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"Page Turners" of the Month Reviewed by Book Clubs
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Author: Anne Patchett An intimate novel about the transformative power of the written word and the beauty of slowing down to reconnect with the people we love. Filled with knowledge that only comes from a life fully lived, The Correspondent is a gem of a novel about the power of finding solace in literature and connection with people we might never meet in person. It is about the hubris of youth and the wisdom of old age, and the mistakes and acts of kindness that occur during a lifetime. |
If Cats Disappeared From The World Author: Genki Kawamura You will enjoy this New York Times bestseller! You don't even need to be a cat owner to appreciate the book. This fictional book has the main character received a doctor's diagnosis with limited time left. He is estranged from his family and living alone with his cat, Cabbage. The devil shows up and makes him an offer to extend his life another day. He has to agree to give up something that he values for more time. It gets harder as he has to continue this process to live. As objects are removed from the world, he reflects on the life he has lived, his joys, regrets and the people he's loved and lost. It is a quick read at only 168 pages. The Japanese author takes you on a journey with his character. It offers humor and the seriousness of making decisions. The story is simple but makes you ponder his decisions. Recommended by Marilyn Dopler |
Isola Author: Allegra Goodman Inspired by the real life of a sixteenth-century heroine Heir to a fortune, Marguerite de la Rocque de Roberval, was a young noblewoman who lived in France during the 16th century. According to contemporary accounts, she fell in love with her guardian's servant on a journey across the sea to New France (now Canada). As punishment, the pair were abandoned on an uninhabited island where they struggled to survive. Goodman's fictionalization imagines Marguerite's life before and after this event, the hardships she endures while stranded, and the faith that helps her survive. Once a child of privilege who dressed in gowns and laced pearls in her hair, Marguerite finds herself at the mercy of nature. As the weather turns, blanketing the island in ice, she discovers a faith she’d never before needed. | 
Ironwood Author: Michael Connelly Detective Sergeant Stilwell knows that his posting on Catalina Island is no paradise, but to most residents, it seems blissfully separated—by twenty-two miles of ocean—from the troubles of Los Angeles County. But now a threat is coming to his safe haven. Acting on a tip from a confidential informant, Stilwell and his deputies watch a plane land in the middle of the night at the Airport in the Sky, a remote airstrip in the mountains. A duffel bag of drugs is dropped and the deputies move in, but things quickly go sideways. While Stilwell chases the fleeing pickup man into the mountainside brush, shots are fired on the runway and the plane flies off. An internal inquiry follows. While under orders to remain in the sheriff’s substation, he finds in the lost and found a valuable backpack that was never claimed. He traces it to a woman who disappeared while hiking on the island four years ago. But then why was the pack only turned in two months back? Now thoroughly intrigued, he follows the mystery all the way to the LAPD’s Open-Unsolved Unit and Detective Renée Ballard. Stilwell and Ballard work the case from both sides of the channel, and soon realize they are on the trail of a criminal who revels in taunting the authorities. Meanwhile, frustrated at being shut out of an investigation on his own island, Stilwell risks his already shaky standing in the department to pursue a case whose reach is wider than he ever imagined. |
Author: Chris Whitaker Duchess Day Radley is a thirteen-year-old self-proclaimed outlaw. Rules are for other people. She is the fierce protector of her five-year-old brother, Robin, and the parent to her mother, Star, a single mom incapable of taking care of herself, let alone her two kids. Walk has never left the coastal California town where he and Star grew up. He may have become the chief of police, but he’s still trying to heal the old wound of having given the testimony that sent his best friend, Vincent King, to prison decades before. And he's in overdrive protecting Duchess and her brother. Now, thirty years later, Vincent is being released. And Duchess and Walk must face the trouble that comes with his return. We Begin at the End is an extraordinary novel about two kinds of families—the ones we are born into and the ones we create. Book Ends Book Club just read this book. Discussion focused not only on the story in the book but on our personal lives and how tragedies/trials when we are young mark us for life. Submitted by Debby Peck |
