384 pages, $32 (hardcover)
Release date Jul 28, 2015

Raised in Kenya (or “Kenya before it was Kenya,” as recited in a suspenseful truth-or-dare-style parlour game with powerful consequences), Beryl’s earliest memories capture the coming of age of a strong-willed tomboy marked by fearless encounters with the unforgiving landscape and wildlife of Africa. Abandoned by her mother and left with her father, a racehorse trainer, Beryl lives for adventure. Spending her days exploring and hunting, the young Beryl dreams of a future as a warrior, gender roles be damned.

The 20th century, however, has different ideas, and Beryl enters an admirable life of revolutionary protest against the constraints placed on the women of her time. Fighting for her right to love freely, train prize-winning horses (at the time, strictly a man’s pursuit), and later take flight over an unconquered, seemingly insurmountable ocean, Beryl provides McLain with a protagonist overflowing with character. Told through even and evocative prose dappled with cinematic descriptions of Beryl’s beloved Africa, Circling the Sun profiles an unforgettable trendsetter whose numerous accomplishments are well worth another look.

Discussion Points for Your Book Club

Delve deeper into the life of Beryl Markham with these five book club discussion points for Paula McLain’s Circling the Sun:

1. Before Kenya was Kenya, Beryl Markham (born Clutterbuck) lived in what was known as the British-controlled East African Protectorate. Adjacent to German East Africa, both territories vanished in the wake of the First World War, marking the start of African independence from Europe. Explore the impact these seismic shifts in national identity would have on the characters of Circling the Sun.

2. Beryl Markham’s memoirs, West with the Night, were published in 1942, furthering her notoriety as a sexually liberated woman conquering more than one field considered the territory of men. How have attitudes changed since the days of Markham’s bold choices?

3. While Circling the Sun is a piece of historical fiction, Beryl Markham was a living, breathing historical figure. What responsibilities do authors of these types of imagined retellings of a person’s life have to the reader? More importantly, what responsibilities do authors of historical fiction have to their subjects?

4. Throughout the book, Beryl’s romantic choices – the limitations of marriage notwithstanding – conclude at best in disappointment, at worst in tragedy. Compared with other popular strong-willed heroines, how do her opinions on love and fulfillment differ? Are we just as free as Beryl to make similar choices, or are relationships still driven in part by societal pressures?

5. One of the most important friendships in Circling the Sun exists between Beryl and Kibii, a young Kipsigis village boy living near her father’s farm. How do their worlds interact? Can they co-exist?

480 pages, $35 (hardcover)
Release date November 3, 2015

Novelist John Irving has no time for false idols, and the exposed truths beneath the surfaces of Avenue of Mysteries reveal a world that’s never quite what it seems. Telling the life story of celebrated Mexican-American author Juan Diego Guerrero via a fragmented, often drug-addled narrative that jumps both decades and continents, Mysteries explores worlds both tangible and supernatural. From the garbage dumps of Oaxaca, Mexico, the slow-moving suburbs of Iowa and the backwater resorts of the Philippines, Irving has created an immensely moving and suspenseful autumnal page-turner.

Born in el basurero – the garbage dumps pored over by poor families in search of sellable treasures – Juan Diego earns the nickname “dump reader” after his life is immeasurably changed by charred books he saves from the dump’s fires. They open his eyes to a world beyond the smoky ruins around him. His psychic younger sister, Lupe, spits out the secrets of those around her, albeit spoken in an accent only Juan Diego can understand. Following their entry into the circus as a brother-sister mind-reader act, Lupe’s distrust of the sculptures of female saints propped around Oaxaca prompts a slew of comically profane insults he refuses to translate.

Where Avenue of Mysteries shines best is in its characterizations of Juan Diego and those around him, some potentially mere figments of his own imagination. As the tale progresses, we encounter those behind the curtains of the circus, a quartet of misfit priests, a golden-hearted trans-prostitute, vengeful lionesses, the shy ghosts of U.S. soldiers, and a mother-daughter pair of over-sexed Svengalis. Full of page-turner twists and surprises, Mysteries is doubtless one of the year’s most original – and uniquely fulfilling – mainstream novels.

By the time we reach the novel’s enlightening finale on the gecko-infested resort beaches of the Philippines, Irving’s myriad avenues deconstruct the very art of writing itself. Mysteries is a journey well worth taking, the rare breed of book that causes readers to mourn the lack of more pages.

Discussion Points for Your Book Club

Dig deeper with these five Book Club Discussion points for John Irving’s Avenue of Mysteries.

1. Juan Diego and his ex-student Clark French have a lengthy debate on using one’s imagination to write versus merely fleshing out personal experiences. What are your thoughts on their discussion? Twain often drew from his own experience rather than create fiction – does that make him a lesser writer than Shakespeare?

2. The mother-daughter duo of Miriam and Dorothy seemingly appears and disappears at will, yet they are known by all who pass through Juan Diego’s life. Do you think they’re real or imaginary, and why? Can they exist in both realms?

3. While Irving takes several potshots at the self-righteousness of organized religions, Avenue of Mysteries also includes ghosts and other phenomena suggesting a supernatural world beyond death. What overall statements does the book make about both religion and supernatural beliefs?

4. By announcing the thoughts of those around her, Lupe gives her sibling unfiltered insight into the adults around them. Her forecasting of events, however, isn’t always so precise. Was Juan Diego right to heed Lupe’s predictions? Do you think her mind-reading skills actually extend into forecasting, or is she just as adept at reading people as her brother is at reading books?

