Before We Were Yours, by Lisa Windgate

 

Characters
Foss Family and others in 1940s	Present Day
Queenie and Briny Foss Rill > May Weathers Camillia > Iris Lark > Bonnie Gabion > Robby Fern > Beth   Judy – twin baby born prematurely   Arcadia - houseboat   Zede – helped family Silas   Tennessee Children’s Home Society Georgia Tann – real person Mrs. Murphy Mr. Riggs - abusive Miss Dodd – tried to help but lost job   Sherry and Stevie – two other children picked up with Foss children   Arney (Arnelle) – helped escape   Darren and Victoria Sevier – adoptive parents Zuma – housekeeper How - husband Hootsie - daughter	Stafford Family: Senator Wells Stafford Honeybee – mother Avery Missy and Allison   Grandma Judy   Leslie - Press Secretary   Elliot – Avery’s fiancé   Trent Turner Grandfather left letter for Grandma Judy       From 1940s – Hootsie and family – looking after Judy’s cottage in Edisto May Weathers Grandma Judy

 

For Discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from paperback edition.

1.       What happened to Camillia?

2.       Why were the staff at the Tennessee Children’s Home Society, Mrs. Murphy and Mr. Riggs for example, so mean and uncaring toward the children?

3.       Who was Shad Arthur Foss, the baby boy whose information was in the envelope Trent had for Grandma Judy?

4.       Why do you think Trent went against his grandfather’s wishes and gave the envelope to Avery?

5.       Were you surprised that the Sevier’s took May and Beth back after they ran away? 

 

6.       How do you think they were as a family after May and Beth returned?  May told Avery, “You do not have to be born into a family to be loved by one” (page 314).  

7.       May told Avery that she had intended to wait and be sure the Sevier’s would keep Beth and then run away with Silas, but Hootsie saw them coming and alerted everyone.  Do you think Zuma and her family changed their attitude toward May and Beth?

8.       Avery reflected that, given her upbringing, she tended to “assume that I’ll get what I want” (page 230).  Would she or her family have gotten a baby from the home that matched their expectations?  Would they have questioned the procedure?

9.       How was Georgia Tann able to get away with stealing and killing babies and children for so long?

10.   Did the substory of the Avery’s dilemma about marrying Elliot and falling in love with Trent add to your enjoyment of the novel?

11.   Another substory was the issue of providing dignified care for frail senior citizens.  How do you think readers of different ages will read the sections about senior care? 

12.   Arney (Arnell) had a small, but important part in May’s story.  Arney told May that she, May, saved her.  May thought they had saved each other.  Then May told Avery, “People don’t come into our lives by accident” (page 317).   Who were the key players in this story?   Would the story have been the same without one or more of them?

13.   The director of May’s home told Avery, “One of the things our residents sometimes have difficulty accepting is that many of their belongings haven’t come with them” (page 42).  If you had to move into a center, what would you take with you?

14.   What would the children’s lives have been like if the story had never happened and they grew up on the Arcadia with their parents?   With the exception of Camillia’s death, is it possible they had a better life because they were taken and adopted?

15.   Why do you think the sisters decided not to make their story public?  

16.   This is a different type of historical fiction – the only real person was Georgia Tann – with the story built around a situation and not real people.   Do you like this type of story?

Everything I Never Told You, by Celeste Ng

 

Characters

James Lee Marilyn Lee – wife, briefly disappeared Lydia Nathan Hannah   Jack Wolff Dr. Janet Wolff – single mother   Louisa Chen – James TA   Marilyn’s mother – Home Economics teacher, disapproved of marriage   James’ parents – maintenance man and cafeteria lady at prestigious school, James got free tuition

 

For Discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from hardback edition.

