The Water Dancer, by Ta-Nehisi Coates

 

Characters
Tasked	Quality	Low Whites
Hiram – Walker’s son with Rose Rose – mother – sold   Roscoe -butler Ella – head cook Pete   Sophia – knitter, belonged to Nathaniel Caroline “Carrie” – daughter with Nathaniel Mercury – husband, sold   Santi Bess – Hiram’s grandmother, escaped with 48 slaves   Thena – raised Hiram   Hawkins – saved Hiram from drowning Amy – sister   Parnel Jones – stealing from master, entire Tasked population on plantation punished, wanted to run away – met Underground in woods Lucy – came along unannounced	Howell Walker – owns Hiram Maynard – son, drowned   Mr. Fields – tutor   Corinne Quinn – Maynard’s intended   Nathaniel – Howell’s brother   Lockless – plantation   Daniel McKiernan – owns Otha’s family	Desi and Boss Harlan Desi – in charge of big house Boss Harlan – enforcer   Ryland’s Hounds – hunted for runaways
	Free Blacks	Underground
	Georgie Parks Amber - wife	Hawkins Corinne Mr. Fields – Micajah Bland Amy   House agents Field agents   Raymond White – free, met Hiram in PA Otha White – born a slave Lydia – wife, still in slavery   Harriet Tubman “Moses” - Conduction

 

NOTE: Page numbers are from the 2020 paperback edition.

1.      There were a lot of characters in the novel. I had a hard time deciding who to put in the chart and who not to include.  Which ones were the most memorable to you and why?

2.      What did you think of the Conduction, Hiram’s experience with the blue light and water?  As you were reading earlier in the novel, what did you think was happening?

3.      Hiram was very well educated thanks to Mr. Fields and with Howell Walker’s permission.  He also was quite talented as a furniture restorer.  Did the Underground make the best use of his skills when he trained to be a field agent instead of a house agent who read, studied, and forged papers?

4.      There was a hint that Hiram was the author of the story.  When he was studying with Mr. Fields, he was given one hour after his sessions with free use of the office and library.  He wrote “I think now that my own volume, the one that you now hold here, began in those moments” (page 164).  Was that important to your reading?

5.      Were you surprised that Hiram went back to Lockless to serve again as a slave and try to help Thena escape?

6.      One part that stayed with me was when Hiram was running for the first time with Sophia and had a difficult conversation with Thena.   She said to him, “Boy like you should be more careful with his words.  Never know when they the last ones he might put upon that person” (page 115).  That haunted Hiram until he was able to make amends with Thena.  What parts of the book were more memorable to you?

7.      Did you understand the strong and mixed emotions the Tasked had?  For example, when Hiram wanted to help Thena escape to be with her daughter, Thena yelled at him and said, “Why you bring this back to me?,,,Do you know what it took for me to make peace with this?” (page 383)

8.      There seemed to be several unfinished stories – what happened to Parnell Jones (the book said he was to be taken back to master for stealing [page 179]) and on page 184 it said “with my actions against Georgie Parks.”   When was Jones given back to his master and what actions did Hiram take against Parks?

9.      Were you surprised at the end when Sophia decided to stay at Lockless with Hiram and work in the Underground instead of escaping with Carrie?  Did you find the ending satisfying?

10.  Why did the author choose to use the terms “tasked” and “quality” instead of slave and owner?

11.  Why do you think the author included Harriet Tubman, the only real person, in the novel? 

Did the book live up to the statements on the back cover?  The book was described as a “propulsive, transcendent work that restores the humanity of those from whom everything was stolen.”   It also was on numerous Best Books of the Year lists including NPR, The New York Public Library, and The Washington Post.

Table for Two, by Amor Towles

 

Short Stories

The Line – set in the1900s before WWI

Pushkin and Irina Petya – became Pushkin’s partner and expended line-waiting business   1.      What did you think of Pushkin taking pleasure in everything around him?  Was he like Smitty in Hasta Luego? 2.      Why did the author choose “Pushkin” for the character’s name after the poet, Alexander Pushkin, 1799-1837?

The Ballad of Timothy Touchett

Timothy Touchett – aspiring novelist Peter Pennybrook – bookstore owner Paul Aster – living author Lieutenant McCuster – bunco squad Detective Dawson   1.      How did the word “honorarium” change how Timothy thought about what he did?   Should he have known better? 2.      Did you understand how Timothy justified his actions in his mind?  3.      What did you think of the last two lines?

Hasta Luego

Jerry – narrator Smitty -alcoholic, wife Jennifer, made everyone around him feel good   1.      Did you like the ending when Jerry hoped his wife would fight for him as hard as Jennifer fought for Smitty?

