Meet You in Hell, by Les Standiford

 

People and Events
Andrew Carnegie Louise - wife Margaret - daughter   Tom Carnegie – brother, chairman of board   Built 2,800 libraries Donated 8,000 organs   Carnegie Institute of Technology – became Carnegie Mellon University	Henry Clay Frick – main manufacturer of coke Adelaide – wife Martha – daughter, died 1981 Henry Clay Frick Jr. – died Helen Clay - daughter Childs – son   Alexander Berkman – assassin   Art collector – Frick Collection in New York   Frick Nature Preserve
Others	Homestead Plant
Henry Bessemer – change iron into steel Edgar Thompson	Captain Jones Charales Schwab – replaced Jones John Potter – replaced Schwab as superintendent 1892   Amalgamate Assoc. of Iron and Steel Workers of the US 1987 – American Federation of Labor
Companies	Homestead Strike
Frick Coke Company   Carnegie, Phipps and Company 1886   Carnegie Brothers and Company 1889 Frick – chairman and 11% interest   Carnegie Steel – merger of Carnegie, Phipps and Carnegie Bros. and Co. Charles Schwab – president   United States Steel Corporation 1900 $480,000,000 to buy out Carnegie and family Charles Schwab – president 2 years Elbert H. Gray – president 26 years Henry Clay Frick – board member	William McCleary – sheriff Allegheny County Samuel Cluely – chief deputy   Pinkertons – strike breakers, July 5, called in by Frick July 1982   Hugh O’Donnell – spoke for workers   National Guard General Snowden

 

For Discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers come from the 2005 paperback edition.

1.       Carnegie did not approve of Frick’s methods during the strike.  He said he would have shut down the mill and waited for workers to ask to come back under his terms.  Would this have worked?

2.       Carnegie was in Scotland for most (if not all) of the problems and strike.  Would it have made a difference if he was here?

3.       In 1868 Carnegie wrote himself a letter in which he wrote “the amassing of wealth is one of the worst species of idolatry (page 39).  How do you think he justified his actions regarding money during his life?

4.       Both Carnegie and Frick grew up without much and they both got opportunities to rise up from their current state.  Do you think they felt they provided the same opportunities for others?  If not, how did they justify their actions?

5.       A major difference between the two was that Frick was “a man willing to take considerable risk in defense of his principles” (page 81), while Carnegie’s “self-interest reigned supreme” (page 81).  How did this difference affect their actions and futures?

6.       Carnegie’s business plan was to focus on “what it cost to produce goods than in revenues or profits” (page 89).  How did this influence his decisions during the strike?

7.       When Captain Jones was plant manager, he realized that it was counter-productive to have men working 12 hours a day.  When the work was divided into 8-hour days, the output increased without any increased cost of salaries.   Why did Carnegie go back to the 12-hour shifts after the strike.

8.       After the strike the workers’ conditions declined: wages down by one-half, the minimum basis for wages was discontinued, and they went back to the 12-hour day working seven days a week.  How could Carnegie and Frick justify this?

9.       If the reader is not from Pittsburgh, what do you think they learned about our city?  For example, on page 17 the author mentioned KDKA as the first radio station and Dr. Jonas Salk developing the polio vaccine at the University of Pittsburgh.

10.   If you are from Pittsburgh, what did you read that was new or interesting?  For example, did you realize the Frick Building built in 1900 at 22 stories was designed to overshadow the 15 story Carnegie building next to it?

11.   Discuss your reading experience.   Did you like how in Chapter Two the author gave some historical background?  Did this add to your reading?

12.   Out of This Furnace, by Thomas Bell, started in 1900 and was set in the Pittsburgh steel mills.  Did reading this book give you any additional insights into the lives of the steelworkers?

The Henna Artist, by Alka Joshi

 

Characters

Lakshmi “Jiji” Pitaji – father, teacher Mother Radha – sister, “Bad Luck Girl”   Hari – husband Saasuji – mother, taught Lakshmi about herbs, etc. for healing   Malik   Naraya – builder Mrs. Iyengar - landlady   Samir Singh – asked Lakshmi to move to Jaipur for henna and contraceptives, architect Parvati – wife Ravi – son Lala and niece – servant   Joyce Harris – baby either husband’s or Samir’s, abortion at 5 months   V. M. Sharma – official building contractor for royal family Wife Sheela – daughter, pledged to Ravi   Kanta Agarwal – educated in England, adopted Nikil Manu - husband   Maharaja of Jaipur Indira – Maharaja’s step-mother, parakeet Madho Singh Latika – current wife   Dr. Jay Kumar Lady Bradley Hospital – Shimla Lady Bradley Healing Garden

 

For Discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from hardback edition.

