Anxious People, by Fredrik Backman

 

Characters
Bank Robber and Hostages	Others
Bank Robber   Zara – bank manager, received letter from man who jumped from bridge 10 years ago   Roger Anna-Lena   Julia - pregnant Ro   Estelle – owner of apartment Knut – husband, deceased   Lennart – professional disrupter   Real Estate Agent	Bank Robber: Two daughters Ex-husband   Nadia – psychologist, saved from suicide by Jim, followed for 10 years by Zara   Jim – father, police officer Jack – son, police officer Mother – deceased, priest Sister – addict   London – bank teller at cashless bank being robbed   Man who jumped from bridge, wrote letter to Zara who turned down his loan   Stockholmers

For discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from hardback edition.

1.       The author goes out of his way to not identify the bank robber as male or female.  (See the description of the marriage break up on pages 55 and 56.)  Were you surprised when the bank robber turned out to be a woman?   Did you catch it when you read the pronoun “she” on page 204?  Why did the author add this twist?  Would it have made a difference to the plot of the story if the bank robber was male?

2.       Discuss Zara and her problems.   Should someone have been able to help her earlier or was she too clever to let anyone know what was really going on with her?  Should she have felt guilty for the man’s suicide?

3.       What difference would it have made in the story if Zara had opened the letter ten years earlier

4.       As you read, did your feelings change about Roger?  The author wrote that he was “…incredibly angry.  A man can end up like that as a result of the things old age takes away from him, like the ability to serve a purpose” (page 166).  But on page 173 Roger waited 20 minutes to give his parking space to a young father and on page 167 “he said three of the hardest words an older man can say to a younger woman. ‘You’ll manage it.’”

5.       Discuss Julia and Ro.  Could you relate to Ro’s concern about being a parent?

6.       Were you surprised that Jim helped the bank robber?

 

7.       The novel was first published in Sweden and there were multiple references to Stockholmers.  Do you think people from different countries read these parts the same?

a.       “a symbolic word to denote all the irritating people who get in the way of our happiness” (page 156)

b.       “Everyone is someone else’s Stockholmer, I guess” (page 229)

c.       “’Stockholm’ can also be a syndrome, of course” (page 157)

8.       The other term the author used often to describe people was “idiots.”     The author wrote, “People want to be good. Deep down. Kind. The problem of course is that it isn’t always possible to be kind to idiots, because they’re idiots” (page 101).   How do you think the author would define an idiot?  What did you think about this term as you were reading?

9.       Suicide (man on bridge and Nadia) and addiction (bank robber’s mother and Jack’s sister) played prominent roles in the novel.  How well did the author address these issues?  Regarding teenagers, how accurate do you think his description was of Nadia’s feelings on pages 98 and 99?

10.   Besides telling a story, the author addressed many current issues and dilemmas.  What did you think of the following?

a.       On page 52 he listed things we all understand we should never do (kill, lie, steal, throw stones at birds) and then gave exceptions (killing Hitler, lying about eating children’s candy, throwing stones at swans).

b.       “always be nice to other people, even idiots, because you never know how heavy their burden is” (page 101).

c.       “People want to be good…The problem of course is that it isn’t always possible to kind to idiots, because they’re idiots” (page 101).

d.       Having money enables you to buy distance from other people – first class plane seats, more space between tables at fancy restaurants, larger houses with large yards.

11.   What did you think as you read the first page?   Do you think you read it differently now (in midst of the COVID pandemic) than you would at a different time?

12.   Why do you think the author never gave the elk, the frog and the monkey names other than their nicknames?

13.   Did you like the author’s style?  For example, he often wrote directly to the reader such as in chapter two, page 4.

14.   What were some of your favorite parts of the book?

15.   What do you think you will remember about this book after some time has passed?

16.   Why did the author write this book?   If he was trying to make a statement, was he successful?

Nine Perfect Strangers, by Liane Moriarty

Spoiler Alert!  Don’t read this character list if you have not read the novel.  Part of the enjoyment of the novel was the author’s plot line that slowly revealed each character’s background story.
Guests	Staff
Frances Welty – author, last book rejected Paul Drabble – “boyfriend”, scam   Lars Lee – family lawyer, health retreat junki Ray – boyfriend   Ben and Jessica Chandler – lottery winners Lucy – Ben’s sister, drug overdose   Napoleon (teacher), Heather (midwife), and Zoe Marconi Zach – Zoe’s twin, suicide   Tony Hogburn “Smiley” – former football player   Carmel Schneider Four daughters Joel – ex-husband, Sonia - girlfriend	Maria Dmitrichenko “Masha” – Director   Yao   Delilah   Jan – masseuse, husband Gus (policeman)

 

For Discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from the hardback copy.

