DISCUSSION GUIDES

Summary: When Erin O’Connor’s new husband dies on 9/11, she struggles to get her life back on track but makes a series of bad decisions and begins to live her life in a self-destructive fog of booze and pills. It’s not until she hits rock bottom that she realizes it’s up to her to decide whether her destiny was sealed with Daniel’s, or if there’s life after happily ever after.

Summary: An epic family saga, The Sorting Room is the captivating tale of Eunice Ritter, a girl coming of age during America’s Great Depression, who was born to uncaring alcoholic parents and destined for a life of low-wage toil—a difficult, lonely existence of scant choices. The novel, which spans decades, shows how hard work and the memory of a single friendship gave the indomitable Eunice the perseverance to pursue redemption and forgiveness for the grievous mistakes she made early in her life.

Summary: “An extraordinary and deftly crafted novel that combines interesting characters within an historically detailed background… a fascinating read from cover to cover.” – MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW

Summary: In Loving You Big, Leah Witman Moore recounts how she learns to balance the joys and sorrows of her life as she navigates raising a child with a rare disability. This powerful and poignant memoir teaches readers to celebrate every small victory, savor every chaotic moment, and recognize the profound impact of a kind word.

Summary: NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • NATIONAL BESTSELLER A twisting, haunting true-life murder mystery about one of the most monstrous crimes in American history, from the author of The Lost City of Z.

Summary: Edited by Zibby Owens, Moms Don’t Have Time to Have Kids features 53 amazing essays by 49 authors including 15 New York Times bestsellers. All contributing authors have been on Zibby's award-winning podcast, Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books. The essays are inspired by five things these authors don’t have time to do: sleep, see friends, get sick, write, and lose weight.

Summary: On the New York Times bestseller list for over 20 weeks * A New York Times Notable Book * A National Book Award Finalist * Named a Best Book of the Year by Fresh Air, Time, Entertainment Weekly, Associated Press, and many more

"If you're looking for a superb novel, look no further." --The Washington Post

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of All the Light We Cannot See, comes the instant New York Times bestseller that is a "wildly inventive, a humane and uplifting book for adults that's infused with the magic of childhood reading experiences" (The New York Times Book Review).

Among the most celebrated and beloved novels of recent times, Cloud Cuckoo Land is a triumph of imagination and compassion, a soaring story about children on the cusp of adulthood in worlds in peril, who find resilience, hope, and a book.

In the 15th century, an orphan named Anna lives inside the formidable walls of Constantinople. She learns to read, and in this ancient city, famous for its libraries, she finds what might be the last copy of a centuries-old book, the story of Aethon, who longs to be turned into a bird so that he can fly to a utopian paradise in the sky. Outside the walls is Omeir, a village boy, conscripted with his beloved oxen into the army that will lay siege to the city. His path and Anna's will cross.

In the present day, in a library in Idaho, octogenarian Zeno rehearses children in a play adaptation of Aethon's story, preserved against all odds through centuries. Tucked among the library shelves is a bomb, planted by a troubled, idealistic teenager, Seymour. This is another siege.

And in a not-so-distant future, on the interstellar ship Argos, Konstance is alone in a vault, copying on scraps of sacking the story of Aethon, told to her by her father.

Anna, Omeir, Seymour, Zeno, and Konstance are dreamers and outsiders whose lives are gloriously intertwined. Doerr's dazzling imagination transports us to worlds so dramatic and immersive that we forget, for a time, our own.

Summary: What even is Hell of a Book besides a 2021 National Book Award finalist? It’s singular. “Singular” meaning both “exceptionally good or great, remarkable”; and “strange or eccentric in some respect.” Click "Discussion Guide" to learn more.

Summary: From the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys, a gloriously entertaining novel of heists, shakedowns, and rip-offs set in Harlem in the 1960s.

Summary: An award-winning novel that chronicles the charming misadventures of a lovelorn Victorian lexicographer and the young woman put on his trail a century later to root out his misdeeds while confronting questions of her own sexuality and place in the world.