Hag-Seed, by Margaret Atwood

REVIEW: This was very enjoyable as a free-standing book, but even more so with the Shakespeare connection.  Margaret Atwood’s intertwining of The Tempest with the story is so creative it is not all apparent on the surface.  More and more small but insightful connections appear as you are reading as well as later at random times thinking about the novel.  I am not a Shakespearean scholar, but with just a little research and the synopsis in the back of the novel (HINT: Read this first!) I was able to understand and enjoy the multiple layers of connections.  Also, as a reading educator, the work Felix did with literacy in the prison was masterful!  Margaret Atwood obviously did her research!  I highly recommend this book!  I received a complimentary copy of this book for my review.

Characters

Felix –a.k.a. Mr. Duke Nadia – wife, deceased Miranda – daughter, deceased age 3 Anne-Marie Greenland – part of Miranda in The Tempest Anthony (Tony) Price – Felix’s manager at festival, then minister in government Sal O’Nally – Heritage Minister, Minister of Justice Sebert Stanley – Minister of Veteran’s Affairs Freddie O’Nally – Sal’s son, Assistant Director of Makeshiweg Theater Festival at end of novel Makeshiweg Theater Festival Fletcher County Correctional Institute 8Handz Bent Pencil (see expanded list in chapter 32) Estelle – professor, supervised Fletcher courses

 For discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers refer to the hardback edition of the book. 

1. After he was fired from the festival, Felix realized that he needed a purpose.  How important do you think it is to have a purpose in life?
2. The main purpose of Felix’s class at the prison was to improve the inmate’s reading ability and he was very successful.  Why do you think he had such good results? 
3. Other teachers, chaplains, etc. thought that Felix was a bad influence on the prisoners because he “expose[s] these vulnerable men to traumatic situations that can trigger anxiety and panic and flashbacks, or worse, dangerous aggressive behavior.” (page 79)   Felix contends that, “It conjures up demons in order to exorcise them!”  Which opinion do you agree with and why?
4. In the second assignment in the class Felix has the prisoners identify the prisoners, prisons and jailers in The Tempest.  Do you think it was realistic how deeply they were able to understand the play?
5. What did you think about limiting the students’ use of swear words to only those used in the Shakespeare play?    
6. At the end of the class, Felix has the prisoners predict what will happen to their characters from The Tempest.  What do you think will happen to Felix, Estelle, Anne-Marie, Freddie, 8Handz, etc. after the novel ends?
7. Did you think the Shakespeare class as taught by Felix was a worthwhile project and should be funded?
8. Felix told the prisoners in the class that the play was about “changing you mind.”  (page 253) Who changed their minds in the novel?  Who did so of their own choice or because of Felix’s plan?
9. In the Hogarth Shakespeare project, acclaimed authors write a more current version of a Shakespeare play.  How well did Margaret Atwood capture the essence of The Tempest in her book?
10. Could this be enjoyed as a free-standing book with no reference to The Tempest?  Why or why not?  What was positive or negative about the book?

*****
First Semester Success: Learning Strategies and Motivation for Your First Semester (or Any Semester) of College, by Dr. Arden B. Hamer, is available at amazon.com, wordassociation.com and barnesandnoble.com.  Click on the upper right link.

Left Neglected, by Lisa Genova

Characters

Sarah Bob Lucy Charlie Linus   Mother Nate - son – drowned when six   Heidi – Occupational Therapist, friend   Mrs. Gavin – Charlie’s teacher   Mike – New England Handicapped Sports Association

For discussion:

NOTE: The page numbers are from the paperback edition.

