Join Hootdunnit, our all-mystery book club, to discuss er The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey.  (Drop ins always welcome.)

About the book:
1920s India: Perveen Mistry, Bombay's only female lawyer, is investigating a suspicious will on behalf of three Muslim widows living in full purdah when the case takes a turn toward the murderous. The author of the Agatha and Macavity Award–winning Rei Shimura novels brings us an atmospheric new historical mystery with a captivating heroine.

Perveen Mistry, the daughter of a respected Zoroastrian family, has just joined her father's law firm, becoming one of the first female lawyers in India. Armed with a legal education from Oxford, Perveen also has a tragic personal history that makes women's legal rights especially important to her.

Mistry Law has been appointed to execute the will of Mr. Omar Farid, a wealthy Muslim mill owner who has left three widows behind. But as Perveen examines the paperwork, she notices something strange: all three of the wives have signed over their full inheritance to a charity. What will they live on? Perveen is suspicious, especially since one of the widows has signed her form with an X—meaning she probably couldn't even read the document. The Farid widows live in full purdah—in strict seclusion, never leaving the women's quarters or speaking to any men. Are they being taken advantage of by an unscrupulous guardian? Perveen tries to investigate, and realizes her instincts were correct when tensions escalate to murder. Now it is her responsibility to figure out what really happened on Malabar Hill, and to ensure that no innocent women or children are in further danger.

Inspired in part by the woman who made history as India's first female attorney, The Widows of Malabar Hill is a richly wrought story of multicultural 1920s Bombay as well as the debut of a sharp new sleuth.

Join us for a Friday afternoon signing!

Henning Dietzel, at the urging of a Chilean prostitute named Encinas, investigates rumors of gold in California prior to the 1849 rush. Intrigued he heads to the Gold Country to stake his claim. When others flee a brutal winter, Henning perseveres, and by the time the Forty-Niners arrive, he’s already a wealthy young man.

His saga is a sweeping tale of fortune and misfortune, discovery and tragedy, love and loss. From the backwaters and boardrooms of early San Francisco to malaria infested jungles and a guano island off the coast of Peru, Henning’s search for meaning and purpose eventually brings him to realize that all that glitters is not necessarily gold.


 

Join us for a Saturday Signing!

Henning Dietzel, at the urging of a Chilean prostitute named Encinas, investigates rumors of gold in California prior to the 1849 rush. Intrigued he heads to the Gold Country to stake his claim. When others flee a brutal winter, Henning perseveres, and by the time the Forty-Niners arrive, he’s already a wealthy young man.

His saga is a sweeping tale of fortune and misfortune, discovery and tragedy, love and loss. From the backwaters and boardrooms of early San Francisco to malaria infested jungles and a guano island off the coast of Peru, Henning’s search for meaning and purpose eventually brings him to realize that all that glitters is not necessarily gold.

Ron Lee is known for his New Year’s resolutions, but as midnight approaches on New Year’s Eve, 2014, he’s coming up dry. Then, in a burst of alcohol-infused genius, it comes to him: a way to satisfy both his compulsion to keep resolutions and his unquenchable lust for Brandi, his beautiful wife of twenty years. He resolves to make love to her every day of 2015.
 
Brandi has her doubts, but soon adapts to the resolution with relish...and then some. Ron, on the other hand, discovers he’s woefully unprepared for the physical and mental challenges and changes brought on by the resolution. Still, he’s nothing if not stubborn. With help from friends, professionals, and (much to his own astonishment) the purple-haired clerk at the local sex shop and a Tibetan Yogi, Ron perseveres. And as the days pile up, the resolution takes on astonishing new dimensions, taking Ron and Brandi on a transformational spiritual journey. Along the way they discover what it means to be human, the power of mindfulness, and how sex can be a gateway to enlightenment. The resolution provides Ron with uncharacteristically profound personal insights, but its effect on Brandi is truly life-changing, and reveals secrets from her past that will change her life forever...and the world for the better.
 
