Dear Great Book Guru, Now that the Thanksgiving festivities are over and the December whirlwind of celebrations is about to begin, please, please recommend a book that will challenge my mind but also will also be on everyone’s “must read” list. Eager Reader......... Dear Eager Reader, I just finished George Packer’s debut novel THE EMERGENCY. Packer is a prolific writer of nonfiction - THE UNWINDING, OUR MAN, THE ASSASSINS’ GATE, and many more, so this book is a definite departure. Set possibly in the future in an undisclosed nation, the Emergency is a revolution of sorts told from the perspectives of three people: Hugo Rustin - a highly respected surgeon, Annabelle - his wife, and Selva - his daughter. Theirs is a comfortable, well-ordered life until the morning everything changes. Law and order disappear, and the norms of society are upended. There have been three classes: Burghers (the elite urbanites), the Yeoman (rural farmers), and the Strangers (nomadic outliers). With the coming of the Emergency, the Burghers find themselves society’s outcasts, while the Strangers are welcomed with great enthusiasm by the young revolutionaries. “Together” becomes the new governing force that all are expected to embrace. Rustin finds himself at odds at work and at home as his wife and daughter align themselves with the new movement. While many of these new ideas seem plausible and welcome remedies to society’s injustices, others appear destined to destroy this unnamed nation. Throughout, we sense Packer is using the “emergency” to warn us of catastrophic upheavals that might await us. A thought-provoking book indeed… and highly recommended!

Dear Great Book Guru, With the holidays approaching, I will be feasting with friends and family - always great fun! I am particularly excited because we have heard one of our friends is coming out with his first novel. Do you know anything about it? Fan of the Holidays...... Dear Fan of the Holidays, yes – long-time Sea Cliff resident Charles Hansmann has written his debut novel SKYLIGHTING. It should be available just after Thanksgiving. The story opens in Ireland at Shannon airport. Our first-person narrator Nick and his wife Erin are joyfully embarking on a journey headed towards Dublin when moments into the story, the car crashes and Erin is dead. The remainder of the novel becomes a Homeric odyssey as Nick travels from place to place - continent to continent - in an attempt to assuage his grief and guilt. Along the way he meets an assortment of characters - each offering him some insight into existence. A teenage girl is his first encounter, and her troubled tale sends him searching further. Along the way he meets a myriad of characters – some troubling, some nurturing, always described in exquisite detail. As he travels from one city to another, we sense an underlying mystery that is about to be revealed, but like Odysseus, our hero finds the quest reward enough. Highly recommended !

Dear Great Book Guru, This weekend is the annual Sea Cliff Civic Association’s Progressive Dinner. Over twenty families open their homes to fellow Sea Cliffers with appetizers and dinner followed by dessert at the Sea Cliff Yacht Club - what a great evening! I would love to add a good book to the conversation. Any recommendations? Delighted Diner……… Dear Delighted Diner, One of my favorite authors - Ian McEwan (think ATONEMENT, THE CHILDREN ACT, NUTSHELL, etc.) - just came out with a new novel – WHAT WE CAN KNOW. The story is set in two distinct time periods - the opening chapters take place in 2119. A nuclear misfiring has changed the world’s topography. England and the Americas are largely submerged under sea, and Nigeria has become the financial and cultural capital of the world. Scholars are fixated on a poem written and read at a party in 2014. Tom Metcalf is first-person narrator and the poem’s chief researcher. He thinks he has found the missing clue to this mystery. Suddenly the book takes a dramatic turn back to 2014 and our narrator is Vivian, the woman for whom the poem was written. As she tells the story of that night, we realize how wrong we have all been. The motives, infatuations, and romantic entanglements provide us with a glimpse of the world we now live in and a world we might well be forging. Nothing in the past, present, or future can be trusted in this novel - highly recommended!

Dear Great Book Guru, Is there any time more beautiful in Sea Cliff than autumn? The light is perfectly diffused, the homes are bathed in magical colors, and the streets are abuzz with excitement- fairs, festivals, socials… Do you have a good book for me to read that captures this season? Fall Fanatic....... Dear Fall Fanatic, While I’m not sure this book captures all the joys of Fall, it is a great book and not to be missed: CLEAN by Alia Trabucco Zeran, an international prize-winning Chilean author. The story is told in the first person by Estela, a young housekeeper who was hired nine years before. Her employers - referred to only as Senor and Senora - have one child and we learn on the first page the child has died, and Estela is being questioned about the events leading up to the death. Estela goes back and forth over the nine years of her employment - the birth of the child, the marital difficulties of the parents, the child’s mysterious behavior, the indiscretions of the adults, and the many familial secrets that she has uncovered. We also learn about her mother, her early life in a remote rural village, and her overwhelming desire to return home. Throughout, we see the class differences that impact Estela’s daily existence plus the power her employers exert over her. She is a decidedly unreliable narrator, but our sympathies lie with her as we try to solve the mysterious death that is at the heart of this novel. A troubling but highly recommended read!

