Cutting Teeth
Julia Fierro, 2014
St. Martin's Press
336 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781250042026
Summary
Cutting Teeth takes place one late-summer weekend as a group of thirty-something couples gather at a shabby beach house on Long Island, their young children in tow.
Nicole, the hostess, struggles to keep her OCD behaviors unnoticed. Stay-at-home dad Rip grapples with the reality that his careerist wife will likely deny him a second child, forcing him to disrupt the life he loves. Allie, one half of a two-mom family, can't stop imagining ditching her wife and kids in favor of her art. Tiffany, comfortable with her amazing body but not so comfortable in the upper-middle class world the other characters were born into, flirts dangerously, and spars with her best friend Leigh, a blue blood secretly facing financial ruin and dependent on the magical Tibetan nanny everyone else covets.
Throughout the weekend, conflicts intensify and painful truths surface. Friendships and alliances crack, forcing the house party to confront a new order.
Cutting Teeth is about the complex dilemmas of early midlife—the vicissitudes of friendship, of romantic and familial love, and of sex. It’s about class tension, status hunger, and the unease of being in possession of life's greatest bounty while still wondering, is this as good as it gets?
And, perhaps most of all, Julia Fierro’s warm and unpretentious debut explores the all-consuming love we feel for those we need most, and the sacrifice and compromise that underpins that love. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1977
• Where—Turin, Italy
• Raised—on Long Island, New York, USA
• Education—B.A., American University; M.F.A., Iowa
Writers' Workshop
• Currently—lives in Brooklyn, New York City, New York
Julia Fierro's debut novel, Cutting Teeth by HuffPost Books, The Millions, Flavorwire, Brooklyn Magazine, and Marie Claire. Her work has been published, or is forthcoming, in Guernica, Ploughshares, Poets & Writers, Glamour, and other publications, and she has been profiled in the L Magazine, The Observer, and The Economist.
In 2002, she founded the Sackett Street Writers' Workshop, and what started as eight writers meeting in her Brooklyn kitchen has grown into a creative home for over 2,500 writers.
Julia is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where she was a Teaching-Writing Fellow, and currently teaches the Post-MFA workshops at Sackett Street. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children. (From Amazon.com and the author's website.)
Book Reviews
[O]bsessive, competitive, and neurotic behavior of parents in their 30s.... As the melting pot of personality churns...jealously, betrayal, and regret slowly overpower any possibility for relaxation. Even though this story is framed to be a cozy and comical slice of life, Fierro’s attempts to relate to the current age of parenting ultimately fall short.
Publishers Weekly
Cutting Teeth captures the complexity of forging new friendships and redefining lives as contemporary parents. Julia Fierro's characters are meticulously drawn, the situations emotionally charged. Readers, especially young parents, won't be able to look away.
Booklist
Discussion Questions
1. Many of the characters in the novel keep substantial secrets from one another for a variety of reasons. Whose do you think is the most damaging, and why?
2. Which of the characters’ storylines were you most interested in reading, and resonated with you most?
3. Which character’s central dilemma evoked the most sympathy from you? Why?
4. Nicole conceals her anxiety because she is afraid it will make her seem "crazy" and because she feels ashamed. Do you think, in spite of widespread knowledge today about depression and anxiety, particularly postpartum depression, there is still a stigma?
5. The epigraph to the novel is: Parents are the bones on which children cut their teeth. How does this relate to Cutting Teeth, and do you think it applies to more than one character?
6. Who is more of an outsider from among the group: Tiffany or Samten or Rip? Why?
7. Do you think the difference between being a stay‐at‐home mom or a mother with a career outside the home still creates barriers between women? Have you witnessed mothers judging others mothers (and themselves) for these choices?
8. What was your interpretation of Leigh’s feelings for Tiffany? Of Tiffany’s feelings for Leigh?
9. Do you think Leigh and Tiffany’s friendship might have evolved differently in a pre‐cell phone era?
10. Do you think the dynamics of the romantic partnerships in the book are unique to contemporary times? How might they have manifested in an earlier generation?
