Pretty Girls
Karin Slaughter, 2015
HarperCollins
416 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780062429056
Summary
Sisters. Strangers. Survivors.
More than twenty years ago, Claire and Lydia’s teenaged sister Julia vanished without a trace. The two women have not spoken since, and now their lives could not be more different.
Claire is the glamorous trophy wife of an Atlanta millionaire. Lydia, a single mother, dates an ex-con and struggles to make ends meet. But neither has recovered from the horror and heartbreak of their shared loss—a devastating wound that's cruelly ripped open when Claire's husband is killed.
The disappearance of a teenage girl and the murder of a middle-aged man, almost a quarter-century apart: what could connect them? Forming a wary truce, the surviving sisters look to the past to find the truth, unearthing the secrets that destroyed their family all those years ago...and uncovering the possibility of redemption, and revenge, where they least expect it. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—January 6, 1971
• Raised—Jonesboro, Georgia
• Education—Georgia State University
• Currently—lives in Atlanta, Georgia
Karin Slaughter, an American crime writer, was born in a small southern Georgia community in 1971. She now lives in Atlanta where, in addition to writing, she has been active in the "Save the Libraries" campaign on behalf of the DeKalb County Library. Slaughter is widely credited with coining the term "investigoogling" in 2006.
Publishing history
Slaughter's first novel Blindsighted, published in 2001, became an international success. It was published in almost 30 languages and made the Crime Writers' Association's Dagger Award shortlist for Best Thriller Debut of 2001. Since then, Slaughter has written some 20 books, which have sold more than 30 million copies in 32 languages.
Fractured (2008), the second novel in the Will Trent series, debuted at number one in both the UK and the Netherlands, and it was the number one adult fiction title in Australia. At the same time, Faithless (2005) became the number one bestseller in Germany.
Two of Slaughter's stories, "Rootbound" and "The Blessing of Brokenness," are included in Like a Charm, an anthology of mysteries, each of which features a charm bracelet which brings bad luck to its owner. The stories' settings vary greatly, ranging from 19th-century Georgia to wartime Leeds, England. The anthology's contributors include Lee Child, John Connolly, Emma Donoghue, Lynda La Plante, and Laura Lippman, among others.
Series
Slaughter was first known for her Grant County series set in Heartsdale, Georgia, of Grant County (both fictional locales). The stories are told through the perspectives of three primary characters: Sara Linton, the town's pediatrician and part-time coroner; Jeffrey Tolliver, the chief of police and Linton's husband; and Detective Lena Adams.
The Will Trent series, debuting in 2006, takes place in Atlanta. The series features special Agent Will Trent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and his partner Faith Mitchell.
Next came the Georgia Series, beginning in 2009 with Undone. This series brings together characters from the Grant County and Will Trent/Atlanta novels.
Stand-alone works
Martin Misunderstood is an original audio novella narrated by Wayne Knight. Both story and narration were nominated for an Audie Award in 2009. The book was translated into Dutch and given away to over one million readers. Thorn in My Side (2011) is an ebook novella.
Other stand-alones include Cop Town (2014), Pretty Girls (2015), and The Good Daughter (2017) — all of which received strong reviews. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 10/8/2015.)
Visit the author's website.
Book Reviews
A hell-raising thriller that departs from [Slaughter's] previous soft-boiled investigative procedurals.... [Pretty Girls is] a genuinely exciting narrative driven by strong-willed female characters who can't wait around until the boys shake the lead out of their shoes.
Marilyn Stasio - New York Times Book Review
Claire Scott, the heroine of this gripping standalone..., thought she knew everything about her architect husband, Paul, but her posh Atlanta life is turned upside down when he’s fatally stabbed in an alley.... [An] unsettling tale.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) Slaughter's stand-alone novel packs a heck of a wallop, and while it's a powerful thriller, it's also a deft look into a family forced to confront horrific tragedy. Slaughter's longtime fans will be thrilled. New readers will be hooked on this twisted tale from page one. —Kristin Centorcelli, Denton, TX
Library Journal
(Starred review.) Once she's plunged you into this maelstrom, Slaughter shreds your own nerves along with those of the sisters.... The results are harrowing. Slaughter is so uncompromising in following her blood trails to the darkest places imaginable that she makes most of her high-wire competition look pallid, formulaic, or just plain fake.
