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Based on meticulous research, Cleopatra’s Daughter is a fascinating portrait of imperial Rome and of the people and events of this glorious and most tumultuous period in human history. Emerging from the shadows of the past, Selene, a young woman of irresistible charm and preternatural intelligence, will capture your heart. Read an excerpt of Cleopatra’s Daughter and learn how you can connect with Michelle online. She’s gathered everything you need for a very special book group meeting!

After 85 long years, Fatimah Abdullah is dying, and she knows when her time will come. In fact, it should come just nine days from tonight, the 992nd nightly visit of Scheherazade, the beautiful and immortal storyteller from the epic The Arabian Nights. Just as Scheherazade spun magical stories for 1,001 nights to save her own life, Fatima has spent each night telling Scheherazade her life stories, all the while knowing that on the 1,001st night, her storytelling will end forever.

The Opposite Field is one of the most remarkable, ambitious, and utterly original memoirs of this generation, a story of the losing and finding of self, of sex and love and fatherhood and the joy of language, of death and failure and heartbreak, of Los Angeles and Portland and Nicaragua and Mexico, and the shifting sands of place and meaning that can make up a culture, or a community, or a home. If you like Rick Bragg, Bret Easton Ellis, or Michael Connelly, you will love The Opposite Field. (Rick, Bret, and Michael all did!)

Working on this book was a unique and challenging experience. As a journalist covering the Middle East, I have reported on many difficult situations. In Iraq, I have interviewed widows of men killed by death squads. In Iran, I have met female dissidents locked up in jail, in solitary confinement for several months. In Afghanistan, I have shared tales of female students who stopped going to school after it was attacked by presumed terrorists. But interviewing and listening to Nujood was the most challenging project.

I was astonished to learn not only that there is wine being made in Missouri, but that Missouri was the epicenter of American wine more than a century ago — the Napa Valley of the 19th century, with more than a hundred wineries. It was a groundbreaking moment, for sure. The Norton’s success — it was pronounced one of the great red wines of the world at a world’s fair in Vienna, and won another big medal five years later, in Paris — occurred in the 1870s.

Alice Hoffman is a favorite among book groups and booksellers alike, and it’s a real treat to listen to her at one of her readings. If you’re not able to see her live, the next best thing is to listen to her read via podcast. Listen to Alice Hoffman read from The Story Sisters. Alice loves hearing from her readers! Leave a comment on Alice Hoffman’s guest book and join the conversation surrounding her remarkable work. It’s always fun to hear what other readers are saying, whether it’s about an author you haven’t read yet or a beloved favorite. Enjoy the conversation!