Next Writing Workshop Deadline: May 28

Middle Reader Bookclub meets Sun, May 18 at 2pm to discuss THE PENDERWICKS by Jeanne Birdsall.
Ages 7 to 12.

Newtonville Bookclub meets on Tues, May 27 at 7pm to discuss THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST by Mohsin Hamid

1001 Bookclub meets Mon, June 2 at 2pm
to discuss INVISIBLE MAN by Ralph Ellison.

UPCOMING EVENTS

NO CREAM PUFFS:

MADISON IS NOT your average 12-year-old girl from Michigan in 1980. She doesn’t use lipgloss, but she loves to play sports, and joins baseball for the summer—the first girl in Southern Michigan to play on a boys’ team. The press call her a star and a trailblazer, but Madison just wants to play ball. Who knew it would be so much pressure? Crowds flock to the games. Her team will win the championship—if she can keep up her pitching streak. Meanwhile, she’s got a crush on a fellow player, her best friend abandons her for the popular girls, the “O” on her Hinton’s uniform forms a bulls-eye over her left breast, and the boy she punched on the last day of school plans to bean her in the championship game.

PRIMAVERA:

The Italian Renaissance was a cultural explosion of art, architecture and learning, but it had a darker side. Two powerful families, the tyrannical Medici and their biggest rivals, the Pazzi, are tangled in a bloody struggle for ultimate power. Caught in the whirlwind is Flora, the last daughter of the Pazzi. As her beautiful older sister is being painted by the famed artist Botticelli, Flora is dreading her fate. Destined for life in a convent, Flora is determined to take matters into her own hands, even as her world crumbles around her. When Flora decides runs away, she has no idea that the decision will save her life. As her family falls to their murderous enemy, Flora must find a new life and a new identity.

Inspired by actual events, Primavera is a dazzling coming of age story set during a time of beauty and wealth, ambition, rivalry and brutality. Historical art references to Boticelli and his famous painting, Primavera, give this book an appeal similar to Girl with a Pearl Earring.

++Tues, June 10, 7PM: Nina de Gramont, author of GOSSIP OF THE STARLINGS, and JoeAnn Hart, author of ADDLED - Books & Brews

GOSSIP OF THE STARLINGS:

When Catherine Morrow is admitted to the Esther Percy School for Girls, it's on the condition that she reform her ways. But that's before the charismatic and beautiful Skye Butterfield, daughter of the famous Senator Butterfield, chooses Catherine for her best friend. Skye is a young woman hell-bent on a trajectory of self-destruction, and she doesn't care who is taken down with her. No matter the transgression—a stolen credit card, a cocaine binge, an affair with a teacher, an accident that precipitates the end of Catherine's promising riding career—Catherine can neither resist Skye's spell nor stop her downward spiral.

De Gramont's chilling novel is a portrait of an adolescent girl so thoroughly seduced by a peer that she willingly follows her to ruin. Caught in a world that is both appealing and astonishing, these young women are sexual beings with the minds of teenagers: willful, selfish, daring, and cruel—all the while believing they're utterly indestructible.

ADDLED:

Eden Rock Country Club is a grand New England institution, a lush haven of leisure and cocktails, where gossip and intrigue lurk discreetly behind a veil of old-world propriety. But one Fourth of July, a flock of geese descends on the club's manicured lawns; never fond of outsiders, the Eden Rock denizens find these new guests distinctly unwelcome.

When Charles Lambert, a bond trader with a strong portfolio but a weak golf game, accidentally kills a goose with a wayward drive, he sets in motion a series of events that will leave the club and its members changed forever. His wife, Madeline, must face the mutterings of other members about the state of her marriage--and his sanity. Meanwhile, their daughter, an animal rights activist, mounts a quixotic campaign to make the club go vegan, much to the annoyance of Vita, a talented, obsessive chef who has her own plans for the geese.

A deftly observed social comedy, ADDLED is a rich and riotous story of old money, new ideas, and the power of passion to disrupt even the most orderly of worlds.

