DISCUSSION GUIDES

Summary: It is 1320, 25 years since Beatrice lived in Montaillou, but the past she has tried to forget is about to catch up with her when she is summoned by the terrifying Inquisitor, Bishop Jacques Fournier. Based on Bishop Fournier's actual interrogation records kept in the Vatican for nearly 700 years, this is the story of the noblewoman, Beatrice de Planisolles and the last Cathars of the Languedoc. Love, lust, betrayal and religious persecution are at the heart of this historical novel.

Summary: The Real Education of TJ Crowley puts the themes of "To Kill a Mockingbird" in overdrive in an unflinching look at racism in the late 1960s.

Summary: A beautifully written and absorbing novel about civil rights; architecture and place; the wrenching experience of becoming an adult; first love; and ordinary people making extraordinary choices.

Summary: An acclaimed comic novel about literary creation, mass incarceration, and settling a few scores. Called “one of the smartest—and best—novels of the year” by NPR, this debut is set in an upstate New York prison where a largescale riot grows to epic proportions.

Summary: A mesmerizing debut set in Colombia at the height Pablo Escobar's violent reign about a sheltered young girl and a teenage maid who strike an unlikely friendship that threatens to undo them both.

Summary: Philomena meets The Orphan Train in this suspenseful, provocative novel — the story of a young unwed mother who is forcibly separated from her daughter at birth and the lengths to which they go to find each other.

Summary: A powerful and luminous story of grief and coming-of-age and a beautiful tribute to the relationship between a father and daughter.

Summary: Alicia Berenson’s life is seemingly perfect. She is a famous painter and her husband, Gabriel, an in-demand fashion photographer. Until one evening, when Gabriel returns home late from work and Alicia shoots him five times in the face and then never speaks another word. #1 New York Times bestseller

Summary: For a quarter century, Edward St. Aubyn has chronicled the life of Patrick Melrose, painting an acrid portrait of a beleaguered and self-loathing world of privilege. The five short books known as the Patrick Melrose novels are, without doubt, one of the most acclaimed fiction cycles of our time. By turns harrowing and hilarious, this ambitious novel cycle dissects the English upper class. Edward St. Aubyn offers his readers the often darkly funny and self-loathing world of privilege as we follow Patrick Melrose’s story of abuse, addiction, and recovery from the age of five into early middle age. Benedict Cumberbatch stars as Patrick Melrose in the 5-Part Limited Event Series adaptation, premiering Saturday, May 12th – only on SHOWTIME®. Bookclubz and SHOWTIME invite you to join in the conversation about Patrick Melrose !

Summary: She was beautiful. She was a genius. Could the world handle both? A powerful novel based on the incredible true story of the glamour icon and scientist Hedy Lamarr, whose groundbreaking invention revolutionized modern communication.