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. In the meantime, use our generic mystery questions.)
GENERIC DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Mystery / Crime / Suspense Thrillers
1. Talk about the characters—in Pretty Girls, especially, the two sisters. How were they shaped by their family history? Talk about their personalities and motivations. Are they fully developed and emotionally complex? Or are they more one-dimensional heroes and villains?
2. What do you know...and when do you know it? At what point in the book do you, the reader, begin to piece together what happened?
3. Good crime writers are skillful at hiding clues in plain sight. How well does the author hide the clues in this work?
4. Does the author use red-herrings—false clues—to purposely lead readers astray?
5. Talk about plot's twists & turns—those surprising developments that throw everything you think you've figured out into disarray. Do they enhance the story, add complexity, and build suspense? Are they plausible? Or do the twists & turns feel forced and preposterous—inserted only to extend the story.
6. Does the author ratchet up the story's suspense? Did you find yourself anxious—quickly turning pages to learn what happened? How does the author build suspense?
7. What about the ending—is it satisfying? Is it probable or believable? Does it grow out of clues previously laid out by the author (see Question 2). Or does the ending come out of the blue? Does it feel forced...tacked-on...or a cop-out? Or perhaps it's too predictable. Can you envision a better, or different, ending?
8. Are there certain passages in the book—ideas, descriptions, or dialogue—that you found interesting or revealing...or that somehow struck you? What lines, if any, made you stop and think?
9. Overall, does the book satisfy? Does it live up to the standards of a good crime story or suspense thriller? Why or why not?
(Generic Mystery Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
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Turning Point
Susan Lynn Pelletier, 2015
Xlibris
188 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781503586727
Summary
A return to Seagull’s Perch is the last thing Angelique intended to do, but the request from her great-great-grandmother to be there to celebrate her 105th birthday could not be ignored.
Arriving home with her two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Angelique is faced with her mother, whom she hasn’t spoken to in three years. Also entering back into her life is her ex-fiance seeking forgiveness and hoping to become a part of her and her daughter’s life.
Angelique seeks to reconcile the past so she can move forward with her future. Her great-great-grandmother is aware that time for her is running out. The family all gather to listen to Varvara telling her story—a colorful history of events spanning more than ten decades—beginning with her birth in Russia, to her life on an estate in France, and finally to the present, living on the shores of Rhode Island.
Turning Point is an intimate look into one woman’s life—a compelling tale of love, loss, joy and sorrow. Through her faith and courage, Angelique overcomes many obstacles, and in the end this strong, courageous woman’s love binds five generations of family together.
Author Bio
• Birth—December 22, 1953
• Where—Oxford, Massachusetts, USA
• Education—Quinsigamond Community College
• Currently—lives in Oxford, Massachusetts
Susan Lynn Pelletier was born in Oxford, Massachusetts to Leslie C. and Irene Haynes. The fifth of seven children, she grew up with five sisters and one brother. Her family took pride in being American and of Armenian descent. There was also a strong emphasis on family togetherness. Family suppers were eaten together and Sundays were set aside as family days. After church you were expected to be in the family room playing games, making puzzles, or watching the Red Sox on TV. Once, her parents took all seven children to see the Sox play at Fenway. Ms. Pelletier is still an avid Sox and Patriot fan. Family trips to Cape Cod each summer began her love of the ocean.Church, the ocean, horses, singing, writing, and reading are among Ms.Pelletier favorite things. She has been singing in church choirs since second grade and has been a member of her present church choir for over 35 years. While attending Quinsigamond Community College, she was a member of their first traveling concert choir which toured the Bavarian Alps.
In her childhood years Ms. Pelletier joined the Girl Scouts. She loved being a scout and earned its highest award, the God and Community Award. She also spent one summer as a camp counselor. As a teenager, time was spent on a local farm mucking out the stalls in exchange for time riding their horses. Susan also began her passion for writing poetry at the age of nine.
Ms.Pelletier met her husband at the Getty station across the street from her home. While joking, they discussed their birthdays and discovered they were only one day apart. Two years later at exactly 12 mid-night, he proposed. They were married on October 20, 1973. Ms. Pelletier designed and sewed the wedding gown she wore on her wedding day.
