Dear Great Book Guru,  Last weekend was the perfect start of Summer 2015…. Sea Cliff Beach was beautiful, the Beach Café’s meals were delicious, and of, course, all Sea Cliff seemed filled with music and laughter!  While I was enjoying the beach with friends and family, a fellow beachgoer recommended a new psychological thriller about parenting, friendship, and betrayal. Any thoughts? Lover of Sea Cliff Summers

Dear Lover of Sea Cliff Summers, Yes,  Ann Koppel and her team do a great job keeping Sea Cliff Beach just about perfect, and yes- I have read that just about perfect book for a summer day: HER by Harriet Lane. Emma and Nina are two women in their mid forties at opposite ends of mothering.  Nina’s daughter is a teenager about to leave home while Emma’s children are infants .  Lane exquisitely  captures the tedium, the exhaustion, the drudgery of parenting young children, leaving the reader confused as to why Nina is so generously including   Emma in her glamorously sophisticated life .  As the two women describe the same events in alternating chapters, we come to realize there is much more going on here than the book’s attention to domestic details would indicate. With mounting horror, we await an explanation and the startling conclusion is well worth the wait.  Recommended!

 P.S.  A reminder- Saturday, May 30 at 1pm on the front lawn of the Children's Library,  there will be a celebration of Sea Cliff Library's Centennial . Stop by for refreshments and a tour of the newly renovated building!