The Resolution is a raunchy, thought-provoking, engaging, and very funny account of one amazing year in the life of one ordinary married couple, as they discover there’s far more to love, sex, and being human than they ever thought possible.
 

Junior Owlets is a book club for kids in grades 3 to 6. Join the club to discuss this months pick: The Someday Birds by Sally J. Pia

About the book:
Winner of the 2018 Dolly Gray Children's Literature Award * Two starred reviews * A New York Public Library Best Kids Book of 2017 * A Bank Street Best Children's Book of 2017 * Wisconsin Library Association CBA Outstanding Books of the Year selection * 2018-2019 Dorothy Canfield Fisher Book Award list selection * 2018-2019 Maryland Black-Eyed Susan Award nominee *

The Someday Birds is a debut middle grade novel perfect for fans of Counting by 7s and Fish in a Tree, filled with humor, heart, and chicken nuggets.

Charlie’s perfectly ordinary life has been unraveling ever since his war journalist father was injured in Afghanistan. 

When his father heads from California to Virginia for medical treatment, Charlie reluctantly travels cross-country with his boy-crazy sister, unruly brothers, and a mysterious new family friend. He decides that if he can spot all the birds that he and his father were hoping to see someday along the way, then everything might just turn out okay.

Debut author Sally J. Pla has written a tale that is equal parts madcap road trip, coming-of-age story for an autistic boy who feels he doesn’t understand the world, and an uplifting portrait of a family overcoming a crisis.

“Offering a mixture of suspense, mystery, tragedy and humor, Pla’s story captures both the literal and figurative meanings of journey.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Pla gives us a memorable hero in this lyrical and funny book.” —Shelf Awareness (starred review)
 

Senior Owlets is a book club for teens grade 7 and up. Join the club to discuss this months pick: The Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

About the book:
Red Queen, by #1 New York Times bestselling author Victoria Aveyard, is a sweeping tale of power, intrigue, and betrayal, perfect for fans of George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones series. 

Mare Barrow's world is divided by blood—those with common, Red blood serve the Silver-blooded elite, who are gifted with superhuman abilities. Mare is a Red, scraping by as a thief in a poor, rural village, until a twist of fate throws her in front of the Silver court. Before the king, princes, and all the nobles, she discovers she has an ability of her own.

To cover up this impossibility, the king forces her to play the role of a lost Silver princess and betroths her to one of his own sons. As Mare is drawn further into the Silver world, she risks everything and uses her new position to help the Scarlet Guard—a growing Red rebellion—even as her heart tugs her in an impossible direction.

One wrong move can lead to her death, but in the dangerous game she plays, the only certainty is betrayal.

And don’t miss War Storm, the thrilling final book in the bestselling Red Queen series!

The Owl's Nest YA for Adults Book Club is for adults who LOVE  Young Adult fiction! We know you are out there and you're not alone.
Each month we will meet to discuss a compelling YA novel and will explore many genres within the YA category.
This months pick is Emergency Contact by Mary H. K. Choi

About the book:
From debut author Mary H.K. Choi comes a compulsively readable novel that shows young love in all its awkward glory—perfect for fans of Eleanor & Park and To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before.

For Penny Lee high school was a total nonevent. Her friends were okay, her grades were fine, and while she somehow managed to land a boyfriend, he doesn’t actually know anything about her. When Penny heads to college in Austin, Texas, to learn how to become a writer, it’s seventy-nine miles and a zillion light years away from everything she can’t wait to leave behind.

Sam’s stuck. Literally, figuratively, emotionally, financially. He works at a café and sleeps there too, on a mattress on the floor of an empty storage room upstairs. He knows that this is the god-awful chapter of his life that will serve as inspiration for when he’s a famous movie director but right this second the seventeen bucks in his checking account and his dying laptop are really testing him. 

When Sam and Penny cross paths it’s less meet-cute and more a collision of unbearable awkwardness. Still, they swap numbers and stay in touch—via text—and soon become digitally inseparable, sharing their deepest anxieties and secret dreams without the humiliating weirdness of having to see each other.
 

