Contemporary Authors

• The Shark Club ( novel) Viking (New York, NY), 2017

1. The shark club LCCN 2016056839 Type of material Book Personal name Taylor, Ann Kidd, author. Main title The shark club / Ann Kidd Taylor. Published/Produced New York, New York : Viking, [2017] Description 274 pages ; 24 cm ISBN 9780735221475 (hardcover) CALL NUMBER PS3620.A924 S53 2017 Copy 1 Request in Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms

• Ann Taylor Kidd - https://www.annkiddtaylor.com/author

  Ann Kidd Taylor is the coauthor of Traveling with Pomegranates, a memoir written with her mother, Sue Monk Kidd. Published by Viking in 2009, it appeared on numerous bestseller lists, including the New York Times list, and has been published in several languages. Sue Monk Kidd, is the award-winning and bestselling author of the novels The Secret Life of Bees, The Mermaid Chair, and The Invention of Wings.

  Ann’s first novel, The Shark Club, was released in June 2017 and continues to appear on many 'Best of' lists.

  She lives in North Carolina with her husband, son, and two dogs.

• Marco Eagle - http://www.marconews.com/story/entertainment/2017/06/02/ann-kidd-taylor-comes-marco-new-book-the-shark-club/359834001/

  Ann Kidd Taylor comes to Marco with new book, ‘The Shark Club’
  Joan Krzykowski, Special to the Eagle Published 6:02 a.m. ET June 2, 2017
  636318417262684755-Kidd1.jpg
  (Photo: Submitted)

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  Marco Island resident author, Ann Kidd Taylor, has a new book coming out this month. Her previous book, “Traveling With Pomegranates,” which she co-wrote with her mother, Sue Monk Kidd, spent several weeks on the New York Times Bestsellers List. “The Shark Club” is Kidd Taylor’s first novel and is being released June 6 by Random House.

  Shark Club is set on a fictitious island in Southwest Florida with many similarities to Marco Island. Maeve Donnelly is a world-traveling marine biologist known among her peers as the “shark whisperer.” She has put her personal life on the back burner in order to make the study of sharks her life’s work. This despite the fact that she had been viciously attacked by a blacktip shark at the age of 12.

  Ann Kidd Taylor graciously agreed to answer some questions about her new book.

  Question: “The Shark Club” is set on a fictitious island in Southwest Florida. As there seem to be many similarities to Marco Island, I have to ask if you intentionally used your knowledge of Marco as a basis for the setting of this book.

  Answer: My family moved to Marco in 2010. Undoubtedly, the natural beauty of the island infused my earliest ideas about “The Shark Club” with inspiration. As I was figuring out who my character Maeve was and having long conversations with her in my imagination, it became clear to me that Maeve’s home should be rooted on an island on the Gulf coast. Indeed, many places around Marco Island and Southwest Florida served as inspiration and models for things that turn up in “The Shark Club.”

  "The Shark Club" by Ann Kidd Taylor
  "The Shark Club" by Ann Kidd Taylor (Photo: Submitted)

  Q: Where did your inspiration come from to write about sharks? Do you share Maeve Donnelly’s passion for these fascinating creatures?

  A: It’s funny. “The Shark Club” didn’t start with sharks. It started with Maeve. Once I understood the role sharks would play in her life I began to read about them and watch them at aquariums. Through the Rookery Bay Reserve, I joined other volunteers for a night of shark tagging in the Ten Thousand Islands. Sharks play a vital role in our oceans, and yet, they face critical dangers from humans, none more threatening than shark finning. As I came to understand sharks, it was impossible not to share Maeve’s love for them.

  Q: It is apparent in reading “The Shark Club” that you did extensive research on sharks and the dangers that the species in general is encountering. Was it your intention that your book would shed some light on these issues, perhaps for the greater good of our oceans and for sharks in particular?

  A: There were some themes I was certain about taking on: a young woman turning 30, grappling with a lost love and the road not taken, but in the beginning, I wasn’t exactly sure how sharks would function in the plot. I kept returning to the horrific practice of shark finning in which sharks are caught, have their fins sliced off, and are thrown overboard to drown to death. Shark finning is responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of sharks every year in order to fuel the fin trade. For my character, to have sharks in her research affected by finning would be an attack on what she cares most about. The truth is: our fates are linked with those of sharks. I hope I created a way for readers to develop empathy and love for them and the health of our oceans.

  Q: Your previous book, “Traveling With Pomegranates,” which you co-wrote with your mother, Sue Monk Kidd, was non-fiction. Was it a difficult transition for you to write a novel?

  While writing “Traveling with Pomegranates,” I relied on my travel journals, itineraries, photographs, video I’d taken, and of course, my memories. The process of writing a memoir, of rendering memories and experiences into a relatable story that intertwined with my mother’s story was a challenge, but one we relished. As my mom and I worked on the book, we each wrote separately in our houses and would come together to read each other’s chapters and edit. When it came to writing solo, to keep the fears and anxieties at bay, I focused on writing a story I loved and the story I most wanted to tell. Nevertheless, there’s nothing like a blank screen to make me feel marooned from decent ideas, even words and sentences. The other most obvious difference between writing “The Shark Club” and writing “Traveling with Pomegranates” was how freely and wildly I could engage my imagination in fiction. There was something intoxicating about treading into my imagination, but I found both experiences really satisfying.

