Dear Great Book Guru, I was at the first Sunset Serenade of the summer last week - it was great! Larry Martone & Friends entertained a crowd of almost two hundred fans of all ages. During the night, I overheard some concertgoers mentioning a book they had read for their book club -a novel set in California and sprinkled with lots of references to music from the ‘80s. It sounded interesting - thoughts?  Sunset Serenade Fan

Dear Sunset Serenade Fan - I too love those concerts - every Thursday from 6 to 8pm you will find my friends and me cheering on our local musicians at Clifton Park. THE IMAGINED LIFE by Andrew Porter is the novel mentioned.  Steve Mills is a fifty-year-old who leaves his wife and young son to travel along the coast of California in an attempt to find out what happened to his father who disappeared in 1984 when Steve was twelve.  His wife cautions him that he might not be happy with what he discovers. The novel shifts back and forth between his life before and after his father’s disappearance.  He had been a brilliant, charismatic professor of literature whose life and career came to a devastating halt when he was denied tenure.  His increasingly erratic behavior doubtlessly contributed to this outcome, but in-fighting, jealous colleagues, and campus politics were also in play.  During his odyssey, Steve gets to talk to his father’s friends and enemies, and a story emerges of a very complicated man - a man Steve desperately misses. Throughout, he imagines what his life would have been like if his father had not disappeared.  A book suffused with music and memories of the time….  Recommended!

 

 Dear Great Book Guru, I was at the Sea Cliff Beautification Garden Tour last week - it was fabulous! The organizers did their usual great job and the gardens were amazing. While on the tour, someone mentioned a debut novel that sounded very interesting - mysterious phenomena with comedic and religious implications. Thoughts?  Garden Goer

Dear Garden Goer, THE NIMBUS by Robert P. Baird is an intellectually challenging read and great fun at the same time. Adrian Bennett, a theology professor at a school modeled loosely on the University of Chicago School of Divinity, is startled to discover his two-year-old son Luca is glowing - a soft, pulsating, pink, blue, neon-like light that comes and goes unpredictably and becomes known as the nimbus.  Some can see this glow but others, including the boy’s mother Renata, cannot. Paul Harkins, a doctoral student in the department, is the first to notice the glow and finds himself becoming more and more enmeshed in the lives of the family.  Warren Kayita, an aging theology school dropout who now works as a librarian at the university is being pursued by a dangerous mobster because of ever growing debt but sees a way out of his predicament - the debt will be forgiven if he can arrange a meeting with the toddler.  Parenting, marriage roles, academic politics, religious beliefs are examined – many times with great humor but eventually all clash in a dramatic but satisfying conclusion, and we are left to consider: what is belief and what is the desire to believe?  Highly recommended!

Dear Great Book Guru, I had such fun last week at the Sea Cliff Village-wide Garage Sale.  The Friends of the Library had a great selection of books, and I bought a few by my favorite author Chris Pavone. Someone mentioned at the sale that he has a new novel. Is it true…and - if so - I’m very excited!  Garage Sale Groupie

Dear Garage Sale Groupie, Yes - good news…THE DOORMAN, Chris Pavone’s latest novel, just came out and it is a spectacular read.  Set in New York City in the Bohemia - purported to be the world’s most famous apartment building (think the Dakota) - the story focuses on four characters: the building’s doorman, Chicky Diaz, and three of its residents.  Chicky is a former U.S.Marine, recently widowed. Julian Sonnenberg is an art dealer with a checkered past and a very bad medical diagnosis. Emily Longsworth is the wife of Whit, a billionaire whose wealth has loathsome origins. She is desperately unhappy but an onerous pre-nup agreement keeps her married to Whit. Other residents include dog-loving, human-hating Ethel Frum and Gucker Goff, bubble-wrap billionaire, and a myriad of colorful supporting characters. Chicky dutifully greets all by name, never shares his problems, walks their dogs, protects their children and remains basically invisible until trouble arises! Trouble in the form of racial riots besieging the city. And the residents of the Bohemia are not immune to its violence. Only Chicky can protect them, they feel, but can he?  An absorbing tale of class divide, domestic drama, and racial unrest… highly recommended!