The Perfect Nanny by Leïla Slimani

She has the keys to their apartment. She knows everything. She has embedded herself so deeply in their lives that it now seems impossible to remove her.

One of the “10 Best Books of the Year” of The New York Times Book Review, by the author of Adèle, Sex and Lies: true stories of women's intimate lives in the Arab world, and In the Country of Others.

“A great novel . . . Incredibly engaging and disturbing . . . Slimani has us in her thrall.” —Roxane Gay, New York Times bestselling author of Bad Feminist and Hunger.

“One of the most important books of the year. You can’t unread it.” —Barrie Hardymon, NPR’s Weekend Edition

When Myriam, a French-Moroccan lawyer, decides to return to work as a lawyer after having children, she and her husband look for the perfect nanny for their son and daughter. They never dreamed they would find Louise: a quiet, polite, devoted woman who sings to the children, cleans the family’s chic apartment in Paris's upscale tenth arrondissement, stays late without complaint, and hosts enviable kiddie parties. But as the couple and the nanny become more dependent on one another, jealousy, resentment, and suspicions mount, shattering the idyllic tableau. Building tension with every page, The Perfect Nanny is a compulsive, riveting, bravely observed exploration of power, class, race, domesticity, motherhood, and madness—and the American debut of an immensely talented writer.  

228 pages (January 2018)

Check availability

 

Lit Guide from LitLovers.

Reading Guide from BookMovement.

 

13 Book Club Questions to Energize Any Meetup from Bustle

 

To find a discussion guide for this book in the NoveList Plus database, go to the Library's website, click on Novelist under "We Recommend" → "Book Services". Click on "Book Discussion Guides" in the right sidebar on NoveList's home page. Then, either enter the title in the Search box or search for the title alphabetically. (You will need your Salt Lake County Library card number to access this resource outside a county library.)

 

The Perfect Nanny at goodreads

 

Review from The Atlantic

Review at Crime by the Book

Review at Fiction Writers Review

Review from The Guardian

Review from Kirkus

Review from Los Angeles Review of Books

Review from The Washington Post

 

We are all monsters: interview with Leïla Slimani, author of Adèle and Lullaby (UK title of The Perfect Nanny) | from Bookanista:

This title is available for download as an eBook. Learn more about downloadables from the library here.ed on a true story

 

Title Read-alikes: Rust & Stardust by T. Greenwood; The Perfect Mother by Aimee Molloy; Based on a True Story by Delphine de Vigan; A Perfect Arrangement by Suzanne Berne; The Nanny by Gilly Macmillan; The Secrets She Keeps by Michael Robotham; Mildred Pierce by James M. Cain; The Push by Ashley Audrain; The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks; Mrs. March by Virginia Feito; Her by Harriet Lane; This Little Family by Inès Bayard; Our Kind of Cruelty by Araminta Hail; and A Mouthful of Air by Amy Koppelman

The Mother Code by Carole Stivers

What it means to be human-–and a mother-–is put to the test in Carole Stivers' debut novel set in a world that is more chilling and precarious than ever.

It's 2049, and the survival of the human race is at risk. Earth's inhabitants must turn to their last resort: a plan to place genetically engineered children inside the cocoons of large-scale robots—to be incubated, birthed, and raised by machines. But there is yet one hope of preserving the human order—an intelligence programmed into these machines that renders each unique in its own right—the Mother Code.

Kai is born in America's desert southwest, his only companion his robot Mother, Rho-Z. Equipped with the knowledge and motivations of a human mother, Rho-Z raises Kai and teaches him how to survive. But as children like Kai come of age, their Mothers transform too—in ways that were never predicted. When government survivors decide that the Mothers must be destroyed, Kai must make a choice. Will he break the bond he shares with Rho-Z? Or will he fight to save the only parent he has ever known?
 
In a future that could be our own, The Mother Code explores what truly makes us human—and the tenuous nature of the boundaries between us and the machines we create.

336 pages (May 2020)

Check availability

 

Book Page at BookBrowse.

 

13 Book Club Questions to Energize Any Meetup from Bustle

The Best Book Club Questions to Spark Discussion from The Oprah Magazine

 

To find a discussion guide for this book in the NoveList Plus database, go to the Library's website, click on Novelist under "We Recommend" → "Book Services". Click on "Book Discussion Guides" in the right sidebar on NoveList's home page. Then, either enter the title in the Search box or search for the title alphabetically. (You will need your Salt Lake County Library card number to access this resource outside a county library.)

 

The Mother Code at goodreads

 

Review from Kirkus

Review at The Nerd Daily

Review from Publishers Weekly

 

Author Website

Vlog with Carole Stivers (from Jean BookNerd):

This title is available for download as an eBook and as an eAudioBook. Learn more about downloadables from the library here.

Title Read-alikes: The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez; Immunity Index by Sue Burke; Year One by Nora Roberts; Nexus by Ramez Naam; The Robots of Gotham by Todd McAulty; Lock In by John Scalzi; It Takes Death to Reach a Star by Stu Jones; One Second After by William R. Forstchen; White Horse by Alex Adams; Reset by Sarina Dahlan; The Companions by Katie M. Flynn; Seed by Rob Ziegler; and Goldilocks by Laura Lam.