  Q: This book, “The Shark Club,” is getting wonderful early reviews. Where do you intend to go from here — is there another book in the works?

  A: Yes, I’m excitedly mapping the plot for another novel. Similar to how I began writing “The Shark Club,” the seeds for my new story started with a character talking my imagination. She’s compelling and complicated, and she feels entirely real to me. I can’t wait to find out where she leads me.

  Along with all of its interesting “shark info,” “The Shark Club” is a bittersweet story about the power of forgiveness and the promise of true love. The complexity of the interpersonal relationships and the beautiful prose of Ms. Kidd Taylor make this a delightfully entertaining read.

  Ann Kidd Taylor will be at Sunshine Booksellers at 3 p.m., Thursday, June 8. She will be speaking about her new book and autographing copies.

• Pat Conroy Literary Center - http://patconroyliterarycenter.org/finding-true-light-ann-kidd-taylor-writing/

  Finding Your True Light: Ann Kidd Taylor on Writing by Mindy Lucas

  “It’s like you find this true light, which for me was writing, and then you lose that light, and then you have to go find that true light again. And in many ways, that was what happened to me.”

  Ann Kidd Taylor grew up watching her mother, best-selling author Sue Monk Kidd, write from a room in their home–an experience she describes as “the most normal thing in the world” when you’re a child.

  And yet for Taylor, it took some years and a struggle with fear and doubt before she decided to take up writing herself and return to what her mother called “her own true light.”

  Here the author – who lives in Naples, Florida, with her husband, son and two dogs – talks about her first novel The Shark Club, what she learned after co-writing a memoir with her mother and probably most important of all, what it takes to “stay in the chair.”

  Mindy Lucas: Welcome to Porch Talk. We’re excited that you’ll be making an appearance here this weekend at the Pat Conroy Literary Festival. I’d like to start with how you got into writing, whether your mother, the writer Sue Monk Kidd had something to do with that, as I suspect it did, and how you decided this was what you wanted to do.

  Ann Kidd Taylor: I remember being very young in elementary school and really loving to write stories. I still remember an assignment I got in the second grade from Mrs. Seaborne who was one of my favorite teachers.

  I loved stories, and I loved reading. I remember my childhood books on the shelf. One of my favorites was Julie of the Wolves and I loved Roald Dahl and some of those Little House on the Prairies. So I loved reading and I loved writing stories. And I used to write family newspaper stories exposing things like what was for dinner.

  ML: (laughing) That’s funny.

  AKT: I was very drawn to those things but of course, I did have a mother who was a writer who was writing in a room in our home, so this just felt like the most normal thing in the world. It was, ‘Oh people do write as a career. You can write in a room in your home. This is perfectly normal.’

  I think that mom being a writer influenced me in that it helped me see what was possible for myself. So I think I came by it naturally, but I also had this wonderful role model for that.

  Ironically – and I write a lot about this in Traveling with Pomegranates – I think the way my mom put it in one of her chapters was right. It’s like you find this true light, which for me was writing, and then you lose that light, and then you have to go find that true light again. And in many ways, that was what happened to me.

  You know I grew up, I went to college, and I started to think where does this idea come from? But then I started to think, I can’t be a writer. This doesn’t seem practical, whereas when I was 8, 9, or 10 this was the norm.

  So I started to have these doubts and fears. And I started to think I really needed to differentiate myself from my mom. I really needed to do something different, right? I couldn’t do the same thing that my mom did. I felt like I just had to go strike my own path, and it needed to look different, and if it didn’t what did that mean for me?

  I had all of these questions. Deep down that was the true light inside of me, and so I think, in a way, I had to run wildly in the other direction and explore all of that, other options, in order for me to come back to it fully and having arrived at it own my own. So yeah, my life away from writing took a little detour.

  ML: And you capture a lot of that feeling, that sense of restlessness, that life sometimes takes you on these different paths, in The Shark Club.

  AKT: Well good. Thank you.

  ML: What was the process like then to write that memoir, Traveling with Pomegranates, with your mother? I understand this was a time when you both were working through some things, some struggles that sometimes comes with life at that age – she in her 50s and you in your 20s.

  AKT: I had taken a trip to Greece when I was in college that just kind of blew my world open in the best way. It really was life changing. And I write extensively about that trip in Traveling with Pomegranates. But after that we did a number of trips together.

  So when I decided I wanted to write about my travels, I got about 100 pages in, and it was funny because I kept finding myself talking about “mom and I did this” and this is what we talked about, in the pages.

  I was writing about these trips and she was on these trips, but it became very glaring to me that her voice really needed to be part of writing about these trips and our traveling together and what that meant, not just to us individually but to our relationship because the traveling that we did together transformed our relationship.

  And I remember saying to her, ‘What do you think about writing this with me? I don’t know how that’s going to go or what it’s going to look like, but I feel like I’m telling half the story.’ And I was!