++Thu, June 12, 7PM: Mameve Medwed, author of OF MEN AND THEIR MOTHERS, and THE BELIEVER cofounder Ed Park, author of PERSONAL DAYS - Books & Brews

OF MEN AND THEIR MOTHERS:

All men have mothers is a hard truth that the newly unhyphenated Maisie Grey has learned the hard way. When she finally gets rid of the mama's-boy husband and happily settles down with her teenage son, Tommy, she's still stuck with her irascible mother-in-law, a woman who never liked her, criticized her every step of the way, and yet, as Tommy's grandmother, refuses to exit the family stage gracefully.

Maisie keeps it together with her own business, Factotum, Inc., where she does it all for her clients— everything from watering plants, typing up lecture notes, and cataloguing cookbooks. In between she balances a relationship with a man who still lives in—where else but?—his mother's house and mentors her sole employee, Darlene, now fighting for custody of both her breast milk and her child. Burned by the MIL-from-hell, Maisie vows that when Tommy brings someone home, she will be empathetic and supportive, and envelop the young woman in a loving embrace . . . the opposite of her own experience.

But along comes September Silva, with her piercings, short skirts, black nail polish, and stay-out-all-night attitude, completely unsuitable for Maisie's teenage son! When September's mother kicks her out, Maisie is forced to take a clear-eyed look at class differences, preconceived notions of men and women, and what it means to be a wife, a friend, and a nonjudgmental mother. When do you let go? And how do you let go if you're sure your son is making a very big mistake?

Maisie's challenge: to build a grown-up life and to find a man grown-up enough to have disentangled himself from those unrelenting, all-engulfing apron strings.

PERSONAL DAYS:

In an unnamed New York-based company, the employees are getting restless as everything around them unravels. There’s Pru, the former grad student turned spreadsheet drone; Laars, the hysteric whose work anxiety stalks him in his tooth-grinding dreams; and Jack II, who distributes unwanted backrubs–aka “jackrubs”–to his co-workers. On a Sunday, one of them is called at home. And the Firings begin.

Rich with Orwellian doublespeak, filled with sabotage and romance, this astonishing literary debut is at once a comic delight and a narrative tour de force. It’s a novel for anyone who has ever worked in an office and wondered: “Where does the time go? Where does the life go? And whose banana is in the fridge?”

++Thu, June 19, 7PM: Alison Bass, author of SIDE EFFECTS, and Michael Dahlie, author of A GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE TO GRACEFUL LIVING - Books & Brews

SIDE EFFECTS:

As the mental health reporter for the Boston Globe, Alison Bass's front-page reporting on conflicts of interest in medical research stunned readers, and her series on sexual misconduct among psychiatrists earned a Pulitzer Prize nomination. Now she turns her investigative skills to a controversial case that exposed the increased suicide rates among adolescents taking antidepressants such as Paxil, Prozac, and Zoloft.

Side Effects tells the tale of a gutsy assistant attorney general who, along with an unlikely whistle-blower at an Ivy League university, uncovered evidence of deception behind one of the most successful drug campaigns in history. Paxil was the world's bestselling antidepressant in 2002. Pediatric prescriptions soared, even though there was no proof that the drug performed any better than sugar pills in treating children and adolescents, and the real risks the drugs posed were withheld from the public. The New York State Attorney General's office brought an unprecedented lawsuit against giant manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline, the maker of Paxil, for consumer fraud. The successful suit launched a tidal wave of protest that changed the way drugs are tested, sold, and marketed in this country.

With meticulous research, Alison Bass shows us the underbelly of the pharmaceutical industry. She lays bare the unhealthy ties between the medical establishment, big pharma, and the FDA—relationships that place vulnerable children and adults at risk every day.

A GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE TO GRACEFUL LIVING:

In this darkly hilarious and moving novel, a bumbling Manhattan blueblood must rebuild his life after his marriage and business fail.