Over the next eight years, while helping her husband build their own home, she gave birth to her three children. When her youngest child started school, Ms.Pelletier decided to go back to work. At first she only worked part-time, but she began working full time as a teacher’s aide at Project Duke in the Oxford School system. Ms. Pelletier had worked with Autistic students for twenty-two years when she retired.
While working, she became best friends with another aide, Jan Bursell. At the end of the school year all the aides decided to go to the beach. Jan, who grew up in Westerly, Rhode Island, suggested Misquamicut Beach. Ms. Pelletier calls Misquamicut, “Her Ocean” and it is the setting for Turning Point.
In 2004, Susan was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. Eventually forcing her to stop working, she turned to her dream of writing a book. Turning Point is her first novel. She still lives in the home she built with her husband of 42 years and her dog Zorro. Ms. Pelletier has the “over 60 nativity sets” mentioned in her novel. When not at home, she’s spending time with her five grandchildren or volunteering on her church’s mission trips.
Discussion Questions
1. What is your family heritage?
2. Did it influence who you are today? Why or why not?
3. Do you have family traditions passed down for generations?
4. What is your favorite holiday? Do you have a special memory?
5. In Turning Point, Varvara travels to many countries. Where have you traveled? Do you have a favorite trip you remember?
6. The angel tree and the collection of over 60 Nativity sets described in the book actually are Susan's. Do you collect anything special?
7. Varvara tells Vari that butterflies bring down messages from heaven. Do you believe this? Do you have another belief that's similar?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)
The Japanese Lover
Isabel Allende, 2015
Atria Books
336 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781501116995
Summary
An exquisitely crafted love story and multigenerational epic that sweeps from San Francisco in the present-day to Poland and the United States during the Second World War.
In 1939, as Poland falls under the shadow of the Nazis, young Alma Belasco’s parents send her away to live in safety with an aunt and uncle in their opulent mansion in San Francisco.
There, as the rest of the world goes to war, she encounters Ichimei Fukuda, the quiet and gentle son of the family’s Japanese gardener. Unnoticed by those around them, a tender love affair begins to blossom. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the two are cruelly pulled apart as Ichimei and his family—like thousands of other Japanese Americans—are declared enemies and forcibly relocated to internment camps run by the United States government.
Throughout their lifetimes, Alma and Ichimei reunite again and again, but theirs is a love that they are forever forced to hide from the world.
Decades later, Alma is nearing the end of her long and eventful life. Irina Bazili, a care worker struggling to come to terms with her own troubled past, meets the elderly woman and her grandson, Seth, at San Francisco’s charmingly eccentric Lark House nursing home. As Irina and Seth forge a friendship, they become intrigued by a series of mysterious gifts and letters sent to Alma, eventually learning about Ichimei and this extraordinary secret passion that has endured for nearly seventy years.
Sweeping through time and spanning generations and continents, The Japanese Lover explores questions of identity, abandonment, redemption, and the unknowable impact of fate on our lives.
Written with the same attention to historical detail and keen understanding of her characters that Isabel Allende has been known for since her landmark first novel The House of the Spirits, The Japanese Lover is a profoundly moving tribute to the constancy of the human heart in a world of unceasing change. (From the publisher .)
Author Bio
• Birth—August 2, 1942
• Where—Lima, Peru
• Education—private schools in Bolivia and Lebanon
• Awards—Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, 1998; Sara Lee Foundation Award, 1998; WILLA
Literary Award, 2000
• Currently—lives in San Rafael, California, USA
Isabel Allende is a Chilean writer whose works sometimes contain aspects of the "magic realist" tradition. Author of more than 20 books—essay collections, memoirs, and novels, she is perhaps best known for her novels The House of the Spirits (1982), Daughter of Fortune (1999), and Ines of My Soul (2006). She has been called "the world's most widely read Spanish-language author." All told her novels have been translated from Spanish into over 30 languages and have sold more than 55 million copies.
Her novels are often based upon her personal experience and pay homage to the lives of women, while weaving together elements of myth and realism. She has lectured and toured many American colleges to teach literature. Fluent in English as a second language, Allende was granted American citizenship in 2003, having lived in California with her American husband since 1989.
