Hello everyone, I'm looking forward to our discussion of Born a Crime by Trevor Noah. Suggested discussion questions are below. Please feel free to bring ideas for February's pick. Drop us a line and let us know if we can hope to see you! Discussion questions: 1. Has anyone heard him in person? How does his writing compare? 2. Is this comedy? What comedic techniques does he use? Did you laugh? (Cats, 93) 3. What surprised you in learning about apartheid and its ending? Two brief descriptions: "The triumph of democracy over apartheid is sometimes called the Bloodless Revolution...very little white blood was spilled. Black blood ran in the streets." (12) "In America you had the forced removal of the native onto reservations coupled with slavery followed by segregation. Imagine all three of those happening to the same group of people at the same time. That was apartheid." (22) 4. How did his upbringing affect his path and career choice later in life? I am reading Endurance by Scott Kelly in which Kelly muses that criminals breed peacemakers. Is this another cause and effect like that -- where terror in childhood breeds the need for laughter? The terrorized child becomes the comedian? "Run and hide. I knew that as a five-year-old." (16). And, of course, the story ends with his mother making a joke while in the ICU. 5. What do you make of his mother and her stubbornness? Understandable? Or unreasonable? "Why didn't we just leave?" (31) 6. What were your first impressions of the title and cover, and how did those change as he described in chapter 2 what it meant to be born a crime? ("It was illegal to be mixed (to have a black parent and a white parent), but it was not illegal to be colored (to have two parents who were both colored)." 28) 7. What do you think of the format -- alternating history with his childhood stories? (I sort of wanted an index or timeline reference page for the history lessons.) 8. What's Trevor's take on religion? To me, he seems critical but not disrespectful. 9. Where did Trevor's family find hope? "The story of Soweto is the story of the driveways. It's a hopeful place." (42) 10. How many could be so calm and clever under pressure? Like his mom in the minibus or his mom in the shop and he avoiding a mugging. (55) 11. What makes him change from wanting granny's cookies (53, taking white privilege) to deciding to be black and take the B classes (59, choosing to be black)? 12. What do you make of his mom's choice to give him a name with no meaning so that he would be "beholden to no fate" (67)? What does your name mean? Has that name ever felt like a burden or self-fulfilling prophecy? 13. What does it mean to be raised as a certain race? He says his mom "raised me like a white kid" (73) but later also describing a portion of "the talk", saying she used corporal punishment because she was "trying to discipline [him] before the system... 'I need to do this to you before the police do it to you.' Because that's all black parents are thinking from the day you're old enough to walk out into the street, where the law is waiting" (227). 14. Isn't it amazing how we can get two very different pictures of something and both can be true? Compare the opening sentences of chapters 5 and 6 (pages 63 and 77): "My mother used to tell me, 'I chose to have you because I wanted something to love and something that would love me unconditionally in return -- and then I gave birth to the most selfish piece of shit on earth and all it ever did was cry and eat and shit and say, 'Me, me, me, me me.'" 15. What do you make of his mother's discipline techniques? He says she never left him in doubt of why he was being punished (84). What do you think? 16. Why do you think he ordered the stories in this way? Which of his stories do you find most compelling and why? 17. Is there an arc to this book? What are the threads woven through? I.e. his relationship with his mother, her choices; how his stepdad's actions and anger grew over time to alter their lives; crime -- first, born a crime, then, without his own "fishing rod" to make his way in the world, he began a life of crime (209). 18. After reading about all of the atrocities he witnessed in his young life, how is it that a house can burn down and he's able to walk away unpunished? (90-1) 19. Did you ever imagine you could feel betrayed by a pet? (100) 20. How could he not cry when his dad Robert pulled out the scrapbook? (109) I cried! 21. Did Robert have something to hide? Which means more -- knowing a person's personality or knowing the facts of their lives? 22. The money situation doesn't add up for me -- having to push the car to save gas but sometimes getting a new bicycle -- or having pocket change to buy a card and teddy bear and flowers for Valentine's Day but having to eat caterpillars. Or maybe it's just confusing the way he wrote it -- sometimes they had money; sometimes they didn't. 23. What do you make of the "curse of the colored people" and how that affects him as a "mixed" boy trying to fit into different group? He says he's mixed (but looks like Maylene in the V-day chapter) but he's not part of the colored click, like in high school (138) or at his court hearing (239-241). "The curse the colored people carry is having no clearly defined heritage to go back to....The history of colored people in South Africa is, in this respect, worse than the history of black people in South Africa. For all that black people have suffered, they know who they are. Colored people don't." (115-116) 24. Didn't you want to know what happened to Teddy after he was expelled? (59) Were the staff and officers really that color blind or were they protecting Trevor? 