August Book Vote | Chapters & Chai
Let's Vote for Our Book Club's August Read
There's less than two weeks until our first book club meet up, which means it’s time to vote on our August read! You suggested such a variety of genres that I decided I’d pick a slightly more vague summer theme, and offer up a range of options for you to vote on. So, let’s take a look at the contenders…
Seven Days in June by Tia Williams (Goodreads Choice Award Nominee)
Seven days to fall in love, fifteen years to forget, and seven days to get it all back again...
When Eva Mercy, a single mother and bestselling erotica writer, and the enigmatic, award-winning novelist Shane Hall meet at a literary event in New York, sparks fly. But what no one knows is that fifteen years earlier, teenage Eva and Shane spent one week together, madly in love. While they may pretend to be strangers, they can't deny their chemistry.
Over the next seven days, amidst a steamy Brooklyn summer, Eva and Shane reconnect. But Eva is wary of the man who broke her heart and wants Shane out of the city so her life can return to normal. Before he disappears, though, she needs a few questions answered...
With its keen observations of creative life in America today, as well as the joys and complications of being a mother and a daughter, Seven Days in June is a hilarious, romantic, and sexy-as-hell story of two writers discovering their second chance at love.
Pages: 336
Genre/Themes: Contemporary, Romance
The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters
One family’s deepest pain. Another’s darkest secret. Who will they be when the truth comes out?
On a hot day in 1960s Maine, six-year-old Joe watches his little sister Ruthie, sitting on her favourite rock at the edge of the blueberry fields, while their family, Mi’kmaq people from Nova Scotia, pick fruit. That afternoon, Ruthie vanishes without a trace. As the last person to see her, Joe will be forever haunted by grief, guilt, and the agony of imagining how his life could have been.
In an affluent suburb nearby, Norma is growing up as the only child of unhappy parents. She is smart, precocious, and bursting with questions she isn’t allowed to ask – questions about her missing baby photos; questions about her dark skin; questions about the strange, vivid dreams of campfires and warm embraces that return night after night. Norma senses there are things her parents aren’t telling her, but it will take decades to unravel the secrets they have kept buried since she was a little girl.
The Berry Pickers is an exquisitely moving story of unrelenting hope, unwavering love, and the power of family – even in the face of grief and betrayal.
Pages: 320
Genre/Themes: Literary Fiction, Indigenous, Historical, Mystery
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (Goodreads Choice Award Nominee)
After Tova Sullivan's husband died, she began working the night cleaner shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium. Ever since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat over thirty years ago, keeping busy has helped her cope.
One night she meets Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium who sees everything, but wouldn't dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors - until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.
Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova's son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it's too late.
Shelby Van Pelt's debut novel is a reminder that sometimes taking a hard look at the past can help uncover a future that once felt impossible.
Pages: 384
Genre/Themes: Magical Realism, Literary Fiction, Contemporary
You Are Here by David Nicholls (Recommended by Waterstones)
Sometimes you need to get lost to find your way...
Marnie is stuck. Stuck working alone in her London flat, stuck battling the long afternoons and a life that often feels like it's passing her by.
Michael is coming undone. Reeling from his wife's departure, increasingly reclusive, taking himself on long, solitary walks across the moors and fells.
When a persistent mutual friend and some very English weather conspire to bring them together, Marnie and Michael suddenly find themselves alone on the most epic of walks and on the precipice of a new friendship.
But can they survive the journey?
Pages: 368
Genre/Themes: Literary Fiction, Romance, Contemporary
The Life Impossible by Matt Haig (Recommended by Waterstones)
'What looks like magic is simply a part of life we don't understand yet . . .'
When retired Maths teacher Grace Winters is left a run-down house on a Mediterranean island by a long-lost friend, curiosity gets the better of her. She arrives in Ibiza with a one-way ticket, no guidebook and no plan.
Among the rugged hills and golden beaches Grace searches for answers about her friend's life, and how it ended. What she uncovers is stranger than she could have dreamed. But to dive into this impossible truth, Grace must first come to terms with her past.
Filled with wonder and wild adventure, this is a story of hope and the life-changing power of a new beginning.
Pages: 352
Genre/Themes: Magical Realism, Fantasy, Historical
Like the sound of one of these books? Cast your vote here!
I hope to see you at our book club meet this month!
Happy Reading,
Kee