1.       As Radha was adjusting to living with Lakshmi, Lakshmi kept telling her the “rules.”  On page 85 she told Radha, “You should cover your mouth when you yawn, Radha” and she replied “Twentieth thing?”  Could you live with all those rules, or do we already and they are just second nature?

2.       Lakshmi felt very guilty about abandoning Radha, but she did not even know she existed.  Did you understand her feelings?

3.       Discuss Samir.  He was an important character throughout the novel: he brought Lakshmi to Jaipur and helped her business, he was romantically involved with her, he introduced her to Dr. Kamar, and he financed a loan for her house.

4.       Parvati, Samir’s wife, first promoted Lakshmi’s business to her friends.  But when she discovered Lakshmi had dealings with her husband, she got everyone but a few people to stop calling her and thus ruined the business.  Given how talented and successful Lakshmi was helping people, were you surprised they were so willing to immediately drop her?

5.       Were you surprised Lakshmi turned Parvati down when she offered to restore Lakshmi’s reputation and business? (Page 278)

6.       What did you think about the maharaja wanted to adopt an heir and banishing his natural heir to England on the advice of an astrologer? He was told “his natural son would overthrow him” (page 149).

7.       When Radha became pregnant, Lakshmi started to have second thoughts about how she had helped men’s mistresses end their pregnancies.  She had “justified it by treating it as a business transaction” (page 241).  She did see this different from the “sachets for the courtesans…who had been raised to be prostitutes” (page 241).  What did you think as your read this?

8.       Discuss Hari.   Were you surprised he made such a dramatic change and started to practice his mother’s herbs, etc.?  Why do you think this happened?  Did you think Lakshmi could get back together with him?  (Malik got the palace chef to tell maharani about Hari and then finance his efforts.)

9.       Why do you think the henna designs Lakshmi painted on various parts of the women’s bodies were so successful in helping them?

10.   What do you think happened after the story ended?

The Librarian of Burned Books, by Brianna Labuskes

 

Characters/People
New York 1943-1944	Berlin 1932-1933	Paris 1936-1937
Vivian Childs – Council on Books in Wartime Edward – husband, deceased Emmett Hale – half-brother, State Representative Charlotte – mother-in-law Theodore Childs – father   Philip Van Doren Stern – head of Council   Mary Kathleen Sullivan – Emmett’s mother William Hale – adopted father   American Library of Nazi Burned Books Hannah Brecht - librarian   Armed Services Editions   Senator Robert Taft   Althea James Joe – brother, manager	Althea James – author, German heritage The Unfractured Light An Inconceivable Dark Six-month author residency in Berlin   Professor Deidrich Muller   Deveraux Charales “Dev” – spy, turned in Adam with Otto’s help   Otto Koch – actor   Hannah Brecht Adam Brecht	Hannah Brecht – German   German Library of Burned Books   Alfred Kantorowicz – library founder Heinrich Mann - library president   Adam – brother, deceased, in concentration camp   Lucian – resistance meetings   Otto Koch   Natalie Clifford Burney – weekly salon   Bridgette Blanchett – landlady   Dev - actress
Berlin 1995
Vivian Hale Emmett Hale Martha Hale Schumacher – daughter, House of Representatives   Hannah Brecht Althea James

 

For discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from the paperback edition.

1.       Did you like the way the author kept hinting about the story between Hannah and Althea but never told the full story until the end of the book?

2.       In Althea’s stories, “No character was ever completely good or evil, but rather they were made up of a number of traits” (page 171).  Do you like clear-cut villains and heroes?

 3.       The author used this book to emphasize the importance of reading and books.  For example:

a.       Page 69 – “a pen could destroy a nation”

b.       Page 354 – “War correspondents wrote to her that the soldiers had been allowed to bring only the most essential items onto the beaches – and for many that included thier lightweight paperbacks.”

c.       Pages 370 – 371 – “What Viv loves best, though, was the general consensus that books were not just books.  They were stories that helped the exhausted men overseas remember what they were fighting for – freedom of thought, American values, antifascist sentiment.”

Were there any other ideas you found interesting or important?

4.       In talking about the ASE project, Viv said, “I don’t think the author’s job is always to change the world.  I think sometimes it ‘s to make it more enjoyable” (page 336).  Can you think of any books that influenced your thought process or, on the other hand, provided pure enjoyment?

5.       When Hannah was speaking at the event in support of the ASE program, she said wonders “what the moment was that we lost Germany I knew…sometimes I think it was the moment right before the gasoline was poured on the books. The moment the most educated country in the world willingly, joyously, wholeheartedly turned away from knowledge” (page 362).   Do you agree?

6.       Speaking of history, she said “history is built on moments that feel insignificant” (page 363).  Can you think of any other examples of this?

7.       Does Dev’s smuggling hundreds of Jews out of Germany counterbalance her part in Adam’s betrayal?

8.       Discuss your reading experience.  Did this book make you think?  Was it enjoyable?