Stories
are the Creative conversion
of life itself
into a powerful, clearer,
more meaningful experience.
They are the currency of human contact.
(Robert McKee)
Meets on the third Thursday of every month at 10:00 a.m.
at the library at First Baptist Church of Tucker
January 16th
Book: The Language of Flowers
Author: Vanessa Diffenbaugh
February 20th
Book: Loving Frank
Author: Nancy Haran
March 20th
Book: The End of Your Life Book Club
Author: Will Schwalbe
April 17th
Book: Hotel on the Corner of Bitter & Sweet
Author: Jamie Ford
May 15th
Book: The Girls of Atomic City
Author: Denise Kiernan
June 19th
Book: Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand
Author: Helenn Simonson
July 17th
Book: The Boys in the Boat
Author: Daniel James Brown
August 21st
Book: The Things They Carried
Author: Tim O’Brien
September 18th
Book: The Round House
Author: Louise Erdrich
October 16th
Book: We Are Water
Author: Wally Lamb
November 20th
Book: Orphan Train
Author: Christina Baker Kline
December 18th -EndEnd-ofof-Year Brunch
Book: The Invention of Wings
Author: Sue Monk Kidd
2
JANUARY 16th
The Language of Flowers
A mesmerizing, moving, and
elegantly written debut novel, The
Language of Flowers beautifully
weaves past and present, creating
a vivid portrait of an unforgettable
woman whose gift for flowers helps
her change the lives of others even as she
struggles to overcome her own troubled past.
to be part of a family? What defines family?
4. Why do you think Elizabeth waits so long before
trying to patch things up with her long-lost sister
Catherine? What is the impetus for her to do so?
5. The first week after her daughter’s birth goes
surprisingly well for Victoria. What is it that makes
Victoria feel unable to care for her child after the
week ends? And what is it that allows her to
ultimately rejoin her family?
The Victorian language of flowers was used to
convey romantic expressions: honeysuckle for
devotion, asters for patience, and red roses for
love. But for Victoria Jones, it’s been more useful in
communicating grief, mistrust, and solitude. After a
childhood spent in the foster-care system, she is
unable to get close to anybody, and her only
connection to the world is through flowers and their
meanings.
6. One of the major themes in The Language of
Flowers is forgiveness and second chances --- do
you think Victoria deserves one after the things she
did (both as a child and as an adult)? What about
Catherine? And Elizabeth?
7. What did you think of the structure of the book --the alternating chapters of past and present? In
what ways did the two storylines parallel each
other, and how did they diverge?
Now eighteen and emancipated from the system,
Victoria has nowhere to go and sleeps in a public
park, where she plants a small garden of her own.
Soon a local florist discovers her talents, and
Victoria realizes she has a gift for helping others
through the flowers she chooses for them. But a
mysterious vendor at the flower market has her
questioning what’s been missing in her life, and
when she’s forced to confront a painful secret from
her past, she must decide whether it’s worth risking
everything for a second chance at happiness.
8. The novel touches on many different themes
(love, family, forgiveness, second chances). Which
do you think is the most important? And what did
you think was ultimately the lesson?
9. At the end of the novel, Victoria learns that moss
grows without roots. What does this mean, and why
is it such a revelation for her?
10. Based on your reading of the novel, what are
your impressions of the foster care system in
America? What could be improved?
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1.What potential do Elizabeth, Renata, and Grant
see in Victoria that she has a hard time seeing in
herself?
11. Knowing what you now know about the
language of the flowers, to whom would you send a
bouquet and what would you want it to say?
2. While Victoria has been hungry and
malnourished often in her life, food ends up
meaning more than just nourishment to her. Why?
3. Victoria and Elizabeth both struggle with the idea
of being part of a family. What does it mean to you
3
February 20th
Loving Frank
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Do you think that Mamah is right to leave her
husband and children in order to pursue her
personal growth and the relationship with Frank
Lloyd Wright? Is she being selfish to put her own
happiness and fulfillment first?
“I have been standing on the
side of life, watching it float
by. I want to swim in the river.
I want to feel the current.”
So writes Mamah Borthwick
Cheney in her diary as she
struggles to justify her
clandestine love affair with Frank Lloyd Wright. Four
years earlier, in 1903, Mamah and her husband,
Edwin, had commissioned the renowned architect
to design a new home for them. During the
construction of the house, a powerful attraction
developed between Mamah and Frank, and in time
the lovers, each married with children, embarked on
a course that would shock Chicago society and
forever change their lives.
2. Why do you think the author, Nancy Horan, gave
her novel the title Loving Frank? Does this title work
against the feminist message of the novel? Is there
a feminist message?
3. Do you think that a woman today who made the
choices that Mamah makes would receive a more
sympathetic or understanding hearing from the
media and the general public?
4. If Mamah were alive today, would she be
satisfied with the progress women have achieved or
would she believe there was still a long way to go?
In this ambitious debut novel, fact and fiction blend
together brilliantly. While scholars have largely
relegated Mamah to a footnote in the life of
America’s greatest architect, author Nancy Horan
gives full weight to their dramatic love story and
illuminates Cheney’s profound influence on Wright.
5. In Sonnet 116, Shakespeare writes, "Let me not
to the marriage of true minds/Admit impediments.
Love is not love/That alters where it alteration finds.
.." How does the relationship of Mamah and Frank
bear out the sentiments of Shakespeare’s sonnet?
What other famous love matches fill the bill?
Drawing on years of research, Horan weaves littleknown facts into a compelling narrative, vividly
portraying the conflicts and struggles of a woman
forced to choose between the roles of mother, wife,
lover, and intellectual. Horan’s Mamah is a woman
seeking to find her own place, her own creative
calling in the world. Mamah’s is an unforgettable
journey marked by choices that reshape her notions
of love and responsibility, leading inexorably
ultimately lead to this novel’s stunning conclusion.
6. Is Mamah’s story relevant to the women of
today?
