ARRT Book Club Study: The Yiddish Policeman’s Union is 5/3/17

There is still time to join us for the next ARRT Book Club Study. Since it is an older title, you may have already read it. If not, you still have 2 weeks.

Please remember that this is not only your chance to be a participant [and not the leader for once] in a book discussion, but also, we have plenty of time for everyone to discuss the problems and issues they are currently having with their groups. For example, last time we had a therapeutic and useful discussion of the problems patrons create in regards to the serving [or not serving] of food at book club.

Speaking of last time, if you cannot make it, or are not a member and just like to use us for our notes [don’t worry, we don’t mind, in fact, we encourage this behavior], we have the notes for past discussions here [most immediately past] and here [archived]. We separate them out by the notes on the discussion of the books vs the notes about our designated leadership topic. This means you can more easily target the information that is most useful to you.

From the email we sent to members with links and details:

On 05.03.17, the ARRT Book Club Study will be gathering to discuss The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon.  You can find details about the book, location, and discussion on the website here. 

We'll be having a unique location this time around:

National University of Health Sciences Library in Lombard05.03.17, Wednesday2-4pm 

A tour of the library, our first academic discussion site, will be available after the discussion. 

The leadership topic, lead by Bill Stephens, will be about how to recruit new members while retain current members.  However, bring any other questions or topics you'd like to discuss about leading book groups! 

Please RSVP to Debbie Walsh at dwalsh@nuhs.edu.   

All current members are welcome to attend!  If you need to renew your membership, you can find information here.   

Also, please remember that the notes for previous discussions can also be found on the website!  We'll announce when the notes for this discussion are available as well. 

ARRT Book Club Study: Yiddish Policemen’s Union is Today But This Post Is Only Tangentially About That

As I mentioned last month here, our next meeting of the ARRT Book Club Study is today and we are discussing The Yiddish Policemen’s Union.

Today I want to touch on a few issues regarding this meeting today and very little of it has to do with the book at hand. Rather, I thought I would use this opportunity to write about a few different things dealing with how and why we run the Book Club Study program.

But first, I want to mention how much fun re-reading this book was for me.  This was one of the best books I read in 2007! I listened to it this time to freshen up my memory, but as I did, I was trying to think back to the person I was when I read this book ten years ago. Honestly it seems like a lifetime ago-- for me and for the world and for our country.

Although I did not write up a new list of readalikes for this discussion, I did run a search of the blog to see when and where I used this Chabon novel as a readalike since 2007. You can click here to see all of the posts, but some titles that appeared were the Last Detective series by Ben Winters, The City and the City by China Mieville, and Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem. Click through for details on all of those titles.

Now back to the ARRT Book Club Study in general.

First of all, we run this book club study as both a training and a support group for book discussion leaders.  I feel very strongly that book club leaders need a place where they can not only get a chance to be a book club participant but also, have a place where they have a chance to complain and commiserate about their groups. For a more nuanced explanation of this point, click here to read my article on the topic from Booklist from December 2015.

But second, and more importantly, this group is my baby. I took our old, flagging, literary book discussion program and, with the help and support of the entire Steering Committee, not only completely changed what we were doing, but also reinvigorated it in the process. It has been rewarding and fun...

...but, now that I have done all the work and feel ownership of the program, I think it is the perfect time to let it go.

WHAT?!? I know that is what many of you are thinking right now. But hear me out.

I have loved creating this new discussion group about book discussion groups, but I also know that the energy I have expended is running low. I have plenty of people here in the organization who are hungry to take over what I revamped and run with it in their own direction. This is also paired with the fact that we are now getting a good core group that makes it to every meeting with a nice rotation of new people coming in and out.

Over the rest of this year, I will be slowly handing off the administrative duties of the Book Club Study to Elizabeth, a fellow Steering Committee member and a former student. She is more than ready to be in charge and I will happily step aside and be her #2. Not only does the organization need me to pass on this program which I revived to someone else, but I need it too. I am getting too busy to run this and it needs the attention it deserves. It is in good hands, yes, but Elizabeth will also be able to lead us into the future. My time to lead is past; I need to step aside.

Like I said, this post is only tangentially about our discussion today, but having the discussion means we will soon have notes on both the discussion of the book and the leadership discussion topic. I will let you know here on the blog when those are live.

