Book Club members -- TAKE NOTE!  Good choice for your club
342590
If nothing else, this lushly evocative portrayal of a young woman in 1920s New York who may or may not be a murderer and a psychotic will generate a ton of discussion at a book club.  So if you are choosing books for your group, give this one a look-see.

Rose Baker is a prim stenographer at a dank police precinct in the Lower East Side.  The year is 1923, and Prohibition is meeting Flaming Youth in wild debauch in the speakeasies of America, but Rose is a firm outsider.  She is only twenty-five, but seems older with her prissy demeanor and Victorian sense of propriety and manners.  Rose prides herself on being the fastest and most accurate typist at the police precinct, but outside work, she hasn't much of a life.  She lives in genteel poverty at a rooming house in Brooklyn.  She is unmarried, unattached, an orphan who was raised in a Catholic foundling home run by strict nuns, and her only hobby seems to be observing the people around her.  But Rose's world is turned on its ear when Odalie Lazare breezes into the police precinct and lands a job as a typist also.  Odalie is personable, beautiful, charming and altogether Rose's opposite.  Rose is drawn to her, and soon seems obsessed with the mercurial Odalie.  But Odalie seems to be hiding secrets, and the more Rose is pulled into Odalie's life, the more Rose's life goes awry.

This novel is Suzanne Rindell's debut effort as a novelist, and a very good debut it is, too.  While slow in parts, the novel contains wonderful passages of description of the era in which the novel is set, and of the characters in Rose's life.  As mentioned by other reviewers, the novel does contain quite a few anachronisms which are quite jarring.  It is unclear what the author intended by these phrases and modern usages of language, and that is something which your book club could probably spend an entire meeting discussing.  Are the anachronisms merely poor editing or are they intentional for some reason?  Also as mentioned by other reviewers, Rose is an "unreliable narrator," which adds to the flavor of the book in hindsight as readers will enjoy some spirited debate as to what is really going on in this story.

Altogether, I enjoyed this book, and think that others will also.  I especially think that it is a book which lends itself to some great dialogues at the library or book store or wherever your book club meets.

Recommended.
1054324
I liked reading this book - fast-paced and not complicated.  A couple things seemed a bit unrealistic to me, but that's OK.  We had a book club meeting about it!  It was the first book we chose for our first meeting.  Worth the read!
4207554
Really lovely!! I very much agree with the other reviewer who said this book is perfect for book clubs -- it is an ideal book to discuss (and there's a lot in it about a writers life). Very thoughtful and beautifully written.
4374309
I chose this book for my monthly book club for something different then what we generally choose to read.  Wow did it create a great discussion among our group. I personally enjoyed the surprises that we were not expecting in the story line. I enjoyed how well the author developed the characters.  Overall I personally enjoyed this book and look forward to future books by Steve Hobbs.  My teenage daughter also read the book and truly enjoyed it as well.  One of her recent favorites.  Congrats to Mr. Hobbs for a job well done!
1895846
Interesting book.  Hope our Book Club decides to choose it as one of their selections.
3917665
Good book and was a selection from my book club.  Others have reviewed this, so I won't go into the plot.  Enjoyable book.
2273279
I enjoyed this book.  It is the February choice for our book club.  We are meeting to discuss it this morning.  It is nice to read something once in awhile where the character goes through so much but comes out happy and fulfilled in the end.
4423872
An interesting concept - will review it in a book club environment to get everyone's thoughts.
3169783
What a wonderful idea!  Now you can gather a few friends together, sip a glass of wine, munch on fine food that matches your monthly theme and sit back to talk about your book selection.  Mary and Rose even give you examples of the questions that could be asked and discussed.  Everything you need to get yourself started for years of literary bliss, good companionship and great eating.  These two sisters will get you started, and you can, with their help, sit back and do the rest with ease.

Their book is filled with quotations, yummy recipes,literary references and ideas.  Novice book clubs can just follow Mary and Rose for a successful first year, and seasoned book clubs can pick and choose from these excellent suggestions.

Joyce from Maine
598126
I enjoyed this book, as did the rest of my Book Club.  It was suspenseful,  including a few surprises and shockers.
3245629
I really liked this book, in fact it will be my choice for my book club when my next turn comes around.
1353342
Read this book for book club - very interesting - brought up a lot of strong feelings for the members.
3842530
Book Club was the reason I finally read the book I heard so many interesting things about on NPR. Since I greatly enjoyed some of our other nonfiction books choices, I was also our leader this month. The leader merely talks about the author and shares some other facts about the book. Daniel James Brown is a very good writer and a terrific researcher! What a story and what a time period! Several people in my book club did agree with other reviewers who found the book too detailed and they found themselves skimming but they still enjoyed the basic story. As you can see, my reading experience was 5 stars and that was because of those details and tie-ins to world history, the weather, the geology, the boat making, the men's stories! If you liked Unbroken or The Big Burn, the Boys in the Boat should be a winner for you!
4227755
I recommended this to my book club and the group went for it.  We had a great discussion and I would highly recommend it.
2175055
Terrific plot idea! Very believable. My book club went right to the best questions that this book poses, "If you could choose a decade of your life to relive, which one would it be? What parts would you undo and then do differently this time around? What parts of you would you want to retain from the growth you went through during that decade." For a book club, books don't get much better for generating discussion. The writing is engaging and easy to read. The primary flaw is that the author admittedly does not know much about kids the ages of the kids in the book. The behavior and attitudes she attributes to them really belong to children older. Other than that, it's a good book, not great but worth the read especially if you have someone to discuss it with afterwards.
4390770
This clever book makes a great gift for the book club aficionados in your life! I purchased several for my present closet.
4718762
It is a really good book and our book club members all liked it very much.  I give 5s to really great books, and this is very good but just not a 5.  Enjoyable characters, fun story line, I loved the characters even the frustrating ones--those whose behaviors I just wanted to change! Very interesting contrast between strong women and not strong women, likewise with the men. I have recommended it to a lot of people as a really good read, especially if you just finished a long or difficult book.