7. Is Frank Lloyd Wright an admirable figure in this
novel? Would it change your opinion of him to know
that he married twice more in his life?
8. What about Edwin Cheney, Mamah’s husband?
Did he behave as you might have expected after
learning of the affair between his wife and Wright?
Elegantly written and remarkably rich in
detail, Loving Frank is a fitting tribute to a
courageous woman, a national icon, and their
timeless love story.
9. Edwin’s philosophy of life and love might be
summed up in the following words from the novel:
"Tell her happiness is just practice. If she acted
happy, she would be happy." Do you agree or
4
disagree with this philosophy?
they received from the press? Have things changed
very much in that regard today?
10. "Carved over Wright's fireplace in his Oak Park
home are the words "Life is Truth." What do you
19. What part did racism play in Julian Carlton’s
think these words mean, and do Frank and Mamah crime? Were his actions the product of pure
live up to them?
insanity, or was he goaded into violence?
11. Why do you think Horan chose to give her novel
the epigraph from Goethe, "One lives but once in
the world."?
12. When Mamah confesses her affair to her friend
Mattie, Mattie demands, "What about duty? What
about honor?" Discuss some of the different
meanings that characters in the novel attach to
these two words.
13. In analyzing the failure of the women’s
movement to make more progress, Mamah says,
"Yet women are part of the problem. We plan dinner
parties and make flowers out of crepe paper. Too
many of us make small lives for ourselves." Was
this a valid criticism at the time, and is it one today?
14. Why does seeing a performance of the
opera “Mefistofele” affect Mamah so strongly?
15. Why is Mamah's friendship with Else Lasker
Schuler important in the book?
16. Ellen Key, the Swedish feminist whose work so
profoundly influences Mamah, states at one point,
"The very legitimate right of a free love can never
be acceptable if it is enjoyed at the expense of
maternal love." Do you agree?
17. Another of Ellen Key’s beliefs was that
motherhood should be recompensed by the state.
Do you think an idea like this could ever catch on in
America? Why or why not?
18. Is there anything that Frank and Mamah could
have done differently after their return to America
that would have ameliorated the harsh welcome
5
March 20th
The End of Your Life Book
Club
Discussion Questions
1. Does this book have a central theme? What is it?
“What are you reading?”
2. Why does Mary Anne always read a book’s
ending first? How does this reflect her character?
That’s the question Will
Schwalbe asks his mother,
Mary Anne, as they sit in
the waiting room of the
Memorial Sloan-Kettering
Cancer Center. In 2007, Mary Anne returned from a
humanitarian trip to Pakistan and Afghanistan
suffering from what her doctors believed was a rare
type of hepatitis. Months later she was diagnosed
with a form of advanced pancreatic cancer, which is
almost always fatal, often in six months or less.
3. Early in the book, Will writes, “I wanted to learn
more about my mother’s life and the choices she’d
made, so I often steered the conversation there.
She had an agenda of her own, as she almost
always did. It took me some time, and some help,
to figure it out.” (page 6) What was Mary Anne’s
agenda?
4. Mary Anne underlined a passage in Seventy
Verses on Emptiness, which resonated with Will:
This is the inspiring true story of a son and his
“Permanent is not; impermanent is not; a self is not;
mother, who start a “book club” that brings them
not a self [is not]; clean is not; not clean is not;
together as her life comes to a close. Over the next happy is not; suffering is not.” Why did this strike
two years, Will and Mary Anne carry on
both of them as significant? What do you think it
conversations that are both wide-ranging and
means?
deeply personal, prompted by an eclectic array of
books and a shared passion for reading. Their list 5. Throughout the book, Will talks about books as
jumps from classic to popular, from poetry to
symbols and sources of hope. How has reading
mysteries, from fantastic to spiritual. The issues
books served a similar function for you?
they discuss include questions of faith and courage
as well as everyday topics such as expressing
6. While reading A Thousand Splendid Suns, Will
gratitude and learning to listen. Throughout, they
and Mary Anne discuss three kinds of fateful
are constantly reminded of the power of books to
choices: “the ones characters make knowing that
comfort us, astonish us, teach us, and tell us what they can never be undone; the ones they make
we need to do with our lives and in the world.
thinking they can but learn they can’t; and the ones
Reading isn’t the opposite of doing; it’s the opposite they make thinking they can’t and only later come
of dying.
to understand, when it’s too late, when ‘nothing can
be undone,’ that they could have.” (page 41) What
Will and Mary Anne share their hopes and concerns kind of choices did Mary Anne make during her
with each other—and rediscover their lives—
cancer treatment? Did she or Will make any of the
through their favorite books. When they read, they third type?
aren’t a sick person and a well person, but a mother
and a son taking a journey together. The result is a 7. Mary Anne especially liked a passage
profoundly moving tale of loss that is also a joyful, from Gilead by Marilynne Robinson: “When you
and often humorous, celebration of life: Will’s love encounter another person, when you have dealings
letter to his mother, and theirs to the printed page. with anyone at all, it is as if a question is being put
6
for His kingdom, don’t pray for it. But if you do, you
must do more than pray for it; you must work for
it.” (page 321) How did Mary Anne work for it
throughout her life? Do you think Will found solace
in this passage?
to you. So you must think, What is the Lord asking
of me in this moment, in this situation?” (page 96)
Why do you think this moved her so much? What
did it mean to Will?
8. How does religious belief help Mary Anne? How
do you think it might have helped Will?
14. Several times in the book, Will talks about
eBooks versus their physical counterparts. Why
9. Mary Anne doesn’t believe her travels to war-torn does he prefer one to the other? Does Mary Anne
countries were brave: “I wanted to go to all those
agree? If you read this book on an eReader, how
places, so how could that be brave? The people I’m do you think it affected your experience?
talking about, they did things they didn’t want to do
because they felt they had to, or because they
15. Which of the books discussed by Will and Mary
thought it was the right thing to do.” (page 167) In Anne have you read? Which do you most want to
what ways is Mary Anne brave during her cancer
read?
treatments? Does she ever come to think of herself
as brave?