  In 2004, almost 20 years after the fatal bombing of an Air India flight from Vancouver that killed 329, two suspects --finally--are on trial for the crime. Ashwin Rao, an Indian psychologist trained in Canada, comes back to do a "study of comparative grief," interviewing people who lost loved ones in the attack. What he neglects to mention is that he, too, had family members who died on the plane. Then, to his delight and fear, he becomes embroiled in the lives of one family caught in the undertow of the tragedy, and privy to their secrets. This surprising emotional connection sparks him to confront his own losses. A book of post-9/11 Canada, The Ever After of Ashwin Rao imagines the lasting emotional and political consequences of a real-life act of terror, confronting what we might learn to live with and what we can live without.

Join us for a Saturday Signing!

A Toot in the Tub offers a lighthearted, rhymed look at the importance of “healthful release” for kids. While upholding the importance of being kind to others, A Toot in the Tub pokes gentle fun at society’s expectations and rules for children, while urging young readers to never let such pressure take the fun out of life! Tooting in the bath is a metaphor for letting go, reminding us all in a giggle-worthy way that sometimes it’s okay to just be a kid!

This event will take place at the Bowness Senior's Centre, 6422 - 35th Avenue NW

Sergeant Brad Coulter and his partner are up against rival biker gangs fighting for control of the city. The war has begun, and what’s at stake is domination of the drug and prostitution trade in Calgary.

No one is safe as the war spins out of control—not children, judges, or cops—no one. Who is their next target—Sergeant Brad Coulter?
After several murders, the violence continues with attacks on fellow officers. The consequences of failure are unimaginable, and the odds are stacked against the authorities—their hands are tied.

Yet, stopping the war will bring an even greater threat to the city where no one wins.

With everything to lose, Brad Coulter and his team take the fight to the streets and he soon learns that can have devastating consequences.
 

Join Hootdunnit, our all-mystery book club, to discuss Tangerine by Christine Mangan.  (Drop ins always welcome.)

About the book:
The last person Alice Shipley expected to see since arriving in Tangier with her new husband was Lucy Mason. After the accident at Bennington, the two friends—once inseparable roommates—haven’t spoken in over a year. But there Lucy was, trying to make things right and return to their old rhythms. Perhaps Alice should be happy. She has not adjusted to life in Morocco, too afraid to venture out into the bustling medinas and oppressive heat. Lucy—always fearless and independent—helps Alice emerge from her flat and explore the country. 

But soon a familiar feeling starts to overtake Alice—she feels controlled and stifled by Lucy at every turn. Then Alice’s husband, John, goes missing, and Alice starts to question everything around her: her relationship with her enigmatic friend, her decision to ever come to Tangier, and her very own state of mind.

Tangerine is a sharp dagger of a book—a debut so tightly wound, so replete with exotic imagery and charm, so full of precise details and extraordinary craftsmanship, it will leave you absolutely breathless.

Optioned for film by George Clooney’s Smokehouse Pictures, with Scarlett Johansson to star

Julie Fox is on the run. A psychotic breakdown has shattered her career in Calgary, her marriage and her love for her child. Julie travels to California to search for her mother and learn the root of her problems.

 

Clues at a cult-like retreat appear to hold the answers. As the retreat leaders lure Julie into their twisted game, her ex-husband tries to wrest her from their control. Trapped in a tangle of lies, Julie’s grip on reality falters.

 

Who will catch Julie Fox? Or will she break free, confront the truth about her past and set out on a new journey?

The Owl's Nest YA for Adults Book Club is for adults who LOVE  Young Adult fiction! We know you are out there and you're not alone.
Each month we will meet to discuss a compelling YA novel and will explore many genres within the YA category.
This months pick is The Black Witch by Laurie Forest.

About the book:
Evil looms on the horizon, and for Elloren Gardner, granddaughter of the last Black Witch, pressure to live up to her magical heritage is building. Elloren’s people, the Gardnerians, believe she will follow in her grandmother’s footsteps. But Elloren is utterly devoid of power—in a society that prizes magical ability above all else.

