A Mother's Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy
Sue Klebold, 2016
Crown / Archetype
336 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781101902752
Summary
On April 20, 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold walked into Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Over the course of minutes, they would kill twelve students and a teacher and wound twenty-four others before taking their own lives.
For the last sixteen years, Sue Klebold, Dylan’s mother, has lived with the indescribable grief and shame of that day. How could her child, the promising young man she had loved and raised, be responsible for such horror?
And how, as his mother, had she not known something was wrong? Were there subtle signs she had missed? What, if anything, could she have done differently?
These are questions that Klebold has grappled with every day since the Columbine tragedy. In A Mother’s Reckoning, she chronicles with unflinching honesty her journey as a mother trying to come to terms with the incomprehensible.
In the hope that the insights and understanding she has gained may help other families recognize when a child is in distress, she tells her story in full, drawing upon her personal journals, the videos and writings that Dylan left behind, and on countless interviews with mental health experts.
Filled with hard-won wisdom and compassion, A Mother’s Reckoning is a powerful and haunting book that sheds light on one of the most pressing issues of our time. And with fresh wounds from the recent Newtown and Charleston shootings, never has the need for understanding been more urgent.
All author profits from the book will be donated to research and to charitable organizations focusing on mental health issue. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1948
• Raised—Columbus, Ohio, USA
• Education—Ohio State University
• Currently—Colorado
Sue Klebold is the mother of Dylan Klebold, one of the two shooters at Columbine High School in 1999 who killed 13 people before ending their own lives, a tragedy that saddened and galvanized the nation.
Susan came from a prominent family in Columbus, Ohio, the granddaughter of a philanthropist who build the local Jewish community center that bears his name. She and her husband Tom met at Ohio State University where both were art students. They married in 1971. Tom was eventually hired as a geophysicist for an oil company in Denver, Colorado, and Susan has worked as both a counselor at Arapahoe and Colorado Community Colleges. In 1990 the couple established Fountain Real Estate Management to oversee their rental properties.
Sue Klebold has spent the last 15 years excavating every detail of her family life, and trying to understand the crucial intersection between mental health problems and violence. Instead of becoming paralyzed by her grief and remorse, she has become a passionate and effective agent working tirelessly to advance mental health awareness and intervention. (Adapted from the publisher and Denver Post. Retrieved 2/21/2016.)
Book Reviews
[Sue Klebold] earns our pity, our empathy and, often, our admiration; and yet the book’s ultimate purpose is to serve as a cautionary tale, not an exoneration. Klebold seems to have written the book for yet another reason: to communicate with the families of the victims.... One has the eerie sense of bearing witness, in that moment, to the most intimate of communications. This is writing as action, bursting from a life so choked by circumstance that she could express that sentiment only from within the safety of a 300-page book.
Susan Dominus - New York Times Book Review
The author, whose son Dylan was one of two shooters who massacred 12 students and one teacher at Columbine High School in 1999, uses recollections, journals, and the profoundly disturbing writings and video recordings he left behind to reconstruct events and ask hard questions: Why did Dylan go so very wrong? And what could she have done?
Library Journal
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also, consider these LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for A Mother's Reckoning...then take off on your own.
1. How does this book come across to you? What does Sue Klebold say her motivation was in writing A Mother's Reckoning? Does she fulfill her goal?
2. "A mother is supposed to know," Klebold has said. To what extent is she right? How much are parents supposed to know? How much can they be expected to know? If children are aware that their parents routinely search their rooms, won't they simply find better hiding places?
3. Talk about the trajectory of Dylan Klebold from Sue's "sunshine boy" to troubled, deadly killer. Was there any point when the Klebolds might have stepped in, where they might have—or should have—recognized something was amiss with Dylan, something seriously amiss?
4. How much sympathy do you accord to Sue and Tom Klebold? Has your attitude toward them changed after reading this book? Were any myths about the Klebolds dispelled, or misunderstandings clarified?
5. Should A Mother's Reckoning have been written? Should it have come out before this time? Or never at all?
6. Can you put yourself in Sue and Tom Klebold's place? Or is that simply to hard to contemplate?
7. School bullying has always been an troublesome element of childhood and adolescence. How has Columbine changed society's attitude t
oward bullying? What are the ways in which we're dealing with bullying? Are they effective?
