DISCUSSION GUIDES

Summary: My Monticello is a debut collection of short stories and a gripping novella in which a diverse cast of characters struggle to find a sense of belonging in America. In the title novella, a young Black descendant of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings leads her grandmother and neighbors to seek refuge at Jefferson’s estate when a white militia drives them out of their homes during a great unraveling.

Summary: This short story collection offering a portrait of Cambodian-American life, diving deep into queer and immigrant communites. As the children of refugees carve out radical new paths for themselves in California, they shoulder the inherited weight of the Khmer Rouge genocide and grapple with the complexities of race, sexuality, friendship, and family.

Summary: A piercing howl of a novel and "a tart pleasure . . . with echoes of Zadie Smith and Sally Rooney," about one young woman’s endless quest for an apartment of her own and the aspirations and challenges faced by the Millennial generation as it finds its footing in the world, from a shockingly talented debut author (Kirkus, starred review).

Summary: The summer of 1932 found Americans struggling in the depths of what would become the Great Depression. Virginian May Marshall struggles to keep her family together and grow her family business. Boston teenager Dorrit Sykes lives hand-to-mouth in a tenement, attempting to cure her anxiety issues and come to terms with her questions of faith. When she joins her father at the Veteran’s Bonus March in Washington, DC, she begins a summer-long odyssey that will lead her to May’s door, where their lives will intersect in ways neither could have anticipated.

Summary: An incredibly beautiful story — rich in history, family sagas, mystery and hardships —by #1 internationally bestselling Lucinda Riley.

Summary: Combining the incisive intimacy of Sally Rooney with the sharp wit of Helen Fielding, Fault Lines is a compulsively readable and astonishingly relatable debut novel about marriage, motherhood, love, self and the vibrant, surprising city that is modern Tokyo.

Summary: From New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Kristen Ashley a compelling and fascinating novel about learning to trust again, in love and in life.

Summary: Letters from war-torn Germany change a great-granddaughter’s life in Lauren Fox’s New York Times bestselling novel, SEND FOR ME. A Today Show Read with Jenna Book Club Pick!

Summary: “In Bombay, motherless Vidya discovers Kathak; the lyrical dance form brings meaning to her life as she wrestles with expectations that she become a certain kind of wife and mother herself.” —Vanity Fair

Summary: In her second full-length collection of poetry, Dr. Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz excavates her own heartbreak and finds her way to a place of healing, peacemaking, and gratitude.