Tomorrow
Damian Dibben, 2018
Hanover Square Press
336 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781335580290
Summary
A wise old dog travels through the courts and battlefields of Europe and through the centuries in search of the master who granted him immortality.
Tomorrow tells the story of a 217-year-old dog and his search for his lost master.
His adventures take him through the London Frost Fair, the strange court of King Charles I, the wars of the Spanish succession, Versailles, the golden age of Amsterdam and to nineteenth-century Venice.
As he journeys through Europe, he befriends both animals and humans, falls in love (only once), marvels at the human ability to make music, despairs at their capacity for war and gains insight into both the strength and frailties of the human spirit.
With the rich historical vision of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell and the captivating canine perspective of A Dog’s Purpose, Tomorrow draws us into a unique century-spanning tale of the unbreakable connection between dog and human. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Damian Dibben is the creator of the internationally acclaimed children's book series the History Keepers, translated into 26 languages in over 40 countries. Previously, he worked as a screenwriter, and actor, on projects as diverse as The Phantom of the Opera and Puss in Boots and Young Indiana Jones. He lives, facing St Paul's Cathedral, on London's Southbank with his partner Ali and dog Dudle (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
A grand sweep of adventure and travel, war and romance—along with a generous amount of face licking — that will have dog lovers enthralled.… Tomorrow offers a rich exploration of love, life and loyalty, in a world whose sensory atmosphere is irresistible.
NPR
(Starred review.) Celebrating the strength of human and animal ties, this compelling and satisfying novel is similar in spirit to Bruce Cameron’s A Dog’s Purpose…. But fans of time travel fiction…will also enjoy this work’s descriptive cultural and historical detail.
Library Journal
Humanity’s foibles and failings are on full display, as well as the more heartfelt and loving moments between people and their dogs. This reads like a memoir but includes a touch of magic.… [A] charmer.
Booklist
The dog's first-person narrative is both a joy and a frustration. The memoirlike story is beautifully rich in perseverance, love, the sweetness of life, and memorable, evocative scents. But the dog's owner and their nemesis …are known only through the dog's limited point of view.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for TOMORROW … then take off on your own:
1. Other than sheer imagination and fun, why might the author have made the choice of using a dog's perspective to view the passage of human history?
2. (Follow-up to Question 1) What does the dog reveal about the human experience—our hope for peace but propensity for violence; our dual capacity for love and cruelty? What else? Does Champion have different ideas about what he sees as right?
3. Well, dear reader …what IS it about dogs? Were you moved—did your eyes moisten—by the plight of Champion and Sorco?
4. A man tells Champion, "You are the soul of all men." What does he mean?
5. What do you make of Sporco? Jean Zimmerman, in her NPR review, compares him to Sancho Panza, Don Quixote's side-kick. Do you see an analogy?
6. What are the pitfalls of a extra longevity that Valentyne and Champion experience? Does long life have any appeal for you? Would you sip from the cup of jyrh if offered?
7. Has reading Tomorrow added to your knowledge of history?
8. Do the book's shifting time frames enhance the narrative, or do you find them confusing and distracting?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)
The Good Liar
Catherine McKenzie, 2018
Lake Union Publishing
380 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781542047098
Summary
Can you hide a secret with the whole world watching?
When an explosion rips apart a Chicago building, the lives of three women are forever altered.
A year later, Cecily is in mourning. She was supposed to be in the building that day. Instead, she stood on the street and witnessed it going down, with her husband and best friend inside.
Kate, now living thousands of miles away, fled the disaster and is hoping that her past won’t catch up with her.
And Franny, a young woman in search of her birth mother, watched the horror unfold on the morning news, knowing that the woman she was so desperate to reconnect with was in the building.
Now, despite the marks left by the tragedy, they all seem safe.
But as its anniversary dominates the media, the memories of that terrifying morning become dangerous triggers. All these women are guarding important secrets. Just how far will they go to keep them? (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1973-74
• Where—Montreal, Quebec, Canada
• Education—J.D., McGill University
• Currently—lives in Montreal
Catherine McKenzie, a graduate of McGill University, practices law in Montreal, where she was born and raised. She is one of three children of college professors at Dawson College. Growing up, McKenzie was fascinated by the law, perhaps hooked by the TV's LA Law. She eventually headed to McGill University where she attained a law degree and now practices litigation.
In addition to practicing law, McKenzie has also written some eight novels, several of them Amazon Best Sellers. As she told the Montreal Gazette, a lot of lawyers are writers. "To be a good lawyer, you have to be a good storyteller."