Granted the opportunity to study at the prestigious Verpax University, Elloren sets out to embrace a destiny of her own, free from the shadow of her grandmother’s legacy. But the university may be the most treacherous place of all for the granddaughter of the Black Witch, and Elloren soon realizes that the world she knows is not what it seems. If she is to survive the coming danger, she’ll have to free her mind from the assumptions she was raised with, and learn to trust the very people she’s been taught to hate and fear.

A story of Jewish boy from Montreal who studies architecture at McGill in the 1980s, moves to Moncton, where he works for a firm headed up by an anglophile who preaches "Dress British, think Jewish." The narrator's world falls apart when the boss dies suddenly, the firm is sued for copyright infringement, the firm is taken over by a British consortium, and he pisses in the park and is seen by a bunch of high school girls and becomes the unknown park exhibitionist.

Lewis’s mother was a painter, but was unstable. His father is a lawyer, for the mob. Lewis hides his Jewishness (the family name is "Morton" and not "Mortinsky") and he sets aside his artistic impulses in favour of being the ideal architect and suburban family man.

Eventually, he finds the courage to be himself, not shy away from his Jewishness, and to engage with the artistic impulse inherited from his mother.

Richard Lazar is a failed novelist and an alcoholic, living in a trailer in Phoenix. But when he publishes a gritty memoir about his service in the Vietnam War, he becomes an almost instantaneous success. Sent on a book tour by his publishing house, Richard encounters his biggest fan: an awkward, depressed student named Vance.

Vance has problems of his own. But when he volunteers to chauffeur Richard for the rest of the tour, the two of them wind up on a hilariously disastrous cross-country road trip, gradually coming to bond as only two misanthropes can. The Grand Tour is the story of an unlikely frienship, and a panoramic view of America from a bold new voice in fiction.

Junior Owlets is a book club for kids in grades 3 to 6. Join the club to discuss this months pick: Time Cat by Lloyd Alexander

About the book:
Gareth doesn't have nine lives, but he is definitely not an ordinary cat. For one thing, he can talk. For another, he has magical powers that Jason never dreamed of. "Anywhere, any time, any country, any century"—Gareth tells Jason he can take them traveling through time. And in the wink of a very special cat's eye, they're off. From ancient Egypt to Japan, from the land of young Leonardo da Vinci to the town of a woman accused of witchcraft, Jason and Gareth are whisked from place to place and friend to foe. This fantastic tale grabs the imagination and takes it far and wide, on the adventure of not one, but nine, amazing lifetimes.

Senior Owlets is a book club for teens grade 7 and up. Join the club to discuss this months pick: Crossing Ebenezer Creek by Tonya Bolden

About the book:
When Mariah and her young brother Zeke are suddenly freed from slavery, they join Sherman's march through Georgia. Mariah wants to believe that the brutalities of slavery are behind them, but even as hope glimmers, there are many hardships yet to come. When she meets a free black named Caleb, Mariah dreams in a way she never dared . . . of a future worth living and the possibility of true love. But even hope comes at a cost, and as the difficult march continues toward the churning waters of Ebenezer Creek, Mariah's dreams are as vulnerable as ever. 

In this powerful exploration of a little-known tragedy perfect for fans of Ruta Sepetys, readers will never forget the souls of Ebenezer Creek.

A School Library Journal Best Book of 2017, Young Adult

In the final instalment of the Barr Colony series, Dorothy and the Bolton family are settling into life on the prairies after a treacherous journey – first across the Atlantic, and then across the open landscape as they made their way from the Barr Colony to their homestead. But now, winter is approaching. Her mam and dad are fighting, and her dad decides to travel to Edmonton to work for the winter. This leaves Dorothy, her mam, and her sister Lydia to fend for themselves on the harsh prairie, alongside Dorothy’s older brother Frank.

As with many colonists who took land in the west, the Bolton family has no idea the brutal and harsh conditions that will befall them during a winter on the prairie. With Frank off in Battleford getting supplies, Dorothy, Lydia, and Mam attempt to fend for themselves. But no matter what they do, their sod house continues to get colder and colder, and they become desperate for warmth. They must find a way to save themselves, but how?

