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DISCUSSION GUIDES
- 11.
The HelpSummary: The #1 New York Times bestselling novel and basis for the Academy Award-winning film—a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don’t—nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read.
Aibileen is a black maid in 1962 Jackson, Mississippi, who’s always taken orders quietly, but lately she’s unable to hold her bitterness back. Her friend Minny has never held her tongue but now must somehow keep secrets about her employer that leave her speechless. White socialite Skeeter just graduated college. She’s full of ambition, but without a husband, she’s considered a failure.
Together, these seemingly different women join together to write a tell-all book about work as a black maid in the South, that could forever alter their destinies and the life of a small town... - 12.
Sounds Like LoveSummary: A hitmaking songwriter and a bitter musician share a startling and inexplicable connection that they’ll do anything to shake, in the next sparkling, magical book from the New York Times bestselling author of The Seven Year Slip and A Novel Love Story.
Named a Most Anticipated book of Summer 2025 by The New York Times ∙ People ∙ USA Today ∙ Marie Claire ∙ E! News ∙ Brit + Co ∙ Yahoo! Life ∙ She Reads ∙ and more!
Joni Lark has a secret. She’s one of the most coveted songwriters in LA, and yet she can’t write. There’s an emptiness inside her, and nothing seems to fill it.
When she returns to her hometown of Vienna Shores, North Carolina, she hopes that the sand, the surf, and the concerts at The Revelry, her family’s music venue, will spark inspiration. But when Joni gets there, nothing is how she left it. Her best friend is hiding something, her mother’s memories are fading fast, and The Revelry is closing.
How can Joni write when her world is leaving her behind?
Until she hears it. A melody in her head, lyric-less and half-formed, and an alluring and addictive voice to go with it—belonging, apparently, to a wry musician with an emptiness of his own.
Surely, he’s a figment of Joni’s overworked imagination.
Then a very real man shows up in Vienna Shores. He’s arrogant and guarded—nothing like the sweet, funny voice in Joni’s head—and he has a plan for breaking their inconvenient telepathic connection: finish the song haunting them both and hope they don’t risk their hearts—or their secrets—in the process.
Because that melody, the one drawing them together . . . what if it’s there for a reason? - 13.
Summers at the Saint: A NovelSummary:"Andrews perfectly balances the second chance-romance with the twisty mystery against a beachy backdrop that will please any armchair traveler." --Publishers Weekly
"A fun, heart-warming, and intriguing summer read. For readers who’d enjoy a blend of friendships (old and new), budding romance, and secrets held within the walls of a hotel that needs rescuing, as in Elin Hilderbrand’s The Hotel Nantucket." --Library Journal
Book your summer escape with a "mesmerizing mix of mystery and romance" (Publishers Weekly, starred) from the New York Times bestselling author of The Homewreckers and The Newcomer.
Welcome to the St. Cecelia, a landmark hotel on the coast of Georgia, where traditions run deep and scandals run even deeper. . . .
Everyone refers to the St. Cecelia as “the Saint.” If you grew up coming here, you were “a Saint.” If you came from the wrong side of the river, you were “an Ain’t.” Traci Eddings was one of those outsiders whose family wasn’t rich enough or connected enough to vacation here. But she could work here. One fateful summer she did, and married the boss’s son. Now, she’s the widowed owner of the hotel, determined to see it return to its glory days, even as staff shortages and financial troubles threaten to ruin it. Plus, her greedy and unscrupulous brother-in-law wants to make sure she fails. Enlisting a motley crew of recently hired summer help—including the daughter of her estranged best friend—Traci has one summer season to turn it around. But new information about a long-ago drowning at the hotel threatens to come to light, and the tragic death of one of their own brings Traci to the brink of despair.
Traci Eddings has her back against the pink-painted wall of this beloved institution. And it will take all the wits and guts she has to see wrongs put to right, to see guilty parties put in their place, and maybe even to find a new romance along the way. Told with Mary Kay Andrew’s warmth, humor, knack for twists, and eye for delicious detail about human nature, Summers at the Saint is a beach read with depth and heart. - 14.
Hear & Beyond: Live Skillfully with Hearing LossSummary:**Gold Medal winner of the IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award in the Health & Fitness category**
Hearing loss doesn’t come with an operating manual—until now.
If you have hearing loss, you already know that the conventional approach to treatment is focused on hearing-aid technology. Without a handbook to help you figure out how to actually live with it, you’ve likely been getting by on information pieced together from various sources—and yet, communication often seems incomplete and unsatisfying.
What’s missing from this hearing care model is the big picture—a real-life illustration of how hearing loss, its emotions, and its barriers affect every corner of your life. Now, hearing-health advocates, consultants, and speakers Shari Eberts and Gael Hannan offer a new skills-based approach to hearing loss that is centered not on hearing better, but on communicating better.
With honesty and humor, they share their own hearing loss journeys, and outline invaluable insights, strategies, and workarounds to help you engage with the world and be heard. You’ll gain tips for navigating all areas impacted by hearing loss, including relationships, work, technology; strategies for adopting a new, empowering mindset towards your hearing loss; and communication behaviors that can make almost any listening situation manageable.