But I think this point of letting things go once we get them off the ground is one which many of us need to tackle. I am hoping that my experience will help others to see the good that would come from cross training at a minimum, but also letting go and allowing others to take “your” thing to new places. Because it’s actually not yours, even if it feels that way, it belongs to everyone for whom you created it.

I will still be a member of the Book Club Study for the foreseeable future, and I will continue to update this blog with news and notes, but at least for the next few months, I will also report on the transition. I will be frank and honest about my feelings and actions. I hope it helps others both with their book groups and with any other programs they may want [or need] to hand off.

But until then,  I should tell you that the next discussion will be: Dream Land: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic by Sam Quinones Monday, August 7th from 2-4 pm at Deerfield Public Library and the leadership topic will be about how leading a book discussion on nonfiction is different from fiction. 

Book Discussion Report: The Yiddish Policemen’s Union for ARRT

Okay before I get to the report of the latest book discussion and announce the next one, as you can see we got a NEW LOGO!

We loved how well our branding was going with the newer ARRT Logo that we thought we should also brand our 2 main programs-- the Book Club Study and the Genre Study. While these programs require that you be a member of ARRT to attend in person, for both studies we offer the notes for free.  With more and more of you using them around the world to help train your staff, we figured we should give each a unique logo to help identify them, but still firmly root them within the confines of the ARRT main logo. [Below and to the right]

I will unveil the Genre Study logo when those notes are ready. Although if you can’t wait, click here.

Also, as I mentioned here, today I met with Elizabeth and started handing over the administrative duties of the Book Club Study to her. We began with her updating the website. It felt good to start passing the baton for all the reasons I mentioned here. I promised Elizabeth I would continue to help her over the next year, but I am already feeling good about leaving her in the lead position. She will be great. Now to find who will supplant me as #2.

Okay now to the info you are actually reading for...

On May 3, the ARRT Book Club Study met to discuss The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon.

 

CLICK HERE for the notes on the discussion of the book.

As always, discussion of the book included a nuts-and-bolts session devoted to sharing practical solutions to the problems and concerns of book discussion leaders.

The Leadership Topic, led by Bill Stephens, was about how to both recruit new members and retain old ones. 

CLICK HERE for the notes on the Leadership Topic Discussion.

That’s the discussion that was. Both were excellent. For the book discussion part, it was amazing how relevant Chabon’s 2007 title still was. And, kudos to Bill for handling what he called “the impossible question.” He inspired a very helpful discussion on this tricky and frustrating topic. Use the links above for all the details.

Moving on:

Please join us for a discussion of Dream Land: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic by Sam Quinones led by Melissa Stoeger:

 .

In fascinating detail, Sam Quinones chronicles how, over the past 15 years, enterprising sugar cane farmers in a small county on the west coast of Mexico created a unique distribution system that brought black tar heroin—the cheapest, most addictive form of the opiate, 2 to 3 times purer than its white powder cousin—to the veins of people across the United States. Communities where heroin had never been seen before—from Charlotte, NC and Huntington, WVA, to Salt Lake City and Portland, OR—were overrun with it. Local police and residents were stunned. How could heroin, long considered a drug found only in the dense, urban environments along the East Coast, and trafficked into the United States by enormous Colombian drug cartels, be so incredibly ubiquitous in the American heartland? Who was bringing it here, and perhaps more importantly, why were so many townspeople suddenly eager for the comparatively cheap high it offered? 

With the same dramatic drive of El Narco and Methland, Sam Quinones weaves together two classic tales of American capitalism: The stories of young men in Mexico, independent of the drug cartels, in search of their own American Dream via the fast and enormous profits of trafficking cheap black-tar heroin to America’s rural and suburban addicts; and that of Purdue Pharma in Stamford, Connecticut, determined to corner the market on pain with its new and expensive miracle drug, Oxycontin; extremely addictive in its own right. Quinones illuminates just how these two stories fit together as cause and effect: hooked on costly Oxycontin, American addicts were lured to much cheaper black tar heroin and its powerful and dangerous long-lasting high. Embroiled alongside the suppliers and buyers are DEA agents, local, small-town sheriffs, and the US attorney from eastern Virginia whose case against Purdue Pharma and Oxycontin made him an enemy of the Bush-era Justice Department, ultimately stalling and destroying his career in public service.

