Book Club Kit: Close Your Eyes

Close Your Eyes
by Amanda Eyre Ward
First Published: 2011
10 Copies & Reading Guide

For most of her life, Lauren Mahdian has been certain of two things: that her mother is dead, and that her father is a murderer. Before the horrific tragedy, Lauren led a sheltered life on the banks of Long Island Sound, a haven of luxurious homes and seemingly perfect families. But one morning, eight-year-old Lauren and her older brother awoke to discover their mother’s body and their beloved father arrested for the murder.

Years later, Lauren is surrounded by uncertainty. Startling revelations force her to peek under the floorboards of her carefully constructed memories, put aside the version of history that she has clung to so fiercely, and search for the truth of what really happened that fateful night long ago.

Reader’s Guide:
Random House – Includes a Summary, Author Bio, Brief Reviews, and Discussion Questions

Reviews & Articles:
Kirkus Reviews
Publisher’s Weekly

You Also Might Like:
The End of Everything by Megan Abbott
The Winters in Bloom by Lisa Tucker
The Sisters by Nancy Jensen

Did your book club read Close Your Eyes? Tell us what you thought by leaving a comment or join us over at Goodreads!

We Recommend…Linnea Sinclair

Linnea Sinclair
Available Formats: Paperback | eBook

Do you like Science Fiction with a lot of action and a little romance? Then you’ll enjoy award winning novelist Linnea Sinclair. Her fast paced novels feature strong, independent women that find themselves in serious, often life threatening, situations. In one of my favorites, An Accidental Goddess, the protagonist is thrown more than 300 years into the future and discovers that she’s been turned into a goddess!

Ms. Sinclair has several stand alone novels as well as one series, Dock Five. Gabriel’s Ghost is the first book in the Dock Five series. The Down Home Zombie Blues was optioned for a movie in 2010 but has not yet been released.

Visit the author’s website: http://www.linneasinclair.com

Book Club Kit: The Sandcastle Girls

The Sandcastle Girls
By Chris Bohjalian
First Published 2012
10 Copies & Reading Guide

When Elizabeth Endicott arrives in Aleppo, Syria, she has a diploma from Mount Holyoke, a crash course in nursing, and only the most basic grasp of the Armenian language. It’s 1915, and Elizabeth has volunteered to help deliver food and medical aid to refugees of the Armenian Genocide during the First World War. There she meets Armen, a young Armenian engineer who has already lost his wife and infant daughter. After leaving Aleppo and traveling into Egypt to join the British Army, he begins to write Elizabeth letters, realizing that he has fallen in love with the wealthy young American.

Years later, their American granddaughter, Laura, embarks on a journey back through her family’s history, uncovering a story of love, loss—and a wrenching secret that has been buried for generations.

Reader’s Guide:
Random House

Reviews & Articles:
The Washington Post – “Chris Bohjalian’s ‘The Sandcastle Girls’ Relives the Armenian Genocide” by Eugenia Zukerman
The Armenian Weekly – “The Kernel That Led to the Novel, The Sandcastle Girls” by Chris Bohjalian
Lonely Planet – map of Armenia

Author’s Website: http://www.chrisbohjalian.com

You Might Also Like:
Toby’s Room by Pat Barker
Waiting for Sunrise by William Boyd
The Burning Tigris by Peter Balakian

Did your book club read The Sandcastle Girls? Tell us what you thought by leaving a comment or join us over at Goodreads!

Book Club Kit: Wild From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
By Cheryl Strayed
First Published: 2012
10 Copies & Reading Guide

At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother’s death, her family scattered, and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life. With no experience or training, driven only by blind will, she would hike more than a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State—and she would do it alone. Told with suspense and style, sparkling with warmth and humor, Wild powerfully captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her.

Reading Guide:
Random House – Includes a Summary, Author Bio, Brief Reviews, and Discussion Questions

Reviews:
NPR – “A Walk on the Wild Side” by Michael Schaub
New York Times – “The High Road Wild, a Hiking Memoir” by Dani Shapiro

Author’s Website: http://www.cherylstrayed.com

You Also Might Like:
Home is a Roof Over a Pig by Aminta Arrington
The Old Ways: A Journey on foot by Robert MacFarlane
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

We Recommend…Starting Now by Debbie Macomber

Starting Now: A Blossom Street Novel By Debbie Macomber
Available Formats: Hardcover | Large Print | Audio Book | eBook

Welcome back to Blossom Street, or welcome for the first time. Many of the characters are new, but a few old friends and locations are revisited. When Libby Morgan is let go from her job as a top lawyer instead of receiving the partnership she had anticipated, she starts to learn what is really important in her life, or does she? The story takes some unexpected turns, but everything is ‘knit’ together well in the end.

Fans of Debbie Macomber will also want to watch for the Cedar Cove TV series beginning in July, and her novel Rose Harbor in Bloom coming in August. Want to read the Cedar Cove series before the television series starts? Click here for a list of her Cedar Cove books at your local public library.

