Cozy Corner Book Club

Shawn and Lindsey discuss The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins, the prequel to the bestselling YA dystopian series The Hunger Games | SPOILER ALERT! As always, we will discuss spoilers in this chat. If that's not your thing, come back after you read the book! With this book, we will also be openly discussing the trilogy. | "Ambition will fuel him. Competition will drive him. But power has its price." | Intro and outro by Smooth Lovin by Kevin MacLeod, Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4379-smooth-lovin, License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Shawn and Lindsey discuss The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern, an Adult contemporary fantasy novel. | SPOILER ALERT! As always, we will discuss spoilers in this chat. If that's not your thing, come back after you read the book!| "Far beneath the surface of the earth, upon the shores of the Starless Sea, there is a labyrinthine collection of tunnels and rooms filled with stories. The entryways that lead to this sanctuary are often hidden, sometimes on forest floors, sometimes in private homes, sometimes in plain sight. But those who seek will find. Their doors have been waiting for them." | Intro and outro by Smooth Lovin by Kevin MacLeod, Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4379-smooth-lovin, License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Shawn and Lindsey discuss Graceling by Kristin Cashore, a Young Adult fantasy novel, and the first in a series.| SPOILER ALERT! As always, we will discuss spoilers in this chat. But only spoilers for this book, not the rest of the series! | "The book tells the story of Katsa, a young woman with a "Grace", or power, which enhances her survival skills and makes her a highly efficient killer. It takes place in a world where Gracelings, or people with special powers, are identified as children because their eyes are two different colors and put in the service of the king."| Intro and outro by Smooth Lovin by Kevin MacLeod, Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4379-smooth-lovin, License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

For April, we finally got to read the much anticipated Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid! This book is written in a unique biopic format, which makes it feel like an episode of Inside the Music on MTV. | SPOILER ALERT! As always, we will discuss spoilers in this chat. If that's not your thing, no worries. Come back after you read the book! | "Everyone knows DAISY JONES & THE SIX, but nobody knows the reason behind their split at the absolute height of their popularity . . . until now. Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it’s the rock ’n’ roll she loves most. By the time she’s twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things. Also getting noticed is The Six, a band led by the brooding Billy Dunne. On the eve of their first tour, his girlfriend Camila finds out she’s pregnant, and with the pressure of impending fatherhood and fame, Billy goes a little wild on the road. Daisy and Billy cross paths when a producer realizes that the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend." | Intro and outro by Smooth Lovin by Kevin MacLeod, Link, https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4379-smooth-lovin, License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This month Shawn and Lindsey are revisiting a childhood favorite, Midnight for Charlie Bone by Jenny Nimmo. | SPOILER ALERT! As always, we will discuss spoilers in this chat. But only spoilers for this book, not the rest of the series! | "A magical fantasy that is fast-paced and easy-to-read. Charlie Bone has a special gift- he can hear people in photographs talking. The fabulous powers of the Red King were passed down through his descendants, after turning up quite unexpectedly, in someone who had no idea where they came from. This is what happened to Charlie Bone, and to some of the children, he met behind the grim, gray walls of Bloor's Academy. Charlie Bone has discovered an unusual gift-he can hear people in photographs talking! His scheming aunts decide to send him to Bloor Academy, a school for genius's where he uses his gifts to discover the truth despite all the dangers that lie ahead." | Intro and outro by Smooth Lovin by Kevin MacLeod, Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4379-smooth-lovin, License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

In the month of love, Shawn and Lindsey are continuing their personal growth journeys with The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman. | As this is a non-fiction book, there's not spoilers per se. But anything in the book is fair game for our discussion. | "Marriage should be based on love, right? But does it seem as though you and your spouse are speaking two different languages? New York Times bestselling author Dr. Gary Chapman guides couples in identifying, understanding, and speaking their spouse’s primary love language—quality time, words of affirmation, gifts, acts of service, or physical touch. By learning the five love languages, you and your spouse will discover your unique love languages and learn practical steps in truly loving each other. Chapters are categorized by love language for easy reference, and each one ends with specific, simple steps to express a specific language to your spouse and guide your marriage in the right direction. A newly designed love languages assessment will help you understand and strengthen your relationship. You can build a lasting, loving marriage together." | Intro and outro by Smooth Lovin by Kevin MacLeod, Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4379-smooth-lovin, License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

We're ringing in 2020 with a throwback to the Roaring 20s, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald! | SPOILER ALERT! As always, we will discuss spoilers in this chat. If that's not your thing, no worries. Come back after you read the book! | "The Great Gatsby is a novel written by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald and first published in 1925. It follows a cast of characters living in the fictional town of West Egg on prosperous Long Island in the summer of 1922. The story primarily concerns the young and mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and his quixotic passion for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan. Considered to be Fitzgerald's magnum opus, The Great Gatsby explores themes of decadence, idealism, resistance to change, social upheaval, and excess, creating a portrait of the Jazz Age or the Roaring Twenties that has been described as a cautionary tale regarding the American Dream."

Christmas time calls for classics, so this month we're reading A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens! | SPOILER ALERT! As always, we will discuss spoilers in this chat. If that's not your thing, no worries. Come back after you read the book! | "A Christmas Carol, is a novella by Charles Dickens, first published in London by Chapman & Hall in 1843 and illustrated by John Leech. A Christmas Carol recounts the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, an elderly miser who is visited by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley and the spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come."

What's better than getting cozy on the couch with a blanket and a good mystery? That's how we spent our month reading The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith (AKA our queen JK Rowling). | SPOILER ALERT! As always, we will discuss spoilers in this chat. If that's not your thing, no worries. Come back after you read the book! | "After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator. Strike is down to one client, creditors are calling, and after a breakup with his longtime girlfriend, he's living in his office. Then John Bristow walks through his door with a shocking story: His sister, the legendary supermodel Lula Landry -- known to her friends as the Cuckoo -- famously fell to her death a few months earlier. The police ruled it a suicide, but John refuses to believe that. The case plunges Strike into the world of multimillionaire beauties, rock-star boyfriends, and desperate designers, and it introduces him to every variety of pleasure, enticement, seduction, and delusion known to man. You may think you know detectives, but you've never met one quite like Strike. You may think you know about the wealthy and famous, but you've never seen them under an investigation like this."

This month Shawn and Lindsey are joined by Lindsey's high school literature teacher Cari Andreani to discuss the horror classic Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. | SPOILER ALERT! As always, we will discuss spoilers in this chat. If that's not your thing, no worries. Come back after you read the book! | "Mary Shelley began writing Frankenstein when she was only eighteen. At once a Gothic thriller, a passionate romance, and a cautionary tale about the dangers of science, Frankenstein tells the story of committed science student Victor Frankenstein. Obsessed with discovering the cause of generation and life and bestowing animation upon lifeless matter, Frankenstein assembles a human being from stolen body parts but; upon bringing it to life, he recoils in horror at the creature’s hideousness. Tormented by isolation and loneliness, the once-innocent creature turns to evil and unleashes a campaign of murderous revenge against his creator, Frankenstein."