25. What did you make of his description of how history is taught in Germany, the USA and South Africa? (83) 26. How unbelievable is it that in today's global society we can be so cocooned in our own world views? (194-5) Cecil Rhodes only lived to age 42 (1853-1902) but is described as a white supremacist and an "architect of apartheid" in South Africa. King Leopold of Belgium's atrocities against the people of the Congo in the name of ivory, rubber and mineral exports between 1885-1908 led to the death of about 50% of the population (estimates of 10-20 million people). 27. Do we need to number atrocities or write down the stories in some way in order to be horrified by them? (195-6) This is particularly striking to me after just finishing We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter which was all about the numbers as she narrates her Jewish family's survival of the Holocaust in Poland. 28. In what ways do we create our own boundaries and borders like apartheid created the hood? "We live in a world where we don't see the ramifications of what we do to others, because we don't live with them." (222) 29. Why could Trevor leave the hood but the others couldn't? Why couldn't they get another address? (224) 30. How brave is his confession that he hesitated paying for his mom's hospital bill? 31. Can you believe his mother's strength? That she can wake up "frail and weak" in the ICU and yet immediately soothe her son with the words "It's going to be all right" and then make him laugh (281-2). 32. Did you cry at the end? I did. I hope my boys thank me as much for my comparatively little sacrifices. I hope I can love them enough to keep parenting even if I am mortally injured Follow-up:
Hi there, It was so nice to see you last Friday night. As part of an icebreaker question this past Friday night we attempted to answer the hard question "what is your favorite book?". Please click here to see titles near and dear to our hearts. Thank you for a educational and honest discussion of Trevor Noah's Born a Crime. We found it a surprisingly light and compelling read given the challenging topic of apartheid. And we were relieved to read a description of a beautiful parent-child relationship! We recommend this book if you haven't gotten to it yet. I confessed that I hadn't heard of Cecil Rhodes prior to reading this book, whom Trevor Noah refers to as South Africa's Hitler and who founded the Rhodes Scholarship in 1902. I had, however, recently learned about King Leopold and how his atrocities against the people of the Congo are still felt today. A few months ago my son and I attended an event about the Congo at our church. The discussion was first led by one of my pastor's adoptive Congolese teenagers. He has eleven adoptive children, three of whom are Congolese. She described the history of the Congo, how Rwanda's genocide led to wars in the Congo, and how war led to her living in a refugee camp for ten years prior to being adopted. I then learned that through the cooperation of World Vision (a Christian humanitarian organization), Global Unites (a Sri Lankan-based non-profit that works to engage youth from war-torn countries in peace talks) and the Evangelical Covenant Church (the denomination my church is part of), the Congolese people are directing efforts to revitalize the economy in the midst of political turmoil. They are providing food, clean water, access to education, medical clinics and are even planting tens of thousands of trees to revitalize regions for farming. They are a few years into a 15 year plan to give tribes a boost toward sustainability. At the end of such a powerful morning I was convicted to sponsor a child...which in actuality, sponsors an entire family, and the funds are really used in a communal way, because in Congolese culture, community is everything. Since we had recently buried our dog and I was grieving at the time, I picked a child with the same birth month as Sanibel as a way to remember her beautiful life. Is this modern day colonialism? I hope not. Will my $39 a month change the world? No. But I hope though the aggregated efforts of many, we can bring hope to a few. We can't right all the world's wrongs. But I'd love to continue to discuss them with you! And for February we are going to continue our theme of cultural studies. One of you asked for a book about adult siblings and aunt relationships, and you shall have it all in the Young family -- one that certainly never had to eat caterpillars to survive! Please join us next month as we discuss Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan. Enjoy the movie as well if you like! Hope to see you there!