8. What were the differences, according to Klebold, between her son Dylan and Eric Harris?
(Questions issued by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
Georgia: A Novel of Georgia O'Keeffe
Dawn Tripp, 2016
Random House
336 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781400069538
Summary
In a dazzling work of historical fiction in the vein of Nancy Horan’s Loving Frank, Dawn Tripp brings to life Georgia O’Keeffe, her love affair with photographer Alfred Stieglitz, and her quest to become an independent artist.
"This is not a love story. If it were, we would have the same story. But he has his, and I have mine."
In 1916, Georgia O’Keeffe is a young, unknown art teacher when she travels to New York to meet Stieglitz, the famed photographer and art dealer, who has discovered O’Keeffe’s work and exhibits it in his gallery. Their connection is instantaneous.
O’Keeffe is quickly drawn into Stieglitz’s sophisticated world, becoming his mistress, protégé, and muse, as their attraction deepens into an intense and tempestuous relationship and his photographs of her, both clothed and nude, create a sensation.
Yet as her own creative force develops, Georgia begins to push back against what critics and others say about her and her art. And soon she must make difficult choices to live a life she believes in.
A breathtaking work of the imagination, Georgia is the story of a passionate young woman, her search for love and artistic freedom, the sacrifices she will face, and the bold vision that will make her a legend. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1969
• Where—Newton, Massachusetts, USA
• Education—B.A., Harvard University
• Awards—Massachusetts Book Award
• Currently—lives in Westport, Massachuessets
Winner of the Massachusetts Book Award for fiction, Dawn Tripp is the author of the novels Moon Tide, The Season of Open Water, and Game of Secrets, a Boston Globe bestseller. Her essays have appeared in the Virginia Quarterly Review, The Believer, The Rumpus, Psychology Today, and NPR.
Her fourth novel, Georgia, is a novel about the American artist Georgia O’Keeffe. She graduated from Harvard and lives in Massachusetts with her family. (From the publisher .)
Book Reviews
As magical and provocative as O’Keeffe’s lush paintings of flowers that upended the art world in the 1920s.... [Dawn] Tripp inhabits Georgia’s psyche so deeply that the reader can practically feel the paintbrush in hand as she creates her abstract paintings and New Mexico landscapes.... Evocative from the first page to the last, Tripp’s Georgia is a romantic yet realistic exploration of the sacrifices one of the foremost artists of the twentieth century made for love.
USA Today
Masterful.... The book is a lovely portrayal of an iconic artist who is independent and multidimensional. Tripp’s O’Keeffe is a woman hoping to break free of conventional definitions of art, life and gender, as well as a woman of deep passion and love.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Georgia is a uniquely American chronicle...and, in the end, a book about a talent so fierce it crushed pretty much everything in its path—a rare story of artistic triumph.... Tripp expertly makes drama of two traditional themes in the O’Keeffe story—the romance with Stieglitz and the development of her art—but it’s the track about her art and his management of it and her struggle not to be dominated by him that makes her novel compelling.... In most first-person novels, the character talks to you. Here, she recollects with you—in her heart as well as her head. Which is to say that Dawn Tripp writes in much the same way as O’Keeffe painted: in vivid color and subtle shade.
Huffington Post
(Starred review.) [A] tour de force.... [Readers] will feel the passion that infused [Georgia O'Keefe's] work and love life that emboldened her canvases.... Tripp has hit her stride here, bringing to life one of the most remarkable artists of the twentieth century with veracity, heart, and panache.
Publishers Weekly
Tripp's writing is romantic, poetic, and flows as smoothly as her artist subject's brushstrokes.... However, the trouble with biographical novels is where the author's vision and history collide. Tripp's language and the dreamy feeling it evokes at times feels at odds with a relationship so tempestuous and flawed from its start. —Leigh Wright, Bridgewater, NJ
Library Journal
[A] powerful interpretation of [O’Keeffe’s] personal growth throughout her relationship with Stieglitz. As vibrant and colorful as one would hope for a story about this beloved artist.
Booklist
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
(We'll add specific questions if and when they're made available by the publisher.)