The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware

From New York Times bestselling author of the "twisty-mystery" (Vulture) novel In a Dark, Dark Wood, comes The Woman in Cabin 10, an equally suspenseful and haunting novel from Ruth Ware—this time, set at sea.

In this tightly wound, enthralling story reminiscent of Agatha Christie’s works, Lo Blacklock, a journalist who writes for a travel magazine, has just been given the assignment of a lifetime: a week on a luxury cruise with only a handful of cabins.

The sky is clear, the waters calm, and the veneered, select guests jovial as the exclusive cruise ship, the Aurora, begins her voyage in the picturesque North Sea. At first, Lo’s stay is nothing but pleasant: the cabins are plush, the dinner parties are sparkling, and the guests are elegant.

But as the week wears on, frigid winds whip the deck, gray skies fall, and Lo witnesses what she can only describe as a dark and terrifying nightmare: a woman being thrown overboard. The problem? All passengers remain accounted for—and so, the ship sails on as if nothing has happened, despite Lo’s desperate attempts to convey that something (or someone) has gone terribly, terribly wrong…

With surprising twists, spine-tingling turns, and a setting that proves as uncomfortably claustrophobic as it is eerily beautiful, Ruth Ware offers up another taut and intense read in The Woman in Cabin 10—one that will leave even the most sure-footed reader restlessly uneasy long after the last page is turned.

340 pages. (July 2016)

Check availability

Lit Guide from LitLovers. 

Reading Guide on BookMovement.

Author Page at Reading Group Guides.

 

Discussion Questions at PrincetonBookReview

 

To find a discussion guide for this book in the NoveList Plus database, go to the Library's website, click on Novelist under "We Recommend" → "Book Services". Click on "Book Discussion Guides" in the right sidebar on NoveList's home page. Then, either enter the title in the Search box or search for the title alphabetically. (You will need your Salt Lake County Library card number to access this resource outside a county library.)

 

The Woman in Cabin 10 at goodreads

 

Review at book reporter

Review from Kirkus Reviews

Review from new york journal of books

Author Website

Book Trailer:

 

This title is available for download as an eBook and as an eAudioBook. Learn more about downloadables from the library here.

Title Read-alikes: The Woman in the Window by A. J. Finn; Therapy by Sebastian Fitzek; The Elizas by Sara Shepard; The American Girl by Kate Horsley; Watch Me Disappear by Janelle Brown; Little Face by Sophie Hannah; Freefall by Jessica Barry; The Blue by Lucy Clarke; The Guest List by Lucy Foley; The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena; Behind Closed Doors by B. A. Paris; The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins; and Dark Places by Gillian Flynn.

Trust No One by Paul Cleave

In the exciting new psychological thriller by the Edgar-nominated author of Joe Victim, a famous crime writer struggles to differentiate between his own reality and the frightening plot lines he's created for the page.

Jerry Grey is known to most of the world by his crime writing pseudonym, Henry Cutter - a name that has been keeping readers at the edge of their seats for more than a decade. Recently diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's at the age of forty-nine, Jerry's crime writing days are coming to an end. His twelve books tell stories of brutal murders committed by bad men, of a world out of balance, of victims finding the darkest forms of justice. As his dementia begins to break down the wall between his life and the lives of the characters he has created, Jerry confesses his worst secret: The stories are real. He knows this because he committed the crimes. Those close to him, including the nurses at the care home where he now lives, insist that it is all in his head, that his memory is being toyed with and manipulated by his unfortunate disease. But if that were true, then why are so many bad things happening? Why are people dying?

Hailed by critics as a "masterful" (Publishers Weekly) writer who consistently offers "ferocious storytelling that makes you think and feel" (The Listener) and whose fiction evokes "Breaking Bad reworked by the Coen Brothers" (Kirkus Reviews), Paul Cleave takes us down a cleverly twisted path to determine the fine line between an author and his characters, between fact and fiction.

345 pages (August 2015)

Check availability

 

Book Page at BookBrowse.

Reading Guide from BookMovement.

 

13 Book Club Questions to Energize Any Meetup from Bustle

40 Great Book Club Discussion Questions for Any Book from Book Riot

 

To find a discussion guide for this book in the NoveList Plus database, go to the Library's website, click on Novelist under "We Recommend" → "Book Services". Click on "Book Discussion Guides" in the right sidebar on NoveList's home page. Then, either enter the title in the Search box or search for the title alphabetically. (You will need your Salt Lake County Library card number to access this resource outside a county library.)

 

Trust No One at goodreads

 

Review at AustCrime

Review from Broad Street Review

Review from Kirkus Reviews

Review at new york journal of books

Review from Publishers Weekly

 

Author Website

 

Book Trailer:

This title is available for download as an eBook and as an eAudioBook. Learn more about downloadables from the library here.

Title Read-alikes: The Chameleon's Shadow by Minette Walters; Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante; Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey; Still Alice by Lisa Genova; Engleby by Sebastian Faulks; Before I Go to Sleep by S. J. Watson; The Good Son by Yu-jŏng Chŏng; Paper Ghosts by Julia Heaberlin; Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney; The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon; Try Not to Breathe by Holly Seddon; Watching Edie by Camilla Way; and In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware.