The Traitor's Wife, by Allison Pataki

Characters
Real	Fictional
Peggy Shippen Arnold Judge Edward Shippen, father Margaret – wife Betsy – older sister, married Edward Burd Benedict Arnold Major David Franks – aide-de-camp Edward Shippen Arnold – Peggy and Arnold’s son John Andre – British officer, became Chief of British Intelligence to recruit spies, 12/1879 John Stansbury – store owner, recruited Benedict Arnold and Peggy to become spies Joseph and Blanche Reed Meg Chow General George Washington General William Howe Alexander Hamilton Marquis de Lafayette	Clara Bell Caleb Little Oma – Clara’s grandmother, deceased Mrs. Quigley – housekeeper Mr. Quigley – butler Hannah Breunig – cook Brigitte Breunig - chambermaid

 For Discussion:

1. How difficult would it be in today’s world to live like Clara and not be able to speak your own mind? At the beginning of chapter two when Peggy asked her a question, she reflected, “Oma had always told her to tell the truth, but she wavered; were maids honest to their ladies, or did they choose the answer that was most polite?”
2. Would the outcome have been any different if Clara had chosen to give her own opinion at times instead of what Peggy wanted to hear?

3. Several people took things that were not their own.  Was this more common in war?  Should they have been more honest?  For example: Andre took goods from Benjamin Franklin’s house, Benedict Arnold took goods from the closed shops, and Peggy accepted items that were taken without permission from Arnold.
4. Were you able to connect with Clara even though her life was so different from what we know?  How was she any different from a slave?
5. Discuss the people/characters and their motivations and actions.  Who did you like or dislike and why?
6. Did you learn anything about our country’s history through this book?
7. How well did the author portray the real characters and the fictional ones?
8. Discuss your reading experience.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         *****  First Semester Success, 2nd Edition, by Dr. Arden B. Hamer, is available as an eBook and hard copy from amazon.com and hard copy from wordassociation.com.  Click on upper right link. 

The Lilac Girls, by Martha Hall Kelly

NOTE: Names in italics are real people.  Kasia and Zuzanna Kuzmerick are based on real sisters who were in the camp.

Characters
Caroline Ferriday American, former actress	Kasia Kuzmerick Polish teenager	Dr. Herta Oberheuser German doctor
Eliza Ferriday - mother Roger Fortier – Consul General Betty Merchant – friend Pia – secretary Paul Rodierre – actor, wife Rena Leena – daughter Ravensbruck Rabbits Committee 1957-58 Serge – Russian cook Janina Grabowski – brought to mother’s Paris apartment in 1947	Halina – mother Adalbert – father, ran postal center Zuzanna – sister, doctor Nadia Watroba – friend Pietrik Bakoski – friend, then husband; in AK (home army), hid Nadia and mother Luiza – sister Halina – Kasia and Pietrik’s daughter Janina Grabowski “Wiola” – resistance Lennart Fleischer – Halina sketched him before war to protect father Marthe – living with father at end of war	Mutti – Mother Anton – father, broke law by listening to foreign broadcasts and reading foreign papers Heinz – butcher, employed and raped Herta Pipi – friend at camp BDM – League of German Girls, female branch of Nazi youth Arrested, tried to commit suicide, sentenced to 20 years, served 5, able to practice medicine after released
	Ravensbruck Concentration Camp
	Ravensbruck Rabbits: Kasia Zuzanna Luiza Janina Halina – organized infirmary, drew portraits of Germans	Herta Fritz Fischer – medical school classmate, left camp and went to work at front (died in 2003, served 15 years in prison) Dr. Karl Gebhardt Elizabeth Marschall - nurse Vilmer Hartman Dorothea Binz – guard (all hung after trials)

 For Discussion:

