Book Club

It’s a joyous happening within the Book Circle, which has selected the first novel in Alexander McCall Smith’s widely acclaimed and delightful The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series as its selection for the Thursday, Feb. 23 meeting, on Zoom, at 4 p.m.

Fans around the world adore this best-selling series, set in Botswana, where Precious Ramotswe and her loyal associate, Grace Makutsi, navigate their cases and their personal lives with wisdom, good humor, and frequent cups of Red Bush tea. No sooner has Precious set up shop in a storefront in Gaborone, she encounters opportunities to help people solve problems in their lives.

The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency received two Booker judges’ Special Recommendations, and was voted one of the International Books of the Year and the Millennium by the Times Literary Supplement.

In a crime scene that could have been conjured by Edgar Allen Poe himself, Manhattan Assistant D.A. Alexandra Cooper discovers it was, in fact, real — in this trail of clues conjured by real-life prosecutor Linda Fairstein, whose former life prepared her well as a writer of mystery novels. In Entombed, the writer challenges her readers to solve the gruesome case of the skeleton of a woman standing upright behind a brick wall. It’s a modern day murder of gothic proportions, entrusted to the writing skills of the former New York City prosecutor, who headed the sex crimes unit of the Manhattan D.A.’s office from 1976  to 2002.

The Book Circle meets monthly to discuss works with Jewish content or by Jewish writers. The next meeting will be held on Thursday, Jan. 19, 4 p.m. on Zoom. For more information about the group, email ctigreenport@gmail.com with a message for Susan Rosenstreich, coordinator of the group.

More Than I Love My Life by David Grossman, an International Booker Prize nominee, chronicles three generations of women as they travel to a barren Croatian island to reveal a secret. Here they unravel fear, love, mercy and the complex overlapping demands of romantic and parental desires. The selection will be explored at the next meeting of the Book Circle, to be held on Thursday, Dec. 15, at 4:15 p.m., on Zoom.

The novel was inspired by the true story of one of the author’s longtime confidants who, in the early 1950s, was imprisoned there.

The Book Circle meets monthly to discuss works by Jewish authors and/or Jewish themes. For more information about the group, email ctigreenport@gmail.com with a message for Susan Rosenstreich, coordinator of the group.