Informed by the lived experiences of thousands of people living with hearing loss, and corroborated by hearing science, technological advances, and modern hearing-care principles, Hear & Beyond offers a new way forward to greater connection and engagement—whether you’re new to hearing loss or have been living with it for a long time.
Hearing loss is just one aspect of who you are, among many others. You may have hearing loss, but it doesn’t have to have you. - 15.
- 16.
The Resistance Bakery: A totally gripping and emotional World War Two historical novel full of family secretsSummary:Paris, 1943. The scent of fresh baguettes hangs in the air as Coralie unbolts the door to her bakery with trembling fingers. She must get out of the city. Hiding her precious leather recipe book inside her coat, she promises never to let the secret locations of the people she worked tirelessly to save fall into German hands...
Present day. Raven is unhappy about being shipped off to the other side of the country for the summer to stay with the mysterious French grandmother she barely knows. And discovering a tattered, leather-bound book with yellowed pages full of handwritten recipes and coded numbers, she is stunned.
Her grandmother has never baked for her. And she refuses to talk about Paris, or the past. Flipping through the book, a faded photograph of a laughing couple falls out. As Raven scans the writing on the back she can scarcely believe her eyes...
What really happened in that tiny French bakery all those years ago? And could this forgotten recipe book finally bring healing to a woman still haunted by wartime secrets? Or has Raven's discovery shattered any chance of bonding with her grandmother, before her time runs out?
The Resistance Bakery is an unforgettable page-turner about forbidden love and family secrets in World War Two. Fans of The Letter, The Nightingale and Fiona Valpy will be totally hooked.
Read what everyone is saying about Siobhan Curham:
'Heartbreaking, pulse-pounding, inspiring!... Remarkable... thrilling and an absolute page-turner. I could not put this book down... makes your heart soar and gives you hope... I loved this! I would give this book 6 stars if I could!' NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'Wow, this heart-wrenching story is one that I couldn't put down... I found my heart racing, with tears flowing down my face at the turn of each page... This heartbreaking story is full of love, loss and the bonds of friendship and family... I was so inspired... an unbelievable, phenomenal story... I highly recommend this ten-star read.' Page Turners, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'Heartbreaking... left me devastated... ripped me to shreds... incredible... beautiful... shines with the resilience and power of the human spirit... powerful... has changed my heart forever.' Cindylspear, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'An emotional, heartbreaking and gripping read... There were times that I wished I could call in sick to work just so I could keep reading!' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'Heartbreaking and gripping... had me in tears... One that I will not forget anytime soon... I could not stop reading from the moment I started... Unputdownable... An absolute must read for historical fiction fans. Keep the Kleenex box nearby because you will surely need it. I wish I could give ten stars to this phenomenal story.' Page Turners, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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Facing the Mountain: An Inspiring Story of Japanese American Patriots in World War IISummary: A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
One of NPR's "Books We Love" of 2021
Longlisted for the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography
Winner of the Christopher Award
“Masterly. An epic story of four Japanese-American families and their sons who volunteered for military service and displayed uncommon heroism… Propulsive and gripping, in part because of Mr. Brown’s ability to make us care deeply about the fates of these individual soldiers...a page-turner.” – Wall Street Journal
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Boys in the Boat, a gripping World War II saga of patriotism and resistance, focusing on four Japanese American men and their families, and the contributions and sacrifices that they made for the sake of the nation.
In the days and months after Pearl Harbor, the lives of Japanese Americans across the continent and Hawaii were changed forever. In this unforgettable chronicle of war-time America and the battlefields of Europe, Daniel James Brown portrays the journey of Rudy Tokiwa, Fred Shiosaki, and Kats Miho, who volunteered for the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and were deployed to France, Germany, and Italy, where they were asked to do the near impossible. Brown also tells the story of these soldiers' parents, immigrants who were forced to submit to life in concentration camps on U.S. soil. Woven throughout is the chronicle of Gordon Hirabayashi, one of a cadre of patriotic resisters who stood up against their government in defense of their own rights. Whether fighting on battlefields or in courtrooms, these were Americans under unprecedented strain, doing what Americans do best—striving, resisting, pushing back, rising up, standing on principle, laying down their lives, and enduring. - 18.
Squirrel Pie: A MemoirSummary:Squirrel Pie is a true story of the painful realities around abuse, addiction, mental illness, and generational trauma. It is also a success story; a story in which perseverance, resilience, compassion, and unexpected allies lead Debbie to a life of healthy connections and choosing joy.
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Black Void: Nowhere to RunSummary:In a world teetering on the brink of unimaginable chaos, can humanity survive the very power it sought to control?
- 20.
Carrying the Tiger: Living with Cancer, Dying with Grace, Finding Joy While GrievingSummary:Poignant, heartrending, and ultimately hopeful, Carrying the Tiger is a memoir for anyone hoping to find comfort in discomfort and embrace a new perspective on death.