Fiction Old and New

Here is the NLS annotation:

Subjects: Historical Fiction; Family

Description: Henry Lehman leaves Bavaria for the United States to make a better life. He builds a textile dynasty in Alabama. Brothers Emanuel and Mayer expand the family’s holdings. The generations of the Lehman family span one hundred fifty years. Translated from the original 2016 Italian edition. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2020.

Here is the NLS annotation:

Subjects: Friendship Fiction

Description: “Edith and Ashley have been best friends for over forty-two years. They’ve shared the mundane and the momentous together: trick or treating and binge drinking; Gilligan’s Island reruns and REM concerts; hickeys and heartbreak; surprise Scottish wakes; marriages, infertility, and children. As Ash says, “Edi’s memory is like the back-up hard drive for mine.” But now the unthinkable has happened. Edi is dying of ovarian cancer and spending her last days at a hospice near Ash, who stumbles into heartbreak surrounded by her daughters, ex(ish) husband, dear friends, a poorly chosen lover (or two), and a rotating cast of beautifully, fleetingly human hospice characters. As The Fiddler on the Roof soundtrack blasts all day long from the room next door, Edi and Ash reminisce, hold on, and try to let go. Meanwhile, Ash struggles with being an imperfect friend, wife, and parent–with life, in other words, distilled to its heartbreaking, joyful, and comedic essence.” — Provided by publisher. Unra

Here is the NLS annotation:

Subjects: Suspense Fiction

Description: “To all appearances, the Larsen-Hall family has everything: healthy children, a stable marriage, a lucrative career for Brantley, and the means for Daphne to pursue her art full-time. Their deluxe new Miami life has just clicked into place when Luna–the world’s first category 6 hurricane–upends everything they have taken for granted. When the storm makes landfall, it triggers a descent of another sort. Their home destroyed, two of its members missing, and finances abruptly cut off, the family finds everything they assumed about their lives now up for grabs. Swept into a mass rush of evacuees from across the American South, they are transported hundreds of miles to a FEMA megashelter where their new community includes an insurance-agent-turned-drug dealer, a group of vulnerable children, and a dedicated relief worker trying to keep the peace. Will “normal” ever return? A suspenseful read plotted on a vast national tapestry, The Displacements thrillingly explores what happens when priv

Here is the NLS annotation:

Subjects: Historical Fiction

Description: “One blustery night in 1928, a whale washes up on the shores of the English Channel. By law, it belongs to the King, but twelve-year-old orphan Cristabel Seagrave has other plans. She and the rest of the household—her sister, Flossie; her brother, Digby, long-awaited heir to Chilcombe Manor; Maudie Kitcat, kitchen maid; Taras, visiting artist—build a theatre from the beast’s skeletal rib cage. Within the Whalebone Theatre, Cristabel can escape her feckless stepparents and brisk governesses, and her imagination comes to life. As Cristabel grows into a headstrong young woman, World War II rears its head. She and Digby become British secret agents on separate missions in Nazi-occupied France—a more dangerous kind of playacting, it turns out, and one that threatens to tear the family apart.” — Provided by publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook.

The Fiction Old and New book group will be discussing “The Whalebone Theater” DB 110521 by Joanna Quinn on Friday, April 7, 2023 at 8:00 p.m.

Our facilitator for this group is Michelle Bernstein

The Fiction Old and New book group will be discussing the contemporary novel, “Nora Goes Off Script” by Anna Monaghan, D B 1 0 8 6 5 7 on Friday, March 3, 2023 at 8:00 p.m. eastern time.

Here is the NLS annotation:

Nora goes off script DB 108657

Subjects: Romance

Description: “Nora Hamilton knows the formula for love better than anyone. As a romance channel screenwriter, it’s her job. But when her too-good-to work husband leaves her and their two kids, Nora turns her marriage’s collapse into cash and writes the best script of her life. No one is more surprised than her when it’s picked up for the big screen and set to film on location at her 100-year-old-home. When former Sexiest Man Alive, Leo Vance, is cast as her ne’er do well husband Nora’s life will never be the same. The morning after shooting wraps and the crew leaves, Nora finds Leo on her porch with a half-empty bottle of tequila and a proposition. He’ll pay a thousand dollars a day to stay for a week. The extra seven grand would give Nora breathing room, but it’s the need in his eyes that makes her say yes. Seven days: it’s the blink of an eye or an eternity depending on how you look at it. Enough time to fall in love. Enough time to break your heart.” — Provided by publisher. Unrated. Commercial

Our facilitator for this group is Michelle Bernstein

The Fiction Old and New book group discussed the classic novel, “Invisible Man” by Ralph Ellison. Two versions of this novel are available on BARD and both are posted below.

Here are the two book annotations:

1. Invisible man DB 56346

Subjects: Classics

Description: Classic novel of a young black man’s search for identity. Follows the unnamed protagonist from his youth in a Southern town through the depression years in Harlem, where he examines and rejects the values thrust on him by both whites and blacks. Some strong language. National Book Award 1953. 1947.

2. Invisible man DB 09600

Ellison, Ralph. Reading time 17 hours, 43 minutes.

Subjects: General

Description: Classic novel of man’s search for identity. Follows a young black man from his youth in a Southern town through the depression years in Harlem, where he examines and rejects the values thrust on him by both whites and blacks..

Our facilitator for this group is Michelle Bernstein

The Fiction Old and New book group is privileged to welcome guest host Shelly Kane who will lead the discussion of the suspense novel, “Behind Every Lie” by Christina McDonald, D B 9 9 6 9 4 on Friday, January 6, 2023 at 8:00 p.m. eastern time.

Here is the NLS annotation:

Behind every lie DB 99694

Subjects: Suspense Fiction; Psychological Fiction

Description: Eva Hansen wakes in the hospital after being struck by lightning and discovers her mother, Kat, has been murdered. Eva was found unconscious down the street. She can’t remember what happened but the police are highly suspicious of her. Determined to clear her name, Eva heads from Seattle to London–Kat’s former home–for answers. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2020.

Here is the NLS annotation:

Musical chairs DB 100230

Subjects: General

Description: Cellist Bridget Stratton and her best friend Will are part of a chamber music trio in need of a new violinist. Bridget’s plans for a relaxing summer in the Connecticut countryside crumble when her boyfriend breaks up with her and her two grown children show up with their own problems. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2020.

Our facilitator for this group is Michelle Bernstein

The Fiction Old and New book group will be discussing “A Town Called Solace” by acclaimed

Canadian author Mary Lawson, D B 1 0 8 0 1 0 on Friday, November 4, 2022 at 8:00 p.m.

Here is the NLS annotation:

A town called Solace DB 108010

Subjects: Family

Description: In 1970s Ontario, sixteen-year-old Rose is missing. Angry and rebellious, she stormed out of the house and simply disappeared. Left behind is seven-year-old Clara, Rose’s adoring little sister. Clara finds comfort in caring for her hospitalized neighbor Mrs. Orchard’s cat, until a strange man moves into Mrs. Orchard’s house. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2021.

Our facilitator for this group is Michelle Bernstein