Book: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt When: Friday, January 31st, 7pm Where: Alejandra’s House (see pingg invite) Synopsis: It begins with a boy. Theo Decker, a thirteen-year-old New Yorker, miraculously survives an accident that kills his mother. Abandoned by his father, Theo is taken in by the family of a wealthy…
Book: Lexicon by Max Barry When: November 22nd, 7pm Where: Ellie’s House hosted with Amanda(see pingg invite) Synopsis: Words have power to persuade, to coerce, even to kill. And so they have since the days when wordsmiths were called sorcerers. Streetwise teenager Emily knows nothing of this until she is…
Book: The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon When: October 25th, 7pm Where: Beth’s House (see pingg invite) Synopsis: In post-World War II Barcelona, young Daniel is taken by his bookseller father to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a massive sanctuary where books are guarded from oblivion. Told to…
Book: What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell When: September 27th, 7pm Where: Jill’s House (see pingg invite) Synopsis: What is the difference between choking and panicking? Why are there dozens of varieties of mustard-but only one variety of ketchup? What do football players teach us about how to hire teachers? What…
Book: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern When: August 30th, 7pm Where: Veronica’s House (see pingg invite) Synopsis: The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It…
Book: After You’d Gone by Maggie O’Farrell When: July 26th, 7pm What: POOL PARTY! Where: Alejandra’s House (see pingg invite) Synopsis: Alice Raikes takes a train from London to Scotland to visit her family, but when she gets there she witnesses something so shocking that she insists on returning to London immediately.…
Book: Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo When: June 28th, 7pm Where: Amanda’s House (see pingg invite) Synopsis: Katherine Boo spent three years among the residents of the Annawadi slum, a sprawling, cockeyed settlement of more than 300 tin-roof huts and shacks in the shadow of Mumbai’s International Airport. From within this…
Book: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier When: May 31th, 7pm Where: Rachel’s House (see pingg invite) Synopsis: Rebecca is a novel of mystery and passion, a dark psychological tale of secrets and betrayal, dead loves and an estate called Manderley that is as much a presence as the humans who inhabit it: “when…
Book: The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde When: April 26th, 7pm Where: Alejandra’s House (see pingg invite) Synopsis: This novel might be called “James Bond Meets Harry Potter in the Twilight Zone.” In fact, the reader plays “name that literary reference” through most of this zany work, where characters wander around…
Book: Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Kristof and WuDunn When: March 22, 2013 @ 7pm Where: The Studio at Beth’s House (see pingg invite) Synopsis: From two of our most fiercely moral voices, a passionate call to arms against our era’s most pervasive human rights…