Dear Great Book Guru, This Saturday September 8 will be the Sea Cliff Civic Association’s annual Movie Madness at Roslyn Park. The fun will start around 7pm and everyone is invited.   I’m getting there early to set up my blanket and picnic dinner, but I would like something exciting to read while I’m waiting for the show to begin.  Any ideas?  

Movie Madness Maven.

Dear MMM, I just finished a crime noir novel with a strong feminist bent that I think you will enjoy: GIVE ME YOUR HAND by Megan Abbott.  Abbott has written a number of books using different milieus but always featuring strong women and intricate female friendships.  This latest novel probes the internecine conflict in a research lab where post docs vie for positions in a project headed by the formidable Dr. Servin, a woman of great fame and much mystery.  Into this volatile mix comes Diane Fleming a childhood friend and adversary of Kit Owens, long standing member of the lab. Years before the two women had shared a secret that now returns to haunt them both as they compete in this politically charged arena. An explosive tale of passion, obsession, and deceit- recommended!

Dear Great Book Guru,  My family and I are planning a vacation on Martha’s Vineyard next week and I would like to suggest a book we could all read and then discuss.  I think non-fiction might work best.  Any ideas? 

Family Book Discussion Devotee

Dear Family Book Devotee,  I have a wonderful book your will love and enjoying discussing: FANTASYLAND by  Kurt Anderson.  Anderson gives us a sweeping history of America from the 1500’s until the present time- coming to the startling conclusion that Americans have always been drawn  to fantasy. Starting with our reverence for our Puritan forefathers who pledged to take down Quakers, Catholics, and most other Protestants, followed quickly by the myth- making of George Washington’s cherry tree escapades, our fellow countrymen and women have reveled in the magical, the pseudoscience, the great con.  Having been founded by dissident zealots, America became home to many fantastical religions, conspiracy theorists, and truth benders.  Anderson names Buffalo Bill Cody as the exemplar of this credo.  Cody toured the country fake-scalping actors playing warrior chiefs and then actually began killing real warrior chiefs while in costume.   Later generations were taken with UFO sightings and diabolical interventions.  He also questions the increasing infantilization of Americans  and the increased interest in fantasy versus reality.   Finally, we have to ask ourselves, what will the American people accept as truth?   Recommended!   

Dear Great Book Guru, I have been invited to a “Great Gatsby Gala.”  It has been many, many years since I read THE GREAT GATSBY.  Any suggestions as to how I should prepare?  

Gatsby Gala Guest

Dear Gatsby Gala Guest, What fun awaits you! First, of course, reread THE GREAT GATSBY.  You will be astonished how much you missed your first time.   Next, I would read Maureen Corrigan’s SO WE READ ON: HOW THE GREAT GATSBY CAME TO BE…. A long time book reviewer for NPR’s Fresh Air show, Corrigan examines the novel with great enthusiasm and personal affection.  She believes it to be indeed the greatest of the Great American Novels with prescient commentary on race, class, and gender.  When first published, it was viewed as a crime noir with its violent deaths, femme fatales, and mobster connections.   Later it was appreciated for its commentary on the quixotic American dream of redemption.  Then for many years, it was seen as a cautionary tale of the danger of passions pursued. Today many readers admire it for its lyrical prose and profound metaphors.  Corrigan traces all of these reactions and then brings us back to her high school in Astoria, Queens where she first read GATSBY. And as Fitzgerald wrote, “so we beat on, boats against the current, borne ceaselessly into the past.”  Highly recommended!  

Dear Great Book Guru, I love August in Sea Cliff- it is as if time has stopped.  Everything and everyone moves more slowly, voices are lower, music is softer. There is a magical Brigadoon quality to the entire Village- a perfect time to read a new book- something a little unusual. Any ideas?   August Acolyte

Dear August Acolyte, A few weeks ago, I read an unusual book with an equally unusual title: THE TROUBLE WITH GOATS AND SHEEP by Joanna Cannon.  The title relates to a biblical parable about judgment day when the good and the bad will be recognized for their deeds.  But the trouble for the young narrator of this novel, Grace and her friend Tillie, is that the goats and sheep seem one and the same. Set in an English suburb first in the summer of 1976 and then back in time to 1967, the book centers on two mysteries: the recent disappearance of a neighborhood woman Mrs. Creasy and that of  a baby girl ten years earlier.  How are the two time periods and the two missing characters connected?  Grace is an amusing, perceptive, but ultimately unreliable narrator. The dynamism of the book rests in its six main characters - each with a backstory that ultimately explains the strange happenings on this one very British block.  When the mystery is finally solved, we realize there have been many goats in sheep’s clothing and none should be judged.    Recommended!