10. Will is amazed by his mother’s ability to
continue her efforts to fund the library in
Afghanistan even while facing a death sentence,
until he realizes that “she used her emotions to
motivate her and help her concentrate. The
emphasis for her was always on doing what needed
to be done. I had to learn this lesson while she was
still there to teach me.” (page 194) Did Will learn?
What makes you think so?
11. Why did Mary Anne become so intent on certain
things happening: Obama’s election, David Rohde’s
safe return? Will talks about his own “magical
thinking” several times in the book—what form do
you think Mary Anne’s took?
12. “We’re all in the end-of-our-life book club,
whether we acknowledge it or not; each book we
read may well be the last, each conversation the
final one.” (page 281) How did this realization affect
Will’s final days with his mom?
13. After she dies, Will looks at Mary Anne’s copy
of Daily Strength for Daily Needs, next to the bed.
He believes this quote from John Ruskin was the
last thing his mother ever read: “If you do not wish
7
Henry is still trying to find his voice–words that
might explain the actions of his nationalistic father;
words that might bridge the gap between him and
his modern, Chinese American son; words that
might help him confront the choices he made many
In the opening pages of years ago.
Jamie Ford’s stunning
debut novel, Hotel on Set during one of the most conflicted and volatile
the Corner of Bitter and times in American history, Hotel on the Corner of
Sweet, Henry Lee
Bitter and Sweet is an extraordinary story of
comes upon a crowd
commitment and enduring hope. In Henry and
gathered outside the
Keiko, Jamie Ford has created an unforgettable
Panama Hotel, once
duo whose story teaches us of the power of
the gateway to Seattle’s forgiveness and the human heart.
Japantown. It has been boarded up for decades,
but now the new owner has made an incredible
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
discovery: the belongings of Japanese families, left
when they were rounded up and sent to internment 1. Father-son relationships are a crucial theme in
camps during World War II. As Henry looks on, the the novel. Talk about some of these relationships
owner opens a Japanese parasol.
and how they are shaped by culture and time. For
example, how is the relationship between Henry
This simple act takes old Henry Lee back to the
and his father different from that between Henry
1940s, at the height of the war, when young Henry’s and Marty? What accounts for the differences?
world is a jumble of confusion and excitement, and
to his father, who is obsessed with the war in China 2. Why doesn't Henry's father want him to speak
and having Henry grow up American. While
Cantonese at home? How does this square with his
“scholarshipping” at the exclusive Rainier
desire to send Henry back to China for school? Isn't
Elementary, where the white kids ignore him, Henry he sending his son a mixed message?
meets Keiko Okabe, a young Japanese American
student. Amid the chaos of blackouts, curfews, and 3. If you were Henry, would you be able to forgive
FBI raids, Henry and Keiko forge a bond of
your father? Does Henry's father deserve
friendship–and innocent love–that transcends the forgiveness?
long-standing prejudices of their Old World
ancestors. And after Keiko and her family are swept 4. From the beginning of the novel, Henry wears
up in the evacuations to the internment camps, she the "I am Chinese" button given to him by his father.
and Henry are left only with the hope that the war What is the significance of this button and its
will end, and that their promise to each other will be message, and how has Henry's understanding of
kept.
that message changed by the end of the novel?
April 17th
The Hotel on the
Corner of Bitter &
Sweet
Forty years later, Henry Lee is certain that the
parasol belonged to Keiko. In the hotel’s dark dusty
basement he begins looking for signs of the Okabe
family’s belongings and for a long-lost object whose
value he cannot begin to measure. Now a widower,
5. Why does Henry provide an inaccurate
translation when he serves as the go-between in
the business negotiations between his father and
Mr. Preston? Is he wrong to betray his father's trust
in this way?
8
year and imagine what has happened to them in
that time. Is there any evidence in the novel for this
outcome?
6. The US has been called a nation of immigrants.
In what ways do the families of Keiko and Henry
illustrate different aspects of the American
immigrant experience?
16. What sacrifices do the characters in the novel
make in pursuit of their dreams for themselves and
7. What is the bond between Henry and Sheldon, for others? Do you think any characters sacrifice
and how is it strengthened by jazz music?
too much, or for the wrong reasons? Consider the
sacrifices Mr. Okabe makes, for example, and
8. If a novel could have a soundtrack, this one
those of Mr. Lee. Both fathers are acting for the
would be jazz. What is it about this indigenous form sake of their children, yet the results are quite
of American music that makes it an especially
different. Why?
appropriate choice?
17. Was the US government right or wrong to
9. Henry's mother comes from a culture in which
"relocate" Japanese-Americans and other citizens
wives are subservient to their husbands. Given this and residents who had emigrated from countries
background, do you think she could have done
the US was fighting in WWII? Was some kind of
more to help Henry in his struggles against his
action necessary following Pearl Harbor? Could the
father? Is her loyalty to her husband a betrayal of government have done more to safeguard civil
her son?
rights while protecting national security?
10. Compare Marty's relationship with Samantha to
Henry's relationship with Keiko. What other
examples can you find in the novel of love that is
forbidden or that crosses boundaries of one kind or
another?
18. Should the men and women of Japanese
ancestry rounded up by the US during the war have
protested more actively against the loss of their
property and liberty? Remember that most were
eager to demonstrate their loyalty to the US. What
would you have done in their place? What’s to
11. What struggles did your own ancestors have as prevent something like this from ever happening
immigrants to America, and to what extent did they again?
incorporate aspects of their cultural heritage into
their new identities as Americans?
12. Does Henry give up on Keiko too easily? What
else could he have done to find her?
13. What about Keiko? Why didn't she make more
of an effort to see Henry once she was released
from the camp?
14. Do you think Ethel might have known what was
happening with Henry's letters?