Arthur Camden's greatest talents are for packing and unpacking suitcases, making coleslaw, and second-guessing every decision in his life. When his business fails and his wife leaves him—to pursue more aggressive men—Arthur finds that he has none of the talents and finesse that everyone else seems to possess for navigating New York society.

Arthur tries to reinvigorate his life with comic and tragic results: He dates women with no interest in him, burns down his Catskills fly-fishing club, runs afoul of the law in France, and disgraces himself before family members. Just when Arthur hits the depths of despair, an eccentric suitor (a woman who happens to resemble the model on Arthur's vitamin bottles) helps him take a leap into a wonderful unknown.

Michael Dahlie's novel digs into the consciousness of a self-doubting everyman—a man who, with a little inspiration, just might become something of a brilliant success.

++Sun, June 22, 2PM: Margot Livesey, author of THE HOUSE ON FORTUNE STREET, and DeWitt Henry, author of SAFE SUICIDE - Books & Brews

THE HOUSE ON FORTUNE STREET:

The absorbing latest from Livesey (Homework) opens multiple perspectives on the life of Dara MacLeod, a young London therapist, partly by paying subtle homage to literary figures and works. The first of four sections follows Keats scholar Sean Wyman: his girlfriend, Abigail, is Dara's best friend, and the couple lives upstairs from Dara in the titular London house. While Dara tries to coax her boyfriend Edward to move out of the house he shares with his ex-girlfriend and daughter, Sean receives a mysterious letter implying that Abigail is having an affair, and both relationships start to fall apart. The second section, set during Dara's childhood, is narrated by Dara's father, who has a strange fascination with Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll) and shares Dodgson's creepy interest in young girls. Dara's meeting with Edward dominates part three, which mirrors the plot of Jane Eyre, and the final part, reminiscent of Great Expectations, is told mainly from Abigail's college-era point of view. The pieces cross-reference and fit together seamlessly, with Dara's fate being revealed by the end of part one and explained in the denouement. Livesey's use of the classics enriches the narrative, giving Dara a larger-than-life resonance.

SAFE SUICIDE:

In this interconnected collection of autobiographical essays, we're brought into the fascinating life of a Boston-area novelist and editor struggling to build a viable writing career, sustain an important literary journal, and become a loving husband, father, and friend. Since these struggles are all accompanied by drama and pain (but also unexpected pleasures), DeWitt Henry's vivid collection reads like an absorbing coming-of-age memoir. (Boston Globe)

++Thu, June 26, 7PM: Scott Heim, author of WE DISAPPEAR, and Francie Lin, author of THE FOREIGNER - Books & Brews

WE DISAPPEAR:

The body of a teenage boy is discovered in a Kansas field. The murder haunts Donna—a recent widow battling cancer—calling forth troubling details from long-suppressed memories of her past. Hoping to discover more about "disappeared" people, she turns to her son, Scott, who is fighting demons of his own. Addicted to methamphetamines and sleeping pills, Scott is barely holding on—though the chance to help his mother in her strange and desperate search holds out a slim promise of some small salvation.

But what he finds is a boy named Otis handcuffed in a secret basement room, and the questions that arise seem too disturbing even to contemplate. With his mother's health rapidly deteriorating, he must surrender to his own obsession, and unravel Otis's unsettling connections to other missing teens . . . and, ultimately, to Scott himself.

THE FOREIGNER:

Set against the Taiwanese criminal underworld, The Foreigner is Francie Lin's audacious debut novel. A noirish tale about family, fraternity, conscience, and the curious gulf between a man's culture and his deepest self

Emerson Chang is a mild mannered bachelor on the cusp of forty, a financial analyst in a neatly pressed suit, a child of Taiwanese immigrants who doesn't speak a word of Chinese, and, well, a virgin. His only real family is his mother, whose subtle manipulations have kept him close--all in the name of preserving an obscure idea of family and culture.