11. What character were you "rooting" for the most?
12. Who is the "best" parent among the group and why? Who is the worst? Why?
13. If Hank was your child, would allow him his princess dress?
14. Should Susanna and Allie stay together?
15. Agree or disagree: Parenthood, the way adults now generally relate to their children, insofar as it is depicted in Cutting Teeth, has evolved in a positive way.
16. Who committed the worst "crime" in the book? Why? Whose "bad behavior" is most justifiable and why?
17. Cutting Teeth compares the characters’ expectations for their mid-‐life experience with the reality of their day‐to‐day lives? Do you feel your life is well balanced right now, and does it match the expectations your younger self had ten years ago? Why or why not? Do you think those closest to you would be surprised at the way you’d answer that question?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
The Vacationers
Emma Straub, 2014
Penguin Group (USA)
304 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781594631573
Summary
An irresistible, deftly observed novel about the secrets, joys, and jealousies that rise to the surface over the course of an American family’s two-week stay in Mallorca.
For the Posts, a two-week trip to the Balearic island of Mallorca with their extended family and friends is a celebration: Franny and Jim are observing their thirty-fifth wedding anniversary, and their daughter, Sylvia, has graduated from high school. The sunlit island, its mountains and beaches, its tapas and tennis courts, also promise an escape from the tensions simmering at home in Manhattan.
But all does not go according to plan: over the course of the vacation, secrets come to light, old and new humiliations are experienced, childhood rivalries resurface, and ancient wounds are exacerbated.
This is a story of the sides of ourselves that we choose to show and those we try to conceal, of the ways we tear each other down and build each other up again, and the bonds that ultimately hold us together. With wry humor and tremendous heart, Emma Straub delivers a richly satisfying story of a family in the midst of a maelstrom of change, emerging irrevocably altered yet whole. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1979-80
• Raised—New York City, New York, USA
• Education—B.A., Oberlin College
• Currently—lives in Brooklyn, New York City
Emma Straub is an American author three novels and a short story collection. Raised on Manhattan's Upper West side, she now lives with her husband and two young sons in Brooklyn.
Emma comes by writing naturally: her father is Peter Straub, an award winning writer of horror fiction, a fact which makes even Emma admit to a belief in a writing gene. Here's what she told Michele Filgate of Book Slut:
I believe the writing gene is located just behind the gene for enjoying red wine and just in front of the gene for watching soap operas, both of which I also inherited from my father. What I do know for sure is that I watched my father write for a living my entire childhood, and I understood that it was a job like any other, that one had to do all day, every day. I think a lot of people have the fantasy that a writer sits around in coffee shops all day, waiting for the muse to appear.
So while genes may play a role, so does hard work and grit: determined to become a writer, she pushed on even after her first four books were turned down. As she told Alexandra Alter of the New York Times,
They all got rejected by every single person in publishing, in the world. It’s still true that I will go to a publishing party or event, and the first thing I will think of is, "I know who you are, you rejected novels 2 and 4."
It's nice to think that today Straub is having the last laugh.
Attending Oberlin College, Straub received her B.A. in 2002. She went on to earn her M.F.A. at the University of Wisconsin where she studied with author Lorrie Moore. Returning to New York, she worked for a number of years at the independent Book Court bookstore in Brooklyn.
Her novels include Modern Lovers (2016), The Vacationers (2014), and Laura Lamont’s Life in Pictures (2012). Her story collection is titled Other People We Married (2011). Straub's fiction and nonfiction have been published in Vogue, New York Magazine, Tin House, New York Times, Good Housekeeping, and Paris Review Daily. She is also a contributing writer to Rookie. (LitLovers.)