Early background
Allende was born Isabel Allende Llona in Lima, Peru, the daughter of Francisca Llona Barros and Tomas Allende, who was at the time the Chilean ambassador to Peru. Her father was a first cousin of Salvador Allende, President of Chile from 1970 to 1973, making Salvador her first cousin once removed (not her uncle as he is sometimes referred to).
In 1945, after her father had disappeared, Isabel's mother relocated with her three children to Santiago, Chile, where they lived until 1953. Allende's mother married diplomat Ramon Huidobro, and from 1953-1958 the family moved often, including to Bolivia and Beirut. In Bolivia, Allende attended a North American private school; in Beirut, she attended an English private school. The family returned to Chile in 1958, where Allende was briefly home-schooled. In her youth, she read widely, particularly the works of William Shakespeare.
From 1959 to 1965, while living in Chile, Allende finished her secondary studies. She married Miguel Frias in 1962; the couple's daughter Paula was born in 1963 and their son Nicholas in 1966. During that time Allende worked with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in Santiago, Chile, then in Brussels, Belgium, and elsewhere in Europe.
Returning to Chile in 1996, Allende translated romance novels (including those of Barbara Cartland) from English to Spanish but was fired for making unauthorized changes to the dialogue in order to make the heriones sound more intelligent. She also altered the Cinderella endings, letting the heroines find more independence.
In 1967 Allende joined the editorial staff for Paula magazine and in 1969 the children's magazine Mampato, where she later became editor. She published two children's stories, Grandmother Panchita and Lauchas y Lauchones, as well as a collection of articles, Civilice a Su Troglodita.
She also worked in Chilean television from 1970-1974. As a journalist, she interviewed famed Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. Neruda told Allende that she had too much imagination to be a journalist and that she should become a novelist. He also advised her to compile her satirical columns in book form—which she did and which became her first published book. In 1973, Allende's play El Embajador played in Santiago, a few months before she was forced to flee the country due to the coup.
The military coup in September 1973 brought Augusto Pinochet to power and changed everything for Allende. Her mother and diplotmat stepfather narrowly escaped assassination, and she herself began receiving death threats. In 1973 Allende fled to Venezuela.
Life after Chile
Allende remained in exile in Venezuela for 13 years, working as a columnist for El Nacional, a major newspaper. On a 1988 visit to California, she met her second husband, attorney Willie Gordon, with whom she now lives in San Rafael, California. Her son Nicolas and his children live nearby.
In 1992 Allende's daughter Paula died at the age of 28, the result of an error in medication while hospitalized for porphyria (a rarely fatal metabolic disease). To honor her daughter, Allenda started the Isabel Allende Foundation in 1996. The foundation is "dedicated to supporting programs that promote and preserve the fundamental rights of women and children to be empowered and protected."
In 1994, Allende was awarded the Gabriela Mistral Order of Merit—the first woman to receive this honor.
She was granted U.S. citizenship in 2003 and inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2004. She was one of the eight flag bearers at the Opening Ceremony of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy.
In 2008 Allende received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from San Francisco State University for her "distinguished contributions as a literary artist and humanitarian." In 2010 she received Chile's National Literature Prize.
Writing
In 1981, during her exile, Allende received a phone call that her 99-year-old grandfather was near death. She sat down to write him a letter wishing to "keep him alive, at least in spirit." Her letter evolved into The House of the Spirits—the intent of which was to exorcise the ghosts of the Pinochet dictatorship. Although rejected by numerous Latin American publishers, the novel was finally published in Spain, running more than two dozen editions in Spanish and a score of translations. It was an immense success.
Allende has since become known for her vivid storytelling. As a writer, she holds to a methodical literary routine, working Monday through Saturday, 9:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M. "I always start on 8 January,"Allende once said, a tradition that began with the letter to her dying grandfather.
Her 1995 book Paula recalls Allende's own childhood in Santiago, Chile, and the following years she spent in exile. It is written as an anguished letter to her daughter. The memoir is as much a celebration of Allende's turbulent life as it is the chronicle of Paula's death.
Her 2008 memoir The Sum of Our Days centers on her recent life with her immediate family—her son, second husband, and grandchildren. The Island Beneath the Sea, set in New Orleans, was published in 2010. Maya's Notebook, a novel alternating between Berkeley, California, and Chiloe, an island in Chile, was published in 2011 (2013 in the U.S.). Three movies have been based on her novels—Aphrodite, Eva Luna, and Gift for a Sweetheart. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 5/23/2013.)
