The Bookwoman's Daughter, by Kim Michele Richardson

 

Characters
Honey Mary-Angeline Lovett Willie – dad Angeline – mother, bluet Cussy Carter Lovett – birth mother, bluet, pack horse librarian   Junia - mule   Loretta “Retta” Adams – legal guardian when parents arrested Alonza - nephew   Devil John – moonshine Martha Hannah – wife Carson – son   Bob Morgan – lawyer   Pearl Grant – fire-tower watcher   R. C.  – first fire-tower watcher, promoted Ruth – wife   Robbie Hardin – wanted watchtower job, vandalism   Perry Gillis – abusive, killed by rooster Guyla Belle – wife Johnie – son, fell down well   Sherriff Buckner – Perry Gillis’ relative   Bonnie Powell – female miner   Francis Moore – works in company store   Wrenna Abbott - age 10 Rooster Emma McCain – great-grandmother   Amara Ballard – frontier nurse   Doctor Millie - wife	Library and Patrons
	Eula Foster – library director Harriett Hardin – librarian Oren Taft – librarian   Honey’s book route:   Monday School – Principal Walker Emma McCain and Wrenna Mrs. Moore – Francis’ mother   Wednesday Mr. Cecil and Charlotte Martha Hannah Pearl Grant – watchtower   Thursday Tobacco Top community Bonnie Powell Doctor and Millie   Friday Bonnie Powell Pete and Franklin Duncan Amara Ballard Guyla Gillis – leave secret signal when safe to leave books

For Discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from the paperback edition.

1.       Did the author describe the emotions of the characters so that you were able to understand them?  Was fear the main emotion – Honey, Pearl, Guyla Belle?   Any other important feelings in the novel?

2.       What characters were your favorites?

3.       Discuss being different from the norm in society.  Is it possible that we are all different in one way or another?

4.       The doctor invited Honey to eat dinner and told her, “A man can’t be both smart and hungry at the same time.  Now is the time to be smart” (page 193).  How does this relate to the food crisis in many families?

5.       If you were Honey, would you take the medicine to make the blue disappear?  Her mother told her, “our color – any color – is not a poison and doesn’t need fixing” (page 193).

6.       The story was set in the 1950s.  Could you relate to the following:

a.       Avon make-up available then and now

b.       Piercing ears with a needle and potato

7.       Are there lessons to be learned from this book for today’s world?

8.       Did you enjoy reading the book?

9.       What were your favorite parts of the story?

10.   There were many quotes in the novel about books and reading.   Which ones were meaningful to you?  Some of them are:

a.       “You grow readers, expand minds, if you let them chooses, but you go banning a read, you stunt the whole community.” Mother to Honey, page 52.

b.       “books can soothe all matters of the heart” Oren Taft to Honey, page 133.

c.       “Show me a family of readers, and I will show you the people who move the world.” Napoleon Bonaparte, front piece.

d.       Cussy to judge as a young boy: “Books are the cornerstone to greater minds” – page 307.

The Reading List, by Sara Nisha Adams

 

Characters
Aleisha – working at library Aiden – dropped out of school to care for mother Leilah – mother, ill Dean – father, new life and family   Zac Lowe – law student, guy on train   Mia – Aleisha’s friend   Mukesh Naina – wife, deceased Rohini, Deepali, Vritti – daughters Priya, Jaya and Jayesh – grandchildren   Nilakshi – Naina’s best friend, lost both husband and son in accident   Harish – Mukesh’s friend Meena – wife   Nasseem – neighbor Noor - daughter   Harrow Road Library Aleisha Dev “Thermos Flask Dev” – manager Kyle Benny Chris “Crime Thriller Guy” Lucy - volunteer	Found or given reading list
	Aleisha – found list in copy of To Kill a Mockingbird returned by “Crime Thriller Guy,” shared titles with Mukesh   Chris – found list on library table under a copy of To Kill a Mockingbird with a note Melanie – girlfriend, relationship ended   Indira Patel – found list in shoe space at the mandir   Lenora – found list on board at yoga studio Helena – sister   Izzy – found list on street, collects lists   Joseph – given list by library patron, bullied   Gigi – found list in supermarket

 

For Discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from hardback edition.