15. The novel ends with Henry and Keiko meeting
again after more than forty years. Jump ahead a
9
May 15th
The Girls of Atomic City
ignorance, and the shock of finding out what they
were working on?
The Girls of Atomic City tells
the true story of Oak Ridge,
Tennessee, a secret city
founded during World War II
to help create fuel for the
atomic bomb. Oak Ridge
didn’t appear on any maps,
but thousands of workers
moved there during the war,
enticed by good wages and war-ending work. Their
jobs were shrouded in mystery, but the workers –
many of them young, single and female – were
excited to be “all in the same boat,” buoyed by a
sense of shared purpose. But these hardworking
young women also faced unexpected challenges.
One young woman, Helen, was recruited to spy on
her fellow workers. An African-American janitor,
Kattie, faced daily discrimination and separation
from her children in segregated Oak Ridge. Toni, a
secretary, was mocked by her Northern bosses for
her Tennessee accent. Dot, a factory operator, had
lost a brother at Pearl Harbor and had two others
still away fighting. Through it all, day in and day out,
nobody knew what they were working on, only that
they had been told it would help end the war. The
secret wasn’t out until after the first atomic bomb,
powered by an uranium enriched in Oak Ridge’s
massive factories, fell on Hiroshima, Japan. Today,
Oak Ridge and the other Manhattan Project sites
continue to carry the legacy of helping to make the
first atomic bomb a reality.
2. Consider the losses of lives, land, and
community that resulted from the Manhattan
Project. What were some of the sacrifices that
families and individuals made in their efforts to end
the war? How do these losses compare to the gains
of salary, solidarity, and peace? Do you think the
ends of the Project justify the means? Why or why
not?
3. Discuss the role that patriotism played in
everyday life during World War II. Do you think
Americans today would be willing or able to make
the same sacrifices – including top-secret jobs,
deployment overseas, rationed goods, and strict
censorship – that families of that era made? Why or
why not?
4. Consider the African-American experience at
Oak Ridge. What kinds of discrimination did Kattie
and her family face? How did Kattie manage to
make the best of her substandard living conditions?
What role do you think race played in the medical
experimentation on Ebb Cade?
5. Helen was recruited to spy on her neighbors at
home and at work. Discuss the ethical implications
of this request. Was it fair, necessary, or wise to ask
ordinary workers to spy? Why do you think Helen
never mailed any of the top-secret envelopes she
was given?
6. Although the Clinton Engineer Works was, in
many ways, a tightly controlled social experiment,
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
the military didn’t account for women’s impact on
the community: “a sense of permanence. Social
connectivity. Home.” (page 135) Consider the
1. Denise Kiernan explains in an author’s note,
various ways that the women of Oak Ridge tried to
“The information in this book is compartmentalized, make themselves at home. Which of their efforts
as was much of life and work during the Manhattan succeeded, and which failed? Why were some
Project.” (page 18) How does the book manage to women so successful at making Oak Ridge home
recreate the workers’ experience of months-long
while others were not, were depressed, looked
10
forward to leaving?
Truman. What regrets did they express about the
bomb’s results, if any? Do you think a weapon of
that magnitude could or should be used in
present-day warfare? Why or why not?
7. Consider the legacy of President Truman, who
made the decision to use atomic weaponry for the
first time. How do Americans seem to regard
Truman’s decision today? How does Truman’s
legacy compare to other wartime presidents, such
as George W. Bush or Lyndon B. Johnson?
13. Kiernan writes, “The challenge in telling the
story of the atomic bomb is one of nuance,
requiring thought and sensitivity and walking a line
between commemoration and celebration.” (page
8. “The most ambitious war project in military
412) What lasting contributions to society have
history rested squarely on the shoulders of tens of come out of Oak Ridge, Tennessee? Why is it
thousands of ordinary people, many of them young difficult to celebrate or commemorate the work that
women.” (page 159) Compare how The Girls of
has been done in that secret city?
Atomic City contrasts “ordinary people” to the
extraordinary leaders behind the atomic bomb: the
General, the Scientist, and the Engineer. Are the
decision-makers portrayed as fully as the workers?
Do the workers get as much credit as the leaders?
9. Kiernan sets The Girls of Atomic City entirely in
the past, recreating the workers’ experiences from
her interviews with the surviving women. How
would this book have differed if the interviews from
the present day were included? Does Kiernan
succeed in immersing us in the era of World War II?
Explain your answer.
10. Among the workers at Oak Ridge, whose story
did you find most fascinating? Which of these
women do you think Kiernan brought to life most
vividly, and how?
11. Discuss the scenes in the book that take place
far from Oak Ridge, Tennessee: scientific
discoveries in Europe, secret tests in New Mexico,
political meetings in Washington, and post-atomic
devastation in Japan. How does this broad view of
the bomb’s creation and aftermath enrich the story
of wartime life in Oak Ridge?
12. Discuss how various contributors to the
Manhattan Project felt about the use of the atomic
bomb, including General Leslie Groves, J. Robert
Oppenheimer, Albert Einstein, and Harry S.
11
June 19th
Major Pettigrew’s
Last Stand
In the small village of
Edgecombe St. Mary in
the English countryside
lives Major Ernest
Pettigrew (retired), the
unlikely hero of Helen
Simonson’s wondrous
debut. Wry, courtly,
opinionated, and
completely endearing,
the Major leads a quiet life valuing the proper things
that Englishmen have lived by for generations:
honor, duty, decorum, and a properly brewed cup of
tea. But then his brother’s death sparks an
unexpected friendship with Mrs. Jasmina Ali, the
Pakistani shopkeeper from the village. Drawn
together by their shared love of literature and the
loss of their spouses, the Major and Mrs. Ali soon
find their friendship blossoming into something
more. But village society insists on embracing him
as the quintessential local and regarding her as the
permanent foreigner. Can their relationship survive
the risks one takes when pursuing happiness in the
face of culture and tradition?
between the Pettigrews’ familial expectations and
those of the Alis’? What do different characters in
the novel have to sacrifice in order to stay true to
these obligations? What do they give up in
diverging from them?
