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Welcome to the first virtual meeting of the Novel Book Club on Book Bound Saratoga. If you’ve read our first selection, A Novel Bookstore, fantastic! If not, no worries–read the review and discussion questions and maybe it will be your next read. For those of you who are true bibliophiles, I hope that A Novel Bookstore managed to feed your love of books and inspire you to read even more.

Laurence Cosse delves deeply into the world of literature and the modern state of book publishing with the creation of The Good Novel, the subject bookstore whose mission it is to only sell “good novels.” The initial stock selections are chosen by a secret committee–the eight French-author members don’t even know with whom else they share this honor. One might consider that judgment what is a “good novel” is entirely subjective, that it is a decision that changes with each reader. But the purveyors of The Good Novel, Francesca and Van (short for Ivan), have a very set idea of what is considered “good.” There are classics, yes, but more specifically, classic or modern, they are books that feed us. Books that validate our feelings, that inspire us, books that affect and respond to our condition. The bookstore is intended to be a place where the like-minded can come, read, browse, and converse in a welcoming and unhurried atmosphere.

What I think Cosse (and of course translator Alison Anderson) accomplishes wonderfully is the way that she exposes the ties that books, stories, reading, and writing, have on our lives and relationships. The lives of the book’s characters are often affected by what they read or write, in a way that is very profound. Personally, I found this very relatable; I often tie certain memories or emotions with books I’ve read or characters I admire. For those who love books, it’s not simply about the story, it’s about the way a story resonates with life. Is this to say that one should never touch a beach read? A mystery? A humorous novel? Not at all. Will all those be good novels. No. But being entertaining absolutely does not exclude a novel from also being a good novel.

In a city like Paris, where the literary and the artistic have a rich culture and long history, The Good Novel is both lauded and vilified. It generates a discussion about worthy and unworthy literature and subsequently a debate on who exactly has the right to decide what makes a good novel. Of course, publishers and reviews make these judgments everyday and they go unnoticed, without comment or criticism. Opponents of the bookstore cry elitism and snobbery. Fans of The Good Novel support its dedication to fine literature and are thrilled to have a place where they can lose themselves in the books they love.

Ultimately, the attacks on the bookstore become more than just slanderous and turn criminal when several members of the secret selection committee are attacked. Though business is still booming, the future of The Good Novel is at risk. What is it about the opinions of others that so riles people of other minds? The endeavor was undertaken with the best of intentions, with no thought to harming or offending others, and with little risk of undermining any other bookstore’s success.

What struck you most about the premise of The Good Novel? What position do you take on the matter: great homage to fine literature? Or a monument to cultural elitism? What makes publishers or critics–or Oprah, for that matter–more worthy judges of a good novel than voracious readers and lovers of literature? Along with these questions, here are some others to consider:

Do you agree, as Van stated in the novel, that “one of the most fortunate purposes of literature is to bring like-minded people together and get them talking?” Can it also bring together people of disparate opinions and spark conversation?

Francesca believes that “the perfect bookstore, the kind where you’d sell nothing but good novels, could only be viable in a big city with a strong cultural tradition, like London or Paris.” Do you think this is true? How do you think a bookstore like The Good Novel would fare in a small town? A rural community? Your town?

Before working with Francesca at The Good Novel, Van worked in another bookstore, owned by someone not as like-minded. In that store he had what he called “honey shelf,” where he gathered what he considered the very best books in the shop. What would be on your “honey shelf”?

In a response to anonymous attacks on The Good Novel Francesca composes something of a “readers’ manifesto”:

“We want books that are written for those of us who doubt everything…that cost their authors a great deal, books where you can feel the years of work, the backache, the writer’s block…splendid books…books that prove to us that love is at work in the world next to evil, right up against it, at times indistinctly, and that it always will be, just the way that suffering will always ravage hearts. We want good novels.”

Do you want this from your novels? All of the time? Some of the time? Never? What do you want from a novel?

How would you describe your ideal bookstore? Do you have a favorite bookstore?

The discussion for this month’s selection will remain open for one week. Please add your opinions, questions, debates as Comments.

February’s selection will be Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn. Review and discussion will be posted on February 15.

In one week, when discussion on A Novel Bookstore has concluded, I will post voting selections for our March book.