Book Reviews
This glimpse into the Posts’ real-estate-blessed lives...might give the less fortunate reader an attack of the Majorca-deprived blues, but the novel’s joy and humor are infectious. Straub may be an heir to Laurie Colwin, crafting characters that are smart, addictively charming, delightfully misanthropic and fun.... When I turned the last page, I felt as I often do when a vacation is over: grateful for the trip and mourning its end
Margo Rabb - New York Times Book Review
Straub (Laura Lamont’s Life in Pictures) seems to have found her stride. The pacing is quick but satisfying and the characters themselves feel genuinely complex, interesting, and knowable. While the structure of the novel does feel somewhat unoriginal...Straub uses the simplicity of the organization to her advantage. A pleasant, readable journey.
Publishers Weekly
The Post family is leaving Manhattan for their long-planned trip to Mallorca, an intended celebration.... Secrets and longings are revealed, and relationships shift into new configurations.... Verdict: An examination of fidelity, passion, and the vagaries of relationships, this is summer reading with some sizzle and seriousness. —Melanie Kindrachuk, Stratford P.L., Ont.
Library Journal
(Starred review.) Sharply observed and funny, Straub’s domestic-drama-goes-abroad is a delightful study of the complexities of family and love, and the many distractions from both.
Booklist
(Starred review.) Straub refreshes a conventional plot through droll humor and depth of character. By now, the premise is so familiar it seems like such a novel could write itself, but it wouldn't write itself nearly as engagingly as Straub has.... A novel that is both a lot of fun to read and has plenty of insight into the marital bond and the human condition.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Franny and Charles have been friends for a long time. How does their close relationship affect other people on vacation with them?
2. From the outset, the Posts aren’t too fond of Carmen. Do you think she is treated fairly or unfairly by her boyfriend’s family?
3. How does Bobby and Sylvia’s relationship as adult siblings evolve over the course of the novel?
4. At the start of The Vacationers, Jim and Franny’s relationship is on the rocks, and it later comes dangerously close to falling apart. Is it possible to rebuild trust once it’s been lost?
5. This is a story about what we try to conceal from others, even from those closest to us, sometimes even from ourselves-and what we choose to show them instead. Have you ever felt like you’ve had to put on a good face for others?
6. What was the last vacation that you went on, and who did you go with? Did it give you a different perspective on your day-to-day life at home?
7. Do you think Bobby handled his financial difficulties the right way? Should he have kept these problems to himself or come clean to his family sooner?
8. The infidelity in Charles and Lawrence’s relationship is dealt with in a way that markedly contrasts with the other instances in The Vacationers. Does infidelity always have to be a big deal in a relationship?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
The Diplomat's Wife
Pam Jenoff, 2008
Mira Books
360 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780778325123
Summary
How have I been lucky enough to come here, to be alive, when so many others are not? I should have died.… But I am here.
1945. Surviving the brutality of a Nazi prison camp, Marta Nederman is lucky to have escaped with her life. Recovering from the horror, she meets Paul, an American soldier who gives her hope of a happier future. But their plans to meet in London are dashed when Paul's plane crashes.
Devastated and pregnant, Marta marries Simon, a caring British diplomat, and glimpses the joy that home and family can bring. But her happiness is threatened when she learns of a Communist spy in British intelligence, and that the one person who can expose the traitor is connected to her past. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—Silver Spring, Maryland, USA
• Education—B.A., George Washington University; M.A., Cambridge University; J.D., University of Pennsylvania
• Currently—lives in Cherry Hill, New Jersey
Pam Jenoff was born in Maryland and raised outside Philadelphia. She attended George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and Cambridge University in England.
Upon receiving her master's in history from Cambridge, she accepted an appointment as Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Army. The position provided a unique opportunity to witness and participate in operations at the most senior levels of government, including helping the families of the Pan Am Flight 103 victims secure their memorial at Arlington National Cemetery, observing recovery efforts at the site of the Oklahoma City bombing and attending ceremonies to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of World War II at sites such as Bastogne and Corregidor.