Based on a true story, Anne Patton has created a compelling final chapter to the Bolton family saga.

Join Hootdunnit, our all-mystery book club to discuss When the Flood Falls by J.E. Barnard.  (Drop ins always welcome.)

About the book:When a phantom stalker targets her friend, Lacey McCrae’s crime-busting skills are tested to their limits.

With her career in tatters and her marriage receding in the rear-view mirror, ex-RCMP corporal Lacey McCrae trades her uniform for a tool belt, and the Lower Mainland for the foothills west of Calgary. Amid the oil barons, hockey stars, and other high rollers who inhabit the wilderness playground is her old university roommate, Dee Phillips. Dee’s glossy life was shaken by a reckless driver; now she’s haunted by a nighttime prowler only she can hear.

As snowmelt swells the icy river, threatening the only bridge back to civilization, Lacey must make the call: assume Dee’s in danger and get her out, or decide the prowler is imaginary and stay, cut off from help if the bridge is swept away.

A devotee of Stendhal who has shunned the company of his fellow human beings to live on the outskirts of a tiny village in Savoy is kidnapped and left for dead along a forest road. A middle-aged mother who spends much of her time shuttling her numerous offspring along twisting mountain roads loses control of her car and ends up injured but alive in a gorge. Meanwhile, an elderly man of unbreakable habits is taunted and threatened by two unknown men while on his morning walk along the cliffs of Brittany. Mystery abounds but A Novel Bookstore is no everyday mystery. The victims here are not members of the underworld, toughs or thugs, but mild, meek and apparently ordinary people. In the eyes of their aggressors, they are guilty of only one crime: expressing their tastes in literature. 

Indeed, all three victims are members of The Good Novel's secret selection committee. Tucked away in a corner of Paris, The Good Novel bookstore offers its clientele literary masterpieces, both contemporary and classic, selected by a top-secret committee of authors. The store has proven an instant success, but nobody could have imagined that success would unleash a tide of hatred. Now, there are those who will stop at nothing to destroy The Good Novel. One by one, the pieces of this puzzle fall ominously into place, as it becomes clear to the store's owners, Ivan and Francesca, that their dreams of an ideal place for books may be shattered by envy and violence.

Elegantly mixing the mystery and literary fiction genres, Laurence Cossé has written an enthralling fable for lovers of good books and a heartfelt tribute to fine bookselling.

Junior Owlets is a book club for kids in grades 3 to 6. Join the club to discuss this months pick: Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins

About the book:
When young Gregor falls through a grate in the laundry room of his apartment building, he hurtles into the dark Underland, where spiders, rats, cockroaches coexist uneasily with humans. This strange world is on the brink of war, and Gregor's arrival is no accident. A prophecy foretells that Gregor has a role to play in the Underland's uncertain future. Gregor wants no part of it - until he realizes it's the only way to solve the mystery of his father's disappearance. Gregor embarks on a dangerous adventure that will change both him and the Underland forever. 

Rich in suspense and brimming with adventure, Suzanne Collins unfolds the fate of the Underland and the great warrior, Gregor, in the New York Times bestselling Underland Chronicles.

Senior Owlets is a book club for teens grade 7 and up. Join the club to discuss this months pick: A Thousand Beginnings and Endings (short story anthology) edited by Ellen Oh and Elsie Chapman

About the book:
Star-crossed lovers, meddling immortals, feigned identities, battles of wits, and dire warnings: these are the stuff of fairy tale, myth, and folklore that have drawn us in for centuries. 

Fifteen bestselling and acclaimed authors reimagine the folklore and mythology of East and South Asia in short stories that are by turns enchanting, heartbreaking, romantic, and passionate. 

Compiled by We Need Diverse Books’s Ellen Oh and Elsie Chapman, the authors included in this exquisite collection are: Renée Ahdieh, Sona Charaipotra, Preeti Chhibber, Roshani Chokshi, Aliette de Bodard, Melissa de la Cruz, Julie Kagawa, Rahul Kanakia, Lori M. Lee, E. C. Myers, Cindy Pon, Aisha Saeed, Shveta Thakrar, and Alyssa Wong. 

