All Things Cease to Appear by Elizabeth Brundage

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This was an unsettling page-turner that I couldn’t put down. Set in a small farm town in upstate New York, the story opens with the murder of a young woman, who is killed in her home. As the story unfolds, we learn more about why she and her family moved to this house, which has a dark history. This is suspenseful, creepy, and beautifully written.

“A dynamic portrait of a young woman coming into her own [and] of a marriage in free fall. . . . It rises to [great] literary heights and promises a soaring mix of mysticism.” —Booklist (starred review)

All Things Cease to Appear is a riveting ghost story, psychological thriller, and literary page turner. It’s also the story of four women: Ella, Catherine, Justine, and Willis. With masterful skill and brilliant empathy, Brundage brings each of them to vivid and remarkable life. At its heart, this is a story about women’s grit and courage, will and intelligence. It’s a powerful and beautiful novel.” —Kate Christensen

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Days of Awe by Lauren Fox

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A moving story of family life with a cast of well-developed characters headed by a flawed but likable protagonist named Isabel.   We meet Isabel as she navigates her mid-life marked with losses small and large and wrestles with the problematic notion that “every happy moment is already on the way to becoming nostalgia”.  Author Lauren Fox is a gifted writer who pens her novels with wit and keen insight into relationships.

“Isabel (and Fox) has such an offbeat way of looking at things that you’ll eagerly keep reading just to see what she’s going to say next”. –Kirkus Reviews

“As Fox deconstructs the myth of perfect womanhood, her humor and humanity remind us that love’s the only lifeboat through grief.” —People Magazine Book of the Week

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Lab Girl by Hope Jahren

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I was riveted by Hope Jahren’s interview on NPR and startled by the sincere gratitude of those women in science fields who called to thank her for writing this book.  Hope is a fighter.  She is passionate about the plant world.  She has fought tooth and nail to practice “her science” and not let academia dictate, squelch, or underfund her path……and she writes in beautiful prose…and she includes some hysterically funny experiences.  Hope is best at teaching, nurturing. Open these pages and walk into nature with an inspirational guide.

Lab Girl surprised, delighted, and moved me. I was drawn in from the start by the clarity and beauty of Jahren’s prose, whether she was examining the inner world of a seed, the ecosystem around the trunk of a tree, or recounting her own inspiring journey. With Lab Girl, Jahren joins those talented scientists who are able to reveal to us the miracle of this world in which we live.” —Abraham Verghese

“Some people are great writers, while other people live lives of adventure and importance. Almost no one does both. Hope Jahren does both. She makes me wish I’d been a scientist.” —Ann Patchett

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Blanche on the Lam by Barbara Neely

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Here is a thoroughly refreshing slant on the cozy mystery genre set in the countryside of North Carolina among the Carters, a dysfunctional family quietly feuding over their matriarch’s fortune.  Enter Blanche White, a black 40 year old housekeeper with moxie who knows she is made invisible by her color and profession. Blanche is an avid reader of people and situations who feels this is as much a part of her work as making beds and readers will delight in her social commentary. Nothing is what is seems in the tangled affairs of the Carter household and when Nate, the black groundskeeper, is murdered, Blanche summons all of her wits and gumption to bring the killer to justice.

“One of the best fictional detectives conjured up in years,” Library Journal

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How to Cook a Moose: A Culinary Memoir by Kate Christensen

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In this engaging memoir, the author and her boyfriend move from New York City to New England, where they spend time in New Hampshire before making a home in Portland, Maine. The book includes plenty of recipes, interesting facts about New England, and the author’s own love story.

“[An] exuberant, unabashedly gourmand-esque follow-up to Blue Plate Special…Christensen is eating well, in love, and radiating the ‘quiet internal daily joy of living in a culture based on authenticity and integrity.'”Kirkus Reviews

I like that Ms. Christensen shows us, as M.F.K. Fisher did, the pleasures of a world of food where the scrupulous weighing out of precise calories, vitamins and other nutritional units doesn t exist, because to labor over it is to exist without spirit…Her book gets us thinking about what we are really hungry for and whether the rules of eating have begun to outweigh its pleasures. Wall Street Journal

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Thirteen Ways of Looking by Colum McCann

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The title story in this collection of short stories from the author of Transatlantic and Let the Great World Spin, takes place in Brooklyn on a snowy day when an elderly man falls on the slippery sidewalk.  The snow obscures what has actually happened just as the thoughts of the man and his past float and spin through his head like the flakes in a snow globe.

