Welcome
"Happy spring! This is such a great time of year for reading. I’m finishing up my new novel, The Book of Magic, and I can’t wait to share it with you in the fall. In this newsletter I’ve included some fun reading about one of my favorite independent bookstores, information on how to attend my virtual event Pink Pages, and discussion questions and materials for my book club. See you LIVE on Facebook at the end of the month!"
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March’s book club selection is Seventh Heaven. Here is the story of a divorced single mother, Nora Silk, set in the late 50’s and early 60s. It captures life in suburbia.
Facebook LIVE Q&A:
April 26, 2021 @ 3pm EST
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Seventh Heaven by Alice Hoffman
In Seventh Heaven, Alice Hoffman takes us to a typical suburban community of the 1950s – typical until Nora Silk comes to town.
Nora is extraordinary. Strong, sexy, passionate, and extremely mysterious. She is determined to raise her two children without a husband, willing to take love where she finds it. A woman whose liberated spirit foreshadows the decade ahead.
Everyone in town is touched by her and begins to see themselves as never before. With Nora’s courageous image before them, they begin to ask themselves questions they had never dared ask before, finding answers they never dared to image.
Seventh Heaven is an homage to Alice Hoffman's mother, a single parent in the late fifties and early sixties.
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“To have peace with your neighbors you need to adhere to two unspoken rules: mind your own business and keep up your lawn.”
— Alice Hoffman, Seventh Heaven
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Questions for Discussion
1. What is it about Noral Silk that, at first, the neighbors on Hemlock Street find so disturbing?
2. What is Nora hoping to find or experience in her new life in the Long Island subdivision? What kind of lives are all the residents of this suburban world hoping to live?
3. Discuss the differences in reaction to Nora’s arrival in both men and women on Hemlock Street.
4. What does Seventh Heaven say about suburbs? Are they really the safe, insulated world their residents hope it will be?
5. How do you feel about the relationship between Nora and 17-year-old Ace McCarthy?
6. Hoffman shows us Hemlock Street through the eyes of a number of residents. What do these characters' stories reveal about life in a 1950's era subdivision?
- Joe Hennessy (why does he find his role as detective troubling?)
- Donna Durgin (what prompts her diet and her abandonment of her family?)
- Danny and Rickie (what adolescent struggles are they going through?)
7. Why does Hoffman show us Hemlock Street through the eyes of multiple perspectives and not just Nora?
8. The novel is set in the late 1950s, on the cusp of the '60s. Why might Hoffman have chosen that particular time for her story? What larger issue is she exploring? In what ways were the '50s and '60s different from one another?
9. How does Hoffman use magical realism to ehance the novel and highlight suburbia and the characters that inhabit Hemlock Street?
10. By the end of the novel, how have characters changed? What, if anything, have they learned or gained?
*Questions from the author and from LitLovers
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Seventh Heaven covers throughout the years
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Praise for Seventh Heaven
“Seventh Heaven confirms her place as one of the finest writers of her generation.”
—Newsweek
“Brilliant and astonishing.”
—Cosmopolitan
“Hoffman is a dreamy and mesmerizing storyteller… Before you know it, you’re half in love with the ordinary people who inhabit this book; you’re seduced by their susceptibility to the remarkable.”
—The New Yorker
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“She knew that you could wrap a cut with a spider’s web and stop the bleeding. Spirits would disappear when you set out a saucer of salt. Three rainy days in a row meant an arrival. And—this one Nora would testify to—a husband who talked in his sleep meant betrayal.”
— Alice Hoffman, Seventh Heaven
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Featured Independent Bookstore
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Seventh Heaven takes place on Long Island so I felt it very fitting to feature Book Revue this month!
Founded by brothers Richard and Robert Klein in 1977, Book Revue is an independently-owned bookstore located on Long Island in the village of Huntington, New York. The store has expanded five times to its present size of 17,500 square feet and is now one of the largest independent bookstores in the country. For more than forty years they have worked to create a place where book lovers feel comfortable browsing, reading, and discussing books, while maintaining a unique character and personality that sets them apart from other bookstores.
Book Revue is very proud to be considered a cultural and social center for their community. They strive to provide interesting workshops, book groups, children’s programs and other events for their customers. In addition to these programs, their ongoing schedule of distinguished author readings and celebrity appearances have become known as one of the finest in America, and they are pleased to be able to offer these events to their customers on a regular basis. They pride themselves on customer service, depth of selection, and above all, their love and knowledge of books. Book Revue appreciates the loyal support they have received from their customers and look forward to providing quality bookselling to their community for many years to come.
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Book Revue is the proud home of Write America; a new author series spearheaded by writer Roger Rosenblatt, featuring award-winning, nationally-renowned authors, and new and emerging writers, in readings and conversation each week about how books and art might bridge the deep divisions in our nation. Conversations will be streamed on Book Revue's Crowdcast channel. Read more about Write America here.
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Shelby Recommends
This month Shelby is encouraging everyone to purchase a ticket to Pink Pages 2021, a virtual event on May 5, 2021 at 7PM EST to celebrate the Hoffman Breast Center at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, MA. The event will feature stories by Susan Orlean, Tayari Jones, Hilarie Burton Morgan, Amy Tan, Madeline Miller and Kristin Hannah, with a special performance by Yo-Yo Ma!
Purchase a ticket here.
Follow Shelby on Instagram @mizindependentshelby
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Post of the Month
Here are my favorite comments from this #HowIWrite post on Instagram.
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@firegoddess420: I love Practical Magic, but so far my number one is Skylight Confessions, Then Story Sisters, then Practical Magic.
@machas_acorns: That was the age I discovered Ray Bradbury. It changed my entire life.
@khopps89: I read The River King and subsequently almost everything you’d written when I was around that age. I re-read The River King at least 4 times. Still one of my favorites! ❤️
@hautefiction: Green Angel had such a huge impact on me at 13. I really discovered my love for reading after staying up all night to finish and going to middle school red eyed from crying. When ever anyone ask for a book recommendation for their teen. I always suggest it!💕 🍃
@chandlerlovelle: So true. The books I read at that age are still my favorite books to this day 💜
@jenalem: this was me - reading alllll the Alice Hoffman books my mom suggested to me as a teen and loving them/reading ❤️
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