A Man Called Ove, by Fredrik Backman

 

Characters
Neighbors	Others
Ove – parents died when he was 7 (mother) and 16 (father) Sonja – taught special education students   Rune – Alzheimer’s, ongoing feud with Ove Anita   Parvenah Patrick Nasanin – 7 Sister - 3 Baby boy   Anders – across street Blond Weed – girlfriend Prince “Mutt” – dog   Jimmy – 25 years old, Ove and Rune bought house when father left	Tom – railway foreman, falsely accused Ove of stealing money   Lena – newspaper reporter   Adrian – postman, former student of Sonja’s Mirsad – boss at cafe Amel – Mirsad’s father, café owner   Council: Men in white shirt

 

For discussion:

NOTE: The page numbers are from the paperback edition.

 

1. After reading chapter one, did you want to continue reading? 

 

2. Did you like the chapter titles?   Did they add to your reading experience?

 

3. How well did the author develop Ove’s character?  Did you understand him?  At the beginning, did you like him or not?  Why?

 

4. How did Ove’s childhood and the years after his father died help form him into the man he became?

 

5. Were you surprised that Ove did not tell the truth about Tom stealing the money from the cash box?  When Ove was nine, he saw Tom keep something someone had left on the train while Ove turned in the wallet he found.  He lied at that time also and did not say that Tom had kept the briefcase.  Ove’s father told him, “We are not the sort of people who tell on others” (page 44).  Was this good advice?

 

6. How was Parvaneh like Sonja?  How were they different?

 

7. Would you have been as tolerant of Ove as Sonja?

 

8. Discuss the cat.  If you are a “cat person,” do you think the author did a good job describing a cat’s personality?   What were your thoughts if you are not a “cat person?”

 

9. Why are Anders and the Blond Weed so nasty to Ove?

 

10. What did you think of the book’s treatment of suicide?  Was it presented too positively (end loneliness, reunite with Sonja) and does it adequately address the pain left behind (effect on young train conductor)?

 

11. In chapter 13, when Parvenah sees the plastic tubing in the garage, do you think she has an idea of what Ove intended to do?  Also, at the end of the novel she tells the doctor, “Ove is quite clearly UTTERLY LOUSY at dying!” (page 329).  Should she have done anything?

 

12. The book made many observations about modern life and how Ove fit in.  What were your thoughts about the following?

 

1. Page 82 – “Nowadays people change their stuff so often that any expertise in how to make things last was becoming superfluous.  Quality: no one cared about that anymore.”

 

2. Page 83 – “This is a world where one became outdated before one’s time was up.  An entire country standing up and applauding the fact that no one was capable of doing anything properly anymore.  The undeserved celebration of mediocrity.”

 

3. Page 137 – Regarding tattoos: “he has covered himself in doodles as well.  There’s not even a proper motif, as far as Ove can see, just a lot of patterns.”

 

13. The beginning of chapter 39 addressed death and time.  How do you think people of different ages would interpret this chapter?

 

14. Did you like the author’s writing style?  For example, on page 8 when discussing the video cameras, the author wrote that the “new steering group explained snappily to the residents…”  What mental image did you get from this phrase?

The Overstory, Rickard Powers (2019 Pulitzer Prize for fiction)

 

Characters
Roots
Nicholas Hoel Chestnut tree – sentinel tree Flip-book – 76 years of monthly pictures   Mimi Ma Mulberry Tree Winston Ma – father, three jade rings and scroll, suicide   Adam Appich Maple tree Studying social psychology   Ray Brinkman and Dorothy Cazaly Linden tree Community theater Add new plant to yard each anniversary	Douglas Pavlicek Prisoner 571 in experiment (did not give blanket to help another “prisoner”) Banyan tree – saved life when shot down in Viet Nam Planted saplings to replace those taken down   Neelay Mehta Paralyzed – fell from oak tree Develops computer games Ms. Gilpin – teacher, took notebook   Dr.  Patricia Westerford “Plant Patty” Research that trees are social creatures debunked, but years later vindicated Dennis Ward – husband   Olivia Vandergriff Electrocuted and revived by falling out of bed
Trunk
Life Force Defense LFD Mother N Moses   Olivia and Nick >> Watchman and Maidenhair Douglas fir – Mimas On platform 200 feet in air for one year *Olivia killed in last protest   Mimi and Doug >> Mulberry and Doug-fir   Ray and Dorothy – Dorothy – community chorus and affair Ray – working more hours	Adam >> Maple “Bias Boy” in grad school Thesis – Identity formation and Big Five personality factors among plants rights activists   Dr. Patricia Westerford The Secret Forest   Dennis – Patricia’s husband   Neelay - Computer game “Mastery”
Crown – next 20 years
Mimi – Therapist, “Judith Hanson” Father’s jade ring and Chinese scroll   Adam – professor, early tenure, published Lois - wife   Neelay – Mastery 8   Nick – returns to farm and digs up flip-book	Ray – stroke Dorothy – affair Letting yard go back to nature   Doug – caretaker at Friendliest Ghost Town in the West Alena – read journals and turned Doug in to police   Dr. Westerford – established seed bank
Seeds
Nick – no more movies, working on “Still” Man in red plaid coat helping   Dorothy and Ray – Ray deceased	Dr. Westerford – The New Metamorphosis   Adam and Doug in jail for destruction of property and murder

For Discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from the hardback edition.

1.       Maidenhair and Watchman lived in Mimas for one year.  Could you imagine doing that??

2.       In her speech at the conference, Home Repair: Countering a Warming World, Patty asked, “What is the single best think a person can do for tomorrow’s world?” (page 464).  Twenty years ago, Mimi thought the answer was to “burn down a luxury ski resort before it could be built” (page 464).  What do you think Mimi’s answer would be at the end of the novel?   How would the other main characters answer that question?

3.       What part did Neelay play in the story?  Also, Dorothy and Ray – why were they in the novel?

4.       When Doug was arrested, the deal offered him was to turn in just one other person in exchange for a reduced sentence (page 450) and he chose Adam.  Why did he choose him?  Do you think that was the best choice given that Adam had a family and was a late-comer to the group?

5.       Do you think his decision had anything to do with the fact that Adam did not go for help when they told him to after the accident?  Adam’s rationale was that Olivia was dead already and if he went for help they would all be arrested.

6.       Why did Adam present little defense after his arrest?  Why did he feel so guilty but none of the others felt moved to turn themselves in?  He told his wife, “If I save myself, I lose something else” (page 488).  What did he mean?

7.       Right before he died, Ray thinks the best defense for Adam is “self-defense…Stand your ground. The castle doctrine.  Self-help” (page 497).  Do you think this would have worked?

8.       When Dorothy and Ray decided to let their yard go back to nature, their neighbors complained and the local government first fined them and then cleaned up the yard without their consent.   How do you think people in your neighborhood would react if someone decided to let their yard be natural?

9.       Was there a better way for the Life Force Defense (LFD) and the five main characters to share their views and stop the logging?

10.   When Adam was talking with Doug at the end, when Doug was identifying him to the authorities, they talked about what they had accomplished.  Adam said, “We accomplished nothing” and Doug replied, “She would have done it all again” (page 431).  Did they accomplish anything? 

11.   When Adam is checked into prison, he hears a voice in his head telling him, “You have been spared from death, to do a most important thing” (page 495).  What do you think it is?

12.   Twenty years later, new fires are being set using the LFD’s old slogans.   Who is setting these fires?

13.   Nick has a job working at a fulfillment center similar to Amazon (un-named in book).   He feels the product the company is promoting is not so much books as it is convenience.   Nick thinks that “ease is the disease” and that “Once you’ve bought a novel in your pajamas, there’s no turning back” (page 379).  Do you see this as a problem?

14.   Who is the man in the red plaid coat helping Nick at the end?  When Nick says to him, referring to conifer trees, “It amazes me how much they say when you let them.  They’re not that hard to hear,” the man answers, “We’ve been trying to tell you that since 1492” (page 493).

15.   How well did the author present both sides of the issue?  The loggers were working for jobs and materials for homes.  The environmentalists wanted to save the old forests.  Was, or is, there a middle ground?

16.   When Mimi and the others were welcoming Adam to their group, Mimi asked him what the best way was to convince people of their cause.  Adam’s response was, “The best arguments in the world won’t change a person’s mind.  The only thing that can do that is a good story” (page 336).  Did this story make you see trees and forests differently?