The Widow
Fiona Barton, 2016
Penguin Publishing
336 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781101990261
Summary
An electrifying thriller that will take you into the dark spaces that exist between a husband and a wife.
When the police started asking questions, Jean Taylor turned into a different woman. One who enabled her and her husband to carry on, when more bad things began to happen...
But that woman’s husband died last week. And Jean doesn’t have to be her anymore.
There’s a lot Jean hasn’t said over the years about the crime her husband was suspected of committing. She was too busy being the perfect wife, standing by her man while living with the accusing glares and the anonymous harassment.
Now there’s no reason to stay quiet. There are people who want to hear her story. They want to know what it was like living with that man. She can tell them that there were secrets. There always are in a marriage.
The truth—that’s all anyone wants. But the one lesson Jean has learned in the last few years is that she can make people believe anything (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1957
• Where—Cambridge, England, UK
• Education—N/A
• Awards—National Press Awards-Reporter of the Year
• Currently—lives in southwest France
Fiona Barton is a British journalist and novelist, born in Cambridge and now living in the southwest of France. She built a career in journalism: as senior writer at the Daily Mail, news editor at the Daily Telegraph, and chief reporter at the Mail on Sunday. It was while working for that paper that she won Britain's National Press Award for Reporter of the Year.
Then, toward the end of 2004, in a "light bulb moment" over bad Chinese food, Barton and her husband, Gary, wondered what it would take to change the direction of their lives. As she told the Daily Mail:
I was 48 and a journalist, a job I’d loved and succeeded in for 25 years—Gary, 52, was a builder with his own business. We had two adult children, mortgages and all the paraphernalia of a full working life. Yet the idea of volunteering was so powerful that I remember it made our teeth chatter with excitement. We did lots of research talked to our family and, three years later, applied to Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO). It was both exhilarating and terrifying—we lived on £140 a month in a small flat, washing our clothes under a cold outside tap and coping with the occasional rat and cockroach. A year later [in 2008], we boarded a plane to Colombo in Sri Lanka to begin a two-year placement.
In Sri Lanka, Barton trained journalists facing exile and sometimes physical danger because of their work. Since then, she has worked with journalists from around the globe.
It was Barton's familiarity with news stories, however, that gave her ideas for novels she'd always hoped to write. Once liberated from the daily grind of deadlines, she was was able to turn to fiction. Her 2016 debut, The Widow, a story about a wife who suspects her husband of murder, became a bestseller and sold in 36 countries.
Next, in 2017, came The Child, which also grew out of a news story—the skeleton of a child discovered in a building site. Barton continues her writing, in the early morning, in bed, as she says on her website. Her only distraction is her noisy cockerel, Twitch. (Adapted from the author's website.)
Book Reviews
Jean is full of contradictions. She’s a fascinating puzzle.... Barton knows how to ramp up tension, but when she leaves Jean to focus on the detective and the reporter, the story loses some steam. All three have secrets, and they all lie, but Jean is lying to herself, which makes her far more interesting.
Chelsea Cain - New York Times Book Review
Motives and methodology are well set out, and the journalistic scenes ring very true—Barton has decades of experience in this field. She cleverly details how each individual copes with a long investigation without ever lessening the tension. The Widow is a tribute to those professionals who never let go of a story, or a case, however cold.
Independent (UK)
[Barton] delivers the goods...Richly character-driven in a way that is both satisfying and engrossing.
Washington Post
The Widow never loses sight of the dark secrets that define ordinary lives, the gray areas where deception gives way to the truth. This is one book in which such subtleties matter as much as the plot.
Chicago Tribune
A twisted psychological thriller you’ll have trouble putting down.
People
Both a taut reconstruction of a crime and a ruthless examination of marriage…A smartly crafted, compulsively readable tale about the lies people tell each other, and themselves, when the truth is the last thing they really want to know.
Entertainment Weekly
Gone Girl fans will relish this taut, psychological thriller.
US Weekly
[The Widow] will keep you in suspense late into the night.
Good Housekeeping
(Starred review.) What would you do if your spouse suddenly became the prime suspect in the kidnapping of a two-year-old girl?... Though Barton stumbles slightly down the homestretch, tipping what should be her biggest bombshell, she tells her tale with a realism and restraint that add to its shattering impact.
