DISCUSSION GUIDES

Summary: Three Ordinary Girls by award-winning historian Tim Brady is the astonishing true story of three fearless teenage resisters during WWII whose youth and innocence belied their extraordinary daring in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands.

Summary: A Scottish police inspector deals with forgeries and false identities in a new murder mystery from bestselling author Val McDermid.

Summary: We Begin at the End is an extraordinary novel about two kinds of families: the ones we are born into and the ones we create.

Summary: Solène Marchand begins an impassioned affair with a member of her daughter’s favorite boy band.

Summary: Based on a true story, At the Wolf’s Table centers around twenty-six-year-old Rosa Sauer who is conscripted, along with nine other women, to become one of Hitler’s tasters. Resentment and secrets begin to grow as a divide is formed within the group of women: on one side, those who are loyal to Hitler and on the other, those who insist they’re not, even as they risk their lives for him. Soon, everyone begins to wonder if they’re on the wrong side of history.

Summary: Under the rule of a ruthless dictator in a country on the brink of war, three women will risk everything to protect what matters most.

Summary: "Master of craft and narrative" Walter Mosley returns with this crowning achievement in the Easy Rawlins saga, in which the iconic detective's loyalties are tested on the sun-soaked streets of Southern California (National Book Foundation)

Summary: Winner of the 2020 Booker Prize, Shuggie Bain is a stunning debut novel by a masterful writer telling the heartwrenching story of a young boy and his alcoholic mother, whose love is only matched by her pride. Recalling the work of Édouard Louis, Alan Hollinghurst, Frank McCourt, and Hanya Yanagihara, Shuggie Bain is an epic portrayal of a working-class family that is rarely seen in fiction.

Summary: In a post-apocalyptic South Africa, Ebba den Eeden is elevated from the underground bunker where she’s lived her whole life to discover that she’s the heiress to a massive fortune—and an ancient prophecy to save the human race.

Summary: Called "simply enchanting" by New York Times bestselling author Lisa Wingate, this harrowing story follows an enslaved woman forced to barter love and freedom while living in the most infamous slave jail in Virginia.