Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens

Characters

Catherine Clark – Kya Julienne – mother Jackson “Jake” – father Jodie – brother, 7 years older than Kya (wife, Libby; children Murph and Mindy) Older siblings – Mandy, Missy, Murph (oldest) Tate Walker Scupper – dad Chase Andrews Patti Love and Sam – parents Pearl – wife Jumpin’ - Gas and Bait Mabel – wife Sheriff Ed Jackson Deputy Joe Perdue Tom Milton -lawyer Sundee Justice – courthouse cat Amanda Hamilton – poet Robert Foster – editor The Sea Shells of the Eastern Seaboard, by Catherine Clark The Eastern Seacoast Birds, by Catherine Clark, 1969

For Discussion

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

1. How could Kya’s mother and older siblings abandon her?  On page 13 it says that they all left because of the father, but why didn’t anyone take Kya with them?
2. Were you more sympathetic towards her mother’s decision to leave her children once you knew her story (mentally and physically ill, asked to get children but threatened by father, paintings of children)?
3. When Jodie finally did come back for Kya, was his excuse for why he did not help her good enough?
4. Jake was wounded in the war during an episode where he did not go to help his wounded comrade and he was the only one who knew that.  How did this affect his life?
5. In 1961 when Tate when to college, he did not return for years.  Did you expect him to return on July 4 of that year as he had promised?
6. Did you understand Tate’s decision to leave Kya?  Was it realistic that they could have had a life together?
7. Discuss Chase and his relationship with Kya.  He had come with the plan to have sex one way or another, but on page 162 the author wrote that he stopped and said he understood and that “he was entranced.”  Did he really have a change of heart?  Why did he talk to Kya about marriage (page 189) if he did not plan to do so? Was he really that cruel?
8. Why did Chase continue to wear the shell necklace even after he married Pearl?
9. After Chase got married, Kya compared him to the males of the animal world her mother had called, “leapfrogging sneaky fuckers” (page 212).  Was it realistic that she could have denied him?
10. If the truant officer had found Kya when she was in elementary school and taken her away to a foster family, how would her life have been different?  Which was the best life for her?
11. How do you think Kya would have adapted to a life either with Tate or Chase in the “outside world?”
12. Kya seemed to have a special relationship with animals.  In one instance when she was out in the boat with Chase, porpoises swam to boat and “their keen eyes fixing on Kya…eased up against the hull, and she bowed her face only inches from theirs” (page 178).   Did Sundee Justice, the courthouse cat, also have a special relationship with her?
13. What did you think about the ending?   Were you surprised?
14. Why was this book on the best-seller list for so long?  What made it so popular?

*****
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.

Little Fires Everywhere, by Celeste Ng

Characters
Richardson Family	Others
William - lawyer Elena - reporter Lexie Trip Moody Isabelle – Izzy - youngest	Mia Warren/Wright Pearl George and Regina Wright – Mia’s parents Warren – brother, deceased Joseph and Madeline Ryan – Pearl’s father Mark and Linda McCullough Mirabelle (May Ling) Bebe – May Ling’s mother Ed Lim - lawyer Serena Wong – Lexie’s friend Brian – Lexie’s boyfriend Pauline Hawthorne – artist of “Virgin and Child #1” (1982) Anita Rees – Rees Art Gallery in Manhattan

For Discussion:

NOTE: All page numbers are from hardback edition.

1. Discuss the dynamics in the Richardson family, particularly Elena and Izzy.  On page 111 the author wrote about Izzy, “The sense that all the children had – including Izzy – was that she was a particular disappointment to their mother, that for reasons unclear to them, their mother resented her.”  On the last page Elena comes to the realization that she and Izzy are similar and that Izzy has the spirit she did not recognize in herself. 
2. Toward the end of chapter 11 the author described Elena’s “reverence for order and rules and decorum” (page 159).  Also, on page 161 the author wrote of Elena, “All her life, she had learned that passion, like fire, was a dangerous thing.  It so easily went out of control.”  Also, on page 161, “Rules exist for a reason: if you followed them, you would succeed; if you didn’t, you might burn the world to the ground.”  How was this philosophy evident in Elena and not in Mia and Izzy?   What do you think about rules?
3. The Shaker community was based on the idea that “Perfection: that was the goal…feeding those who grew up there with a propensity to overachieve and a deep intolerance for flaws” (page 23).  Aside from “intolerance for flaws,” is there anything wrong with striving for perfection?
4. How accurate do you think Mia’s assessment was of Elena at the end of chapter 18 when Elena told her to move away?  Mia said, “It terrifies you.  That you missed out on something.  That you gave up something you didn’t know you wanted” (page 302).
5. Mia started to work for the Richardson family, cleaning in the morning when no one was there and cooking in the afternoon when everyone was there so that she could observe them “both when they were there and when they weren’t” (page 73).  What would someone learn about you if they studied your home when you were not there?
6. Discuss the photos Mia left for the Richardson family and how they described each person (chapter 20, pages 328-329).
7. Was Elena justified in searching into Mia’s background?
8. Discuss Mia and her decision to run away with Pearl and keep her from her father.  How was that different from the Richardson’s trying to take Mirabelle away from Bebe?
9. When Elena discovered Mai’s past, she reflected, “What would she have done if she’d been in that situation?” (page 239).  What do you think she would have done?
10. What was so alluring about Mia to Izzy and Lexie? 
11. Why do you think Mirabelle did not cry out when Bebe took her from her crib?  Would it have been different if, as Elena hoped, she had never known her mother?
12. Did Mia unconsciously give Bebe permission to take her baby when she told her, “You will always be her mother.  Nothing will ever change that” (page296).
13. When reading the first part of chapter 16 where the narrative flipped back and forth between the McCullough’s and Bebe’s cases, did you think one side was more compelling than the other?   Did you agree with the ruling?
14. At the beginning of the novel (chapter 7, pages 79-82), when Izzy was mad at Mrs. Peters for picking on Deja, Mia asked her what she was going to do about it (page 79).  She went so far as to tell her not to just target Mrs. Peters.  Was this irresponsible on Mia’s part?  How did this influence the end of the novel?
15. When trying to explain to Izzy that Bebe would somehow survive when she was not given custody, Mia used the analogy of new growth after a cleansing prairie fire (page 295).   Was she unconsciously planting the idea in Izzy’s head of burning down the house?
16. Do you think Elena will ever find out that Lexie had the abortion?  Will Lexie tell her?  How do you think she will react?
17. What do you think happened after the story ended?   Did Izzy find Mia and Pearl?  Were the various families reunited; Mia with the Wrights, Izzy with the Richardsons?