 

Girl Waits with Gun, by Ann Stewart

 

Characters
Real People - 1914	Fictional
Kopp Family: Parents - deceased Constance Norma Fleurette Francis - brother Bessie- wife   Henry Kaufman   Sheriff Heath Cordelia – wife   George Ewing   John Ward – Kaufman’s lawyer, ordered photographs at Kaufmann’s request   Newspaper articles and letters	Lucy Blake and baby son, Bobby   Marion Garfinkel – Henry’s sister   Henri LaMotte – collects evidence   Mrs. Florence’s County Home for Friendless and Erring Women

 

For Discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from paperback edition.

1.       What did you think about how Fleurette was raised, kept away from everyone including public school?  Was that realistic for the times?

2.       Why did Fleurette turn out so differently than her sisters, Norma and Constance? 

3.       From the Acknowledgements it seems that the secret of Fleurette’s birth was kept from everyone, including her, for a very long time.    Was that fair to her?  Would this same situation happen today?

4.       Were you surprised that her mother did not want Constance to be found and forbid Francis from asking around to find her?  She was sure that “whatever the reason for my disappearance, it had to be something shameful, something not to be spoken of, even with the rest of the family” (page 117).  Years later Constance’s uncles still thought she had “enrolled in a secretarial college in Philadelphia” (page 117).  Do you think this was normal for the times?

5.       Should Constance have been suspicious of the Singer Sewing Machine salesman and not fallen into his trap?   All her mother had told her was to “never sit alone on a divan with a man” (page 107).   Should she have been better educated?

6.       Constance was not hired as a detective for Wanamaker’s Department Store because she was too tall and would not blend in with the customers.   Would she have been successful as a store detective? 

7.       Did you like the organization of the book, switching between the current case and the family history?

8.       When this book was published in 2015 it won numerous honors such as being named one of NPR’s Best Books of 2015.   Why do you think it was so honored?  Do you think it deserved all of the recognition?

9.       For you, how did the book compare with others in the historical fiction genre?

10.   Do you want to read the next book in the series?

The Giver of Stars, by Jojo Moyes

 

Characters
Baileyville WPA Packhorse Library	Library Patrons	Townspeople
Margery O’Hare Alice Van Cleve Beth Pinker Izzy Brady – polio   Sophia Kenworth – worked at night, kept records and repaired books, made The Baileyville Bonus from ruined magazines and books   Kathleen Bligh   Mrs. Lena Nofcier – chairman of the Library Service for the Kentucky WPA   Mrs. Brady – local woman in charge of library	Nancy Stone Phyllis – sister, bedridden   Muellers: Mr. Mueller - miner Wife and four children   Horner family: Jim Wife - deceased Mae and Millie   Mrs. Beidecker – schoolteacher   Bligh family: Garrett – husband, ill Kathleen Two children	Sven Gustavsson Virginia Alice O’Hare – daughter with Margery   Mr. Geoffrey Van Cleve Dolores – deceased wife Bennett – son, Alice’s husband Annie – maid   Hoffman Mining   Peggy Foreman – Bennett’s old girlfriend   Fred Guisler   Clem McCullough Daughters – Verna and Neeta   William Kenworth – Sophia’s brother

For Discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from hardback edition.

1.       Why did Bennett marry Alice in the first place?

2.       Were you surprised when Peggy, his second wife, came to the library to borrow the “little blue book?”  What was your theory about Bennett and his wives?

3.       Discuss Alice and her actions such as volunteering for the library, giving away two of Dolores’ dolls, standing up to Mr. Van Cleve and the minister using their own words, etc. 

4.       Was Margery right to influence the miners about selling the rights to their land to Hoffman Mining for strip mining as well as distributing the “little blue book?”  Should she have avoided the controversies all together?

5.       In Chapter 23, Mrs. Brady stood up to Mr. Van Cleve, the McCullough family, and some of the townspeople at Margery’s trial.  Did her actions surprise you?  

6.       Verna lied and said that Clem had been borrowing books from the library and that he had gone out to return Little Women?   Do you think the judge, jury, and townspeople really believed her?

7.       Did you like the ending?

8.       Were you surprised when Mr. Van Cleve beat Alice?  Why didn’t Bennett do anything?  What would Dolores have thought of his actions?

9.       The story line that was not tied up at the end was what happened to the Van Cleves.   Bennett quietly told Alice that the sheriff had not spoken with Verna and Neeta and he also told her that he was going to shore up the slurry dams with concrete even though his father had not yet agreed to do so.   What do you think happened to the mines and Mr. Van Cleve?

10.   What did the quotations at the beginning of the chapters add to the book?

11.   Besides the power of books and reading, what other themes were addressed in the novel?  What do you think the main theme was?

