DISCUSSION GUIDES

Summary: The first adult novel by the Newbery award-winning author of The Girl Who Drank the Moon is a rollicking feminist tale set in 1950s America where thousands of women have spontaneously transformed into dragons, exploding notions of a woman’s place in the world and expanding minds about accepting others for who they really are.

Summary: For fans of A Man Called Ove, a charming, witty and compulsively readable exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope that traces a widow's unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus.

Summary: A stunning novel about love, work, and marriage that asks how far one family and one community will go to protect their future.

Summary: From Alison Espach, author of the New York Times Editor’s Choice novel The Adults, comes a breathtaking love story about two broken people who find themselves drawn to each other again and again across their lives, and a funny, uncommonly wise coming-of-age tale set in the early 90s that brims with unexpected moments of joy.

Summary: To Julie Metz, her mother, Eve, was the quintessential New Yorker. Eve rarely spoke about her childhood and it was difficult to imagine her living anywhere else except Manhattan. After her mother died, Julie Metz discovered a keepsake book filled with farewell notes from friends and relatives addressed to a ten-year-old girl named Eva. This long-hidden memento was the first clue to the secret pain that Julie’s mother had carried as a refugee and immigrant from Nazi-occupied Vienna, shining a light on a family that had to persevere at every turn to escape the antisemitism and xenophobia that threatened their survival.

Summary: A heartbreaking and uplifting mother-daughter drama with a steamy romantic backstory.

Summary: "A twisty, fast-paced" (The Sunday Times, London) debut thriller, as electrifying as the #1 New York Times bestseller The Girl on the Train, about impending motherhood, unreliable friendship, and the high price of keeping secrets.In this "gloriously tangled game of cat and mouse that kept the twists coming until the very last moment" (Ruth Ware, #1 New York Times bestselling author), Helen's idyllic life--handsome architect husband, gorgeous Victorian house, and cherished baby on the way--begins to change the day she attends her first prenatal class. There, she meets Rachel, an unpredictable single mother-to-be who doesn't seem very maternal: she smokes, drinks, and professes little interest in parenthood. Still, Helen is drawn to her. Maybe Rachel just needs a friend. And to be honest, Helen's a bit lonely herself. At least Rachel is fun to be with. She makes Helen laugh, invites her confidences, and distracts her from her fears. But her increasingly erratic behavior is unsettling. And Helen's not the only one who's noticed. Her friends and family begin to suspect that her strange new friend may be linked to their shared history in unexpected ways. When Rachel threatens to expose a past crime that could destroy all of their lives, it becomes clear that there are more than a few secrets laying beneath the broad-leaved trees and warm lamplight of Greenwich Park.

Summary: A gripping mystery about a woman who thinks she’s found the love of her life—until he disappears.

Summary: Award-winning memoirist Meg Stafford has an adventurous spirit, and this time she takes us along for the ride. When her daughters venture into terra incognita—one of them meditating in the Himalayas and the other negotiating with the Colombian military—Stafford decides to go too. In the process, she reflects on her own lifetime of wanderlust and what it means for a parent to love and to let go. Generous, insightful, and deeply funny, Stafford is the ideal tour guide for a journey as big as the world and as intimate as the human heart.

Summary: The Red Kitchen is the story of Barbara and her mother, who, like many women, surrender to society’s expectation to be one thing while yearning to be another. Both women—in very different ways—come of age, find the loving parts of their mother-daughter relationship, and start living their best lives.