Small Town Sins, by Ken Jaworosky

 

Characters
Nathan Stultz	Callie	Andy
Paula – wife, nurse Lee Lee Roland – affairs, teenager and as an adult   Saved man from burning building Found bag of money	Disfigured at birth Nurse   Gabriella – patient, dying, parents don’t want medicine	Kate – wife, suicide to be with Angie Angie – daughter, Down’s Syndrome, died   Danny – teenage friend who kept him somewhat straight Sophie – younger sister   Father Glynn – child predator, notebooks of photos

 

NOTE: Page numbers are from the 2023 paperback edition.

Nathan:

1.      Did you understand Nathan’s motivation for keeping the money?  Was he in general an honest man?

2.      When he went to the hospital to harm the man he rescued, were you surprised that Paula let him in?  Why do you think she did so?

3.      What did you think about the ending of this story with Paula trying to commit suicide?

Callie:

4.      Do you think Callie surprised herself with all of the crazy things she did on the trip to show Gabriella the ocean?  Would she have been able to do these things on a regular day?

5.      When Callie and Gabriella were talking about kindness, Gabriella asked Callie, “Do you think you should always be a nice person, every single minute of the day, even if you don’t want to be?  And if you don’t want to be nice, but you act nice, is that a kind of lie?” (page 45).  What did you think about this idea?

Andy:

6.      Andy’s best friend, Danny, worked to ensure that his sister, Sophie, could succeed in school and go to college.  All that changed when she was beaten and raped by Slee, who Danny had let into the house with drugs.  When Danny and Andy when to confront Slee and kill him, Danny ended up killed instead.  How did all of this effect Andy and his life?

7.      Andy stole the briefcase from Father Glynn’s car because he thought it contained money.  Instead, he found pornography.  He decided at that moment to kill Father Glynn along with himself.  Was this a positive or negative purpose for his life?

General:

8.      When Callie and Gabriella where driving to ocean, Gabriella said to Callie, “It’s always those little things, huh?’ (page 217) referring to the small memories and joys we have in life.   What “little things” were there in the stories that brought people joy?

9.      Would the characters’ lives have been different it they had lived in a more prosperous location with more opportunities?

10.  How do you think the stories ended?  Did Gabriella make it back to the hospital?  What happened to Callie?  Did Paula survive?  Did Andy commit suicide or decide to live after he heard Angie telling him, “Daddy: The best part about tomorrow is that there will be more things to love,’ (page 245)?

11.  What did you find hopeful or positive in the novel?

12.  What was your reading experience?  Was there any point when you thought you might stop reading?  Were you tempted to skip to the end to see how everything concluded?

13.  Was there any connection among the three stories?  Were you expecting the story lines to somehow converge at some point?  What do you think the author’s creative and thought process was?

14.  This book received a 3.9-star rating on Goodreads and 4.2 on Amazon.  How would you rate the book?  Why?

 

Buckeye, by Patrick Ryan

 

Characters
Cal Jenkins	Margaret Anderson Salt
Cal Jenkins – exempt from serving in military in WWII due to leg deformity, Civilian Defense Corp.   Becky – wife, able to connect people with loved ones through voices   Cal Maurice Jenkins Jr. “Skipper» - son, died in Viet Nam   Everett – father   Ida and Roman Hanover – Becky’s parents   Casey LaGrange – pretended to be writing a book about psychics	Margaret - Left at Open Arms Orphanage, multiple foster homes   Lydia Verts – live-in administrator, gave Margaret responsibilities at orphanage   Moved to Columbus, met Felix and married, eventually moved to Bonhomie   Felix – unknowingly gay   Felix entered Navy, unable to fly because of color-blind, survived sinking of ship while many died including Augie (romantic partner)   Bishop – veteran, part of veterans group met over lunch to share stories, later a relationship with Felix   Margaret kissed Cal when end of war announced on radio – began affair   Thomas Aquinas Salt – Felix or Cal’s son?

 

NOTE: Page numbers are from the 2025 hardback edition.

1.      Did you gain any insight into what it was like during WWII?  For example, letters were delayed months, information blacked out, Felix’s R and R was over before Margaret even knew it was happening. 

2.      Felix’s letters became more impersonal as their separation continued.  Their separation was so long that Margaret felt she had “lost the sense of him” (page 153).  They were separated for over two and a half years.  Do you think this was normal during WWII?  Was there anything they could do to reestablish their relationship?

3.      Did the book give you any insight into what it was like to serve and then return home during WWII?  After Felix was home and trying to return to his former life he often felt like “that version of himself had gone down with the Teague.  In fact, it was as if all versions of Felix Salt had gone down with the Teague except for this one, this carapace of a guy with his eye set on nothing” (page 248).

4.      Discuss Margaret’s challenges as a mother.  She felt as “if he (Tom} were always playing a game with her, but she never knew what the game was” (page 243).  How could she know what to do given her childhood in the orphanage?

5.      Given her experience of being abandoned by her own mother, how do you think she rationalized doing the same to her own child?

6.      Did you think Felix thought of himself as gay, even after his relationship with Augie?  Given the time frame of the novel, was this normal?

7.      Augie told Felix a quote from Thomas Aquinas, “The things that we love tell us what we are” (page 247).   How does that apply to the different characters in the book?

8.      Do you think Skip and Tom should have been told they were half-brothers, especially when Skip joined the Marines and was in harm’s way?  Was there a good time when this could have happened?

9.      Discuss the various characters and how their experiences in life impacted their choices.  For example, was there any way Margaret and Felix’s marriage could have survived?

10.  Did you like the ending focusing on Cal and Becky?

11.  The story starts in 1920 and ends around 1976.  Did it provide a good history of our country?  Multiple important events were referenced such as Pearl Harbor, FDR dying, the killings at Kent State, and the draft lottery in December 1969.  Did the author’s description seem true to you, especially the way he described the wars and their impact on those at home and those who served? 

12.  Discuss your reading experience. What things mentioned did you recognize?  For example, Lazarus Department Store, Laura Engles Wilder, Zane Grey novels.