1.       As you were reading, who do you think wrote the list?

2.       When Mukesh went to the charity walk, he carried a copy of Rebecca with him. He thought about how Naina “used to carry a book with her wherever she was, in case she got stuck in a lift on her own…” (page 126).  Did you relate to this idea?

3.       Izzy collected lists and made-up stories about the people who wrote them.  Do you make lists?  If someone found one of your lists, what would it tell them about you?

 

4.       Discuss Mukesh’s friendship and relationship with Nilakshi, Naina’s best friend.   Were you surprised at his daughters’ reactions?

5.       The novel dealt with many serious issues (grief, loneliness, caring for a sick parent, suicide, bullying) in addition to the positive power of reading.  Did you find the book sad or uplifting, or both?

6.       Could anything have been done to help Aidan?  Would adding him to the book list recipients have helped?

7.       How did the books on the list help the different people who found it?

8.       At least both Mukesh and Aleisha saw or imagined the characters from the various books during their regular days.   Has this ever happened to you?

9.       Is there a book that you have read several times during your life?  Did it mean different things to you at different ages?

10.   Which books have you read from the list?  Did you think they were powerful enough to be included on the list?  Are there any others you would recommend?

The Turn of the Key, by Ruth Ware

 

Characters
Rowan Caine/Rachel Gerhardt   Bill Elincourt – Rowan’s real father, affairs with previous nannies Sandra Elincourt Rhianna – 14, at boarding school Maddie – 8 Ellie – 5 Petra – 18 months   Jack Grant – driver   Jean McKenzie - housekeeper	Previous Nannies: #1 – Holly 3 years #2 – Lauren 8 months #3 – 1 week #4 – Maja – 1 night #5 – Katya – left note for next nanny, unfinished   Mr. Gates – court-appointed lawyer   Mr. Wrexham – barrister, letters addressed to him   Dr. Kenwick Grant – previous owner of house Elspeth – daughter, died in poison garden

 

For Discussion:

NOTE: The page numbers are from the 2019 paperback edition.

1.       As you were reading, what clues did you pick up that something wasn’t right? 

2.       Did the author leave any red herrings (false clues)?

3.       Was it realistic that the parents would leave the children with a new nanny the first day she started?  Did this bother you? 

4.       Were there other things in the novel that did not seem right or that you wished had been addressed?  For example, why would the parents leave the poison garden in tact?

5.       In an early letter to Mr. Wrexham, Rowan said that her “instinct is always to aim low, save myself some pain” (page 18).  How was this important to the story, if at all?

6.       Did you have any idea about the ending as you were reading?

7.       Were you surprised that Rowan/Rachel apparently did not give Ellie’s letter to the police in order to prove her innocence?

8.       Why did Maddie keep terrorizing the nannies so they would leave?  Why did she warn Rowan?

9.       What did you think of the ending?  Was the book a satisfying reading experience?

10.   Would you want to live in a house totally wired with cameras and electronics like the Elincourt house?  Were the cameras in the bedrooms a matter of safety or an invasion of privacy?

11.   What other scary or spooky books have you read?  Did you like this genre?

The Lost Apothecary, by Sarah Penner

 

Characters
1791	Present Day
Nella Clavinger Frederick – husband, deceased   Mr. and Mrs. Amwell Eliza Fanning – taught to read and write Sally – cook Johana – servant, she and baby died   Father, mother and child (Beatrice) - Nella met on boat   Lady Clarence of Carter Lane Husband – poisoned Miss Berkwell – husband’s mistress, intended victim   Tom Pepper - Magic Bookshop	Caroline Parcewell James – husband   Rose Ainsley – Caroline’s friend   Alfred – Bachelor Alf – mudlarking   Gaynor – British Library Map Room

 

For Discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from the 2022 paperback edition.

