glad to have rejoined the book club team. Here are my three choices. Get your vote up soon. I was thinking about September 10th or 17th as the meeting date. Let me know your preference. Also, can we make sure the new girls are let in on how to access the blog?
Vaclav and Lena seem destined for each other. They meet as
children in an ESL class in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. Vaclav is precocious and
verbal. Lena, struggling with English, takes comfort in the safety of his
adoration, his noisy, loving home, and the care of Rasia, his big-hearted
mother. Vaclav imagines their story unfolding like a fairy tale, or the perfect
illusion from his treasured Magician’s Almanac. But one day, Lena does not show
up for school. She has disappeared from Vaclav and his family’s lives as if by
a cruel sleight of hand. For the next seven years, Vaclav says goodnight to
Lena without fail, wondering if she is doing the same somewhere. On the eve of
Lena’s seventeenth birthday he finds out. In Vaclav & Lena, Haley Tanner
has created two unforgettable young protagonists who evoke the joy, the
confusion, and the passion of having a profound, everlasting connection.
In “Housewifely Arts,” a single mother and her son drive
hours to track down an African gray parrot that can mimic her deceased mother’s
voice. A population-control activist faces the ultimate conflict between her
loyalty to the environment and her maternal desire in “Yesterday’s Whales.” And
in the title story, a lonely naturalist allows an attractive stranger to lead
her and her aging father on a hunt for an elusive woodpecker.
As intelligent as they are moving, the stories in Birds of a
Lesser Paradise are alive with emotion, wit, and insight into the impressive
power that nature has over all of us. This extraordinary collection introduces
a young writer of remarkable talent.
Marriage can be a real killer.
One of the most
critically acclaimed suspense writers of our time, New York Times bestseller
Gillian Flynn takes that statement to its darkest place in this unputdownable
masterpiece about a marriage gone terribly, terribly wrong. The Chicago Tribune
proclaimed that her work “draws you in and keeps you reading with the force of
a pure but nasty addiction.” Gone Girl’s toxic mix of sharp-edged wit and
deliciously chilling prose creates a nerve-fraying thriller that confounds you
at every turn.
On a warm summer
morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding
anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when
Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the
Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors with
cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but
passages from Amy's diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put
anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the
media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—the town golden boy parades an
endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly
evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer?
As the cops close
in, every couple in town is soon wondering how well they know the one that they
love. With his twin sister, Margo, at his side, Nick stands by his innocence.
Trouble is, if Nick didn’t do it, where is that beautiful wife? And what was in
that silvery gift box hidden in the back of her bedroom closet?
With her
razor-sharp writing and trademark psychological insight, Gillian Flynn delivers
a fast-paced, devilishly dark, and ingeniously plotted thriller that confirms
her status as one of the hottest writers around.
