Emergency Contact
Mary H.K. Choi, 2018
Simon & Schuster
400 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781534408968
Summary
From debut author Mary H.K. Choi comes a compulsively readable novel that shows young love in all its awkward glory—perfect for fans of Eleanor & Park and To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before.
For Penny Lee high school was a total nonevent. Her friends were okay, her grades were fine, and while she somehow managed to land a boyfriend, he doesn’t actually know anything about her.
When Penny heads to college in Austin, Texas, to learn how to become a writer, it’s seventy-nine miles and a zillion light years away from everything she can’t wait to leave behind.
Sam’s stuck. Literally, figuratively, emotionally, financially. He works at a cafe and sleeps there too, on a mattress on the floor of an empty storage room upstairs. He knows that this is the god-awful chapter of his life that will serve as inspiration for when he’s a famous movie director but right this second the seventeen bucks in his checking account and his dying laptop are really testing him.
When Sam and Penny cross paths it’s less meet-cute and more a collision of unbearable awkwardness.
Still, they swap numbers and stay in touch—via text—and soon become digitally inseparable, sharing their deepest anxieties and secret dreams without the humiliating weirdness of having to see each other. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1978-79
• Where—Seoul, South Korea
• Raised—Hong Kong; San Antonio, Texas, USA
• Education—B.A., University of Texas, Austin
• Currently—lives in Brooklyn, New York City, New York
Mary H.K. Choi is a writer for the New York Times, GQ, Wired, and the Atlantic. She has written comics for Marvel and DC, as well as a collection of essays called Oh, Never Mind.
She is the host of Hey, Cool Job!, a podcast about jobs, and is a culture correspondent for VICE News Tonight on HBO. Emergency Contact is her first novel. Mary grew up in Hong Kong and Texas and now lives in New York. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
[A] blushingly tender and piquant debut novel.… [Choi] inserts timely issues like sexual assault, cultural appropriation and even DACA into her characters' intimate conversations, but it is her examination of digital vs. F2F communication that feels the most immediate.
New York Times Book Review
Penny somehow broke down all my walls. Her tech became incidental and her voice endearing, and just like that, I was hooked. Even the texts feel very natural and elegantly woven into the narration.There is much more to both Sam and Penny than quirky character traits and witty repartee.… While the story does traffic in the heart flutter of romance that is tantalizingly out of reach, its emotional core goes deep.
NPR
(Starred review) Choi sensitively shows the evolution of two lonely, complicated people…. Her sharp wit and skillful character development…ensure that readers will feel that they know Penny and Sam inside and out before the gratifying conclusion (Ages 14–up).
Publishers Weekly
Choi creates an up-to-date and realistic contemporary romance by upending the love story trope. Miscues and miscommunications, which often propel romantic plots forward, are replaced by open and constant screen-to-screen communication (Gr 9-up). —Eva Thaler-Sroussi, Needham Free Public Library, MA
School Library Journal
Readers will swoon…. Choi has a knack for creating relatable characters, and this quirky, socially awkward love story will keep your cheeks rosy with every page.… [T]he perfect book for those who root for the underdog and believe broken people can heal together.
Romance Times
It is sadly ironic that the [negative] feedback from Penny's creative writing professor …applies equally to this novel. Witty asides and up-to-the-minute slang cannot compensate for an absence of emotional depth or well-crafted prose (Ages 14-18).
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 EMERGENCY CONTACT … then take off on your own:
1. Describe Penny and Sam. What do we come to learn about them through their texts? What character traits lay beneath their witty repartee? Some readers have found Penny overly judgmental to the point of unpleasantness, preferring Sam's character over hers. What's your opinion?
2. In what way is the texting between Penny and Sam confessional? How does the couple's texting evolve over time? Importantly, how do Penny and Sam themselves evolve over the course of the novel—or do they?
3. Consider Penny's mother, Celeste, who "resembled an incoming freshman as much as Penny did." What do you think of her? What about the other characters—Jude, Mallory, Lorraine, and Andy?