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I’m going to start out by selecting the first book for the first
post, which will be in January. [With the holidays upon us and so much going
on, I know many of us will be pressed for time to read a new book, but I’ll put
it out there.]

We’ve travelled a bumpy road this year at Book Bound. After consideration, I’ve decided that the best way to ensure that next year is smoother sailing, is to establish a monthly Novel Book Club post.

I’m going to start out by selecting the first book for the first post, which will be in January. [With the holidays upon us and so much going on, I know many of us will be pressed for time to read a new book, but I’ll put it out there.]

I’m also providing a selection of books from which we will select our February book. Please send in your selections either via the comments or by email and I the most-voted-for book will be the February selection.

Then in January, on the 15th, I’ll post my review of the book, along with a list of questions for discussion. Th February book will be announced, and a new selection of books from which to choose our next book will be posted. Occasionally, I will also post trivia questions about the book, or related to the author or the subject matter of the book. The first correct response will win a gift (to be revealed when the trivia questions are posted) from me and Book Bound. 🙂

Please jump into the comments section and add your reviews, discuss the questions, suggest more questions of your own. Submit your choice for the next month’s selection and suggest other books to consider. The only criteria is that the book be a novel. The book debate will remain open for two weeks, until the end of the month.

The next Novel Book Club post will be published on February 15 and then subsequently on the 15th of every month.

So, without further ado, the January 2013, inaugural selection for the Book Bound, Novel Book Club is…

Novel Bookstore by Laurence Cosse’

For anyone who loves books, loves to read, this is an absolute addition to your library. It will inspire your reading for the new year, and, hopefully, get ur “Novel Book Club” off to a great start!

Now , planning ahead, here are three selections from which to choose our February novel:

Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn

On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy’s diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media–as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents–the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter–but is he really a killer?

As the cops close in, every couple in town is soon wondering how well they know the one that they love. With his twin sister, Margo, at his side, Nick stands by his innocence. Trouble is, if Nick didn’t do it, where is that beautiful wife? And what was in that silvery gift box hidden in the back of her bedroom closet?

The Night Villa, by Carol Goodman

An evocative tale of intrigue, romance, and treachery, Carol Goodman’s spellbinding new novel, The Night Villa, follows the fascinating lives of two remarkable women centuries apart.
The eruption of Italy’s Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79 buried a city and its people, their treasures and secrets. Centuries later, echoes of this disaster resonate with profound consequences in the life of classics professor Sophie Chase.

In the aftermath of a tragic shooting on the University of Texas campus, Sophie seeks sanctuary on the isle of Capri, immersing herself in her latest scholarly project alongside her colleagues, her star pupil, and their benefactor.

Beneath layers of volcanic ash lies the Villa della Notte-the Night Villa-home to first-century nobles, as well as to the captivating slave girl at the heart of an ancient controversy. And secreted in a subterranean labyrinth rests a cache of antique documents believed lost to the ages: a prize too tantalizing for Sophie to resist. Whatever shocking events transpired in the face of Vesuvius’s fury have led to deeper, darker machinations that inexorably draw Sophie into their vortex, rich in stunning revelations and laden with unseen menace.

The Imperfectionists, by Tom Rachman

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When Nancy met Eli, they were both looking for something. Though unable to express it in words, Eli was in need of a home, of a friend and partner, of a person who could care for him and grow with him. Nancy had felt something missing for some time when she met Eli. Having had to give up on the dream of having a child, there was a definite void in her life. It was the void of not having someone to care for, to nurture, and to raise. And then came Eli. A six-year-old former racehorse with the tendency to spook at the simplest things–think birds, shrubs, for example–Eli needed nurturing. His life had changed from the steady routine on the racetrack he was used to. He needed a constant in his life, and that would be Nancy.

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I first read The Drowning People upon its release in
1999. I was living in Toronto and found the novel in my local bookstore, never
having hear of it before. One very cold weekend I picked it up and began
reading. I was taken with the first lines:

My wife of more than
forty-five years shot herself yesterday afternoon.

At least that is what the
police assume, and I am playing the part of grieving widower with enthusiasm
and success. Life with Sarah has schooled me in self-deception, which I find–as
she did–to be an excellent training in the deceiving of others. Of course I know
that she did nothing of the kind. My wife was far too sane, far too rooted in
the present to think of harming herself. In my opinion she never gave a thought
to what she had done. She was incapable of guilt.

