Read With Us: It's a New Book!

Several of you mentioned in the previous wrap-up post comments that you were anxious to find out what the new Read With Us book might be. Today is the day you get to find out what it is and I'm excited to tell you about it! 

Normally we have a lot of discussion around what book to choose, but I don't remember that we discussed this one too much. This could be my faulty memory, but it sounded interesting, current, eminently discussable, and on several people's Goodreads lists so we all agreed to it rather quickly.

So what is the book? (Insert drum roll here): It's Leave The World Behind by Rumaan Alam.

This is from the publisher's blurb: A magnetic novel about two families, strangers to each other, who are forced together on a long weekend gone terribly wrong. From the bestselling author of Rich and Pretty comes a suspenseful and provocative novel keenly attuned to the complexities of parenthood, race, and class. Leave the World Behind explores how our closest bonds are reshaped—and unexpected new ones are forged—in moments of crisis.

That is not a bad description, but having just finished the book on Sunday evening, I think it's about so much more. I'm really hesitant to say too much because I think this book will have much more impact if you read it without knowing too many details beforehand. I had a vague idea of what it was about, and I'm personally glad I didn't know too much. I will tell you that it was a National Book Award Finalist for Fiction this year, the author has written two other novels, Rich and Pretty and That Kind of Mother, and I think it will provide a very good discussion.

Here are some details concerning dates for this book: I will be doing a promotional post on January 12, Kym will write one on Jan. 19, and you can read Carole's on Jan. 26. We'll do our usual discussion practice of posing questions on our blogs on March 2, plus a Zoom discussion on March 2. Hopefully, we've given you enough advance notice that you will be able to Zoom with us in March. Our first Zoom discussion was great for The Women of Brewster Place, and I hope this one is even better.

I hope you are able to find this book at your local library (I only had to wait two weeks for it), and it is also available from Amazon, Audible, and I bet your local bookseller may have curbside pickup. I hope this book sounds as intriguing to you as it was to us, and you'll Read With Us once again!