Dec 2018: The Orphan Keeper

The Orphan Keeper, A Novel by Camron Wright via Goodreads:

"Based on a true story. Seven-year-old Chellamuthu’s life is forever changed when he is kidnapped from his village in India, sold to a Christian orphanage, and then adopted by an unsuspecting couple in the United States. It takes months before the boy can speak enough English to tell his parents that he already has a family back in India. Horrified, they try their best to track down his Indian family, but all avenues lead to dead ends.

Meanwhile, they simply love him, change his name to Taj, enroll him in school, make him part of their family—and his story might have ended there had it not been for the pestering questions in his head: Who am I? Why was I taken? How do I get home?

More than a decade later, Taj meets Priya, a girl from southern India with surprising ties to his past. Is she the key to unveil the secrets of his childhood or is it too late? And if he does make it back to India, how will he find his family with so few clues?"

Author website: Click here. (Spoilers possible)
Book's Website: Click here. (Spoilers Likely!)

We'll meet to discuss The Orphan Keeper on Thursday, December 6, at 7pm. Location: Community Room of the Atlantic Highlands branch of the Monmouth County Library, 100 First Avenue, inside Borough Hall in downtown Atlantic Highlands. Books are available at the Library Desk.

The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate, Discoveries From a Secret World by Peter Wohlleben, Jane Billinghurst Translator via Goodreads:

"Peter Wohlleben shares his deep love of woods and forests and explains the amazing processes of life, death, and regeneration he has observed in the woodland and the amazing scientific processes behind the wonders of which we are blissfully unaware. Much like human families, tree parents live together with their children, communicate with them, and support them as they grow, sharing nutrients with those who are sick or struggling and creating an ecosystem that mitigates the impact of extremes of heat and cold for the whole group. As a result of such interactions, trees in a family or community are protected and can live to be very old. In contrast, solitary trees, like street kids, have a tough time of it and in most cases die much earlier than those in a group.

Drawing on groundbreaking new discoveries, Wohlleben presents the science behind the secret and previously unknown life of trees and their communication abilities; he describes how these discoveries have informed his own practices in the forest around him."

Author Website: Click here. (Spoilers possible)
The Man Who Thinks Trees Talk To Each Other (article): Click here. (Spoilers possible)
Author on Scandinavian TV (interview): Click here. (Spoilers possible)

We'll meet to discuss The Hidden Life of Trees on Thursday, Aug 30, at 7pm. Location: Community Room of the Atlantic Highlands branch of the Monmouth County Library, 100 First Avenue, inside Borough Hall in downtown Atlantic Highlands. Books are available at the Library Desk.

Please note: This title wasn't available via the Monmouth County Library Bookclub List and quantity is limited!

July 2018: The House On Mango Street

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros via LitCharts:

"The House on Mango Street is a bildungsroman (coming-of-age story) of a young Chicana (Mexican-American) girl named Esperanza Cordero. The book is told in small vignettes which act as both chapters of a novel and independent short stories or prose poems. The story encompasses a year in Esperanza’s life, as she moves to a house on Mango Street in a barrio (Latino neighborhood) of Chicago, Illinois. The house on Mango Street is an improvement over Esperanza’s previous residences, but it is still not the house she or her family dreams of, and throughout the book Esperanza feels that she doesn’t belong there.

Over the course of the year Esperanza grows emotionally, artistically, and sexually, and the novel meanders through her experiences with her neighbors and classmates. Esperanza makes friends with two other Chicana girls of Mango Street, Rachel and Lucy. These three, along with Esperanza’s little sister Nenny, have many small adventures in the first part of the book, including searching through a labyrinthine junk store and learning from an older girl named Marin. While exploring her world, Esperanza experiences the shame of poverty, the unfairness of racism, and the beauty of poetry and music."

Author Website: Click here. (Spoilers possible)
Books As Medicine - A Conversation With Sandra Cisneros (article): Click here. (Spoilers possible)

We'll meet to discuss The House on Mango Street On Thursday, July 26, at 7pm. Location: Community Room of the Atlantic Highlands branch of the Monmouth County Library, 100 First Avenue, inside Borough Hall in downtown Atlantic Highlands. Books are available at the Library Desk.