I Will Survive

Nell – attorney Jeremy – husband Peggy – Nell’s mother John Wells – Peggy’s second husband   2.      Did you understand how Peggy felt betrayed because John’s extreme joy had nothing to do with her? 3.      Was the breakup of the marriage Nell’s fault? 4.      What would you have done in Nell’s place?

The Bootlegger

Tommy Wife – narrator Arthur Fein – old man in raincoat sitting beside Tommy Barbara – wife, deceased Meredith – daughter   1.      Could you relate to the way Tommy’s ticket subscription kept getting more and more expensive? 2.      Was Meredith too harsh with Tommy at the end of the story?

The Didomenico Fragment

Percival Skinner Peter (Skinner) Mendelson – uncle Sharon – wife Lucas and Emma – children Sarkis – looking for antiquities, interested in painting fragments Michael Reese - Giuseppe DiDomenico - painter “Annunciation” – painting cut into pieces for family inheritance   1.      Did you like the character Madeline Davis and the meatballs in baggies in her purse?  Have you ever been tempted to do something like that? 2.      What did you think of Lucas and his stipulation about the painting and the reproduction being put on display?  Was he a little too sophisticated to be believable? 3.      Did you like the author’s description of the typical Thanksgiving dinner with everyone bringing a side dish with the “secret ingredient” of mayonnaise?

 

1.      Did all or some of the stories seem to have a message?

2.      How did you like reading short stories as compared to full-length novels?

 

Eve in Hollywood – a novella
Seven points of view	Others
#1 Charlie Granger – retired homicide detective Betty – wife, deceased Tom – son Caroline – daughter-in-law Met Eve on train to Los Angeles   #2 Prentice Symmons – older actor Birdie – chambermaid Met Eve in lobby of hotel – sitting in “his” chair Able to tell photos taken through two-way mirror   #3 Olivia – Olivia de Havilland “Dehavvy” “Livvy” Met Eve in restroom – “Evvie” Being blackmailed with photos   #4 Jeremiah Litsky – photographer and reporter Eve got his camera with comprising photo of Olivia           #5 Marcus Benton David O. Selznick’s attorney Hired Eve to protect Olivia   #6 Wendell – still photographer Fired for complimenting Jean Harlow Took pictures for Fairview through mirror   #7 Sean Finnegan - Head of hotel security Former policeman Killed Lipsky and took pictures and money	Eve – “Evvie”  **main character** On train heading home and at the last minute decided to continue on to Los Angeles Motivated Charlie to not move in with son   Freddie Fairview Owned pool house and two-way mirror Photos of many women hidden in book by Shakespeare   Billy Limo driver Aspiring stuntman   Jerry Wendell’s friend in bar Convinced him to blackmail actresses

 

NOTE: Page numbers are from hardback edition.

1.      One of my favorite words in “schadenfreude” on page 285.  Litsky took unflattering photos of Olivia and wanted money for them.  He thought it was human nature that people like to see famous people fall.  Do you agree?

2.      Did you gain any understanding of the early years of film and women’s roles?  For example, on page 359 Olivia felt she was type-cast as “some version of Maid Marian over and over again.”

3.      What did you think of the scene with the fortune teller on the Santa Monica pier?  The message was for Eve to “Resist the Temptation” (page 340), but Olivia felt “the temptation she must resist was to continue being the person whom others expected her to be.”  Why did she take Eve’s fortune to heart?

4.      What did you think about Eve often being called the “damaged blonde?”   Was this another indication of how women were viewed at that time?

5.      What did you think about the organization of the book – seven points of view (according to the hardback cover flap) plus Eve (last chapter of each section)?

6.      Did you like the ending?  What did you understand from the last paragraph?  Eve was on the movie set of Tara when the props people were repainting it to look aged and damaged.  She thought “For the world to have any sense of justice, a team of artisans had to come forward with their hammers and paintbrushes and pumice stones in order to patiently unmake the palaces of the proud” (page 451).

Tom Lake, by Ann Patchett

 

Characters
Nelson family	Our Town – by Thornton Wilder
Lara Kenison Nelson Joe – husband Emily – oldest daughter, future farmer Massie – middle, future veterinarian Nell – youngest, actress   Farm – grew cherries “stone fruit”   Hazel – dog   Masie and Ken – Joe’s aunt and uncle   Benny Holzapetel – Emily’s boyfriend/fiancé	Characters: Stage Manager Emily Webb Mr. and Mrs. Webb Wally Webb George Gibbs Doc and Mrs. Gibbs
Others	Productions at Tom Lake
Sebastian Duke – Peter’s brother, teacher, tennis player and coach   Singularity – movie featuring Lara   Bill Ripley – movie director	Our Town Peter Duke – Editor Webb Lara – Emily – third time playing part Albert Long “Uncle Wallace” – Stage Manager (11th production)   Joe Nelson – director, understudy for Stage Manager, left after play started   Pallace – understudy for Emily   Fool for Love Pallace and Peter Duke

 

NOTE: Page numbers are from the 2023 hardback edition.