1. What did you think when you read the first sentence and paragraph?  Did it grab your interest?
2. Discuss Marilyn and her mother and their relationship.   Why didn’t they have any contact for eight years after Marilyn’s marriage?  Do you think her mother regretted this? 
3. Did you feel sorry for Marilyn’s mother?  How did her expectations influence Marilyn?
4. When Marilyn left the family, why did Lydia hide her grandmother’s cookbook when she knew Marilyn was returning home?   Why did Marilyn stop cooking?
5. How did Marilyn’s relationship with her mother influence her relationship with her daughter, Lydia? 
6. What effect did Marilyn’s attention have on Lydia and her future?
7. What effect did the focus on Lydia by both James and Marilyn have on Nathan and Hannah?  
8. Why did Lydia never write in any of the yearly journals her mother gave her?
9. Why didn’t Lydia have any friends?   Would Marilyn and James have noticed this if they had really paid any attention to her?   Do you think James really knew what was happening when he gave her the book, How to Win Friends and Influence People?
10. Discuss Jack.    He didn’t really care about school or the fact that he was failing physics for the second time.   Would he have turned out differently if his mother had paid attention to him?  What do you think happened to him after the story ended?
11. Hannah was more perceptive than anyone realized.   Were you surprised at what Hannah noticed about Jack when everyone was swimming in chapter 8?  Watching Jack sitting next to Nathan, she “recognized it at once: love” (page 211).   How did this influence the ending of the novel?
12. Both Marilyn and James blamed what happened on Lydia being biracial.   Marilyn said, “If she were a white girl, they’d keep looking” and James said “If he were a white girl…none of this would ever have happened” (page 202).  Do you think this is true?
13. Do you think the family will change?   At the end of the novel, James plays with Hannah the way he used to with Lydia and Marilyn and James seem to reconnect (pages 279 – 285).
14. What do you think will happen to Nathan?
15. How do you think the story would have ended if Lydia had made it to the shore as she expected?

 

The Other Einstein, Marie Benedict

 

People
Albert Einstein Parents – Hermann and Pauline Maja – younger sister   Mileva “Mitza” Maric Parents – Milos and Marija Two deceased siblings Two younger siblings   Lieserl – daughter, deceased in novel Hans Albert and Eduard - sons   Elsa – cousin, Einstein’s second wife	Mileva’s friends in boarding house: Ruzica Drazic – political science Milana Bota - psychology Helene Kaufler – history   Polytechnic physics classmates: Marcel Grossman Mr. Ehrat Mr. Khllors   Olympia Academy: Maurice Solovine - moved Conrad Habicht Paul Habicht – joined later   Marcel Grossman – new collaborator, took Mileva’s part in 1912   Marie Curie

 For Discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from paperback edition.

1.       Mileva’s father told her that “…brilliance brings burdens, doesn’t it” (page 88).  Her family moved to Zagreb in order for her to attend better schools.   Did she fulfill the responsibility her father was talking about?  What responsibility to do we have to nurture our talents?

2.       Should Einstein have been better able to read social cues?   Was it reasonable for him to invite himself to the musical evenings Mileva was having with her friends at the boarding house and to invite himself and bring along a friend when they had a day-long hike planned?

3.       Mileva went to Lake Como with Einstein before they were married and she became pregnant.  Given the time in history, why did she consider going?  Once there, why did consent to intimacy and thus became pregnant?

4.       Was it reasonable for her to think things would happen differently when Einstein became aware of the pregnancy?

5.       After Lieserl died and Mileva was pregnant again, Einstein said, “I’m happy about your news.  I’ve thought for some time that you needed a new little girl…” (page 211).   When she came back after Lieserl died and she was crying when entering the apartment in 1903, Einstein did not understand why she was sad.   Was he cold-hearted or just clueless?

6.       It turned out that it was Einstein who made the decision to remove Mileva’s name from the article about relativity that she co-authored with him and that led to the Nobel Prize.  Why did he decide to do that when the publishers did not ask him to do so?

7.       If Einstein did not recognize Mileva’s contributions to his research, why did he give her all the proceeds to future Nobel Prizes?

8.       Marie Curie had the life that Mileva had dreamed of having.  Marie Curie said to her, “You and I are not so different except for the choices we made…And the husbands we chose, of course” (page 288).  Do you think she, Curie, knew what had happened with Milvea’s research and contributions to Einstein’s success?

9.       Later, Marie Curie again said to Mileva, “You and I are not so different except in the choices we made.  And remind yourself that a new choice is always possible” (page 290).   While Mileva divorced Einstein and made a life of her own, she never got back into science except to tutor young women scientists.  Was it possible for her to reenter the field of science?   Would it be possible today?

10.   Mileva’s contributions started getting attention after the publication of early letters between her and Einstein.  If this is true, should she be recognized and how?

11.   This is historical fiction.   The disclaimer on the copyright page states, “The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious, or are used fictitiously.  Apart from well-known historical figures, any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.”  Does the writer have any obligation to go further when, clearly, many people and events are real?  Does the reader have any obligation to find out what is true?