Book Reviews
(Starred review.) [Allende's] sweeping tale focuses on two survivors of separation and loss.... Allende sweeps these women up in the turmoil of families torn apart by WWII and ravaged by racism, poverty, horrific sexual abuse—and old age, to which Allende pays eloquent attention. .... Befitting the unapologetically romantic soul...love is what endures.
Publishers Weekly
Alma Belasco...and Ichimei Fukuda, the Japanese gardener's son, fall in love but are wrenched apart when thousands of Japanese Americans are interned during the war. Through the decades, they keep their passion alive—and secret.
Library Journal
Themes of lasting passion, friendship, reflections in old age, and how people react to challenging circumstances all feature in Allende’s newest saga, which moves from modern San Francisco back to the traumatic WWII years. As always, her lively storytelling pulls readers into her characters’ lives immediately.
Booklist
[A] saga of a couple that keeps its affair secret for the better half of a century.... Vividly and pointedly evoking prejudices "unconventional" couples among the current-day elderly faced (and some are still battling), Allende, as always, gives progress and hopeful spirits their due.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. As Alma Belasco reflects on her long life and the decisions she made to leave Ichimei and marry Nathaniel, do you think she would have done anything differently if she had had the chance? Why or why not?
2. At the beginning of her time at Lark House, Irina observes, “In itself age doesn’t make anyone better or wiser, but only accentuates what they have always been.” (p. 13) Do you think this is true of Alma Belasco? Why or why not?
3. Alma and Samuel Mendel are just two of many people who were forced to flee Europe during World War II—leaving their homes and loved ones behind. How does this affect the rest of their lives? How does it impact their view of family?
4. Consider this passage as the Fukudas and other Japanese and Japanese-American families board the buses to the internment camp at Topaz:
“The families gave themselves up because there was no alternative and because by so doing they thought they were demonstrating their loyalty toward the United States and their repudiation of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor. This was their contribution to the war effort.” (p. 88)
How does the experience at Topaz affect each of the Fukudas’ sense of patriotism and their experiences as Americans? How does this change for each character over the course of internment?
5. Compare and contrast how the Belascos, a very formal family, uphold tradition, versus how the Fukudas, a family of recent immigrants and nisei, respect tradition while embracing their new Americanism.
6. Alma and Ichimei both experience the tragedy and loss of WWII firsthand. How does it affect each of them as children? How does it contribute to their understanding of one another as adults later?
7. Ichimei Fukuda and Nathaniel Belasco are the two great loves of Alma’s life. How are they able to coexist in her heart?
8. What role does race play in the choices Alma makes about her relationship with Ichimei? How would their relationship have played out in a different time period? Compare this with the choices that Megumi makes in her relationship with the soldier Boyd Anderson.
9. How do the choices of each mother throughout the novel change the lives of their children? Consider Alma, Lillian, and Heideko.
10. In reconstructing her life story for Seth’s book, Alma had the opportunity to piece “together the fragments of her biography, spicing them with touches of fantasy, allowing herself some exaggeration and white lies” (p. 177). How does it affect Alma, nearing the end of her life, to be able to control the narrative of her own life? Why do you think she chooses to leave out the stories about Ichimei at first? Why does she eventually decide to tell Seth and Irina the full story?
11. Consider this statement which Ichimei writes in a letter to Alma: “Love and friendship do not age.” (p. 176) Is Ichimei right about this? Why or why not? Consider the way that their relationship changes throughout the novel.
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
The Truth According to Us
Annie Barrow, 2015
Random House
512 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780385342940
Summary
A wise, witty, and exuberant novel that illuminates the power of loyalty and forgiveness, memory and truth, and the courage it takes to do what’s right.
Annie Barrows once again evokes the charm and eccentricity of a small town filled with extraordinary characters. Her new novel, The Truth According to Us, brings to life an inquisitive young girl, her beloved aunt, and the alluring visitor who changes the course of their destiny forever.
In the summer of 1938, Layla Beck’s father, a United States senator, cuts off her allowance and demands that she find employment on the Federal Writers’ Project, a New Deal jobs program. Within days, Layla finds herself far from her accustomed social whirl, assigned to cover the history of the remote mill town of Macedonia, West Virginia, and destined, in her opinion, to go completely mad with boredom.