1. What did you think about Halina drawing the Nazi’s portraits in order to help her family?  How would this seem to Kasia when she was in the resistance?
2. Did you understand Kasia’s guilt over her mother being arrested when she was bringing her a sandwich at her job?
3. Discuss Fritz Fischer and his decision to leave the concentration camp where he was safe and go to work at the front where he was in danger.    Contrast Fritz’s decision all the while predicting that Germany was losing the war with Herta who thought she was working for the greater good of Germany.
4. What do you think happened to Halina?  The only clue was when Commandant Suhren referred to “the incident…” (end of Chapter 20).
5. Why do you think Herta was awarded the War Merit Cross?  
6. What was the tradition of over-flowing a glass of champagne when Paul then dabbed the liquid behind Caroline’s and his ears (end of Chapter One).  What did this mean?
7. At the end of Chapter 37, Kasia reflected, “I’d survived Ravensbruck.  How could ordinary life be harder than that?”   Was is asking too much for her to be able to adjust given the guilt she felt about her mother as well as everything she had been through?  How do you think confronting Herta will help her?
8. Discuss the various characters and the following:
1. Caroline’s decision to help Paul and Rena find their baby.
2. Caroline’s consistent refusal of Paul after the war.
3. Did you feel any sympathy for Herta when she finally ran away from the camp and then tried to commit suicide?
4. Herta cutting herself to relieve stress (Chapter 20).
5. Herta was convicted and sent to prison, but was released early in 1952 and allowed to practice medicine.  Also, the two nurses were hung.  Why were Herta and Fritz not given the same punishment?
9. Discuss Wallis Simpson’s remark that, “the world has grown weary of all that death and destruction” (Chapter 38).
10. Discuss your reading experience.   Did you enjoy the story?  How did you deal with reading such upsetting events?

*****
First Semester Success, 2nd Edition, by Dr. Arden B. Hamer, is available as an ebook and hard copy from amazon.com and as a hard copy from wordassociation.com and barnesandnoble.com.  Click on the upper right link.

The Nightingale, by Kristen Hannah

Characters
Carriveau	Resistance
Vianne Mauriac Antoine – husband, prisoner of war Sophie – daughter Daniel Antoine Mauriac – Rachel’s son Ari Julien Mauriac – son conceived in rape, surgeon in America Julien and Madeline Rossignol – parents Rachel de Champlain – friend Sarah and Ari – children Captain Wolfgang Beck – Nazi lodger, killed Sturmbannfuhrer Von Richter – Nazi lodger Paul – policeman, collaborated with Germans, well-fed	Isabelle Rossignol – Vianne’s sister Juliette Gernaise – resistance identity, "The Nightingale" Julien Rossignol – father, poet, made forged documents Gaetan Dubois Monsieur Levy Anouk Henri Navarre Didier Madame Micheline Babineau Eduardo Edith Cavell – role model for Juliette

 For discussion:

1. Vianne and Isabelle were young when their mother died (approximately 14 and 4) and they were rejected by their father.   Could Vianne have been expected to act any differently toward Isabelle?
2. When Captain Beck asked Vianne to write the names of the Jewish citizens in the town (page 116), it seemed that he already knew the names.  Why did he ask her to do this?  Did Vianne have any choice?
3. Were you surprised at Rachel’s reaction when Vianne told her about including her name on the list?  Would you have been angry or understanding? 
4. Discuss the Carriveau citizens’ reactions to the German occupation.  Could they have reasonably fought back?
5. At one point, Captain Beck brought home a fish he had caught and asked Vianne to cook it for their dinner.  Was she right or wrong to accept the fish? (Beginning of chapter 15.)
6. In chapter 18, were you surprised that Isabelle’s father knew what she was doing?  Should or could he have done more to protect her?
7. In chapter 25, Isabelle hid airmen in Vianne’s barn.  Was she justified inputting Vianne and Sophie at risk?   Should Vianne have been more supportive?

8. Discuss the various characters and their relationships with each other:
1. Captain Beck – both human-being and enemy
2. Isabelle – willful rebel and resistance fighter
3. Vianne – eventually risked everything, including Sophie, to help Jewish orphans
4. Julien (father) – appeared to work for Germans but instead was working with resistance, sacrificed life for Isabelle
9. In the last lines of chapter 29 Vianne told the Mother Superior at the orphanage that she had to act because she could not “…let her [Sophie] believe it’s all right to do nothing in times such as these.”  Was she right to put Sophie at risk? 
10. In chapter 37, Vianne gave the Red Cross the names of the 19 children she had saved and asked to have them reunited with their families.  Then the OSE (Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants) came to take Ari/Daniel to live with his relatives in Boston.   Do you think it was the best thing for the children to be uprooted again? 
11. Do you think Vianne should tell Julien his parentage and history?  Why did she not share her part in the war as well as Isabelle’s with him?
12. Discuss your reading experience.  Did you learn anything?  Did you enjoy the novel?

*****

First Semester Success, 2nd edition, by Dr. Arden B. Hamer, is now available in paper and as an ebook from amazon.com and in paper from wordassociation.com and barnesandnoble.com.   Click on the upper right link.