Book Group Recommendations

“Vendela Vida’s The Lovers is a spare and haunting meditation on how travel can bring us full circle back to the place from which we have started. I read it over two days and dreamed about it the second night,” writes Francine Prose. Well, we can do nothing but back up Prose's praise and add that we think it's an ideal title for book groups. The plot follows Yvonne, a middle-aged woman, newly widowed as she journeys to Turkey to revisit the place of her honeymoon. In taut and seemingly spare language, Vida brings us achingly close to Yvonne’s world, where suddenly everything is no longer what it was. When Yvonne befriends a young boy on her travels, the loss of her husband breaks through, and what happens next left me with my heart pounding. This is a tale that beckons us to wonder if escape is possible in a world where human relationships rest in connection, love, and letting go. You will NEED to discuss this book to try to figure out just where your sympathies lie. —S.M.C.

This historical novel roped me in and didn't let go. Based on the true story of the Fox sisters, the two young girls who were the root of American Spiritualism, this novel uses life and death and the idea of communication in between to ask the question of how far will we go, but also then stop, when love is on the line? Alternating narratives between Megan Fox, the middle sister, and Clara, a reclusive woman whose dream in life did not match the standard of her time, author Deborah Noyes weaves together the two narratives so that they eventually intertwine. Recognizing in one another both the cost and triumph of pushing boundaries that were set upon them, these characters form a friendship that has a magnetic pull. Book groups will end this novel with the need for discussion and perhaps further research. Those who are daring may want to set up their book group meeting, seance style and see what comes... —S.M.C.

This book is disturbing and dark but also touching and beautiful. We meet Caroline, the book’s 13-year-old narrator as she and her father are living off the grid by themselves in a secret encampment in Portland, Oregon’s Forest Park (think Nisene Marks, but ten times as large). Caroline’s voice is at once memorizing and strangely innocent yet focused and articulate and so wholly her own. When she and her father are unexpectedly discovered, Caroline’s life is dramatically changed. The journey that unfolds is as startling as it as stirring and the book turns into something fierce that cannot be forgotten. Loosely based on a true story, this is a complex and wonderful read that will grab you from the start; but be forewarned: you will need your book group’s feedback on this one. In the end, it begs discussion. —S.M.C.

In Sheri Reynolds mesmerizing novel, the dead are a powerful force in the world—they peel the skin from snakes and pull clouds across the sky. Finch, the novel's reluctant protagonist, sees these shades every day as she goes about maintaining her late parents' cemetery. She maintains friendships with the dead, and finds herself pulled in to their unfinished business. This is a gorgeous novel that begs to be read more than once. —Kat

Jaron Lanier, a Silicon Valley visionary since the 1980s, was among the first to predict the revolutionary changes the World Wide Web would bring to commerce and culture. Now, in his first book, Lanier offers this provocative and cautionary look at the way it is transforming our lives for better and for worse. “If you can't imagine a world without today's social technologies, this is a must read for 2010,” says Library Journal.

This is one of those flawless historical novels that makes you feel as though you are standing in a foreign street in a foreign time. Soli channels years of obsession with Vietnam into a knock-out story about combat photographers in the Vietnam War. Not once did I feel like I was reading research notes, though I certainly learned quite a bit. The characters are vibrant, the plot is enrapturing; in short, this is a Very Good Read. —Kat

Atwood has long been one of my favorite authors, and this book of linked short stories centering around the life of woman over the course of a long, varied life. This is a novel that could be thought of as a photograph album, offering clear snapshots of different eras and the moments in a life that coincided with them. A refreshing piece of literary fiction written in the kind of bracing, graceful style Atwood is beloved for. —Kat

Dalrymple has written an exquisite, mesmerizing book that illuminates the remarkable ways in which traditional forms of religious life in India have been transformed in the vortex of the region’s rapid change—a book that distills the author’s twenty-five years of travel in India, taking us deep into ways of life that we might otherwise never have known exist. “A truly heartfelt work for readers craving a deeper connection to India and its rich spiritual heritage,” says Kirkus Review.