But once she secures a room in the home of the unconventional Romeyn family, she is drawn into their complex world and soon discovers that the truth of the town is entangled in the thorny past of the Romeyn dynasty.
At the Romeyn house, twelve-year-old Willa is desperate to learn everything in her quest to acquire her favorite virtues of ferocity and devotion. It becomes a search that leads her into a thicket of mysteries, including the questionable business that occupies her charismatic father and the reason her adored aunt Jottie remains unmarried.
Layla’s arrival strikes a match to the family veneer, bringing to light buried secrets that will tell a new tale about the Romeyns. As Willa peels back the layers of her family’s past, and Layla delves deeper into town legend, everyone involved is transformed—and their personal histories completely rewritten. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1962
• Raised—San Anselmo, California
• Education—B.A., University of California-Berkeley; M.F.A., Mills College
• Currently—lives in Northern California
Annie Barrows was born in 1962 in San Diego, California, but quickly moved to a small town called San Anselmo in the San Francisco Bay Area. She spent most of her childhood at the library. She wouldn’t leave, so they hired her to shelve books at the age of twelve.
Annie attended UC Berkeley and received a B. A. in Medieval History. She knows more than the average person about 3rd century saints. Under the impression that a career in publishing meant she’d get to read a lot, Annie became a proofreader at an art magazine and later an editor at a textbook publishing company.
In 1988, Chronicle Books hired Annie as an editorial assistant, from which platform she became successively assistant editor, managing editor, Editor, and Senior Editor. Somewhere in this trajectory, she acquired Griffin & Sabine, Chronicle’s first New York Times best seller.
In 1996, Annie received her Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Mills College and had a baby, a confluence of events that persuaded her to leave editorial work and move into writing. She wrote several non-fiction books on topics ranging from fortune-telling to opera before turning her attention to children’s books.
In 2006, the first book in her children’s series, Ivy + Bean was published. This title, an ALA Notable Book for 2007, was followed by nine others. The Ivy + Bean series appears with some regularity on the New York Times best-seller list and a number of other national best-seller lists. The Ivy + Bean books have been translated into 14 languages; in 2013 Ivy + Bean: The Musical premiered in the San Francisco Bay Area. A novel for older children, The Magic Half, was published in 2008. Its sequel, Magic in the Mix, came out in 2014.
In addition to her children’s books, Annie is the co-author, with her aunt Mary Ann Shaffer, of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, which was published by The Dial Press in 2008. A New York Times best-seller, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society has been published in 37 countries and 32 languages.
Annie lives in Northern California with her husband and two daughters. (From the author's website.)
Book Reviews
[As] delightfully eccentric as Guernsey yet refreshingly different.... It’s an epic but intimate family novel with richly imagined characters, an intriguing plot and the social sensibilities you would expect of a story set in the South.... If Guernsey is a tribute to the power of books, The Truth According to Us is a testament to the toxicity of secrets.... Just as we did in Guernsey, we empathize with the characters as if they’re our neighbors.... Macedonia is a great place to spend some time this summer. The temperatures are soaring, but it’s nothing compared to the heat generated by this sizzling story.
Washington Post
Annie Barrows creates a worthy successor to Lee’s beloved Scout Finch.... The Truth According to Us has all the characteristics of a great summer read: A plot that makes you want to keep turning the pages; a setting that makes you feel like you’re inhabiting another time and place; and characters who become people you’re sad to leave behind—and thus who always stay with you. As Jottie tells Willa at the beginning of the book, the "Macedonian virtues" are ferocity and devotion. The Truth According to Us is the sort of book that inspires both.
Miami Herald
It takes a brave author to make the heroine of a new novel an observant and feisty girl . . . like Scout Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird.... But Barrows...has created a believable and touching character in Willa.
USA Today
[A] heartwarming coming-of-age novel [that] sparkles with folksy depictions of a tight-knit family and life in a small town.... In a novel full of richly drawn, memorable characters, bright, feisty Willa is the standout.... Add The Truth According to Us to the stack of repeat-worthy literary pleasures.