Fantastic Fiction has a complete list of all of Debbie Macomber’s books, in series order.

Book Club Kit: The Shoemaker’s Wife

The Shoemaker’s Wife
By Adriana Trigiani
First Published: 2012
10 Copies & Reading Guide

The majestic beauty of the Italian Alps at the turn of the twentieth century is the setting of the first meeting of Enza, a practical beauty, and Ciro, a strapping mountain boy. When Ciro catches the local priest in a scandal, he is banished and sent to hide in America. Soon Enza’s family faces disaster and she, too, is forced to go to America.

Unbeknownst to one another, they both build fledgling lives in America. Ciro masters shoemaking and Enza takes a factory job until fate intervenes and reunites them. But it is too late: Ciro has volunteered to serve in World War I as Enza begins her impressive career as a seamstress at the Metropolitan Opera House. Over time, these star-crossed lovers meet and separate, until the power of their love changes both of their lives forever.

Inspired by Adriana Trigiani’s own family history and the love of tradition, The Shoemaker’s Wife defines an era with operatic scope that will live on in the imaginations of readers for years to come.

Reading Guide:
Harper Collins – Includes a Summary, Author Bio, and Discussion Questions

Reviews:
Publisher’s Weekly
Kirkus Review

You Might Also Like:
A Good American by Alex George
Elizabeth Street: a Novel Based on True Events by Laurie Fabiano
May the Road Rise Up to Meet You by Peter Troy

Book Club Kit: The Hour I First Believed

The Hour I First Believed
By Wally Lamb
First Published: 2008
10 Copies & Reading Guide

When high school teacher Caelum Quirk and his wife, Maureen, a school nurse, move to Littleton, Colorado, they both get jobs at Columbine High School. In April 1999, while Caelum is away, Maureen finds herself in the library at Columbine, cowering in a cabinet and expecting to be killed. Miraculously, she survives, but at a cost: she is unable to recover from the trauma. When Caelum and Maureen flee to an illusion of safety on the Quirk family’s Connecticut farm, they discover that the effects of chaos are not easily put right, and further tragedy ensues.

Reading Guide:
Harper Collins – Includes a Summary, Author Bio, and Discussion Questions

Reviews:
Booklist- Review by Joanne Wilkinson
Kirkus Review – Review

You Might Also Like:
We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
Columbine by David Cullen
Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

We Recommend…Ghostman

Ghostman by Roger Hobbs
Available Formats: Hardcover | Audiobook | eBook

“Ghostman” is a first novel by Roger Hobbs, written between his junior and senior years at Reed College. He sent the manuscript off to a publisher the day he graduated! A few weeks later it caused an uproar at a book fair in Germany. His senior thesis focused on creating suspense in a story, and he definitely does that in this novel. We never actually learn the name of the Ghostman since he has many names and the supporting licenses, passports, credit cards, etc. to back those names. He is an expert at changing his appearance so that he is unrecognizable even to those who have met him. He is a master thief and works with other master thieves. When he is called upon to find the million dollars that was stolen from a casino in Atlantic City, he not only has to find the money, but he also finds himself in between two powerful men—one a master thief and one a drug lord—who both want the money for different reasons. This is an amazing first novel, very suspenseful and different from the usual thrillers.

You Might Also Like:
The Keller series by Lawrence Block

Book Club Kit: Before I Fall

Before I Fall
by Lauren Oliver
First Published 2010
10 Copies & Reading Guide

Friday, February 12 is a big day for Samantha Kingston: It’s Cupid Day, when all the kids at school will count the roses they receive to see just how popular they are. It’s the day of Kent McFreaky’s party. It’s the day Sam plans to lose her virginity to her boyfriend, Rob. It’s also the day she dies . . . sort of. Sam is killed in a car crash on Friday, February 12, but she wakes the next morning to that same day, again and again. While living her last day on repeat, Sam discovers that she has a chance to do things over—to do things better. So what does it take to go from being a popular girl who can inflict a dozen small cruelties in a given day to being someone who will be remembered well in her own right? Samantha Kingston is about to find out.

Reading Guide:
ReadingGroupGuides – Includes a Book Description and Discussion Questions

Reviews:
The Hub – Review by Annie Schutte
Booklist - Review by Krista Hutley

Author’s Website: http://www.laurenoliverbooks.com

You Might Also Like:
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
November Blues by Sharon M. Draper
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

We Recommend…The Icecutter’s Daughter by Tracie Peterson

The Icecutter’s Daughter By Tracie Peterson
Available Formats: Hardback | Large Print | eBook

This is the first book in a new historical fiction series, Land of Shining Water, by popular Christian author Tracie Peterson. It takes place during a Minnesota winter in the late 19th century. Merrill Krause enjoys working alongside her brothers and father, but also longs for a family of her own. Rurik, a new resident to the area, shows an interest despite Merrill’s tomboyish ways and overprotective brothers. A past relationship and a possible scandal threaten their future together. Strong characters and several plot twists help weave a captivating story of faith and love.

Read eBooks by Tracie Peterson