But when his mother suddenly dies, Emerson sets out for Taipei to scatter her ashes, and to convey a surprising inheritance to his younger brother, Little P. Now enmeshed in the Taiwanese criminal underworld, Little P seems to be running some very shady business out of his uncle's karaoke bar, and he conceals a secret--a crime that has not only severed him from his family, but may have annihilated his conscience. Hoping to appease both the living and the dead, Emerson isn’t about to give up the inheritance until he uncovers Little P's past, and saves what is left of his family.

The Foreigner is a darkly comic tale of crime and contrition, and a riveting story about what it means to be a foreigner--even in one's own family.

++Tues, July 8, 7PM: Jennifer Haigh, author of THE CONDITION - Books & Brews

The Condition tells the story of the McKotches, a proper New England family that comes apart during one fateful summer. The year is 1976, and the family—Frank McKotch, an eminent scientist; his pedigreed wife, Paulette; and their three beautiful children—has embarked on its annual vacation at the Captain's House, the grand old family retreat on Cape Cod. One day on the beach, Frank is struck by an image he cannot forget: his thirteen-year-old daughter, Gwen, strangely infantile in her child-sized bikini, standing a full head shorter than her younger cousin Charlotte. At that moment he knows a truth that he can never again unknow—something is terribly wrong with his only daughter. The McKotch family will never be the same.

Twenty years after Gwen's diagnosis with Turner's syndrome—a genetic condition that has prevented her from maturing, trapping her forever in the body of a child—all five family members are still dealing with the fallout. Each believes himself crippled by some secret pathology; each feels responsible for the family's demise. Frank and Paulette are acrimoniously divorced. Billy, the eldest son, is dutiful but distant—a handsome Manhattan cardiologist with a life built on compromise. His brother, Scott, awakens from a pot-addled adolescence to a soul-killing job, a regrettable marriage, and a vinyl-sided tract house in the suburbs. And Gwen is silent and emotionally aloof, a bright, accomplished woman who spurns any interaction with those around her. She makes peace with the hermetic life she's constructed—until, well into her thirties, she falls in love for the first time. And suddenly, once again, the family's world is tilted on its axis.

Compassionate yet unflinchingly honest, witty and almost painfully astute, The Condition explores the power of family mythologies—the self-delusions, denials, and inescapable truths that forever bind fathers and mothers and siblings.

++Thu, July 10, 7PM: Ron McLarty, author of ART IN AMERICA - Books & Brews

A funny and heartwarming novel about a down-on-his-luck writer who finally finds success and love

Steven Kearney is a bumbling, overweight writer who has produced thousands of pages of novels, plays, and poems—not a single one of which has ever been published. After being thrown out of his Manhattan apartment, Kearney is offered a position as playwright-in-residence for three months at the Creedemore Historical Society in Colorado, who want him to write and direct a historical play about the town. When Kearney arrives, all hell breaks loose. A dispute between an elderly landowner, Ticky Lettgo, and a young man named Red Fields escalates into a battle that pits local ranchers against a fringe anti-property group. Town sheriff Petey Meyers, still haunted by the death of his police partner, tries to keep the peace. As the national media descends on the town, the most extreme member of the activist group initiates a diabolical plan that could sabotage everything.

Amid all the tumult, Kearney pens a play that brilliantly captures the history of the town. In the process, he realizes he’s too old to keep beating up on himself and finds lasting love. With its lively characters and spellbinding pace, Ron McLarty’s new novel is sure to please.

++Sun, July 13, 2PM: Darin Strauss, author of MORE THAN IT HURTS YOU, and Salvatore Scibona, author of THE END - Books & Brews

MORE THAN IT HURTS YOU:

The acclaimed author of Chang and Eng returns with a literary showstopper— a beautifully realized novel that at its heart is the story of a woman who will risk everything to feel something; a doctor whose diagnosis brings her entire life into question; and a man who suddenly realizes that being a good husband and a good father can no longer comfortably coexist.

Josh Goldin was savoring a Friday afternoon break in the coffee room, harmlessly flirting with coworkers while anticipating the weekend at home where his wife, Dori, waited with their eight-month-old son, Zack. And then Josh’s secretary rushed in, using words like intensive care, lost consciousness, blood. . . .

That morning, Dori had walked into the emergency room with her son in severe distress. Enter Dr. Darlene Stokes: an African-American physician and single mother whose life is dedicated both to her own son and navigating the tricky maze of modern-day medicine. But something about Dori stirred the doctor’s suspicions. Darlene had heard of the sensational diagnosis of Munchausen by Proxy, where a mother intentionally harms her baby, but had never come upon a case of it before. It was rarely diagnosed and extraordinarily controversial. Could it possibly have happened here?

As their four lives intersect with dramatic consequences, Darlene, Dori, and Josh are pushed to their breaking points as they confront the nightmare that has become their new reality. Darin Strauss’s extraordinary novel is set in a world turned upside down—where doctors try to save babies from their parents, police use the law to tear families apart, and the people you know the best end up surprising you the most.

THE END:

++Thu, July 17, 7PM: Don Lee, author of WRACK AND RUIN - Books & Brews

An exhilarating comic satire with the quirky energy of The Wonder Boys and Sideways.

Lyndon Song, a renowned sculptor, has fled New York City to become a Brussels sprouts farmer in the small California town of Rosarita Bay. Lyndon has a brother, Woody, an indicted financier turned movie producer, and Woody has a plan, involving a golf-course resort on Lyndon's land and an aging kung-fu diva from Hong Kong with a mean kick and a meaner drinking problem.

A dreadlocked buddy with an artificial leg, a small plot of exceptionally lush marijuana, two field biologists studying western snowy plovers, a disgraced museum curator, and Lyndon's great love, the impulsive mayor of Rosarita Bay—these are only some of the complications in Lyndon and Woody's lives over one madcap Labor Day weekend.

Hilarious and philosophical, this many-hued novel about the landscape of contemporary "multicultural" America is critically acclaimed Don Lee's best book yet.

++Tues, July 22, 7PM: Andre Dubus III, author of THE GARDEN OF LAST DAYS - Books & Brews

From the author of the New York Times bestseller and Oprah's Book Club selection House of Sand and Fog—a new big-hearted, painful, page-turning novel.

One early September night in Florida, a stripper brings her daughter to work. April's usual babysitter is in the hospital, so she decides it's best to have her three-year-old daughter close by, watching children's videos in the office, while she works.

Except that April works at the Puma Club for Men. And tonight she has an unusual client, a foreigner both remote and too personal, and free with his money. Lots of it, all cash. His name is Bassam. Meanwhile, another man, AJ, has been thrown out of the club for holding hands with his favorite stripper, and he's drunk and angry and lonely.

From these explosive elements comes a relentless, raw, searing, passionate, page-turning narrative, a big-hearted and painful novel about sex and parenthood and honor and masculinity. Set in the seamy underside of American life at the moment before the world changed, it juxtaposes lust for domination with hunger for connection, sexual violence with family love. It seizes the reader by the throat with the same psychological tension, depth, and realism that characterized Andre Dubus's #1 bestseller, House of Sand and Fog—and an even greater sense of the dark and anguished places in the human heart.

++Thu, July 24, 7PM: Elin Hilderbrand, author of A SUMMER AFFAIR, and Benjamin Taylor, author of THE BOOK OF GETTING EVEN - Books & Brew

++Sun, July 27, 2PM: Sheridan Hay, author of THE SECRET OF LOST THINGS - Books & Brews

Eighteen years old and completely alone, Rosemary arrives in New York from Tasmania with little other than her love of books and an eagerness to explore the city. Taking a job at a vast, chaotic emporium of used and rare books called the Arcade, she knows she has found a home. But when Rosemary reads a letter from someone seeking to “place” a lost manuscript by Herman Melville, the bookstore erupts with simmering ambitions and rivalries. Including actual correspondence by Melville, The Secret of Lost Things is at once a literary adventure and evocative portrait of a young woman making a life for herself in the city.

All events are held at the bookstore. First come, first seated.

296 Walnut St. - Newtonville, MA - 02460