4. How is texting easier or safer than personal contact—in which two people have to look each other in the eye? Consider, for instance, Sam's worries about the way Penny might judge his impoverished background.
5. Is a virtual relationship as real or legitimate as an "in-person" relationship? Is it possible to "know" someone through texting? Is texting any different than being pen pals through the written and mailed letters of a previous generation? If either your child or a close friend confided in you about a new romance via texting, how would you respond?
6. Consider the nature of the couple's texting, its intimate revelatory nature. Then consider the book's title. Why might that title be seen as ironic, or at least engendering a different take on the word "emergency"? And yet in other ways, "emergency" is an absolutely appropriate word for the relationship between Sam and Penny. How so?
7. Author Mary H.K. Choi has said of her novel, "high-key nothing happens." Does nothing happen in this book? What do you think?
8. Penny gets some of the novel's best lines. What are some of your favorites? What do you make, for instance, of the multiple choice list she creates for responding to personal slights?
9. Penny describes her relationship with Sam: "It wasn't a romance; it was too perfect for that. Care to comment—what does it mean when a relationship is too perfect for a romance?
10. If you're over 30, is the teenage text lingo difficult to grasp? Does the overall language make the novel work for you? Or do you find it off putting?
11. By the novel's end, what are your hopes/expectations for Penny and Sam?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)
Cape May: A Novel
Chip Cheek, 2019
Celadon Books
256 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781250297150
Summary
A mesmerizing debut novel by Chip Cheek, Cape May explores the social and sexual mores of 1950s America through the eyes of a newly married couple from the genteel south corrupted by sophisticated New England urbanites.
Late September 1957.
Henry and Effie, very young newlyweds from Georgia, arrive in Cape May, New Jersey, for their honeymoon only to find the town is deserted. Feeling shy of each other and isolated, they decide to cut the trip short.
But before they leave, they meet a glamorous set of people who sweep them up into their drama. Clara, a beautiful socialite who feels her youth slipping away; Max, a wealthy playboy and Clara’s lover; and Alma, Max’s aloof and mysterious half-sister, to whom Henry is irresistibly drawn.
The empty beach town becomes their playground, and as they sneak into abandoned summer homes, go sailing, walk naked under the stars, make love, and drink a great deal of gin, Henry and Effie slip from innocence into betrayal, with irrevocable consequences.
Erotic and moving, this is a novel about marriage, love and sexuality, and the lifelong repercussions that meeting a group of debauched cosmopolitans has on a new marriage. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Chip Cheek is an American author whose debut novel, Cape May, was published in 2019. His stories have appeared in The Southern Review, Harvard Review, Washington Square, and other journals and anthologies.
He has been awarded scholarships to the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Tin House Summer Writers’ Workshop, and the Vermont Studio Center, as well as an Emerging Artist Award from the St. Botolph Club Foundation.
He lives in El Segundo, California, with his wife and baby daughter (Adapted from the publisher.)
Book Reviews
If you can’t get enough of women’s fiction novels with a twist, Cape May will be your perfect book club read.
Parade
Cheek’s glamorous and nostalgic first novel is an atmospheric tale of sexual longing and loss in 1950s America that nods to classics like The Great Gatsby and Revolutionary Road.
Independent (UK)
Cheek’s smoldering debut novel focuses on naïve newlyweds from rural Georgia on their honeymoon in the chilly off-season of historic Cape May, New Jersey, in the 1950s, at a moment of fading postwar innocence. When a trio of hedonistic socialites appear on the scene, the gin-infused dynamic of this ensemble drama subverts the couple’s romance and fidelity. In propulsive prose, Cheek provides an eerie, suspenseful thrill, and the callow narrator reflects the world on the brink of change.
The National Book Review
Cheek’s strong debut is a psychodrama that shows just how easily people can be manipulated.… Cheek does a good job with his cast…. The novel’s ending is particularly startling—a memorable final note in this cogent examination of marital infidelity and betrayal.
