This week features two books about returning to the past. Our main read is Douglas Stuart's latest about a young gay man returning to his religious home in Scotland, John of John. Our subread is the Groundhog's Day story of a woman trapped in a repeating November 18th, On the Calculation of Volume (Book 1).

A look at a historical culture shift through the lens of two marriages, Miller's novel impressed most of us with its solid writing and subtle messages, although some of us were turned off by the blunt choices the author made to communicate the theme.

The novel worked as a commentary on the Arab Spring, but how much we each liked it depended on what we felt about the rest of the uneven worldbuilding.