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Bookshop Santa Cruz offers a great way for Book Groups to save 10% on the titles they read, get special invitations to Book Group mixers, and receive email recommendations on excellent Book Group titles.
Register your Book Group at our information desk and get 10% off your Book Group picks (when ordering 5 or more copies) and have us hold the titles in one place for easy pick up for all your group members! Browse our new Book Group shelves in the Fiction room for staff recommendations, local book group choices, and information on running Book Groups.
Below are some staff recommendations of great books for Book Groups.
TransAntlantic by Colum McCann
TransAtlantic is the first novel from Colum McCann since his National Book Award winner, Let the Great World Spin.
There is something both tremendous and intimate about McCann’s writing; he works his way into the head of a single person and shows you the entire world. His latest novel ties together narratives from various eras—a slave seeking
freedom in Ireland in 1845, two soldiers leaving World War I—and presents history as a living entity.
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Random House, 6/2013
Reviewed by:
Kat TransAtlantic (Hardcover)
$21.60
ISBN-13: 9781400069590Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Random House, 6/2013
Sisterland by Curtis Sittenfeld
Curtis Sittenfeld (American Wife & Prep) continues to write novels that range widely in scope and tone. In Sisterland,
identical twin sisters Kate and Violet were born with “senses” that foretell specific events and/or intimate details about their loved ones. When a premonition about a devastating
earthquake comes to both of them, each one must make a choice about loyalty and accountability, and understand the delicate balance between believing and surrendering, especially when it comes to family bonds.
Availability: Coming Soon - Available for Pre-Order Now
Published: Random House, 6/2013
Reviewed by:
S.M.C. Sisterland (Hardcover)
$27.00
ISBN-13: 9781400068319Availability: Coming Soon - Available for Pre-Order Now
Published: Random House, 6/2013
Are You My Mother? by Alison Bechdel
In her best-selling graphic novel Fun Home, Alison Bechdel explored her relationship with her father; in Are You My Mother?, she turns her focus to her mother. The psychological intent of this memoir is fascinating. In trying to understand the gulf between mothers and daughters, Bechdel visits with 20th-century psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott, then with Virginia Woolf, then with her current partner, and finally, back to her mother. A wonderful, fun, and smart read.
Reviewed by:
S.M.C. 
Are You My Mother?: A Comic Drama (Paperback)
$15.95
ISBN-13: 9780544002234Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Mariner Books, 4/2013
Full Body Burden by Kristen Iversen
Kristen Iversen grew up downwind from a plant that produced plutonium triggers for nuclear bombs, and her parents and neighbors were told that the land, water, and air were perfectly safe from contamination. This was not true. Decades later, Iversen twines her own intimate family history with piercing investigative journalism, and reveals a level of corruption and incompetence that is just staggering. The result is a powerful, horrifying, and very important memoir.
Reviewed by:
Kat 
$15.00
ISBN-13: 9780307955654Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Broadway Books, 6/2013
Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake by Anna Quindlen
Anna Quindlen is a best-selling author and a Pulitzer Prize winner. She is also a mother, a wife, a daughter, a friend, and a successful woman with a lot to say about the ups and downs of getting older. Chapter by chapter, she shares her philosophies on motherhood, marriage, friendship, solitude, and faith, weaving them all together into a warm and candid memoir about the changes, the lessons, and the losses we all (women in particular) experience as time goes by.
Reviewed by:
George 
Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake (Paperback)
$15.00
ISBN-13: 9780812981667Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 4/2013
American Savage by Dan Savage
On the heels of his award-winning It Gets Better campaign, columnist and provocateur Dan Savage weighs in on such diverse issues as health care, gun control, and marriage equality with characteristic straight talk and humor. “Savage is that rarity, a liberal—verging on radical—who defends his positions with steel-trap logic and scornful humor laced with profanity and stripped of politically correct cant.”
—Publishers Weekly
$26.95
ISBN-13: 9780525954101Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Dutton Adult, 5/2013
The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe
This is an inspiring story of a young man and his dying mother who form a book club of two that brings them closer as her life draws to an end. Schwalbe and his mom read titles ranging from classic literature to current bestsellers, poetry to mysteries, fantasy to spirituality. As Will recounts their wide-ranging, deeply personal conversations, we hear their passion for reading and their love for each other. They—and we—are reminded how books can be comforting, astonishing, and illuminating, changing the way that we connect with the world around us.
The End of Your Life Book Club (Paperback)
$15.00
ISBN-13: 9780307739780Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Vintage, 7/2013
The Astronaut Wives Club by Lily Koppel
The men who were picked to become the first U.S. astronauts were subject to a number of strict requirements, including one that might seem odd today: They had to be happily married. The Astronaut Wives Club explores the extraordinary lives of the women married to America’s heroes, women who became instant celebrities and often struggled with their new public personas. It’s a breezy, fascinating book that would be perfect for summer book club meetings.
