Dear Great Book Guru,  We had a great family Easter celebration recently,  and we  vowed to choose a book we would all read and discuss the next time we got together which will be in about a month.  We agreed we wanted something fast moving and attention gathering… any ideas?  Family of Readers

Dear Family of Readers, I am a big fan of John Grisham, having loved all forty plus of his novels and I believe his latest, THE EXCHANGE, is a good choice for your family.  Set fifteen years after his 1991 bestselling legal thriller THE FIRM, this book answers the question as to what happened to Mitch and Abby Mc Deere who disappeared from Tennessee at the end of the novel.  The Mitch we meet now is very very different - he is living in Manhattan, a partner in a hugely prestigious international law firm, and still married to Abby who is now a cookbook writer (allowing for some great descriptions of culinary extravaganzas). Whether coaching his young sons’ baseball team or attending opening nights at the Met, we sense a well lived, orderly life. So when he receives a call from a colleague in Rome asking him to represent a client in a dispute with the Libyan government, he is reluctant to get involved. Things quickly prove him right as he finds himself caught up in a monstrous kidnapping with international reverberations, eerily mirroring today’s headlines.  A great story dealing with many moral and ethical issues. Highly recommended!

 Dear Great Book Guru, I was at a glorious St. Patrick’s Day celebration where everyone was discussing a new book by a prize winning Irish author.  Some described it as hilariously funny, while others insisted it was a tragedy. All agreed it was very long but a very worthwhile read.  Does it sound familiar?   Perplexed but Interested

Dear Perplexed…. Paul Murray’s THE BEE STING is all these things and more. Set in contemporary Ireland, this 600-plus page book is the story of one family set over generations in which everyone involved makes a bad decision. It is told from the perspectives of Imelda, the beautiful wife of Dickie, owner of a failing car dealership; Cass, their surly teenage daughter who turns to alcohol to ease the tensions of adolescence; and PJ , her younger brother, who is being blackmailed by the town bully.  In each case these characters choose sometimes humorous, sometimes horrific solutions to their problems.  The economic chaos in Ireland plus catastrophic climate changes all work themselves into the story of a family in deep trouble and pain. Besides the four main characters, there are many others richly developed that add to the complexity and beauty of the novel.  The startling conclusion makes this family saga truly  a controversial mystery that leaves you  questioning much of what you have read.  Highly recommended!