12.   How well did the author explain the science in the story?

The Ship of Brides, by Jojo Moyes

 

Characters
Brides	Others
Margaret “Maggie” Family – father, three brothers, mother left family Letty – mother’s sister Maude Gonne – dog, smuggled on ship Joe O’Brien – husband   Avice Ian Radley – married, wants Avice to be his mistress Family wealthy   Jean Castleforth – 16 years old Stanley - husband Involved in “incident” on ship “Not Wanted Don’t Come”   Sister Frances Mackenzie Chalkie McKenzie – husband, deceased Former prostitute   Irene Carter – Avice’s friend from home	HMS Victoria   Captain George Highfield Robert Hart – nephew, deceased   Henry Nicol – Maine guarding door Wife left him for another man   Dennis Tims – sailor, poker game, boxer       Audrey Marshall – matron in field hospital where Frances was a nurse Arranged marriage to Mackenzie   Mr. Radcliff – hotel owner and pimp Hun Li - cook

 

For Discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers refer to the paperback edition.

1.       Why did Margaret bring her dog with her?   Was that responsible?

2.       Was Jean responsible for the “incident” that happened on the ship?   Should she have been held accountable and not the sailors?  How do you think her husband, Stanley, heard the news?

3.       Were you surprised to learn that Margaret’s mother was not deceased, but had abandoned the family? 

4.       Why did Margaret react like she did when Letty expressed interest in her father?  Did your opinion change once you learned that her mother did not die but had abandoned the entire family? 

5.       Did Frances have a choice about starting to work for Mr. Radcliff in his hotel and eventually becoming a prostitute?  Was it fair to blame her for her fate? 

6.       Were you surprised at how the other brides and the seaman treated Margaret once they knew her history?  Would she receive the same treatment today?

7.       Frances wanted to be judged on her current life and told Captain Highfield that her prior life was “none of your concern” (page 315).   Is it a risk to others to give someone a second chance or ignore previous bad behavior?  Is that a responsible thing to do?

8.       When Captain Highfield told Frances about feeling responsible and judged for the death of his nephew, Robert Hart, she replied, “the only people who still have all the answers are those who have never been faced with the questions” (page 331).  How did this apply to all of the characters?

9.       Why did Women’s friendships make Frances feel so vulnerable?

10.   Would you have done what the women did, leave your families and travel to another country for a husband you barely knew?

11.   What did you like or dislike about the book?  Would you recommend it to others?

A Man Called Ove, by Fredrik Backman

 

Characters
Neighbors	Others
Ove – parents died when he was 7 (mother) and 16 (father) Sonja – taught special education students   Rune – Alzheimer’s, ongoing feud with Ove Anita   Parvenah Patrick Nasanin – 7 Sister - 3 Baby boy   Anders – across street Blond Weed – girlfriend Prince “Mutt” – dog   Jimmy – 25 years old, Ove and Rune bought house when father left	Tom – railway foreman, falsely accused Ove of stealing money   Lena – newspaper reporter   Adrian – postman, former student of Sonja’s Mirsad – boss at cafe Amel – Mirsad’s father, café owner   Council: Men in white shirt

 

For discussion:

NOTE: The page numbers are from the paperback edition.

 

1. After reading chapter one, did you want to continue reading? 

 

2. Did you like the chapter titles?   Did they add to your reading experience?

 

3. How well did the author develop Ove’s character?  Did you understand him?  At the beginning, did you like him or not?  Why?

 

4. How did Ove’s childhood and the years after his father died help form him into the man he became?

 

5. Were you surprised that Ove did not tell the truth about Tom stealing the money from the cash box?  When Ove was nine, he saw Tom keep something someone had left on the train while Ove turned in the wallet he found.  He lied at that time also and did not say that Tom had kept the briefcase.  Ove’s father told him, “We are not the sort of people who tell on others” (page 44).  Was this good advice?

 

6. How was Parvaneh like Sonja?  How were they different?

 

7. Would you have been as tolerant of Ove as Sonja?

 

8. Discuss the cat.  If you are a “cat person,” do you think the author did a good job describing a cat’s personality?   What were your thoughts if you are not a “cat person?”

 

9. Why are Anders and the Blond Weed so nasty to Ove?

 

10. What did you think of the book’s treatment of suicide?  Was it presented too positively (end loneliness, reunite with Sonja) and does it adequately address the pain left behind (effect on young train conductor)?