You’re not making up facts, but you are telling a story. To convince someone of something, you have to lay out the facts in a compelling way. The skills you develop writing effective pleadings and delivering them are very applicable to writing. Also, lawyers are driven, they’re focused, they know how to get things done.
An avid skier and runner, Catherine’s novels Spin, Arranged, Forgotten, and Hidden are all international bestsellers and have been translated into numerous languages. Hidden was an Amazon #1 bestseller and a Digital Book World bestseller. Her fifth novel, Smoke, was an Amazon bestseller, a Goodreads Best Book for October 2015, and an Amazon Top 100 Book of 2015. (Adapted from the publisher and the Montreal Gazette.)
Book Reviews
Readers will stay up too late working to understand what really happened and how a future can be built atop such an unsteady foundations. I read this in one sitting. Perfect for a summer read or book club discussion. READ MORE…
Abby Fabiaschi, author - LitLovers
The questions raised by The Good Liar accumulate with every plot twist. What is the hierarchy of victimhood? Are you a bad person if you feel a touch of schadenfreude on hearing that someone you’ve known and disliked has died? Can we shield our children from the harsh realities of the world, and from our own flaws, without cheating them? What is the line, for a documentary filmmaker, between recording and exploiting? The Good Liar goes to those difficult places and many more.
Montreal Gazette
A riveting thriller
Entertainment Weekly
(Starred review.) [T]hought-provoking.… Who the good liar may be, and what that phrase might actually mean, are questions that will resonate long after the book is finished. Many will devour this book in one sitting.
Publishers Weekly
[Catherine McKenzie] builds suspense in steady, page-turning steps all while drawing the reader into the lives of her characters.… Each woman has secrets and each is a bit of an unreliable narrator of her own life to nice effect.
Library Journal
Give this to fans of seemingly benign characters with dark inner lives like those in Liane Moriarty’s Big Little Lies.
Booklist
Perhaps liar should instead be plural—the lies are abundant, making it a satisfying page-turner that leads us toward a twisty surprise ending.
Bookreporter
Secrets and lies swirl on these pages, intermingling with guilt and doubt. For readers who love experiencing one event from multiple perspectives, this is a gripping novel to pick up this spring (A Spring 2018 Must-Read Book),
Bookish
Discussion Questions
1. Few people knew about the impending divorce between Cecily and Tom. What do you think about Cecily’s motives for keeping it a secret?
2. Do you think Cecily’s anger toward Tom even after his death is a way for her to avoid dealing with her grief and feelings of guilt, or is what he did so awful?
3. What would Cecily have to gain or lose by forgiving Tom?
4. Do you think Cecily is right to eventually tell Cassie and Henry about the difficulties in her marriage?
5.Cecily was supposed to be in the building at the time of the explosion but wasn’t. What role do you think fate played in that situation? How might Cecily and other characters have acted at various times if their beliefs about fate or coincidence were different?
6. Cecily feels too guilty about hiding the trouble in her marriage to see that she’s been a hero to many after the tragedy, while Kaitlyn believes herself to be a “bad mother,” even though she’s a good nanny. Why do you think some people have trouble seeing the good parts of themselves and focus only on their faults?
7. What do you think of Kate/Kaitlyn’s choice to run away from her family?
8. How much regret do you think Kaitlyn has about her actions in life? Do you believe she does love her children? How differently do you think you’d feel about it if the character were a man?
9.Kaitlyn risked exposure by returning to Chicago to save her family from Franny, but then she chose to leave again. Why? Do you think she made the right choice the second time?
10. Why do you think that Franny acts the way she does? What does that reveal about her? What is she hoping to accomplish?
11.Why are people so suspicious of Franny and her motives? What might she have done differently to alleviate those fears?
12.Why do you think Kaitlyn refuses to acknowledge Franny? How much of a role does that play in Franny’s actions, and in Kaitlyn’s own?
13.Has there ever been a time in your life when you were tempted to run away from everything?
(Questions found on the author's website.)
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The Oracle Year
Charles Soule, 2018
HarperCollins
416 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780062686633
Summary
A clever and witty first novel of a twentysomething New Yorker who wakes up one morning with the power to predict the future.
Knowledge is power.
So when an unassuming Manhattan bassist named Will Dando awakens from a dream one morning with 108 predictions about the future in his head, he rapidly finds himself the most powerful man in the world.
Protecting his anonymity by calling himself the Oracle, he sets up a heavily guarded Web site with the help of his friend Hamza to selectively announce his revelations.
In no time, global corporations are offering him millions for exclusive access, eager to profit from his prophecies.