Publishers Weekly
This erotic debut novel will draw in readers and stay with them. The author’s perceptive exploration of innocence and experience, corruption and betrayal, makes for compelling reading.
Library Journal
(Starred review) This remarkable debut novel offers a sobering reminder of how the possibilities of life, when first encountered, often carry their own riptide.
Booklist
(Starred review) Deceptively relaxed and simple at first…. It soon reveals itself as a swirling vortex of psychological suspense…. The 1950s setting, the pellucid prose, and the propulsive plot make this very steamy debut novel about morality and desire feel like a classic.
Kirkus Reviews
In Cape May, Cheek shows that every couple encounters such a moment of their own—whether physical, emotional or some combination of both—and it holds the power to change a relationship forever.
Shelf Awareness
Discussion Questions
1. How does the anonymity provided by a mostly-empty seaside town contribute to the story?
2. How does the time period inform the characters’ interactions and decisions throughout the book?
3. Henry is only 20 years old, and Effie just 18. Do their ages change how you feel about them? Why or why not?
4. What role do wealth and status play in the characters’ perspectives on life and on each other?
5. Discuss how you feel about Alma.
6. Marriage involves both give and take. What does Henry give? Take? How about Effie? What can this tell us about their relationship from beginning to end?
7. Is it possible to define a “breaking point” for a marriage? What factors have to be considered? Do you think it is possible to truly forgive?
8. Would Henry and Effie’s marriage have been different if they hadn’t gone to Cape May for their honeymoon?
9. Discuss how you feel about the epilogue.
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
The Room on Rue Amelie
Kristin Harmel, 2018
Gallery Books
400 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781501171406
Summary
This powerful novel of fate, resistance, and family tells the tale of an American woman, a British RAF pilot, and a young Jewish teenager whose lives intersect in occupied Paris during the tumultuous days of World War II.
When newlywed Ruby Henderson Benoit arrives in Paris in 1939 with her French husband Marcel, she imagines strolling arm in arm along the grand boulevards, awash in the golden afternoon light.
But war is looming on the horizon, and as France falls to the Nazis, her marriage begins to splinter, too.
Charlotte Dacher is eleven when the Germans roll into the French capital, their sinister swastika flags snapping in the breeze. After the Jewish restrictions take effect and Jews are ordered to wear the yellow star, Charlotte can’t imagine things getting much worse.
But then the mass deportations begin, and her life is ripped forever apart.
Thomas Clarke joins the British Royal Air Force to protect his country, but when his beloved mother dies in a German bombing during the waning days of the Blitz, he wonders if he’s really making a difference.
Then he finds himself in Paris, in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, and he discovers a new reason to keep fighting—and an unexpected road home.
When fate brings them together, Ruby, Charlotte, and Thomas must summon the courage to defy the Nazis—and to open their own broken hearts—as they fight to survive.
Rich with historical drama and emotional depth, this is an unforgettable story that will stay with you long after the final page is turned. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—May 4, 1979
• Born—Newton, Massachesetts, USA
• Education—B.A., University of Florida
• Currently—lives in Orlando, Florida
Kristin Harmel is an American author with more than a dozen novels to her name. Originally from Massachusetts, she gained her first writing experience at the age of 16 as a sports reporter for the St. Petersburg Times, and Tampa Bay All Sports magazine while still attending Northeast High School in St. Petersburg, Florida.
A graduate of the University of Florida, Harmel was a reporter for People magazine starting in 2000. Her work has appeared in dozens of other publications, including Men's Health, Glamour, YM, Teen People, People en Español, Runner's World, American Baby, Every Day With Rachel Ray, and more.
Harmel is the author of more than 10 books, which have been translated into many languages around the world. They include more recently including The Book of Lost Names (2020), The Winemaker’s Wife (2019), The Room on Rue Amelie (2018), and The Sweetness of Forgetting (2012).
Harmel resides in Orlando, Florida with her husband Jason. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 4/22/2015.)
Book Reviews
Harmel injects new life into a well-worn story… about the struggle to find normalcy amid the horrors of WWII.… [An] emotionally fraught story… [and] celebration of those…who found the courage to face life head-on.