June 2018: Claire Of The Sea Light

Claire of the Sea Light by Edwidge Danticat via Goodreads:

"Claire Limyè Lanmè - Claire of the Sea Light - is an enchanting child born into love and tragedy in Ville Rose, Haiti. Claire's mother died in childbirth, and on each of her birthdays Claire is taken by her father, Nozias, to visit her mother's grave. Nozias wonders if he should give away his young daughter to a local shopkeeper, who lost a child of her own, so that Claire can have a better life.

But on the night of Claire's seventh birthday, when at last he makes the wrenching decision to do so, she disappears. As Nozias and others look for her, painful secrets, haunting memories, and startling truths are unearthed among the community of men and women whose individual stories connect to Claire, to her parents, and to the town itself."

Author Website: Click here. (Spoilers possible)
Author facebook: Click here. (Spoilers possible)
Author TED Talk: Click here. (Spoilers possible)

We'll meet to discuss Claire of the Sea Light On Thursday, June 28, at 7pm. Location: Community Room of the Atlantic Highlands branch of the Monmouth County Library, 100 First Avenue, inside Borough Hall in downtown Atlantic Highlands. Books are available at the Library Desk.

May 2018: The Story Of A New Name

The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante (Anna Goldstein translator) via Goodreads:

"In 2012, Elena Ferrante's My Brilliant Friend introduced readers to the unforgettable Elena and Lila, whose lifelong friendship provides the backbone for the Neapolitan Novels. The Story of a New Name is the second book in this series. With these books, which the New Yorker's James Wood described as "large, captivating, amiably peopled ... a beautiful and delicate tale of confluence and reversal," Ferrante proves herself to be one of Italy's most accomplished storytellers. She writes vividly about a specific neighborhood of Naples from the late-1950s through to the current day and about two remarkable young women who are very much the products of that place and time. Yet in doing so she has created a world in which readers will recognize themselves and has drawn a marvelously nuanced portrait of friendship.

In The Story of a New Name, Lila has recently married and made her entrée into the family business; Elena, meanwhile, continues her studies and her exploration of the world beyond the neighborhood that she so often finds stifling. Love, jealousy, family, freedom, commitment, and above all friendship: these are signs under which both women live out this phase in their stories. Marriage appears to have imprisoned Lila, and the pressure to excel is at times too much for Elena. Yet the two young women share a complex and evolving bond that is central to their emotional lives and is a source of strength in the face of life's challenges. In these Neapolitan Novels, Elena Ferrante, the acclaimed author of The Days of Abandonment, gives readers a poignant and universal story about friendship and belonging."

Author Website: Click here. (Spoilers possible)

We'll meet to discuss The Story of a New Name On Thursday, May 31, at 7pm. Location: Community Room of the Atlantic Highlands branch of the Monmouth County Library, 100 First Avenue, inside Borough Hall in downtown Atlantic Highlands. Books are available at the Library Desk.

Please note: This title wasn't available via the Monmouth County Library Bookclub List and quantity is limited!

Mar 2018: The Signature Of All Things

The Signature Of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert via Goodreads:

"Spanning much of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the novel follows the fortunes of the extraordinary Whittaker family as led by the enterprising Henry Whittaker—a poor-born Englishman who makes a great fortune in the South American quinine trade, eventually becoming the richest man in Philadelphia. Born in 1800, Henry’s brilliant daughter, Alma (who inherits both her father’s money and his mind), ultimately becomes a botanist of considerable gifts herself. 

As Alma’s research takes her deeper into the mysteries of evolution, she falls in love with a man named Ambrose Pike who makes incomparable paintings of orchids and who draws her in the exact opposite direction—into the realm of the spiritual, the divine, and the magical. Alma is a clear-minded scientist; Ambrose a Utopian artist—but what unites this unlikely couple is a desperate need to understand the workings of this world and the mechanisms behind all life.

It is the story of Alma Whittaker, who—born in the Age of Enlightenment, but living well into the Industrial Revolution—bears witness to that extraordinary moment in human history when all the old assumptions about science, religion, commerce, and class were exploding into dangerous new ideas."

Author Website: Click here. (spoilers possible)
Book Trailer: Click here. (spoilers possible) video
Elizabeth Gilbert on The Signature Of All Things: Click here. (spoilers possible) video

We'll meet to discuss The Signature Of All Things on Thursday, March 29, at 7pm. Location: Community Room of the Atlantic Highlands branch of the Monmouth County Library, 100 First Avenue, inside Borough Hall in downtown Atlantic Highlands. Books are available at the Library Desk.

