Bestselling author Holly Chamberlin's new novel, The Family Beach House, sweeps you into the picturesque town of Ogunquit, Maine, where a family in flux explores their ties to a beautiful beach house, and to each other. Siblings Tilda, Adam, Hannah, and Craig come to Larchmere, their childhood and, now, vacation home, to commemorate the tenth anniversary of their mother's passing. Grief, family dynamics, feelings of home and place, tolerance and forgiveness are all wrapped up in The Family Beach House. "Readers who enjoy Maine, long passages of description and character introspection should pick up this novel about a family in flux," writes RT Book Reviews.
 
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Accompanied by photographs, sketches, and notes from past and present, Good Things I Wish You by A. Manette Ansay (Blue Water) blends original fiction and history to capture the timeless nature of love and friendship between women and men. Jeanette, a gifted pianist, struggles to complete a book about the real relationship between Clara Schumann, a celebrated pianist and the wife of the composer Robert Schumann, and her husband's protégé, the handsome young composer Johannes Brahms. Was Clara and Johannes' relationship "just friends" or something more? As Clara delves for more materials for her book, she meets Hart, a mysterious, worldly entrepreneur who is a native of Clara's birthplace, Leipzig, Germany. They engage in a research and emotional journey through Germany and Switzerland that brings Jeanette to a crossroads similar to Clara Schumann's, so many years ago.
 
Ansay's new novel is filled with notes about music and of music. Music by the Book features Tom Moon (1000 Recording To Hear Before You Die) picking some recordings to enhance your book conversation of Good Things I Wish You. 
 
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 The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender tells the story of nine-year old Rose who bites into her mother's homemade lemon cake and discovers she has a magical gift: she can taste her mother's emotions in the cake. Rose discovers this gift to her horror, for her mother-her cheerful, good-with-crafts, can-do mother-tastes of despair and desperation. Suddenly, and for the rest of her life, food becomes a peril and a threat to Rose. According to Publishers Weekly, " . . . [Bender] emerges as more a spelunker of the human soul....plumbs an emotionally crippled family with power and authenticity . . . brimming with a zesty, beguiling talent."
 
Read in Aimee Bender's guest post how she started a book group and still loves the "combo of book group and delicious meal."

Food by the Book features a lemon cake recipe from Suzan Colón, author of Cherries in Winter, to enhance your discussion of The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake.
 
And, one reading group will win a lemon cake to accompany their discussion of The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake. Definitely no sadness in this cake! 
 
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Enter for a chance to win a cake delivery  

 Emily Gray Tedrowe (Commuters) writes about her character Avery's obsession with food, how it guides some of his decisions, and how memorable meals can define one's life. 

Ayelet Waldman (Red Hook Road) tells us the one question she is afraid to answer. 
 
Aimee Bender (The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake) chats about her own book group and that it "is a great way to see friends, a tremendous potluck, and I love it." 
 
Heather Barbieri (The Lace Makers of Glenmara) writes of the two women who shared their love of reading with her.  
 
Comment on the 50th anniversary of To Kill a Mockingbird