Dear Great Book Guru,   This is the half way mark for my favorite summer event: Sunset Serenades. With five concerts completed and five more to go, this is a good time to acknowledge the people that make these wonderful evenings possible.  Petrice Kaider proposed this concert concept sixteen years ago to the Sea Cliff Civic Association. The idea was quickly embraced, and every year since she has lined up an amazing group of musicians.  In addition, she and her husband Walter Kaider see that the lights are shining for every Serenade,  Civic Association Board members provide the refreshments, and all of Sea Cliff gets to enjoy a summer of beautiful music.  Now, please recommend a good book for an early August read.  

Grateful in Sea Cliff

Dear Grateful in Sea Cliff, Recently,  I read J. Courtney Sullivan’s SAINTS FOR ALL OCCASIONS.   Reminiscent of Mary Gordon’s early works and Colum Toibin’s BROOKLYN, this novel is a family saga set  over  fifty years,  two continents,  and  told from the perspectives of  sisters Nora and Theresa.  We meet these women as young girls in rural Ireland as they prepare to emigrate to America.  Much of the story is set in Boston from 1967 to 2009 as the two women carve out very different lives in their new home.   Secrets are gradually revealed and we come to realize there are few villains and some unlikely saints in this story.  Highly recommended!

Dear Great Book Guru, Friday nights in the summer here in Sea Cliff are truly magical.  From 7 to 10pm music fills the sandy shores of Sea Cliff Beach, the sun begins to set, and the crowd grows mellow.  I get there early, have dinner at the Beach Café, and settle down with a good book as I wait for the music to begin.  I haven’t read a mystery this entire summer - do you have one you would recommend?  

Friday Night Music Lover

Dear Friday Night Music Lover, I just read a very unusual and compelling mystery noir: OUR KIND OF CRUELTY by Araminta Hall.  Told from the unreliable perspective of Mike Hall, a young banker driven mad by his obsessive love for Verity or V as he calls her.  The two met in college – she the daughter of a wealthy family while he is the son of an abusive, alcoholic single mother. When the book opens, Mike is in prison for having killed someone and is discussing his defense.  Nothing is as it seems as he recounts the details of his relationship with V over an eight year period and its recent unraveling.  Who is telling the truth, who has the most to lose, who are these people ???  Set in present day London, this novel is a beautifully written but devastating description of love gone mad…. Recommended!    

Dear Great Book Guru,  Every Saturday and Sunday my friends and family meet up at Sea Cliff Beach to share a scrumptious Beach Café breakfast.  Afterwards, we all linger reading our books, magazines, and newspapers.  I am looking for something to suggest to the group that we all might enjoy.  Any suggestions?   Fan of Breakfast at the Beach

Dear Fan of Breakfast at the Beach,  One of my all-time favorite authors Anne Tyler has just come out with a new book- her 22^nd novel: CLOCK DANCE.  We first meet Willa in 1967 as she tries to find the courage to sell candy bars door to door while  dealing with a cruel,  charismatic mother and a gentle, ineffectual father.  We quickly move to 1977 when she brings her self- assured, explosive boyfriend home to meet her parents.  Things don’t go well and soon it is 1997. Now she is dealing with an angry, explosive husband, and again things do not go well. Our next encounter with Willa is 2017, she is in her sixties and finds herself in a strange city, caring for a nine-year old girl, an angry shooting victim, a dog named Airplane and a bevy of eccentric neighbors. Is this her chance for happiness, her chance to make things right, her chance to dance the clock?  A beautifully told story of choices made and unmade- highly recommended!