Dear Great Book Guru, I am planning on attending the Sea Cliff Civic Association’s annual Newcomers Party – I am very excited to meet new friends and learn about Sea Cliff. I was wondering if you could recommend a book that might make for a good conversation starter? New to Sea Cliff............................. Dear New to Sea Cliff, I recently read Colson Whitehead’s COOL MACHINE. This is the third and final novel in a remarkable trilogy that recounts the history of New York City, particularly Harlem, starting in the 1950’s and closing in the 1980’s. To do this, Whitehead has us follow the career and times of Ray Carney. Ray has made an impressive life for himself and his family as a furniture dealer with a side career as a middleman - a/k/a fence - for stolen goods. As the book opens, he has been named Northeast Regional Dealer of the Month by an esteemed furniture manufacturer. The pride he takes is almost painful to observe as he sees this award as the pinnacle of achievement after a lifetime of financial, political, and emotional struggles. When he is lured back into another criminal “opportunity”, we wonder if he has deluded himself into believing he has truly made it in a world where ambition and success seem reward enough. Throughout, we empathize with Ray’s nostalgia for a time when he was young and everything seemed possible. Recommended!

Dear Great Book Guru, I have very much enjoyed Sea Cliff’s al fresco dining this summer. Every other week Sea Cliff Avenue is closed from Main Avenue to Pirie Park. Restaurants along the route bring out tables, and local musicians play up and down the street. Such fun meeting up with friends and neighbors in this unique setting! Last week, I joined a group of diners and the conversation turned to books… Someone mentioned a favorite – a horse on the cover but the novel was not about horses? Lover of Al Fresco Dining...................................................... Dear Lover of Al Fresco Dining, Ann Patchett’s THE WHISTLER (which indeed has a great horse cover!) is a huge favorite of mine. The story opens in the Metropolitan Museum of Art where 53-year-old Daphne Fuller realizes she’s being followed by a white-haired elderly man. She is startled to realize it is Eddie - her stepfather who she has not seen in over forty years. Her mother had been married to him for less than a year when he mysteriously disappeared from Daphne’s life. As they talk, they each realize they had a very special bond and have thought of each other throughout the years. As they meet over the next few months, it becomes clear that there were many choices made by them and for them that profoundly impacted their lives. Small, seemingly meaningless actions changed them forever. Now decades later, they have the chance to undo past mistakes. A beautiful story of bravery, wrongs righted, and love restored - highly recommended!

Dear Great Book Guru, My friends and I saw Christopher Nolan’s ODYSSESY this weekend and we loved it - so much to discuss! Well, we heard that there are many books and articles about the characters that appear in the film, and we are eager to learn as much as possible about this epic tale. Any recommendations? On an Odyssey................................ Dear On an Odyssey, I too loved this latest Odyssey film and one of the many books I’ve read in connection with the movie is CIRCE by Madeline Miller. This very short novel - really a novella - is told from the perspective of Circe, a minor Greek goddess who has been both hailed and reviled throughout literature. She is best known for her role in the Odyssey where she turns Odysseus’s men into swine and then seduces him with her charms. She also features in the myths of Scylla and Charybdis, the Minotaur, Jason and Medea, Prometheus, Daedalus, and the Fall of Icarus plus James Joyce’s ULYSSES. Miller reinvents and expands these stories to reveal a world not unlike our own. In this strongly feminist interpretation, we come to see this for ourselves as Circe stumbles through history in her search for enlightenment and redemption. This is definitely a fine accompaniment to any discussion of Nolan’s ODYSSESY. Highly recommended!