Following her work at the Pentagon, Pam moved to the State Department. In 1996 she was assigned to the U.S. Consulate in Krakow, Poland. It was during this period that Pam developed her expertise in Polish-Jewish relations and the Holocaust. Working on matters such as preservation of Auschwitz and the restitution of Jewish property in Poland, Pam developed close relations with the surviving Jewish community.
Pam left the Foreign Service in 1998 to attend law school and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. She worked for several years as a labor and employment attorney both at a firm and in-house in Philadelphia and now teaches law school at Rutgers.
Pam is the author of The Kommandant's Girl, which was an international bestseller and nominated for a Quill award, as well as The Diplomat's Wife, The Ambassador's Daughter, Almost Home, A Hidden Affair and The Things We Cherished.
She lives outside Philadelphia with her husband and three children. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
Jenoff's stirring sequel to her debut, The Kommandant's Girl, chronicles the perilous post-WWII adventures of Marta Nederman, a member of the Polish resistance and best friend of the earlier book's heroine.... Marta goes on a dangerous mission to Poland, where a Communist takeover is imminent and where the seesaw plot takes more than one surprise twist. Historical romance fans will be well rewarded.
Publishers Weekly
[S]uccessful and satisfying second novel.... Jenoff explores the immediate aftermath of World War II with sensitivity and compassion, shedding light on an often overlooked era of European history. She expertly draws out the tension and illustrates the danger and poverty of Eastern Europe as it falls under communism. Highly recommended for all fiction collections. —Jessica E. Moyer
Library Journal
The English government taps Marta for help in finding a traitor in the British intelligence corps, sending her on an undercover mission that entails revisiting her past. Jenoff gives readers a thrilling and intense look at the beginning of the cold war as well as a heartrending love story about two very brave people as she continues the story of the heroic resistance members from The Kommandant’s Girl (2007). —Patty Engelmann
Booklist
Discussion Questions
1. The Diplomat's Wife addresses many of the questions that were left open at the end of The Kommandant's Girl. Were you surprised by the answers? Satisfied?
2. How did Marta's character change/evolve throughout the story?
3. What was the most difficult challenge faced by Marta in the book?
4. What was Marta's greatest strength? Her greatest flaw?
5. What do you think drew Marta and Paul together so powerfully? How did their dynamic change throughout the book?
6. What was Marta's relationship like with the places and people from her past?
7. Did you agree with Marta's choices in the book? Did you find them believable?
8. How was Marta's life affected by the secrets that she kept?
9. How did Marta's view of Emma, and Emma's view of Marta, change in this book?
10. Where do you think Marta ends up one month after the end of the book? One year? Five years?
11. Did you think the events in Marta's life were driven by fate? Chance?
12. What was the central theme of the book? Did it resonate with you?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)
Clonmac's Bridge
Jeffrey Perren, 2014
ClioStory Publishing
428 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781496179913
Summary
Inspired by a real discovery, Clonmac’s Bridge revolves around the effort to raise Ireland’s earliest major span. But, far from a naturalistic depiction of a maritime archaeology project, it is a dramatic exploration: the story of two men who struggle against envy and mediocrity—a millennium apart.
One is Griffin Clonmac, archaeologist and professor at the University of Virginia. For 14 years he has researched a medieval bridge near Clonmacnoise Monastery in Ireland, supposed to lie beneath the River Shannon. Yet, he soon discovers the bridge is perfectly intact—after 12 centuries underwater.
What could account for this astounding longevity? And why are his colleagues, the Church, and the Irish government so desperate to prevent him finding out? Drawing the reader back to the early 9th century—and the life of the original builder—provides important clues. Moving between these two periods, the reader is immersed in the conflicts—then and now—between creators and the envious mediocrities who want to stop them at all costs. Fortunately, each man had his allies.