3. Major Pettigrew clings to the civility of a bygone
era, and his discussions with Mrs. Ali over tea are a
narrative engine of the book and play a central role
in their burgeoning romance. In our digital world,
how have interpersonal relationships changed? Do
you think instant communication makes us more or
less in touch with the people around us?
4. Much of the novel focuses on the notion of
“otherness.” Who is considered an outsider in
Edgecombe St. Mary? How are the various village
outsiders treated differently?
5. First impressions in Major Pettigrew’s Last
Stand can be deceiving. Discuss the progressions
of the characters you feel changed the most from
the beginning of the book to the end.
6. The Major struggles to find footing in his
relationship with his adult son, Roger. Discuss the
trickiness of being a parent to an adult child, and
alternatively, an adult child to an aging parent. How
does the generation gap come to impact the
relationship?
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
7. Major Pettigrew and Mrs. Ali connect emotionally
1. In the outset of Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, the in part because they share the experience of having
Major is described as feeling the weight of his age, lost a spouse, and in part because they delight in
love having come around a second time. How do
but on page 320, the morning after his romantic
you think relationships formed in grief are different
evening with Mrs. Ali at Colonel Preston’s Lodge,
Simonson writes that “a pleasant glow, deep in his from those that are not?
gut, was all that remained of a night that seemed to 8. For Major Pettigrew, the Churchills represent
have burned away the years from his back.” Love is societal standing and achievement, as well as an
not only for the young and, as it did the Major, it has important part of his family’s history. However, as
the capacity to revitalize. Discuss the agelessness events unfold, the Major begins to question whether
of love, and how it can transform us at any point in loyalty and honor are more important than material
our lives.
objects and social status. Discuss the evolving
importance of the guns to the Major, as well as the
2. A crucial theme of Major Pettigrew’s Last
Stand is that of obligation. What are the differences challenge of passing down important objects, and
values, to younger generations.
12
July 17th
The Boys in the
Boat
The sons of loggers,
shipyard workers,
and farmers, the
University of
Washington's
eight-oar crew was
never expected to
attain greatness-and
yet they did just that
at the 1936 Olympic
Games in Berlin.
Daniel James Brown tells the inspiring story of the
crew's quest for Olympic gold. Assembled by an
enigmatic coach and mentored by an eccentric
British boat builder, the crew first defeated elite
rivals first from eastern and British universities and
finally bested the German crew rowing for Adolf
Hitler. Their perseverance reminded a country
struggling with the Depression what can be done
when everyone (quite literally) pulls together. Here
is an irresistible story about beating the odds and
finding hope in the most desperate of times.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Available soon….
13
August 21st
The Things They
Carried
They carried malaria
tablets, love letters, 28pound mine detectors,
dope, illustrated Bibles,
each other. And, if they
made it home alive, they
carried unrelenting
images of a nightmarish
war that history is only
beginning to absorb. Since it was first published, The Things They Carried has become an
unparalleled Vietnam testament, a classic work of
American literature and a profound study of men at
war that illuminates the capacity, and the limits, of
the human heart and soul.
4. Who is Elroy Bendahl, and why is he “the hero of
[the narrator’s] life” (page 48)?
5. Discuss the two very short stories “Enemies” and
“Friends.” What is the relationship between Lee
Strunk and Dave Jensen? How are they both
enemies and friends? In what other ways are the
soldiers in this platoon sometimes fighting one
another instead of the “real” enemy?
6. In “How to Tell a True War Story,” O’Brien writes:
“A true war story is never moral.” What does this
mean? Is there even such a thing as a true war
story? Can one person’s truth be another person’s
falsehood? Can truth evolve over time, or is truth
fixed and absolute? Can some truths stand in
opposition and contradiction to one another? Is
truth a simple matter of black and white, or can it
come in shades of gray? In what other places in the
book do we see characters struggling with morality?
Are there morals to be learned from these war
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
stories? How does the book change the way you
1. The narrator of The Things They Carried goes by understand the political ramifications of Vietnam?
How does its discussion of morality fit into the
the same name as the author, but the title page
larger discussion of wars and our world today?
notes that this is a “work of fiction.” How did this
launch your reading of the book?
7. Consider the many paradoxes of war and how
O’Brien brings them to light: “I was a coward. I went
2. In the title story, soldiers carry things both
tangible and intangible. Which were heavier? Which to war” (page 61); “The truths are contradictory. It
items spoke most powerfully to you? What do you can be argued, for instance, that war is grotesque.
But in truth war is also beauty” (page 80). What are
carry around with you every day, materially and
emotionally? What do soldiers carry in war today, some other paradoxes of war? How do they affect
your understanding of war?
and what would you most want to carry in war?
3. Why is the first story told in the third person?
What effect does it have on you as a reader to then
switch to the first person in “Love”? O’Brien also
uses the second person in this collection. For
example, in “On the Rainy River,” the narrator,
trying to decide whether to accept the draft or
become a draft dodger, asks: “What would you
do?” (page 56). Why does the author use these
different perspectives?
8. At the end of “How to Tell a True War Story,”
O’Brien claims the story he’s just related “wasn’t a
war story. It was a love story” (page 85). How does
O’Brien distinguish between a war story and a love
story?
9. “ ‘Daddy, tell the truth,’ Kathleen can say, ‘did you
ever kill anybody?’ And I can say, honestly, ‘Of
course not.’ Or I can say, honestly, ‘Yes’ ” (page
180). How can both of these contradictory
14
responses be true? What is truth --- to both Tim
O’Brien the narrator and Tim O’Brien the author?
Consider the distinction between “story truth” and
“happening truth,” which O’Brien develops in the
story “Good Form.”