1. Did you find that the dream sequences at the beginning of the novel added to your understanding and enjoyment?
2. Did you find yourself judging Sarah and her lifestyle at the beginning of the novel?  Would you like that lifestyle?
3. What do you think was positive and negative about Sarah’s life before the accident?
4. Is there a solution to help working mothers like Sarah and her family?
5. Were you able to understand the Left Neglect condition from the author’s description?  Was there one event that was most moving to you?
6. Discuss the importance of the poster in the Rehabilitation Center gym.  (See pages 126 and 167.)  Why was the original message and her new view of the poster important to her?
7. On page 135, when Sarah’s pants were too small, her mother advised her to “accept yourself the way you are.”  Was that good advice or do you think Sarah should keep striving to achieve normalcy?  Could she do both?
8. In the same vein, on page 139 Heidi said to Sarah about getting back to pre-accident life, “I hope you get back to a hundred percent.  But you might not.  Instead of only focusing on getting better, you might want to also focus on getting better at living with this.”  Sarah thought this was a defeatist and negative attitude.   Do you agree or not?  Why?
9. For Christmas Bob bought Sarah a new set of skis that she did not feel she was ready for.  He called it “Bob’s Ski Therapy Theory.”  (page 207) Was he being unrealistic or supportive?  Why?
10. Would Sarah have figured out how to help Charlie is she hadn’t been injured and was having similar struggles herself? 
11. What do you think was positive and negative about Sarah’s life after the accident?
12. Both Mrs. Gavin and the clerk at New England Handicapped Sports Association used the phrase, “normal is overrated.”  Do you agree?
13. At the end of the novel, Sarah reflects that “…what I’ve lost in dollars, I’ve gained in time.”  (page 318)   How valuable is time?  Do we value it as a society?  How important is time to you?

*****

First Semester Success: Learning Strategies and Motivation for Your First Semester (or Any Semester) of College, by Dr. Arden B. Hamer, is available at amazon.com, wordassociation.com and barnesandnoble.com.  Click on the upper right link.

 

My Name is Lucy Barton, by Elizabeth Strout

NOTE: This month my Library Book Group is discussing two of Elizabeth Strout's novels, My Name is Lucy Barton and The Burgess Boys.  (The guide for The Burgess Boys was posted in 2014 and updated this week.) It will be a jam-packed evening!

Characters
Family	Others
Lucy William – husband, divorced when children grown Chrissie and Becka – daughters 2nd husband Mother Dad Vicky – older sister William - older brother Aunt Harriett Uncle Roy Abel and Dottie - children	Jeremy – upstairs neighbor Sarah Payne – writer Professor – artist – Lucy had an affair with him in college Evelyn – Catwin’s Cake Shoppe – shared town’s gossip with Lucy’s mother Molla – friend Kathy Nicely – only child from hometown – left husband for teacher who never married her – lost connection with children and husband

 For discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from hardback edition.

1. Discuss the various characters.  Did you like them?  Were you able to relate and understand them?
2. How did Lucy’s childhood affect her as a grown up?  Do you think it was realistic that she overcame her childhood experiences – for example, as a preschooler she was routinely locked in the car trunk when there was no one to watch her. (page 58)
3. On page 112, Lucy wrote that she asked experts about what her mother could have remembered about Lucy’s childhood and they stated that they did not know what her mother remembered.  What do you think?  Could these memories be why she never contacted Lucy?  Can you understand Lucy’s childhood?
4. Could you understand Lucy’s father’s reaction to William, Lucy’s first husband, being of German descent after it was revealed that the father had killed two young German men in the war who were not soldiers?   Do you think the father should have been able to overcome that and accept William?
5. Lucy’s second husband grew up poor like she did.  Do you think that will make a difference in their marriage compared to Lucy and William?
6. Discuss the father’s two reactions to William (brother) being gay.  In one he made him walk through town wearing women’s clothes and screamed at him and in the other he held him and cried.  Given the father’s life, could he have reacted any differently? 
7. Was it realistic that Lucy’s mother did not attend or acknowledge her wedding and they barely talked after children first born, but then she showed up at hospital and never left the room for five days?  Then, when Lucy was faced with serious surgery, she abruptly left.
8. Knowing the family relationships, why did William call Lucy’s mother to come and stay with her?
9. On the second to last page, Chrissie told Lucy she hoped her two step-parents would die and Lucy and William could reunite.  Lucy thought, “I did this to my child.”  (page 190) Was this a better or worse situation than the one Lucy grew up in?
10. What did you think about Lucy’s transition to college?  What were some of the gaps in her “knowledge about popular culture?” (page 25) Was it realistic that she would be able to make this transition?
11. When Lucy was having the affair with her college professor, she ended it after he made one small comment about her family eating baked beans.  (page 28) Lucy thought, “…a tiny remark and the soul deflates and say: Oh.”  Do you think this is an insightful comment or is she overreacting?
12. At the writing workshop with Sarah Payne, one of the participants asked Sarah how long she had had PTSD after she jumped when a cat came in through an open window.  Do you think Lucy had PTSD? 
13. After reading this book, do you think you understand the characters?  Do you understand people any better?
14. On page 86 and 87, Strout writes about Lucy seeing a statue in the Metropolitan Museum of Art of a man and his children.  The placard said the man was starving and the children were offering themselves to their father to eat.  Lucy thought, “So that guy knew.  Meaning the sculptor. He knew.  And so did the poet who wrote what the sculpture has shown.  He knew too.”  What did they both know?
15. Lucy had a private consultation with Sarah at the workshop, and Sarah told her, “This is a story about love, you know that. This is a story of a man who has been tortured every day of his life for things he did in the war.  This is the story of a wife who stayed with him.” (page 107) Do you agree that this novel is about love?
16. At the writing workshop, Sarah told the class, “You will have only one story…You’ll write your one story many ways.  Don’t ever worry about story.  You have only one.”  (pages 145-145) Ann Patchett said the same thing at a speech in Pittsburgh, PA in October 2016.  Looking at several of Strout’s book, do you agree?  Are they all one story told differently?
17. At the workshop, Sarah said that the job of a fiction writer is to, “report on the human condition, to tell us who we are and what we think and what we do.”  (page 98) Did Elizabeth Strout fulfill this job for you in this novel?
18. Especially toward the end of the novel there were several short chapters that left a lot of white space on the pages.  Was this white space important to the reading of the book of could the pages have been condensed and thus the cost of the book?
19. What do you think the last page meant?

*****

First Semester Success: Learning Strategies and Motivation for Your First Semester (or Any Semester) of College, by Dr. Arden B. Hamer, is available at amazon.com, wordassociation.com and barnesandnoble.com.  Click on the upper right link.

 

The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend, by Katarina Bivald

Characters

Sara Lindqvist   Amy Harris   Tom Harris – Amy’s nephew   Broken Wheel citizens: John – only African American in town, Amy’s friend, owns grocery/hardware store Grace (Madeline) – owns Amazing Grace diner Caroline Rohde Josh Jen Hobson – Broken Wheel newsletter Gertrude and May – senior citizens William Christopher - minister Andy Walsh – owns The Square bar Carl George – Michelle (wife), Sophie (daughter) Claire Henderson – daughter Lacey – teenage pregnancy – George’s neighbor and friend   Gavin Jones – Immigration Officer

 For discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from the paperback edition of the book.

1. Does this book present a too-romanticized view of reading?  Would a non-reader enjoy it?
2. On page 20 Sara wonders if people think she uses books to “hide from life.”  Do you think that might be a fair assessment sometimes? 
3. On page 16, Sara’s mother told her, “Honestly, though, what do you know about people?  If you didn’t have your nose in a book all the time…”   What do you think you can learn about people and the world through reading?
4. In one of her early letters to Sara (August 23, 2009), Amy wrote about racism and middle-aged people, “those who think the world has automatically become better simply because they’re old enough to shape it now, but without any of them having made the slightest contribution to improving it.”  Is that a fair statement?
5. Discuss Caroline.  It seems Caroline thought she was the moral compass for the town.  On page 27 Caroline thought the following:
1. “But she also knew that towns needed someone to keep an eye of them and someone to help them out; someone who knew what was right and someone who knew what was good.”
2. “She had never been able to help people like Amy could.  Amy always seemed to know precisely what people wanted to hear.  Caroline knew only what they should hear, and the two were very rarely the same thing.”
3. “Caroline didn’t care for judging people on things they had no control over.  There were enough conscious sins to focus on.”

