Dear Great Book Guru, Rain, rain go away… I am so upset - a huge favorite of mine, Hunt and Hughes - was rained out at the latest Sunset Serenade. I need a good book to read this week as I hope for sunny days ahead! Sunset Serenade Despite the Rain Fan................................................... Dear Sunset Serenade Despite the Rain Fan, I just read a debut mystery BLUNT INSTRUMENT by a favorite novelist of mine, Amy Bloom. Dee Chandler is a former English professor who has lost her teaching position because of “anger management” issues but has found a new profession: private investigator! Her qualifications are rather limited – basically, obsessive viewing of the TV series LAW AND ORDER. When she gets a call to investigate the murder of Oliver Bullfinch, a widely disliked English professor at a posh New England college, she quickly accepts and a madcap series of misadventures begins. We meet a wide array of exquisitely drawn characters, all of whom have ample reason to want Bullfinch dead. From the murder weapon – a bronze bust of Nathaniel Hawthorne - to a score of plagiarized dissertations - the world of academia is seen through a comedic, albeit violent lens. When the murderer is finally revealed, the reader realizes this has been both an exciting literary mystery and an amusing spoof on college politics. Recommended!

Dear Great Book Guru, I just had the most wonderful weekend - It started with Happy Birthday USA at the Children’s Library; then we celebrated the Fourth on the Sea Cliff Village Green with a historical playlet, music, and the reading of the Declaration of Independence by angry villagers; and finally on Sunday a magnificent Patriotic Bike Parade. A truly amazing three days! While waiting for the parade to begin, someone mentioned a favorite novel that was made up entirely of letters. Are you familiar with it? ....................................... Dear Fan of the Fourth, It seems everyone I meet is discussing THE CORRESPONDENT by Virginia Evans! The novel is made up totally of letters – almost all written by Sybil Van Antwerp, a seventy-year-old brilliant lawyer who clerked for a famous judge. Every morning throughout her life she has been writing to a myriad of people - her brother Felix, her daughter Fiona, her best friend Rosalie, neighbors, school administrators, literary luminaries Joan Didion and Larry McMurty, film producer George Lucas, and many more. As we read these letters and the occasional response, we learn much about her life, filled with regrets and accomplishments. When she herself receives a letter from someone she has wronged, our view of Sybil takes a dramatic turn. Will she be able to undo the past, will she find forgiveness, or is redemption impossible? A fascinating look into the life and mind of an extraordinary character - recommended!

Dear Great Book Guru, While preparing with friends for Sea Cliff’s many celebrations of the country’s 250th birthday, I heard about a new book by a favorite author, Elizabeth Strout. Everyone was singing its praises - your thoughts? Fan of the Fourth..................................................... Dear Fan of the Fourth, THE THINGS WE NEVER SAY by Elizabeth Strout is indeed a wonderful book and a perfect read for any time of year. Just 208 pages, this beautifully crafted book captures so much of the mysteries of human existence. Art Dam is a 57-year-old high school history teacher. His best friend has just moved across the country, his adult son seems coldly distant, his wife is preoccupied, and the gatherings he attends are filled with superficial chatter. A highly esteemed teacher and respected by everyone, he expands the minds of his students, prevents classroom cruelties, and has a kind word for all he meets. Despite all this, he is extraordinarily lonely and when the book opens, he is in a state of great despair. How can we know so little about one another - even those closest to us, is every man an island - he asks. Throughout the book, we meet ever so briefly characters that he impacts and impact him. Small kindnesses are shown to have tremendous repercussions so that at the end we realize Strout has given us, in Art, a guide to living a good life, Highly recommended!

Dear Great Book Guru, I am very excited about Sea Cliff Arts Council’s first annual Film Festival. So many films and great Q and A’s afterwards! Can you recommend a quick, engrossing book to read during the week? Film Fest Fan .......................................................... Dear Film Fest Fan, I recently read A BETTER LIFE by Lionel Shriver. This is a darkly controversial novel set in Brooklyn’s Dimas Park - a neighborhood of lovely, large Victorian homes. Gloria is a recently divorced mother of three adult children. She is struggling with debts, and her aging house is getting more and more difficult to maintain. The story is viewed from the perspective of her youngest son Nico. Having graduated from college, he is living at home and making no attempt to find a job. When Gloria hears about a new city-wide program - Big Apple Big Heart - that pays homeowners to board recent immigrants, she sees a way out of her financial bind. From the start, Nico is not happy. When Martine arrives, she immediately bonds with Gloria and her daughters. Martine is the poster child for the program - eager to help with the household chores and great company. It is only when disturbing facts about her family emerge and inconsistencies in her story arise that we begin to wonder if Nico was justified in his hostile attitude. But we are also left to wonder if he is a reliable narrator. As the months go by and tensions build, we sympathize with Gloria and Martine but wonder if Big Apple Big Heart can possibly work. A disturbing story but recommended!

