Dear Great Book Guru, While I love all seasons of the year in Sea Cliff, Fall is a particularly beautiful, event-filled time. The Halloween parade, the Cider Social, the Progressive Dinner…all favorites of mine! Of course, I would like a good book to read while watching each of these events unfold.  Any suggestions?  Falling for Fall

Dear Falling for Fall, Last week I read a wonderful, very unusual book, FIRE EXIT by Morgan Talty.  Blood lineage plays a major role in this novel. Charles is a middle-aged man whose mother was white and married to a Penobscot. According to an 1980 law passed in Maine, Charles was forced to leave the reservation when he turned eighteen because he was not a “pure blood” Penobscot. His Penobscot stepfather Frederick helps find him a home across the river from the reservation, but the added “blood” tragedy is Charles has a daughter Elizabeth with a Penobscot young woman Mary.  So that Mary and she will continue to live on the reservation, Charles allows her to be raised by Mary’s new Penobscot husband.  Tortured by his love for Mary and Elizabeth, Charles turns to alcohol and battles this addiction for twenty-two years - all the time living across the river from them. When Elizabeth shows signs of depression – an affliction his mother has battled for years, Charles desperately wants to reveal his paternity.  The story line focuses on community ties versus blood ties as Charles tries to reconcile his needs against those of his daughter. A riveting tale that presents characters trying to do the right thing in a complicated world bound by culture and yes…blood! Recommended!

 

Dear Great Book Guru, Sea Cliff is so beautiful at this time of year - well it’s beautiful every season of the year, but the old  Victorians give an especially awesome, eerie feeling during the Fall.   I’m looking for a really good book that evokes that sense of mystery and autumnal wonder.  Thoughts?  Falling for Sea Cliff

 Dear Falling for Sea Cliff, I just finished the perfect book for you: THE GOD OF THE WOODS by Liz Moore. Set in an Adirondacks camp owned by a very wealthy family, the novel recounts the disappearance of a young camper in August 1975. The story is told from the perspectives of seven people: the parents, various campers, counselors, and the young detective assigned to the case. The family employs most of the townspeople so there is an uneasy alliance between the two groups.  The novel goes back and forth from the fifties to 1975 - where the story opens. Barbara, daughter of the wealthy VanLaar Family, is missing from her bunk – fourteen years before her eight-year-old brother disappeared and was never found.  The remainder of the book traces the impact these events have on three worlds: the opulent summer community, the camp which exists in its shadow, and the working-class townspeople who serve both worlds. This is much more than a simple thriller - it is a complex study of character, sociological impact, and history of the times. It appears on many Best Books of the Year lists, including Barak Obama’s Summer Reading List.  Highly recommended

 

Dear Great Book Guru, Last week at the Sea Cliff Mini Mart, I met up with so many friends from long ago and one of them mentioned an intriguing book about family dynamics set on  a London stage. Does it sound familiar?  Fan of Family Tales

Dear Fan of Family Tales, THE HYPOCRITE by Jo Hamya is set in Sicily and London and takes place in 2010 and 2020.  Sophia is a twenty-seven-year-old successful playwright whose latest work is about a month she had spent in Sicily ten years before with her novelist father.  Her father is in the audience for a matinee performance of her play, having no idea the play is about him - he has carefully avoided reading reviews. Sophia and her mother are having lunch above in the terrace restaurant of the playhouse. The storyline shifts from the father and his reaction to seeing his past come to life on the stage - the kitchen in Sicily, his favorite purple shirt, and most importantly the many women he entertained while his daughter slept nearby…. to the mother-daughter conversation about the play.   Her memories of the conversations she overheard, the lies and exaggerations, half truths are all acted out on stage and her father - to his horror - is portrayed as a mediocre writer and latent misogynist.  Meanwhile as Sophia and her mother lunch, a variety of characters appear to discuss the play going on in the theater below.  As her mother becomes more and more drunk and belligerent, Sophia continues to deny the play is about her family, leaving the reader to question who indeed is the hypocrite? Recommended!