6. Do you think you would have liked Caroline as a friend?  Did you like how the author wrote her character at the end of the book?

7. Discuss the other characters.  Who were you able to relate to?  How well did the author show you the character of Amy even though she was dead throughout the entire novel?

8. Have you ever read a Harlequin romance novel?  Did you like it or not?  Why are they so popular?  On page 52 Sara told Carl, “Harlequin has sole six billion books…Believe me, even if you include the fanatics with drawers full of them, it’s a statistical fact that every woman has come across at least one.”

9. When the town had the festival and wanted to impress the people from Hope, everyone had a book and was told to “look literary.”  (page 158)   How do you look literary?

10. There were a lot of author’s and books mentioned in the novel.  Which ones stuck out to you?  My favorites were:
1. Page 154 – John Grisham was categorized as an “unreliable author,” who wrote a few great books and then “come out with completely flat, idiotic stores the rest of the time.”   (Do you agree???)
2. Page 196-197 – Sara gave Gertrude The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Steig Larrson, and she came back the next day looking very haggard after staying up all night reading and wanted the next book.
3. Following the same story line, Gertrude refused to trade in the first book but instead bought all three in the series so she could keep them.  Can you relate to that feeling??

11. What were your favorite parts of the book?  Did you like the ending?

*****
First Semester Success: Learning Strategies and Motivation for Your First Semester (or Any Semester) of College, by Dr. Arden B. Hamer, is available at amazon.com, wordassociation.com and barnesandnoble.com.  Click on the upper right link.

Our Man in Charleston, by Christopher Dickey

Review: This book, for me, took a bit of concentration and effort to keep all of the people and the timeline straight.  However, it was well worth the effort!  Not only did I gain knowledge and admiration for an unknown hero of the Civil War, I gained insight into the importance of unknown people to the outcome of major world events.   I also found interesting the author’s statement that the succession was solely about slavery and that the issue of state’s rights was only related to the right to own slaves.  One blurb on the back of my edition stated, ”A spicy historical beach read…”   I wouldn’t go that far, this book is certainly not a mindless read.  But it is well worth your time and effort.   I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for this review. 

People
United States	Britain
Robert Brunch, His Majesty’s Consul Emma Craig – wife Helen – daughter Helen – younger sister Daniel Blake – widowed, slave owner, married Helen (sister)   Southern men Brunch trusted: James Petigru – former state Attorney General Alfred Huger – postmaster Col. John Haarleston Read William Henry Trescot – lawyer, historian   Robert Barnwell Rhett – extremely pro slavery   John Russell – owned book store   Governors of South Carolina: John Manny General James Hopkins Adams   Newspapers: Charleston Mercury – unreasonable Charleston Courier – more balanced Editor Richard Yeadon Charleston Standard – proslavery Editor Leonidas Spratt   Senator William Seward   John Brown   Hugh Forbes – soldier of fortune   Confederate government’s representatives to Europe captured by the North: James Mason John Slidell	Henry John Temple – 3rd Viscount Palmerston 1859 – Prime Minister   Lord Clarendon   George William Frederick Villiers   Lord Napier – Washington D.C. minister   Richard Bickerton Pemell Lyons – 1859, new Minister in Washington D.C., felt Brunch over-stepping his boundaries   Lord John Russell – former PM, 1859 Foreign Secretary   Three trusted Consels: Robert Brunch William Mure Edward Mortimer Archibald   Prince of Wales – visited Canada and US in 1860

For discussion:

1. How difficult do you think it would be to lead a double life, never expressing your true feelings and always having to be on guard?  Do you think you could do that?
2. How do you think Bunch’s wife coped?
3. Was it fair to subject his wife and daughter to this lifestyle?
4. If you were in Brunch’s place, how would you decide who to trust?
5. On page 195 the author claims the South’s secession was solely about slavery and the states’ rights to own slaves.  Does this agree with what you had been taught in the past?
6. How would this country be different if there had been no Civil War and the southern states had formed an independent country?   What if there had been no war and no succession?