Author: Isabelle Allende Readers may be familiar with Isabelle Allende, a prolific Chilean-American author, who wrote the House of Spirits (and many other novels). The authoress was 80 years old when she penned The Wind Knows My Name. The book is a tale of two child immigrants--- a boy who escapes Nazi occupied Vienna in 1938, a girl who escapes military gangs in El Salvador in 2019 and the people that help them along the way. Allende's narrative commingles past and present, and follows their migrations to the United States as their paths begin to cross. The novel’s premise is touching and ambitious. It traces how violence, migration and intolerance affect children across two periods of history that readers may view as disparate. The story also provoked insightful discussion: sometimes the smallest act of kindness can change the direction of a life; “ordinary” people can make a difference; the extreme actions that a parent takes to protect their child; and “strangers” can be your family. The novel provided an easy platform for lively discussion: about the author and her background, the writing itself, the story, its themes and some of the real life organizations upon which fictional organizations and characters were based. The book invited rich, thoughtful discussion and thought. Reviewed by Fiction Addiction Book Club Gretchen Bender |
Author: Clare Leslie Hall Broken Country is a powerful, emotional story set in rural England during the late 1960s. Beth was seventeen when she first met Gabriel. Over that heady, intense summer, he made her think and feel and see differently. She thought it was the start of her great love story. When Gabriel left to become the person his mother expected him to be, she was broken. It was Frank who picked up the pieces and together they built a home very different from the one she’d imagined with Gabriel. Watching her husband and son, she remembered feeling so sure that, after everything, this was the life she was supposed to be leading. But when Gabriel comes back, all Beth’s certainty about who she is and what she wants crumbles. Even after ten years, their connection is instant. She knows it’s wrong and she knows people could get hurt. But how can she resist a second chance at first love? Everyone in the village said nothing good would come of Gabriel’s return. And as Beth looks at the man she loves on trial for murder, she can’t help thinking they were right. A love story with the pulse of a thriller, a heart-pounding novel of impossible choices and devastating consequences. Recommended by Rose Smilgys |
Author: Patrick Ryan In the jubilant aftermath of the Allied victory in Europe, Cal Jenkins, a man wounded not in war but by his inability to serve in it, shares a single, life-altering moment with Margaret Salt, a woman determined to outrun her past. Cal is married to Becky, whose spiritual gifts help the living speak to the dead, while Margaret’s husband, Felix, is serving at sea, believed to be safe—until a telegram suggests otherwise. Recommended by Karen Baker |
Author: Thomas Schlesser Thomas Schlesser is an Art Historian and he has written an international best seller - Mona’s Eyes. This is actually two-books/stories in one. The first being the story of a little girl who experiences an episode of blindness and faces the possibility of eventual permanent blindness. The second is a fascinating history and analysis of some of the most interesting artists and their work over the past six hundred years. While the doctors can find no explanation for Mona’s brief episode of blindness, they agree that the threat of permanent vision loss cannot be ruled out. The girl’s grandfather, Henry, may not be able to stop his granddaughter from losing her sight, but his hope is to build a mental “reservoir” to fill the encroaching darkness with beauty/art. Every Wednesday for a year, the pair abscond together and visit a single masterpiece in one of Paris’s renowned museums. During these visits Mona silently reviews the art pieces, following which she explains what she sees and feels. Her grandfather then provides the history, philosophy, and affection associated with each piece. From Botticelli to Basquiat, Mona learns how each artist’s work shaped the world around them. In turn, the young girl’s world is changed forever by the power of their art. Under the kind and careful tutelage of her grandfather, Mona learns the true meaning of generosity, melancholy, love, loss, and revolution. Our Book Ends club read this book for our February meeting. Our February meeting was held at the Phoenix Art Museum where a docent allowed us, (like Mona), to examine and review various masterpieces. Submitted by Debby Peck |
Author: Kristin Harmel Colette Marceau has been stealing jewels for nearly as long as she can remember, following the centuries-old code of honor instilled in her by her mother, take only from the cruel and unkind, and give to those in need. Never was their family tradition more important than seven decades earlier, during the Second World War, when Annabel and Colette worked side by side in Paris to fund the French Resistance. |
Author: Allen Levi Questions linger about Theo, a pleasant but mysterious stranger, after his arrival in the southern city of Golden. Who is he and why is he here? He arrives early one spring by chance, or is it? His name is Theo. And he asks a lot more questions than he answers.
A story of giving and receiving, of seeing and being seen, Theo of Golden is a beautifully crafted novel about the power of creative generosity, the importance of wonder to a purposeful life, and the invisible threads of kindness that bind us to one another. Recommended by Robin Stuck |
Author: Michael Connelly Following his “resurrection walk” and need for a new direction, Mickey Haller turns to public interest litigation, filing a civil lawsuit against an artificial intelligence company whose chatbot told a sixteen-year-old boy that it was okay for him to kill his ex-girlfriend for her disloyalty. Recommended by Jill Hieb |
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