1.       Were there some characters you connected with more than others?  Which one would you like to be friends with in real life? 

2.       When Frances was anticipating her counseling session with Masha, she reflected that she had never been to counseling because “she had friends for that.  They all counseled each other and it was generally a two-way process” (page 182).  But then upon further reflection she thought, “Other people’s problems were so simple, one’s own problems tended to be so much more nuanced” (page 183).  Why do you think we can easily see solutions to other’s problems but not our own?

3.       The author addressed many social issues in the novel.  Were there too many?  Did she do a good job realistically addressing these?  Did you gain any new insights?

a.       Body image (Jessica, Frances, Carmel, Tony)

b.       Plastic surgery – Jessica thought she was beautiful but Ben thought she was disfigured

c.       Loss of a child (Marconi family, Masha)

d.       Divorce (Carmel, Tony)

e.       Sudden wealth (Jessica and Ben)

f.        Suicide (Zach)

g.       Drugs (Lucy)

4.       Through Frances the author addressed issues faced by middle aged women in particular.   For example, when they were younger her friends envied her life style, but as they got older, they seemed to pity her because she was single and had no children.  What other aspects of a middle-aged woman’s life did the author accurately depict?

5.       Were you surprised that Frances fell for the romance scam with Paul Drabble?  Why was she susceptible to this scam?  Did you think she would be more sophisticated and understand what was happening?

6.       Discuss Yao.  Why did he go to work with Masha? 

7.       What do you think Masha’s goal was when she had the guests each defend one of the others to her?

8.       How do you think you would have handled the four days of “noble silence?” 

9.       Each guest received a daily schedule they were to follow.  Do you think you would like not having to think about what you were going to do all day?

10.   Were you surprised to discover that the guests had all been given low levels of drugs?

11.   Lars pointed out the inscription on the wall of the room made by the two convicts and said, “The lowest point in your life can lead to the highest” (page 387).  Did we see this in the various characters?  Was it just the opposite with Jessica and Ben – the highest point in their lives led to the lowest?

12.   Three months after the retreat, Heather wanted Napoleon to be angry with her because she did not read the insert with Zach’s medicine.  After he did so, they listed each thing they felt guilty about that they did or did not do.  Do you think this will help each person to move forward?

13.   Did you like the way the author slowly revealed everyone’s story or would you have preferred to know each backstory sooner? 

14.   Did you like how the author ended the novel – telling what happened in the aftermath to each of the characters?

Klara and the Sun, Kazuo Ishiguro

NOTE: At our discussion, one member who has an Alexa told us her mother (95 years old) said to Alexa, "Alexa, you are a good girl." Alexa replied, "I am a good AI."

Characters

Klara Rosa Manager   Chrissie Arthur – mother Josie Sal – deceased daughter Paul – father Melanie Housekeeper   Rick – Josie’s best friend Miss Helen – mother   Vance – Atlas Brookings   Mr. Henry Calpaldi – artist, making “portrait” of Josie   The Sun   Cootings Machine – pollution

For Discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from the hardback edition.

1.       What did you think about the “Interaction Meeting” on page 85?  Did you think Klara seemed better adjusted than the teens?  What about the threat of violence toward Klara?

2.       When Klara looked at things, why was everything always divided up into boxes? When Klara was watching the Interaction Meeting, “the room’s space was divided into twenty-four boxes – arranged in two tiers” (page 77).  Later, when she looked at the Mother, “the whole section of the room had become partitioned, her narrow eyes repeated in box after box” (page 186).

3.       What did you think happened to Sal?  When she died Chrissie and Paul had a bereavement doll made, not a replacement like they are doing for Josie.  

4.       Mr. Calpaldi is asking Klara to “become” Josie (page 207) if something happens to her.  He believes that “science has now proved beyond doubt there nothing unique” about Josie (page 221).  How could people start to believe that?

