Okay, I'll be honest. I picked this one up thinking I knew exactly what I was getting into. Another WWII novel. I'd read plenty. I thought I had it figured out. I did not have it figured out. The Ragged Edge of Night by Olivia Hawker is quietly devastating in the best possible way. Set in a small German town from 1942 to 1945, it follows Anton... a friar who loses his religious order when the Nazis shut it down. With everything crumbling around him, he answers a widow's newspaper ad. Elisabeth needs security for her children. He needs purpose. Their marriage starts as a transaction… and becomes something neither of them planned on. The writing? Oh my goodness. You can feel the cold of a German winter. The heaviness sitting over every meal, every conversation. And underneath it, the fragile warmth of a home where love is trying, carefully, to take root. What got me most was Anton's interior life. He's not a soldier. Not a hero in the conventional sense. He's a man haunted by guilt, wrestling with his faith, doing small faithful things in the dark. When a local priest pulls him into carrying resistance messages, he doesn't say yes for money or glory. He says yes because it feels like a calling. That distinction matters. It's the whole book, really. By the end, I saw him clearly as a quiet man, full of doubt, who chose hope anyway. And used that hope to fuel his courage, one small act at a time. And then I found out it's a true story. Olivia Hawker wrote about her husband's grandfather. The story had been told at family gatherings for many years. In her case, she heard it at a Thanksgiving dinner. "Opa and the bells," they called it. When the family learned she was a writer who specialized in historical fiction, they said: write it. She did her research. Found most of it was true. Changed very little. Her Author's Notes at the back of the book lay it all out — what was real, what she kept, and why. Actually, there's so much there I hope she writes about him again!

SPOILER ALERT!!! Don't read this if you don't want spoilers. Unfortunately, I don't think the AI summary is that great! I haven't used this feature on Zoom before, so will explore alternatives. It didn't even know what book we read! (I haven't edited anything.) Book Club Character Discussion The group met for a book club discussion hosted by Zena, focusing on the character of Natalie from the book they had read. Participants shared their locations and favorite books before discussing how sympathetic they found Natalie to be. Opinions varied, with Kayleigh finding her unlikable throughout, Marilee viewing her as a tragic figure, Felicity starting more sympathetically but losing patience with her poor decisions, and Janie characterizing her as naive with cult-like mentality. The discussion also covered the role of gender roles and Caleb's character development, with most participants finding his transformation and complicity in the situation difficult to believe. Off-Grid Plot Twist Discussion The group discussed a book's plot twist involving a family living off-grid to evade prosecution, with Janie explaining that the father was buying people off to keep them safe. The participants expressed skepticism about certain elements of the story, particularly why the father would commit to the 1855 lifestyle and how going off-grid would effectively protect them from law enforcement when their children were still in the area. Zena noted that while the twist was initially convincing on a first read, upon rereading she found it less plausible, especially regarding the explanation for the doorframe markings and why Clementine didn't intervene sooner. Book Discussion: Character and Plot The group discussed their thoughts on a book, focusing on character development and plot inconsistencies. Adrienne noted Caleb's shifting personalities and his treatment of the children, finding it difficult to believe Clementine didn't know about the abuse. Janie mentioned a key plot point where Stetson called the officers, which explained Clementine's delay in acting. The group expressed some skepticism about certain elements of the story, particularly regarding how the abuse was allowed to continue without intervention.

That name was the clear winner from our poll. Thank you all for voting and for offering your name suggestions. I appreciate it 🧡

I just finished reading a re-imagining of a very famous novel (sorry, but I can't identify it because I'm reviewing it for the Historical Novel Society and the review hasn't been published yet) and it got me thinking about what attracts readers to these types of novels. There's the obvious marketing hook: if you loved book X, you'll love book Y. But if we adore the classic novel enough to think it's perfect as it is, what makes us willing to take a chance on a re-telling, knowing how unlikely it is that it will be as satisfying as the classic version? I suppose Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is a good example (and unrelated to the book I just read). Why do you think the thousands (millions?) of spin-offs of this story in both book and film/TV forms are so successful? Do people love P&P so much that they'll watch/read anything even tangentially related to it? I'd love to know what keeps you coming back to retellings of your favourite classic novel (or what keeps you away)!

Are any of you in an in-person book club? If so, what do you like about it? I have a book club that I adore - we meet once a month, the (rotating) host cooks an amazing meal, and we really talk about the book. It's funny though, we talk about the book so much that I don't know much at all about their personal lives! Tell me about yours, or what you would look for in a club if you were in one. (Or why you don't want to be in one?)