He's also making a lot of high-powered enemies, from the President of the United States and a nationally prominent televangelist to a warlord with a nuclear missile and an assassin grandmother. Legions of cyber spies are unleashed to hack the Site—as it's come to be called—and the best manhunters money can buy are deployed not only to unmask the Oracle but to take him out of the game entirely.
With only a handful of people he can trust—including a beautiful journalist—it's all Will can do just to survive, elude exposure, and protect those he loves long enough to use his knowledge to save the world.
Delivering fast-paced adventure on a global scale, as well as sharp-witted satire on our concepts of power and faith, Marvel writer Charles Soule's audacious debut novel takes readers on a rollicking ride where it's impossible to predict what will happen next. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—July 18, 1074
• Where—Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
• Education—B.A., University of Pennsylvania; J.D., Columbia University
• Awards—(see below)
• Currently—lives in Brooklyn, New York City, New York
Charles Soule is a Brooklyn, New York-based novelist, comic book writer, musician, and attorney. While he has worked for DC and other publishers, he is best known for writing Daredevil, She-Hulk, Death of Wolverine, and various Star Wars comics from Marvel Comics (Darth Vader, Poe Dameron, Lando and more), and his creator-owned series Curse Words from Image Comics (with Ryan Browne) and Letter 44 from Oni Press (with Alberto Jimenez Alburquerque.)
His first novel, The Oracle Year (2018) is the story of a 20-something man who can see the future and way this ability changes the world.
Awards and recognition
Soule's series Letter 44, illustrated by Alberto Jimenez Alburquerque, was an official selection of the 2016 Festival International de la Bande Dessinee in Angoulême, France, recognizing it as one of the finest graphic titles published in the French language for 2015.
"Power Couple," volume 1 Superman/Wonder Woman, received the 2015 Stan Lee Excelsior Award.
The Twenty-Seven series (with Renzo Podesta) and the She-Hulk series (with Javier Pulido and Ronald Wimberly) were included on the "Great Graphic Novels for Teens" list from the Young Adult Library Services Association in 2012 and 2016, respectively. (From the author's website and Wikipedia.)
Book Reviews
[A]nyone will enjoy this comically fast-paced tale about Will Dando, who wakes up one day with 108 wacky and world-shattering predictions.
Washington Post
This volatile and unpredictable novel will entertain and keep you guessing until the very end.
New York Journal of Books
[A]wildly entertaining first novel.… Although the premise is a bit shaky, the relentless pacing, richly developed characters, and brilliant ending make this apocalyptic speculative thriller an undeniable page-turner.
Publishers Weekly
Soule’s background in comics shows in this dark, rollicking tale.
Booklist
A man who can see the future—in cryptic fragments—wreaks havoc on the world stage as millions wait breathlessly for every single prediction.… A thrilling, noodle-bending adventure that keeps readers guessing until the very end.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, 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)
(Resources by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)
The Gunners
Rebecca Kauffman, 2018
Counterpoint Press
224 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781619029897
Summary
Mikey Callahan, a thirty-year-old suffering from the clouded vision of macular degeneration, struggles to establish human connections. Even his emotional life is a blur.
As the novel begins, Mikey is reconnecting with "The Gunners," his group of childhood friends, after one of their members has committed suicide. Sally had distanced herself from all of them before ending her life, and she died harboring secrets about the group and its individuals.
Mikey especially needs to confront dark secrets about his own past and his father. How much of this darkness accounts for the emotional stupor Mikey is suffering from as he reaches his maturity?
And can The Gunners, prompted by Sally’s death, find their way to a new day? The core of this adventure, made by Mikey, Alice, Lynn, Jimmy, and Sam, becomes a search for the core of truth, friendship, and forgiveness.
A quietly startling, beautiful book, The Gunners engages us with vividly unforgettable characters, and advances Rebecca Kauffman’s place as one of the most important young writers of her generation. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—rural Northeastern Ohio, USA
• Education—B.A., Manhattan School of Music; M.F.A., New York University
• Currently—lives in Harrisonburg, Virginia
Rebecca Kauffman is originally from rural northeastern Ohio. She received her B.A. in Classical Violin Performance from the Manhattan School of Music, but as an inherently shy person she decided a career in music was not for her. After graduating, Kauffman stayed in New York City working in public relations. After a few years, she moved to Buffalo, New York, where she worked in a restaurant and taught music.
In her spare time Kaufmann turned to writing, something she had loved in her childhood—penning small books with help from her mother, who illustrated and laminated the finished product. As a young adult, she immersed herself again in fiction and realized she had found her calling.