10. “A true war story, if truly told, makes the
stomach believe” (page 78). Which stories in this
collection made your stomach believe? Which felt
true? Is it essential to you that a story be rooted in
fact? If so, what do you make of Thumbelina, Alice
in Wonderland, or the stories of Edgar Allan Poe?
happened” (page 107). What effect does this have
on your reading? What does the book teach us
about writing?
16. Repetition is a device O’Brien uses in his
stories. What do you remember about the man
killed by the narrator? How does the repetition of
the same language enhance the event or affect
your understanding of it?
17. In “The Lives of the Dead,” O’Brien writes,
“Stories can save us” (page 225). How do stories
save the narrator? What else can stories do,
11. The soldiers often tell jokes to relieve tension. according to The Things They Carried and from
Did you find their jokes funny? How is language
what you’ve experienced in your own life? The story
important to the soldiers? What words do they use “Good Form” attempts to explain the method behind
to make their experience easier to handle? What
the construction of the book and raises the
other tricks do the soldiers use to keep themselves questions What are stories for? How might Tim
sane?
O’Brien answer that? And how would you?
12. What are some of the tools O’Brien uses as a 18. There are many different types of loss
writer to make the reader feel the immediacy and
addressed throughout the book: the loss of life, of
reality of the war? How does he work with tension? course, but also the loss of the past --- for example,
after Tim O’Brien gets shot for the second time, he
13. Many of the stories are told second- or even
feels the loss of being a “real” soldier very strongly
third-hand (“Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong”;
and misses the excitement and fraternity of combat.
what happened to Rat Kiley in “Night Life”). How
What else do O’Brien and the other characters in
does this color our understanding of the stories?
the book lose? What does resurrecting these losses
Why does O’Brien create this distance?
through story accomplish? What losses do you feel
most strongly in your own life, and how do you deal
14. Three stories in succession, “Speaking of
with them? Do you tell about them?
Courage,” “Notes,” and “In the Field,” deal with one
event: Kiowa’s death. O’Brien similarly shows us
incidents from different perspectives throughout the
book. Where else does this device occur? How do
these different perspectives change your
understanding of an incident? Why do you think the
author chose to do this?
15. In some of the stories, O’Brien pauses to
address issues of storytelling: “The sound. You
need to get a consistent sound, like slow or fast,
funny or sad. All these digressions, they just screw
up you story’s sound. Stick to what
15
September 18th
The Round House
One Sunday in the
summer of 1988, a
woman living on a
reservation in North
Dakota is attacked. The
details of the crime are
slow to surface as
Geraldine Coutts is
traumatized and
reluctant to relive or
reveal the details of what happened, either to the
police or to her husband Bazil and 13-year old son
Joe. In one day, Joe’s home life is irrevocably
transformed as his mother will not leave her bed
and slips further into an abyss of solitude and
depression. His father struggles with anger and
grief and tries, in vain, to heal his wife. Increasingly
alone, Joe finds himself thrust prematurely into an
adult world for which he is ill prepared.
reflection of what happens in our own United States
today.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. The Round House opens with the sentence:
“Small trees had attacked my parents’ house at the
foundation.” How do these words relate to the
complete story that unfolds?
2. Though he is older as he narrates the story, Joe
is just thirteen when the novel opens. What is the
significance of his age? How does that impact the
events that occur and his actions and reactions?
3. Describe Joe’s family, and his relationship with
his parents. In talking about his parents, Joe says,
“I saw myself as different, though I didn’t know how
yet.” Why, at thirteen, did he think this? Do you
think the grown-up Joe narrating the story still
believes this?
4. Joe’s whole family is rocked by the attack on his
mother. How does it affect the relationship between
his mother and father, and between him and his
One evening, his father, the tribal judge, invites Joe mother? Does it alter Joe’s view of them? Can
into his study to read along with him as he pores
trauma force a child to grow up “overnight”? What
over his past legal decisions, searching for any
impact does it have on Joe? How does it transform
possible clue to the identity and motives of the
his family?
perpetrator. As unanswered questions pile up, Joe
5. “My mother’s job was to know everybody’s
becomes frustrated with the seeming banality of
Bazil’s judicial cases and sets out with his trusted secrets,” Joe tells us. How does this knowledge
empower Geraldine and how does it make her life
friends, Cappy, Zack, and Angus, to get some
answers of his own. Their quest takes them first to more difficult?
the Round House, a sacred space and place of
6. Joe is inseparable from his three friends,
worship for the Ojibwe. And this is only the
especially his best friend, Cappy. Talk about their
beginning.
bond. How does their closeness influence unfolding
events?
Written with undeniable urgency, and illuminating
the harsh realities of contemporary life in a
7. What is the significance of the Round House?
community where Ojibwe and white live uneasily
What is the importance of the Obijwe legends that
together, The Round House is a brilliant and
are scattered through the novel? How do they
entertaining novel, a masterpiece of literary fiction. reflect and deepen the main story? What can we
Once again, Louise Erdrich embraces tragedy, the learn from the old ways of people like the Ojibwe?
comic, a spirit world very much present in the lives Is Joe proud of his heritage? Discuss the
of these all-too-human characters, and a tale of
connection between the natural and animal world
injustice that is, unfortunately, an authentic
and the tribe’s spirituality.
16
8. After the attack, Joe’s mother, Geraldine, isn’t
sure exactly where it happened, whether it was
technically on Reservation land or not. How does
the legal relationship between the U.S. and the
Ojibwe complicate the investigation? Why can’t she
lie to make it easier?
15. We hear a great deal about reparations and
atonement for slavery. What about America’s
history with the Native American population --should these same issues be raised? Racism is
often seen in terms of black and white. How does
this view impact prejudices against others who
aren’t white, including people like the Ojibwe? Do
you think there is prejudice against Native
Americans? How is this portrayed in the book?
Contrast these with examples of kindness and
fairness.
