DISCUSSION GUIDES

A REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Rainbow Rowell comes Slow Dance—her smartest, funniest, most powerful novel yet 

“If you, like me, think thirty-somethings methodically working through their issues is very hot, Slow Dance is the book for you. The people in it feel like people you know or maybe even people you’ve been. Slow Dance is sexy, sweet, wise, and nostalgic—Jane Austen’s Persuasion for our times.”

   — Gabrielle Zevin, New York Times bestselling author of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

Shiloh Butler was supposed to get out of north Omaha.

She used to sit out on the front porch with her best friend, Cary, and plot their escape. Shiloh was going to be an actress – she had a scholarship to a good school – and Cary was laser-focused on the Navy. Sharp, stoic, golden-eyed Cary . . . thin as a stick of gum and poor as dirt. He was probably the most decent person Shiloh has ever known. She hasn’t spoken to him in fourteen years.

When Shiloh gets an invitation to a high school friend’s wedding, Cary is the first and only thing on her mind.

She desperately wants to see him again, but she doesn’t know if she can bear being seen by him. What would Cary think of Shiloh at thirty-three? A divorced mom living in the same house she grew up in. Someone who works behind a desk, not onstage.

Would Cary even want to see Shiloh after all this time? After everything?

The answer, it turns out, is yes.

In her triumphant return to adult fiction, Rainbow Rowell has written a love story so honest and human – so cathartic – you’ll feel it in your bones. Slow Dance is a power ballad of a book, brimming with Rowell’s signature compassion and wit. It’s deeply affecting and profoundly romantic.

A haunting, epic novel about betrayal, revenge, and redemption that follows three generations of Russian women, from the 1917 revolution to the last days of the Soviet Union, and the enduring love story at the center.

Harkening to Agatha Christie’s classic And Then There Were None, this high-tension and ingenious thriller follows five couples trapped on a storm-swept island as a killer stalks among them—from Ruth Ware, the New York Times bestselling author who “is turning out to be as ingenious and indefatigable as the Queen of Crime” (The Washington Post).

What Once Was Promised, is a multi-generational family saga packed with action, intrigue, love, and violence. It is a compelling story that is often inspiring and sometimes heartbreaking. Highly recommended." -Len Joy, award winning author of Dry Heat and Everyone Dies Famous.

A deluxe edition of James Baldwin's haunting coming-of-age story, with a new introduction by Roxane Gay and cover art featuring a stunning portrait by Baldwin’s mentor, Beauford Delaney. Originally published in 1953, Go Tell It on the Mountain was James Baldwin's first major work, based in part on his own childhood in Harlem.

What happens when a husband's dying wish is for his wife to find a new love . . . before he's even gone?

Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin is a groundbreaking novel set in 1950s Paris, where a young American expatriate named David grapples with his repressed desires and conventional morality. As David becomes involved in a doomed affair with a bartender named Giovanni, Baldwin's narrative delves into the complexities of love and identity, offering a deeply moving exploration of the human heart.

In the latest jaw-dropping thriller from New York Times bestselling author Riley Sager, a man must contend with the long-ago disappearance of his childhood best friend--and the dark secrets lurking just beyond the safe confines of his picture-perfect neighborhood.