Wednesday, February 8th at 5pm

Amor Towles - A Gentleman in Moscow

From the author of the delicious 1930s period piece, Rules of Civility, comes this lively novel set in post-revolution Moscow. Count Alexander Rostov, worldly aristocrat and enemy-of-the-people expects to be "put against the wall" or  incarcerated in the hellhole of Lubyanka when called before the People's Commissariat. Instead, he is sentenced to live the rest of his life in the Metropol Hotel where he has been living for four years. But--no longer will he be in the swank Room 317--he's assigned to a bleak attic room and the state takes his elegant furnishings. He will be shot if he ever leaves the hotel. The wily Rostov makes the best of things in this tale peopled by an Eloise-like 9 year old, a group of novice ballerinas, a famous actress, an old beekeeping custodian, an orphan, a musician prince, and numerous hotel employees who befriend him. Drama, intrigue, food and wine talk! -- LH

http://www.squarebooks.com/event/amor-towles-gentleman-moscow

Thursday, February 9th at 6pm (Thacker Mountain Radio)

Michael Farris Smith - Desperation Road

Russell Gaines returns home from a prison term only to confront two brothers with revenge on their minds.  And when he meets a homeless woman and her child, his troubles are compounded.  Michael Farris Smith sets his characters on a path that was begun by Faulkner and continued by Larry Brown but it is one not confined to the Deep South but part of the undercurrent of American society.  While it may be a road of desperation it can also be, sometimes, one of redemption.  In Smith's case, it is all that and more in a powerful, unforgettable work. -- BC

http://www.squarebooks.com/event/michael-farris-smith-desperation-road