1.       How difficult is it to keep a secret?   James kept his affair a secret for months but Caroline found it difficult to keep her secret about finding the hidden room to herself for even a few hours. 

2.       Caroline thought that her and James’ problem was that they “were happy, yet unfulfilled” (page 270).  What is the difference between being happy and being fulfilled? 

3.       What did you think about James ingesting the eucalyptus oil when he knew it was poison?  Do you think he knew it was as dangerous as it was?

4.       Caroline came to the conclusion that James drinking the oil was another way to shift all of the blame on to her, “your unhappiness, your mistress, now this illness” (page 287).  Do you think he will find happiness when he returns to America on his own?

5.       On page 295, as Nella thought about preparing her final poison, she thought that the last one “would finally grant me the peace I’d sought since my baby fell from my belly at the hand of Frederick.”  Did you understand prior to that page that Frederick had caused her to lose the baby?

6.       Should Eliza have felt guilty about giving Lady Clarence the bottle with the address on it?

 

7.       The original purpose of the apothecary shop started by Nella’s mother was to “heal and nurture women” (page 112).  Nella continued this tradition but took it to another level, helping women escape from their husbands by poisoning them.  Do you think her mother would have approved?

8.       Nella thought Eliza jumped from the bridge in her place, to “implicate herself as poisoner” (page 293).   Were you surprised Eliza took this risk?

9.       The potion that Eliza drank before jumping was a Tincture to Reverse Bad Fortune.   Was it the potion or something else that saved her?   Why didn’t she contact Nella after she survived?  On page 306 Nella thought she saw her in the window of the Clarence house.

10.   Did you like the organization of the book, with the two stories flipping back and forth?

11.   Are you tempted to go mudlarking on your next vacation?

Cold Mountain, by Charles Frazier

 

Characters
Inman	Ada
Swimmer – childhood friend, Cherokee Indian   Balis – hospital   Blind man   Solomon Veasy – preacher Laura Foster   Three men outside store, attached Inman outside of town   Girl in canoe on Cape Fear River   Gypsies   Big Tildy – whore   Odell – peddler   Junior, Chastity, Lila, 2 sisters, 2 boys – Inman helped remove bull blocking stream, turned Inman in to Home Guard for $5   Yellow slave – drew map   Goatwoman – kindness, medicine   Potts – Red String Band, sympathized with Federals   Sara, baby – husband John killed in war   Men from north - looting	Monroe – father, preacher Claire Dechutes – mother, deceased   Esco and Sally Swanger – neighbors   Ruby   Stobrod – Ruby’s father   Reid – initially with Teague, stayed behind and never left, married Ruby Three sons   Ada’s daughter with Inman – 9 years old at end of novel
Teague and the Guard- Bounty hunters
Prisoner telling story from jail cell – captured outlier, was a volunteer, so he “just unvolunteered”   Caught Stobrod and Prangle – shot both, Stobrod survived   Caught Inman and Stobrod – Inman helped Stobrod escape, shot Teague and then was shot himself

 

 

For Discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from the 1997 hardback edition.

1.       Monroe and Ada were ridiculed for not adapting to the area where he decided to build his church.  They “stayed too long green in the country they had taken up, and they soon became a source of great comedy to many households” (page 59).  How could/should they have better adapted to their surroundings?  Was it wise or fair for Monroe to take his daughter out of the surroundings where she had been raised?

2.       After she was left alone, Ada “wondered how a human being could be raised more impractically for the demands of an exposed life” (page 22).  Would Ada have been able to survive without Ruby?  What did you like best about Ruby’s rules when she moved in?

3.       Mrs.  McKennet, one of Ada’s neighbors, “found the fighting glorious and tragic and heroic.  Noble beyond her powers of expression” (page 140).   Would anyone else in the novel agree with her?  Do you think this view was typical of people in the south who had not experienced the war?

