by Nina Solomon
After dessert and coffee had been served and cleared, the doorbell rang. From the kitchen, Emily heard cries of delight. Her flute refilled, she joined what appeared to be a love fest in the foyer. Cathy was arm-in-arm with a guy in a sweater vest.
Beaming, Cathy shared the news that she and Lawrence were moving to Canada at the end of the school year. She’d applied for a one-year sabbatical and had been accepted to take a training course in Anthroposophic Social Therapy at the Ita Wegman Association, a community for people with special needs in British Columbia. Lawrence’s mother had already begun knitting them each a pair of long johns for the cold Canadian winter, and was on “standby” for any future little Weiners delivered via stork.
Lavinia and Brock arrived in full bloom like an early spring. “We brought you a little something,” Lavinia said, handing Emily a foil-wrapped bottle tied with red ribbon.
“You didn’t have to,” she said.
“Of course not, we never have to do anything. It’s our pleasure.”
It wasn’t long before Brock and Malcolm were planning an alpine ski expedition; Lavinia and Beatrice were singing Irving Berlin songs at the piano; and Sasha was showing Max the proper way to wear a tiara. What sort of magic was The Love Book performing now?
* * *
There was a clinking sound. Zach had filled a flute with conversation hearts. Sasha was next to him, trying to balance the manuscript boxes in her arms.
The boxes were distributed, one each to Max, Cathy, and Beatrice. Zach explained, “When I say go, open them up. One, two, three, ready, set, open!”
All at once a shower of petals fluttered to the floor, transforming the parquet into a pink magic carpet.
Beatrice read the dedication on the title page aloud: “To Beatrice, Cathy, and Max. Three true soul mates.” She smiled. “Right back at you, babe!”
“There’s still time for some final tweaks,” Emily said, winking at her. “It’s a work in progress.”
Soon, Lavinia and Brock stood to leave. “Regretfully, we must be off. Thank you for a splendid time,” Brock said, kissing Emily’s hand. “Luvie,” he called to his wife, who was now exchanging contact information with her new best friend, Beatrice.
“Coming, Brocky. Amour, tout autour! Kisses all around!”
The last champagne bottle drained, Emily unwrapped the present from Brock and Lavinia. It was a heart-shaped carafe of Pomme Prisonnière. Calvados with a whole apple inside.
After everyone left, with promises to get together soon, Emily put her arm around Zach’s shoulder and reached into his glass for a candy heart. Be Mine. She’d found exactly what she was looking for and it had been there all along.
E-Book Extras
Reading Group Guide
Author's Statement
Reading Group Guide
1. Finding love is the central focus of the novel. How does each character view romantic love? What other types of love are explored in the novel? What do these other types of love reveal about each character?
2. What emotional or psychological obstacles or “blocks” do the characters face that impede their finding love? Do these blocks serve any purpose? Are the characters successful in overcoming the obstacles they face?
3. What relationships, past or present, do the characters have to “renegotiate” in order to experience greater love? Have you ever had to cut ties with someone toxic in your life? What was the result?
4. How do the characters act as catalysts in each other’s personal development? Do you see any patterns in how the characters relate to themselves and others?
5. What is a soul mate? Do you believe that everyone has only one soul mate and that we are not complete until we find him or her? Or do you believe that we have many soul mates over the course of a lifetime? Have you ever had a soul mate? How did the experience of being with your soul mate change you?
6. Are Emily and Charles adversaries or soul mates? What is the nature of their relationship at the beginning of the novel, and how does it evolve? Do they find resolution by the end? What lessons or treasures are revealed for Emily?
7. What do you think the author is saying about the nature of divorce? What does it take to move past anger/resentment/sadness/guilt/regret after divorce? Are there residual feelings from past relationships that you’ve had trouble moving beyond?
8. Which character were you most able to identify with? Why? Which character did you least identify with? Why? How did your feelings about each character change over the course of the novel?
9. Each of the four main characters indulges in some form of self-medication (i.e., sugar, alcohol, romantic fantasies, and/or sex) as a way to mask their feelings—or not deal with them at all. What do you think the author is saying about addiction as it relates to love?
10. Were you satisfied with how each character’s story ended? Do you wish they’d made different choices? What could they have done differently?
11. If you were to plan a sequel to The Love Book, where do you imagine each character’s life taking him or her?
A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR
When I was about four years old, I lined a red box with one of my grandmother’s scarves and hid it under my bed. It was for the cat I would have someday. My brother was asthmatic. Other than box turtles living in plastic terrariums, pets were verboten. This was my first memory of believing in my ability to manifest my heart’s desire. Fast-forward six years, I brought home a stray kitten from the grocery store, which my brother—miraculously—was not allergic to.
