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Every month I scour the shelves of my bookstore, my library, and my house to find great books to include in this newsletter. I also use bookreporter.com, Book Pages, Indie Next Lists, and so much more to find titles that are appropriate for reading groups. I try to read every book that I choose for this newsletter. It has to have the KEN seal of approval before it makes the final cut. This month I'll be starting a new feature. You'll find the first For Your Entertainment selection among the four titles that I'm featuring this month. November's book is The Lady Vanishes by Ethel Lina White. Just have fun with it. No need for discussion questions or reading deadlines. Sit back in your favorite reading chair and enjoy the book. Each month I'll include three books for reading groups and one that you can read For Your Entertainment.
This month I've chosen two novels to celebrate National Native American Heritage Month, an unusual time travel book by Emma Straub, and the For Your Entertainment title.
As Jane Austen said, "I declare, after all, there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book."
Enjoy your Thanksgiving and happy reading!
Ken
kenbksco@gmail.com
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The Berry Pickers
by Amanda Peters
Finally released in paperback, Amanda Peters' first novel is a dynamic and absorbing tale of a Mi'kmaq family living in Nova Scotia in the 1960s. Every summer they make the journey to Maine to pick blueberries. But in July 1962, their youngest daughter Ruthie wanders off into the woods and vanishes without a trace. As the years pass, the family's grief grows and they continue their trips to Maine, hoping that Ruthie will turn up one day. The New York Times calls the novel "a harrowing tale of Indigenous family separation... Peters excels in characters for whom we can't help rooting. With The Berry Pickers, Peters takes on the monumental task of giving witness to people who suffered through racist attempts of erasure like her Mi'kmaq ancestors." The Washington Post says, "the strength of Amanda Peters' novel lies in its understanding of how trauma spreads through a life and a family, and its depiction of the challenges facing Indigenous people. A powerful message about truth, forgiveness and healing." I loved the book. We'll be discussing it in our March 2025 Afternoon Reading Group.
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Stealing
by Margaret Verble
Margaret Verble has written a powerful novel that speaks of the cruelty in religious boarding schools during the 1950s. Cherokee Kit Crockett lives on an Arkansas farm
with her widowed Word War II-veteran father. She tends the garden, fishes in a nearby bayou and reads Nancy Drew mysteries from the local bookmobile... until she finds herself at the center of a shocking crime. In the aftermath, she is separated from her Cherokee family, and sent away to a boarding school. The novel is narrated by Kit as she writes her deepest thoughts down in the secret diary that she keeps at the school. I loved Kit's perseverance and never-ending love for her mother's Cherokee family. Bookseller Katrina says, "This book is heartbreaking but so well done and it tells an important story. Kit is such a tenacious and brave narrator." Kirkus Reviews calls the novel "a memorable and sobering story about injustice, hypocrisy, and resilience. Verble upholds her legacy of indelible Cherokee characters--and weaves a dynamic mystery, too."
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This Time Tomorrow
by Emma Straub
Emma Straub's unique novel is part time travel and part father daughter relationship. On the eve of Alice Stern's fortieth birthday, her life isn't bad. She loves her job, she still has her best friend from high school, she enjoys her independence and her life in New York City. But something is missing. Her father, the single parent who raised her, is ailing and out of reach. How did they get here so fast? Did she take too much for granted along the way? When Alice wakes up the next morning, she finds herself back in 1996, reliving her sixteenth birthday. But it isn't just her adolescent body that shocks her, or seeing her high school crush---it's her dad, the vital, charming, forty-nine-year-old father with whom she is reunited. Now armed with a new perspective on her own life and his, some past events take on new meaning. Is there anything she would change if she could? And how will she get back to her forty-year-old life? Author Ann Patchett says of the book, "If I could time travel, I'd go back just far enough to start Emma Straub's beautiful novel This Time Tomorrow again for the first time. The pages brim with tenderness and an appreciation for what we had and who we were. I could not have loved it more."
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The Lady Vanishes
by Ethel Lina White
This is the first For Your Entertainment title I'm including in the newsletter. For Your Entertainment books could be mysteries, children's books, romances, science fiction, etc. The Lady Vanishes was originally released in 1936 under the title The Wheels Spin. Written by British author Ethel Lina White, it's the story of Iris, a spoiled rich girl, who befriends Miss Froy, a former governess, on the train to Trieste. Iris falls asleep and upon awakening realizes that Miss Froy has disappeared from the train. All her fellow passengers deny ever seeing such a woman. The novel was the basis for Alfred Hitchcock's 1938 comedy-thriller The Lady Vanishes starring Margaret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave and Dame May Whitty.
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BOOKS & COMPANY BOOK GROUPS
Open to the Public
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Wednesday, November 20th*
1:00 p.m.
in person at Books & Co.
The Caretaker
by Ron Rash
Registration required-
limited seating available
click here to register
*date change due to Thanksgiving
Wednesday, December 18th*
1:00 p.m.
in person at Books & Co.
Choose Your Own- Holiday Party
Registration required-
limited seating available
click here to register
*date change due to Christmas Day
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Wednesday, November 20th
6:30 p.m.
in person at Books & Co.
Iron Widow #1
by Xiran Jay Zhao
No registration required for PRADAS book group meetings.
Wednesday, December 18th
6:30 p.m.
in person at Books & Co.
Choose your own
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Tuesday, November 26th*
4:00 p.m.
in person at Books & Co.
Killingly
by Katharine Beutner
*date subject to change
No registration required for Mystery book group meetings.
Tuesday, December 17th*
4:00 p.m.
in person at Books & Co.
She's a Killer
by Kirsten McDougall
*date change due to Christmas Day
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Thursday, November 21st
6:00 p.m.
in person at Books & Company
The Ex Vows
by Jessica Joyce
No registration required for Romance book group meetings.
Thursday, December 19th
6:00 p.m.
in person at Books & Company
Choose your own!
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Friday, November 29th- Sunday, December 1st
Tis the season for our Holiday Open House Sale! Shop in store with us and receive 15% off of books and gifts for the whole family! Let us help you get your holiday shopping done early!
** 15% off does not combine with other discounts. Magazines, newspapers, candy, and restricted titles do not apply. **
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Book Release & Poetry Open Mic
CRISTINA NORCROSS
Sunday, December 8th
2:00 p.m.
Books & Company
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Please join us for a lovely afternoon poetry book release and open mic event with Cristina Norcross for her newest collection The Poetry Apothecary. She will be reading selections from her new book, as well as discussing healing and the arts.
For the open mic, each reader can share one poem. The theme of this event is healing.
Please register for this free event.
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We support over 50 private book groups with their monthly selection available on the Book Group shelf in store. If your book group is registered with us, we offer 15% off of the book group title each month. To register your book group, just let us know what your book group name is and what you're reading, as well as a contact name for the group. As long as we have an updated list of your books, we will have them on the book group shelf in the store and listed on our website. | |
Books & Company
1039 Summit Ave Oconomowoc, WI
262-567-0106
www.booksco.com
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