It was I who killed her.

Intriguing, isn’t it? Why,
I wondered immediately, did this proper English gentleman kill his wife of
several decades? What could she have done that would erase the love and good
will that being married for a lifetime must engender? So, on I read. I devoured
it, actually–not putting it down until I had read the last lines–I was so eager
to discover the secrets of their long life together.

But James Farrell, our
narrator, does not tell the tales of his decades with Sarah. He doesn’t recount
moments from a miserable marriage. Instead, we relive the years of James’s
middle-twenties. A formative time of growth and change for anyone, these years
present James with some unexpected choices to make. An aspiring violinist,
James rises above his middle class origins through education and then his
musical talents. It is amid the sea of social elites that he comes of age, both
discovering and questioning his passions and loyalties during these years.

Entertained by Camilla
Boardman, the ultimate social butterfly among his peers; enchanted by and
infatuated with the Anglo-American Ella Harcourt, a reluctant heiress with a
self-destructive streak; confidante and musical accompanist to Eric de
Vaurigard, his devoted friend who hides his true feelings for James; and
finally seduced by Sarah Harcourt, Ella’s fully British cousin who, though a
near twin in appearance, is driven by vastly different motives.

It’s impossible to know
which of the choices we make in our youth will have lifelong repercussions. Now,
at the age of seventy, the final ripple caused by a stone pitched perfectly
into a calm sea over four decades ago has finally reached James. It’s what
forces him to see his life in an entirely new light and to take the action he
does. He kills his wife because now, having uncovered that almost lost
deception, he must at least try to compensate for damage that cannot be undone.

Mason’s novel is a rich
portrait of London’s “bright young things” in late twentieth-century society. His
portrayal of the intricate web of desires and motivations that underlies all
relationships coupled with the hindsight perspective of our narrator have
resulted a story about the desire of belonging, the necessity of acceptance,
and the consequences of living life by any other than one’s own plan. Every
life has good, bad, truth, deception, mystery, and deception; the stories that
result however, rely on what we observe, what we believe, what we learn, and
what we admit.

***UP NEXT***

Here, Home, Hope by Kaira Rouda

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Natalie Keller Reinhart has spent most of her life around a
horse. So it’s not surprising that her novel The Head and Not the Heart should resonate so clearly with professional
equestrians in almost any discipline. It’s a

fine line they walk, those who
love horses and also earn their living by them. It’s an arduous work schedule,
even on the best of days. And make no
mistake, it is not just a job, it’s more than a career, it is a lifestyle.
Every aspect of one’s day, one’s season, one’s life, is dictated by the needs and
of the horse and the barn.

For the
novel’s heroine, Alex, things are no different.
As is the case with many horse people, her lifestyle choice was made at
a young age. The setting is an Ocala farm where she works and lives with her employer
and lover (twice-her-age lover), Alexander. When we meet her she is twenty-five
years old, already a veteran horsewoman in many ways–a knowledgeable and capable
old soul. But she is also a vibrant and romantic–in the broad definition of
the word–young woman. The ups and downs of the farm and training life cannot
but affect the life and relationship she has with Alexander. On the eve of a last-minute trip to New York (to
examine a horse in training at Aqueduct Race Track) Alex examines her life as
it is–current professional and personal stresses fully comingled. It’s all
prescient of the life which lies before her and she suddenly wonders if this is
it, if it’s enough.

While most
people have these crises of life a bit further on, for many who choose an
equestrian career, one decade can feel like two or three–both psychologically
and emotionally. When it comes to Alex’s situation there are several pros and
cons for her to consider, but it’s the cons that are on her mind in New York. Her
planned evening in the city consists of a dinner with an older (senior-citizen
older) horseman friend of Alexander’s and then turning in early to be at the
track at dawn. After dinner she spies a group of New York twentysomethings
headed out for the night and their carefree life sets her thinking about her
own–what would her life be like if . . .

She
follows the jovial group to a club and ends up befriending them, spending the
evening drinking with them, talking to them, telling stories and comparing
notes. Most of her newfound friends can’t even conceive of a life like hers,
they have no frame of reference for what an equine life entails. Alex considers
and compares herself to her new friends and giving up her racing life seems
like a very viable option. Certainly, the hangover she has only a few hours
later when she is already at the track might have swayed her to consider a
lifestyle with a less rigorous schedule.

