Shelf Indulgence Book Club

What if God was one of us? If not as old as time, it’s a question at least as old as Joan Osborne. In Mitch Albom’s latest thought-provoking novel, THE STRANGER IN THE LIFEBOAT, God is one of us. He is a fellow passenger aboard a small lifeboat. The book is segmented into three sections: Land, Sea and News. In the chapters labeled Sea, we read the chronicles of nine near-strangers stranded at sea in the aftermath of their ship’s suspicious explosion. Each was either a crew member or a guest upon the sunken vessel,  Galaxy , a mega-million-dollar yacht belonging to billionaire Jason Lambert. The boat harbors two chefs, an Olympian, a makeup mogul, a silent girl, a Greek ambassador to the United Nations, a hairdresser, a British media executive, Jason Lambert himself, and a deckhand named Benji who chronicles the events upon the lifeboat. "Evocative, tragic and beautiful, THE STRANGER IN THE LIFEBOAT is a book with the potential to reach far beyond its own pages." While this st

  About the Book: He saw what you did. He knows who you are… From the  New York Times  bestselling author of  Pieces of Her  and  The Silent Wife , an electrifying standalone thriller. AN ORDINARY LIFE… Leigh Collier has worked hard to build what looks like a normal life.  She’s an up-and-coming defense attorney at a prestigious law firm in Atlanta, would do anything for her sixteen-year-old daughter Maddy, and is managing to successfully co-parent through a pandemic after an amicable separation from her husband Walter. HIDES A DEVASTATING PAST… But Leigh’s ordinary life masks a childhood no one should have to endure … a childhood tarnished by secrets, broken by betrayal, and ultimately destroyed by a brutal act of violence. BUT NOW THE PAST IS CATCHING UP… On a Sunday night at her daughter’s school play, she gets a call from one of the partners who wants Leigh to come on board to defend a wealthy man accused of multiple counts of rape. Though wary of the case, it becomes apparent she

Synopsis:  From the author of  The Longest Ride  and  The Return  comes a novel about the enduring legacy of first love—and the decisions that haunt us forever.   1996 is the year that changes everything for Maggie Dawes. Sent away at 16 to live with an aunt she barely knows in Ocracoke, a remote village on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, she can think only of the friends and family she left behind . . . until her aunt introduces her to Bryce Trickett, one of the few teenagers on the island. Handsome, genuine, and newly admitted to West Point Academy, Bryce gradually shows her how much there is to love about the wind-swept beach town—and introduces her to photography, a passion that will define the rest of her life . . . as will Bryce.   By 2019, Maggie is a renowned travel photographer. She splits her time between running a successful gallery in New York and photographing remote locations around the world. But this year, she finds herself unexpectedly grounded over Christmas, struggling