Kauffman sent the first 30 pages of a novel she was working to New York University in the hopes of being accepted into its creative writing program. Although the manuscript was later trashed—"total garbage" as she referred to it in an NPR interview—her application was accepted, and she attained an M.F.A.
Kauffman's debut novel, Another Place You've Never Been, was published in 2016. Two years later came The Gunners, a book placed on many "must read," "eagerly awaited," and "a best book of 2018" lists. She published The House on Fripp Island in 2020.
She currently lives in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. (From various online sources, including WMRA Public Radio.)
Book Reviews
Unusually for a literary novelist, Kauffman has no fear of overt feeling. When she explores an emotion, she does it with absolute candor. Her characters announce their grief and affection and rage in a way that few others do.… If it's rare for a contemporary literary novelist to address emotion so bluntly, it's even rarer if that novelist is female.… The brilliance of The Gunners is that it helps you. Kauffman teaches you the right way to read her prose.… Another thing literary novelists don't often let themselves do is write novels with morals, or messages, but The Gunners has one. It's clear, though not easy: Accept your emotions. Feel them bluntly, plainly. Allow yourself to flinch.
NPR Books
Novels about friendships are the new fad but trust me when I tell you that this one is truly superlative. A gracefully endearing story which delves deeply into the nature of childhood friendship while also shining a light on chronic illness and LGTBQ rights.
Chicago Review of Books
In the beautifully wrought The Gunners , life ends not with a whimper, but with a bang.… This engrossing book's suspense lies not just in what will happen, but in what already has.… Kauffman is interested in the muddiness of love—how it can be selfish and desperate, even cruel.… When it comes to love, Kauffman suggests, we're equal parts predator and prey.
Oprah Magazine
A vivid, layered novel.… Endearing and intimate, Kauffman steers clear of veering into cliche, reviving a well-worn premise into something new and exciting.
Harper's Bazaar
This story examines how the secrets held and harbored by friends, and the defining relationships of childhood and adolescence, never fully leave us (1 of the Best Books of 2018, So Far).
Esquire
A riveting portrayal of the joys and mysteries of growing up, and of friendship itself.
People
A moving novel.… Each character comes to terms with their dark past, and uncertain futures—like an intimate hangout session, dashed with suspense and few extra layers of emotional beauty. You'll find yourself thinking of Freaks and Geeks, The Big Chill, and maybe all those friends you've been meaning to text (The Must List).
Entertainment Weekly
This gorgeous story of loss and friendship follows a group of childhood best friends when they reunite as adults to grapple with a friend’s suicide.… Weaving back and forth through the past and present, this tender story explores the secrets we carry from the past (1 of the Best Books of 2018, So Far).
Real Simple
(Starred review) [P]erceptive, funny, and endearing…, this remarkable novel is just as satisfying and provides readers with an entire cast of characters who will feel like old friends upon finishing.
Publishers Weekly
Neither dark nor despairing, this work admirably expresses the satisfying comfort derived from… long-term friendships even as it evokes sadness about the losses and challenges that come with transitioning to adulthood. A successful… effort
Library Journal
A little bit like The Big Chill , Kauffman’s quiet and deep second novel reconciles the responsibilities we carry and the secrets we keep with the outsize pleasure of being known and loved by a chosen family.
Booklist
[V]ivid and compelling characters struggling with what is in some ways the most universal dilemma: how to grow up.… Kauffman lays bare the lessons of youth and truth. A layered and loving bildungsroman of friendship.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for THE GUNNERS … then take off on your own:
1. Rebecca Kauffman has said that "Mikey is the heart and soul of the book." How would you describe him, and what makes him central to the novel?
2. Follow-up to Question 1: How do the novel's other characters differ from Mikey's natural kindness? How do their various personalities serve as foils to Mikey? Do you have a favorite and/or least favorite Gunner? If so, who … and why?
3. Each childhood home of the Gunners was different: Mikey's was quiet and somber, while Alice's household was loud and chaotic. How do the family environments shape each of the Gunners—as children and, now, as adults?
4. The Gunners tell their stories, offering personal histories of the arc of their lives. In what ways have they changed (if at all) from children to adults? Also, consider the group dynamics: has the way in which the members relate to one another, or to the group as a whole, changed from when they were children? Do they behave differently toward one another as adults?
5. Do you have a group of childhood friends that still gathers on occasion (or perhaps frequently)? If so, what has held you together over the years? Have the internal dynamics of your group changed or remained the same?
