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Did I Say You Could Go: Melanie Gideon in conversation with Natalie Baszile
August 4, 2021 @ 8:00 am - 5:00 pm PDT
Please join us on Thursday, August 19, 2021 at 7 PM PDT for a discussion of DID I SAY YOU COULD GO with author Melanie Gideon in conversation with Natalie Baszile (author of WE ARE EACH OTHER’S HARVEST: CELEBRATING AFRICAN AMERICAN FARMERS, LAND, AND LEGACY).
Our discussion will be webcast on Zoom at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84357144645 and on Facebook Live at https://www.facebook.com/ggpbooks/live/.
Order your copy of DID I SAY YOU COULD GO at http://bit.ly/ggpDidISay, or in audiobook from Libro.fm, GGP’s audiobook partner, at http://bit.ly/DidISayAB. Order your copy of WE ARE EACH OTHER’S HARVEST in print from GGP at http://bit.ly/ggpHarvest or in #audiobook from Libro.fm at http://bit.ly/HarvestAB.
Description
A suspenseful, gripping novel about families and friendships torn apart at the seams by obsession, secrets, and betrayal with relentless twists and turns that hurtle forward to a shocking confrontation.
When Ruth, a wealthy divorcée, offers to host the Hillside Academy kindergarten meet-and-greet, she hopes this will be a fresh start for her and her introverted daughter, Marley. Finally, they’ll be accepted into a tribe. Marley will make friends and Ruth will be welcomed by the mothers. Instead, the parents are turned off by Ruth’s ostentatious wealth and before kindergarten even begins, Ruth and Marley are outcasts.
The last guest to arrive at the meet-and-greet is Gemma, a widow and a single mother to her daughter, Bee. Ruth sets her sights on the mother-daughter duo, and soon the two families are inseparable. Ruth takes Gemma and Bee on Aspen vacations, offers VIP passes to Cirque du Soleil, and pays for dinners at Michelin-starred restaurants. For Gemma, who lives paycheck to paycheck, Ruth’s largesse is seductive, but as the years go by, she can’t shake the feeling that she’s accruing an increasingly unpayable debt. When Ruth’s affair with a married Hillside dad is exposed, and she’s publicly shunned, Gemma uses it to sever ties with Ruth.
Six years later, when Gemma finds herself embroiled in a scandal of her own—Ruth comes to her defense. Their renewed friendship rehabilitates their reputations, but once again, Gemma starts to feel trapped as Ruth grows more and more obsessed with their relationship.
A relentless page-turner, Did I Say You Could Go is the story of friendships steeped in lies and duplicity. It’s about two families who, when pushed to extremes, cross the line with devastating results.
About Melanie Gideon
Melanie Gideon is the bestselling author of the novels, Valley of the Moon and Wife 22, as well as the memoir The Slippery Year: A Meditation on Happily Ever After. Her books have been translated into thirty-one languages. Wife 22 is currently in development. She has written for The New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, The Times (London), the Daily Mail (London), and other publications. She was born and raised in Rhode Island and now lives in the Bay Area.
About Natalie Baszile
Natalie Baszile is the author of the novel Queen Sugar, which was a San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of 2014, longlisted for the Crooks Corner Southern Book Prize, nominated for an NAACP Image Award, and adapted for television by writer/director Ava DuVernay and co-produced by Oprah Winfrey for OWN. Baszile holds a M.A. in Afro-American Studies from UCLA and is a graduate of Warren Wilson College’s MFA Program for Writers. She lives in San Francisco.