Dear Edward, by Ann Napolitano

 

Characters
Flight 2977 – June 12, 2013	Others
Adler family: Bruce Jane Jordan – Mahira, girlfriend Eddie   Linda Stollen - pregnant ·       Gary – boyfriend   Florida – multiple lives, bells in skirt   Benjamin Stillman - soldier, wounded, colostomy ·       Gavin – friend ·       Lolly – adopted grandmother   Mark Lassio – businessman ·       Jax – brother, girlfriend Tahiti   Crispen Cox - businessman, disabled, author ·       Louisa – first wife ·       Harrison Cox -son ·       Private nurse   Veronica – flight attendant   Dr.  Nancy Louis	Lacey and John Curtis – Jane’s sister   Besa – neighbor Shay – daughter, Edward’s friend   Dr. Mike – therapist   Principal Arundhi – grows ferns   Mrs. Tulane – gym teacher   Margaret – girl Edward pushed in gym class   Madame Victory – fortune teller

For Discussion:

Note: Pages are from paperback edition.

1.       Did the author do a good job describing what it is like to be an airplane passenger?  She wrote, “The passengers are pulled into themselves: the long flight has only just begun, and they need to get used to this new space…They resign themselves to the new normal, one by one” (page 44).  Could you relate?

2.       Edward was most comfortable wearing Jordan’s clothes and he noticed that Lacey was wearing one of Jane’s blouses in January 2014 (page 133) to help her be “brave” and one of her sweaters in January 2016 (page 222).  How did these clothes comfort them?  Do you have any “comfort” clothes?

3.       In June 2015, Edward thought that while he “understands the adults’ desire for him to just be healed – how could they really understand what he’s been through?  But he feels like Lacey should know better” (page 164).  Was he hoping for too much from Lacey?  Should she have been handling things better or differently?

4.       Was Edward’s dependence on Shay a positive or negative?  Should he have been allowed to sleep on her bedroom floor for two years? 

5.       What did you think about the idea that people felt compelled to talk to Edward and tell them things?  Dr. Mike explained that they “want to share something extraordinary about themselves, because you’ve experienced something extraordinary” (page 117).  Did this seem probable to you?  Would you have wanted to tell Edward something about yourself?

6.       In the same vein, what did you think about the letters from victims’ families asking Edward to do something such as taking photographs like Dr. Louis, writing to a victim’s children, or walk the Great Wall of China?  Why did reading these requests suddenly help Edward sleep (page 239)?

7.       Shay compared Edward to Harry Potter because he “survived a terrible attack that no one should have been able to survive” and has “a scar like Harry Potter too. And you were taken in by your aunt and uncle” (page 74).  Was this helpful to Edward?

8.       Margaret knew that there were 11 Asian people on the plane.  When she talked to Edward about this, he felt that she “has just given him confirmation that feels like a puzzle piece locking into place and he was grateful” (page 208).   By this time, he had memorized the names of the other passengers.  Why did her comment provide relief to Edward?

9.       How did Florida and her multiple lives fit into the story line?  In the photograph taken the day of the memorial’s dedication, there was a curly-haired toddler looking at the grass instead of the sculpture.  Did you think that was Florida?

10.   In July 2013, Laney and John receive a binder with pictures of all the items found at the crash site and asking them to identify which belonged to their family members.  John wanted to keep it from Edward because Dr. Mike said their “job is to protect him” but Laney said she didn’t “want to lie to him.  I think he should be able to see the information, so he can make sense of it himself” (page 84).  Who do you think was correct? 

11.   Three years later, in March 2016, Edward and John have a conversation in the garage and John admitted that he and Lacey had withheld things from him because they were worried that Edward would commit suicide.  Edward replied, “I would not have done that to you…because I know what it’s like to be left behind” (page283).  On page 299 we read that “the atmosphere in the house has changed since Edward confronted his uncle in the garage.”  Was it possible to have had that conversation earlier in Edward’s recovery?  Was it right for John and Lacey to keep things from Edward?

12.   Why did Edward have issues with food?  To him, food seemed “not only unnecessary but irrelevant” (page 60).  He couldn’t “bear the idea of food that changes form in any way. Sloshing was intolerable, and he didn’t want anything with bubbles” (page 61).