5.       Why do you think Chrissie visits Miss Helen?  What would they have in common?

6.       Did you think the AFs had feelings?  When Josie was meeting with the others, Klara “feared the interaction meeting might place shadows over our friendship” (page 84).  Also, how do you explain Klara willingness to harm herself to ruin a Cootings Machine in hopes of the Sun curing Josie?

7.       What trade-offs did the parents have to make to have their child be “lifted?”  Chrissie told Klara she wanted Josie to “have a good life.”  She said, “I called it, and now Josie’s sick.  Because of what I decided” (page 211). 

8.       Did having Klara as the narrator and seeing things through her eyes give you any new perspectives?   She referred to things common in our world by different names, for example: high-rank clothes, staring at oblong, the quick coffee, oblong tutors.   Again, did this make you see things differently than we currently do?

9.       Mr. Calpaldi is making a “portrait” of Josie that he wants Klara to inhabit if something happens to Josie.  Can you imagine that working for Chrissie?

10.   How did the Sun heal Josie?  What was the “special nourishment” (page 285)?

11.   It wasn’t until the end of the book that we read the words “genetic editing” (page 243).  Did you suspect that was what was happening?

12.   When everyone was in the city and they were going to the theater, a woman came up to them and asked if “the machine” was going into the theater.  She later said, “First they take the jobs.  Then they take the seats at the theater” (page 238).  Do you think this is a natural reaction to having AFs among us?

13.   At the end of the novel, Mr. Calpaldi said there was “growing and widespread concern about AFs” (page 293).  He wanted to “open” Klara and see how she was made.   The Mother said, no, that Klara deserved her “slow fade” (page 294).  Who do you think was right?

14.   At the end of the novel, when Klara was at the place for old AFs, Manager came to visit.  Klara told her about Mr. Calpaldi not thinking there was anything special in people, but Klara said, “There was something very special, but it wasn’t inside Josie.  It was inside those who loved her” (page 302).  How could she have this insight?  Do you think this was one message the author wanted to convey?

15.   On the last page, why did Manager walk with a limp, similar to Josie’s?

16.   Discuss your reading experience.  Did you emphasize with Klara and start to think of her as a person? 

17.   Do you think a teenager  or young adult would relate differently to this book than a senior citizen?

18.   This book was #10 on Amazon’s top 20 books of 2021 and included in The New York Times Book Review 100 Notable Books of the Year.  Why did it receive such recognition?

Petey, by Ben Mikaelsen

 

Characters
Warm Springs Insane Asylum - 1922 Warm Springs, Montana	Bozeman Nursing Home - 1977 Bozeman, Montana
Petey Corbin – 2 years old when given up by parents, cerebral palsy   Calvin Anders – “Ike”   Esteban – started working in 1927, one of first to recognize Petey’s intelligence   Patches, Sally, William, Cloud, Blackie - mice   Joe – attendant – left in 1937 – former railroad worker   Cassie Graber – nurse Alex – husband serving in the military Lisa – daughter 1945 – Cassie left to join Alex   Owen Marsh – attendant, 1965 - 1973 - retired rancher	Petey – 55 when moved here   Trevor Ladd – 1990 Parents   Kenny, String, Bud – bullies   Shawna – student, became friends with Trevor and Petey   Sissy Michael -nurse   Calvin Anders Boyd Hanson – Calvin’s volunteer advocate   Mr. Hendrick – administrator at home   Owen Marsh

 

For Discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from the 2010 edition of the paperback book.

1.       Cassie noticed that Calvin was in better spirits when with Petey.  She said to Petey, “What Calvin needs in life is purpose.  All people need purpose. Would you let Calvin be responsible for taking care of you?” (page 99).  This greatly helped Calvin, but what about Petey?  Was it fair for her to help Calvin, but not think about Petey?

2.       How did you like the part of the story when Petey fed the mice and they became his pets?

3.       When Petey had the flu and pneumonia, Joe said to the doctor “This child is no idiot” but the doctor disagreed (page 74).   In 1965, Owen Marsh thought the same thing about Petey (page 118).  Why could the people who cared for Petey know he was normal mentally, but the medical doctors could not?