What goes through her mind when she
sees this potential addition to the barn? Will this horse be different?
Will he be the barn’s “big horse”–the one that makes a career, that makes
history? Or will he be heartache and dashed hopes? This is the emotional
pendulum that racehorse trainers experience with every new trainee. Is Alex
willing to go through this again, over and over, for the rest of her life? Can
she handle feeling those emotions indefinitely? Will she choose another life?
Will she follow her head or her heart?

These thoughts, these feelings of
uncertainty are the same that everyone has either had, or will have at some
point–at least once. The choices we make in those moments are based on the
information we have at the time, just like Alex does in The Head and
Not the Heart. She’s easy to relate to–equal parts doubt and hope, insecurity
and confidence. I think she’s inspiring, and will nudge her readers to face
their own crises. After all, no matter what decision one makes, it will be the
right decision . . . at least . . . it will be at the time.

**UP NEXT**

The Drowning People by Richard Mason

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It’s been a while since Book Bound has seen a new post–too
long a while. In the spirit of better planning and to encourage your
participation here, I’m providing this schedule of book reviews to come, in the
event that you’d like to read along. So get ready to kick off your summer reading list with some of the following novels . . .

May 18: The
Head and Not the Heart, by Natalie Keller Reinert

May 27: The
Drowning People, by Richard Mason

June 1:
Here, Home, Hope, by Kaira Rouda

June 8: A
Novel Bookstore, by Laurence Cossé

June 15: Lamb,
by Christopher Moore

Saratoga
Sunday, June 24: The Fall of
the House of Walworth, by Geoffrey O’Brien

June 29: The
Art of Racing in the Rain, by Garth Stein

I hope that you will choose to read along with some of the
suggested titles and as always, any suggestions you may have are more than
welcome!

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I was eager to read Arcadia
Falls for a few reasons: I was looking for a good mystery; I was in the
mood for some good literary fiction, and I have enjoyed all of Carol Goodman’s
previous novels (except one that I’ve yet to read!). Saying that I wasn’t disappointed
would be a gross understatement.

From her first novel, The
Lake of Dead Languages, Carol Goodman hooked me with her prose. The only
word I can find to describe it is haunting. The reader carries her beautifully
composed words and imagery from page to page, chapter to chapter, book to book,
and beyond. Arcadia Falls is no
exception. Like most of Goodman’s novels, this one takes place in rural upstate
New York, where the author has some roots of her own. Having owned a home in
Saratoga for almost eight years now, I’ll admit that I was a reluctant
transplant to the area. I had images in my mind of depressing winter scenes with
entirely too much snow and grey sky. But Ms. Goodman’s books promised and
delivered a very different New York State. She infuses beauty and mystery into
all of her settings and the reader is seduced and intrigued as much by them as
by the characters and plotlines of her stories.

After the unexpected death of her husband, Meg Rosenthal uproots
herself and her teenage daughter from their Long Island home with her daughter to
the novel’s eponymous town after accepting a position teaching folklore at the
Arcadia School. Founded as an artist’s colony the school maintains its
dedication to arts and letters and traditions of the past. It is during one of
the school’s traditional celebrations, the First Night bonfire, that one of the
school’s top student falls to her death. Eerily, the tragic death mirrors the
long-ago discovery of Lily Eberhart, one of the school’s founders.

During the following months two investigations merge: the
police investigation into the student death and Meg’s research into the history
of the school and, in particular, of its founders. The school has its secrets
it seems, and while avoiding the all-too watchful eyes of Dean Ivy St. Claire,
Meg will uncover them. In doing so, the truth about the women founders and the
realities of the lives and choices of women in every generation are brought to
light. In discovering the truth of the past she discovers remarkable truths
about herself and her daughter.

It was no surprise to me that I would enjoy this book. What
I find myself drawn to about Ms. Goodman’s work is her distinct way of
paralleling the lives of her characters to the regional history, art, and
literature. Arcadia Falls is no
exception. Her deft prose weaves the meta-story carefully throughout the novel
and the result is a resolution that is satisfying and relatable.

If you’ve not read Arcadia
Falls, I hope you are inspired to do so. If you have read it, please share
your thoughts and comments!

**UP NEXT**

The Head and Not the Heart by Natalie Keller Reinert

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