Please note: This title wasn't available via the Monmouth County Library Bookclub List and quantity is limited!

Feb 2018: The Rosie Project

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion via Goodreads:

"Don Tillman, professor of genetics, has never been on a second date. He is a man who can count all his friends on the fingers of one hand, whose lifelong difficulty with social rituals has convinced him that he is simply not wired for romance. So when an acquaintance informs him that he would make a “wonderful” husband, his first reaction is shock. Yet he must concede to the statistical probability that there is someone for everyone, and he embarks upon The Wife Project. In the orderly, evidence-based manner with which he approaches all things, Don sets out to find the perfect partner. She will be punctual and logical—most definitely not a barmaid, a smoker, a drinker, or a late-arriver.

Yet Rosie Jarman is all these things. She is also beguiling, fiery, intelligent—and on a quest of her own. She is looking for her biological father, a search that a certain DNA expert might be able to help her with. Don's Wife Project takes a back burner to the Father Project and an unlikely relationship blooms, forcing the scientifically minded geneticist to confront the spontaneous whirlwind that is Rosie—and the realization that love is not always what looks good on paper."

Author Website: Click here. (spoilers may be possible)

We'll meet to discuss The Rosie Project on Thursday, February 22, at 7pm. Location: Community Room of the Atlantic Highlands branch of the Monmouth County Library, 100 First Avenue, inside Borough Hall in downtown Atlantic Highlands. Books are available at the Library Desk.

Jan 2018: All The Light We Cannot See

All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr via Goodreads:

"Marie-Laure lives in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where her father works. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel.

In a mining town in Germany, Werner Pfennig, an orphan, grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find that brings them news and stories from places they have never seen or imagined. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments and is enlisted to use his talent to track down the resistance. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, Doerr illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another."

Author Website: Click here. (spoilers possible)
Anthony Doerr on his novel: Click here. (spoilers possible) video

We'll meet to discuss All The Light We Cannot See on Thursday, January 25, at 7pm. Location: Community Room of the Atlantic Highlands branch of the Monmouth County Library, 100 First Avenue, inside Borough Hall in downtown Atlantic Highlands. Books are available at the Library Desk.

Please note: This title wasn't available via the Monmouth County Library Bookclub List and quantity is limited!

Nov/Dec 2017: A Man Called Ove

A Man Called Ove: A Novel by Fredrik Backman (author), Henning Koch (translator)

From Goodreads:

"A grumpy yet loveable man finds his solitary world turned on its head when a boisterous young family moves in next door.

Meet Ove. He's a curmudgeon, the kind of man who points at people he dislikes as if they were burglars caught outside his bedroom window. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. People call him the bitter neighbor from hell, but must Ove be bitter just because he doesn't walk around with a smile plastered to his face all the time?

Behind the cranky exterior there is a story and a sadness. So when one November morning a chatty young couple with two chatty young daughters move in next door and accidentally flatten Ove's mailbox, it is the lead-in to a comical and heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unexpected friendship, and the ancient art of backing up a U-Haul. All of which will change one cranky old man and a local residents' association to their very foundations."

Author site: Click here.

We will meet to discuss A Man Called Ove on Thursday, December 7, 2017 at 7pm in the Community Room of the Atlantic Highlands branch of the Monmouth County Library located inside Borough Hall at 100 First Avenue in downtown Atlantic Highlands. (If we are having a holiday party during this discussion, look for details in the email preceding this meetup).

Oct 2017: Orphan Train

Orphan Train: A Novel by Christina Baker Kline

From christinabakerkline.com:

"Between 1854 and 1929, so-called orphan trains ran regularly from the cities of the East Coast to the farmlands of the Midwest, carrying thousands of abandoned children whose fates would be determined by luck or chance. Would they be adopted by a kind and loving family, or would they face a childhood and adolescence of hard labor and servitude?

As a young Irish immigrant, Vivian Daly was one such child, sent by rail from New York City to an uncertain future a world away. Returning east later in life, Vivian leads a quiet, peaceful existence on the coast of Maine, the memories of her upbringing rendered a hazy blur. But in her attic, hidden in trunks, are vestiges of a turbulent past.