4.       When he was still in the hospital, Inman met a blind man who asked him “cite me one instance where you wished you were blind” (page 6).  This question led Inman to reflect on the battle at Fredericksburg.   Did his following description give you any new insights?

5.       The blind man also told Inman that he had been born blind and that he was glad he had never had vision because, “It might have been worse had I ever been given a glimpse of the world and then lost it” (page 5).  Did you understand his reasoning?

6.       When Inman was crossing the Cape Fear River, he reflected, “he would like to love the world as it was, and he felt a great deal of accomplishment for the occasions when he did, since the other was so easy.  Hate took no effort other than to look about” (page 69).  How did this help explain the Civil War?

7.       Discuss Stobrod and his music.  Ada reflected on him, “it seemed akin to miracle that Stobrod, of all people, should offer himself up as proof positive that no matter what a waste one has made of one’s life, it is ever possible to find some path to redemption, however partial” (page 234).

8.       What did all of the individual stories add to the main story of Ada and Inman?  How did they further your understanding of the Civil War?

9.       What did the character of Teague and the Home Guard add to the story?  Were they important?

10.   What did you think of the ending?

11.   The novel has been compared to classics of the Civil War, such as The Killer Angels.  Do you think it deserves that distinction?

Beneath a Scarlet Sky, by Mark Sullivan

 

Characters/People
Italian	Germans and others
Pino Lella Mimo – brother Michel – father Porzia – mother Cicci – younger sister   Carletto Beltramini – best friend Parents own fruit stand   Tullio Galimberh – 5 years older than Pino, watching Colonel Rauff   Uncle Albert Albanese – luggage store Aunt Greta   Anna – girl Pino met in in 1943 – became Dolly’s maid, 1944   Father Re – camp in Motto, helping Jews escape Brother Bormio – cook   Cardinal Schuster   Bergstrom – met Jewish escapees in Switzerland   Alberto Ascari – Lake Como, taught Pino to drive   Tito – Italian, pretended to be with resistance but really robbing people	Colonel Rauff – Hitler Secret Police   Major General Hans Leyers – Pino became his driver in 1944, spying for resistance   Dolly – Leyers’ mistress
	Jewish Refugees taken over mountain:   Maria, Ricardo, Luigi (smoker)   Elena Napolitano - violinist
	Others   Major Frank Knebel – US Fifth Army

 

For Discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from the 2017 paperback edition.

1.       When they sent him away, did you think Pino’s parents knew he would be trained to escort refugees across the border to Switzerland?  Was it fair for Father Re to train Pino for these missions without telling he from the beginning?

2.       How was Pino wise enough to know how to reach the refugees when they were struggling?  For example, he told Luigi to imagine he was climbing the Colosseum and Elena Napolitano to compare the climb to her first time playing La Scala.

3.       Discuss Major General Leyers.  Why did he save the four Jewish children from the train car, work with Schuster to keep Nazis from leveling Milan, etc.?  Do you think he was basically a good person or just only looking out for himself above all others including Germany?

4.       Major Knebel told Pino that Leyers was a hero.  Were the Americans wrong in this assessment?

5.       What did you think about his idea of doing favors for people.   Leyers said, “When you have done men favors, when you look out for others so that they can prosper, they owe you.  With each favor you become stronger, more supported” (page 274).

6.       Should Pino have felt guilty about not saving Anna?  Leyers told Pino her death was his fault because he arrested Leyers instead of taking him back to the apartment to check on Dolly and Anna.  He told Pino, “If there’s anyone directly responsible for Dolly and Anna’s death, Pino, it is you” (page 479).  What does this tell us about Leyers?

7.       Cardinal Schuster told Pino that he “had the right to survive.  Every human has that basic, God-given right” (page 439).  Did this help him any, in the moment or later?