 

11. In chapter 13, when Parvenah sees the plastic tubing in the garage, do you think she has an idea of what Ove intended to do?  Also, at the end of the novel she tells the doctor, “Ove is quite clearly UTTERLY LOUSY at dying!” (page 329).  Should she have done anything?

 

12. The book made many observations about modern life and how Ove fit in.  What were your thoughts about the following?

 

1. Page 82 – “Nowadays people change their stuff so often that any expertise in how to make things last was becoming superfluous.  Quality: no one cared about that anymore.”

 

2. Page 83 – “This is a world where one became outdated before one’s time was up.  An entire country standing up and applauding the fact that no one was capable of doing anything properly anymore.  The undeserved celebration of mediocrity.”

 

3. Page 137 – Regarding tattoos: “he has covered himself in doodles as well.  There’s not even a proper motif, as far as Ove can see, just a lot of patterns.”

 

13. The beginning of chapter 39 addressed death and time.  How do you think people of different ages would interpret this chapter?

 

14. Did you like the author’s writing style?  For example, on page 8 when discussing the video cameras, the author wrote that the “new steering group explained snappily to the residents…”  What mental image did you get from this phrase?

The Overstory, Rickard Powers (2019 Pulitzer Prize for fiction)

 

Characters
Roots
Nicholas Hoel Chestnut tree – sentinel tree Flip-book – 76 years of monthly pictures   Mimi Ma Mulberry Tree Winston Ma – father, three jade rings and scroll, suicide   Adam Appich Maple tree Studying social psychology   Ray Brinkman and Dorothy Cazaly Linden tree Community theater Add new plant to yard each anniversary	Douglas Pavlicek Prisoner 571 in experiment (did not give blanket to help another “prisoner”) Banyan tree – saved life when shot down in Viet Nam Planted saplings to replace those taken down   Neelay Mehta Paralyzed – fell from oak tree Develops computer games Ms. Gilpin – teacher, took notebook   Dr.  Patricia Westerford “Plant Patty” Research that trees are social creatures debunked, but years later vindicated Dennis Ward – husband   Olivia Vandergriff Electrocuted and revived by falling out of bed
Trunk
Life Force Defense LFD Mother N Moses   Olivia and Nick >> Watchman and Maidenhair Douglas fir – Mimas On platform 200 feet in air for one year *Olivia killed in last protest   Mimi and Doug >> Mulberry and Doug-fir   Ray and Dorothy – Dorothy – community chorus and affair Ray – working more hours	Adam >> Maple “Bias Boy” in grad school Thesis – Identity formation and Big Five personality factors among plants rights activists   Dr. Patricia Westerford The Secret Forest   Dennis – Patricia’s husband   Neelay - Computer game “Mastery”
Crown – next 20 years
Mimi – Therapist, “Judith Hanson” Father’s jade ring and Chinese scroll   Adam – professor, early tenure, published Lois - wife   Neelay – Mastery 8   Nick – returns to farm and digs up flip-book	Ray – stroke Dorothy – affair Letting yard go back to nature   Doug – caretaker at Friendliest Ghost Town in the West Alena – read journals and turned Doug in to police   Dr. Westerford – established seed bank
Seeds
Nick – no more movies, working on “Still” Man in red plaid coat helping   Dorothy and Ray – Ray deceased	Dr. Westerford – The New Metamorphosis   Adam and Doug in jail for destruction of property and murder

For Discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from the hardback edition.

1.       Maidenhair and Watchman lived in Mimas for one year.  Could you imagine doing that??

2.       In her speech at the conference, Home Repair: Countering a Warming World, Patty asked, “What is the single best think a person can do for tomorrow’s world?” (page 464).  Twenty years ago, Mimi thought the answer was to “burn down a luxury ski resort before it could be built” (page 464).  What do you think Mimi’s answer would be at the end of the novel?   How would the other main characters answer that question?

3.       What part did Neelay play in the story?  Also, Dorothy and Ray – why were they in the novel?

4.       When Doug was arrested, the deal offered him was to turn in just one other person in exchange for a reduced sentence (page 450) and he chose Adam.  Why did he choose him?  Do you think that was the best choice given that Adam had a family and was a late-comer to the group?