Dreamland is a scathing and incendiary account of drug culture and addiction spreading to every part of the American landscape. 
Dreamland is a scathing and incendiary account of drug culture and addiction spreading to every part of the American landscape. 

The discussion will be held:

Monday, August 7th

2-4 pm

Deerfield Public Library

For RSVP details, click here

Please arrange to obtain your own copy of the book for the discussion

As always, discussion of the book includes a nuts-and-bolts session devoted to sharing practical solutions to the problems and concerns of book discussion leaders.

The Leadership Topic, led by Elizabeth Hopkins, will be about how to discuss Nonfiction titles. Please come ready to share your successes and failures in this area so we can all help each other. Also, remember that you can always bring any problems or concerns you have with your group, no matter the topic, so we can all help each other.

Full details on this up coming discussion as well as the archives of notes on past discussions are on the Book Club Study homepage. You can also visit the Book Club Study section of the ARRT website to access our Pinterest board of every book we have ever discussed.

New Reading Maps Added

Finals for GSLIS 763 are tonight, and new reading map urls are going up on the class blog as I receive them from students.  I usually direct readers of this blog to the archive to see what students have been working on, but today I was blown away by how many maps we have accumulated over the last 2 years (28 and counting), and feel the need to duplicate the list here. But first, a few comments...

When I started the class blog I was driven by the desire to share the great RA work our students were doing each and every week. Just the wealth of information, readalikes, and searchable appeal terms that are now accessible to anyone through the posting of their weekly annotations is worth the blog's existence. And no, the annotations are not perfect, but they are clearly labeled as being by students, and as a group, they are becoming a valuable RA resource.

However, adding the Reading Map Archive to the blog was for purely selfish reasons. I wanted to make sure I had access to these maps long after the students had moved on. But see for yourself below-- we have 28 great maps as of right this minute and that number will only grow. Each semester more students attempt a reading map as one of their 2 big projects (they have 5 choices).

For the record, our reading map assignment is based on this article by Neal Wyatt in Library Journal (11/2006). Thanks to Neal for leading the way.

So, here is the list, directly copied from the class blog. Click on one and start your virtual journey through a book. Also, use them to help identify readalikes or suggestions for you or your readers:

• Twilight by Colleen
• The Watchmen by Michelle K.
• A Great and Terrible Beauty by Sarah
• Sandman by Mike
• Plainsong by Anne
• Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Katy
• The Yiddish Policeman’s Union by Marissa
• The Awakening by Allison
• Pride and Prejudice by Elizabeth
• Graphic Novels by Jill
• Fabletown by Chris
• Sookie Stackhouse by Christine
• Julie and Julia by Madeline
• Johnny Got His Gun by Chris
• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Russ
• Year of Wonders by Maggie
• American Psycho by Anne
• The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Elizabeth
• Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Cris
• Shop Class As Soulcraft by Jason
• Big Stone Gap by Jessica
• Ballads of Suburbia by Shannnon
• War for the Oaks by Bethany
• High Fidelity by Kris
• The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao by Zach
• The Time Traveler’s Wife by Christina
• The National Parks by Elizabeth
• American Gods by Amanda

Book Discussion Info for Book Club Leaders

I have a few odds and ends pertaining to book discussions that have been piling up, so I thought today was a good day to gather them into a post.

I am going to start with news pertaining to the 2017 ARRT Literary Book Discussion and Leadership Training program mostly because I have received a few questions about it in the last few days.

First the news I am the happiest about. After soliciting suggestions, ARRT has officially voted to change the mouthful of a name we had for this wonderful, vibrant, and useful program to...ARRT Book Club Study. All I can say is, thank goodness. Do you know how many times I have had to say and or type that long name as the Coordinator? Yikes.

But seriously, thank you to everyone who submitted suggestions via Facebook and Twitter to us. We had a number of excellent names suggested, and last week we voted for the winner as mentioned above-- Book Club Study. This made the most sense as our two members-only branded events that we run all year long are the Genre Study and the Book Discussion Leadership program.  Making the names more symmetrical makes sense from a branding standpoint.  Also, we realized that the program we have created for book discussion leaders is very comparable to what we do for our work with the genres. Now we will be getting new logos for each set of programs too.

