Thank you for Visiting

This book club provided an opportunity to discuss books with authors from 2009 - 2013. I like to think we were a group of daughters, sisters, wives, mothers, well... women finding time to meet while juggling daily life. I hope you enjoy exploring The Manic Mommies Book Club Archives. We read 46 books over the years, with audio or written author discussions for each book read documented on this blog. Note: The audio archives are no longer available on iTunes. ~ with kindness & gratitude, Mari

The Local News (MMBC4)


Announcing our fourth book club selection - a special thank you to Random House (Spiegel & Grau) for donating books to our book group!

Please send me an email with ‘The Local News’ in the subject line and include your address in the body of the email if you are interested in participating. Random House is donating 24 books to us, sign up fast!
Feb 24 update: I have sent the list of recipients to Random House. Be on the look out for your book!

I encourage everyone to participate, even if you are not lucky enough to receive a free copy, we should have a great discussion.

This book will be released Feb 24th, our discussion will begin late May/early June.

The Local News by Miriam Gershow (368 pages)

Synopsis (from Author’s site):

"Going missing was the only interesting thing my brother had ever done."

Even a decade later, the memories of the year Lydia Pasternak turned sixteen continue to haunt her. As a teenager, Lydia lived in her older brother's shadow. While Danny's athletic skills and good looks established his place with the popular set at school, Lydia's smarts relegated her to the sidelines, where she rolled her eyes at her brother and his meathead friends and suffered his casual cruelty with resigned bewilderment. Though a part of her secretly wished for a return of the easy friendship she and Danny shared as children, another part of her wished Danny would just vanish. And then, one night, he did.

In the year following Danny Pasternak's disappearance, his parents go off the rails, his town buzzes with self-indulgent mourning, and his little sister Lydia finds herself thrust into unwanted celebrity, forced to negotiate her ambivalent--often grudging--grief for a brother she did not particularly like. Suddenly embraced by Danny's old crowd, forgotten by her parents, and drawn into the missing person investigation by her family's intriguing private eye, Lydia both blossoms and struggles to find herself during Danny's absence. But when a trail of clues leads to a shocking outcome in her brother's case, the teenaged Lydia and the adult she will become are irrevocably changed, even now as she reluctantly prepares to return to her hometown.

Relentlessly gripping, often funny, and profoundly moving, The Local News is a powerful exploration of the fraught relationship between a brother and sister and how our siblings define who we are.

6 comments:

  1. I would love to participate and hope to be able to get a free copy.
    Thanks!
    Holly

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  2. I'm delighted that you'll be reading "The Local News" for your book group.

    -Miriam

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  3. Thank you for everything you are doing for us on the book club! It's been a lot of fun!
    Kim

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  4. I sent an email but also wanted to comment that I'm really excited to be reading this book. I had just discovered it a couple of days ago and this is a great excuse to move it up the TBR list!

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  5. Just a side bar… LOVE all that you ladies do – I look forward to your podcasts and am enjoying participating in your forums!

    Lisa C

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  6. Hi Mari,

    How generous of Random House! Here is my info in case there are any copies left. Thanks!

    Sharon

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