Two By Two Book Review

Two by Two: Book Review by Dinh.
3 stars out of 5

Synopsis:

At 32, Russell Green has it all: a stunning wife, a lovable six year-old daughter, a successful career as an advertising executive and an expansive home in Charlotte. He is living the dream, and his marriage to the bewitching Vivian is the center of that. But underneath the shiny surface of this perfect existence, fault lines are beginning to appear…and no one is more surprised than Russ when he finds every aspect of the life he took for granted turned upside down. Continue reading “Two By Two Book Review” →

Luckiest Girl Alive By Jessica Knoll

Please join us in reading Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll for our suggested monthly read.


We will be reviewing Luckiest Girl Alive along with our book club discussion questions for August 31st, 2017.
Book Summary

HER PERFECT LIFE IS A PERFECT LIE.

As a teenager at the prestigious Bradley School, Ani FaNelli endured a shocking, public humiliation that left her desperate to reinvent herself. Now, with a glamorous job, expensive wardrobe, and handsome blue blood fiancé, she’s this close to living the perfect life she’s worked so hard to achieve.

But Ani has a secret.

There’s something else buried in her past that still haunts her, something private and painful that threatens to bubble to the surface and destroy everything. Continue reading “Luckiest Girl Alive By Jessica Knoll” →

Circling The Sun Book Review

Circling The Sun: Book Review by Arlene
5 out of 5 stars

Review:

The life of Beryl Markham is intricately woven for us in this very readable novel by Paula McLain. Once again, as in The Paris Wife, McLain succeeds in creating a novel, based on the life of a remarkable, complex woman who lived in a time period of history where women were held to a standard below their capabilities and intelligence.

Beryl Markham broke through those bonds on her own terms. She was smart, strong, courageous and defiant because she had to be starting at a very young age. Paula McClain captures her story and grips you all the way through this novel and doesn’t let go. Continue reading “Circling The Sun Book Review” →

Circling The Sun Book Club Discussion Questions

Here’s a video of Paula McLain, up close and personal on a conversation about her book Circling The Sun. Also included is a reading of the book and Q & A with the author.

Discover books by Paula McLain!

Discussion Questions

1. Circling The Sun is based on the life of a real person. Do you enjoy reading a novelist’s interpretation of the person’s life in story form or do you prefer a biographical format?

2. Did you think Beryl’s father made the right decisions for her as she was growing up?

3. Did you feel Beryl’s father sort of forced her decision to marry Jock at such a young age leaving her to think “Do I really have a choice at this point?” Continue reading “Circling The Sun Book Club Discussion Questions” →

Beneath A Scarlet Sky Book Review

Beneath A Scarlet Sky: Book Review By Dinh.

4.5 stars for Beneath A Scarlet Sky

Synopsis:

Pino Lella wants nothing to do with the war or the Nazis. He’s a normal Italian teenager—obsessed with music, food, and girls—but his days of innocence are numbered. When his family home in Milan is destroyed by Allied bombs, Pino joins an underground railroad helping Jews escape over the Alps, and falls for Anna, a beautiful widow six years his senior.

In an attempt to protect him, Pino’s parents force him to enlist as a German soldier—a move they think will keep him out of combat. But after Pino is injured, he is recruited at the tender age of eighteen to become the personal driver for Adolf Hitler’s left hand in Italy, General Hans Leyers, one of the Third Reich’s most mysterious and powerful commanders. Continue reading “Beneath A Scarlet Sky Book Review” →

The Bear And The Nightingale Book Review

The Bear And The Nightingale: Book Review by Dinh.

4 stars for The Bear and The Nigthingale

Synopsis:

At the edge of the Russian wilderness, winter lasts most of the year and the snowdrifts grow taller than houses. But Vasilisa doesn’t mind—she spends the winter nights huddled around the embers of a fire with her beloved siblings, listening to her nurse’s fairy tales.

Above all, she loves the chilling story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon, who appears in the frigid night to claim unwary souls. Wise Russians fear him, her nurse says, and honor the spirits of house and yard and forest that protect their homes from evil. Continue reading “The Bear And The Nightingale Book Review” →

Golden Prey Book Review

Golden Prey: Book Review by Dinh.

4 stars

Summary:

Lucas Davenport’s first case as a U.S. Marshal sends him into uncharted territory in the thrilling new novel in the #1 New York Times-bestselling series.

The man was smart and he didn’t mind killing people. Welcome to the big leagues, Davenport.

Thanks to some very influential people whose lives he saved, Lucas is no longer working for the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, but for the U.S. Marshals Service, and with unusual scope. He gets to pick his own cases, whatever they are, wherever they lead him. Continue reading “Golden Prey Book Review” →

Circling The Sun By Paula McLain

Please join us in reading Circling The Sun by Paula McLain for our monthly read.

We will be reviewing Circling The Sun, with our monthly book club discussion questions for July 31st, 2017.
Book Summary

Paula McLain, author of the phenomenal bestseller The Paris Wife, now returns with her keenly anticipated new novel, transporting readers to colonial Kenya in the 1920s. Circling the Sun brings to life a fearless and captivating woman—Beryl Markham, a record-setting aviator caught up in a passionate love triangle with safari hunter Denys Finch Hatton and Karen Blixen, who as Isak Dinesen wrote the classic memoir Out of Africa. Continue reading “Circling The Sun By Paula McLain” →

Commonwealth Book Review

Commonwealth: Book Review by Dinh.

3. 5 stars for Commonwealth

Summary:

One Sunday afternoon in Southern California, Bert Cousins shows up at Franny Keating’s christening party uninvited. Before evening falls, he has kissed Franny’s mother, Beverly—thus setting in motion the dissolution of their marriages and the joining of two families.

Spanning five decades, Commonwealth explores how this chance encounter reverberates through the lives of the four parents and six children involved. Spending summers together in Virginia, the Keating and Cousins children forge a lasting bond that is based on a shared disillusionment with their parents and the strange and genuine affection that grows up between them. Continue reading “Commonwealth Book Review” →

Commonwealth Book Club Discussion Questions

Here’s Ann Patchett talking about her writing process in Commonwealth.

Discussion Questions:

1. The kiss at the beginning of the book is pivotal in setting in motion the fate and lives of the families involve. Do you believe that it was fate, like Bert Cousins, or choice?

2. How are the children affected by the divorce (of Fix and Beverly Keating, and Bert and Teresa Cousins) and re-marriage of Bert and Beverly?

3. What does the title of the book mean? And what does the title of the book suggest you about Patchett’s concept of family? Continue reading “Commonwealth Book Club Discussion Questions” →