Dear Great Book Guru,  What an exciting weekend awaits us- the Great Turkey Himself will be making a return visit to the Sea Cliff Civic Association’s annual Turkey Hunt this Sunday, November 22 at 2pm at Headless Park.  Last year close to 300 turkeys were tracked down and this year it is reported the Amazon delivery included 400 of the little birds.  Before the fun begins, I would like to read a good book that will take me through the upcoming holiday week. Any thoughts?         Great Fan of the Great Turkey

Dear Great Fan of the Great Turkey,  I just finished a truly epic work by the young author Garth Risk Hallberg:  CITY ON FIRE. From the  July 4^th celebration of the Bicentennial to  the July 13, 1977 NYC Blackout, we are taken on an affectionate, obsessively  detailed journey through a gritty, crime besieged and drug ridden New York City. At its core this is an old fashioned novel of families: the wealthy Hamilton Sweeneys, the Californian- Vietnamese transplant and her journalist neighbor, the East Village anarchist study group, a punk band, the heroin addicted artist and his young lover from rural Georgia, an aging police inspector and his wife, and finally, Samantha and Charlie, teenagers from Long Island who seek excitement and enlightenment in a city literally on fire.   The story finds its focus early on when Samantha is found near death in Central Park.  The thirty nine characters we meet are all connected in some way to her and to one another and to the City- which is the most colorful and important of this novel’s characters.  Recommended!