I am proud to have led the charge on the evolution of this wonderful 4x a year program and am excited for the year to come.

Speaking of the year to come, I have updated the website with as much information as I have, but there is still no set date or time for the first discussion.  Here is what I have posted:

Click here for the full page

As the coordinator, I now know who is leading each discussion, in which quarter, and a few of the titles.  We are just working on scheduling dates right now.

I will have the entire 2017 schedule up before the end of the year, but as a teaser I know in April we will be discussing The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon and it will not be held at a public library [the host will offer tours of her library with this program] AND in the summer we will be doing a nonfiction title. So I can guarantee we are going to have some great experiences planned for all book discussion leaders, not to mention the camaraderie and support we all provide each other at these meetings.

Please do not forget, if you are not a member of ARRT, you can still follow along with all of the notes from these meetings by signing up for our newsletter or checking the Book Club Study site [Oh, my fingers were so happy to not type the old name].

Now onto other book club information that is not ARRT centered.

October was National Reading Group Month. I can never give it the time it deserves because of my 31 Days of Horror blog-a-thon; however, the resources this celebration creates are a great resource all year long, specifically, the Great Groups Reads list for this year and all past years. This one of my favorite resources for identifying dynamic book discussion titles. Click here for the current list and scroll to the bottom for links to the lists going back to 2009! Pick a year and print the list for your group to choose from-- they are all chosen by experts and annotated for you. And new or old, a good book discussion book is a good book discussion book no matter when you discuss it.

Finally, over on Booklist Reader, they had two posts [here and here] about the pleasures of reading plays with many modern choices. If your group is in a bit of a rut, I suggest you try a play. These are proven winners AND just the discussion you can have about reading a play versus watching it performed alone will make for a great discussion.

Back from Vacation/World SF Convention

No, I did not forget I had a blog. I was on a wonderful 12 day vacation and just returned, so look for many posts in the coming days, including (but not limited to) new BPL displays, my August book club meeting, and preparation for the Fall Semester of library school students.

But just to keep you up to date, this past weekend, at the World Science Fiction Convention, the Hugo Awards were handed out. Personally, as a casual SF fan, I look forward to the Hugo and Nebula lists each year. It is a great way for me to read the best of the genre. Check them out for yourselves.

Incidentally, this is one of those years, when the same book won for best novel, The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon, a book I had already read and loved.

Favorite Books I Read This Year

In the spirit of all of the best lists of the year, I will list my favorite 10 books which I read this year. Note, they all did not come out this year, and they are not in any order. For those that I read since September, I will link to the blog entry on the book. For the others, the link will go to Amazon. I have also put down the genre and month in which I read each.

20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill (short stories) 12/07
Finn by Jon Clinch (historical fiction) 11/07
On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan (literary fiction) 9/07
The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs (nonfiction) 11/07
The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz (mystery) 10/07
Falling Man by Don DeLillo (literary) 7/07
The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon (literary fiction) 5/07
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield (gothic novel) 2/07
The Road by Cormac McCarthy (dystopian sf) 2/07
Manhunt: The 12-Day Search for Lincoln's Killer by James Swanson (nonfiction) 3/07

A few of these books came out this year, but not all. I love reading the best of 2007 lists, but those are not necessarily the books everyone was reading in 2007. Most readers, and most of your patrons, will read the titles that most interest them from those "best" lists in 2008. When helping leisure readers it is important to make this distinction. A book does not have to be "new" in order for it to have made an impression recently.

What were the favorite books you read in 2007? Feel free to share.

What I'm Reading: Man In The Empty Suit

Last month I had so much fun reading Man in the Empty Suit that I could hardly talk to anyone, about anything, without mentioning the book in every conversation.

This novel is the best episode of Doctor Who you haven't seen.

Intrigued yet?

The plot and the story's frame are very simple.  Instead of a TARDIS (like Dr. Who) our nameless hero in this novel has a craft in which he spends his life floating through time.  Each year on the 100th Anniversary of his birthday (2071), all of his selves gather at a dilapidated hotel in what has become a dystopian NYC to drink scotch and have a party.