5. Through his characterization of Juan Diego, Irving explores the vocation of writing. He also contrasts Juan Diego with his former student Clark French – a somewhat more populist author. The pair engages in a lengthy dialogue on the differences between Shakespeare and Mark Twain, their affection reserved for the former. What do you think Irving gives away about his own beliefs about writing in Avenue of Mysteries? What does he reveal about himself?

Q&A WITH RUFUS WAINWRIGHT

Reader’s Digest: Your new album, Take All My Loves, sets 400-year-old Shakespearean sonnets to music. What’s the appeal?

Rufus Wainwright: What always hits me with Shakespeare is that so many of his phrases are ingrained in our language now, like “all that glitters is not gold” or “I am that I am.” He has a universal quality that’s unique. No other great composer or writer has been able to transcend all cultures and races and periods like he has. Whether it’s Brecht or Beethoven or Tennessee Williams-they’re all wonderful, but they’re all very much rooted in their time and place.

Speaking of all-time greats, some rather unusual guests recite verses on the album: William Shatner, Carrie Fisher, the Welsh actress Siân Phillips. How did you decide on this group?

Not to be morbid, but Siân, whose voice opens the album, is in her 80s; William is in his 80s, too. Inge Keller, who performs the last poem-and is one of the best-known German theatre actresses of all time-is 92. I wanted to capture those legendary voices. Also, the sonnets were written to be read, not necessarily set to music. So I felt the spoken versions should be the starting point.

You’re paying tribute to another icon this summer by remounting Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall, your homage to Judy Garland’s celebrated 1961 concert. You first performed the show a decade ago. Why revisit it now?

I’m a big fan of her original album, and the experience itself was captivating. Plus, on a technical level, it really improved my voice. I owe a lot to that concert and I’m curious to see what 10 years has added to the equation.

Well, they’ve made you a father, for one-you’re co-parenting your five-year-old, Viva, with Leonard Cohen’s daughter, Lorca. What has having a child taught you?

It’s like a bank account: the more money you put in, the more you’ll make in interest. Parenthood is like that, but with time. Viva lives in Los Angeles with her mom, but my husband, Jörn, and I go there as much as possible and Skype as often as we can. And I’ve learned that little kids remember everything. Their minds are sponges. You have to be careful, but you also have to be giving.

Your relationship with your own dad, the musician Loudon Wainwright III, has always been fraught. Has fatherhood shifted your perspective?

What’s incredible is that my father immediately became an amazing grandfather to all of his grandchildren. We’ve fought our battles, but once he starts to engage with my daughter it erases so much from the past. It’s a miracle.

Music is a family affair for the Wainwrights. Has that extended into the next generation?

They’re still a little young to be singing four-part harmony! But I do know this: the last time I did a show, Viva was at the side of the stage. I had this wondrous, rapturous reaction from the audience, and when I walked off, she was right there. The first thing she said to me was, “Now it’s my turn!”

Take All My Loves: 9 Shakespeare Sonnets is available now.

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Almost every night for more than 10 years, Kirk Alexander ordered a delivery from his local Domino’s Pizza. Like clockwork, the order would be placed between 11 p.m. and midnight.

The 48-year-old Salem, Oregon resident had no signature meal – the only guaranteed thing was the almost-daily delivery to Alexander’s home, located six minutes away from the Silverton Road Domino’s store.

That’s why the Domino’s staff noticed when, for a period of two weeks in April 2016, Alexander’s orders stopped.

“A few of my drivers had mentioned that we hadn’t seen his order come across our screen in a while, so I went and looked up to see how long it had been since he last ordered,” general manager Sarah Fuller told KATU.com. “It was 11 days, which is not like him at all.”

Fuller first met Alexander in 2009 when she started at the store as a delivery driver. She knew three things about him – he worked from home, rarely left his residence and had suffered from undisclosed health issues in the past.

It was during a slow night shift when Fuller decided to take action. Around 1 a.m. on Sunday, May 8, she sent longtime driver Tracey Hamblen to visit Alexander’s home.

“I think we were just doing our job checking in on someone we know who orders a lot,” Fuller told KOIN.com. “We felt like we needed to do something.”

Hamblen arrived at Alexander’s home and knocked on the front door several times. There was no answer. He later noticed that the lights and television in the home were on. When he called Alexander’s phone, it went straight to voicemail.

Hamblen drove back to the store to tell the staff and they decided to call 911. Soon, deputies from the Marion County Sheriff’s office arrived at Alexander’s home. The deputies broke down the door and saw that he was on the floor.

Paramedics rushed Alexander to Salem Hospital and later listed him in stable condition. A few weeks later, Fuller, Hamblen and other store employees visited him with flowers and cards. They were greeted by Alexander’s smile.

“(Alexander is) just an important customer that’s part of our family here at Domino’s.”

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“I picked this up at a flea market in Winnipeg,” says Dale Wrixon of La Salle, Man. “It’s made of steel and measures six inches in length when compressed and 10.5 inches when extended. The only markings indicate it was made by the W-W Co. in Brooklyn, N.Y. I look forward to finding out what it is!”

What do you think? Can you help Dale solve this mystery?

Submit your answers in the comments below or by sending them in through Our Canada’s submissions site (please identify it as an entry for “What Is It?”).

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