“Girl Falling centers on Finn and her best friend, Daphne, who have grown up together in the Blue Mountains of Australia. Bonded by the shared tragedy of losing younger sisters to suicide, their friendship is both deep and sometimes too close. Now in their twenties, their lives are beginning to diverge — Daphne is at university, while Finn remains in their hometown, working and rock climbing. The book delves into the dynamics of their relationship, especially as it becomes entangled with Finn's girlfriend, Magdu. An inciting incident, a climbing accident, leaves Finn to deal with profound grief and unanswered questions.” —Lynn H. (Clive, IA)

“When author Chloe Dalton decamps from London to her country home to wait out the Covid lockdown, she has no idea her sojourn will result in writing an exquisite memoir about a relationship with a wild hare. In Raising Hare, she chronicles coming across a newborn leveret (baby hare) while on a walk in the meadow. Fearing for its life, she moves past her reservations and takes it home. From the beginning, Dalton knows the tiny creature, though in need of care, should not be treated as a pet, and as such, refuses to give it a name. Her instinct to provide it nourishment and shelter leads to a miraculous opportunity to live with and learn from a wild creature and gain a new appreciation of the natural world around her.” —Linda A. (Sherman Oaks, CA)

Kim Kovacs: “Hi Nancy — Thanks for joining us. Where did the idea for In Our Midst come from? What made you decide to write about German individuals’ experiences in America during WWII?”

On the twentieth anniversary of the day her first husband left her, Viv, a spirited Londoner and member of the House of Lords, attends a party and makes small talk with a stranger about heartbreak. "There are organizations for people who grieve, for alcoholics and other kinds of addicts," she muses. "But if you've been devastated by the love of your life walking out on you, where the hell do you go?" The answer, she thinks, is to make a place: a festival for brokenhearted people, held somewhere glamorous and attended in costume, so no one would be able to recognize each other.

After the party, Viv can't help bringing the idea to those closest to her. … continued

The Years is the last of Virginia Woolf's novels to be published during her lifetime, in 1937. Beginning in 1880 and following three generations of the Pargiter family across five decades to the "present day," it captures intimate moments between characters and internal monologues against the backdrop of historical events and changes in British society.

In Michelle de Kretser's Theory & Practice, the main character is a Sri Lankan Australian grad student writing her thesis on The Years, attempting in the process to resolve her feelings about Woolf upon finding a racist entry in her diary. … continued

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Currently, our book club members are discussing A Map to Paradise by Susan Meissner, among many other books. Starting this week, we feature Husbands by Holly Gramazio.