*****
First Semester Success: Learning Strategies and Motivation for Your First Semester (or Any Semester) of College, by Dr. Arden B. Hamer, is available at amazon.com, wordassociation.com and barnesandnoble.com.  Click on the upper right link.

The Language of Flowers, by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Characters

Victoria Meredith Combs – Social Worker Elizabeth – foster mother Catherine – estranged sister Grant – Catherine’s son Perla – Carlo’s daughter, Elizabeth’s vineyard foreman Renata – owner of Bloom Natalya – singer, Renata’s sister Mother Ruby – midwife, Renata’s mother Message – Victoria’s florist business Marlena – worker from Gathering House Customers: Earl – periwinkle (tender recollections), spider mums (truth) Bethany and Ray – red roses (love), white lilac (first emotion of love), rosemary (remembrance) Annemarie – jonquils (desire)

For Discussion:

Note: Page numbers are from the paperback edition.

1. Could Victoria’s story have been different if someone or something else had intervened?   What events could have made her life better?
2. How well did Meredith do her job?  What could she have done differently?
3. Why did Elizabeth stop the adoption? 
4. To what did you attribute the changes that happened with Earl and Bethany after Victoria made them the bouquets?  On page 113 the author reflected that “It wasn’t as if the flowers themselves held within them the ability to bring an abstract definition into physical reality, instead, it seemed that Earl, then Bethany, walked home with a bouquet of flowers expecting change, and the very belief in the possibility instigated a transformation.”  Do you agree?  Is this possible?
5. On page 209, Victoria asked the girls at The Gathering House three questions before hiring Marlena:

1.       Do you have an alarm clock?

2.       Do you know how to get to 6^th and Bethany by bus?

3.       Why do you need the money?

Was there anything else you think she should have asked?

6. How many times did you refer to Victoria’s Dictionary of Flowers while you were reading?  Did it add to your reading pleasure?
7. The meaning of flowers had once been common knowledge.   Do you think it would be nice if it still was or would that add more difficulty to buying someone flowers?   What might be common knowledge now that will be lost in the future?
8. Do you think Mother Ruby should have seen that Victoria was not prepared to keep the baby alone?
9. Victoria thought that leaving Hazel with Grant had been the “most loving act “ she had ever done (page 271).  Do you agree?  What do you think she should have done?
10. Discuss your reading experience.  Did you like how the author drew out the story of Elizabeth, Catherine and Victoria?  Would you recommend this book to your friends?
11. Did you like the ending or was it "too pat?"  
12. The author has foster parented many children.  How do you think that influenced how she wrote the book?

*****

First Semester Success: Learning Strategies and Motivation for Your First Semester (or Any Semester) of College, by Dr. Arden B. Hamer, is available at amazon.com, wordassociation.com and barnesandnoble.com.  Click on the upper right link.

The Life of the Party, by Bob Kealing

Review:  I really enjoyed this book.  Growing up I remember Tupperware Parties so I was able to easily relate, but it would be interesting and informative for younger readers as well.   There is a lot of information about how to be successful in sales as well as life in general and it could also be listed as a “how-to” book for business success as well as non-fiction.  But it is also an interesting character study.   Why was Bonnie Wise so successful?  What led to the break in her relationship with Earl Tupper and could it have been avoided?  There are multiple reasons to choose this book and any one of them will lead to an enjoyable reading experience.  I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for this review.

