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Kimberly Belle

Kimberly Belle is the USA Today and internationally bestselling author of seven novels, including MY DARLING HUSBAND and THE MARRIAGE LIE, a Goodreads Choice Awards semifinalist for Best Mystery & Thriller. Her books have been published in more than in a dozen languages and have been optioned for film and television. A graduate of Agnes Scott College, Belle divides her time between Atlanta and Amsterdam.

Diane Chamberlain

Diane Chamberlain is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of 28 novels published in over 15 languages. Her books include BIG LIES IN A SMALL TOWN, THE STOLEN MARRIAGE and THE DREAM DAUGHTER. She lives in North Carolina with her partner, photographer John Pagliuca, and her sheltie, Cole.

Jim DeFede Event

RGG Speed Dating November 2021 Event

November 20, 2021

This month, my book group read THE SOUND OF GRAVEL by Ruth Wariner, which was published in 2016. We have been reading recently published books, but one of the group members had read it and loved it. I read it when it first came out, so I was interested to see how the group would react to it.

First, everyone who gathered with us around the fire outside at Julia’s beautifully decorated patio had finished it and loved it. Bravo! Even one member who was not able to attend sent us a note that she loved it. Not only did we have an in-depth conversation, Julia had done a deep dive onto Ruth’s website and shared some follow-up information on the family. And we talked about the terrible shooting in 2019 that killed members of Ruth’s extended LeBaron family in Mexico when it is believed they were attacked by drug gangs. I loved how we darted from one topic to the next, completely engaged with the book. We also did comparisons to Tara Westover's memoir, EDUCATED. I think it was one of our best discussions.

Our Reader-Selected Best Books of 2021

Over the last two months, we asked you to share both your favorite book that you read with your book group and your favorite book that you read outside your group in 2021.

The results are in! Below are the top 10 selected titles in each category.

Beatriz Williams, author of The Wicked Widow: A Wicked City Novel

June 1925: Audacious Appalachian flapper Geneva “Gin” Kelly prepares to trade her high-flying ways for respectable marriage to Oliver Anson Marshall. But just as wedding bells chime, the head of the notorious East Coast rum-running racket turns up murdered at a society funeral, and their short-lived honeymoon bliss goes up in a spectacular blaze. June 1998: When Ella Dommerich’s ninetysomething society queen aunt Julie ropes her into digging up dirt on Senator (and Presidential candidate) Franklin Hardcastle, she couldn’t be less enthusiastic. But then the Hardcastle secrets lead to a web of shady dealings Ella has uncovered in her job as a financial analyst, and the bodies start to tumble out of the venerable woodwork.

Elif Shafak, author of The Island of Missing Trees

Two teenagers, a Greek Cypriot and a Turkish Cypriot, meet at a taverna on the island they both call home. In the taverna, hidden beneath garlands of garlic, chili peppers and creeping honeysuckle, Kostas and Defne grow in their forbidden love for each other. A fig tree stretches through a cavity in the roof that bears witness to their hushed, happy meetings, and eventually to their silent, surreptitious departures. The tree is there when war breaks out, when the capital is reduced to ashes and rubble, and when the teenagers vanish. Decades later, Kostas returns. He is a botanist looking for native species, but really, he's searching for lost love.

Nicole Baart, author of Everything We Didn't Say

Juniper Baker had just graduated from high school and was deep in the throes of a summer romance when Cal and Beth Murphy, a childless couple who lived on a neighboring farm, were brutally murdered. When her younger brother became the prime suspect, June’s world collapsed, and everything she loved that summer fell away. She left, promising never to return to tiny Jericho, Iowa. Until now. Officially, she’s back in town to help an ill friend manage the local library. But really, she’s returned to repair her relationship with her teenage daughter --- and to solve the infamous Murphy murders once and for all. She knows the key to both lies in the darkest secret of that long-ago summer night, one that’s haunted her for nearly 15 years.

Elizabeth Strout, author of Oh William!

Lucy Barton is a writer, but her ex-husband, William, remains a hard man to read. William, she confesses, has always been a mystery to me. Another mystery is why the two have remained connected after all these years. They just are. So Lucy is both surprised and not surprised when William asks her to join him on a trip to investigate a recently uncovered family secret --- one of those secrets that rearrange everything we think we know about the people closest to us.