Dear Great Book Guru, Now that we coming to the last weeks of summer, I realize I have not reached my goal of reading ten books by August 31- I’m one short. At the Sea Cliff Civic Association’s Gatsby Great Gala at Foster’s this week, people were talking about a debut novel – a courtroom drama of sorts but more a study of sibling interactions. Thoughts? Gatsby Gala Guest Dear Gatsby Gala Guest, HOLLOW SPACES by Victor Suthammanont is the book for you! The novel opens with John Lo waiting for the jury to come back with a verdict on murder charge. John is the only Asian American partner in a prestigious New York City law firm, and there is strong evidence to believe racism is playing a part in the case. We very quickly learn he is acquitted and then are transported thirty years forward. His daughter, Brennan, and son, Hunter, who were young children at the time of the trial, are meeting for the first time in four years. Brennan has followed her father’s career path and is on partner track at another law firm and Hunter is a war time journalist who travels the world. Brennan has always believed her father was unfairly accused while Hunter is sure he was guilty of the murder. This has caused the siblings to be estranged, and it is only their mother’s ill health that brings them together now. As they reminisce about the past, they begin to see how traumatized they have been by that long ago jury decision. They decide they must join together to fill in those “hollow spaces” and learn the truth. Highly recommended!

 Dear Great Book Guru, I’m sitting on my porch this evening looking out over my neighbor’s beautiful garden (really…who needs a water view) finishing up a great book you recommended a few weeks ago - Robert Baird’s THE NIMBUS, but as always, I’m looking for my next read - a psychological mystery if possible.  Lover of Porches

Dear Lover of Porches, I have the perfect book for you - Megan Abbot’s latest: EL DORADO DRIVE. The streets in mythical El Dorado were paved with gold and the residents of this Detroit suburb where the novel is set saw their golden lives destroyed when the American car industry crashed in the early 2000’s.  Highly paid executives, lawyers, and engineers found their careers abruptly ended and their fortunes decimated. Families had to adjust to the new reality, and the women of El Dorado Drive join together to find a way out of this financial abyss…or so they think. The story focuses on the Bishop sisters - Pam, Debra, and Harper – and their involvement with the Wheel - a play on the collapsing auto industry. But the Wheel is basically a pyramid scheme. The sisters and their friends pledge $5000 each with a “gift” to be bestowed on a lucky woman each week. Of course, this works only as new members can be found. Starting out as women supporting women during hard times, the plan quickly deteriorates into a “Lord of the Flies” scenario. As we learn the stories of these desperate women, our sympathy grows even though we know there are no streets of gold in their futures - highly recommended!   

Dear Great Book Guru, I was at Matt’s Deli (formerly Arata’s) having a delicious breakfast with friends when the discussion turned to books. We were swapping recent favorites when someone mentioned a new book about twins, time travel, and multiple endings - sort of like the Choose Your Own Adventure novel series.  Have you heard of it? Lover of Matt’s Deli

Dear Lover of Matt’s Deli, I am a huge fan of Matt’s too! THE CATCH by Yrsa Daley-Ward is an interesting mix of all the elements you mention and more. The story opens in the present with Clara, a celebrity author, recounting the huge success of her latest novel, EVIDENCE. The next chapter introduces us to her twin sister, Dempsey, who is struggling as a data entry clerk living in a shabby London apartment. We learn the women were orphaned as infants when their mother drowned herself in the Thames River thirty years ago. Adopted into two very different families – Clara to a wealthy, upper class couple and Dempsey to a mean-spirited difficult city councilor - the women have been estranged for many years.  On the day of their thirtieth birthday, Clara sees a woman she insists is their mother shoplifting a Rolex watch. Even more bizarrely, the woman looks about thirty years old. Clara rushes to share this information with Dempsey who is skeptical at best.  Soon the woman, named Serena, has insinuated herself into their lives and things become more and more sinister. Along the way, we meet a myriad of colorful characters from the past and present as the sisters struggle to find out who Serena is and what happened thirty years ago.  A puzzling but compelling read… recommended.

 

 Dear Great Book Guru, Friday’s Beach Music at Sea Cliff Beach is such a treat - great music, delicious food at Jay and Tanya Potter’s Cliffside Café, and beautiful views of the Sound! While looking out at the many boats anchored there, I thought about a book that a friend recommended about yachts and their owners.  Have you heard of it?  Sea Cliff Beach Fan

Dear Sea Cliff Beach Fan, THE HAVES AND THE HAVE-YACHTS by Evan Osnos is a fascinating book about the ultra rich.  There are many, many very wealthy people but then there are those whose wealth is so much that they own super yachts, and Osnos tells the tales of these ultra-wealthy in a series of ten essays. He leads off with a fascinating take on famous musicians who are hired to perform for small events - yes even children’s birthday parties - for exorbitant fees. Sting, Andrea Bocelli, Jon Bovi, Eric Clapton, Mariah Carey are a few he mentions. Later he profiles Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and his lavish lifestyle. The Greenwich Rebellion chapter traces the transformation of Greenwich, Connecticut from home to storied old money families to the extraordinarily wealthy and political powerful. Trust Issues introduces us to a young woman who becomes the trusted financial advisor to the Getty heirs and then turns on them spilling family secrets that reveal their incredible wealth and machinations. The most disturbing essay was about a Hollywood actor/con artist who manipulated friends and family out of $500 million dollars.  The lifestyle of the people Osnos describes is astonishing - almost beyond belief - but not quite… highly recommended!

