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DISCUSSION GUIDES
- 151.Under the Tulip TreeA story waits to be told. When a young woman in Tennessee begins to write it down, what she discovers will change her forever.
Sixteen-year-old Lorena Leland's dreams of a rich and fulfilling life as a writer are dashed when the stock market crashes in 1929. Seven years into the Great Depression, Rena's banker father has retreated into the bottle, her sister is married to a lazy charlatan and gambler, and Rena is an unemployed newspaper reporter. Eager for any writing job, Rena accepts a position interviewing former slaves for the Federal Writers' Project. There, she meets Frankie Washington, a 101-year-old woman whose honest yet tragic past captivates Rena.
As Frankie recounts her life as a slave and the events of the Civil War, Rena is horrified to learn of all the older woman has endured―especially because Rena's ancestors owned slaves. While Frankie's story challenges Rena's preconceptions about slavery, it also connects the two women whose lives are otherwise separated by age, race, and circumstances. But will this bond of respect, admiration, and friendship be broken by a revelation neither woman sees coming?- Christian historical fiction from the award-winning author of Appalachian Song
- Features dual timelines with rich character development
- A nuanced and relevant tale of faith, facing injustice, and reconciliation
- 152.The Correspondent: A Novel
“Subtly told and finely made, The Correspondent is a portrait of a small life expanding. Virginia Evans shows how one woman changes at a point when change had seemed impossible. That change, like this novel, turns out to be a cause for celebration.”—Ann Patchett
- 153.The Martha's Vineyard Beach and Book Club: A NovelNATIONAL BESTSELLER • Two sisters living on Martha’s Vineyard during World War II find hope in the power of storytelling when they start a wartime book club for women in this spectacular novel inspired by true events, from the New York Times bestselling author of Lilac Girls.
“A dreamy beach book that also sizzles with tension . . . another winner by one of the best historical fiction writers around.”—Fiona Davis, author of The Stolen Queen
2016: Thirty-four-year-old Mari Starwood is still grieving after her mother’s death as she travels to the storied island of Martha’s Vineyard, off the coast of Massachusetts. She’s come all the way from California with nothing but a name on a piece of paper: Elizabeth Devereaux, the famous but reclusive Vineyard painter. When Mari makes it to Mrs. Devereaux’s stunning waterfront farm under the guise of taking a painting class with her, Mrs. Devereaux begins to tell her the story of the Smith sisters, who once lived there. As the tale unfolds, Mari is shocked to learn that her relationship to this island runs deeper than she ever thought possible.
1942: The Smith girls—nineteen-year-old aspiring writer Cadence and sixteen-year-old war-obsessed Briar—are faced with the impossible task of holding their failing family farm together during World War II as the U.S. Army arrives on Martha’s Vineyard. When Briar spots German U-boats lurking off the island’s shores, and Cadence falls into an unlikely romance with a sworn enemy, their quiet lives are officially upended. In an attempt at normalcy, Cadence and her best friend, Bess, start a book club, which grows both in members and influence as they connect with a fabulous New York publisher who could make all of Cadence’s dreams come true. But all that is put at risk by a mysterious man who washes ashore—and whispers of a spy in their midst. Who in their tight-knit island community can they trust? Could this little book club change the course of the war . . . before it’s too late? - 154.
- 155.The Bookshop of Secrets: An uplifting historical fiction novel for fans of books about books in 2025!
'What a page turner!' Daisy Wood, author of The Forgotten Bookshop in Paris
' A delicious Art Deco novel with a delightfully acerbic heroine.' Marius Gabriel, author of The German Daughter
'Original and immersive.' Eva Glyn, author of An Island of Secrets
In a bookshop nestled in the sprawling streets of Lisbon, a shopkeeper leads a double life...
Looking for a new start after her father's death, Lara Hope arrives in Lisbon in search of a family she's never met.
As war storms across Europe, Lara finds solace and belonging in her landlady's tranquil bookshop in one of the most beautiful corners of the city.
But when she witnesses a customer secretly swapping a book, she realises the bookshop is not all it seems. Lara is plunged into a labyrinthine world of mystery and facades, encountering new friends, an unexpected romance, and even royalty... Is she prepared to risk it all for this new life?
Readers love The Bookshop of Secrets:'The ending left me wanting more...these characters are too engaging and too ingenious to disappear into the ether' Historical Novel Society
'I lapped it up!' Eliza Graham
'A must-read for historical fiction fans and for me, Kerry Barrett's best book yet.' Annie Lyons
'A gripping 'what if' tale with a larger-than-life heroine at its heart.' Tessa Harris
'This book was an absolute joy. I didn't want to finish it.' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'I adored this novel and found it hard to put down. The plot unfolds with ease and you easily warm to the characters.'⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'Beautifully written.' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'An exceptional read.' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
- 156.Where the Rivers Merge: A Novel
USA TODAY BESTSELLER
“Wade into the Lowcountry of South Carolina with Mary Alice Monroe's sweeping Southern epic."—People
"This is book club fiction at its finest!" —Lisa Wingate, #1 New York Times bestselling author
From the New York Times bestselling author, the first of two epic and triumphant novels celebrating one intrepid woman's life across multiple generations in the American South.