In the 9th century, architect Riordan finds a few willing to help him realize his vision. At the monastery, a wise friend; in the nearby town, a dashing giant as eager to build as the medieval monk himself. When the Abbot is called away on Church business to the court of Carolus Magnus—Charlemagne—Riordan and his friends will have their chance. In the 21st century, Griffin Clonmac is first saddled with an assistant—Peruvian archaeologist Mari Quispe—intended to hinder him at every turn. Being impossible to work with is, after all, her reputation on a dig. But the scheming academics who foist her on him at the price of supporting the project have a surprise in store. Not only has she admired Dr. Clonmac for years, she very quickly finds herself willing to help him raise more than a 9th century platform.
What happens next enmeshes the reader in everything from down-and-dirty academic politics to Machiavellian corporate machinations to the headlines of contemporary Irish social controversy. Flashing back to Dark Ages Ireland shows that, in many ways, very little has changed in the past 1,200 years. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—Independence, Missouri, USA
• Education—B.A., Univerisity of California, Los Angeles
• Currently—Sandpoint, Idaho
Jeffrey Perren is an American novelist, educated in philosophy at UCLA and in physics at UC Irvine. He wrote his first short story at age 12 and went on to win the Bank of America Fine Arts award at age 17. Since then he has published at award-winning sites and magazines from the U.S. to New Zealand. He has had short stories published at the award-winning sites Apollo's Lyre and Mystericale.
His debut novel was Cossacks In Paris, an historical adventure set in Napoleonic Europe, inspired by a real soldier of the Battle of Paris in 1814. His second, Death is Overrated, a romantic mystery, had its genesis in an old film called DOA. The protagonist is poisoned and has 48 hours before dying to discover who gave him the fatal dose. His third is Clonmac's Bridge, an archaeological thriller and historical mystery set in contemporary and 9th century Ireland.
He was born in Independence, Missouri, right around the corner from Harry Truman's house. But then, at the time, everything there was right around the corner from Harry Truman's house. He now lives in Sandpoint, Idaho with his wife, an economist. (From the author.)
Visit the author's blog.
Check out the book on Facebook.
Book Reviews
An excellent and engrossing historical tale. Seamlessly told through the eyes of those in the 9th century and modern day, it was a real pleasure to read. The style of writing really grabbed me from the first few pages to the end. This is a long novel but my personal view is that not a word is wasted. Really, really good.
Bodicia, A Woman's Wisdom Blog
A wonderful archaeological fiction that grabs your attention and keeps it. Shows a lot about archaeological digs as well as being a great piece of fiction.
Jamie, Goodreads
Jeffrey Perren has created some fine, odious villains for his protagonists to contend with. The result is a tale of suspense and romance that will appeal to a range of readers as a good page turner.
James Ellsworth, Vine Voice, Amazon
Discussion Questions
1. What was life like in a 9th century Irish monastery and how did it differ from, say, the 14th century?
2. Why, with so many monasteries in Ireland, was it intellectually behind compared with much of Europe?
3. How did Riordan and Griffin Clonmac face similar situations?
4. Did you find the main characters clearly holding values you consider important? Or, did you find someone with no clear definition of his/her inner self?
5. What do you think of Franken Twissle and Prof. Daley Garvey? Is there any supporting character you found charming, enigmatic, boring, dreadful? Who and why?
6. Mari Quispe is a female archaeologist from Peru. What special challenges did she face there? Do you think females in Latin-america have to strive the way she did to get a career? The patriarchal model is stronger there than, say, in Europe or America. Can be that considered as a mark of a different culture?
7. Did she differ from the Latin type presented in movies, TV shows or popular culture trends? If yes, in what way? Did you enjoy her personality?
8. How do you characterize Leslie Armandson? What would be your reaction if you met a woman like her?
9. With the election of Pope Francis, the Catholic Church seems to have a boost in popularity. What do you think of Father Yadiel, from Puerto Rico?