5.       Do you think his decision had anything to do with the fact that Adam did not go for help when they told him to after the accident?  Adam’s rationale was that Olivia was dead already and if he went for help they would all be arrested.

6.       Why did Adam present little defense after his arrest?  Why did he feel so guilty but none of the others felt moved to turn themselves in?  He told his wife, “If I save myself, I lose something else” (page 488).  What did he mean?

7.       Right before he died, Ray thinks the best defense for Adam is “self-defense…Stand your ground. The castle doctrine.  Self-help” (page 497).  Do you think this would have worked?

8.       When Dorothy and Ray decided to let their yard go back to nature, their neighbors complained and the local government first fined them and then cleaned up the yard without their consent.   How do you think people in your neighborhood would react if someone decided to let their yard be natural?

9.       Was there a better way for the Life Force Defense (LFD) and the five main characters to share their views and stop the logging?

10.   When Adam was talking with Doug at the end, when Doug was identifying him to the authorities, they talked about what they had accomplished.  Adam said, “We accomplished nothing” and Doug replied, “She would have done it all again” (page 431).  Did they accomplish anything? 

11.   When Adam is checked into prison, he hears a voice in his head telling him, “You have been spared from death, to do a most important thing” (page 495).  What do you think it is?

12.   Twenty years later, new fires are being set using the LFD’s old slogans.   Who is setting these fires?

13.   Nick has a job working at a fulfillment center similar to Amazon (un-named in book).   He feels the product the company is promoting is not so much books as it is convenience.   Nick thinks that “ease is the disease” and that “Once you’ve bought a novel in your pajamas, there’s no turning back” (page 379).  Do you see this as a problem?

14.   Who is the man in the red plaid coat helping Nick at the end?  When Nick says to him, referring to conifer trees, “It amazes me how much they say when you let them.  They’re not that hard to hear,” the man answers, “We’ve been trying to tell you that since 1492” (page 493).

15.   How well did the author present both sides of the issue?  The loggers were working for jobs and materials for homes.  The environmentalists wanted to save the old forests.  Was, or is, there a middle ground?

16.   When Mimi and the others were welcoming Adam to their group, Mimi asked him what the best way was to convince people of their cause.  Adam’s response was, “The best arguments in the world won’t change a person’s mind.  The only thing that can do that is a good story” (page 336).  Did this story make you see trees and forests differently?

 

Girl Waits with Gun, by Ann Stewart

 

Characters
Real People - 1914	Fictional
Kopp Family: Parents - deceased Constance Norma Fleurette Francis - brother Bessie- wife   Henry Kaufman   Sheriff Heath Cordelia – wife   George Ewing   John Ward – Kaufman’s lawyer, ordered photographs at Kaufmann’s request   Newspaper articles and letters	Lucy Blake and baby son, Bobby   Marion Garfinkel – Henry’s sister   Henri LaMotte – collects evidence   Mrs. Florence’s County Home for Friendless and Erring Women

 

For Discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from paperback edition.

1.       What did you think about how Fleurette was raised, kept away from everyone including public school?  Was that realistic for the times?

2.       Why did Fleurette turn out so differently than her sisters, Norma and Constance? 

3.       From the Acknowledgements it seems that the secret of Fleurette’s birth was kept from everyone, including her, for a very long time.    Was that fair to her?  Would this same situation happen today?

4.       Were you surprised that her mother did not want Constance to be found and forbid Francis from asking around to find her?  She was sure that “whatever the reason for my disappearance, it had to be something shameful, something not to be spoken of, even with the rest of the family” (page 117).  Years later Constance’s uncles still thought she had “enrolled in a secretarial college in Philadelphia” (page 117).  Do you think this was normal for the times?

5.       Should Constance have been suspicious of the Singer Sewing Machine salesman and not fallen into his trap?   All her mother had told her was to “never sit alone on a divan with a man” (page 107).   Should she have been better educated?

6.       Constance was not hired as a detective for Wanamaker’s Department Store because she was too tall and would not blend in with the customers.   Would she have been successful as a store detective? 

7.       Did you like the organization of the book, switching between the current case and the family history?

8.       When this book was published in 2015 it won numerous honors such as being named one of NPR’s Best Books of 2015.   Why do you think it was so honored?  Do you think it deserved all of the recognition?

9.       For you, how did the book compare with others in the historical fiction genre?

10.   Do you want to read the next book in the series?