I was a single mother living with my son, also highly allergic to cats, and another miracle cat named Benny. While I could manifest hypoallergenic cats, men were another story. After several disastrous relationships, I decided to take a sabbatical from men and do a little soul searching. About ten months into my hiatus, I came across a book about how to call in your soul mate. I did the lessons religiously every morning. After just a week, I noticed a shift. The once gruff stone-faced school guard suddenly began showering me with compliments and pastries when I picked my son up from school. A stranger ran down the street to hand me a bouquet of irises. Another man proposed marriage at the supermarket. And then, on Day 27, my soul mate arrived. Out of the blue. Or maybe not so out of the blue. He was living in France at the time and we wrote hundreds of letters to each other over the course of our six-week transatlantic courtship. We began dating a year to the date after I began my sabbatical from men and we have been living happily together ever since.
Little does he know I conjured him.
A frustrated matchmaker at heart, I foisted the book on all my single friends with the promise that they too would find the “One.” Within days, the magic began happening. I received calls and e-mails, reports from near and far. Did they all find their soul mates? No, not all. Or at least not yet. One woman threw the book in the trash after conjuring her ex-husband three times. Several had a few near misses, others some fun along the way. Their stories, mishaps, and experiences searching for love were the inspiration for The Love Book.
NINA SOLOMON'S first novel, Single Wife, was a Book-of-the-Month Club, Literary Guild, and Quality Paperback Book Club selection and was optioned by Warner Bros. The Love Book was inspired by her own search for a soul mate, who, she is happy to report, only took twenty-seven days and thirty years to find his way to her. She was born and raised in New York City and has lived in the same zip code since she was five.
Also available from Kaylie Jones Books
Unmentionables by Laurie Loewenstein
Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night by Barbara J. Taylor
Starve the Vulture by Jason Carney
Foamers by Justin Kassab
We Are All Crew by Bill Landauer
Little Beasts by Matthew McGevna (forthcoming)
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, by any means, including mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without
the prior written consent of the publisher.
Published by Akashic Books
©2015 by Nina Solomon
e-ISBN-13: 978-1-61775-337-4
Paperback ISBN-13: 978-1-61775-317-6
Library of Congress Control Number: 2014907316
Kaylie Jones Books
www.kayliejonesbooks.com
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ABOUT KAYLIE JONES BOOKS
an Akashic Books imprint
The increasingly commercial nature of mainstream publishing has made it difficult for literary writers to find a home for their more serious, thought-provoking works. Kaylie Jones Books will create a cooperative of dedicated emerging and established writers who will play an integral part in the publishing process, from reading manuscripts, editing, offering advice, to advertising the upcoming publications. The list of brilliant novels unable to find homes within the mainstream is growing every day.
It is our hope to publish books that bravely address serious issues—historical or contemporary—relevant to society today. Just because a book addresses serious topics and may include tragic events does not mean that the narrative cannot be amusing, fast-paced, plot-driven, and lyrical all at once. Our flagship publication, Unmentionables by Laurie Loewenstein, is exactly such a novel. The book takes place in 1917 Illinois, on the verge of US involvement in WWI. While the larger topics are race and women’s suffrage, the characters and their courageous stands against oppression and reactionary bigotry could not be more relevant today.
Kaylie Jones
New York, NY
January 2014
ALSO AVAILABLE FROM KAYLIE JONES BOOKS
Unmentionables, by Laurie Loewenstein
"Exceptionally readable and highly recommended."—Library Journal (starred review)
Unmentionables has been selected by the Midwest Independent Booksellers Association as a Midwest Connections pick for January 2014!
"Engaging first work from a writer of evident ability." —Kirkus Reviews
"Marian Elliot Adams’ . . . tale is contagiously enthusiastic." —Publishers Weekly
"Unmentionables starts small and expands to touch Chicago and war-torn France as Laurie Loewenstein weaves multiple points of view together to create a narrative of social change and the stubbornness of the human heart." —Black Heart Magazine
"A historical, feminist romance in the positive senses of all three terms: a realistic evocation of small-town America circa 1917, including its racial tensions; a tale about standing up for the equitable treatment of women; and a story about two lonely people who overcome obstacles, including their own character defects, to find love together." —Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
"Unmentionables is a sweeping and memorable story of struggle and suffrage, love and redemption . . . Loewenstein has skillfuly woven a story and a cast of characters that will remain in the memory long after the book’s last page has been turned." —New York Journal of Books
Marian Elliot Adams, an outspoken advocate for sensible undergarments for women, sweeps onto the Chautauqua stage under a brown canvas tent on a sweltering August night in 1917, and shocks the gathered town of Emporia with her speech: How can women compete with men in the work place and in life if they are confined by their undergarments? The crowd is further appalled when Marian falls off the stage and sprains her ankle, and is forced to remain among them for a week. As the week passes, she throws into turmoil the town's unspoken rules governing social order, women, and Negroes. The recently widowed newspaper editor Deuce Garland, his lapels glittering with fraternal pins, has always been a community booster, his desire to conform rooted in a legacy of shame--his great-grandfather married a black woman, and the town will never let Deuce forget it, especially not his father-in-law, the owner of the newspaper and Deuce's boss. Deuce and his father-in-law are already at odds, since the old man refuses to allow Deuce's stepdaughter, Helen, to go to Chicago to fight for women's suffrage.