9. Secondary characters, including Mooshum,
Linda Wishkob, Sonja, Whitey, Clemence, and
Father Travis, play indelible roles in the central
story. Talk about their interactions with Joe and his
friends and parents. What do their stories tell about
the wider world of the reservation and about
16. “My father remembered that of course an
relations between white and Native Americans?
Ojibwe person’s clan meant everything at one time,
and no one didn’t have a clan; thus, you know your
10. Towards the novel’s climax, Father Travis tells place in the world and your relationship to all other
Joe, “in order to purify yourself, you have to
beings.” How has modernity --- and westward
understand yourself. Everything out in the world is expansion --- transformed this? Has our rush to the
also in you. Good, bad, evil, perfection, death,
future, and our restless need to move, impacted us
everything. So we study our souls.” Would you say as a society and as individuals?
this is a good characterization of humanity? How is
each of these things visible in Joe’s personality?
17. Race, politics, injustice, religion, superstition,
magic, and the boundary between childhood and
11. He also tells Joe about the different types of evil adulthood are explored in The Round House.
--- the material version, which we cannot control,
Choose a theme or two and trace how it is
and the moral one, which is harm deliberately
demonstrated in a character’s life throughout the
caused by humans. How does this knowledge
novel.
influence Joe?
18. The only thing that God can do, and does all the
12. When Joe makes his fateful decision
time, is to draw good from any evil situation,” the
concerning his mother’s attacker, he says it is about priest advised Joe. What good does Joe --- and
justice, not vengeance. What do you think? How
also his family --- draw from the events of the
does that decision change him? Why doesn’t he
summer? What life lessons did Joe learn that
share the information he has with the people who summer of 1988?
love him?
13. What do you think about the status of Native
Americans? Should we have reservations in
modern America? How does the Reservation
preserve their heritage and culture and how does it
set them apart from their fellow Americans?
14. Could the American West have been settled
without the conflicts between white Europeans and
native peoples? Do you think we, as Americans,
have changed significantly today?
17
renews past anger. An intricate and layered portrait
of marriage and family, tempered by compassion,
big-heartedness, and humor, We Are Water recalls
As her wedding day
Richard Russo’s Empire Falls and Jonathan
approaches, Annie Oh finds Franzen’s Freedom. Once again, Wally Lamb has
herself one morning staring dug down deep into the complexities of the human
at a bed covered in Vera
heart to explore the ways in which we all live, love,
Wang wedding dresses, at and find meaning in our lives.
the mercy of hopes and
fears about the momentous
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
change on the horizon. This
is not Annie’s first walk
1. Describe Anna and Orion Oh and their
down the aisle. She has just emerged from a twenty relationship. What factors drew them together and
-seven year marriage to Orion Oh, which produced what drove them apart? What were your first
three children, twins Andrew and Ariane and
impressions of each character? Did you see the
daughter Marisa. Annie has been trying to reach
characters in the same light by the novel's end?
her ex-husband, as she wants to make sure that he Think about their names. Are they fitting for these
is all right. Orion, a psychologist with a crippling
characters? What other elements like this did you
need to help others, keeps assuring everyone that notice throughout the novel?
he is fine. But how can he be? Annie, a self-taught
2. Talk about the Oh children. How do each of them
artist, is about to marry a woman named Viveca,
relate to their parents? Were Anna and Orion good
the sophisticated and seductive art dealer who
parents? What makes a good parent? Are they
understands her work and has helped make her
equally culpable for their impact on their children?
enormously successful. The Oh children have
How much of our lives are shaped by our families,
different responses to their mother’s upcoming
and how much by our own choices? Choose a
wedding and her new partner. But when Viveca,
who specializes in outsider art, discovers a painting character or two from the Oh family and use
by Josephus Jones, a self-taught African American examples from the book to support your thoughts.
artist of the 1950’s and ‘60’s, in the Oh family home 3. The story begins by talking about the artist
in Three Rivers, Connecticut, the already difficult
Josephus Jones. What role does he play in the
relationship between Orion, Annie, and Viveca
story and the Ohs' lives? He is called a narrative
becomes even more fraught. Jones’s canvases,
painter in the story. Explain that term, what it
and the story of his prematurely shortened life,
signifies for you.
come to play an unexpected role in the life of the
Oh family. On the very day of the wedding, as its
4. Family, tragedy, art, violence, secrets, love, and
members struggle with their new roles in the
transformation are the themes at the heart of We
reshaped family landscape, secrets are shared and Are Water. By keeping things to ourselves and by
shocking truths come to light.
sharing them inappropriately, are we doomed to
A sweeping epic novel from one of America’s most keep repeating the mistakes of the past? How are
beloved writers, We Are Water pulls you into the
Anna's secrets both destructive and productive?
What about the secrets the rest of the family
emotional center of each richly drawn character.
Even Annie’s impending marriage, apparently the keeps?
source of the Oh family drama, turns out to be
5. What is the attraction between Anna and Viveca?
merely the catalyst that uncovers old hurts and
What does Viveca offer Anna that Orion cannot?
October 16th
We Are Water
18
brain. They found that reading fiction stimulates the
brain in the same way that experiences in real life
do. Why do you read fiction? Are novels and stories
important, and if so, why? Does this experience
match your own?
What are your impressions of Viveca?
6. As the story unfolds we learn about Anna as a
mother and her relationship with Andrew, her only
son. Why does she treat him the way that she
does? Is she truly aware of her behavior? Why
don't the children tell their father the truth about
their mother? Were they protecting her?
7. Another supporting yet very important character
in the novel is Kent. Share your thoughts about him.
Does knowing his backstory affect your view? Do
we in our hypercritical society lose sight of the fact
that perpetrators are often victims themselves?
What was Kent hoping for when he went to visit
Anna on her wedding day?
14. What did you take away from reading We Are
Water? If you've read Wally Lamb's other books,
how does its compare thematically?