Seventeen-year-old Molly Ayer knows that a community-service position helping an elderly widow clean out her attic is the only thing keeping her out of juvenile hall. But as Molly helps Vivian sort through her keepsakes and possessions, she discovers that she and Vivian aren’t as different as they appear. A Penobscot Indian who has spent her youth in and out of foster homes, Molly is also an outsider being raised by strangers, and she, too, has unanswered questions about the past.

Moving between contemporary Maine and Depression-era Minnesota, Orphan Train is a powerful tale of upheaval and resilience, second chances, and unexpected friendship."

Author background on writing Orphan Train (spoilers likely): Click here.
Author site: Click here.
Google search on orphan trains: Click here.

We will meet to discuss Orphan Train on Thursday, 26, 2017 at 7pm in the Community Room of the Atlantic Highlands branch of the Monmouth County Library located inside Borough Hall at 100 First Avenue in downtown Atlantic Highlands.

Sep 2017: Euphoria

Euphoria by Lily King

From Goodreads:

"Inspired by events in the life of revolutionary anthropologist Margaret Mead, Euphoria is the story of three young, gifted anthropologists of the 1930s caught in a passionate love triangle that threatens their bonds, their careers, and, ultimately, their lives."

Author site: Click here.

We will meet to discuss Euphoria on Thursday, 28, 2017 at 7pm in the Community Room of the Atlantic Highlands branch of the Monmouth County Library located inside Borough Hall at 100 First Avenue in downtown Atlantic Highlands.

Aug 2017: Frankenstein

Frankenstein; Or, the Modern Prometheus Mary Shelley

From BN.com:

"Mary Shelley began writing Frankenstein when she was only eighteen. At once a Gothic thriller, a passionate romance, and a cautionary tale about the dangers of science, Frankenstein tells the story of committed science student Victor Frankenstein. Obsessed with discovering "the cause of generation and life" and "bestowing animation upon lifeless matter," Frankenstein assembles a human being from stolen body parts but; upon bringing it to life, he recoils in horror at the creatures hideousness. Tormented by isolation and loneliness, the once-innocent creature turns to evil and unleashes a campaign of murderous revenge against his creator, Frankenstein.

Frankenstein, an instant bestseller and an important ancestor of both the horror and science fiction genres, not only tells a terrifying story, but also raises rofound, disturbing questions about the very nature of life and the place of humankind within the cosmos: What does it mean to be human? What responsibilities do we have to each other? How far can we go in tampering with Nature? In our age, filled with news of organ donation genetic engineering, and bio-terrorism, these questions are more relevant than ever."

Poetry Foundation author bio: Click here.

We will meet to discuss Frankenstein on Thursday, 31, 2017 at 7pm in the Community Room of the Atlantic Highlands branch of the Monmouth County Library located inside Borough Hall at 100 First Avenue in downtown Atlantic Highlands.

Jun 2017: Olive Kitteridge

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

From Goodreads:

"At times stern, at other times patient, at times perceptive, at other times in sad denial, Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher, deplores the changes in her little town of Crosby, Maine, and in the world at large, but she doesn’t always recognize the changes in those around her: a lounge musician haunted by a past romance; a former student who has lost the will to live; Olive’s own adult child, who feels tyrannized by her irrational sensitivities; and her husband, Henry, who finds his loyalty to his marriage both a blessing and a curse.

As the townspeople grapple with their problems, mild and dire, Olive is brought to a deeper understanding of herself and her life–sometimes painfully, but always with ruthless honesty. Olive Kitteridge offers profound insights into the human condition–its conflicts, its tragedies and joys, and the endurance it requires."

Author site: Click here.
Recent New Yorker Profile: Click here.

We will meet to discuss Olive Kitteridge on Thursday, June 29, 2017 at 7pm in the Community Room of the Atlantic Highlands branch of the Monmouth County Library located inside Borough Hall at 100 First Avenue in downtown Atlantic Highlands.

May 2017: The Bridge Of San Luis Rey

The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder

From Goodreads:

"By chance, a monk witnesses the tragedy. Brother Juniper seeks to prove that it was divine intervention rather than chance that led to the deaths of those who perished in the tragedy. His study leads to his own death -- and to the author's timeless investigation into the nature of love and the meaning of the human condition."

