Spotlight: Appetite

Today we're featuring Sheila Grinell's debut novel, Appetite, as part of BookSparks' 2016 Summer Reading Challenge. This book is relatively new to us, but after seeing Book Mama Blog's review, we want to dig in!

When Jenn Adler returns from a year in India, she has a surprise for her parents: a young guru from Bangalore whom she intends to marry. Her father, Paul, is wary of this “beggar” Jenn has brought home—who, he suspects, is conning his much-loved daughter—while her mother, Maggie, is frightened that this alien stranger will steal away her only child, her focus in life.

In the months leading up to the backyard wedding, Maggie is forced to reevaluate her virtues as she casts about for support, and Paul faces an unexpected threat at work—one that Maggie could help him meet, if he would only ask. But even with these distractions, the two parents are focused on one primary question: Can they convince their daughter she is making a terrible mistake before the wedding takes place?

Born in a taxi in Manhattan, Sheila Grinell studied at the Bronx High School of Science, Harvard University, and the University of California, Berkeley. Towards the end of her forty-year career as a creator of science museums, she began to write fiction. Appetite is her debut novel. She lives in Phoenix with her husband and dog. To learn more, visit Sheila at her website, Facebook, and Twitter.