Dear Great Book Guru, My friends and I love StoryTime at Sea Cliff Beach.  Every Wednesday throughout the summer at 10:30 we meet up for a story, songs, and a bubble parade under the lovely blue canvases. Last week, one of the parents mentioned a new book made up of the voices of twenty-one residents of a small village in County Limerick. It sounds interesting – thoughts?  Storytime Fan

Dear Storytime Fan, Donal Ryan’s HEART BE AT PEACE tells the story of a village coming back from disastrous economic turmoil. But old grudges and new problems beset the community. Twenty-one residents -all interconnected - tell their stories in short, lyrical chapters. Bobby is a middle-aged man with a loving wife and a booming business but is beset with terrible rage. Milly is a young girl torn by love for her grandmother and a very dangerous young man. Pokey is a young man running a bogus school that provides illegal visas. Lily is a witch by training and makes her living selling potions to needy neighbors.  Dylan is a young boy who was kidnapped for two days and troubled for years after.  Sean is torturing a lifelong friend with compromising photos. Jim is a retired policeman who says: “Madness comes circling around - every ten years - as sure as the sun rises.”  Each of the residents tells his/her story and we come to see the value of village life and – yes - its vexations. Some stories are more nuanced but all show a deep understanding of difficult situations - the most difficult being an insidious drug ring. Both young and old are impacted and the eventual resolution is disturbing but inevitable. Recommended!

 

Dear Great Book Guru, I had so much fun this week at Sea Cliff’s very own Dining Alfresco! On a select few Wednesdays in July and August, Sea Cliff Avenue is closed from Main to Summit and Village restaurants take to the street. The spirit is great, with families and friends gathering outdoors to share delicious meals and sweet camaraderie. Someone that night mentioned a short novel with a young narrator and set in a dystopian future. It sounded interesting - thoughts?  Alfresco Dining Fan

Dear Alfresco Dining Fan, VERA, OR FAITH by Gary Shteyngart is a fascinating tale of a family finding its way in the United States of 2030. The narrator is Vera Bradford-Shmulkin, the ten-year-old Korean Russian stepchild of a Mayflower descendant. Throughout the novel, Vera is feverishly at work trying to keep her family intact. Her father is the publisher of a political magazine he is trying to sell to a Rhodesian billionaire; her stepmother is leading a movement to prevent passage of an amendment limiting voting rights; her young brother seems to have first place in her parents’ hearts…and – yes - her birth mother is missing. Meanwhile, Vera is dealing with the childhood angst of learning how to fit into a system that does not esteem her intellectual prowess and is suspicious of her “otherness.”  While often an unreliable narrator, Vera is an extraordinarily sensitive and empathic character and when she finally resolves the mystery surrounding her early childhood, she and the reader are greatly relieved. A very moving yet frightening tale of what the future might hold - highly recommended!

 

 Dear Great Book Guru, After a week of celebrating our country’s 249^th birthday, my thoughts turned to our neighbors across the sea, and I would love to read some historical fiction set perhaps in Ireland.  Any recommendations?  Fan of Historical Fiction

Dear Fan of Historical Fiction, I recently read THESE DAYS by Lucy Caldwell – a novel set in   Belfast, Northern Ireland. When we think of World War II and bombings, one does not think of Belfast but in April and May of 1941, the city was almost destroyed in three separate air raids known as the Belfast Blitz. The story describes four days spread over these two months and the impact these raids had on the lives of one family - the Bells. Phillip Bell is a local doctor who tends to the victims and is confronted daily with searing images of pain and destruction. Florence Bell - his wife - deals anew with memories of her first love who was killed in World War I. Their daughter Audrey is involved with wedding plans but questions the fragility of her relationship amidst this background of despair and destruction. Emma - the other daughter - works as a volunteer at a First Aid Post, believing that she can make a difference while Paul – the youngest child - deals with the forces that shape his life at home and school.  Told from the perspectives of the family members and other Belfast denizens, the novel is brutal in its depictions of the terror and panic that the German air raids bring on a city already beset with poverty, unemployment, and food shortages – all of which continued long after the war had ended.  A harrowing read but highly recommended!