8.       Anna told Pino that she was a “student of happiness” and that “Sometimes happiness comes to us.  But usually you have to seek it out…You start by looking around you for the blessing you have.  When you find them, be grateful” (page 261).  How did Anna personify this advice?  Do you think Pino was able to follow the advice later in his life?

9.       It seems that Leyers knew that Pino was a spy because as they were parting, Leyers called him by his code name, “Observer” (page 489).  Do you think he knew and fed Pino false information?

10.   How did knowing Pino survived the war and was still alive affect your reading?

11.   Did the “Aftermath” section add to you understanding and enjoyment?

12.   Why did this story have such an effect on the author when he first heard it?

13.   The author first heard Pino’s story in 2006, and the novel was published in 2017.  During that time he co-authored five novels with James Patterson.  Why did this novel take him so long and do you think collaborating with Patterson had any effect on his writing?

The Lilac Girls, Martha Hall Kelly

 

Characters/People
Caroline Ferriday – New York	Kasia Kuzmerick - Poland	Herta Oberheuser - Germany
French Consulate – New York Roger – boss   Mother   Paul Rodierre – actor Rena – wife Leena - daughter   Pia – secretary   Betty – friend, bought back silverware   Anise Postel-Vinay – founded ADIR, the National Association of Deportees and Internees of the Resistance   Serge – Russian cook, marries Zuzanna	Adalbert - father, director of postal center Halina – mother Zuzanna – sister, doctor   Worked in underground – “Gray Ranks”   Friends: Nadia Watroba Pietrik Bakoski – future husband   Halina – daughter   “Ravensbruck Rabbits”   Marthe – father’s girlfriend after Halina died	Mother Father   Heinz – mother’s brother, raping Herta in butcher shop   Ravensbruck – reeducation camp for women   Commandant Koegel   Dorothea Binz – head of punishment bunker   Irma Greese – guard in training   Fritz – doctor, former classmate

 

For Discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from paperback edition.

1.       Discuss Herta and her decision to go to Ravensbruck.  Once she was there and found out what was really happening, was it possible for her to leave?

2.       Was she initially a bad person? Could she  have ever redeemed herself?

3.       When Paul and Rena were reunited and you read that they had a child, did you understand Rena’s need to talk with Caroline?

4.       As you were reading, did you think Caroline was going to help them find the baby or stick to her word to do nothing?

5.       Caroline’s mother told her she had to help Rena and Paul find their child because “it’s the Christian thing to do” (page 325).  When Caroline replied that she was feeling very Christian, her mother responded, “Well, splash some cold water on your face.  That will help” (page 325).  Was this good advice?

6.       What did you think about Caroline’s and Kasia’s mothers?  Kasia’s mother worked for the Germans in an attempt to save her husband.  At Ravensbruck, she drew portraits of the Germans in exchange for food she shared with the other prisoners.  Caroline’s mother had “achieved field marshal status in the post-World War II French charitable world” (page 367).  How did they each influence their daughters?

7.       It seemed as if Halina and Herta had a good working relationship at the clinic.  How do you think Halina justified this given that she must have known what was going on?

8.       In the summer of 1945, Kasia still felt guilty about causing her mother’s capture at the movie theater bringing her a sandwich and subsequent death in the concentration camp.  Did you understand her feelings?   Would it have been possible for her to move on from these feelings?  

9.       Do you think Kasia found peace at the end of the novel?

10.   When Kasia talked with Herta in 1959, Herta justified what she did by telling Kasia, “I did my job.  I spent years in prison just for doing academic research…Research to save German soldiers.  And for your information, the German government for years has exercised the right to use executed criminals for such research purposes” (page 469).  Do you think she really believed what she said?

11.   Herta’s classmate, Fritz, was also at Ravensbruck, but asked to be moved to the front lines because he was bothered by what was happening there.  Why was he bothered by Herta was not?

12.   In 1959, Herta had been released from jail and was practicing under her own name.   Why didn’t anyone realize who she was or revoke her license before Kasia?

13.   Discuss your reading experience.  How did you approach the book?