  So when we set in writing it, because there are two voices in the book, we had to be very technical about how we were going to go about it. So we decided to do alternating chapters. We mapped out all the places we wanted to include, and who was going to take which place, and kind of based it on the experiences that we had there.

  We wanted where we lived at home to be touchstones in these chapters as well.

  So we had to make it manageable. Dividing the book into three parts helped. We also used the myth of Demeter and Persephone, the mother-daughter Greek goddesses as a structure for us. That’s where the pomegranates in the title come from.

  So that’s the technical part of it. And as for how we did it, she would write in her house, and I would write in my house and we had these dates and little deadlines that we would make for ourselves so one of us wasn’t waiting on the other one.

  But we’d get to a point, and we’d swap chapters, and we’d read, and we’d come together, and we’d talk, and we’d rewrite them.

  ML: Do you think that practice of writing and rewriting and sharing helped set the stage for the writing of The Shark Club or what impact did that have on writing your first novel?

  AKT: I think it had a huge impact. After writing Travelling with Pomegranates, I said, ‘Man that was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.’ And then after I’d finished Shark Club, I said, ‘That was the hardest thing I’d ever done.’

  But it’s true that writing Traveling with Pomegranates definitely prepared me for the writing of The Shark Club, even though one is non-fiction and one is fiction. I learned so much about writing, about editing, about re-writing, about structure and just about the kind of internal drive it takes to stay in the chair and do the work.

  ML: That’s a great phrase. ‘Stay in the chair.’

  AKT: (Laughing/ sighing) It’s true. Because that’s what it comes down to. You have to do the work. You have to say no to a lot of things including housework, and whatever it is because this is your job, and you just have to completely give yourself over to it as much as you can.

  Having said that, my son was very young at the time and I think that’s why it took so long as it did – to write the book – because I was a young mother, and I had this young baby, and I didn’t want to miss a thing. I wanted to do the field trips. And of course if your only hours are during pre-school, you only have half the morning and by the time you’ve dropped your son off and driven yourself home, you’ve got about 45 minutes to work before you have to get back.

  So I tried to give everything I had to the book and everything I had to my son and my family and of course, you know, nothing ever works out perfectly. We just have to do the best we can.

  ML: And so speaking of The Shark Club, you have several themes that you weave nicely together throughout the book. There is the idea of love and sort of the “one that got away” or couples who find themselves possibly rekindling love, second chances and all that. I personally really liked that those themes weren’t handled in such a sentimental fashion but more matter of factly.

  Without giving away too much, when you were writing about your main characters, especially Maeve, did you know that’s how things would wind up for them, or did that unfold naturally?

  AKT: The only thing I knew about how the book was going to end, was I wanted Maeve to be happy in the end, because she deserves that. I thought you know, she might end up with a romantic partner at the end of this book. She might not. But either way, I wanted her to be Ok.

  And so I could remember thinking Maeve was going to have a fulfilled life. And that was important to me because, this was Maeve’s story and I don’t know how else to say this, but I wanted her to have happiness in her life, but that didn’t mean there would be a man in her life.

  That kind of fulfillment from a partnership with someone is an incredibly enriching part of life. I wanted Maeve to be Ok with or without it. And without giving away who she does end up with in the book, I’m glad she has this part of her life, but she would have been Ok too.

  I constantly kept seeing her as this modern, fully formed woman, comfortable in her bones. And she really wanted everything. I mean, gosh, don’t we all?

  I think this is the reason there are so many love stories in The Shark Club. Ultimately, I think of The Shark Club as a love story. It’s a love story between Maeve and little six-year-old Hazel whom she encounters, and it’s a love story between her grandmother who raised her, and it’s a love story between Maeve and her sharks and Maeve and these two men in her life. So it’s definitely a love story in many, many ways.

  So no I didn’t know how it was going to end and that’s a very long answer. (laughing) But she was going to be happy. That’s all I knew.

  ML: You also employ fate or fateful encounters throughout the book. First, you have the episode involving how Maeve finds what appears to be her true love on the same day as her life’s calling. Then later you have another fateful encounter with Maeve running into Hazel, the daughter of her long ago true love Daniel. Are you interested in coincidences and fateful encounters in fiction and in real life as well?

  AKT: I don’t know if that’s true, but certainly when it comes to storytelling, it interests me. Because life is always more interesting in a book.

  We have to have these storytelling elements to make the story rich and interesting. Sometimes I might see something in a movie, and my husband might say, ‘Well that couldn’t happen in real life.’ And I will say, ‘Well, exactly.’ Because that’s what storytelling is about. Of course, you always want to make it plausible.

  I’m intrigued by synchronicities in life very much and that sort of thing. From a writer’s perspective, I love the idea of this intersection of Maeve being bitten by the thing that she would grow to love, and also have this first experience with love – the intersection of that and the power that had in her life and the way it transformed her. It was like this explosion went off. But later when Maeve encounters Hazel on the beach, I just thought what would really unravel her right now?