But Marian's arrival shatters Deuce's notions of what is acceptable, versus what is right, and Deuce falls madly in love with the tall activist from New York. During Marian's stay in Emporia, Marian pushes Deuce to become a greater, braver, and more dynamic man than he ever imagined was possible. He takes a stand against his father-in-law by helping Helen escape to Chicago; and he publishes an article exposing the county's oldest farm family as the source of a recent typhoid outbreak, risking his livelihood and reputation. Marian's journey takes her to the frozen mud of France's Picardy region, just beyond the lines, to help destitute villagers as the Great War rages on. Helen, in Chicago, is hired as a streetcar conductor surrounded by bitter men who resent her taking a man's job. Meanwhile, Deuce struggles to make a living and find his place in Emporia's wider community after losing the newspaper.
Marian is a powerful catalyst that forces nineteenth-century Emporia into the twentieth century; but while she agitates for enlightenment and justice, she has little time to consider her own motives and her extreme loneliness. Marian, in the end, must decide if she has the courage to face small-town life, and be known, or continue to be a stranger always passing through.
LAURIE LOEWENSTEIN grew up in the flatlands of western Ohio and now resides in Rochester, NY, where Susan B. Anthony was arrested for voting in 1872.
Unmentionables is available in paperback from our website and in bookstores everywhere. The e-book edition is available wherever e-books are sold.
Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night by Barbara J. Taylor
Named a Best Summer Book for 2014 by Publishers Weekly!
Named a Pick of the Week for the week of June 30th by Publishers Weekly!
“An earnest, well-done historical novel that skillfully blends fact and fiction.” —Publishers Weekly
“A profound story of how one unforeseen event may tear a family apart, but another can just as unexpectedly bring them back together again.” —Publishers Weekly, Best Summer Book for 2014
“A fantastic novel worthy of the greatest accolades. Writing a book about a historical event can be difficult, as is crafting a bestseller, but Barbara J. Taylor is successful at both.” —Downtown Magazine
“Taylor’s careful attention to detail and her deep knowledge of the community and its people give the novel a welcome gravity.” —The Columbus Dispatch
“One of the most compelling books I’ve ever read . . . a haunting story that will stay with the reader long after reading this novel.” —Story Circle Book Reviews
“Rave reviews are pouring in for this historical novel of a family tragedy.” —The Halifax Reader
“This haunting story of tragedy and hope in an early twentieth century mining town is . . . an expertly crafted arrow that shoots straight for the heart. Reminiscent of classics such as How Green Was My Valley . . . this book is a must-read for fans of character-driven, authentic historical fiction.” —Amy Drown Blog
“This is an incredibly well written novel that has the kind of historical accuracy and details that make reading historical novels a treasure. . . . Not to be missed.” —She Treads Softly
“The story may have a sad premise, but Taylor convinces the reader to join her in the tale, as we watch bewildered Violet try to find a space in her new world.” —A New Day
“A beautiful, haunting book . . . heartbreaking and moving, and ultimately beautiful.” —Constantly Reading Momma
“No one without a heart as big and warm as Barbara Taylor’s possibly could have written a story about a family tragedy that’s infused with so much hope and love, humor, mystery, and down-to-earth wisdom. This is a book I’ll want to give to people. I could not put it down and can’t wait to be captured again by the next book this wonderful human being writes.” —Beverly Donofrio, author of Astonished: A Story of Evil, Blessings, Grace, and Solace
“Not since reading Richard Lle
wellyn’s How Green Was My Valley fifty years ago have I felt such empathy and love through fiction for a place, a time, and a people. Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night is a book of equal power and beauty, a bittersweet tale set in early-twentieth-century Wyoming Valley, Pennsylvania, the heart and soul of America’s anthracite coal-mining region, a place where Grace and Grief—now, as then—walk hand in hand.” —Sara Pritchard, author of Help Wanted: Female
“The world of Christian miners—the hard core of the anthracite mining industry in northeast Pennsylvania—is beautifully evoked by Barbara J. Taylor in this remarkable novel. I found myself drawn back to its pages, living deeply in its world as I read. The sense of place—a place I know well, as I grew up there—is vividly realized. This is a lyrical, passionate novel that will hold readers in its thrall. A first-rate debut.” —Jay Parini, author of The Last Station
Almost everyone in town blames eight-year-old Violet Morgan for the death of her nine-year-old sister, Daisy. Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night opens on September 4, 1913, two months after the Fourth of July tragedy. Owen, the girls’ father, “turns to drink” and abandons his family. Their mother Grace falls victim to the seductive powers of Grief, an imagined figure who has seduced her off-and-on since childhood. Violet forms an unlikely friendship with Stanley Adamski, a motherless outcast who works in the mines as a breaker boy. During an unexpected blizzard, Grace goes into premature labor at home and is forced to rely on Violet, while Owen is “off being saved” at a Billy Sunday Revival. Inspired by a haunting family story, Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night blends real life incidents with fiction to show how grace can be found in the midst of tragedy.