*****
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.

The Only Woman in the Room, by Marie Benedict

People
Austria	Hollywood
Hedwig Kiesler – Hedy Lamarr Gertrude – mother Father – bank manager Friedrich “Fritz” Mandl – munitions manufacturer, 1937 collaborated with Hitler Ada – maid Ernest von Starhemberg – vice-chancellor, ousted by Schuschnigg for being too soft on Germans Ferdinand von Starhemberg – brother, instrumental in attempted escape Kurt von Schuschnigg – Minister of Justice and Education; Austrian dictator, May 1936 Chancellor Dollfuss – cohort of Fritz Social Democratic Party Christian Social Party – Fritz’s party, anti-Semites Mussolini – “Il Duce,” armed by Fritz Laura – maid similar in appearance to Hedy	Hedy Lamarr – Hedwig Kiesler Louis B. Mayer Margaret Mayer Ilona Massey – Hungarian actress, roommate Gene Markey – second husband James – adopted son Mrs. Burton – nanny George Antheil – composer, scientist, inventor National Inventor’s Council Eddie Rhodes – sailor in audience of all war bond performances, Hedy offered to kiss him if certain amount of war bonds sold

or Discussion:

For Discussion:
NOTE: Page numbers are from hardback edition.

1. Did Hedy and her family have a choice regarding her marriage to Fritz?  Her father felt Fritz could protect Hedy and her mother (page 100).
2. Hedy always felt that her mother thought her unworthy, but toward the end of the book she told Hedy she only did that to counteract the praise from her father.  Was her explanation in the letter sent in 1939 believable?  Did you believe her mother or understand her?
3. Hedy’s father thought that Fritz was committed to keeping Austria independent from Germany (page 39).  Was Fritz a hero for trying to protect Austria or a villain for producing weapons and arming Mussolini?
4. Discuss the differences between Hedy’s two dressers – Mrs. Lubbig in Austria (chilly and reticent) and Susie in America (bubbly).  One difference Hedy noticed was that, “Americans were so familiar with one another” (page 161).
5. Hedy felt guilty about not warning anyone of the impending dangers she discovered in listening to Fritz and his colleagues’ conversations.  In 1939 she thought, “The gravity of my crime had become clear…. I bore blame for keeping this secret.  My silence and selfishness had allowed the floodgates to open” (page 184).  Realistically was there anything she could have done?
6. George Antheil was a composer, but he worked with Hedy on radio-control system ideas for the torpedoes.  Hedy said he was perfect because he had “a highly developed sense of mechanical instruments…You approach problems – the world, even – from a broad perspective” (page 205).  Why do you think they were so successful as a team?
7. At one point, George spontaneously kissed Hedy and it took a while for her to forgive him.  She “understood that his overture had been kneejerk, as Susie like to say, a behavior ingrained by society in most men” (page 215).  Would this be forgiven today?
8. At the end of the book, Hedy wondered which person she had become; “Hedy Lamarr, only a beautiful face and lissome body” or “Had I taken the persona to which I’d been relegated and made myself into a weapon against the Third Reich after all” (page 243).   What do you think?
9. According to Wikipedia, there were several inaccuracies in this story.  For example, her parents did not approve of her marriage to Fritz and also documentation was discovered that proved that James was not a refugee baby but instead the illegitimate child of Hedy and John Loder, her third husband.   Are these facts important to your opinion of Hedy Lamarr?
10. Given the above information, this would be classified as historical fiction.  Did you like the way it was written in the first person?

*****
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.