Dear Great Book Guru, Exciting events await us here in Sea Cliff - the Scrooge Stroll, the Turkey Scavenger Hunt, the Holiday Lighting, the Introduction to The Nutcracker - all over the next few weeks!  Will there be time for a good book?  Of course... and do you have something to suggest?   Never Weary in Sea Cliff

Dear Never Weary, I have just the book for you - fast moving, under 300 pages, and a prize winner: COLORED TELEVISION by Danzy Senna.  Told from the perspective of Jane - a writer and untenured academic - set in Los Angeles, this novel explores the intricacies of class, race, and Hollywood politics.  We meet Jane as she is struggling to finish her second novel, a huge undertaking:  a modern WAR and PEACE - while dealing with her children Finn and Ruby - and aspiring artist husband Lenny.  Little money is coming in and their credit cards are maxed out - largely on an unscrupulous marriage therapist, when an unbelievable opportunity arises (emphasis on unbelievable): a year-long housesitting stint in a Hollywood mansion.  This is a dream come true for Jane - she will finish her novel, her children will attend a great school, and Lenny can paint masterpieces.  Things take a dark turn when she answers the lure of Hollywood and finds herself in a plagiarism debacle. While Senna tells a very funny tale, there is a strong undercurrent of horror at the pressures that our heroine faces, and the reader soon realizes this is a cautionary tale indeed - highly recommended!

 Dear Great Book Guru, Now with Halloween over and Thanksgiving a few weeks away, I am is search of a good book to get me through the cold dark weeks ahead. Something captivating and meaningful… Fall into Fall

Dear Falling into Fall, The much awaited and celebrated latest Sally Rooney novel has  arrived on the literary scene: INTERMEZZO. Rooney is a thirty-three year old Irish writer who has written a number of very successful novels – some made into movies - BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE and A CONVERSATION WITH FRIENDS, among others.  Her latest deals with two brothers grieving the death of their father. Peter is a thirty-three-year-old very successful lawyer and academic while Ivan is his much younger brother – a chess prodigy and very socially awkward.    Peter is involved with two women – Naomi who is essentially homeless and in her early twenties and Sylvia, a brilliant college professor who is permanently disabled from an earlier car accident.   The story opens with Ivan attending a chess tournament and meeting Margaret who is ten years older and struggling to recover from an abusive marriage.  The story is told in alternating chapters from the perspectives of the brothers and the women who love them. The brothers actively dislike each other through much of the novel and it is only through the women in their lives do we get to know or like them. By the end of the novel, we realize both men are deeply grieving past losses and only the present, fleeting, intermittent moments of love can offer them peace.  A challenging book but worthwhile – recommended!