A mountain loses her heart. Two sisters transform into birds to escape captivity. A young man learns the true meaning of sacrifice. A young woman takes up her mother’s mantle and leads the dead to their final resting place.

From fantasy to science fiction to contemporary, from romance to tales of revenge, these stories will beguile readers from start to finish. For fans of Neil Gaiman’s Unnatural Creatures and Ameriie’s New York Times–bestselling Because You Love to Hate Me.

The Owl's Nest YA for Adults Book Club is for adults who LOVE  Young Adult fiction! We know you are out there and you're not alone.
Each month we will meet to discuss a compelling YA novel and will explore many genres within the YA category.
This months pick is Dreamland Burning by Jennifer Latham

About the book:
Some bodies won't stay buried.
Some stories need to be told. 

When seventeen-year-old Rowan Chase finds a skeleton on her family's property, she has no idea that investigating the brutal century-old murder will lead to a summer of painful discoveries about the present and the past.

Nearly one hundred years earlier, a misguided violent encounter propels seventeen-year-old Will Tillman into a racial firestorm. In a country rife with violence against blacks and a hometown segregated by Jim Crow, Will must make hard choices on a painful journey towards self discovery and face his inner demons in order to do what's right the night Tulsa burns.

Through intricately interwoven alternating perspectives, Jennifer Latham's lightning-paced page-turner brings the Tulsa race riot of 1921 to blazing life and raises important questions about the complex state of US race relations--both yesterday and today.

Join Hootdunnit, our all-mystery book club to discuss Her Nightly Embrace by Adi Tantimedh.  (Drop ins always welcome.)

About the book:
The first in a trilogy of whip-smart novels—soon to be a TV series—­­about a destructive British-born private investigator and his ragtag team of eccentric coworkers, who handle high-profile cases so undercover that they never make the headlines. Perfect for fans of Sherlock, Castle, and Scandal.

Ravi Chandra Singh is the last guy you’d expect to become a private detective. A failed religious scholar and former high school teacher, he now works for Golden Sentinels, an upmarket London private investigations and security company. His colleagues are a band of gleefully amoral and brilliant screw-ups: Ken and Clive, a pair of brutal ex-cops from the Old School who are also a gay couple; Mark Chapman, a stoner with a great mind when you can get him to stop smoking weed for five minutes; Marcie Holder, a cheerful former publicist; Benjamin Lee, a MacGyver-style techie from South London; David Okri, an ambitious lawyer from a well-connected Nigerian immigrant family; and Olivia Wong, an upper-class Hong Kong heiress who’s a financial analyst hiding her real skills as one of the most notorious hackers in the world—all under the watchful eye of Roger Golden, wheeler-dealer extraordinaire, and his cofounder and office manager, Cheryl Hughes.

Thrust into a world where the rich, famous, and powerful hire him to solve their problems and wash their dirty laundry, Ravi finds himself in over his head with increasingly gonzo and complex cases—and the recent visions that he’s been having of Hindu gods aren’t helping. As Ravi struggles to stay ahead of danger, he wonders if the things he’s seeing are a delusion—or if he might, in fact, be an unrecognized shaman of the modern world…

As Deepak Chopra says, “Her Nightly Embrace introduces us to an exciting and dynamic new world of storytelling in which spirituality and science are inextricably entwined. Ravi is a character unlike any that readers have quite encountered before, and as he starts to see increasingly wild and fascinating visions, so will those lucky enough to dive into this rich narrative."

Junior Owlets is a book club for kids in grades 3 to 6. Join the club to discuss this months pick: The Night Garden by Polly Horvath

About the book:
From Newbery Honor--and National Book Award--winning author Polly Horvath, a magical middle grade novel that features a garden that grants wishes.

