Dear Great Book Guru, One of my New Year’s Eve resolutions for 2026 is to read more prize-winning books – perhaps one a week. Can you start me off? Determined Book Lover........... Dear Determined Book Lover, The 2025 Booker Prize winner is a great place to start: FLESH by David Szalay. We meet our hero Istvan as a fifteen year old living with his mother in a shabby Hungarian apartment complex. Their lives are difficult emotionally and financially, and Istvan is eager to move on. When he is hired by another tenant- an older woman- to run errands, things become easier but a chance encounter with her husband results in the husband’s death- was it an accident or was it…murder? Throughout, the novel poses these quandaries – does our hero know more, do more, feel more than his monologue suggests. Istvan response to every question, every situation is “OK” (one reviewer counted 340 OK’s in a 351-page book ). There is a strong Dickensian feel as Istvan faces obstacle after obstacle –juvenile prison, a stint in Iraq , a perhaps heroic moment on the battlefield, rescue by a wealthy patron…. A large part of the book chronicles his fortuitous encounters with influential men and women who see in him qualities he doesn’t recognize in himself and use him to their advantage. As he meets up with these vividly drawn characters, you want to cry out- “no, no- don’t believe them” but our hero goes forward blithely unaware. In the end, we see Everyman in Istvan – stumbling through an OK life. Highly recommended

Dear Great Book Guru, Do you have a list of your favorite books of 2025? I’d love to see if any of my favorites overlap with any of yours. Great Book Lover........... Dear Great Book Lover, I hope we agree on at least some. It was a good year, so it was hard to settle on ten favorites, but here they are in no particular order except for my number one choice: GODS OF NEW YORK. GODS OF NEW YORK – Jonathan Mahler WHAT WE CAN KNOW - Ian McEwan WILD DARK SHORE - Charlotte McConaghy HOLLOW SPACES - Victor Suthammanont NIMBUS - Robert P. Baird THE DOORMAN - Chris Pavone ACTS OF FORGIVENESS - Maura Cheeks THREE DAYS IN JUNE - Anne Tyler JAMES - Percival Everett SHELL GAMES - Bonnie Kistler

Dear Great Book Guru, What a weekend we have had here in Sea Cliff - the Scrooge Stroll, Roots of Gratitude Concert, the Wassail Walk, the Tree and Menorah Lighting, finished off with a visit from Santa and Mrs. Claus! Now I think it’s time to relax and settle down with a good book. Any recommendations? In the Holiday Spirit Dear In the Holiday Spirit, I just read a compelling, albeit disturbing, novel - A GUARDIAN AND A THIEF by Megha Majumdar. Set slightly in the future in the Indian city of Kolkata, the story is told from the perspectives of Ma - a middle-class government administrator - and Boomba - a young worker from an impoverished family. These two are both guardians and thieves. In the beginning of the novel, we learn Ma has been stealing food and money from the agency she has headed, and Boomba has witnessed this. He himself has broken into Ma’s home and stolen money and valuables from her. In both cases they have been doing so to aid/guard their families. Ma has been planning furiously to emigrate to the United States with her elderly father and toddler daughter to join her husband who is teaching at a prestigious university. Inadvertently, Boomba has stolen and discarded the family’s passports and visas, ruining Ma’s plans. Both Ma and Boomba become desperate as they see their families’ plights grow more and more bleak in a country bordering on collapse as environmental forces worsen. Throughout we witness these two struggle in their roles as both thief and guardian, and our sympathies shift from one to the other. Beautifully written,this book has a haunting presence-highly recommended!