10. Did the novel spark some interest in archaeology? Is there any one aspect you found particularly interesting?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)
The Word Exchange
Alena Graedon, 2014
Knopf Doubleday
384 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780385537650
Summary
A dystopian novel for the digital age, The Word Exchange offers an inventive, suspenseful, and decidedly original vision of the dangers of technology and of the enduring power of the printed word.
In the not-so-distant future, the forecasted "death of print" has become a reality. Bookstores, libraries, newspapers, and magazines are things of the past, and we spend our time glued to handheld devices called Memes that not only keep us in constant communication but also have become so intuitive that they hail us cabs before we leave our offices, order takeout at the first growl of a hungry stomach, and even create and sell language itself in a marketplace called the Word Exchange.
Anana Johnson works with her father, Doug, at the North American Dictionary of the English Language (NADEL), where Doug is hard at work on the last edition that will ever be printed. Doug is a staunchly anti-Meme, anti-tech intellectual who fondly remembers the days when people used email (everything now is text or videoconference) to communicate—or even actually spoke to one another, for that matter.
One evening, Doug disappears from the NADEL offices, leaving a single written clue: ALICE. It’s a code word he devised to signal if he ever fell into harm’s way. And thus begins Anana’s journey down the proverbial rabbit hole. Joined by Bart, her bookish NADEL colleague, Anana’s search for Doug will take her into dark basements and subterranean passageways; the stacks and reading rooms of the Mercantile Library; and secret meetings of the underground resistance, the Diachronic Society.
As Anana penetrates the mystery of her father’s disappearance and a pandemic of decaying language called "word flu" spreads, The Word Exchange becomes a cautionary tale that is at once a technological thriller and a meditation on the high cultural costs of digital technology. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1979-80
• Where—Durham, North Carolina, USA
• Education—B.A., Brown University; M.F.A., Columbia University
• Currently—lives in Brooklyn, New York City, New York
Alena Graedon was born in Durham, North Carolina, and is a graduate of Brown University and the Columbia MFA program. She lives in Brooklyn, New York. This is her first novel. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
A] propulsive, twisty future-noir.... [Graedon’s] vision of the future is less alarmist than alarmingly within reach. Her attention to language—and the breakdown of language—invites comparisons to writers like Anthony Burgess and Lewis Carroll. Anana is an Alice figure, and the New York City she lives in a grim, Web 4.0 wonderland.
Daily Beast
Sharp ... dazzling ... a snappy, noir-inflected vision of a future New York suffering from an epidemic of aphasia brought on by super-smartphones.... Graedon’s language is sparklingly inventive...[and] so enjoyable...Graedon is too good a writer, it seems, to let an opportunity for linguistic play slip ... Despite all of its considerable linguistic sophistication, the novel offers a blunt message: Words are good. Reading is good. Books are good.
Slate.com
(Starred review.) [A] spectacular, ambitious debut..... With secret societies, conspiracies, and mega-corp Synchronic's menacing technologies, Graedon deploys all the hallmarks of a futuristic thriller, but avoids derivative doomsday sci-fi shtick. Instead, her novel is rife with literary allusions and philosophical wormholes that aren't only decorative but integral to characters' abilities and limitations in communicating, and it succeeds precisely because it's as full of humanity as it is of mystery and intellectual prowess.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) What if we became so dependent on our gadgets that we lost our ability to speak? That's the big idea in Graedon's entertainingly scary debut... This is a remarkable first novel, combining a vividly imagined future with the fondly remembered past to offer a chilling prediction of where our unthinking reliance on technology is leading us. And, as you'd expect, Graedon's word choice is exquisite.
Booklist
(Starred review.) Language becomes a virus in this terrifying vision of the print-empty, Web-reliant culture of the 22nd century...[in this] complex thriller. In fact, the novel is as much about lexicography, communication and philosophy as it is about secret societies, conspiracies and dangerous technologies.... "The end of words would mean the end of memory and thought. In other words, our past and future." A wildly ambitious, darkly intellectual and inventive thriller about the intersection of language, technology and meaning.
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.)