8. Think about Orion. His profession is helping
people, watching for signs, recognizing pain and
rescuing his patients. How could he so
spectacularly miss Anna's suppressed emotions
and those of his children? Was he too busy tending
to others to notice his own family's dysfunction?
Could he have truly seen it or by being a part of this
family was he too close?
9. Discuss Anna's art. Does it sound appealing to
you? Would she have her art without her pain? How
is she like Josephus Jones—what connects them?
10. After Anna shares her terrible secret with
Andrew, he makes a crucial choice. What do you
think of his actions? Was he morally justified? Is it
good that he told his father about what happened?
Would he feel better or worse if he confessed?
11. Discuss the significance of the title, We Are
Water. How many meanings does it have? How
does it connect to the final scene in the book?
12. How do each of the Ohs come to terms with
who they are? Would you say that they—and the
novel itself—have a happy ending?
13. Late in the novel, Orion mentions reading an
article in the New York Times about scientists who
studied the effects of reading fiction on the human
19
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
November 20th
Orphan Train
Nearly eighteen, Molly
Ayer knows she has one
last chance. Just months
from “aging out” of the
child welfare system, and
close to being kicked out
of her foster home, a
community service
position helping an elderly
woman clean out her
home is the only thing keeping her out of juvie and
worse.
Vivian Daly has lived a quiet life on the coast of
Maine. But in her attic, hidden in trunks, are
vestiges of a turbulent past. As she helps Vivian
sort through her possessions and memories, Molly
discovers that she and Vivian aren’t as different as
they seem to be. A young Irish immigrant orphaned
in New York City, Vivian was put on a train to the
Midwest with hundreds of other children whose
destinies would be determined by luck and chance.
1. On the surface, Vivian's and Molly's lives couldn't
be more different. In what ways are their stories
similar?
2. In the prologue Vivian mentions that her "true
love" died when she was 23, but she doesn't
mention the other big secret in the book. Why not?
3. Why hasn't Vivian ever shared her story with
anyone? Why does she tell it now?
4. What role does Vivian's grandmother play in her
life? How does the reader's perception of her shift
as the story unfolds?
5. Why does Vivian seem unable to get rid of the
boxes in her attic?
6. In Women of the Dawn, a nonfiction book about
the lives of four Wabanaki Indians excerpted in the
epigraph, Bunny McBride writes: "In portaging from
one river to another, Wabanakis had to carry their
canoes and all other possessions. Everyone knew
the value of traveling light and understood that it
required leaving some things behind. Nothing
encumbered movement more than fear, which was
The closer Molly grows to Vivian, the more she
often the most difficult burden to surrender." How
discovers parallels to her own life. A Penobscot
does the concept of portaging reverberate
Indian, she, too, is an outsider being raised by
throughout this novel? What fears hamper Vivian's
strangers, and she, too, has unanswered questions progress? Molly's?
about the past. As her emotional barriers begin to
crumble, Molly discovers that she has the power to 7. Vivian's name changes several times over the
course of the novel: from Niamh Power to Dorothy
help Vivian find answers to mysteries that have
Nielsen to Vivian Daly. How are these changes
haunted her for her entire life – answers that will
significant for her? How does each name represent
ultimately free them both.
a different phase of her life?
Rich in detail and epic in scope, Orphan Train is a 8. What significance, if any, does Molly Ayer's name
powerful novel of upheaval and resilience, of
have?
second chances, of unexpected friendship, and of
the secrets we carry that keep us from finding out 9. How did Vivian's first-person account of her
youth and the present-day story from Molly's thirdwho we are.
person-limited perspective work together? Did you
prefer one story to the other? Did the juxtaposition
reveal things that might not have emerged in a
20
traditional narrative?
does its meaning change or deepen over the
course of Vivian's life?
10. In what ways, large and small, does Molly have
an impact on Vivian's life? How does Vivian have
an impact on Molly's?
11. What does Vivian mean when she says, "I
believe in ghosts"?
12. When Vivian finally shares the truth about the
birth of her daughter and her decision to put May up
for adoption she tells Molly that she was "selfish"
and "afraid." Molly defends her and affirms Vivian's
choice. How did you perceive Vivian's decision?
Were you surprised she sent her child to be
adopted after her own experiences with the
Children's Aid Society?
13. When the children are presented to audiences
of potential caretakers, the Children's Aid Society
explains adoptive families are responsible for the
child's religious upbringing. What role does religion
play in this novel? How do Molly and Vivian each
view God?
14. When Vivian and Dutchy are reunited she
remarks, "However hard I try, I will always feel alien
and strange. And now I've stumbled on a fellow
outsider, one who speaks my language without
saying a word." How is this also true for her
friendship with Molly?
15. When Vivian goes to live with the Byrnes Fanny
offers her food and advises, "You got to learn to
take what people are willing to give." In what ways
is this good advice for Vivian and Molly? What are
some instances when their independence helped
them?
16. Molly is enthusiastic about Vivian's reunion with
her daughter, but makes no further efforts to see
her own mother. Why is she unwilling or unable to
effect a reunion in her own family? Do you think she
will someday?
17. Vivian's Claddagh cross is mentioned often
throughout the story. What is its significance? How
21
December 18th
The Invention of
Wings
Hetty “Handful”
Grimke, an urban slave
in early nineteenth
century Charleston,
yearns for life beyond
the suffocating walls
that enclose her within
the wealthy Grimke
household. The
Grimke’s daughter,
Sarah, has known from an early age she is meant
to do something large in the world, but she is
hemmed in by the limits imposed on women. Kidd’s
sweeping novel is set in motion on Sarah’s eleventh
birthday, when she is given ownership of ten year
old Handful, who is to be her handmaid. We follow
their remarkable journeys over the next thirty five
years, as both strive for a life of their own,
dramatically shaping each other’s destinies and
forming a complex relationship marked by guilt,
defiance, estrangement and the uneasy ways of
love.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Available as soon as book is available.
22
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