Publishers Weekly
Though the characters are flatly drawn, the mystery of what actually happened...will draw in readers until the final page. Verdict: Barton's first novel is one of suspense and intrigue that keeps the pages turning. —Kristen Calvert Nelson, Marion Cty. P.L. Syst., Ocala, FL
Library Journal
[The idea of a] woman whose recently deceased husband was the prime suspect in a horrific crime...[and] who stands beside an alleged monster is an intriguing one, and very nearly well-executed here, if it weren't bogged down with other too-familiar plotlines.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Discuss the structure of the book and why the author chose to write the story in this way. What is the effect of alternating between the perspectives of the Widow, the Reporter, the Detective and the Mother? How did this narrative structure impact your reading of the novel and your opinions about the various characters and events?
2. Discuss the character of Jean. What were your initial impressions of her? Do you think the image she presented was sincere? Why or why not? Did your opinions about her change as the novel unfolded. If so, how?
3. What do you think finally pushed Jean into telling her story? Do you think she wanted to tell her story all along? If so, what held her back?
4. What did you think of Kate’s investigative methods? How does her presence in the story affect how it unfolds? Do you think the media help or hinder the police during crime investigations? Give some examples from the book to illustrate your points.
5. Discuss Jean and Glen—separately and together as a couple. How would you describe the quality of their relationship? Did your feelings about Jean change as you learned more about her and her marriage to Glen?
6. Bella’s disappearance captivated the public’s attention. Why do you think people were so interested in this crime and the people involved? Do you think society’s morbid fascination with this crime helped or hurt the investigation? How do you think our fascination with these types of crimes affects real-life investigations?
7. Jean harbors a lot of anger toward Bella’s mother, Dawn Elliott, and repeatedly accuses her of being a “bad mother” throughout the book. It’s one of the rare instances where Jean gets worked up and outwardly emotional. Why do you think her reaction to Dawn is so strong? After learning about more about Dawn, do you agree with Jean?
8. Do you think Jean was as ignorant about her husband’s actions as she claimed to be? Why do you think that she stood by him through the investigation and trial? If you were in her shoes, what would you have done? What might you have done differently?
9. Discuss the role that addiction and obsession play in the novel. How are the characters defined by their addictions and obsessions, and how do they drive their actions?
10. Do you think the unorthodox method of investigation—posing undercover in an Internet chat room to befriend and expose their suspect—employed by Detective Sparkes and his team was justified? Do you think they should have tried to find a link in another way? Or do you think that the ends justify the means in some cases?
11. This novel poses some difficult questions about moral choices, as the lines between guilt and innocence are repeatedly blurred. Do you think Jean is justified in doing any of the things she does throughout the book? If so, which ones?
12. Jean is not always completely truthful. How reliable is she as a narrator? Identify moments where you trusted her and moments where you doubted her. What techniques does the author use to make Jean seem both reliable and unreliable at various points in the novel?
13. Discuss the story’s ending. Were you surprised by Jean’s revelations? Did you think that the ending would turn out the way that it did? If not, what didn’t you see coming?
14. What do you think will happen to the Widow, the Reporter, the Detective and the Mother? How do you think the revelations at the end will impact each of their lives?
15. What was your emotional reaction to The Widow? Would you call it a page-turner, and, if so, how does the author ratchet up the suspense? Discuss specific moments that were jarring for you as a reader and how the author kept you on edge.
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
All the Birds in the Sky
Charlie Jane Anders, 2016
Tor Books.
320 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780765379948
Summary
A stunning novel about the end of the world—and the beginning of our future.
Childhood friends Patricia Delfine and Laurence Armstead didn't expect to see each other again, after parting ways under mysterious circumstances during middle school.
After all, the development of magical powers and the invention of a two-second time machine could hardly fail to alarm one's peers and families.
But now they're both adults, living in the hipster mecca San Francisco, and the planet is falling apart around them.
Laurence is an engineering genius who's working with a group that aims to avert catastrophic breakdown through technological intervention. Patricia is a graduate of Eltisley Maze, the hidden academy for the world's magically gifted, and works with a small band of other magicians to secretly repair the world's every-growing ailments.
Little do they realize that something bigger than either of them, something begun years ago in their youth, is determined to bring them together—to either save the world, or plunge it into a new dark ages.