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Thank you for joining us before the holidays for a celebration and book swap. It was fun to catch up and hear descriptions of recent reads as well as old treasures from your shelves. Feel free to check out the list of title suggestions here. Join us in January to discuss Born a Crime by Trevor Noah. Hope to see you there! Hello everyone, It feels like forever since I've seen you! I am looking forward to getting together this Friday evening at my house to discuss Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson. You can find suggested discussion questions below. Drop us a line and let us know if we can hope to see you! Discussion questions:
1. Did you like this book? 2. Didn't you want to bookmark the family tree or print it out to reference it as you read? 3. What did you make of the poetic structure? 4. Did you notice "the talk" early on -- that "you will face this in your life someday...a moment when you walk into a room and no one there is like you" (14). 5. What makes this YA as opposed to A? 6. What do you make of the diversity of awards this book has won -- Newbery Honor Book, National Book Award Winner, Coretta Scott King Award? 7. How do you see Jacqueline emerging as a writer as she tells her tale? (i.e. hair night -- allowing herself to be taken by her sister's reading (83-5); grown folks stories -- whispering back the stories the stories she hears on the porch to her siblings (98-9); Cora's stories (114-5); telling her grandfather stories when he is sick (134) 8. How does she integrate the theme of dreaming with her own dreams? (Hughes poem at the start, "lullaby" (58), reprise of that (99)) 9. Why does she choose to repeat certain titles? (how to listen, halfway home, writing, after greenville) 10. Who else has dreams? (Her mother tall and proud, marching, NYC; Jesse Jackson (111)) 11. When is she birthed as a writer? (the birth of a writer 154-5, then onto 156, and her dream of taking flight, thinking about stories in her head 165-6) 12. Are you surprised that she had difficulty with reading? (169) 13. How does the story shift in how it describes in-groups and out-groups? (North vs. South; Black vs. White; kids from here in NYC or Greenville and kids who are not; kids who are smart (like sister Del) and kids who learn differently (Jacqueline, 221-2); or who can listen to black vs. white music 262-3) 14. She is African-American and refers to herself as "black" in the book. Why then title it "brown" girl dreaming? 15. What do you make of her reaction to the library book? -- "the picture book filled with brown people, more brown people than I'd ever seen in a book before...If someone had taken that book out of my hand said, You're too old for this, maybe I'd never have believed that someone who looked like me could be in the pages of the book that someone who looked like me had a story" (228) 16. Is that really the history of Wall Street? 297-8 (It's complicated, and parts of early history are disputed, but it definitely was the location of a slave market from 1711-1762. And that really is the history of Brooklyn.) 17. Did you have a favorite part? Mine might have been "the revolution" 308-9 describing history as a carousel that repeats itself and how for a short time we get a turn to ride. 18. Did you have a teacher who believed in your dream? 19. Why does a writer write? ("On paper, things can live forever. On paper, a butterfly never dies." 249) Follow-up: Good morning! It was so nice to see so many of you last night -- for a delicious cocktail hour followed by cozy fireside chat to discuss Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson. I think the consensus is that we all really enjoyed the writing...and the story too, even as it gently alluded to hard times and difficult issues. I wanted to mention another book I read this week. Reading with Patrick is a memoir by Michelle Kuo who goes to the Arkansas Delta with Teach for America after graduating from Harvard. She struggles to find material that reaches her students...until she offers them young adult literature. Her students connect to the authors she introduces, including...Jacqueline Woodson! I was so pleased to see her name in print during a month when we were discussing her book! I have written more about Kuo's book here on my blog. For December we are going to have a holiday party and BOOK SWAP! Please browse your own shelves for a book you'd like to pass on. No restrictions except...maybe make sure it's in English? :) Then bring your UNWRAPPED book to the party and enjoy seeing what others have been reading! In January we will reconvene for discussion of Trevor Noah's Born a Crime. Hey guys, This month's read was a heavy one. And once again we find a mother on a journey with her two children, an older boy taking care of a younger girl. And once again, this is present day. We have book club members who were born in the south or who grew up in the south. Please, come and share your perspectives as we gather to discuss Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward. Drop us a note and let us know if we can expect you! Discussion questions: 1. Did you like this book? 2. Have you read Salvage the Bones? How does it compare? 