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Nick Hornby, author of Just Like You

Lucy used to handle her adult romantic life according to the script she'd been handed. She met a guy just like herself; they got married and started a family. Too bad he made her miserable. Now, two decades later, she's a nearly divorced 41-year-old teacher with two school-aged sons, and there is no script anymore. So when she meets Joseph, she isn't exactly looking for love --- she's more in the market for a babysitter. Joseph is 22, living at home with his mother and working several jobs. It's not a match anyone one could have predicted. But sometimes it turns out that the person who can make you happiest is the one you least expect, though it can take some maneuvering to see it through.

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Marilynne Robinson, author of Jack

Marilynne Robinson’s mythical world of Gilead, Iowa --- the setting of her novels GILEAD, HOME and LILA --- and its beloved characters have illuminated and interrogated the complexities of American history, the power of our emotions and the wonders of a sacred world. JACK is the fourth novel in this now-classic series. In it, Robinson tells the story of John Ames Boughton, the prodigal son of Gilead’s Presbyterian minister, and his romance with Della Miles, a high school teacher who is also the child of a preacher. Their deeply felt, tormented, star-crossed interracial romance resonates with all the paradoxes of American life, then and now.

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Nicholas Sparks, author of The Return

Trevor Benson never intended to move back to New Bern, North Carolina. But when a mortar blast sent him home from Afghanistan with devastating injuries, the dilapidated cabin he'd inherited from his grandfather seemed as good a place to regroup as any. Trevor isn't prepared to fall in love with a local. Yet, from their very first encounter, he feels a connection with deputy sheriff Natalie Masterson that he can't ignore. But she remains frustratingly distant, making him wonder what she's hiding. Trevor hopes that Callie, a sullen teenage girl who lives down the road, can shed light on the mysterious circumstances of his grandfather's death. She offers few clues --- until a crisis triggers a race to uncover the true nature of her past.

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John Gunther

All happiness depends on a leisurely breakfast.

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John Gunther

Chinua Achebe

When old people speak it is not because of the sweetness of words in our mouths; it is because we see something which you do not see.

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Chinua Achebe

October 2020

October's Books on Screen roundup includes the series premieres of "The Undoing" on HBO, "The Good Lord Bird" on Showtime, and "The Right Stuff" on Disney+; the Netflix release of Rebecca and the HBO Max documentary The Soul of America; the season two premiere of "The Spanish Princess" on Starz; the series finales of FX's "A Wilderness of Error" and HBO's "Lovecraft Country"; and the DVD release of The Secret Garden.

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September 30, 2020

And just like that, ReadingGroupGuides.com turned 20! It’s been such a crazy year that somehow it slipped by us that the site celebrated its 20th anniversary in May. Wow! We are grateful to our readers who have made this anniversary possible. When we first started out, we were looking to create a place where book groups could find discussion guides and tools that they needed to run their book groups all in one place.

We’ve been doing some brainstorming about new directions for ReadingGroupGuides. With that in mind, we want to ask, “What would you like to see us add to the site?” We are working on details for a “Bookaccino Live” Book Club event, and we hope to have news about that in the next newsletter. If you have ideas about what you would like to see at a virtual book group, let us know. We can go a number of ways with this; we have one idea in mind right now. Through the years, some of our best ideas have come from readers, and since a lot of creative thoughts have bubbled up during the pandemic, we want to hear from you. Write me at Carol@bookreporter.com with your ideas; please use “RGG Idea” as your subject line.

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Bill Clegg, author of The End of the Day

A retired widow in rural Connecticut wakes to an unexpected visit from her childhood best friend whom she hasn’t seen in 49 years. A man arrives at a Pennsylvania hotel to introduce his estranged father to his newborn daughter and finds him collapsed on the floor of the lobby. A 67-year-old taxi driver in Kauai receives a phone call from the mainland that jars her back to a traumatic past. These seemingly disconnected lives come together as half-century-old secrets begin to surface. It is in this moment that Bill Clegg reminds us how choices --- to connect, to betray, to protect --- become our legacy.

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Nick Hornby, author of Just Like You

Lucy used to handle her adult romantic life according to the script she'd been handed. She met a guy just like herself; they got married and started a family. Too bad he made her miserable. Now, two decades later, she's a nearly divorced 41-year-old teacher with two school-aged sons, and there is no script anymore. So when she meets Joseph, she isn't exactly looking for love --- she's more in the market for a babysitter. Joseph is 22, living at home with his mother and working several jobs. It's not a match anyone one could have predicted. But sometimes it turns out that the person who can make you happiest is the one you least expect, though it can take some maneuvering to see it through.

Read more »

Sue Miller, author of Monogamy

Graham and Annie have been married for nearly 30 years, and their seemingly effortless devotion has long been the envy of their circle of friends and acquaintances. Lucas, Graham’s son with his first wife, Frieda, works in New York. Annie and Graham’s daughter, Sarah, lives in San Francisco. Though Frieda is an integral part of this far-flung, loving family, Annie feels confident in the knowledge that she is Graham’s last and greatest love. When Graham suddenly dies, Annie is lost. What is the point of going on without him? Then, while she is still mourning him intensely, she discovers that Graham had been unfaithful to her. She spirals into darkness, wondering if she ever truly knew the man who loved her.

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