1.       Did you have any trouble following the time line?  It took me awhile to figure out that the italicized print was a signal to the reader that the time had changed.

2.       Discuss the various characters.  Which did you like or not like?  What did you think of Peter Duke as a person, as an actor?

3.       Why was Emily so sure that Peter Duke was her father?

4.       Were you surprised at the ending when Duke wanted to be buried at the Nelson’s farm and that he had paid Joe’s aunt and uncle a considerable sum of money to buy the plot?

5.       Did the passage on page 119 about play rehearsals give you any insight into how much work goes into a production?  For example, Lara narrated “We spent hours in a dark theater, saying the same things to the same people again and again, finding ways to make the world new.”

 

6.       The author referenced Moby Dick twice.  Benny loaned his copy to Nell (page 99) and Lara read the book to her grandmother when she could no longer see well enough to read on her own (page 268).  Also, Nell references Herman Melville’s short story Bartleby the Scrivener when someone closed a door in another’s face (page 185).  Why did the author reference Melville and his work three times?

7.       When Lara is telling the girls the family story again, she thinks “Parts of this story they already know, and this is one of them.  The stories that are familiar will always be our favorites” (page 157).  Does your family have any favorite stories they tell over and over?  Does this relate to what we read – do we sometimes like cozy mysteries because we know in the end all will turn out to be fine?

8.       Lara and Joe did not tell their three girls about their earlier lives until they were grown, and Lara still kept a secret from Joe and the girls.  Do you think it is common for parents to have previous secret lives and not share with their families?

9.       How important was knowledge about Our Town to the reader’s appreciation of the novel?

10.   Would you recommend this book to a friend?  Why or why not?

We Begin at the End, by Chris Whitaker

 

Characters

Radley family: Star – mother Duchess Robin Sissy – Star’s sister, killed by driver as a young child 30 years ago   Vincent King – driver who hit Sissy, Duchess and Robin’s father, in prison   Chief Walker “Walk”   Hal – Duchess and Robin’s grandfather   Dickie Darke – developer Madeline – daughter, in private health care facility, no hope of leaving   Milton – butcher, lived across the street from Star and family, spied on Star, drowned   Brandon Rock – neighborhood watch, lived on street with Star and Milton, pushed Milton out of the boat as a joke   Martha May – Star’s friend in school, lawyer in Bitterwater, family law   Cuddy – prison warden   Dolly – sat with Duchess in church   Thomas Noble – in Duchess’ class, crippled hand   Peter and Lucy Layton – adopted Robin, only wanted one child so did not adopt Duchess

 

NOTE: Page numbers are from the 2020 paperback edition.

1.      Did you understand Vincent – in prison he confessed to killing a fellow prisoner in a fight when he could have called it self-defense?  In the second trial he did not want to just plead guilty and get life in prison, he wanted to go to trial and maybe get the death penalty.

2.      How did you think the accident killing Sissy occurred?  Was the sentence unusually hard for a 15-year-old?  At the trial, it said that Walk “offered up the kind of unabridged truth that sealed his friend’s fate” (page 22).  What did he say?

3.      As you read, particularly pages 82 – 83 where Walk found Vincent sitting in chair beside Star’s body, what did you think happened to Star?

4.      Did you understand Duchess’ reaction to Hal and to moving in with him?  Was there anything Hal or anyone could do to make the move easier for her?

5.      Why did Duchess insist on wearing the new dress that she ripped and cut?

6.      Do you think Duchess will ever eventually reconnect with Robin?  Did she make the best choice to let him be adopted without her? 

7.      Do you think Robin will ever remember what happened with his mother?   Should someone have helped him remember as opposed to risking him remembering later on his own?

8.      Who did you think shot Hal?  When she was approaching the porch, Duchess noticed big footprints in the snow.

9.      After Duchess burnt down the bar she threw away the security tape in a garbage bag in a random bunch of garbage (page 70).   Then at the end on pages 345-346 Walk found the tape in a storage locker owned by Darke but among items owned by Dee Lane.  How was this possible?

10.  In the end Darke confessed to Walke that he shot Hal.  Then Walke shot Darke at his request because he could not get insurance for the club without the security tape and was unable to pay for Madeline’s care.  If dead she would get his life insurance policy.  Walke gave Darke his (Darke’s) gun, Darke aimed wide and shot, and then Walke killed Darke.  Were you surprised at this event?