Publishers Weekly
[F]ocusing primarily on the development of a wartime romance rather than on immersive details of life under German occupation…. [Harmel] does create likable if somewhat cliched protagonists… [but] the book's ending feels…emotionally manipulative. —Mara Bandy Fass, Champaign P.L., IL
Library Journal
Harmel writes a poignant novel based loosely on the true story of an American woman who helped on the Comet Line, which rescued hundreds of airmen and soldiers. This compelling story celebrates hope and bravery in the face of evil.
Booklist
Discussion Questions
1. Describe Ruby Henderson’s first encounter with Marcel Benoit. Who or what is responsible for the distance that grows between them during their short marriage?
2. "Why do we have to be Jewish anyhow?" (page 14) How does eleven-year-old Charlotte Dacher experience religious discrimination in the days leading up to the Nazi occupation of France? To what extent do her feelings of alienation facilitate her special bond with the American expatriate Ruby Benoit? What shared qualities make Charlotte and Ruby compatible?
3. Compare and contrast Marcel Benoit’s and Charlotte Dacher’s reactions to the news that Ruby is pregnant. What do their reactions reveal about their characters and their feelings about Ruby?
4. "I don’t understand. You’re working for the Allies? Why didn’t you tell me?"(page 60) Discuss Marcel’s secrecy about his underground Resistance efforts. How reasonable is his decision to keep his work concealed from his wife? Does Ruby’s sense of personal betrayal in light of Marcel’s secret seem justified? Why, or why not?
5. How does Ruby’s baby’s stillbirth impact her relationship with the Dacher family and her sense of personal responsibility for Charlotte? How does the child’s death affect Ruby’s relationship with her husband, Marcel?
6. "I must help. I must take over Marcel’s work on the [escape] line."(page 103) Why does Ruby volunteer to continue her late husband’s work in the immediate aftermath of his death? What does her determination suggest about her love for her adopted country?
7. How does the arrival of the injured RAF pilot Thomas Clarke help Ruby to regain her self-confidence and sense of purpose? What does his willingness to risk discovery in order to help Charlotte’s mother reveal about his nature?
8. "This is France, Madame Benoit. We are French citizens."(page 204) Discuss the roundups taking place in Paris during the German occupation. Why does Monsieur Dacher persist in believing his French citizenship will protect him and his family from being arrested? To what extent does Ruby’s eventual arrest and imprisonment as an American citizen seem surprising?
9. How does Lucien, the young forger, become an important part of Ruby’s extended Resistance family? What explains the intensity of Lucien’s connection with Charlotte?
10. How does Thomas’s return to Paris two years after Ruby helped him to escape the first time confirm the depth of their feelings for each other? Given her unique predicament—serving as a surrogate parent to Charlotte, sheltering wayward Allied pilots, and eking out survival during wartime without any steady income—why does Ruby surrender to Thomas’s affections? How does her eventual pregnancy transform her?
11. "This war, it has changed everything about the world. But our most important lives are still on the inside, aren’t they? What matters is what’s in your heart.” (page 312) Discuss Charlotte’s distinction between inside lives and outside lives. Why might difficult historical and cultural periods such as wartime serve as catalysts for more dramatic interior lives?
12. How would you describe Ravensbrück, the German work camp where Ruby is imprisoned? Why does her pregnancy make Ruby especially vulnerable in the camp? What does the altruism of fellow detainees and German civilians reveal about the potential for goodness in the midst of tremendous evil?
13. To what extent were the deaths of Ruby and Thomas a narrative surprise to you? Why do you think the author chose to end their lives at the same point in the dramatic arc of the novel? How would you describe your reaction to the author’s description of their afterlife reunion in the poppy fields of California?
14. Discuss the depictions of Paris in wartime in the novel. How do the author’s details of the behavior of German soldiers toward the French, of the detention camps, and of the efforts of the Resistance enable you to visualize the novel’s milieu? Which details did you find most compelling? Why?