A deeply magical, darkly funny examination of life, love, and the apocalypse. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Raised—Manchester, Connecticut, USA
• Education—Cambridge University
• Awards—Nebula Award, Hugo Award
• Currently—lives in San Francisco, California
Charlie Jane Anders is a website co-creator and editor, a short story writer, and author of sci-fi / fantasy novels—All the Birds in the Sky (2016) and The City in the Middle of the Night (2019).
Anders was raised in Mansfield, Connecticut. She went to Cambridge University in England where she studied English and Asian literature, prompting her to study abroad in China. Following college, she spent time in Hong Kong and Boston and now makes her home in San Francisco, California.
Career
In 2007, along with Annalee Newitz, Anders helped co-found the popular Gawker Media site, io9—a blog devoted to science fiction and fantasy. She worked as editor-in-chief until 2016 when she left to concentrate on her writing.
In 2016 Anders published her debut sci-fi / fantasy novel, All the Birds in the Sky. The book earned her the 2017 Nebula Awards for Best Novel, was a finalist for the year's Hugo Best Novel category, and climbed to the number five spot on Time magazine's top 10 novels list. An earlier novelette, "Six Months, Three Days," published in 2013 on Tor.com, also won a Hugo Award.
Anders has been publishing short stories since 1999—more than 100—in a variety of genres. Her fiction has been published by McSweeney's, Lightspeed, and ZYZZYVA. Her journalism has appeared in Salon, Wall Street Journal, Mother Jones, Atlantic Monthly, and other outlets.
Events
In addition to writing, Anders has spent years as an event organizer. She organized a "ballerina pie fight" in 2005 for other magazine; co-organized the "Cross-Gender Caravan," a national transgender and genderqueer author tour; and a "Bookstore and Chocolate Crawl" in San Francisco. Anders also emcees an award-winning monthly reading series "Writers with Drinks," a San Francisco-based event begun in 2001 that features authors from a wide range of genres.
Personal
Since 2000, Anders has been partnered with Annalee Newitz. In addition to the io9 blog, the couple co-founded other magazine and hosted the podcast Our Opinions Are Correct.
Anders is transgender. In 2007, she brought attention to a discriminatory policy of San Francisco bisexual women's organization, The Chasing Amy Social Club, that specifically barred pre-operative transgender women from membership. (Adapted from Wikipedia and other online sources. Retrieved 2/26/2019.)
Book Reviews
Into each generation of science fiction/fantasydom a master absurdist must fall, and it’s quite possible that with All the Birds in the Sky, Charlie Jane Anders has established herself as the one for the Millennials…. As hopeful as it is hilarious, and highly recommended.
New York Times Book Review
A fairy tale and an adventure rolled into one, All the Birds in the Sky is a captivating novel that shows how science and magic can be two sides of the same coin.
Washington Post
Like the work of other 21st century writers—Kelly Link and Lev Grossman come immediately to mind—All the Birds in the Sky serves as both a celebration of and corrective to the standard tropes of genre fiction.... Anders' humor elevates this marvelous book above the morass of dystopian novels that have flooded the literary landscape. The result feels like one of William Gibson's baroquely complex worlds, aerated by lighter-than-air dialogue and an engaging, diverse cast of supporting characters you'd love to meet at your next end-of-the-world party.
Los Angeles Times
Anders smoothly pivots from horror to humor to heartbreak and back again, and she keeps readers guessing as to the fate of her two protagonists—and the world. Talking animals and a sentient computer searching for love and understanding tighten the narrative strings.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) At turns darkly funny and deeply melancholy, this is a polished gem of a novel.... Her depiction of near-future San Francisco shows a native's understanding (and love) of the city, while gently skewering it at the same time. —MM
Library Journal
(Starred review.) Will science or magic save our world and all the living beings on it? That's the question posed in this science fantasy love story.... Anders clearly has an intimate understanding of how hard it is to find friends when you're perceived as "different" as well as a sweeping sense of how nice it would be to solve large problems with a single solution..
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
(We'll add specific questions if and when they're made available by the publisher.)
Love in Lowercase
Frascesc Miralles, 2010 (U.S., 2016)
Penguin Publishing
249 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780143128212
Summary
A romantic comedy for language lovers and fans of The Rosie Project, about a brainy bachelor and the cat that opens his eyes to life’s little pleasures.