All of his life, our hero has been waiting to be the version of himself that comes in wearing this awesome white suit.  Finally, the year of his 39th birthday, the traveler finds himself in the suit and entering the party, but what he thought would be the best birthday of his life, goes down hill quickly as one of his selves is murdered.

What follows is part murder mystery, part love story, and part contemplation of "the self."

The novel is book ended by his 39th and 40th years at the party, with the year in between lived with a girl named Lilly in 2071 NYC.

Seeing everything unfold from two different perspectives of our hero at the same party is very cool. As the traveler begins to change history, the present of the party is altered and he begins to supposed that some of his selves are becoming  "unteathered" from each other.  It makes for great plot twists, as our hero doesn't know which of his selves he can trust or which even share his future.  This will drive purists (like Dr. Who himself) crazy, but Ferrell isn't professing to have a true time travel novel.  What SF fans might see as inconsistency simply added to the intrigue of the mystery part of the story for me.

This "unteathering" story arc also underscored what I think Ferrell was really trying to do with this book.  I think this is a novel that contemplates what the self really is.  By placing so many versions of the traveller's self in one place at one time, we are forced to look at this contradiction and think about our own selves over time.  He is asking us to think about who we are, who we were, and who we will become.  Are we all one and the same?

I have to mention here how the traveller gives his selves other than his current self great nicknames like "the nose," "screwdriver," and "seventy," among others. This is humorous but also feeds in nicely to the whole "what is the self" questions in the novel.

Man in the Empty Suit is also a coming of age tale, as the traveller learns what really matters in life and chooses to let his love go so she can have a happier life, which will ultimately make him happier-- both the unteathered self and his current self.

The dystopian NYC setting was not thoroughly explained, but things in 2071 are pretty bad.  Our hero gets involved with some good people and makes some friends, but we don't get too much detail.  The setting is there more as a backdrop to help set the mood and tone.  It underscores the urgency of our hero's quest and the dark, philosophical and thought provoking nature of the story line.

Overall the book was off beat, engaging, introspective and just plain fun.  Although the time travel is at the heart of the story, it is just as much a psychological suspense tale as a science fiction one. This is underscored by the fact that if you are reading it for an accurate resolution to the unteathering of selves issues, you will be disappointed with how the novel ends.  But, if you are in a philosophical mood, you will love it-- like I did.

Three Words That Describe This Book: time travel, thought provoking, off beat

Readalikes: I have so many suggestions bursting from me that I had to take notes on paper before writing this post.

Again, as I said above, this novel made me think it would be a crazy awesome episode of Dr. Who.

First, I mentioned how much fun I had reading this book.  I have not felt that way since I read Ready Player One by Ernest Cline.  Both are light SF, set in a broadly drawn near future dystopia.  The dystopias are there to propel the story.  Both have a coming of age theme with a compelling protagonist, and although both novels are thought provoking, neither takes themselves too seriously.

This story also reminded me of the Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon (read pre-blog).  Here you again have a light SF tale, but the SF comes from alternative history.  Click through to see more details, but the titles share a though provoking story line, a flawed but lovable hero, and a mystery at their center.

Last year, I read (and loved) the time travel novel 11/22/63 by Stephen King.  King's novel is more true to the time travel science, but I did think of 11/22/63 while reading Man in the Empty Suit.

Two other accessible and fun SF titles that I would also suggest here are How To Live Safely in a Science Fiction Universe by Charles Yu and Red Shirts by John Scalzi.

If you are looking for more time travel stories check out Connie Willis, or the list of suggestions I gave here.

What I'm Reading: Series Round Up-- The Last Word and Countdown City

Oh, it is not even funny anymore.  I am so far behind in reviews.  No apologies.  I have dropped the ball.  So today I am doing a quick Series Round-Up to get 2 off the queue.  Both are mystery series, both are among my favorite series, and yet, both share very little appeal.  Ahh, proof that we librarians have just as crazy to figure out tastes as our patrons.  Seriously, look at your own weirdness before you are shocked by a patron's tastes.

