January 12, 2018, Book: 'Naomi's Room' by Jonathan Aycliffe

Our new member, April, has selected the first book of the new year. The selection is "Naomi's Room" by Jonathan Aycliffe. Here is a description from Amazon.com:

Tormented by grief after his four-year-old daughter is murdered, Charles hears sinister whispers as he tries to discover the truth about Naomi's death. But long-buried secrets threaten to take Charles to a place where he could lose his very soul. Aycliffe is a pseudonym for Daniel Easterman, the bestselling author of Brotherhood of the Tomb.

A review:

Terrifying, well-told masterpiece. Not for the weak of heart. This is for fans of Ketchum and Lee, for sure.

Nov. 3, 2017 Book: 'And Then There Were None' by Agatha Christie

Tifiny is hosting on November 3, and the book she's chosen is an oldie but a goodie (or a greatie!) ... "And Then There Were None" by Agatha Christie.

From Amazon.com:

Considered the best mystery novel ever written by many readers, "And Then There Were None" is the story of 10 strangers, each lured to Indian Island by a mysterious host. Once his guests have arrived, the host accuses each person of murder. Unable to leave the island, the guests begin to share their darkest secrets--until they begin to die.

I admit it: I'm DYING to read this!

Some reviews:

“The whole thing is utterly impossible and utterly fascinating. It is the most baffling mystery Agatha Christie has ever written.” (New York Times)

“One of the most ingenious thrillers in many a day.” (Time magazine)

“One of the very best, most genuinely bewildering Christies.” (The Observer (UK))

“There is no cheating; the reader is just bamboozled in a straightforward way from first to last….The most colossal achievement of a colossal career. The book must rank with Mrs. Christie’s previous best—on the top notch of detection.” (New Statesman (UK))

Sept. 15, 2017: 'Ordinary Grace' by William Kent Krueger

Kris is hosting our September 2017 book, and it is (drumroll please): "Ordinary Grace" by William Kent Krueger. Here is a description from Amazon.com:

“That was it. That was all of it. A grace so ordinary there was no reason at all to remember it. Yet I have never across the forty years since it was spoken forgotten a single word.”

New Bremen, Minnesota, 1961. The Twins were playing their debut season, ice-cold root beers were selling out at the soda counter of Halderson’s Drugstore, and Hot Stuff comic books were a mainstay on every barbershop magazine rack. It was a time of innocence and hope for a country with a new, young president. But for thirteen-year-old Frank Drum it was a grim summer in which death visited frequently and assumed many forms. Accident. Nature. Suicide. Murder.

Intriguing, isn't it?

A few reviews:

“A pitch-perfect, wonderfully evocative examination of violent loss. In Frank Drum's journey away from the shores of childhood—a journey from which he can never return—we recognize the heartbreaking price of adulthood and its 'wisdoms.' I loved this book.” (Dennis Lehane, New York Times bestselling author of Live by Night and The Given Day)

“Krueger’s elegy for innocence is a deeply memorable tale.” (Washington Post)

August 18, 2017 Book: 'The Husband's Secret' by Liane Moriarty

We're back to the great author Liane Moriarty with "The Husband's Secret" chosen by Christy for the August 18 meeting. (Previously August 4 but we've had a date change.)

Here's a description from Amazon.com:

Imagine your husband wrote you a letter, to be opened after his death. Imagine, too, that the letter contains his deepest, darkest secret—something with the potential to destroy not only the life you have built together, but the lives of others as well. And then imagine that you stumble across that letter while your husband is still very much alive...

Cecilia Fitzpatrick has achieved it all—she’s an incredibly successful businesswoman, a pillar of her small community, a devoted wife and mother. Her life is as orderly and spotless as her home. But that letter is about to change everything—and not just for her. There are other women who barely know Cecilia—or each other—but they, too, are about to feel the earth-shattering repercussions of her husband’s secret.

A few reviews:

“Spellbinding...A knockout!”—Emily Giffin, New York Times bestselling author

“The Husband’s Secret is so good, you won’t be able to keep it to yourself.”—USA Today

“Brilliant.”—Sophie Hannah, international bestselling author of The Wrong Mother

“Lip-smacking and sharply intelligent.”—Entertainment Weekly

May 12, 2017, Book: 'Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania' by Erik Larson

The May 12, 2017, book is hosted by Anjanette and will be "Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania" by Erik Larson. A synopsis from Amazon.com:

On May 1, 1915, with WWI entering its tenth month, a luxury ocean liner as richly appointed as an English country house sailed out of New York, bound for Liverpool, carrying a record number of children and infants. The passengers were surprisingly at ease, even though Germany had declared the seas around Britain to be a war zone. For months, German U-boats had brought terror to the North Atlantic. But the Lusitania was one of the era’s great transatlantic “Greyhounds”—the fastest liner then in service—and her captain, William Thomas Turner, placed tremendous faith in the gentlemanly strictures of warfare that for a century had kept civilian ships safe from attack.

Some reviews:

"Larson is one of the modern masters of popular narrative nonfiction...a resourceful reporter and a subtle stylist who understands the tricky art of Edward Scissorhands-ing narrative strands into a pleasing story...An entertaining book about a great subject, and it will do much to make this seismic event resonate for new generations of readers."
—The New York Times Book Review

"Larson is an old hand at treating nonfiction like high drama...He knows how to pick details that have maximum soapy potential and then churn them down until they foam [and] has an eye for haunting, unexploited detail."
—The New York Times

"In his gripping new examination of the last days of what was then the fastest cruise ship in the world, Larson brings the past stingingly alive...He draws upon telegrams, war logs, love letters, and survivor depositions to provide the intriguing details, things I didn't know I wanted to know...Thrilling, dramatic and powerful."
—NPR

April 7, 2017, Book: 'My Sister's Keeper: A Novel' by Jodi Picoult

Shaundra has selected the April 7, 2017, book: "My Sister's Keeper: A Novel" by Jodi Picoult. From Amazon.com:

Anna is not sick, but she might as well be. By age thirteen, she has undergone countless surgeries, transfusions, and shots so that her older sister, Kate, can somehow fight the leukemia that has plagued her since childhood. The product of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, Anna was conceived as a bone marrow match for Kate—a life and a role that she has never challenged...until now. Like most teenagers, Anna is beginning to question who she truly is. But unlike most teenagers, she has always been defined in terms of her sister—and so Anna makes a decision that for most would be unthinkable, a decision that will tear her family apart and have perhaps fatal consequences for the sister she loves.

A few reviews:

Booklist (Starred Review) My Sister's Keeper is a beautiful, heartbreaking, controversial, and honest book.

People (Critic's Choice) [Second Glance] is a fast-paced, densely layered exploration of love, the pull of family and the power of both to transcend time.

Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) A spellbinding suspense novel.

USA Today Picoult's characters are so compelling that the reader hopes this won't be the last time we meet.