Dear Great Book Guru, At our Thanksgiving dinner, we talked about the roles we assume with family, friends, and community. We concluded that we all belonged to many, many different groups but what was it ultimately that determined who we were?   One of the guests mentioned a new book about identity and suggested we read it before our next gathering.  Are you familiar with the book?

Thanksgiving Seeker of Truth

Dear Thanksgiving Seeker of Truth, IDENTITY CRISIS by authors Sides, Tesler, and Vavreck is a fascinating study of the 2016 presidential campaign and what it revealed about America and each of us. Their most startling conclusion was that we possess many identities that lie dormant until activated by outside forces.  Sometimes it is economics which causes us to identify with one group; sometimes, it’s religious beliefs.  Frequently it’s racial in origin.  Many politicians use these “hot buttons” to prompt a response at the voting booth almost without our consciously being aware of what’s going on. Elections rely on the need for a tribal identity - an “us against them” mentality.  What we saw and continue to witness is an iconic battle for who and what kind of people we want to be.  A very disturbing but worthwhile book - highly recommended!

Dear Great Book Guru, My family will be coming to Sea Cliff for our annual Thanksgiving celebration. Many of my cousins are great readers and always have some interesting books to share. I would like to have one too - something topical, fast moving, and with far-reaching appeal.  Any recommendations?

 Book and Turkey Lover

Dear Book and Turkey Lover, I have just the book for you: GHOSTED by Rosie Walsh.  This novel uses the rules and rubrics of Facebook to present a romance gone awry, a horrifying tragedy, and a tantalizing mystery.   When Sarah meets Eddie in a small English village, they immediately connect and plans are made to meet again.  A few days later, he disappears and Sarah begins to search Facebook for him only to find herself “ghosted” (when someone disappears from your life without any explanation.)  Where is Eddie, why has he cut off contact, when will he reappear, if ever?   We watch as Sarah tries desperately to communicate on social media with him, his family, his friends, but he has become…. a virtual ghost. Just when you think you understand what is happening, new information turns the mystery around and around again.  In a series of short chapters, we meet many colorful characters who give us varying insights into Sarah’s quest, and surprises abound.   Recommended! 

Dear Great Book Guru, Next Saturday (November 17 @ 3pm) is the Sea Cliff Civic Association’s annual Turkey Hunt at Geohegan (aka Headless) Park chaired by Heidi Hunt. I plan on attending with my family but earlier in the day I would like to read something that will explain this week’s electoral results. Any thoughts?

Toy Turkey Troubadour

Dear Toy Turkey Troubadour, On Election Day, a movie opened based on Matt Bai’s book THE FRONT RUNNER (previously titled ALL THE TRUTH IS OUT) that reveals a lot about today’s political climate. Bai’s story begins in May 1987 when Gary Hart, a young reform-minded Democrat Senator from Colorado, is set to win his party’s presidential nomination. He was leading George H.W. Bush by double digits. Then, a media blitz exploded with salacious photos of Hart and a beautiful model, Donna Rice, on board a leased yacht unfortunately named “Monkey Business.” The newly launched 24-hour cable news stations seized on this story and ran it with unrelenting glee. Never before had a candidate’s personal life received such prurient attention and Hart found it impossible to continue his run for the presidency. Recent information suggests the entire scandal had been orchestrated by his political opponents. Bai recounts in meticulous detail the virtues and vices of this flawed man and concludes that the tabloids and cable news brought Hart down.  The question that haunts the reader is… what have we  wrought. Highly recommended!   

Dear Great Book Guru, This Saturday is the Sea Cliff Civic Association’s annual Progressive Dinner.  It is my first time attending and I am very excited and a little anxious. I would feel more comfortable if I have a book to mention. Any thoughts? Progressive Dinner Diner

Dear Progressive Dinner Diner, Tina Marchese does an amazing job each year organizing this iconic event so you have nothing to fear- but I do have a great conversation starter: ALTERNATE SIDE by Anna Quindlen.  This is a tale of New York City life told from the perspective of Nora Nolan, director of a small museum and owner of a brownstone in the rarest of locations: a Manhattan cul-de-sac with even more remarkably… an adjacent parking lot - hence no need for the dreaded NYC alternate side of the street parking. But in this novel, alternate side also stands for the social and economic divide that exists in Nora’s world with its many - as she calls them - “first world problems” that are outsourced to a cadre of nannies, housekeepers, and handymen. When a resident with anger management issues attacks one of these workers with a golf club, the underbelly of class, race, and gender inequalities is revealed.  Marriages, friendships, careers, fortunes… all shift as “alternate sides” are chosen.  A wonderfully perceptive look into a world we can all recognize.  Highly recommended!