4.       When Owen got to know Petey in 1965-1973, he thought Petey “loved life more than any human Owen had ever met” (page 135).   How is that possible?

5.       Likewise, many years later Sissy Michael told Trevor that “Petey has a capacity for happiness that nobody completely understands” (page 155).  What do you think his secret was?

6.       How was Petey able to be so insightful?  For example, he knew something was troubling Trevor and also that Trevor had been watching him.

7.       Trevor was only a teenager. How was he able to relate to well with Petey?

8.       When Trevor took Petey to the movies and people stared, Trevor eventually realized that “Maybe people aren’t really mean – it’s just that they don’t understand” (page 227).  Do you think this is an accurate statement?

9.       This book was first published in 1998.  On page 42 the author used the word “retarded” to describe Calvin.  This word currently is not used.  What might be an alternative that better describes Calvin?

10.   This book is written for 8–12-year-olds.  How do you think they would understand and feel about this book?

11.   Given the time when this story place, could anything different have happened to Petey?

12.   Were you glad you read this book?  What was your favorite part?

The Secrets We Kept, by Lara Prescott

 

East

West

Olga Vsevolodovna Ivinskaya (Olya) – incarcerated 3 years, after that became Pasternak’s business emissary Ira – daughter Mitya – son Mother   Boris Pasternak (Borya) 1958 – Awarded the Nobel Prize, forced to turn it down 1989 – Re-awarded Nobel Prize Zinaida - wife   Lubyanka: Anatoli Sergeyevich Semionov – Olga’s guard   Giangiacomo Feltrinelli – Italian publisher Sergio D’Angelo – Italian literary agent

Irina Drozdova Mother – seamstress Father – arrested, died in Gulag   The Typists: Betty – former OSS Virginia – former OSS Gail Carter – engineering degree, black Kathy Norma Kelly – married Teddy, wrote spy novel   Soviet Russian Division (SR): ·       Walter Anderson – oversaw typing pool, former OSS ·       Frank Wisner -founded agency’s clandestine ops, ·       Sally Forrester – “The Swallow,” became Lenore Miller in 1958 after dismissed from SR ·       Teddy Helms – trainer, went to England to get book in original Russian ·       Henry Rennet – ruined Sally’s reputation, Sally had him killed

 

For Discussion:

Note: Page numbers are from the hardback edition.

1.       The author wrote that many people involved in intelligence came to work at the Agency after they retired from the field because, for one reason, they missed “the power that came from being a keeper of secrets” (page 59).   Can you understand this?  How do you feel when you are entrusted with a secret?

 

2.       Discuss the character of Irina.  Why did she have trouble fitting into the typing pool?  Irina wondered if her “feeling of being a constant outsider, of being more comfortable alone” was picked up by the group (page 117).

 

3.       The author wrote that “the politics of friendship are tricky at every age” (page 117).  What did the author mean by this?  How did she support this statement through the various characters in the novel?

 

4.       Were you surprised that Irina liked her new role as a carrier as much as she did?  She thought that “For the first time in my life, I felt as if I had a greater purpose, not just a job” (page 116).   Why did this work suit her?  Could you do that type of work?

 

5.       What did you think about the subplot of the relationship between Sally and Irina?  Did it add to the novel?  Did you like the ending?

 

6.       Discuss the character of Henry:

a.       In Chapter 15, why did Henry attack Sally?  Did the people in the Agency really not care about her?

b.       Who were the people at Sara’s Dry Cleaning in Washington, DC?  What happened to Henry after Sally gave them his name?

c.       Was he really a double agent?

 

7.       Did the Italian publisher fully understand how the publishing of Doctor Zhivago put Pasternak in danger?  Was it his duty to publish the novel?

 

8.       Discuss the novel, Doctor Zhivago:

a.       When Sally finally read the book in 1958, she thought that it was not a weapon, but a love story (page 302). 

b.       The Agency thought is was a weapon.  They valued it because of the “critiques of the October Revolution and its so-called subversive nature” (page 131).

c.       What do you think after reading The Secrets We Kept?

 

9.       Discuss the power of books in general:

a.       The Agency saw “books as weapons” and thought that “literature could change the course of history” (page 130).  Do you agree?

b.       Have you read any books you thought could have changed the world?  That changed you?