3. What are the criteria for the National Book Award? Check out this link. 4. What do you make of the title? Who gets to "sing" and who doesn't? Who gets to be "unburied" and why? 5. What do you make of Leonie's and Jojo's visual hallucinations? Supernatural powers? "Magical realism"? What can Kayla and Pop see? 6. Do you have compassion for Leonie? (Corinne's question) 7. Did you have to remind yourself that this book is set in present day? (Question courtesy of former branch manager at O'Neill) 8. What did you make of the back and forth between Jojo and Leonie's perspective? What other characters did you want to read in the first person? 9. Who sings in this book and how? (i.e. Jojo singing to Kayla, family singing Happy Birthday to Jojo, Leonie learning to sing by seeing things / hearing things; Al (Michael's lawyer) greeting them in a singing voice p. 111, Ritchie hearing singing) 10. We just read a book about a mom on a journey with brother protective of younger sister in tow (Heroes of the Frontier). Any other similarities between these two accounts? Do the two mothers share a lack in protective instincts? 11. Why include Ritchie's perspective? Which other perspective(s) would you like to have read? 12. What do you make of Mam's calming down strategy of holding her orange bracelet and praying? What of her admonishment: "Ain't no good in using anger just to lash. You pray for it to blow up a storm that's going to flush out the truth." (145-6). 13. What are the white snake and black bird that visit Ritchie? 14. Why can't Ritchie cross over to the singing? 15. What kind of spirituality is this? (I kept wanting to layer Christian imagery and beliefs on the language and found it wasn't a good fit.) 16. What do you make of the theme of feeling "gutted"? (Skinning of the goat and Jojo's vomiting at the beginning; drugs carving out Leonie's insides; Kayla's illness; Michael's report of the dolphins dying en mass and hollowed out; Ritchie feeling torn inside out while singing in the dirt under the house; Mam feeling empty; termites eating through the pen Pop is destroying) 17. What do you make of the theme of "flooding"? (Most present at the end with a flood filling the room as Mam dies) 18. Why can't the ghosts go home? Do they need to ride on the back of someone else, like Given taking Mam with him? 19. Ritchie tells Jojo he needs to learn about time, home and love. But does Ritchie ever learn these lessons himself? Does Jojo? 20. What would it have taken to get Leonie to change and choose to be a mother? 21. What is going to happen to Pop? He kept his shoulders straight through so much bearing it all, only to crumble at Mam's death. Will he continue to be a father-figure to Jojo? 22. Were Leonie and Mam reconciled in the end? 23. Did anyone ever see the movie "Deepwater Horizon"? (from 2016, portraying the drilling rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010) 24. How much trauma is there in this book and how can we hope for resolution for these characters? The goat's death, Ritchie's death, Given's death, Mam's illness and death, addiction, Deepwater Horizon, incarceration, handcuffed, and all of Pop's memories... Follow-up: Good evening, Thank you so much for coming out last night to discuss Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward. Thank you to those who hosted and provided delicious sazeracs and to everyone for stomaching another challenging read. Thank you to others for directing us to the Fresh Air Interview with Jesmyn Ward so we could learn how the author pulled this tale from real life experiences and family history. From way up here in the north it's hard to fathom that such a culture is living and breathing today, and we can only begin to process how difficult it must be for the author now to live and raise her own children in her hometown. Going forward -- we get the hint that we have read several heavy stories (with questionable mothers!) and so are thankful for the suggestion to read something poignant though perhaps a little easier to handle -- it's young adult! Please join us next month on a FRIDAY when we will discuss Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson. If you would like to take a tour of where we have been over the past two years, please check out our reading list here. For those who would like to read and plan ahead, here's what we're thinking: December: poem (TBD) and holiday party! January: Born a Crime by Trevor Noah See you in November! Hello, everyone, Welcome to fall. Please, join us this Wednesday to catch up with each other and discuss Dave Eggers' Heroes of the Frontier. Suggested discussion questions are below. Hope to see you there! Discussion questions: 1. Did you like this book? 2. How does the time of day affect our decisions and our interactions with others? Can you relate to the ups and downs in Josie's day (as she recalls them p.21-26)? 3. What do you think of Josie? Are you rooting for her? Do you judge her? Do you see any of yourself in her? Maybe as an exaggeration? 4. Have you ever wondered where your kids come from? 5. What is a materialist? ("She was the purest sort of materialist: she wanted things, but she didn't care about things" 57.) 6. Does this ring true to you? "We gravitate toward comfort, Josie thought, but it must be rationed. Give us one-third comfort and two-thirds chaos-- that is balance." (85). 