November 2025 Sunriver Scene - Flipbook - Page 32
Fall into reading with these Sunriver Book Club selections
By Deon Stonehouse
On Sunday, Nov. 2, the clocks
change, meaning people will get
off work and travel home in
the dark.
The hours at Sunriver Books
will change to 11 a.m. to 5
p.m. every day except Monday
and Saturday, where hours will
remain 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. As the
clocks change, the weather soon
follows. After dark, it is often
icy and cold. The change in the
season makes it the perfect time
to stay warm and cozy inside
with a good book to read, then
join us for a lively Book Club
discussion. Book Clubs meet
via Zoom and in-person on
Mondays.
Whether you live in Sunriver
or somewhere else, you are invited to participate in the book
clubs.
Register to attend a discussion
by emailing sunriverbooks@
sunriverbooks.com. The dis-
Page 32
November Books
Mystery Book Club:
Members will discuss “Case
Histories” by Kate Atkinson
at 6 p.m. Monday, Nov. 3
via Zoom and at 4:30 p.m.
Monday, Nov. 10 at the
bookstore.
November’s books are ‘Case Histories’ by Kate Atkinson and
‘Wicked’ by Gregory Maguire.
cussion notes will be sent the at 4:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 10
weekend before the Book Club at the bookstore in The Village
at Sunriver.
meeting.
Atkinson is an interesting
author,
refusing to be defined
Mystery Book Club
Mystery Book Club members by genre. She is probably best
will discuss “Case Histories” known for her fiction novel,
by Kate Atkinson at 6 p.m. “Life After Life.” Her writing
Monday, Nov. 3 via Zoom and is lively and clever. Mystery aficionados can enjoy her Jackson
Brodie series, beginning with
“Case Histories.”
Jackson Brodie is not the
normal mystery series lead. He
is a bit quirky. Clueless about
women, he also is protective
of them. His years as a police
detective left him too familiar
with the dangers women too
often face.
His wife, Josie, left him, taking their daughter, Marlee. Jackson’s 8-year-old daughter rules
his life. For her eighth birthday,
he gave her a mountain bike
on the condition she does not
cycle on the road until she is at
least 40. He is forever fretting
about her clothes, worried the
wrong sort might be interested
in her if she is too sparkly. She
is only 8, so this is unlikely,
but then Jackson had all those
years on the force dealing with
horrendous things, so perhaps
his worries are justified.
Before his tenure with the
police, Jackson had a decade as
NOVEMBER 2025 SUNRIVER SCENE
Fiction Book Club:
Members will discuss
“Wicked” by Gregory
Maguire at 6 p.m. Monday,
Nov. 17 via Zoom and at
4:30 p.m. Nov. 24 at the
bookstore.
a soldier. Although he is a softie
about women, he is fit, trained
and tough, definitely the wrong
guy to try beating up because it
has the potential to go badly.
He yearns to retire to France
and spend a quiet life in the
countryside.
In “Case Histories,” Jackson
is involved in three new cases,
and then there are the cats.
Binky Rain, an imperious older
woman, was his first client when
he started as a private detective
two years ago. She hired him
to find a missing cat. Binky has
dozens of them, her house and
garden have gone to wreck and
ruin, and although Jackson’s
record in finding her felines is
poor (0), she continues to call
on him routinely.
In “Case Histories,” Jackson
has three cases he needs to solve.
The first case involves a child
who went missing one the night
34 years ago. Olivia, a toddler,
was the youngest child of the
Land family. She was a real
charmer and family favorite.
Her sisters, Julia, Amelia and
Sylvia, doted on her. Their
father, Victor, a mathematician
at Oxford, was distant and
domineering. Their mother,
Rosemary, overworked and
tired. On a hot summer night,
Olivia disappeared without a
trace.
Amelia and Julia contact Jack-
son two days after the death of
their father, all these years later.
They found something in their
father’s study that causes them
to want a detective, someone
outside the police, to make
another attempt at finding
Olivia. Amelia is a teacher, Julia
an actress, and Sylvia has joined
a convent.
In the second case, Theo
Wyre was a successful attorney
raising two daughters after the
death of his wife. Like Jackson,
Theo constantly worried about
them, especially his youngest
daughter, Laura. In the fall, she
would be in her first year of
college, he was tremendously
relieved she did not join her
friends on their gap year travels.
Much safer to stay home rather
than jaunting around the world.
Theo offers Laura a job at his
law firm, a place she will be
safe. On her first day of work, a
madman enters the office, slashing people with a knife. Laura
is dead, and the killer escaped.
Police get nowhere in solving
the case. Theo retires, spending
his time trying to find out who
killed his child. After a decade
without progress, Theo convinces Jackson to investigate.
In the third case, a young
mother suffering depression
after the birth of her child commits a horrific act. She asks her
sister to look after her baby, not
thinking about her sister being
only a teen. Twenty-five years
later, the sister wants Jackson
to find her niece.
Jackson is involved in multiple cases, as a real private
investigator must be to keep the
doors open.
Fiction Book Club
Fiction Book Club members
will discuss “Wicked” by Gregory Maguire at 6 p.m. Monday,
Nov. 17 via Zoom and at 4:30
Turn to Book Clubs, page 33