The other two stories, “Sh’khol” and “Treaty” both pack a powerful punch and deal with the shifting aspects of memory as well.

Be sure to check McCann’s website (http://colummccann.com/) for background information that is relevant to understanding the title story.

“In just three short stories and one novella, McCann weaves the magic that made Let the Great World Spin so acclaimed—especially in one brilliant short piece of metafiction in which the process of writing a story becomes interwoven with the story created.”The Huffington Post

“McCann is a writer of power and subtlety and beauty. . . . The powerful title story loiters in the mind long after you’ve read it.”—Sarah Lyall, The New York Times

“McCann is a passionate writer whose impulse is always toward a generous understanding of his diverse characters.”The Wall Street Journal

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Breaking Wild by Diane Les Becquets

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A powerful story of two women in the Colorado wilderness and of their survival, physical and emotional, that will keep the reader turning pages into the night!

“A visceral book, building suspense from sensory details…A page turning, two-pronged wildlife adventure.”—The Wall Street Journal

“A taut and thrilling narrative…Skillfully blending the emotional terrain of women’s fiction with a briskly paced adventure story.”—Booklist (starred review)

“A powerful story of survival, wilderness field craft, and fractured relationships packed into a suspenseful plot with more than a few surprises.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

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An Invitation to Poetry: a New Favorite Poem Project Anthology edited by Robert Pinsky and Maggie Dietz

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When Robert Pinsky was Poet Laureate of the United States, he set out to discover Americans’ favorite poems by inviting us to write to him.  Thousands responded.  Some of the best are captured here and as an added bonus a dvd is included with 27 segments as seen on PBS’s NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.  One can hear ordinary people of all ages, from all walks of life – a construction worker, a Supreme Court justice, a glass blower, a marine – commenting on his or her connection to the poem.  Give yourself a treat!

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Disgraced: a play by Ayad Akhtar

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A thoughtful and suspenseful play that would be an excellent choice for a discussion group.  It is sure to enter the canon of classic American plays such as “Death of a Salesman”, “Angels in America” and “A Streetcar Named Desire”.

While reading just ninety-six pages, the reader is compelled to consider many of the problems in contemporary society – Islamophobia, race relations, terrorism, immigration and assimilation.  The author forces us to examine our racial and religious beliefs and prejudices which is particularly powerful after the recent terror attacks in Paris and Brussels.

“Compelling… DISGRACED raises and toys with provocative and nuanced ideas.” —Jesse Oxfeld, New York Observer

“A continuously engaging, vitally engaged play about thorny questions of identity and religion in the contemporary world…. In dialogue that bristles with wit and intelligence, Mr. Akhtar…puts contemporary attitudes toward religion under a microscope, revealing how tenuous self-image can be for people born into one way of being who have embraced another…. Everyone has been told that politics and religion are two subjects that should be off limits at social gatherings. But watching Mr. Akhtar’s characters rip into these forbidden topics, there’s no arguing that they make for ear-tickling good theater.” —Charles Isherwood, New York Times

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Vanessa and Her Sister by Priya Parmar

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Here is an excerpt from Vanessa’s diary – “every moment with Virginia – one feels more alive, not just alive, but living.  I have understood this Virginia equation – there is no rational, logical, or reachable Virginia lurking beneath – eventually Virginia  becomes exhausting”.  One would never want a sister like Virginia Woolf!

“Parmar inhabits the gilded ‘bohemian hinterland’ of Virginia Woolf and her sister Vanessa, creating a vibrant fictional homage.”O: The Oprah Magazine

“Parmar does a stellar job conveying Virginia’s complicated, almost incestuous feelings for Vanessa. . . . The author also deftly brings to life the various artists and writers who formed the nascent Bloomsbury group. . . . Parmar’s narrative is riveting and successfully takes on the task of turning larger-than-life figures into real people. . . . [She] weaves their stories together so effortlessly that nothing seems out of place.”Publishers Weekly (starred review)

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