1908: The Lowcountry of South Carolina is at the cusp of change. Mayfield, the grand estate held for generations by the Rivers family, is the treasured home of young Eliza. A free spirit, she refuses to be confined by societal norms and spends her days exploring the vast property, observing wildlife, and riding horses. But the Great War, coastal storms, and family turmoil bring unexpected challenges to Eliza, putting her on a collision course with the patriarchal traditions of a bygone era.
1988: At 88, Eliza is the scion of the Rivers/DeLancey family. She’s fought a lifetime to save her beloved Mayfield and is too independent and committed to quietly retire and leave the fate of the estate to her greedy son. She must make decisions that will assure the future of the land and her family—or watch them both be split apart.
Set against the evocative landscape of the twentieth-century Lowcountry, Where the Rivers Merge is a dramatic and sweeping multigenerational family story of unyielding love, lessons learned, profound sacrifices, and the indomitable spirit of a woman determined to persevere in the face of change in order to protect her family legacy and the land she loves.
- 157.Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress: A NovelNew York Times Bestseller
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is an enchanting tale that captures the magic of reading and the wonder of romantic awakening. An immediate international bestseller, it tells the story of two hapless city boys exiled to a remote mountain village for re-education during China’s infamous Cultural Revolution. There the two friends meet the daughter of the local tailor and discover a hidden stash of Western classics in Chinese translation. As they flirt with the seamstress and secretly devour these banned works, the two friends find transit from their grim surroundings to worlds they never imagined. - 158.The Interestings: A Novel“Remarkable . . . With this book [Wolitzer] has surpassed herself.”—The New York Times Book Review
"A victory . . . The Interestings secures Wolitzer's place among the best novelists of her generation. . . . She's every bit as literary as Franzen or Eugenides. But the very human moments in her work hit you harder than the big ideas. This isn't women's fiction. It's everyone's."—Entertainment Weekly (A)
The New York Times–bestselling novel by Meg Wolitzer that has been called "genius" (The Chicago Tribune), “wonderful” (Vanity Fair), "ambitious" (San Francisco Chronicle), and a “page-turner” (Cosmopolitan), which The New York Times Book Review says is "among the ranks of books like Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom and Jeffrey Eugenides The Marriage Plot."
The summer that Nixon resigns, six teenagers at a summer camp for the arts become inseparable. Decades later the bond remains powerful, but so much else has changed. In The Interestings, Wolitzer follows these characters from the height of youth through middle age, as their talents, fortunes, and degrees of satisfaction diverge.
The kind of creativity that is rewarded at age fifteen is not always enough to propel someone through life at age thirty; not everyone can sustain, in adulthood, what seemed so special in adolescence. Jules Jacobson, an aspiring comic actress, eventually resigns herself to a more practical occupation and lifestyle. Her friend Jonah, a gifted musician, stops playing the guitar and becomes an engineer. But Ethan and Ash, Jules’s now-married best friends, become shockingly successful—true to their initial artistic dreams, with the wealth and access that allow those dreams to keep expanding. The friendships endure and even prosper, but also underscore the differences in their fates, in what their talents have become and the shapes their lives have taken.
Wide in scope, ambitious, and populated by complex characters who come together and apart in a changing New York City, The Interestings explores the meaning of talent; the nature of envy; the roles of class, art, money, and power; and how all of it can shift and tilt precipitously over the course of a friendship and a life. - 159.The School of Essential Ingredients (A School of Essential Ingredients Novel)From the author of Reese Witherspoon's Book Club pick The Scent Keeper comes a “heartbreakingly delicious” national bestseller about a chef, her students, and the evocative lessons that food teaches about life.
Once a month on a Monday night, eight students gather in Lillian's restaurant for a cooking class. Among them is Claire, a young woman coming to terms with her new identity as a mother; Tom, a lawyer whose life has been overturned by loss; Antonia, an Italian kitchen designer adapting to life in America; and Carl and Helen, a long-married couple whose union contains surprises the rest of the class would never suspect.
The students have come to learn the art behind Lillian's soulful dishes, but it soon becomes clear that each seeks a recipe for something beyond the kitchen. And soon they are transformed by the aromas, flavors, and textures of what they create.... - 160.Bridget Jones's Diary: A NovelThe #1 bestselling book that defined the 20th century—now updated for the 25th Anniversary!
Meet Bridget Jones—a 30-something Singleton who is certain she would have all the answers if she could:
a. lose 7 pounds
b. stop smoking
c. develop Inner Poise
Bridget Jones’s Diary is the devastatingly self-aware, laugh-out-loud daily chronicle of Bridget’s permanent, doomed quest for self-improvement—a year in which she resolves to: visit the gym three times a week, not just to buy a sandwich, form a relationship with a functional adult, and learn to work the television remote.
Over the course of the year, Bridget loses a total of 72 pounds but gains a total of 74. She remains, however, optimistic. Through it all, Bridget will have you helpless with laughter, and—like millions of readers the world round—you’ll find yourself shouting, “Bridget Jones is me!”