October Book List, Book Club Selection

While mapping the ancient underwater city of Marinth in the Atlantic Ocean, submersible designer Hannah Bryson makes a shocking discovery: she may have finally uncovered the truth about the once-glorious city’s mysterious demise. Long ago it was a thriving metropolis bursting with culture and life—Marinth’s sudden disappearance has plagued scientists for years. But now, with her unexpected new findings, Hannah realizes that the ancient city’s explosive secret could have dire consequences for the modern-day world.

But Hannah isn’t the only one who realizes it. When her key artifact is hijacked en route to a research lab, she is thrust into an adventure in which she must match wits against a terrifying enemy who will kill anyone who stands in his way. And when Hannah becomes his target, she knows that her best hope for survival lies with Kirov, a mysterious and deadly man from her past. Together they will race to unravel Marinth’s last great secret in order to prevent a catastrophe of global proportions. Before the lethal game is over, however, Hannah will realize that no one is above suspicion.

Alicia Bessette writes with compassion and tenderness to illuminate the many unexpected ways people save each others’ lives every day-often without even knowing it. Poignant, bittersweet, and strikingly honest, Simply from Scratchis a radiant celebration of friendship and the strength of the human spirit.Rose-Ellen (“Zell”) Carmichael Roy wears her late husband Nick’s camouflage apron even when she’s not in the kitchen. That’s her widow style.

It’s been over a year since Nick died tragically during a post-Katrina relief mission in New Orleans. Long enough, according to the grief pamphlets, to have begun to move on with her life. But Zell is still unable to enter her attic, which is full of Nick memories. She hasn’t even turned on her oven because cooking was Nick’s chore. That is, until she decides to enter the first annual Desserts that Warm the Soul baking contest, hoping to donate the grand prize to Katrina survivors in Nick’s memory.

Meanwhile, Zell’s nine-year-old neighbor, Ingrid Knox, is learning to cope with the loneliness of growing up without a mother. With an imagination as big as her heart, Ingrid treasures her doting father but begins to plot how she will meet the woman who abandoned her so many years ago. When an embarrassing baking mishap brings Zell and Ingrid together, they form an unlikely friendship that will alter both of their lives forever. Together, and with the help of a lively and loveable cast of friends and family, Zell and Ingrid embark on winning the Desserts that Warm the Soul contest – and learn that through the many sorrows and joys of life, with a little bit of flour and a pinch of love, anything is possible.

In the spring of 1984, high school students Amanda Collier and Dawson Cole fell deeply, irrevocably in love. Though they were from opposite sides of the tracks, their love for one another seemed to defy the realities of life in the small town of Oriental, North Carolina. But as the summer of their senior year came to a close, unforeseen events would tear the young couple apart, setting them on radically divergent paths.Now, twenty-five years later, Amanda and Dawson are summoned back to Oriental for the funeral of Tuck Hostetler, the mentor who once gave shelter to their high school romance. Neither has lived the life they imagined . . . and neither can forget the passionate first love that forever changed their lives. As Amanda and Dawson carry out the instructions Tuck left behind for them, they realize that everything they thought they knew — about Tuck, about themselves, and about the dreams they held dear — was not as it seemed. Forced to confront painful memories, the two former lovers will discover undeniable truths about the choices they have made. And in the course of a single, searing weekend, they will ask of the living, and the dead: Can love truly rewrite the past?

As Jessie Patrick Reed’s attorney, I’m writing to you on behalf of your father, Jessie Patrick Reed. I regret to inform you that Mr. Reed is dying. He has expressed a desire to see you . . .Elizabeth, even though sustained by a loving family, has suffered the most from her father’s seeming abandonment and for years has protected herself with a deep-seated anger that she hides from everyone.

Ginger, in love with a married man, will be forced to reevaluate every relationship she’s ever had and will reach stunning conclusions that will change her life forever.

Rachel learns of her father’s existence the same day she finds out that her husband of ten years has had an affair. She will receive the understanding and support she needs to survive from an unlikely and surprising source.

Christine is a young filmmaker, barely out of college, who now must decide if her few precious memories of a man she believed to be long dead are enough to give him a second chance.

Four sisters who never knew the others existed will find strength, love, and answers in the most unexpected places in . . . The Year Everything Changed.

I can’t wait to see your votes!  Only a few days left to enter the giveaways too!!!