  One of the best pieces of writing advice my mom ever gave me, and I’ve heard her talk about this when she’s been out talking to readers, is she likes to take a bad thing and make it worse. And so there’s something about that, when it comes to this relationship with Maeve and Hazel and again without giving too much away, I thought, ‘How can you make that worse? Oh, you make her Daniel’s daughter.’

  So it was really fun to play around with that.

  ML: Speaking of Hazel, I enjoyed seeing how fully developed her character was. In many stories, it seems like children are not given their own sense of self especially in plots that involve romance or romantic tension. They’re almost used as a device or a prop and yet with Hazel, I could really see this child and hear her laughing. Did you at some point realize there’s a lot going on here with this kid?

  AKT: In a way Hazel was a surprise to me. As I was really thinking through and planning the novel and pulling things together, Hazel became much more a part of it than I anticipated.

  I knew there was going to be a Hazel at some point, and I knew who I wanted her to be and that this would create a lot of sadness and tension. But I did not expect it in the beginning. Once she got on the page, I had something different going. (laughing) But I didn’t expect for Maeve and Hazel to have this really tender, special relationship. That was a surprise to me. It was a surprise that the direction it took just kind of naturally unfolded that way because Hazel seemed to insist on it.

  ML: You certainly get that sense. Maeve’s anguish in what is happening with her and Daniel seems just as significant as the impact it might be having on Hazel. This is a much more sophisticated theme, I feel like than what you see in, books that I guess are “Beach Reads.”

  AKT: Yeah, I think that as you see Maeve’s concern and love for this child grow, and watching Maeve’s own process, where she understands I can’t stay with a person just because I want to be this child’s mother. And she realizes, she also doesn’t want to hurt this child. I think it touched on some really complicated things. It went to the deepest things in Maeve. She wanted a family. She wanted to be a mother. She wanted love in her life. And it’s like she’s got it, but does she?

  But I have to tell you that, maybe one reason that Hazel was so talkative on the page, was that she talked in my head. She is my son at that age really. I gave Hazel a lot of Ben’s characteristics when he was that age.

  ML: I love that.

  AKT: His love of sea creatures and that Nigel Marven Swimming with Monsters DVD that she loves – I’ve seen this a million times.

  But Hazel has this no holds barred curiosity about the world, and animals, and the ocean and creatures and she is fully living in that wonderful way that children do. I watched my son do this and it was infectious.

  It not only made me just love him more and more, it made me love life. I think being his mother, kind of witnessing another human just look at the world with very wide hopeful eyes, just rekindled something inside of myself. My relationship to nature and the world and then of course it’s like, oh man and I get to be his mom too. Writing Hazel felt very natural, because I was just channeling the things my son said or the things we did together. So he was a huge inspiration to me.

  ML: The issue of how sharks have been demonized by society and our perception of them really comes through in your book and in a lot of ways, the sharks, the beauty in their species, how they swim and how the shark Sylvia seems to check Maeve out with curiosity in the opening chapter is magical. Tell me about how your knowledge and interest for that evolved? Did that come from watching the Swimming with Monsters DVD a million times?

  AKT: (laughing) In a way, yes. I was watching a lot of nature documentaries with my son, and he really loved sea creatures and prehistoric sea creatures and stuff. So a couple of things happened as I was thinking about what the book was going to be about and who is Maeve and who is this character because this character just appeared in my head and I didn’t know anything about her.

  So one of the first things that happened was, I had taken my son to kindergarten and I had heard Dr. Sylvia Earle, the oceanographer, on the radio. It was an interview and she was just talking about the oceans in a way I had never heard anyone talk about the oceans. And she talked about it in this incredibly intimate and poetic way that she intermingled with the science of it too. I was just kind of riveted by that.

  She described this experience of watching an octopus from her submersible and how this submersible and the octopus on the other side of the window was falling, falling, going deeper and deeper into the ocean. And they just watched each other. And there was something so incredibly beautiful about that to me.

  I thought, ‘Oh wow, I think I know who Maeve is. I think she is a woman who belongs in the water.’ And then, the plight of sharks and especially shark finning, really got on my radar when I stumbled upon a documentary about shark finning. I was so horrified by it. I think Marco, the character of Marco says it in the book, it takes a special kind of mean to cut the fin off a live shark and throw it back into the water.

  I was so deeply sad and outraged. So I think some things started coming together for me about the same time that I thought Maeve belonged in the water and this was who she was and she loved sharks and then I ‘took something bad and made it worse.’ I thought, something bad happens to the sharks she loves. Oh finning. So it just kind of evolved from those two pivotal things as I was forming ideas about the book.

  ML: Speaking of your interest in nature, history and the outdoors, I think you’ll be right at home here in Beaufort.

  AKT: I will!

  ML: Have you been here before and do you have a Conroy story?

  AKT: I have been to Beaufort but it has been years. It’s been too long, so I’m excited about getting back.

  I don’t have a direct Pat Conroy story, but peripherally, I can tell you that one of my memories about him is when my mom published The Secret Life of Bees, he wrote the sweetest letter that she still has. And it meant so much to her.