15. Why do you think the author chose to frame her novel with beginning and ending chapters involving Charlotte and Lucien? Based on ambiguities in the book’s opening chapter, what assumptions did you make about Ruby and Thomas as you read the novel? How did you feel when you discovered the final chapter was about Charlotte and Lucien?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
The Bride Test
Helen Hoang, 2019
Penguin Publishing
320 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780451490827
Summary
From the critically acclaimed author of The Kiss Quotient comes a romantic novel about love that crosses international borders and all boundaries of the heart.
Khai Diep has no feelings. Well, he feels irritation when people move his things or contentment when ledgers balance down to the penny, but not big, important emotions—like grief.
And love.
He thinks he's defective. His family knows better—that his autism means he just processes emotions differently. When he steadfastly avoids relationships, his mother takes matters into her own hands and returns to Vietnam to find him the perfect bride.
As a mixed-race girl living in the slums of Ho Chi Minh City, Esme Tran has always felt out of place. When the opportunity arises to come to America and meet a potential husband, she can't turn it down, thinking this could be the break her family needs.
Seducing Khai, however, doesn't go as planned. Esme's lessons in love seem to be working...but only on herself. She's hopelessly smitten with a man who's convinced he can never return her affection.
With Esme's time in the United States dwindling, Khai is forced to understand he's been wrong all along. And there's more than one way to love. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Helen Hoang is that shy person who never talks. Until she does. And the worst things fly out of her mouth. She read her first romance novel in eighth grade and has been addicted ever since.
In 2016, she was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder in line with what was previously known as Asperger's Syndrome. Her journey inspired her 2018 novel, The Kiss Quotient. In 2019 she published The Bride Test.
She currently lives in San Diego, California, with her husband, two kids, and pet fish. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
Prepare to fall in love all over again.… The Bride Test is a charming love story that is equal parts sexy and sweet.
PopSugar
Refreshingly real.
Marie Claire
From the author that rocked the lit world with her 2018 novel The Kiss Quotient, comes an equally addicting read.
Women's Health
This new quirky, heartwarming romance will make you believe in love again.
Woman's Day
(Starred review) [A] touching… contemporary romance…. With serious moments offset by spot-on humor, this romance has broad appeal, and it will find a special place in the hearts of autistic people and those who love them.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review) [E]xcellent detail and exceptionally well-developed protagonists keep the pages turning. While a few plot points are tied up a bit too neatly, the conclusion is truly satisfying.… [O]riginal, engaging, and… hard-hitting. Gorgeously done.
Library Journal
(Starred review) A young Vietnamese woman… travel[s] to America in hopes of finding a husband and a better life.… [Hoang's] characters… are just as pleasing and powerful as their evolution as a couple. A stunning, superior romance.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Khai grew up in America, while My was born and raised in a small village in Vietnam. What cultural differences can you see and how do you think this affects who they are now?
2. In the beginning of the book, Khai’s mother is in Vietnam to search for a wife for Khai. Do you think it’s wrong of his mother to meddle and interfere in his personal life, or is this justified as an act of love?
3. Prior to reading this book, how would you have imagined an autistic man? How does Khai compare to this vision?
4. Throughout the book, Khai is adamant about not having feelings, thus creating a chasm between him and everyone else. When do you see a breakthrough in this way of thinking? How does My help with this?
5. Khai memorizes a set of rules that his sister made him that lists what he should do when he’s with a girl (page 37). Do you agree with this list?
6. Though My originally goes to America with the purpose of seducing Khai, a lot of her time is spent going to night school and working at Co Nga’s restaurant. This reflects the hard work that immigrants go through to build a life in the U.S. Can you or anyone you know relate to this?
7. My lies to Khai about her occupation and tells him that she’s an accountant. She does this because she’s embarrassed by her sta-tion in life but also to feel some sort of connection to him. Should she have just told him the truth from the beginning or do you think her lie helps bring them together at least a little?
8. As adamant as Khai is about not loving My, he does things for her that show how much he does care about her, such as carrying her and helping to find her father. What other ways does he show he loves her?