13.   When Lacey was trying to get Edward to eat, she pleaded with him, “Please don’t do this…If Jane knew how badly I was doing at taking care of you…” (page 60).   Was she doing a bad job?  Was there anything she could have done differently?

14.   Discuss Louisa Cox.  Why did she send books to Edward (Cox’s business book, a biography of Teddy Roosevelt, and Harrison’s poetry book as a graduation gift)?   Were you surprised that she was invited to the high school graduation ceremony?

15.   Did you think the adults in the novel could or should have treated Edward differently?  Was it possible for him to recover any faster or at all?

16.   One of the criticisms of the book was that many of the characters were stereotypes.  Do you agree?

17.   Did you enjoy the reading experience?  Did you like the way the book was organized – how it kept switching between Edward’s current life and the last hours on the plane?

Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese

 

Characters
Missing Hospital, Ethiopia	Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, New York	Others
Sister Mary Joseph Praise Thomas Stone Marion Shiva ShivaMarion   Matron   Dr. K. Hemlatha (Hema) Dr. Ghosh   Rosina Genet Zemui (Genet’s father)   Almaz (Ghosh’s servant) Gebrew   Nurse/Staff Probationer – Naeema – became a surgeon   Ed Harris – from sponsoring church in U.S.   Tsige – waited to take baby to hospital and he died	Deepak Jesudass – Chief Resident   Thomas Stone   Tsige – “Queen of Sheba” restaurant   Genet   Hema Shiva	Sister Anjali – died on ship   Thomas Stone’s parents: Justifus Stone – syphilis and alcoholism Hilda Stone   George Ross – Thomas’ guardian after parent’s illness and death

For discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from paperback edition.

1. Discuss Matron’s deception of the supporting churches regarding how their money was spent.  Do you think this was justified?
2. Discuss the Nurse Probationer.  She was proficient at book knowledge, but did not have “Sound Nursing Sense.”   What do you think is the balance between book knowledge and instinct in professional success or any other situation such as motherhood?
3. Discuss the minor sub-plot of the Nurse/Staff Probationer.  How was she able to come into her own?  Were you surprised she became first a surgeon’s assistant for Shiva and then a surgeon (page 652)?
4. Discuss the parable of the slippers on pages 350 & 351.  Ghosh told Hema and the boys that “The slippers in the story mean that everything you see and do and touch, every seed you sow, or don’t sow, becomes part of your destiny” (page 350).  How does this story explain life?
5. In chapter 26, when a soldier tried to take Zemui’s motorcycle, he had an accident riding away, caused by Marion and Genet giving him wrong directions about how to start it.  After he crashed, Marion tried to help by removing the gun pressing into his ribs and, in the process, shot and killed him.  Was Marion guilty of murder?
6. Did you like the inclusion of the detailed medical information along with the story?  Did this add or detract from your enjoyment of the novel?
7. How do you think the early illness and death of Thomas Stone’s mother shaped his adult life?  How did his own illness and abandonment of his father affect his life?
8. In the operating room, Thomas always advocated “words of comfort” in the care of a patient.  Does his behavior regarding his sons contradict this feeling for the individual?
1. Could you understand why Stone left his twins behind when they were born?   Did he make the best decision for them?  What would have happened to Stone, the boys, Hema and Ghosh if Stone had stayed in Ethiopia?
9. Think about all of the events that were a result of Shiva having sex with Genet.  What do you think would have happened if this initiating event had not happened?  Do you think Marion was right not to tell anyone?
1. Why would Shiva betray his brother this way?
10. Discuss Marion’s reaction to the Shiva Stone Institute for Fistula Surgery and Shiva being featured in an article in the New York Times.  Marion thought, “Shiva had taken the first and only girl I loved…Now, he was making headlines in my own backyard, in my newspaper.  I had followed all the rules, and tried to do the right think while he ignored all the rules, and here we were” (page 575).
11. Marion stated that he and Shiva “…had an unfair advantage on the rest of the world” because of their bond.  Do you agree or disagree?  Why?  (page 301)
12. At the end, Marion felt that he and Shiva were reunited into ShivaMarion and that Shiva lived in him (page 640).  Do you find this an interesting way for him to continue with his life?
13. Were you surprised that Marion went back to Ethiopia?
14. Discuss the ending.  Was it ethical that the doctors let Shiva donate part of his liver to Marion when it was still experimental?  Were you surprised his death was not related to the transplant?
15. If you read this book for the second time, was the second reading different than the first because you had a general idea of the storyline?