Dear Great Book Guru, We were at a rehearsal for Fred Stroppel’s upcoming TWISTED SHORTS at Sea Cliff Arts Council when someone brought up a new book about a family of revolutionaries and how they fared over the generations.Sounded interesting! Fan of Twisted Shorts................. Dear Fan of Twisted Shorts, THE HILL by Harriet Clark is her first novel and in many ways autobiographical. Clark’s mother was a member of the Weathermen and when Harriet was ten months old, her mother was the getaway driver in a bank heist gone wrong and two policemen and a security guard were killed. She was sentenced to life in prison and Harriet visited her for forty years. The story mirrors all this but focuses and fictionalizes the relationships she has with both her mother and those around her - friends and family. The Hill is the name she gives to the prison, and the novel opens with Suzanna - the daughter – being taken for her weekly prison visit by her grandfather. When he dies, she continues on her own because her grandmother – her mother’s mother - refuses to see or write to her daughter. Throughout, Suzanna is bewildered by her emotions - she loves her mother and feels loved but knows there are families devastated by her mother’s deeds. So, how can she herself forgive or by proxy be forgiven. As we go through the years with Suzanna, we see that her bewilderment and grief continue to grow. The novel captures the beauty and brutality that she experiences because of a decision made long ago and still - to this day - beyond her understanding. A painful read but highly recommended!

Dear Great Book Guru, We are getting ready for the annual James Joyce Jaunt here in Sea Cliff on - of course - June 16: Bloomsday! Talking to friends about the Jaunt, one mentioned a great new book about London. It’s a true crime tale by the author of SAY NOTHING - that amazing story of the Irish Troubles. Does it sound familiar? James Joyce Jaunter............................................. Dear James Joyce Jaunter, Patrick Radden Keefe’s latest book is LONDON FALLING and it is by far the best book I’ve read this year. Divided into three parts, the book opens with the disappearance of teenager Zac Brettler. We share in the mounting anxiety of his parents as days go by without any sign of their son. The police seem less than interested and his friends offer conflicting stories of his possible whereabouts. This first section delves into Zac’s history, and we are shocked as are his parents to discover he has been living a double life posing as Zac Ismailov, son of a Russian oligarch. The second part of the book introduces a London few of us would recognize - a city’s whose very survival has become dependent on corruption, oligarch money, and underworld criminals. The third and final section focuses on Zac’s parents as they try to put together the truth surrounding their son’s bizarre transformation and eventual death. Throughout, they and the reader grapple with the question of whether we ever really can know even those we love dearly. Highly recommended!

Book Guru #1020 Dear Great Book Guru, I was at the Love Your Neighbor Project’s Porchfest last weekend. What fun! With twenty-two bands and close to a thousand people attending, the event was a huge success. While listening to one of my favorite bands - Hunt and Hughes - I overheard someone going on about a book she had just read - set on Martha’s Vineyard and in Manhattan, it was a tale of a fairytale marriage abruptly ended. Any thoughts? Porchfest Fan ................................ Dear Porchfest Fan, STRANGERS by Belle Burden is a fascinating memoir and literary mystery. Burden had been happily married twenty years to James, a very successful attorney when she learns he has been involved with a much younger woman and wants a divorce. The couple and their three young children were sheltering during Covid in their home on Martha’s Vineyard when this is revealed. The story itself is compelling as she tries to understand how they had once been so happy and now were strangers, but Burden’s family lineage brings this book to a different level of interest. She comes from immense wealth and is a descendant of a host of iconic figures such as John Jay, the first Supreme Court Justice, the Vanderbilts, and the Paleys, As she goes through the various stages of grief, she finds solace in work and her children, but she remains plagued by the realization she knew so little about this man with whom she had shared such happy moments. It’s a beautifully written “memoir of a marriage.” Highly recommended!