It is World War II and Franny Whitekraft lives with her parents, Sina and Old Tom, on a farm on Vancouver Island. Their peaceful life is interrupted when their neighbor, Crying Alice, begs Sina to watch her children while she goes to visit her husband at the military base where he is stationed because she suspects he's up to no good. Soon after the children move in, letters start to arrive from their father and they don't understand what they mean until it is too late to stop him from doing something that threatens to change their whole lives. Can the ancient, forbidden night garden that supposedly grants everyone one wish help? And if it does, at what cost?

Senior Owlets is a book club for teens grade 7 and up. Join the club to discuss this months pick: Girls in the Moon by Janet McNally

About the book:
Everyone in Phoebe Ferris’s life tells a different version of the truth.

Her mother, Meg, ex-rock star and professional question evader, shares only the end of the story—the post-fame calm that Phoebe’s always known. Her sister Luna, indie rock darling of Brooklyn, preaches a stormy truth of her own making, selectively ignoring the facts she doesn’t like. And her father, Kieran, the co-founder of Meg’s beloved band, hasn’t said anything at all since he stopped calling three years ago.

But Phoebe, a budding poet in search of an identity to call her own, is tired of half-truths and vague explanations. When she visits Luna in New York, she’s determined to find out how she fits in to this family of storytellers, and maybe even to continue her own tale—the one with the musician boy she’s been secretly writing for months.

This soul-searching, authentic debut weaves together Phoebe’s story with scenes from the romance between Meg and Kieran that started it all—leaving behind a heartfelt reflection on family, fame, and finding your own way.

The Owl's Nest YA for Adults Book Club is for adults who LOVE  Young Adult fiction! We know you are out there and you're not alone.
Each month we will meet to discuss a compelling YA novel and will explore many genres within the YA category.
This months pick is More Than This by Patrick Ness

About the book:
Seth drowns, desperate and alone. But then he wakes. Naked, thirsty, starving. But alive. And where is he? The street seems familiar, but everything is abandoned, overgrown, covered in dust. He remembers dying, his skull bashed against the rocks. Has he woken up in his own personal hell? Is there more to this life, or perhaps this afterlife? From the acclaimed author of the Chaos Walking trilogy and A Monster Calls comes one of the most provocative teen novels of our time.

Meet Ginny Moon. She’s mostly your average teenager—she plays flute in the high school band, has weekly basketball practice, and reads Robert Frost poems in English class.

But Ginny is autistic. And so what’s important to her might seem a bit…different: starting every day with exactly nine grapes for breakfast, Michael Jackson, her baby doll, and crafting a secret plan of escape.

After being traumatically taken from her abusive birth mother and moved around to different homes, Ginny has finally found her "forever home"—a safe place with parents who will love and nurture her. This is exactly what all foster kids are hoping for, right?

But Ginny has other plans. She’ll steal and lie and exploit the good intentions of those who love her—anything it takes to get back what’s missing in her life. She’ll even try to get herself kidnapped.

Told in an extraordinary and wholly original voice, Ginny Moon is at once quirky, charming, heartbreaking, and poignant. It’s a story about being an outsider trying to find a place to belong and about making sense of a world that just doesn’t seem to add up. Taking you into the mind of a curious and deeply human character, Benjamin Ludwig’s novel affirms that fiction has the power to change the way we see the [more...]

Join Hootdunnit, our all-mystery book club to discuss Her Nightly Embrace by Adi Tantimedh.  (Drop ins always welcome.)

About the book:
London,1666. The Great Fire rages through the city, consuming everything in its path. Even the impregnable cathedral of St. Paul’s is engulfed in flames and reduced to ruins. Among the crowds watching its destruction is James Marwood, son of a traitor, and reluctant government informer.

In the aftermath of the fire, the body of a man is discovered in the ashes of St.Paul’s. But he is not a victim of the blaze- there is a stab wound to his neck and his thumbs have been tied behind his back. Acting on orders, Marwood hunts the killer though London’s devastated streets- where before too long a second murder is uncovered.

At a time of dangerous internal dissent, Marwood’s investigation will lead him into treacherous waters- and across the path of a determined and vengeful young woman.