  I remember that and just how really thoughtful that was, so you know this is special for me to get to come and participate in this event. It really is. And I can’t wait to see Beaufort again.

  ML: Ann, thank you again for joining us for Porch Talk. We looking forward to having you here.

  About Mindy Lucas

  As a reporter for the State, Island Packet, and Beaufort Gazette newspapers, Mindy Lucas covered book news and literary events such as the South Carolina Book Festival and Columbia’s One Book, One Community city-wide “big read.” She also interviewed writers including Larry McMurtry, Ron Rash, Mary Alice Monroe, Ellen Malphrus, James E. McTeer II, and of course, Pat Conroy. Prior to her newspaper career, Mindy was a freelance journalist for publications around the southeast and an advertising copywriter. She is now a content strategist for a Columbia-based marketing communications firm and lives with her husband David and their cat Earl in Beaufort, South Carolina, just a bicycle ride away from the Pat Conroy Literary Center.

Print Marked Items
Well read for the summer
Neal Wyatt
Library Journal.
142.11 (June 15, 2017): p110.
COPYRIGHT 2017 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No
redistribution permitted.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/
Full Text: 
As June heats up, new summer reading opportunities unfold. Those in search of a great story and wideranging
delights might consider an array of popular genres. The varied experience illuminates their multiple
pleasures and proves just how much overlap there can be, regardless of their labels.
THE SHARK CLUB by Ann Kidd Taylor (Viking. Jun. 2017. ISBN 9780735221475. $26; ebk. ISBN
9780735221499) is a winning blend of family dynamics and personal affirmation. A shark expert and
researcher, Maeve Donnelly has spent over half of her life deeply invested in the fish. When she was 12, a
Black Tip bit her leg and then let go. She is so involved that she postponed her wedding to childhood
sweetheart Daniel in order to undertake a research project, a decision that now sees Maeve single and
wondering what might have been. Brilliantly set in a Florida beach town, neatly described, and quickly
paced, this latest from Taylor (coauthor of the memoir Traveling with Pomegranates) provides a
companionable read.
The premise of MATCHUP (S. & S. Jun. 2017. ISBN 9781501141591. $27; ebk. ISBN 9781501141614),
edited by Lee Child, is perfectly made for a day at the beach. Wellknown female and male thriller authors
pair up on short stories featuring their beloved characters. Sandra Brown and C.J. Box make a team, Diana
Gabaldon and Steve Berry join forces, and Lisa Scottoline and Nelson DeMille band together. The result is a
quick hit of pure fan fun. Who wouldn't want Jack Reacher to meet Temperance Brennan or see what Jamie
Fraser makes of Cotton Malone? In that piece, "Past Prologue," not only does Jamie meet Cotton (and
perhaps sends a message to Claire), but Cotton meets Geillis Duncan at a central point in the Outlander arc.
Fantasy enthusiasts (and others) will devour DOWN AMONG THE STICKS AND BONES (Forge: Tor.
Jun. 2017. ISBN 9780765392039. $17.99; ebk. ISBN 9780765392046), the second in Seanan McGuire's
"Wayward Children" series but a stand-alone nonetheless. Sisters Jack and Jill, raised to be symbols of their
vapid parents' egos, go down the hill--actually a set of mysterious stairs--only to discover they are stranded
on a magical moor. Each adopted separately, they survive, one raised by a ruthless vampire, the other by a
"mad" scientist. However distant from each other they may be, their fates remain linked. Writing in a style
redolent of dark fairy tales, McGuire conjures luminously lyrical language recalling the sensibility of Neil
Gaiman and Christina Rossetti.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
HOUSE OF NAMES (Scribner. May 2017. ISBN 9781501140211. $26; ebk. ISBN 9781501140235) by
Colm Toibin presents readers of literary fiction with a new-version of the saga of Clytemnestra and
Agamemnon and their doomed children Iphigeneia, Electra, and Orestes. It is a tale that echoes through
time, a seething account of murder, revenge, and hate that has been told in countless renditions. Toibin
delivers his interpretation in strong, crisp, contemporary prose while maintaining the ancient Mycenae
setting. There he develops a narrative driven by sinister and fomenting motivations. Agamemnon murders
Iphigeneia in order to find favor with the gods and power his way to victory in Troy. Clytemnestra plots her
retribution throughout the Trojan War, planning her husband's death on the very eve he returns triumphant.
More casualties follow in a twisted legacy Toibin maps with verve.
Set during the Civil War, Alyssa Cole's opener to her "Loyal League" series introduces a brave and stalwart
heroine amid a great deal of tension and danger. Elle Burns is a former slave who willingly goes undercover
in a Confederate household to foil the South's war efforts. There she meets Malcolm McCall, a covert
Pinkerton agent bent on the same mission. The two join forces, willing to risk all to save the Union while
falling in love along the way. Full of winning dialog and vivid characterizations, AN EXTRAORDINARY
UNION (Kensington. Apr. 2017. ISBN 9781496707444. pap. $15; ebk. ISBN 9781496707451) marks the
start of a romance series well worth following. The second novel, A Hope Divided, comes out in November.
THE LAST NEANDERTHAL (Little, Brown. Apr. 2017. ISBN 9780316314480. $26; ebk. ISBN
9780316314459), Claire Cameron's arresting work of historical fiction, details the connection between a
Neanderthal named Girl and modern-day archaeologist Dr. Rose Gale. Girl is part of a small and, as it turns
out, precarious family, made up of her mother, two brothers, and a foundling they have adopted named Runt.
Rose, newly pregnant and on a difficult academic track, is seeking funding for a career-making discovery: a
cave where a Neanderthal and a Homo sapien lie buried together, embracing. As their paths intertwine, Rose
teases out the secrets of the bones, and Girl, pregnant as well, faces a suddenly disorienting and harsh future.
Cameron convincingly creates the alien world of the Neanderthal and brings Rose and Girl together in an
engrossing story.
By Neal Wyatt
Neal Wyatt compiles LJ'.s- online feature Wyatt's World and is the author of The Readers' Advisory Guide
to Nonfiction (ALA Editions, 2007). She is a collection development and readers' advisory librarian from
Virginia. Those interested in contributing to The Reader's Shelf should contact her directly at