 

10.   Would you be willing to smuggle a banned book into America like the Russians did after the World’s Fair?

 

11.   How did you like the organization of the book?  Did it take you a while to determine that chapters were narrated by different people?  Did you like the way the author crossed our previous identities and added new ones?

 

12.   Did this book influence you to want to read Dr. Zhivago? 

Nineteen Minutes, by Jodi Picoult

 

Characters
Alex Cormier – superior court judge Josie – daughter   Matt Roystson – Josie’s boyfriend   Lacy Houghton – midwife Peter – alleged shooter Lewis – husband, economics of happiness Joey – first son, deceased   Derek Markowitz – Peter’s only friend   Patrick Ducharme – policeman Tara Frost – goddaughter Nina – friend, Tara’s mother   Dr. Guenther Frankenstein – medical examiner   Jordan McAfee – Peter’s attorney Selena – wife, investigator Sam – baby Thomas – son by first marriage, in college   Dr. Erwin Peabody – psychology professor   Dr. King Wah – forensic psychiatrist, battered woman syndrome   Diana Leven - prosecutor	Victims
	Deceased: Matt Royston - only one shot twice Mr. McCabe – math teacher Courtney Ignatio Maddie Shaw Whit Obermeyer Topher McPhee Grace Murtaugh Kaitlyn Harvey Unnamed black student Unnamed white student   19 students wounded

 

For Discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from the paperback edition.

1.       What were your thoughts on the dilemma faced by parents of a child who had done something terrible?  Did the author portray the reactions of Peter’s family so that you were able to sympathize with them? Is it possible to love child and hate what they did?

2.       Do you think there was anything they could or should have done differently when raising Peter?  Would anything have made a difference?

3.       Peter felt that his mother had not understood him for 17 years (page 125).  If he had felt more loved and accepted by his parents, would it have made a difference in the outcome of the story?

4.       What effect did Peter’s older brother, Joey, and his place in the family have on Peter?  Joey was killed by a drunk driver, but it also was mentioned on page 286 that he had been doing drugs.

5.       Peter told Jordan that Joey was the one who started the bullying.  When Jordan asked if Joey had stood up for Peter when he was being bullied, Peter replied, “Are you kidding?  Joey was the one to start it” (page 186).  Why would Joey do that?

6.       Most people also wanted to blame Peter’s parents for what Peter did.  Did they deserve any of the blame?  Could they have prevented what happened?

7.       What did you think about Lewis Houghton taking flowers to the graves of the victims instead of visiting Peter in jail?

8.       After Peter was arrested, a pregnant woman refused to have Lacy be her midwife. Did you understand her hesitancy?  Would you have wanted Lacy as your midwife after her son was arrested?

9.       Alex was raised by her father after her mother died when she was five.  Her father, who was also a judge, “never held her on his lap, never kissed her good night, never told her he loved her” (page 169).  How did this influence Alex’s parenting?   Was there any way she could have better connected with Josie?

10.   Discuss being popular.  Josie questioned Matt about why he tortured the less popular kids, and he replied “if there isn’t a them, there can’t be an us” (page 219).  Josie reflected, “You did what you had to, to cement your place in the pecking order.  And the best way to stay on top was to step on someone else to get there” (page 219).

11.   Were you surprised that Alex ended up with Patrick when he was the one who figured out that Josie shot Matt?  Do you think Josie would have confessed if Patrick had not figured it out? 

12.   Why do you think Josie shot him? 

13.   What did you think about the school’s reaction to bullying?  When Selena interviewed the principal, he said “We’re completely on top of it” and “if the administration intervenes, it makes it worse for the kid who’s being bullied” (page 271).  When asked on the witness stand to read what teachers were supposed to about bulling as written in the school’s two-page bully policy, Coach Spears could find not specific instructions about what to do (page 380).  What do you think schools can do about this problem?

14.   Discuss Lewis’ research into happiness.   It seems his findings evolved as the story progressed:

a.       To improve your reality, lower your expectations (page 28)

b.       Happiness equals reality divided by expectation (page 129)

c.       Expectation divided by reality equals hope (page 131)

How do these findings relate to the characters in the novel?  Who was happy?

 

15.   How well did the author portray the various feelings and emotions of the characters?  Did reading this book lead you to think about anything differently?  Did you gain any insights that you had not thought about before?