9. At the end of the book, Khai tells My he loves her in Vietnamese. What is the significance of this?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
The Flight Portfolio
Julie Orringer, 2019
Knopf Doubleday
576 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780307959409
Summary
The long-awaited new work from the best-selling author of The Invisible Bridge takes us back to occupied Europe in this gripping historical novel based on the true story of Varian Fry's extraordinary attempt to save the work, and the lives, of Jewish artists fleeing the Holocaust.
In 1940, Varian Fry—a Harvard educated American journalist—traveled to Marseille carrying three thousand dollars and a list of imperiled artists and writers he hoped to rescue within a few weeks.
Instead, he ended up staying in France for thirteen months, working under the veil of a legitimate relief organization to procure false documents, amass emergency funds, and set up an underground railroad that led over the Pyrenees, into Spain, and finally to Lisbon, where the refugees embarked for safer ports.
Among his many clients were Hannah Arendt, Franz Werfel, André Breton, Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp, and Marc Chagall.
The Flight Portfolio opens at the Chagalls' ancient stone house in Gordes, France, as the novel's hero desperately tries to persuade them of the barbarism and tragedy descending on Europe.
Masterfully crafted, exquisitely written, impossible to put down, this is historical fiction of the very first order, and resounding confirmation of Orringer's gifts as a novelist. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—June 12, 1973
• Where—Miami, Florida, USA
• Education—B.A., Cornell University; M.F.A., University of Iowa; Stegner Fellowship, Stanford University
• Awards—Ploughshares Cohen Award; Paris Review’s Plimpton Prize for Fiction
• Currently—lives in Brooklyn, New York City, New York
Julie Orringer is a short story writer and author of two higly acclaimed works of historical fiction. Both were bestsellers. The Invisible Bridge was published in 2010, and The Flight Portfolio in 2019.
Orringer is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and Cornell University, and was a Stegner Fellow in the Creative Writing Program at Stanford University. Her stories have appeared in the Paris Review, Yale Review, Ploughshares, Pushcart Prize Anthology, and Zoetrope: All-Story. She lives in Brooklyn, New York City. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
(Cover review) Sympathetic and prodigiously ambitious…scrupulous.… Her landscapes regularly rise to a Keatsian sensuousness. Her Marseille breathes as a city breathes.… [A] thriller.
New York Times Book Review
Orringer is a blue-chip writer with a string of prizes and fellowships and a previous bestseller, The Invisible Bridge. That, too, was a long novel set during World War II, and both books are of the kind invariably reviewed using the same small cachet of words: rich, sweeping, ambitious, heartfelt, exquisite. To her credit, Orringer earns them all. She’s a superb researcher, a natural storyteller and a clear writer. The Flight Portfolio is in a style I think of as high-unimpeachable, difficult but riskless, with only safe little darting flights of flamboyance.
Charles Finch - Newsday
Gorgeous…lush…meticulously researched…classic storytelling through a transgressive lens.… The Flight Portfolio offers a testament to the enduring power of art, and love, in any form.
Entertainment Weekly
(Starred review) Magnificent.… As in 2010's superb The Invisible Bridge, Orringer seamlessly combines compelling inventions with complex fact.… Brilliantly conceived, impeccably crafted, and showcasing Orringer’s extraordinary gifts, this is destined to become a classic.
Publishers Weekly
Orringer is a meticulous researcher, and the novel’s cloak-and-dagger thrills keep the pace lively in this lengthy but intriguing tale of resilience and resistance.
BookPage
Gripping….Orringer is a beautiful prose stylist who captures depth of meaning about complex human issues, and she addresses head-on the moral dilemma of making value judgments on individual lives…. Vivid.
Booklist
(Starred review) [E]legant, meditative…. The central point of intrigue, providing a fine plot twist, is also expertly handled, evidence of an accomplished storyteller at work. Altogether satisfying.… [Y]ou’ll have a feel for the territory in which this well-plotted book falls.
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.)