Seattle Times
A big, juicy family saga with warm humor and tragic twists, Truth is lively and engaging.... The story gets more and more absorbing as it moves briskly along.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
A pleasant summer read.... There is much to recommend this book: The characters are engaging, the historical details appear thorough and accurate, and there are sufficient conflicts and plot twists to render a compelling story.
Roanoke Times
Some characters...fail to live up to their initial promise; some plot points are developed and then dropped abruptly. Nevertheless, Barrows does capture the interior life of her primary characters in this portrait of a town on the border between the past and present.
Publishers Weekly
Barrows follows up The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society with a small-town story filled with big characters.... A warm family novel of love, history, truth, and hope that is a solid fit for fans of Lee Smith and Paula McLain.
Library Journal
Barrows has crafted a luminous coming-of-age tale that is sure to captivate her grown-up audience. Against a lively historical setting, the joys and hardships of the rollicking Romeyn family will keep readers eagerly turning pages.
BookPage
The ironic contrast between Macedonia's official and actual history is played to the hilt, [but] this unique corner of Americana...is re-created...vividly.... Undeniably entertaining but as slow-moving as a steamy Macedonian summer.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Early in The Truth According to Us, Willa resolves to acquire the virtues of "ferocity and devotion." Do you concur that these are, actually, virtues? Which of the characters in The Truth According to Us possesses them? Do you know anyone who does?
2. Much of the story of The Truth According to Us revolves around events that occurred when Jottie, Felix, Vause, and Sol were children and teenagers. Do you think the author believes that character is essentially unchanging from childhood to adulthood? Do you agree? Have you changed in essence from your childhood self?
3. The Truth According to Us is set in a small town where everyone seems to know everyone else. Have you ever lived in a situation like that? Would you find living in Macedonia appealing or stifling? With our multiple forms of instantaneous communication, it could be said that the entire world has become a small town. Do you agree? Do you think we live in a more or less anonymous world now?
4. Felix Romeyn is undoubtedly a flawed character. Sol McKubin is, by most standards, a far more honorable person. And yet Jottie speaks of "...her growing certainty that if Sol had been in Felix’s place, he would, after a time, have come to believe that what he told her was the truth." Do you agree? If so, which man is more honorable?
5. Of all the characters in The Truth According to Us, Layla Beck may be the one that changes the most. In her final letter to her father, she says that she’s learned that "ignoring the past is the act of a fool." What is she referring to? Discuss how the lessons she’s learned are revealed in the differences between her relationship with Felix and that with Emmett.
6. While The Truth According to Us is not an epistolary novel, there are many letters from Layla’s various correspondences woven throughout the narrative. How did these letters contribute to your understanding of her character, and to the story as a whole? Are there any letters that really stand out in your memory? Why do you think that is?
7. Is Felix a good father? Why or why not?
8. Author Annie Barrows has said, with regard to setting her novel in 1938, "The second world war looms so large in our perception of our individual selves—and even larger in our perception of America’s identity—that it takes a massive feat of imagination to remove it, or block it out, even very temporarily. To catch a glimpse of a small town in America, not 'before the War,' or even 'before people realized War was inevitable,' but without the inevitability—well, it’s nearly impossible." Discuss the historical events that have marked your time. Do you think that we, like the characters in The Truth According to Us, are facing a major pivot point in our national identity? What do you predict it to be?
9. At one point, Willa’s Uncle Emmett advises her "Don’t ask questions if you’re not going to like the answers." He clarifies that she should ask herself whether the answer could endanger something that’s precious to her, and if so, refrain from asking. Willa ignores his advice entirely, but would it have been better—for her and everyone else—if she had taken it? Have you ever regretted your own curiosity?
10. The possibility of knowing the truth about the past is a central preoccupation of The Truth According to Us. Layla says that "if history were defined as only those stories that could be absolutely verified, we’d have no history at all." Do you agree? Do you think that Layla still believes this at the end of the summer?
11. Of all the characters in The Truth According to Us, with whom do you most identify and why?
12. The sisterly bond between Jottie, Mae, and Minerva is intimate and powerful, with Mae and Minerva choosing to live under the same roof during the week, away from their husbands, because "the two of them can’t stand to be apart…they found out they were miserable without each other." In contrast, the relationship between the two Romeyn brothers is tense. What do you think of this distinction? How does the presence of strong feminine companionship impact this story? How does this model of loyalty and devotion affect the relationship between young Willa and Bird?