For The Thorton Wilder Society book page: Click here.

We met to discuss The Bridge Of San Luis Rey on Thursday, May 25, 2017 in the Community Room of the Atlantic Highlands branch of the Monmouth County Library located inside Borough Hall at 100 First Avenue in downtown Atlantic Highlands.

Apr 2017: When The Emperor Was Divine

When The Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka (debut novel)

From julieotsuka.com:

"On a sunny day in Berkeley, California, in 1942, a woman sees a sign in a post office window, returns to her house, and matter-of-factly begins to pack her family’s possessions. Like thousands of other Japanese Americans they have been reclassified, virtually overnight, as enemy aliens and are about to be uprooted from their homes and sent to a dusty internment camp in the Utah desert.

In this lean and devastatingly evocative first novel, Julie Otsuka tells the story of one Japanese American family from five flawlessly realized points of view—the mother receiving the order to evacuate; the daughter on the long train ride to the camp; the son in the desert encampment; the family’s return to their home; and the bitter release of the father after almost four years in captivity. When the Emperor Was Divine is a work of enormous power that makes a shameful episode of our history as immediate as today’s headlines."

Author site: Click here.

We met to discuss When The Emperor Was Divine on Thursday, April 27, 2017 in the Community Room of the Atlantic Highlands branch of the Monmouth County Library located inside Borough Hall at 100 First Avenue in downtown Atlantic Highlands.

Mar 2017: One Thousand White Women

One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd by Jim Fergus

From jimfergusbooks:

"Based on an actual historical event but told through fictional diaries, this is the story of a remarkable woman who travels west in 1875 and marries the Chief of the Cheyenne Nation.

ONE THOUSAND WHITE WOMEN begins with May Dodd’s journey west into the unknown. Yet the unknown is a far better fate than the life she left behind. Committed to an insane asylum by her blue-blood family for the crime of loving a man beneath her station, May finds that her only hope of freedom is to participate in a secret government program whereby women from the “civilized” world become the brides of Cheyenne warriors. What follows is the story of May’s breathtaking adventures: her brief, passionate romance with the gallant young army captain John Bourke; her marriage to the great chief Little Wolf; and her conflict of being caught between two worlds, loving two men, living two lives."

Author site: Click here.

We met to discuss One Thousand White Women on Thursday, March 30, 2017 in the Community Room of the Atlantic Highlands branch of the Monmouth County Library located inside Borough Hall at 100 First Avenue in downtown Atlantic Highlands.

Jan 2017 - My Brilliant Friend

From Goodreads:
(L'amica geniale #1) by Elena Ferrante, Ann Goldstein (Translator)
"A modern masterpiece from one of Italy’s most acclaimed authors, My Brilliant Friend is a rich, intense, and generous-hearted story about two friends, Elena and Lila. Ferrante’s inimitable style lends itself perfectly to a meticulous portrait of these two women that is also the story of a nation and a touching meditation on the nature of friendship.

The story begins in the 1950s, in a poor but vibrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples. Growing up on these tough streets the two girls learn to rely on each other ahead of anyone or anything else. As they grow, as their paths repeatedly diverge and converge, Elena and Lila remain best friends whose respective destinies are reflected and refracted in the other. They are likewise the embodiments of a nation undergoing momentous change. Through the lives of these two women, Ferrante tells the story of a neighborhood, a city, and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between her protagonists, the unforgettable Elena and Lila.

Ferrante is the author of three previous works of critically acclaimed fiction: The Days of Abandonment, Troubling Love, and The Lost Daughter, and this novel is the first in a trilogy."

Helpful Links (*Spoilers May Be Possible*):
-Author Site click here.
-"The "Unmasking" Of Elena Ferrante" New Yorker Article click here.
-"Women On The Verge" (review of her writing in general) New Yorker Article click here.

We will meet to discuss My Brilliant Friend on Thursday 1/26/17 at 7pm in the Community Room of the Atlantic Highlands branch of the Monmouth County Library (located at 100 First Avenue inside Atlantic Highlands Borough Hall in downtown Atlantic Highlands opposite Veterans Park).

