Hot Off the Press Current Session
In this lively monthly book discussion class led by Lynn Rosen, participants read and discuss new literary fiction. Class conversations include a thorough and thoughtful analysis of the book as well as background information provided by Lynn about the author and the book’s path to publication. We talk serious book talk, but have a lot of laughs too!
Class meets on Tuesday evenings from 7pm to 8:30pm.
Dates:
Tuesday, February 26
Tuesday, March 26
Tuesday, April 23
Tuesday, May 21
Tuesday, June 18
Location: Elkins Park, PA 19027
To sign up click HERE.
Cost: $160
Book Selections are listed below (click the title for more info)
Discounted class books are available for students at Open Book Bookstore. Extra discount if you purchase all five books in advance.
Book package (all five books at a reduced cost): $120
Purchase the discounted book package HERE. You will receive each book as it is published prior to the class.
Session costs are non-refundable.
Books are not included in the cost of the class.
Contact lynn@openbookphilly.com with questions.
Current Selections
Late in the Day by Tessa Hadley
February 26, 2019, 7PM-8:30PM
“With each new book by Tessa Hadley, I grow more convinced that she’s one of the greatest stylists alive.”—Ron Charles, Washington Post…
read moreBowlaway by Elizabeth McCracken
March 26, 2019, 7PM-8:30PM
A sweeping and enchanting new novel from the widely beloved, award-winning author Elizabeth McCracken about three generations of an unconventional New England family who own and operate a candlepin bowling alley. . .
read moreLost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli
April 23, 2019, 7PM-8:30PM
From the two-time NBCC Finalist, an emotionally resonant, fiercely imaginative new novel about a family’s road trip across America.
“Impossibly smart, full of beauty, heart and insight . . . Everyone should read this book.”–Tommy Orange
read moreA Wonderful Stroke of Luck by Ann Beattie
May 21, 7PM-8:30PM
At a boarding school in New Hampshire, Ben joins the honor society led by Pierre LaVerdere, an enigmatic, brilliant, yet perverse teacher who instructs his students not only about how to reason, but how to prevaricate. As the years go by, LaVerdere’s covert and overt instruction lingers in his students’ lives as they seek some sense of purpose or meaning. Later in Ben’s life, LaVerdere’s reappearance calls everything into question. . .
read moreLost and Wanted by Nell Freudenberger
June 18, 2019, 7PM-8:30PM
“Freudenberger’s brilliant and compassionate novel takes on the big questions of the universe and proves, again, that she is one of America’s greatest writers.” –Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Less
read morePast Hot Off the Press Selections
A Terrible Country by Keith Gessen
September 25 & 26, 2018
Andrei Kaplan left Moscow as a child with his family, but now returns to Moscow to care for his grandmother.
read moreTranscription by Kate Atkinson
October 23 & 24, 2018
The amazing Kate Atkinson returns with another story told around WWII England.
read moreTrinity by Louisa Hall
November 20 & 21, 2018
Hall follows her acclaimed novel Speak with this creatively layered examination of the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the scientist who created the atomic bomb.
read moreThe Feral Detective by Jonathan Lethem
December 18 & 19, 2018
The brilliant Lethem returns with another detective story to follow up Motherless Brooklyn.
read moreThe Italian Teacher by Tom Rachman
September 12 & 15, 2017
This novel, long-listed for this year’s Man Booker Prize, is the author’s eighth book, yet she has not yet achieved acclaim in the US. Perhaps this is the book that will build her American reputation! It tells of three siblings in a British family…
read moreWarlight by Michael Ondaatje
September 12 & 15, 2017
This novel, long-listed for this year’s Man Booker Prize, is the author’s eighth book, yet she has not yet achieved acclaim in the US. Perhaps this is the book that will build her American reputation! It tells of three siblings in a British family…
read moreEternal Life by Dara Horn
February 20 & 23, 2018
Rachel is a woman with a problem: she can’t die. Her recent troubles―widowhood, a failing business, an unemployed middle-aged son―are only the latest in a litany spanning dozens of countries, scores of marriages, and hundreds of children.
read moreOnly Killers and Thieves by Paul Howarth
March 20 & 23, 2018
Two brothers are exposed to the brutal realities of life and the seductive cruelty of power in this riveting debut novel—a story of savagery and race, injustice and honor, set in the untamed frontier of 1880s Australia—reminiscent of Philipp Meyer’s The Son and the novels of Cormac McCarthy. An epic tale of revenge and survival…
read moreHappiness by Aminatta Forna
April 17 & 20, 2018
Waterloo Bridge, London. Two strangers collide. Attila, a Ghanaian psychiatrist, and Jean, an American studying the habits of urban foxes. From this chance encounter in the midst of the rush of a great city, numerous moments of connections span out and interweave, bringing disparate lives together.
read moreHome Fire by Kamila Shamsie
September 12 & 15, 2017
This novel, long-listed for this year’s Man Booker Prize, is the author’s eighth book, yet she has not yet achieved acclaim in the US. Perhaps this is the book that will build her American reputation! It tells of three siblings in a British family…
read moreIdaho by Emily Ruskovich
February 28 & March 3, 2017
A stunning debut novel about love and forgiveness, about the violence of memory and the equal violence of its loss— from O. Henry Prize–winning author Emily Ruskovich. Ann and Wade have carved…
read moreHarmless Like You by Rowan Hisayo Buchanan
Harmless Like You by Rowan Hisayo Buchanan Discussion dates: March 28 & 31, 2017 At the onset of Buchanan’s debut, a son shows up at the doorstep of his mother, Yuki, in Berlin after a 30-year separation. Jay’s there to settle Yuki’s inheritance—a house in...
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