7. How do you feel about the pace of the plot as the backstory unfolds? Too many names to learn? Lopsided focus on certain details that I'm not sure tie into the rest of the story (audience's reactions to the magic show; young women showering at the RV camp). 8. Who is his intended audience? People who were young adults or kids during Vietnam? 9. Any parallels to draw between Vietnam and Afghanistan? 10. Any significance to the repeated mention of perusing periodicals like Old West magazine ("Trails Grown Dim") which she reads in the Chateau and the local Homer paper which she reads at Sam's? Always mentioning the reading material -- that they find in the B&B they squat in or the cabin at the silver mine. 11. Carl obviously has no backbone. But what about Josie? Also just as rootless? Or is she just trying to reinvent herself at this new crossroads in life? 12. How do we make up our own fiction? She calls Carl a liar, but Josie's lies slip easily off her tongue, like: "What are you looking for?..."A key to the storage unit," Carl said, lying. "You took it with you. I know you did," Josie said, though she had no idea what the key looked like or if he'd taken it." (180-1). 13. When should Child Protection Services be called? When were you most afraid for Paul and Ana's safety? (Archery practice when Kyle pulls out a gun, Being left at the RV park with creepy Jim as babysitter, near miss of the forest fire, near miss of lightning strike at the end, etc.) 14. What do you make of the themes of this book, like outer space, war, musicals and shit? 15. What is it with writers bashing Ohio these days? (Hillbilly Elegy, Little Fires Everywhere, Eligible, being other examples.) 16. What do we want most from our children? For Josie, "what she wanted most of all from her children: she wanted them to be brave. She knew they would be kind...but to be brave!" (307). 17. What do you make of the ending? The double entendre of fire? Follow-up: Good morning, Thank you so much for coming over Wednesday night to discuss Heroes of the Frontier by Dave Eggers. Abby, we missed you, and we agree: the book was definitely an "unsettling wild ride"! Corinne brings up a good point though -- in how many novels do we get a glimpse into the workings of a character's mind in real time, the real ups and downs and contradictory thoughts as they fly through Josie's consciousness? If we could see into each others' minds...how many of us would be found "crazy"? With that question in mind and knowing that you are all educated, well-spoken formidable women, it is with trepidation that I confess I have launched a website with blogs of sorts to put my own thoughts down in writing, transparent for anyone to read, and our book club material is on it. The content for the book club blog is simply my emails to you minus personal information. My greater vision is to have a place to note various threads of discussion I have been a part of in Cambridge over the past few years, discussions on faith and racism and education and of course, literature. And all of this makes me tremble as I wonder if you will accept me as author of this new space, as you become more aware of how I am author of the thoughts and workings in other spheres of my life. The website itself is still very much under construction as I brainstorm and post and revise, but if you are inclined you can check it out here at: evenincambridge.com Eventually there will be a periodic newsletter highlighting new posts as well. And with all of that preamble, I hope you will join us next month as we discuss...Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward. Hope to see you there! Pachinko: "a type of mechanical game originating in Japan...used as both a form of recreational arcade game and much more frequently as a gambling device, filling a Japanese gambling niche comparable to that of the slot machine in Western gaming." (Wikipedia) "Man, life's going to keep pushing you around, but you have to keep playing." --Mozasu, p.384 With great anticipation, please join us this Wednesday at Maria's house for a discussion of Min Jin Lee's Pachinko. Suggested discussion questions are below. Drop us a line and let us know if we can hope to see you! Discussion Questions: 1. Did you like this book? 2. How does Lee draw the reader into the lives of the bit parts of those mentioned at the beginning -- Hoonie's parents ("an aging fisherman and his wife"), the matchmaker? 3. In a world with little to pass along materially, what gets passed along from generation to generation? What is worth keeping? What should be discarded? 4. Sunja's sister-in-law is elated that she has a sister moving in. Does Sunja's life look promising? What is a woman's life but endless slave labor? 5. Lee mentions several times that Sunja is not beautiful. Why belabor the point? 6. Did your impression of Yoseb change at all after hearing his reasoning about why his wife shouldn't work at the restaurant? (p.178) 7. Hansu...manipulative bastard or guardian angel? 