Readers_Shelf@comcast.net
Source Citation   (MLA 8th
Edition)
Wyatt, Neal. "Well read for the summer." Library Journal, 15 June 2017, p. 110. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A495668329/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=fd7bdb3f.
Accessed 29 Jan. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A495668329
Taylor, Ann Kidd: THE SHARK CLUB
Kirkus Reviews.
(Apr. 1, 2017):
COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text: 
Taylor, Ann Kidd THE SHARK CLUB Viking (Adult Fiction) $26.00 6, 6 ISBN: 978-0-7352-2147-5
An adventurous researcher returns to her childhood home and must navigate relationships with her brother,
her ex-fiance, and a potential new lover.Maeve Donnelly has been interested in sharks ever since she was
bitten by one as a 12-year-old and survived. Now an adult, Maeve is a marine biologist and more
comfortable with sharks than she is with people. At the end of a research trip, Maeve is drawn to Nicholas, a
fellow researcher, and invites him to meet her in Mozambique for her next expedition. Yet when she returns
to her childhood home at her aunt's hotel in Florida, where she and her brother moved after their parents
died in a private plane accident, she finds unresolved family and romantic relationships waiting for her.
Maeve learns that her less successful twin brother, Robin, has had a novel accepted for publication, and it's
loosely based on a broken engagement in Maeve's past. Further, Maeve's ex-fiance, Daniel, is now the
hotel's chef. Before Maeve can decide whether to move forward with Nicholas, she must address her
lingering connection to Daniel, which is no easy task given that the two haven't spoken since Daniel
confessed an affair to her. To complicate matters, Daniel's precocious 6-year-old daughter, Hazel (who was
born of his affair), now lives with him after the untimely death of her mother. Hazel is taken with sea
creatures and invites Maeve to be a member of The Shark Club with her. Maeve's professional life is also
challenged as an illegal finning operation has moved into the area and is targeting local sharks. Taylor's
debut novel paints a fascinating portrait of sharks and a woman who loves them, with the sweet, burgeoning
relationship between Maeve and Hazel as its anchor. The romantic relationships never feel quite fully
realized, however, as Nicholas' presence is too fleeting to endear the reader to him, which makes Maeve's
dilemma of whether to be with him or Daniel seem more symbolic than anything. Considering that the novel
is told in the first person, at times Maeve's thoughts and motivations are also surprisingly hidden both from
herself and the reader. There is an interesting cast of secondary characters, such as Maeve's aunt and brother,
and the scenes depicting Maeve's intellectual and emotional ties to sharks are captivating, especially as the
illegal finning operation becomes an urgent local issue that forces her into activism. An engaging novel
about the loves that define our lives.
Source Citation   (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Taylor, Ann Kidd: THE SHARK CLUB." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Apr. 2017. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A487668723/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=9e538467.
Accessed 29 Jan. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A487668723
The Shark Club
Publishers Weekly.
264.17 (Apr. 24, 2017): p65.
COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text: 
The Shark Club
Ann Kidd Taylor. Viking, $26 (288p) ISBN 978-0-7352-2147-5
How is it possible that a shark-whispering marine scientist who was "literally bitten by the object of her
obsession" isn't the most interesting person in her own story? Daniel Wakefield gave Maeve Donnelly her
first kiss on the very day he saved her from that shark attack. He also broke her heart a decade later when,
before they wed, he impregnated a now-deceased woman who gave birth to Hazel, the six-year-old budding
paleontologist and the book's best-written character. As Maeve, in between assignments, hits 30, she returns
to her grandmother's hotel in Florida, convinced she has finally gotten over Daniel and fallen in love with a
fellow marine biologist who is separated from his wife. But then Hazel creates the Shark Club for her and
invites Daniel--now the hotel's chef--to join. Will Maeve learn how to be "a little less Cathy and Heathcliff,"
or realize Hazel is the tie that binds? A subplot involving the book that Maeve's twin brother, Robin, has
written about her doomed love story cannot compete with that level of romantic indecisiveness. With her
wishy-washy lead, Taylor's novel just narrowly misses the mark. (June)
Source Citation   (MLA 8th
Edition)
"The Shark Club." Publishers Weekly, 24 Apr. 2017, p. 65. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A491250790/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=933cd875.
Accessed 29 Jan. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A491250790
The Shark Club
Melissa Norstedt
Booklist.
113.16 (Apr. 15, 2017): p21.
COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Full Text: 
The Shark Club. By Ann Kidd Taylor. June 2017.288p. Viking, $26 (9780735221475).
Maeve Donnelly's life is shaped by the two defining moments of her childhood. At age 6, she loses both
parents in a tragic plane crash. At age 12, within the same instant, she has her first kiss and is attacked by a
shark. Throughout, Maeve finds comfort in the one constant in her life: the sea. Set in a quirky beach town
on the Gulf of Mexico, Taylor's first novel (following the memoir Traveling with Pomegranates, 2009,
cowritten with her mother, Sue Monk Kidd) is the story of a strong female character who follows her own
passions instead of chasing a traditional happily-ever-after. Someone so devoted to swimming with sharks
could be hard for readers to identify with, but Taylor captures Maeve effortlessly. For all her characters, she
creates relatable and clear voices, which come through in the dialogue and balance seamlessly against the
picturesque setting. With humor and surprises, The Shark Club moves along briskly as Maeve struggles to
forgive, let go of past love, and navigate happiness on her own terms.--Melissa Norstedt
Source Citation   (MLA 8th
Edition)
Norstedt, Melissa. "The Shark Club." Booklist, 15 Apr. 2017, p. 21. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A492536114/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=1c284fbf.
Accessed 29 Jan. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A492536114