When Samuel, a lonely linguistics lecturer, wakes up on New Year’s Day, he is convinced that the year ahead will bring nothing more than passive verbs and un-italicized moments—until an unexpected visitor slips into his Barcelona apartment and refuses to leave.
The appearance of Mishima, a stray, brindle-furred cat, becomes the catalyst that leads Samuel from the comforts of his favorite books, foreign films, and classical music to places he’s never been (next door) and to people he might never have met (a neighbor with whom he’s never exchanged a word).
Even better, the Catalan cat leads him back to the mysterious Gabriela, whom he thought he’d lost long before, and shows him, in this international bestseller for fans of The Rosie Project, The Solitude of Prime Numbers, and The Guest Cat, that sometimes love is hiding in the smallest characters. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—August 27, 1968
• Where—Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
• Education—Autonomous University of Barcelona (no degree); B.A., University of
Barcelona
• Awards—Gran Angular Prize (YA novel); Torrevieja Prize
• Currently—lives in Barcelona
Francesc Miralles Contijoch is a Spanish writer, essayist, translator, and musician. He was born in Barcelona as the son of a dressmaker and an erudite office worker. After spending eight years in a religious school in la Ribera, he attended high school at the now-defunct academy Almi and Ies Montserrat.
Education
Despite his bad grades, he was accepted into the Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona (UAB) to study journalism, which he quit after four months. That the same year, he started to work as a waiter at Puces del Barri Gotic, a bar in the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona, where he learned to play the piano.
In the following year, Miralles returned to the UAB, this time to study English literature, which he combined with precarious language-teacher jobs. After five years of being a sloth, he stalled in his third year...and quit again.
A lover of travel, Miralles decided to leave everything behind to travel the world. A bunch of chance encounters led him to live in Croatia and Slovenia during the armed conflicts.
Upon returning to Barcelona, Miralles resumed his academic life as a student—this time of German literature—at the Universidad de Barcelona. Before finishing his postgraduate studies, he began work in the publishing business, initially as a translator of English and German spirituality and alternative-therapy books. Later he became an editor overseeing several collections of self-help books, even writing under a pseudonym.
Writing
Miralles eventually left publishing and promised himself he would never work for another company again. Instead, he decided to try his hand at writing a youth novel, a decision that payed off—he has since published some 30 books, including young adult, fantasy, and adult novels, as well as nonfiction.
His first adult novel, Love in Lowercase, came out in 2010 and has been translated into 20 languages. A sequel, Wabi-Sabi, was published in 2014 (so far only in Europe). In 2016, six years after it was first released, Love in Lowercase was published in the U.S.
Miralles currently dedicates his time to both literature and journalism, combining monthly contributions to newspapers and magazines, such as El Pais Semanal and Mente Sana, with his work as a literary adviser to publishers and a literary agency.
Music
Aside from his writing life, Miralles is also a musician. In 2007, he released an album of songs, which he wrote and played, called Hotel Guru. The next year, in 2008, he and a group of musicians who work in publishing got together and formed the band, Nikosia. The group has released a number of albums. (Author bio adapted from the author's website and Wikipedia. Retrieved 2/19/2016.)
Book Reviews
This novel, the quirky tale of Barcelona linguistics professor Samuel, a mysterious cat named Mishima, and the bumpy road to love, is an international bestseller in its original Spanish edition....
Publishers Weekly
[A] cat sneaks into the Barcelona apartment of forlorn linguistics professor Samuel and eventually leads him to his neighbors and his long-lost Gabriela. You've gotta love a book that's compared to Graeme Simsion's The Rosie Project and Paolo Giordano's The Solitude of Prime Numbers.
Library Journal
A lovely little book with nods to literature, philosophy and music that encourages us to wake up to our lives and to the people in them, and to let small coincidences lead us to love.
BookPage
[G]enuinely charming if a little predictable...[with] an easy protagonist to root for. The simplicity of Miralles' writing is also key; his short chapters are like brief, linked thoughts that highlight the magic in the ordinar.... A satisfyingly quaint romance.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
(We'll add specific questions if and when they're made available by the publisher.)