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    		•  June paperback releases offer good choices for reading groups

    REVIEWS BY JULIE HALE

    Cover Running with Scissors: A Memoir
    This beautifully crafted autobiography is an unsparing, explicit account of the author's troubled childhood. Sent to live with a psychiatrist named Dr. Finch after his crazy parents—one, a lesbian poet, the other, a professor with a violent streak—divorce, 12-year-old Augusten finds himself in a lawless household where the Finch children, unsupervised, do everything kids shouldn't—skip school, tear up the house, have sex. Augusten has an affair with Finch's son, who is more than twice his age, and he never regains the stability of normal family life. Yet somehow, despite his unorthodox upbringing, he manages to emerge triumphant, with his sense of humor—and of himself—intact. A review of Dry, his follow-up memoir, appears elsewhere in this issue. A reading group guide is available online at www.picadorusa.com.

    Cover River Thieves
    Crummey, a native of Newfoundland, examines his homeland's rich and remarkable history in this critically acclaimed debut novel. Set in the 19th century, the book powerfully and poetically recounts the colonization of Newfoundland by the English and the Irish, as they clash with the native Beothuk Indians. With a cast of unforgettable characters that includes seasoned homesteader John Peyton; his smart, strong-willed housekeeper, Cassie; and David Buchan, a navy lieutenant who tries to make peaceful contact with the natives, the novel explores the nature of power and politics as two very different cultures collide. A reading group guide is available online at www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/readers_guides.

    Cover Three Junes
    Focusing on three summers in the life of the McLeod clan, this impressive debut novel explores the significance of family and the meaning of love in the modern world. Through a trio of central characters—Scottish widower Paul McLeod; his son, Fenno, a gay bookstore proprietor who lives in New York; and Fern, a pregnant artist—Glass demonstrates the delicacy of human relationships, bringing the threesome together and apart in a complex narrative that unfolds over the course of a decade. Glass writes with wisdom and compassion as each of her characters comes to terms with the past. With locations as diverse as Greece, Scotland and Manhattan, she demonstrates a wonderful command of setting and detail. This much-praised novel won the 2002 National Book Award and was a national bestseller. A reading group guide is available in print and online at www.anchorbooks.com.

    Cover Life of Pi
    Martel won the Man Booker Prize in 2002 for this wonderfully original novel, which recounts the remarkable life of Pi Patel. The son of a zookeeper, Pi is raised in Pondicherry, India, with a deep understanding of the natural world and a curiosity about religion that leads him from Hinduism to Christianity to Islam and beyond. When his father decides to move the family to Canada, they set off on a freighter, animals in tow. But a shipwreck leaves Pi drifting in the Pacific on a lifeboat with a zebra, a hyena and a Bengal tiger for company. Floating in the shark-filled water for 227 days, Pi somehow survives, battling starvation, the elements and his own worst fears—and befriending the tiger. Martel skillfully blends Pi's adventures of the mind and spirit with an unforgettable physical journey, making this a magical coming-of-age narrative. A reading group guide is included in the book.


    Has your club recently read an excellent book that sparked good group discussion? If so, BookPage would like to hear about it. Contact us at reading@bookpage.com with a description of the book and the reasons for your recommendation. We'll pass the top choices along to our readers.

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