Wyatt, Neal. "Well read for the summer." Library Journal, 15 June 2017, p. 110. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A495668329/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF. Accessed 29 Jan. 2018. "Taylor, Ann Kidd: THE SHARK CLUB." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Apr. 2017. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A487668723/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF. Accessed 29 Jan. 2018. "The Shark Club." Publishers Weekly, 24 Apr. 2017, p. 65. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A491250790/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF. Accessed 29 Jan. 2018. Norstedt, Melissa. "The Shark Club." Booklist, 15 Apr. 2017, p. 21. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A492536114/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF. Accessed 29 Jan. 2018.

• Charleston City Paper
  https://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/charleston/ann-kidd-taylors-the-shark-club-is-all-about-relationships-human-and-otherwise/Content?oid=9294654
  Word count: 947

  Ann Kidd Taylor's The Shark Club is all about relationships — human and otherwise
  Love Bites
  By Connelly Hardaway
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  Maeve Donnelly loves sharks. It's more than love, really, it's a deep appreciation for the creatures, a respect for both their power and their vulnerability. Maeve (pronounced May-ve, by the way) follows sharks around the world, tagging them, reconnecting with them, and allowing herself to name them, even though she knows it will lead to a connection she shouldn't have. How does Maeve explain this love? Well, because she was bitten by a shark, of course.

  "I am most surprised that sharks figured in the book," says Ann Kidd Taylor, author of The Shark Club, and creator of Maeve Donnelly. "I was really, really scared of sharks when I was a kid. I think that's the typical knee jerk response, just to be really scared."

  Taylor, the daughter of The Secret Life of Bees' author Sue Monk Kidd, is also the co-author of NYT best-seller, Traveling with Pomegranates, a memoir she wrote with her mom. And Taylor knew that after working on nonfiction she wanted to dive (water pun totally intended) into a novel.

  "I think my imagination gave me something right when I needed it," says Taylor. "I learned through these conversations with my imagination that Maeve was drawn to the ocean, that this is where she belonged and once I knew that, the exploration, I could do my detective work."

  Maeve Donnelly was bitten by a shark when she was 12 years old and in retaliation the people in her small Florida town headed to the sea in swarms, killing as many sharks as they could find. It upset young Maeve and she knew that one day she would do something to correct the error of their ways.

  Ann Kidd Taylor co-wrote the NYT best-seller Traveling with Pomegranates: A mother-daughter story with her mom, Sue Monk Kidd - VANESSA ROGERS
  Vanessa Rogers
  Ann Kidd Taylor co-wrote the NYT best-seller Traveling with Pomegranates: A mother-daughter story with her mom, Sue Monk Kidd
  Fun fact: according to National Geographic you have a one in 3,700,000 chance of being killed by a shark in your lifetime. Not so fun fact: because of the intense fear most people feel towards sharks, the creatures are demonized more often than not, and according to a 2013 Nat Geo statistic, about 100 million sharks are killed, directly and indirectly, by humans every year around the world. Not really a fair fight, eh?

  "My son was a huge piece of this. He was five at the time," says Taylor of writing Shark Club. "He was very curious about the world, he had this infectious curiosity and love for sea creatures. He had this way of thinking, 'Of course we love sharks, why would we not love sharks?'"