6. The core of Questions 4 & 5—and of the novel itself—is this: are people are capable of change? If your answer is "yes," are the changes on the surface … or deep down? If you answer is "not really," why not? Mikey and Alice discuss that very question. What are their thoughts?
7. Another question underlying The Gunners is whether we alter our behavior to suit the people around us. What do you think?
8. Alice likes to be in charge. Is that because she simply has a need to be in control; or does she want to pull people out of their self-protective shells? In other words, is her desire for control selfish or beneficient? Whatever your answer, how does her controlling instinct affect others, in particular, Mikey?
9. Alice quotes her dying grandmother: "Sure death's a little scary but life is the real bitch." Care to comment on that?
10. Mikey wonders near the novel's end whether "having a dear friend, and being a dear friend, might be almost as good as being a good man." What do you think? What does being a "good" person actually mean?
11. The group names itself after the mailbox of the abandoned house where they meet—and Kauffman uses it as the book's title. Are there other meanings the title might refer to, figuratively or symbolically?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)
The Art of the Wasted Day
Patricia Hampl, 2018
Penguin Publishing
288 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780525429647
Summary
A spirited inquiry into the lost value of leisure and daydream
The Art of the Wasted Day is a picaresque travelogue of leisure written from a lifelong enchantment with solitude.
Patricia Hampl visits the homes of historic exemplars of ease who made repose a goal, even an art form. She begins with two celebrated eighteenth-century Irish ladies who ran off to live a life of "retirement" in rural Wales.
Her search then leads to Moravia to consider the monk-geneticist, Gregor Mendel, and finally to Bordeaux for Michel Montaigne—the hero of this book—who retreated from court life to sit in his chateau tower and write about whatever passed through his mind, thus inventing the personal essay.
Hampl's own life winds through these pilgrimages, from childhood days lazing under a neighbor's beechnut tree, to a fascination with monastic life, and then to love—and the loss of that love which forms this book's silver thread of inquiry.
Finally, a remembered journey down the Mississippi near home in an old cabin cruiser with her husband turns out, after all her international quests, to be the great adventure of her life.
The real job of being human, Hampl finds, is getting lost in thought, something only leisure can provide. The Art of the Wasted Day is a compelling celebration of the purpose and appeal of letting go. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—March 12, 1946
• Where—St. Paul, Minnesota, USA
• Education—B.A., University of Minnesota; M.F.A., University of Iowa
• Awards—(see below)
• Currently—lives in St. Paul, Minnesota
Patricia Hampl first stepped onto the literary scene with A Romantic Education, a Cold War memoir about her Czech heritage. The Florist's Daughter (2007) is her memoir about her mother's death. Four of her books have been named Notable Books of the Year by the New York Times Book Review. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Paris Review, Granta, American Scholar, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Best American Short Stories and Best American Essays.
Hampl teaches fall semesters in the English MFA program at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.
Awards and honors
1976 - Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship
1976 - National Endowment for the Arts Grant
1979 - Bush Foundation Fellowship
1981 - Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship
1995 - Fulbright Fellowship
1996 - McKnight Distinguished University Professorship
1999 - Pushcart Prize
2001 - Distinguished Achievement Award, Western Literature Association
(Author bio adapted from the publisher and Wikipedia. Retrieved 4/23/2018.)
Book Reviews
Hampl’s lyrical repetitions and abstractions can be as poetic as prayer.
Wall Street Journal
The Art of the Wasted Day is literary art in and of itself.… Hampl invites readers to take a journey to explore the idea of a life steeped in leisure without schedules.
Washington Post
About how rich life is when one focuses, at least part of the time, on being rather than on doing… it’s about being still, being aware, about seeing what is in front of your eyes, about being open to what one thinks and remembers and feels.
Chicago Tribune
A wise and beautiful ode to the imagination—from a child’s daydreams, to the unexpected revelations encountered in solitary travel, meditation, and reading, to the flights of creativity taken by writers, artists, and philosophers.
Minneapolis Star Tribune
(Starred review) [A] wonderfully lavish and leisurely exploration of the art of daydreaming.… Hampl captures art of day dreaming with astonishing simplicity and clarity in this remarkable and touching book.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review) An exquisite anatomy of mind and an incandescent reflection on nature, being, and rapture.… Memoirist extraordinaire Hampl [is] a master of judiciously elegant vignettes and surprising, slowing unfurling connections.
Booklist
(Starred review) Although reveling in solitude, the author is no stranger to loneliness.… [But whereras] loneliness eats away at you," writes the author. "Solitude fills and fills you." A captivating and revelatory memoir.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, 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)
(Resources by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)