11.  At the end of the novel, Duchess was going to shoot Vincent (pages 350-351), but instead he backed up to the cliff and jumped.  Were you also surprised at this event?

12.  When Duchess was talking with her mother on the way home from the bar, Duchess said, “I just wish there was a middle, you know. Because that’s where people live. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing…sink or swim like that…Because when you’re sinking, you’re pulling us down with you” (page 42).  Do you agree – do most people just live in the middle?   Do you think Star was capable of making a change in her life?

13.  The title was in the text multiple times.  For example, when Walk took the children to Hal’s he said, “The minister said we begin at the end” (page 97).  Also, when Hal was shot, Duchess got the shotgun, saddled the gray horse and set out the follow the footprints.  As she did so she said, “We begin at the end” (page 224).  What did you think the title meant?

14.  Discuss your reading experience.  Did you like the book?  Would you recommend it to a friend?

The Glassmaker, by Tracy Chevalier

 

Characters
Rosso family: Orsola Marco -older brother Giacomo – younger brother Laura – mother, pregnant in chapter one Lorenzo – father, killed by broken glass fragment Stella – baby born during plague   Zia Giovanna – aunt, nun   Nicolatta – Marco’s wife, died during plague Malcolin – son Raffaele – Nicolatta and Marco’s son born during plague   Monica – Marco’s second wife Rosella – daughter by first marriage, expert glassmaker   Isabella – Monica’s cousin, married Giacomo Sons – Andrea and Sebastiano   Paolo – main assistant, left   Stefano – Marco’s new assistant, married Orsola Angela - daughter   Assistants: Garzonetti – fed furnace and swept floors Garzoni – next step, six-year apprenticeship   Klingenberg – bought Rosso glass, encouraged Orsola to make beads Jonas – assistant, opened own shop when Klingenberg left   Antonio – romance with Orsola, became apprentice in glass workshop, left for terraferma in chapter 3   Domenego -black gondolier for Klingenberg   Maria Barovier – bead maker, real person!	Timeline
	Chapter 1: 1487 – 1494   Chapter 2: 1574 – plague Orsola age 18 Stella and Raffaele born   Chapter 3: 1631 Monica Vianello – wet nurse, married Marco   Isabella – married Giacomo   Stefano -Marco’s servente, from Barovier workshop, wants to marry Orsola   Chapter 4: 1755 Orsola age 29 Giacomo Casanova – ordered mirror, chandelier and glasses, arrested, did not pay   Suggested Orsola make flat beads   Chapter 5: 1797 Orsola age 37 Venice and Murano given to the Austrians Klingenberg closing business and moving Jonas opening own business   Luciana comes from Venice to teach family how to string seed beads – popular with American Indians   Raffaele moves to Venice with Luciana    Chapter 6: 1915 - WWI Orsola age 44 Francisca also in Venice – married Luciana’s brother   Marchesa Luisa Casati – bought beads   Jonas back to Germany, died in concentration camp     WWI – every family had to send one son – Sebastiano volunteered to serve Stella went as a nurse   After war, opened shop with Luciana in Venice – Rosso E Rosso   Chapter 7: 2019 Orsola age 65 100 years have passed Stella died in war   Chapter 8 Orsola in her late 60s Antonio has aged normally because on terrafirma Great-great-great grandson gives Orsola a dolphin – making and sending her one over years has become a tradition in family

 

1.       How different was the plague in 1574 from COVID in 2020?  At least no one burnt all our linens and clothing and threw rocks at our houses!

2.       Did you like the way the novel showed history’s progression, for example the movement from gondolas to water buses in chapter 6 in 1915.

3.       At the end, were you surprised that Antonio had aged like a normal person, and his grandchildren had been making and sending the dolphins?  What do you think his grandchildren thought as they kept sending them off generation after generation to someone they did not know?

4.       Which family members were the most memorable to you?

5.       Was it realistic how easily Orsola handled the changes she experienced through the years or was her life so focused on the glassmaking she wasn’t affected by changes around her?  Given that this is a fiction book, does it matter?

6.       The beads became an important part of the family business in the 1700s – chapters 4 and 5.  How easy was it for the men to give up part of their enterprise and status?  Do you think it might have been more difficult than depicted in the book?

7.       What parts of the book were most memorable to you?

8.       Would you like to live that long and see all the changes in the world?

9.       Have you thought about beads and jewelry you have and how it was made?  Do you have any unusual pieces?

10.   Did you like the book?  Would you recommend it to others to read?