The Hundred Year Old Man... - Nov/Dec 2016 (Updated 1/3/17)

From Goodreads:
"It all starts on the one-hundredth birthday of Allan Karlsson. Sitting quietly in his room in an old people’s home, he is waiting for the party he-never-wanted-anyway to begin. The Mayor is going to be there. The press is going to be there. But, as it turns out, Allan is not… Slowly but surely Allan climbs out of his bedroom window, into the flowerbed (in his slippers) and makes his getaway. And so begins his picaresque and unlikely journey involving criminals, several murders, a suitcase full of cash, and incompetent police. As his escapades unfold, we learn something of Allan’s earlier life in which – remarkably – he helped to make the atom bomb, became friends with American presidents, Russian tyrants, and Chinese leaders, and was a participant behind the scenes in many key events of the twentieth century."

Helpful Links:
Author website click here.

We will meet to discuss The Hundred Year Old Man... on Thursday, December 1, 2016, at 7pm in the Community Room in the Atlantic Highlands branch of the Monmouth County Library located at 100 First Avenue in downtown Atlantic Highlands (inside Borough Hall).

Details regarding our annual Holiday Party for this meetup to follow. (Watch your email).

Updated 1/3/17 with Holiday Party:

Here are the results of the vote:
-Our favorite book with a total of seven votes (including Linda and Jo's) was: The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson
- Our least favorite book with a total of three votes was: The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barberry. It looks like we liked most of the books we read.

At the end of the year Elita (who started the book club with me) and I would always say something about the group. I continued the tradition after she moved back to her native Australia. Here is my message for this year: I want to you to know how much I appreciate every one of you and thank you for being apart of our book club. To our facilitators and those bringing snacks, those who come regularly and those who come occasionally, a heartfelt thank you. You are a wonderful group of people, smart, funny, caring, and supportive. You never make anyone feel uncomfortable if they disagree. You are always generous with your praise and go out of your way to be understanding. I am so grateful and happy to know you and I look forward to seeing you every month. The hours that we meet go by super fast and there is never enough time. I wish all of you a happy holiday and all the good things life has to offer in 2017. See you next year Love, Lori

December 1, 2016

Ines Of My Soul - Oct 2016

From Goodreads:

"Born into a poor family in Spain, Inés, a seamstress, finds herself condemned to a life of hard work without reward or hope for the future. It is the sixteenth century, the beginning of the Spanish conquest of the Americas, and when her shiftless husband disappears to the New World, Inés uses the opportunity to search for him as an excuse to flee her stifling homeland and seek adventure. After her treacherous journey takes her to Peru, she learns that her husband has died in battle. Soon she begins a fiery love affair with a man who will change the course of her life: Pedro de Valdivia, war hero and field marshal to the famed Francisco Pizarro.

Valdivia's dream is to succeed where other Spaniards have failed: to become the conquerer of Chile. The natives of Chile are fearsome warriors, and the land is rumored to be barren of gold, but this suits Valdivia, who seeks only honor and glory. Together the lovers Inés Suárez and Pedro de Valdivia will build the new city of Santiago, and they will wage a bloody, ruthless war against the indigenous Chileans—the fierce local Indians led by the chief Michimalonko, and the even fiercer Mapuche from the south. The horrific struggle will change them forever, pulling each of them toward their separate destinies."

Helpful links:
-Author site: click here. (from her site you can also find links to her other social media)
-NYT Sunday Book Review of novel: click here. (Spoilers Likely)
-Author's TED Talk video: click here.

We will meet to discuss this book on Thursday, October 27th, in the Community Room at the Atlantic Highlands Branch of the Monmouth County Library at 7pm, located at 100 First Avenue inside Borough Hall in downtown Atlantic Highlands.

Catching Up - Great Expectations - Sept 2016

From Penguin Random House:

"A terrifying encounter with an escaped convict in a graveyard on the wild Kent marshes; a summons to meet the bitter, decaying Miss Havisham and her beautiful, cold-hearted ward Estella; the sudden generosity of a mysterious benefactor-these form a series of events that change the orphan Pip’s life forever, as he eagerly abandons his humble origins to begin a new life as a gentleman. Dickens’s haunting novel depicts Pip’s education and development through adversity as he discovers the true nature of his great expectations. Published nine years before Dickens’s death, it remains one of his most celebrated works."

We met to discuss this book on Thursday, September 29th, at the Atlantic Highlands Branch of the Monmouth County Library, located at 100 First Avenue inside Borough Hall in downtown Atlantic Highlands.