Beneath the Book Club: 3 brand new books top our May list. Which one do you want to dive into?
- 5 hours ago
- 4 min read
Beach reading season has officially arrived and it’s time to soak up some sunshine and dive into a juicy read.
These three books were released in April and I can hardly wait to see which one the group selects.
1. Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke
4.22 on Goodreads
WHAT GOODREADS SAYS: "Natalie lives a traditional lifestyle. Her charming farmhouse is rustic, her husband a handsome cowboy, her six children each more delightful than the last.
“So what if there are nannies and producers behind the scenes, her kitchen hiding industrial-grade fridges and ovens, her husband the Republican equivalent of a Kennedy?
"What Natalie’s followers—all 8 million of them—don’t know won’t hurt them.
“And The Angry Women? The privileged, Ivy League, coastal elite haters who call her an antifeminist iconoclast?
"They’re sick with jealousy. Because Natalie isn’t simply living the good life, she’s living the ideal—and just so happens to be building an empire from it.
“Until one morning she wakes up in a life that isn’t hers.
“Her home, her husband, her children—they’re all familiar, but something’s off.
“Her kitchen is warmed by a sputtering fire rather than electricity, her children are dirty and strange, and her soft-handed husband is suddenly a competent farmer.
“Just yesterday Natalie was curating photos of homemade jam for her Instagram, and now she’s expected to haul firewood and handwash clothes until her fingers bleed.
"Has she become the unwitting star of a brutal reality show?
“Could it really be time travel? Is she being tested by God? By Satan?
“When Natalie suffers a brutal injury in the woods, she realizes two things: This is not her beautiful life, and she must escape by any means possible.
“A gripping, electrifying novel that is as darkly funny as it is frightening, Yesteryear is a gimlet-eyed look at tradition, fame, faith and the grand performance of womanhood.”
2. Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth
4.39 on Goodreads
WHAT GOODREADS SAYS: “Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick is eighty-one years old. She's lived on her idyllic street for sixty years—longer than anyone else.
“Aside from being a curmudgeon who minds everyone else's business, few would suspect that Elsie has a past she's worked exceedingly hard at concealing—because when it comes to murder, no one ever suspects little girls or old ladies.
“And Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick, once a little girl and now an old lady, has a strange history of people in her life coming to a foul end.
“When a new little girl (talkative, curious, nosy) moves into the neighborhood and stops at nothing to befriend Elsie, her carefully-constructed life threatens to come crashing down as the secrets in Elsie's past start coming to light.
“Who was ‘Mad Mabel fifty years ago? Who is Elsie Fitzpatrick today? And if the past has a habit of repeating itself, who has the most to lose?
"Told with Sally Hepworth's twists, humor, charm and heart, Mad Mabel is novel that weaves past and present together - through the power of justice and redemption and all the way to its stunning conclusion."
3. The Island Club by Nicola Harrison
4.03 on Goodreads
WHAT GOODREADS SAYS: “1956: On idyllic Balboa Island, just off the California coast, life seems peaceful and welcoming.
“But when the lives of three women begin to unravel in shockingly different ways, an unlikely friendship―and the game of tennis―may be the only thing that can save them.
“Milly Kinkaid's plan to fix her crumbling marriage seems to be falling apart before it even begins.
"She believed that moving her young family from Hollywood to Balboa Island might entice her increasingly distant husband to come home earlier after work.
“Instead, he's barely coming home at all.
“Society matriarch Sylvia Johnson and her husband have been pillars of their community for decades, and have just recently begun a new business venture: The Island Club, a place for members to swim, play tennis and dine in style.
“But when she learns that he has been risking their financial security and putting their family's future in grave danger, she's not only poised to lose the club, but the entire community she holds dear.
“Meanwhile, standoffish loner Adele Lambert's entire world is on the brink of being destroyed if the dark secrets of her past and her hidden identity is revealed.
“Twenty years ago, she ran from a shameful scandal and left behind the only thing she ever loved.
"Now, terrified that the anonymity she's spent decades guarding will be exposed, but desperate to stay afloat, she risks everything to return to the game that brought her to her knees all those years before.
“Set against the sun-drenched beaches of Balboa Island, with its prim and proper 1950s facade, The Island Club is a story of love, loneliness and the lies we tell ourselves - and what can be gained when the truth is finally revealed.”
So, which one will it be book clubbers?
Vote now on the Beneath the Surface News Book Club Page.