People
Tupperware Home Party Division (THP)	Executive Office
Brownie Wise Robert – husband, divorced Jerry – son Rose Humphrey – mother Hibiscus – pen name for advice column Water’s Edge – home in Kissimmee, FL Isla Milagra (Miracle Island) – island in Lake Toho Mary Frances Babb – secretary Herb Young – office manager, only one who left and joined Brownie after she was let go Stanley Sales Force who moved to Tupperware with Brownie: *Rose Humphrey – mother, Hibiscus Sales *Florence Zewicky *Peter and Elsie Block – ring leaders of distributor revolt *Dorothy Shannon *Gary McDonald – Dorothy Shannon’s nephew Best Wishes – Brownie’ book, not successful Dealers >> Managers >> Distributors	Earl Tupper *Hamer Wilson – Sales Counselor *Gary McDonald – Sales Promotion Manager *Norman Squires - General Sales Manager *Jack Marshall – General Sales Manager *Elsie Mortland – Originally one of Rose’s key star dealers, perfected the “Tupperware burp,” Hostess Demonstrator, ran Magic Kitchen at headquarters *Ruder & Finn – Madison Avenue PR firm *Charles McBurney – Public Relations Department *Glen Bump – writer for McBurney *George Reynolds – Maintenance Manager *Tony Ponticelli – Special Events Director for Home Parties Fuller Brush Co./Stanley Home Products *Frank Beveridge – first to use home parties, told Brownie “management is no place for a woman” (page 27) *Elmer Nyberg – Director of Education, influential to Brownie’s sales philosophy

For discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from the hardback edition.

1. Do you think things might have turned out differently if Brownie had not received so much media attention?
2. Was there anything Brownie could have done differently to avoid the conflict with Tupper or was it inevitable?   Given how well she worked with people, should she have foreseen the problem and worked to avoid or repair it?
3. At the end when Brownie tried to lure dealers away from Tupperware after she was let go, were you surprised that no one followed her?  What do you think you would have done?
4. On page 95, what did you think about the statement that one part to the success of Tupperware was that women never got praised for what they did until they got praise for selling Tupperware?  How important is praise to you?
5. On page 16, the author listed Elmer Nyberg’s seven ways “to make people like you.”  Is there anything you disagreed with or would add?
6. When talking to a Tupperware convention, Bonnie Wise said that “Being completely satisfied would be a little like death” (page 127).    Do you agree?  Is it negative to be satisfied with what you have accomplished?
7. On that same page (127), she said that “success was limited only by how willing they were to let it consume them.”  Do you agree?  What has consumed you in your life?  Do you see a connection to how successful you were with that endeavor?
8. There was a lot of emphasis on helping other people be successful.  (See page 139 where Tony Ponticelli, special events director, said that at his first convention he, “was converted.  It wasn’t a phony, staged kind of thing…before you know it, you had a new religion of helping other people.”)   How did this philosophy help Tupperware and Bonnie Wise be successful?

 ***

First Semester Success: Learning Strategies and Motivation for Your First Semester (or Any Semester) of College, by Dr. Arden B. Hamer, is available at amazon.com, wordassociation.com and barnesandnoble.com.  Click on the upper right link.

Beach Music, by Pat Conroy (second half - Parts 4, 5, 6 and Epilogue)

NOTE:  My Library Book Group is discussing this book over two months.  This discussion guide is for the second half of the book.

Characters – expanded for second half of novel
McCall family	Others
Jack McCall Shyla – wife, suicide Leah – daughter Judge Johnson Hagood McCall – father Lucy – mother Dr. John Pitts – Lucy’s second husband Father Jude – Lucy’s brother Brothers: Dupree Dallas – lawyer with dad’s firm Tee – second youngest John Hardin – youngest, mental problems Paternal grandparents: Silas Ginny Penn The Great Dog Chippie	Shyla Fox’s family: Martha – sister Ruth – mother – rescued as teenager from Holocausts by Max Rusoff and wife George - father – pianist, also Holocaust survivor Jack’s high school friends: Ledare Middleton Capers Middleton - divorced from Ledare, political ambitions, 2nd wife Betsy Mike Hess – Hollywood produced Jordan Elliott – fugitive, priest in Rome Jordan’s parents: Celestine General Elliott Max Rusoff – Mike’s father, department store owner, mayor of Waterford In Kironittska was apprenticed as child to: Arel the Muscle – blacksmith Mottele the Blade – butcher Radical Bob Merrill – leader of Students for Democratic Society at Carolina University 1969-1971

