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Caroline Slate is a New Yorker who grew up in the Richmond Hill section of Queens, daughter of a dentist with a love for words and an avid volunteer with a penchant for auctions and antique silver. She has a sister, Paula. Slate is the author of The House on Sprucewood Lane (2002). As Carol Brennan she wrote Headhunt, the story of a twice-divorced fortyish P.R. woman with job troubles and a murdered headhunter client. A sequel, Full Commission about fast-track New York real estate followed two years later. In the Dark (1994) and Chill of Summer (1995) both featured a hot-tempered film actress in career decline. To find out more about Slate, visit her official website at www.carolineslate.com.
The House on Sprucewood Lane
From the outside, some families appear to be untouchable. No conflicts within could cause ugliness or bitterness; no external force could shatter their assured, confident aura. The world saw the McQuade family through such a prism -- a slice of suburban perfection, a page-from-a-magazine existence for Melanie and Tom McQuade and their two gifted children. But Melanie's sister, documentary filmmaker Lex Cavanaugh, knows that nothing is as it appears; the truth of any picture lies in the eye of the beholder. And soon an unthinkable crime will shake Lex to the core, challenging everything she has known about her estranged family -- and herself. Lex receives the wrenching news in an urgent e-mail from her nephew, Jared: his ten-year-old sister Calista, a talented gymnast with Olympic potential, has been found murdered. Rushing from her home in London to Melanie's house in exclusive Westport, Connecticut, Lex re-enters a family living out its worst nightmare -- with each of the members cast in the light of suspicion, even among themselves.
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Caroline Slate's Summer Reading List
Sunday Jews
Hortense Calisher
Hortense Calisher is a national treasure, now 90, and this novel promises to be as subtle, complex and compelling as her best work. Sunday Jews is on one level a 700-page family saga of the sort you climb into and wish would not end, and on another level an exploration of individual and tribal identity.
Stanley Park
by Timothy Taylor
This is a first novel, which was given to me by a friend, with a "must read" recommendation. I like reading first novels that are risky and brave. Mystery, romance and satire: over-the-top characters and mouth-watering food - all set against the Vancouver landscape. Who could resist?
Come Up and See Me Sometime
by Erika Krouse
This is a collection of short stories each of which is about a young, single woman taking a bumpy ride to who knows where? Krouse evokes the take-no-prisoners spirit of Mae West: her women may be down for the count, but don't count them out - maybe because like Mae they share a sense of humor.
Lolita
by Vladmir Nabokov
I have not read Lolita in many years and was riveted by it back then. I'll reread it this summer because I want another look at Nabokov's perspective. This time I'll refract Nabokov's vision through the events that are currently rocking the Catholic Church. I'll also revisit the characters I created in The House on Sprucewood Lane: the pull between seductive children and tormented predators are at the core of my story.
One Palestine, Complete
by Tom Segev
Segev, a columnist for Ha'aretz, Israel's leading newspaper, traces the history of the British rule in Palestine (1917-1948), which led to the creation of the state of Israel. Segev draws on primary sources and maintains an independent and original perspective as he traces the origins of the Middle East mess of today. My husband (a reliable guide in such matters) tells me this book is a must read: The truth that past is prologue has never been more accurately demonstrated.
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