“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.”

December:

REBECCA, by Daphne du Maurier

“An immediate best seller upon its release, Rebecca has remained in print since it was published in 1938 and still sells around 4,000 copies per month. It won a National Book Award in 1938, the Anthony Award for Novel of the Century in 2000, and was voted the U.K.’s favorite book of the last 225 years in a 2017 survey run by retailer WHSmith. The novel has been successfully adapted numerous times for the stage and screen, with the best-known film version, Alfred Hitchcock’s 1940 movie of the same name, winning the Academy Award for Best Picture.” —Megan McCluskey for Time magazine

Stop by the Reference Desk after October 9th to pick up a copy of the title, or check out the catalog listing HERE.

Supplemental Reading:

“Daphne du Maurier’s REBECCA Taught Me How to Love Literature” (John Crace, The Guardian)

“How Daphne du Maurier Became Hitchcock’s Favorite Author” (Little White Lies, 2017)

Book Club Background:

Join us in person or online to look at the history of Mystery as a book genre.

It has been almost 200 years since the publication of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” and since then, mystery as a genre has exploded in form, length, language, and more. From The Lady in White, Wilkie Collins’ novel that is considered the first of the genre, through the serialized adventures of Sherlock Holmes, the Golden Age of Agatha Christie, the advent of noir, the rise of thrillers, romantic suspense, and an international cast of characters ranging from retired police officers to meddling sleuths, some famous twins, and armchair detectives.

TIME MAGAZINE PICKS THE 100 BEST MYSTERY NOVELS OF ALL TIME

Each month we might read an article, a short story, a book, or a selection from the same author or the same country. We’ll look at award winners and debut novelists, the standard bearers and the rule breakers. We may talk about movies and TV, too.  We’ll work our way through the decades, looking at similar themes, exotic settings, and recent innovations in a genre that is both familiar and new.

Some of the authors we’ll cover: Agatha Christie, Dashiell Hammett, Mary Higgins Clark, Alexander McCall Smith, Jo Nesbo, and more!

Check out the recent Edgar Award winners HERE.

We’ll run this group as hybrid, so anyone can join. If you’re new, please click below to register for the program, and either request the Zoom link, or indicate if you’ll join us in person. Returning readers do not need to register unless they need the Zoom link.

At the end of the day, the butler may have done it, but we’ll decide if he was justified!

REGISTER HERE: