There really was an Alice Network. “Alice Dubois” was a real woman who led a network of spies against Germany during WWI. Germans really did massacre a village in France on June 10, 1944. From these (and other) facts, the author has woven a page-turner of a novel that brings together a broken ex-spy 50-something British woman, Eve, and a 19-year-old American girl, Charlie in post-WWII France. Both are wracked by guilt, fleeing regret, harboring secrets. Couple them with a Scottish ex-con driver who has secrets of his own, the travel comrades set off on a quest to find out what happened to Charlie’s cousin, Rose. Meanwhile, in alternating flashback chapters, we learn of Eve’s experience as a spy during WWI, which begin to shed light on her own motives for traveling with Charlie—motives that have nothing to do with finding Rose and everything to do with her tragic past. I found this book almost impossible to put down. The conclusion was a bit “Hollywood” for my taste, but it was certainly satisfying. Characters changed over the course of the story, which is always satisfying, too. And I enjoyed (if that’s the right word!) getting a peek into what life might have been like to be a spy in occupied France.

Fun! Easy to have young children participate with animal noises.

Absolutely excellent, quick read! As a divorce woman, I could identify with several parts and so pleased with the ending.

Maia D'Apliese and her five sisters who gather together at their childhood home, "Atlantis" —a fabulous, secluded castle situated on the shores of Lake Geneva-having been told that their beloved father, who adopted them all as babies, has died. Each of them is handed a tantalizing clue to her true heritage-a clue which takes Maia across the world to a crumbling mansion in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Once there, she begins to put together the pieces of her story and its beginnings. Eighty years earlier in Rio's Belle Epoque of the 1920s, Izabela Bonifacio's father has aspirations for his daughter to marry into the aristocracy. Meanwhile, architect Heitor da Silva Costa is devising plans for an enormous statue, to be called Christ the Redeemer, and will soon travel to Paris to find the right sculptor to complete his vision. Izabela-passionate and longing to see the world-convinces her father to allow her to accompany him and his family to Europe before she is married. There, at Paul Landowski's studio she meets ambitious young sculptor Laurent Brouilly, and knows at once that her life will never be the same. This was a book club read…if it hadn’t been, I would have quit reading at page 100. This book was nearly 500 pages and could have easily been 300 pages and the story would not have been affected.

I feel like the cheesy puns were too many, and the well thought out plot points were too few. Not something I’d recommend to others unfortunately.

This was a book club read. A compelling mystery set in the Australian outback, The Dry starts with the horrific apparent murder-suicide of a local farming family. When Aaron Falk, an old friend of the supposed murderer, returns to the town from his job with the financial police in the big city, he reluctantly agrees to look into the gruesome killings for his old friend's parents, who can't believe their son would kill his wife and young son, then shoot himself. In looking into the crime, Aaron has to open up his own Pandora's box of bad memories from a town he swore he would never visit again. Everyone is a suspect. Everyone has secrets to hide, including Aaron himself. Harper's pacing and structure are both excellent. The super short chapters kept me turning the pages. The sense of place was beautifully done. I would definitely read more mysteries from Harper!

Love the Grishaverse!

This book is fabulous for age middle school through adulthood

Wow…this book!! The Storyteller is one of those books that is extremely hard to talk about without spoilers. This alone makes it a good pick for book discussions. Picoult has taken what could have been one amongst the many holocaust fiction historicals and made it her own. Sage Singer grandmother, Minka, is a holocaust survivor though Sage knows little of her story. When Sage grieves the loss of her mother in a bereavement group she meets and becomes friends with an elderly man with his own deep secrets. He asks Sage to kill him but only after she forgives him for something he will reveal. Though a primary theme twists love, hate, and forgiveness every which way, there are other stories to hear. Somehow Picoult manages to even weave in a vampire tale and make it meaningful. I have not enjoyed a book by Picoult as much as this in some time. She has such a way with words taking the ordinary and making them sing. The book is good but the audio version is extraordinaire. There are 5 different narrators that do a fantastic job.

Fun! Easy to have young children participate with animal noises.