Reviewed by:
Kat 
The Astronaut Wives Club: A True Story (Hardcover)
$28.00
ISBN-13: 9781455503254Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Grand Central Publishing, 6/2013
And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
I read this book in one sitting overnight because the thought of putting it down seemed absolutely impossible, and I couldn’t rest until I knew how it ended. Hosseini’s latest work is touching, painful, and exquisitely beautiful. It is about an Afghani family scattered across the globe, the lives they touch, and the bonds between them that last forever. Each chapter is a masterpiece in itself. Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner, writes with the certainty and delicacy of one who understands the pain every human suffers, but who still remembers that our lives are filled with beauty. I cannot recommend And the Mountains Echoed
highly enough. Don’t miss our event with Hosseini on June 2nd.
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Riverhead Hardcover, 5/2013
Reviewed by:
Katie And the Mountains Echoed (Hardcover)
$20.27
ISBN-13: 9781594631764Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Riverhead Hardcover, 5/2013
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
Life After Life is an engaging puzzle that spans two world wars. With the introduction of Ursula Todd, a woman who relives her life over and over, Kate Atkinson poses endless, fascinating questions: What would the world be like if we could start over when things went terribly awry? Could our decisions, big and small, avert wars? Make us happier? Stop death in its tracks? Life After Life is rich with history and possibility, and it left my brain humming.
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Reagan Arthur Books, 4/2013
Reviewed by:
Kat Life After Life (Hardcover)
$22.39
ISBN-13: 9780316176484Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Reagan Arthur Books, 4/2013
The Silver Star by Jeannette Walls
Jeannette Walls (The Glass Castle) certainly must have pulled from her own unconventional background to so convincingly bring the two intrepid stars of this new novel to life. It is 1970, and 12-year-old Bean and
15-year-old Liz have been left by their artistic,
whimsical mother, Charlotte, in a desert town in California. They end up making their way “home” to the Virginia town they were born in but have not seen since. Their Uncle Tinsley and the small Southern town that greet them seem suspended in time, but truly everything is on the edge of social change, with the Vietnam War and racial integration barely at bay. Both Bean and Liz have to grow and shift in their loyalty to themselves and one another, and must make heart-breaking decisions to try to carve a road between their past and future.
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Scribner, 6/2013
Reviewed by:
S.M.C. The Silver Star (Hardcover)
$26.00
ISBN-13: 9781451661507Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Scribner, 6/2013
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra
I cannot say enough about this debut novel, which takes place in Chechnya, after its decade-long war with Russia. The snowy landscape is scarred by bombs, and countless people have “disappeared” at the hands of
soldiers and rebels. Inside this bleak setting are an orphaned 8-year-old girl, Havaa; Akhmed, Havaa’s neighbor, who takes her in; and Sonya, a surgeon who reluctantly takes the pair into hiding at one of the region’s last
functioning hospitals. This is a beautifully told tale that shines with
eloquence and maturity. For fans of The Tiger’s Wife or Birdsong.
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Hogarth, 5/2013
Reviewed by:
S.M.C. A Constellation of Vital Phenomena (Hardcover)
$26.00
ISBN-13: 9780770436407Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Hogarth, 5/2013
A Gracious Plenty by Sheri Reynolds
This is my favorite book. I know that’s a big thing to say, but so far no other book has quite matched up. It’s a ghost story, but it’s also unlike any ghost story I’ve ever read—the spirits that inhabit this book are deeply entwined with the natural world, and they are responsible for shifting the weather, ripening tomatoes, and helping snakes shed their skin. Intrigued? You should be. I can’t say enough about this book, but I’ll stick to this: read it.
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Turner Publishing Company, 10/2012
Reviewed by:
Kat A Gracious Plenty (Paperback)
$13.95
ISBN-13: 9781618580313Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Turner Publishing Company, 10/2012
Good Kings Bad Kings by Susan Nussbaum
Winner of the PEN/Bellwether Prize!
“The characters in Good Kings Bad Kings made me laugh over and over again, and cry, and cheer. This is fiction at its best. The story’s sharp eye allows no one to take shelter, and it doesn’t flinch; it is simply and breathtakingly honest. A stunning accomplishment.” —Barbara Kingsolver
Good Kings Bad Kings (Hardcover)
$23.95
ISBN-13: 9781616202637Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 5/2013
Bobcat and Other Stories by Rebecca Lee
“Bobcat and Other Stories is nothing short of brilliant. Lee writes with the unflinching,
cumulatively devastating precision of Chekhov and Munro, peeling back layer after layer of
illusion until we’re left with the truth
ourselves…This extraordinary story collection is sure to confirm its author as one of the best writers of her generation.” —Ben Fountain, author of Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 6/2013
Bobcat and Other Stories (Paperback)
$14.95
ISBN-13: 9781616201739Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 6/2013
