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Welcome to the June issue of Book Club News! In this issue we travel to a particularly topical part of the world - the Middle East - to recommend nine books for discussion through which you can see parts of this diverse region through the eyes of people who live there. We also meet the Girls' Night Book Club of Washington DC, an eclectic bunch of women with a shared love of books who particularly enjoy talking with authors. Lastly, please mark your calendars to join us for one or more of our upcoming book club discussions (or just "listen in" if you prefer). In July we'll be discussing News of the World by Paulette Jiles; in August, Little Nothing by Marisa Silver; and in early September, Being Mortal by Atul Gawande. We're currently discussing The One-in-a-Million Boy by Monica Wood, which has generated more posts than any other book in the past three years! Your Editor, Davina
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 The Middle-East
Summer might not seem like the time to visit desert sands but these days the Middle East is always topical. To make sense of the geopolitics, it helps to be steeped in a place, to try to understand the people and their motivations. These books won't make you an expert on the region but maybe they will clarify the murk somewhat. Best of all, they are great to read for their own sake and also eminently discussable. If you're ready for some armchair travel to a region of the world that's often terribly misunderstood, buckle your seatbelts and join us for the ride!
 Salt Houses by Hala Alyan
Hardcover & ebook May 2017. 320 pages
Capturing the plight of the Palestinian people in fiction might be a tall order but this moving debut novel about a multi-generational family with roots in Palestine, comes close. When Salma reads the predictions about upheaval in her daughter's life, little does she realize that her small family including her son and daughter will be torn apart and drift from one safe harbor to the next. Traveling from Palestine to Kuwait to Paris and Boston, this is a telling tale of displacement and home.
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 The Photographer's Wife
by Suzanne Joinson
Paperback Feb 2017; also in ebook. 352 pages
Secrets buried in the desert might be harder than most to unearth. So finds Prudence who was just eleven when she was a bystander to a high-voltage drama that played out in Jerusalem under her father's watch. Now a reclusive artist, Prue must piece together exactly what went down with her small coterie of family friends in a land that was a mixing bowl of diverse people before things went south. An eloquent snapshot of 1920s Jerusalem.
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 The Gardens of Consolation
by Parisa Reza
Paperback Dec 2016; also in ebook. 208 pages
This terrific novel is Exhibit A in how a country's shifting political climate can shake the solid foundations of a family. Teenagers Talla and Sadar move from rural Iran to the outskirts of Tehran after marriage and come of age at a time when the country's social mores are evolving rapidly. Talla is at first forced to wear the chador and then later, is forced not to. Unsettled by the pace of such change, she has to also make peace with her son's embrace of Iran's new political leader, Mohammed Mossadegh. A sharp analysis of one family's attempt to stay put no matter which way the political wind blows.
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 Children of the Jacaranda Tree
by Sahar Delijani
Paperback Jun 2014; also in ebook. 288 pages
The children of the Iranian Revolution get caught up in history in this haunting story, much of which is borrowed from the author's own experiences. Following a central cast of characters over three generations, this is a precise capture of Iran under upheaval. While the succeeding descendants are still weighed down by the burden of their collective past, plenty of hopeful notes pepper this engaging story.
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 The Sandcastle Girls: A Novel
by Chris Bohjalian
Paperback Apr 2013; also in ebook. 320 pages
The Armenian genocide frames a love story that travels from Aleppo, Syria, to the United States where a writer slowly unravels the details about her grandparents' lives many decades ago. There are two plotlines here, one that follows the treasure hunt for secrets about the past and the other, a romance that endures despite the horrors of the genocide. A bestselling work of historical fiction that has been a book club favorite for years.
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 An Unnecessary Woman
by Rabih Alameddine
Paperback Nov 2014; also in ebook. 304 pages
Aaliya Sohbi is an introvert, widowed, childless, living out her last days in a small apartment in Beirut. As she goes through the daily minutiae of life, the reader gets a glimpse of Lebanon's Civil War through Aaliya's eyes and the challenges and joys of living in a city that has seen many ups and downs in its recent history. Sohbi makes for a memorable protagonist and readers will empathize with her struggles with loneliness and old age.
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 In the Kingdom of Men: A Novel
by Kim Barnes
Paperback Feb 2013; also in ebook. 336 pages
Poor Gin (Virginia) McPhee. She escapes her smothering religious upbringing in 1960s Oklahoma to marry her childhood sweetheart Mason, when his job with a Saudi oil company has them move to the deserts and riches. Now the life and marriage she only dreamed of just might become a reality but underneath that slick veneer, there's all kinds of machinations and subterfuge brewing. A gripping and powerful story of a woman who must take the reins of her life in her own hands when there are very few options left.
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 The Islamic Enlightenment: The Struggle Between Faith and Reason, 1798 to Modern Times
by Christopher de Bellaigue
Hardcover & ebook Apr 2017. 432 pages
Contemporary world leaders often call for reform in the Middle East, little understandinig that modernism has been firmly rooted here for a good long time. Using the cities of Istanbul, Cairo and Tehran as vectors to trace these progressive moments, this well-researched work of nonfiction shows just how skewed our perceptions of the Middle East can sometimes be. Required reading for those interested in today's geopolitical machinations and a lot of fodder for book clubs to chew over.
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 The New Odyssey: The Story of the Twenty-First Century Refugee Crisis
by Patrick Kingsley
Hardcover & ebook Jan 2017. 368 pages
The migration of refugees from war-torn countries to Europe and beyond has been one of the biggest challenges of recent years. This epic and brilliant work of reporting by The Guardian's first migration correspondent looks at the desperate refugees fleeing their homelands, the networks who make the journey possible to feed their own ends and the volunteers who immerse themselves in the cause. By focusing on the odyssey of one particular refugee, Hashem al-Souki, Kingsley makes the cause both specific and urgent.
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The BookBrowse Book Club This is our most talked-about book of the past 3 years - with more posts than any other discussion! We'll be closing this discussion for new posts within a week or two, but it will always be available to view.
The One-in-a-Million Boy
by Monica Wood
Published in paperback Apr 2017. Hardcover & ebook 2016.
336 pages
For years, guitarist Quinn Porter has been on the road, chasing gig after gig, largely absent to his twice-ex-wife Belle and their odd, Guinness records-obsessed son. When the boy dies suddenly, Quinn seeks forgiveness for his paternal shortcomings by completing the requirements for his son's unfinished Boy Scout badge.
For seven Saturdays, Quinn does yard work for Ona Vitkus, the wily 104-year-old Lithuanian immigrant the boy had visited weekly. Quinn soon discovers that the boy had talked Ona into gunning for the world record for Oldest Licensed Driver - and that's the least of her secrets. Despite himself, Quinn picks up where the boy left off, forging a friendship with Ona that allows him to know the son he never understood, a boy who was always listening, always learning.
The One-in-a-Million Boy is a richly layered novel of hearts broken seemingly beyond repair and then bound by a stunning act of human devotion.
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