The Last Word is the 6th installment in Lisa Lutz's funny PI series featuring Izzy Spellman and her crazy family of San Francisco Private Investigators.  As Izzy would say in her distinct narrative voice, I am not going to spend time brining you up to speed on the series. Instead I refer you to the previous documents.

Now back to this novel specifically. Izzy's narrative style is what drives the series and this book in particular.  Yes, like the previous books, Izzy talks directly to us, the reader, as if she is giving confession, but in The Last Word, Izzy is very self-reflective. She must come to terms with some serious things going on in her life and her career. Izzy is forced to deal with life in many major ways, and for a girl who goes through life avoiding anything difficult this is a big deal.

I don't want you to get the wrong idea that The Last Word is a downer because it is not. It is just as fun as previous books, but Lutz has managed to move the series from its single joke premise (Izzy refusing to grow up) and brought the series into its maturity.  I feel good about reading this series going forward.

Again in true Izzy fashion, if you want more details you need to check the previous reviews. [If you read the books you would get the joke]

Three Words That Describe This Series: humorous, strong first person narration, quirky characters

Readalikes: Again, I love this series and have had much to say about possible readalikes here, but with each new book I like to add a new readalike or two. So here are some other witty and upbeat mystery series worth a try:

• Michael West's Teeny Templeton series seems to have the same screwball comedy feel as Lutz's series.
• Donna Andrews is also a perennial favorite for her offbeat bird themed mysteries featuring Meg Langslow.  Fans of Izzy in particular will have an affinity for Meg too.

Now for something completely different.  Ben Winter's second book in his original and thought provoking pre-apocalypse trilogy, Countdown City.

Again, this is book two in a trilogy, so for more detail check out my review of book one, The Last Policeman. But the basic set up is easy.  This is an old school hardboiled detective novel, except our detective has been laid off. Why? Because an asteroid is weeks away from hitting the Earth and killing at least 50% of the world's population.

Yes, this is a pre-apocalyptic novel.  Last time we were introduced to a world where people go "bucket list" and basic services begin to deteriorate.

Now, things are even worse. We re-enter the story as Hank is trying to find his childhood babysitter's missing husband, but along the way, Hank [and those of us reading along] find out a whole lot more about what is going on in this pre-apocalyptic landscape.

Like last time, Hank's sister plays a part here.  In fact, it is a similar role, that of the conspiracy theorist. Although her ideas are beginning to seem a lot less crazy as the series goes on.

There is not much more to say without giving things away, but I will share that the ending of Countdown City takes us somewhere completely new from which the final installment will soon begin.

All the appeals are the same here.  Hank is still an endearing, if slightly naive and inept policeman. The story is intricately plotted, off beat, and thought provoking, while still being a whole lot of fun. I know that may sound odd. The world is going to end, but this book is fun to read. There are some heart breaking moments and some observations about the brutality of humanity under dire circumstances, but yes, over all, this book was so original and quirky that reading it was fun.

It is a true genre mash-up. It is mystery, SF and literary all rolled together. It is a series for anyone who is willing to ponder the question-- what would you do if you knew the date and time on which the world was going to end?

On a personal note, I usually hate 2nd books in trilogies, but not here.  I liked Countdown City more than The Last Policeman. It was a fast read too.  I can't wait for book 3.

Three Words That Describe This Book: hardboiled, pre-apocalypse, thought provoking

Readalikes:When I reviewed The Last Policeman, I listed a wide range of readalike options here.

A few more that come to mind (and why) are:

• I found this great list of "weird detectives" that are NOT paranormal on Goodreads.  This captures the appeal of Hank perfectly.  If you don't need the apocalyptic setting but loved Hank's oddness check out the list.  The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon [read pre-blog] and The City and the City by China Mieville are both on the list and make for good choices.
• One book that is a long time favorite of mine that also has an odd detective is Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem.  Click here to see my Browsers' Corner post on this book.
• Hank is trying so hard to be hardboiled, it reminded me of the child detective in Huge by James Fuerst. The books are very similar in feel and the mysteries both have a family angle.
• If you are looking for another book with an original science fiction premise try The Man in the Empty Suit by Sean Ferrell which I described as "The best episode of Dr. Who you haven't seen." 

Look for more reviews in the coming days.  At least, that is the plan. We will see...