The mystery and beauty of modern-day Vietnam is skillfully unveiled in Camilla Gibb’s fourth novel, The Beauty of Humanity Movement, which takes its title from a short-lived group of artists and intellectuals who spoke out against Ho Chi Minh’s policies, following the country’s liberation from colonial rule. Set in the recent past, amidst the vibrancy of Hanoi, and with a cast of young characters who long for the status of American consumer products and the fame of Vietnamese Idol, The Beauty of Humanity Movement tells the story of a country undergoing extraordinary change. Gibb also weaves together a tale of love, loss and redemption, while exploring the legacy of art and the meaning of family—defined, “not always by bloodlines but by the heart.” At the heart of the story is Old Man Hung, one of the few remaining witnesses to the circle of outspoken artists and intellectuals who congregated in the café he inherited, and lost, many years before. With a failing memory and the great love of his life lost, Hung’s day seems almost over until a chance encounter with Maggie, a young Vietnamese-American art curator who comes to Hanoi in search of clues to the life of her father, an artist who disappeared during the Fall of Saigon. For the 80-year-old Hung, Maggie’s appearance evokes painful memories of the woman he turned his back on 40 years ago, but whose curious beauty and betrayal still haunt him. Included in the discussion guide is an exclusive Bookclub-in-a-Box interview with Camilla Gibb. Every Bookclub-in-a-Box discussion guide includes complete coverage of the themes and symbols, writing style and interesting background information on the novel and the author, as well as a complementary RAG (Read-Along-Guide), a quick reference pamphlet offering interesting facts and questions to consider while reading the novel.

Ernest Hemingway was an iconic writer of the 20th century who gave modern literature a unique shape and form. Papa Hemingway was larger than life and created his own personal and professional mythical status. He was so powerful and energetic that he overshadowed the people around him. Paula McLain reaches behind the shadow to bring us an intimate portrait of Hadley Richardson, Hemingway’s first wife. Hadley, a lovely and talented young woman in her own right, met Hemingway soon after her mother died and was swept off her feet by this handsome, energetic, and passionate young man who was eight years her junior. They married and headed to Paris where they mingled with the likes of Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald and a host of other famous and about to be famous writers, poets, and artists. McLain draws a superb portrait of the Hemingways’ magical time traipsing around Europe with their friends. She poignantly demonstrates how their enchanted relationship systematically falls apart. While The Paris Wife treats us to a glimpse of the hidden Hemingway, the man he was before he became the master writer of the century, the more important part of his story is Hadley, his Paris Wife. Bookclub-in-a-Box has created a comprehensive guide to Paula McLain’s novel, The Paris Wife, and includes reflections on the personality and perceptions of Hadley Richardson and Ernest Hemingway; Hadley’s influence on her husband; Hemingway’s progress in breaking into the literary world; and the high life and exciting times of Paris in the 1920s. Every Bookclub-in-a-Box discussion guide includes complete coverage of the themes and symbols, writing style and interesting background information on the novel and the author.

Meet Mimi Malloy: A daughter of the Great Depression, Mimi was born into an Irish-Catholic brood of seven, and she has done her best to raise six beautiful daughters of her own. Now they're grown, and Mimi, a divorcée, is unexpectedly retired. But she takes solace in the comforts of her new life: her apartment in the heart of Quincy, the occasional True Blue cigarette, and evenings with Frank Sinatra on the stereo and a highball in her hand. Yet her phone is arguably the busiest in greater Boston—it rings "Day In, Day Out," as Ol' Blue Eyes would say. Her surviving sisters love to gab about their girlhood, while her eldest daughter, Cassandra, calls every morning to preach the gospel of assisted living. And when an MRI reveals that Mimi's brain is filled with black spots—areas of atrophy, her doctor says—it looks like she's destined to spend her days in "one of those storage facilities for unwanted antiques." Mimi knows her mind is (more or less) as sharp as ever, and she won't go down without a fight. Yet as she prepares to take her stand, she stumbles upon an old pendant of her mother's and, slowly, her memory starts to return—specifically, recollections of a shocking and painful childhood, including her sister who was sent away to Ireland and the wicked stepmother she swore to forget. Out of the ashes of Mimi's deeply troubled history, Julia MacDonnell gives us a redemptive story of the family bonds that break us and remake us. Mimi Malloy, At Last! is an unforgettable novel, alive with humor, unexpected romance, and the magic of hard-earned insight: a poignant reminder that it's never too late to fall in love and that one can always come of age a second time.

In tales from Nigeria, Indonesia, the Amazon, Australia, California, and elsewhere, Moffett recounts his entomological exploits and provides fascinating details on how ants live and how they dominate their ecosystems through strikingly human behaviors, yet at a different scale and a faster tempo.

An extraordinary novel of love, friendship, and betrayal for admirers of Abraham Verghese and Edwidge Danticat Eleanor Morse’s rich and intimate portrait of Botswana, and of three people whose intertwined lives are at once tragic and remarkable, is an absorbing and deeply moving story. In apartheid South Africa in 1977, medical student Isaac Muthethe is forced to flee his country after witnessing a friend murdered by white members of the South African Defense Force. He is smuggled into Botswana, where he is hired as a gardener by a young American woman, Alice Mendelssohn, who has abandoned her Ph.D. studies to follow her husband to Africa. When Isaac goes missing and Alice goes searching for him, what she finds will change her life and inextricably bind her to this sunburned, beautiful land. Like the African terrain that Alice loves, Morse’s novel is alternately austere and lush, spare and lyrical. She is a writer of great and wide-ranging gifts.

Fast-paced and razor-sharp dark fantasy for readers of Nicholas Eames, Anna Smith Spark and Robert Jackson Bennett "A fantastic book, full of wit and sharp humor, City of Iron and Dust careens through a modernized faerie at a breakneck pace, full of verve and unforgettable characters. Oakes spins a smart, electric, and sometimes snarky tale, showing that the beating heart of modern fantasy is alive and well." – John Hornor Jacobs, author of A Lush and Seething Hell and The Incorruptibles The Iron City is a prison, a maze, an industrial blight. It is the result of a war that saw the goblins grind the fae beneath their collective boot heels. And tonight, it is also a city that churns with life. Tonight, a young fae is trying to make his fortune one drug deal at a time; a goblin princess is searching for a path between her own dreams and others’ expectations; her bodyguard is deciding who to kill first; an artist is hunting for his own voice; an old soldier is starting a new revolution; a young rebel is finding fresh ways to fight; and an old goblin is dreaming of reclaiming her power over them all. Tonight, all their stories are twisting together, wrapped up around a single bag of Dust—the only drug that can still fuel fae magic—and its fate and theirs will change the Iron City forever.