13. The Truth According to Us is broken up into multiple different perspectives, blending young and old voices with epistolary fragments and flashbacks. How do these varied viewpoints contribute to characterization and development in the story? How do they deepen our connection to these characters?(Questions issued by the publisher.)
Best Boy
Eli Gottlieb, 2015
Liveright Publishing
256 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781631490477
Summary
A landmark novel about autism, memory, and, ultimately, redemption.
Sent to a "therapeutic community" for autism at the age of eleven, Todd Aaron, now in his fifties, is the "Old Fox" of Payton LivingCenter. A joyous man who rereads the encyclopedia compulsively, he is unnerved by the sudden arrivals of a menacing new staffer and a disruptive, brain-injured roommate.
His equilibrium is further worsened by Martine, a one-eyed new resident who has romantic intentions and convinces him to go off his meds to feel "normal" again. Undone by these pressures, Todd attempts an escape to return "home" to his younger brother and to a childhood that now inhabits only his dreams.
Written astonishingly in the first-person voice of an autistic, adult man, Best Boy—with its unforgettable portraits of Todd’s beloved mother, whose sweet voice still sings from the grave, and a staffer named Raykene, who says that Todd "reflects the beauty of His creation"—is a piercing, achingly funny, finally shattering novel no reader can ever forget. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Raised—New Jersey, USA
• Education—Hampshire College
• Awards—Rome Prize; McKitterick Prize (Britain)
• Currently—lives in New York City, New York
Eli Gottlieb, an American author, was born in New York City and raised in New Jeresy. He graduated from Hampshire College.
Novels
His first novel, The Boy Who Went Away, was published in 1997 to widespread critical acclaim. It earned Gottlieb the Rome Prize and the McKitterick Prize from the British Society of Authors in 1998.
His second novel, Now You Seem Him, came out in 2008. Translated into eleven languages, the novel was named "Book of the Year" by The Independent (UK) and Bookmarks magazine.
His third novel, The Face Thief, came out in 2012, and his fourth, Best Boy in 2015.
Career
Gottlieb has taught American literature at the University of Padua Italy, written documentary films and worked as a senior editor at Elle magazine, and as a staff writer for The Jewish Theological Seminary of America. He lives in New York City, New York. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 10/6/2015.)
Book Reviews
Affecting…. Todd’s is an engaging and nuanced consciousness, so vital that the reader feels profound tenderness―and distinct fear―as this sweet man ventures out into the world…. As ill-advised as his flight might be, we stand on the ground below…enchanted by the simplicity of his soaring.
Bret Anthony Johnston - New York Times Book Review
Raw and beautiful…. With a mesmerizingly rhythmic narration…. What rises and shines from the page is Todd Aaron, a hero of such singular character and clear spirit that you will follow him anywhere. You won’t just root for him, you will fight and push and pray for him to wrest control of his future. You will read this book in one sitting or maybe two, and, I promise, you will miss this man deeply when you are done.
Ann Bauer - Washington Post
Fascinating…. Gottlieb's imaginings of what's going on in the mind of an adult living somewhere on the autism spectrum feel credible and real…. Lyrical.
Carol Memmott - Chicago Tribune
Engrossing…. Taking us into Todd's consciousness where emotions are visceral sensations, Gottlieb beautifully illuminates a little-understood world.
People
(Starred review.) [Todd's] voice is spectacular, oscillating between casual and obsessive and frequently challenging the stereotypes that haunt those with autism.... [A] fast read, and the plot is never less than captivating.... Gottlieb’s attention to crafting Todd’s internal monologue is something to behold.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) Gottlieb has created something quite exceptional in [Tpdd's] character. His interior life and psychology are convincingly drawn. He is beset with fears, confusions, and misunderstandings—along with disturbing memories and violent emotions—and these are described with great sympathy and insight.... A deeply moving portrait of a kind and gentle soul. —Patrick Sullivan, Manchester Community Coll., CT
Library Journal
(Starred review.) [E]loquent, sensitive rendering of a marginalized life.... Gottlieb merits praise for both the endearing eloquence of Todd's voice and a deeply sympathetic parable that speaks to a time when rising autism rates and long-lived elders force many to weigh tough options.
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.)