After reading the second half of the book:

• In chapter 20 Jack said to Leah that, “All life connects…. Nothing happens that is meaningless.”  How well did everything will connect together at the end of the book?
• What questions did you have that were answered in the second half of the book?

If you read the entire book without a break:

• What surprised the reader in the second half?
• What seemed important in the first half that was not be important to the final story?

 For discussion:

1. What did you think about the story where Shyla brought home the homeless black woman, left her alone in the apartment and then she stole everything from them?  Was it realistic that Shyla would do this and that Jack would go along with it?
2. Leah is about eight when she and Jack go back to Waterford.   Does she act too old for her age in the novel?   In particular, see the episode in chapter 28 with her grandmother and Jane, the South Carolina Wildlife Officer and also the time she saw John Hardin naked.
3. On about the fourth page of chapter 31 Leah tells Jack that he does not understand John Hardin or his father and that Jack is mean to his father.  She says that, “It’s your job to like him.  He’s your daddy.”   Is this too insightful for a child?
4. At the very beginning of chapter 29, what did Jack mean by a “danger of unremembrance?”
5. Do you think it would have been possible for Ruth and George Fox to escape their past and move on?   Was it possible for them to raise Shyla differently than they did?
6. There have been numerous fiction and nonfiction accounts published about the Holocaust.   How did George Fox’s story written by Conroy compare?  Did you gain any new insights?
7. At the end of chapter 30, George tells Jack, “I think Shyla might have died because of what I did not tell her, not what Ruth did.”   He went on to say, “I thought silence was the proper resolution and strategy for what happened to me.  I did not think my poisons and hatreds and shame would leak out and poison everything I loved.”  What did he mean?  When would it have been appropriate to tell Shyla his story?   Would it have made a difference to her?
8. What was Mike’s motivation for holding the mock trial for Jordan Elliott?  Did you think it was self-serving?
9. Where you surprised when Capers was revealed as a paid undercover agent at the trial following the Vietnam Demonstration?
10. What purpose did Radical Bob Merrill play in the novel?
11. He alone seemed unconcerned with what he did in the past.   In chapter 38 during the mock trial he said, “I did what I thought was right back then.  Hindsight’s groovy, but a total waste of time.”   Do you agree?  Why or why not?
12. Does Capers need forgiveness for what he did to his friends and family or is General Elliott right when he said, “You’re the only one on this stage who conducted yourself with honor in this whole affair.”  (Chapter 38)
13. Also in chapter 38 the General said, “I can’t help who I am, son.”   Do you agree?  Is it possible to be self-reflective and change something about ourselves we do not like?
14. When John Hardin kidnapped his mother and the brothers were hunting him, where was Dr. Pitts?  Where was Leah?  Do you think the author should have addressed this?
15. Who do you think Jack and Ledare should have chosen for their matron of honor and best man?
16. The 2009 paperback edition has a letter at the end that Pat Conroy wrote to the Charleston Gazette in response to an email from a high school student telling him that some parents were trying to stop high school English teachers from teaching The Prince of Tides and Beach Music in their English classes.  How convincing was his argument to allow the books in the classroom?  What did you think was his most convincing point?

*****

First Semester Success: Learning Strategies and Motivation for Your First Semester (or Any Semester) of College, by Dr. Arden B. Hamer, is available at amazon.com, wordassociation.com and barnesandnoble.com.  Click on the  upper right  link.