Dear Great Book Guru, What an amazing weekend here in Sea Cliff - first on Friday “Lights, Camera, Sea Cliff!”, the Sea Cliff Museum’s opening of a retrospective of films shot here in Sea Cliff from 1918 until the present! It was a gala celebration and so many of the Village came out to celebrate. Then on Saturday, the Sea Cliff Fire Department had its annual celebration/inspection of its equipment and volunteers. Many of its newest and oldest members were honored followed by a picnic at Tappen Beach. While at this event, I heard talk of a book about young men and the tragic lives they lived. Do you know about it? Lover of Sea Cliff Past and Present Dear Lover of Sea Cliff Past and Present, I too enjoyed the wonderful events of this Sea Cliff weekend and I’m guessing the book discussed was DOGS by C. Mallon. This is Mallon’s debut novel, and it is quite extraordinary. Told from the perspective of Hal, a late teen, this short book (almost a novella) takes place over one evening - an evening that will change the lives of his family, friends, and community. This book is definitely not for the squeamish. Hal and his friends live in Carbon, a small, fictional city, probably in Wyoming. The lives of the boys and a few of the girls are recounted in striking detail as we see the brutality that colors their everyday existence - most of which takes place in a shabby, malfunctioning car gotten under troubling circumstances. As the night goes on, we learn more about each of the characters. The last pages are very difficult to read but are almost poetic as lives explode in horrific detail. A disturbing book but worth the read – recommended.

Dear Great Book Guru, I always feel September is the time of beginnings - the real New Year - certainly not January – such a middling time of year! Saying that, I am looking to start the year off with a very good book, something out of my comfort zone. Any thoughts? Starting in September Dear Starting in September, Charlotte McConaghy’s WILD DARK SHORE might be a good book to start off your year. Set slightly in the future, this novel takes place in a very special place – a tiny island off Antarctica – Shearwater. Once a hub of scientific research, it is now deserted except for the Salt family, caretakers of what remains of the island after rising sea levels have almost destroyed it. The story opens with the Salts – Dominic and his three children - finding a woman washed ashore and near death after the worst storm the island has ever experienced. The woman, Rowan, is saved by them and gradually we learn the secrets that each of the characters is hiding. The five characters look into the future and see their lives off-island, surviving but living in a world coping with horrific climate changes. We learn of Dominic’s tragic losses and his attempts to make things better for his children. And, of course, throughout we have the mystery of Rowan’s strange arrival. The five points of view shift from chapter to chapter giving us a unique perspective into their lives. This plus the description of the incredibly beautiful flora and fauna in this disappearing piece of the world make for an extraordinarily compelling read – highly recommended!

Dear Great Book Guru, Last weekend I was at the Sea Cliff Civic Association’s annual Newcomers Welcoming Party…. such fun! Lots of the guests were talking about a new book about New York City in the 1980’s. It sounded fascinating – thoughts? Newcomer to Sea Cliff Dear Newcomer to Sea Cliff, THE GODS OF NEW YORK by Jonathan Mahler is a truly compelling book. Mahler follows, over four years, a group of New Yorkers who played enormously powerful roles in New York City and the nation - many of whom are still alive and continue to hold positions of huge importance. From a local Queens politician - Donald Manes to real estate mogul Donald Trump - the book is filled with tales of these power brokers who ruled New York City. Al Sharpton, Anthony Fauci, Rudy Giuliani, Ed Koch, Mario Cuomo, Spike Lee, Linda Fairstein and David Dinkins are some of these characters who interact throughout book. This feels like a page-turner of a novel rather than a work of non-fiction. Many of the events were recorded and exploited in the tabloids of the day, and the book has that same fast-paced, feverish quality. Most of the action is focused on the AIDS epidemic, crime, and race with many of the characters playing roles in each. We revisit the shocking cases of Tawana Brawley, Yusuf Hawkins, Bernard Goetz, Howard Beach, the Preppy Murderer, and the Central Park Five and see the roles the “gods” played and the power they wielded, still reverberating forty years later - highly recommended!