  Taylor watched a number of documentaries, including one on shark finning, which gave her the info, and insight she needed to home in on the character who truly cared for sharks. "I was led by what was coming from the inside instead of trying to impose something onto this character and the plot."

  Maeve Donnelly is a kickass protagonist, caught between two lovers, a shark finning operation in her home town, and a complicated relationship with her twin brother, Robin. Like Charleston author Mary Alice Monroe, Taylor's first novel falls directly in the realm of environmental activism, but, also like Monroe, her deft use of prose steers the plot from driving directly into some heavy-handed moral ending.

  And despite the love triangle, Taylor insists that this book isn't all about romance, either. "I didn't know halfway through who she was going to end up with. But what I always knew was that no matter who she ended up with, she was gonna be OK," she says. "I wanted her to have the ending she deserved."

  Taylor has found the formula for a well-balanced beach read. Shark Club has the typical love story, but with a strong female lead; the fight between inner and outer demons, featuring realistic, flawed characters; and the quirky qualities of a small town and dreamy beach setting.

  The setting, the fictional Palermo Island, was inspired by Taylor's relocation from Mt. Pleasant to Florida's Marco Island. "I think being here on the Gulf of Mexico, this tropical island, it was a whole new landscape and atmosphere and it completely woke up my senses," says Taylor. "Me finding a home and Maeve finding a home just dovetailed."

  You can buy The Shark Club ($26) online at amazon.com or pick one up at the Sophia Institute or West Ashley's Barnes & Noble.

• Tampa Bay Times
  http://www.tampabay.com/features/books/review-ann-kidd-taylors-shark-club-is-a-real-beach-read/2325636
  Word count: 688

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  BOOKS 0 000Review: Ann Kidd Taylor's 'Shark Club' is a real beach read
  Author Ann Kidd Taylor.

  Colette Bancroft
  Times book editor
  MORE ARTICLES
  Published: May 31, 2017

  Sometimes love comes upon you gently, in a sidelong look, a flush to the cheek, the brush of a hand.

  And sometimes it just bites you on the leg and leaves a scar.

  The latter is the case in Ann Kidd Taylor's charming debut novel, The Shark Club. Its narrator, Maeve Donnelly, was 12 years old when she had her first kiss, standing with her first love, Daniel, in the waves of the Gulf of Mexico. Seconds later, a blacktip shark knocked Daniel off his feet and then took an experimental bite out of Maeve's calf.

  The shark let her go literally (humans are not preferred prey), but not metaphorically. Seized by a fascination with sharks, by age 30 Maeve is a globetrotting marine biologist specializing in studying those mysterious, beautiful and much-feared creatures.

  As The Shark Club opens, Maeve has come home to Florida for a visit with her grandmother, who raised her and twin brother Robin after their parents died in a plane crash. On the beach at the hotel her grandmother owns — the same beach that was the site of the first kiss-first shark bite scenario — Maeve meets an irresistible little girl named Hazel, who is just as interested in sharks as Maeve is.

  Then Hazel's father shows up. It's Daniel. Daniel of the first kiss, Daniel who broke Maeve's heart by having an affair that resulted in Hazel's birth, and whom she hasn't seen since.

  He's now head chef at the hotel's restaurant and full-time parent to Hazel, after the death of her mother. And he makes it clear he'd like to rekindle his relationship with Maeve.

  He's sexy, he cooks, he has a cute kid, he's sorry he hurt her — so what's the holdup? One problem in their relationship before was that he was willing to make career sacrifices for domestic life, and she wasn't (refreshing twist, that).

  Their attitudes haven't changed — Maeve has a study of whale sharks in Mozambique coming up, and she plans to go. And, oh, on her last research trip in Bimini, she worked with a dashing British scientist named Nicholas, and he's just up the road at a marine center in Sarasota, and maybe he'll go to Mozambique, too.

  Further complicating Maeve's life are Robin's about-to-be-published novel, which is based on her past and not in a way she likes, and an illegal shark-finning operation in local waters that is leaving mutilated sharks to die, spurring her to her own risky investigation.

  Taylor, who co-wrote the bestselling Traveling With Pomegranates: A Mother-Daughter Story with her mom, Sue Monk Kidd, lives in Southwest Florida. She brings a wealth of sharply observed detail to this novel, from the right way to make key lime pie to the joys of dealing with tourists. She also carefully researched sharks and gives props to real-life scientists Sylvia Earle and Eugenie Clark.

  For me, one of the most seductive features of The Shark Club is the setting, the Hotel of the Muses. Owned by Maeve's grandmother, Perri, and situated on the Gulf in the fictional town of Palermo (which sounds like the real town of Naples), the hotel "is overrun with books." It has a library trolley and hosts readings and book clubs.

  "Every one of the eighty-two rooms," Taylor writes, "was dedicated to an author whose work Perri admired — Charlotte Bronte, Jane Austen, Gwendolyn Brooks, Octavio Paz. ..." She even quotes a fictional rave review of the hotel from the Tampa Bay Times. If that hotel were real, I'd write that review.

  Contact Colette Bancroft at cbancroft@tampabay.com or (727) 893-8435. Follow @colettemb.

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