Dear Great Book Guru, Sea Cliff Civic Association’s Cider Social will be this Sunday, October 28 from 3 to 4pm.  Heidi Hunt is the founder of the feast so it will surely be a costumed, crafty, culinary delight! As always, I’d like a good book to read earlier in the  day.  Cider Socialite

Dear Cider Socialite, This past weekend, I read a most anticipated novel by a favorite author of mine -Kate Atkinson. TRANSCRIPTION tells the story of Juliet Armstrong in three time periods.  It opens in 1981 as she lies dying after a car accident in Canada.  The rest of the novel shifts back and forth between 1940 and 1950. As a naïve, orphaned eighteen-year-old, she is recruited by MI5- the British intelligence agency- to transcribe wartime conversations but she soon finds herself entangled in a bizarre world of spying, murder and mayhem.  We meet a multitude of colorful characters none of whom are as they seem.  By 1950, Juliet has left MI5 to work for the BBC as a producer of children’s educational shows only to discover “once a spy, always a spy.” There are so many ambiguous relationships throughout, that the reader is as confused as Juliet about who are the heroes and who are the villains. Only at the very end do we realize there are no villains and certainly no heroes.  An extraordinarily clever book- highly recommended!     

Dear Great Book Guru, My friends and I have a monthly book club and this year we would like to read something special for Halloween - something frightening but also worthwhile - with social commentary perhaps?

Gravitating towards the Ghoulish

Dear Ghoulish Gravitator, I recently reread the 1990’s horror novel ROSEMARY’S BABY by Ira Levin.  While it can be read as a terrifying tale of urban bliss gone bad, I found it much more socially relevant this time around.  Rosemary, a young wife has left her mid-western family home, the religion of her youth, her conservative-minded parents and her many siblings to live in New York City with her aspiring actor husband Guy.  We meet the couple as they navigate the urban real estate market with the prize being the apartment of their dreams, but one with shadowy hints of cannibalism, devil worship, and murderous wizardry.   Rosemary’s eagerness to please everyone: her husband, her doctors, her neighbors, and her friends can be seen as commentary on a woman’s place in society. Faustian bargains to advance careers are casually made and complaints are dismissed as hysteria.  Soon we come to realize these characters are outsized versions of ourselves set in a wildly fantastical world of evil improbabilities but mirroring much of what we know to be true. You will be very surprised at how topical this novel is….highly recommended!

Dear Great Book Guru,   Next Saturday, October 20, at 11am in Clifton Park, the Sea Cliff Civic Association will be hosting the much beloved Pet Parade- once again chaired by Karen Kessler.  While I don’t have a pet to enter, I will be there to watch and enjoy the festivities.  Before the fun begins, I will have some time to read a good book- do you have something fast-moving and topical?

Pet Parade Enthusiast

Dear Pet Parade Enthusiast, A few weeks ago I read a financial thriller with a strong feminist message: THE BANKER’S WIFE by Cristina Alger. Annabel is living a luxurious expat life in Geneva, Switzerland with her banker husband. The story opens as he and a wealthy woman client board a plane which crashes in the Alps under very suspicious circumstances.  Shortly after, bank officials arrive at Annabel’s apartment to retrieve his laptop. Meanwhile, back in the United States, a young journalist is assigned a story by her editor involving a series of off shore banking schemes. When her editor is murdered on the same day as Annabel’s husband dies, the two stories begin to merge. The women - in alternating chapters and unknown to one another - delve into the corrupt underbelly of international politics and banking. No one is to be trusted and nothing is as it seems… a fast-moving novel and highly recommended!