8. Nature vs. nurture: How is Noa more like Ibak than his actual father Hansu? How is Mozasu more like Yoseb than his actual father Isak? 9. What do you make of the title and how it relates to how Mozasu feels about the game and his job as they relate to life? "He loved all the moving pieces of his large, noisy business. His Presbyterian minister father had believed in a divine design, and Mozasu believed that life was like this game where the player could adjust the dials yet also expect the uncertainty of factors he couldn't control. He understood why his customers wanted to play something that looked fixed but which also left room for randomness and hope." (p.296-) 10. What do you make of Yoseb's musings about his regrets in life? Do we regret more the things we have done or the things we have left undone? "What surprised him was that as he felt closer to death, he felt the terror of death, its very finality. There were so many things he had failed to do. There were even more things he should never have done....he had caused others to suffer, and he did not know why he had to live now and recall the series of terrible choices that had not looked so terrible at the time." (p.266-7) 11. How are tradition and family preserved and passed along despite so much tragedy? 12. What of this history do you remember learning about in school? How does Lee's writing make it come alive? 13. Where did this tradition come from of having a one-year-old choose his/her future from items placed in an array in front of him? (p.345) This isn't mentioned for any of the previous births. 14. How could one family endure so much suffering? Was there a part that pushed you over the edge just reading about it? 15. What do you make of the narrative style? Is this omniscient narrator confusing and at times repetitive...or just well done? 16. Anyone feel the book took an abrupt turn when she started delving into homosexuality and the "love forest" in Yokohama? 17. So much death in this book. Is any one more senseless than the others? (so many miscarriages; Hoonie - tuberculosis; Isak - incarceration; Yumi - hit by drunk driver; Noa - suicide; Hana - HIV/AIDS) 18. Was Hoonie's line cursed? Was Noa from a "bad seed"? What role do we play in our own circumstances? What is the role of shame in shaping how we view our circumstances? 19. What do you make of Sunja burying her photos at the end? Will she go to school? Will she discover a new identity? 20. What happens to an author when she toils with an idea for a story for 30 years? Follow-up: Dear Mamas, Thank you so much to Maria for hosting us last night for a discussion of Pachinko. I am looking forward to a new year of discussing books and getting to know each other! Please join us on September 12th as we explore Dave Eggers' Heroes of the Frontier. Hope to see you there! If you're going through Hell, keep on going Don't slow down, if you're scared, don't show it You might get out before the devil even knows you're there -Rodney Atkins Why do you think we have wars at home? Why do you think people get confused and unhappy? Because they all live their own, separate, individual lives. I've been trying to explain to you in the simplest possible way that on Camazotz individuals have been done away with. -Charles Wallace to Meg in A Wrinkle in Time May we never have to experience mind control like that on Camazotz. And what better way to celebrate community and the difference of opinion than at a book club? :) Please join us this Wednesday evening as we discuss A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle. Suggested discussion questions are below. Drop us a note and let us know if we can hope to see you! Discussion questions: 1. Did you like this book? 2. Had you read it before? How did this reading compare to your previous impressions? 3. How would you describe Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who and Mrs. Which? What are they? 4. What is so special about Charles Wallace and Calvin? Similarly, how is Meg not like one or the other? ("'Meg has it tough,' Charles Wallace said. 'She's not really one thing or the other.'" p.32) 5. Building on question #4, are some people born with a spiritual side and some not? 6. What is the limitation of sight/light? What extra sense might the Beasts have (reminiscent of those of an octopus) that we lack? (Meg, while trying to explain light and vision to Aunt Beast: "she knew that to try to explain anything that could be seen with the eyes would be impossible, because the beasts in some way saw, knew, understood, far more completely than she, or her parents, or Calvin, or even Charles Wallace." p.175) 6. What do you make the idea of a fifth dimension? 7. What to make of the Medium? Why did they stop there? 8. How about the ending? Too simplistic? 9. After seeing the Black Thing from the high mountaintop of Uriel and after tessering through it to Camazotz, did anyone else find it a bit anticlimactic that IT was a large brain? Or was that just the form the Black Thing chose to take on Camazotz? 10. Meg, Calvin and Charles Wallace name fighters of the Black Thing from their planet: Jesus, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Bach, Pasteur, Madame Curie, Einstein, Schweitzer, Gandhi, Buddha, Beethoven, Rembrandt, St. Francis, Euclid, Copernicus, and Father. (p.85) How would you define the "Black Thing" of our world? How would you say we are fighting it? 11. What do you make of Calvin's home life? Is that built upon in other books? (Did anyone else have a L'Engle Family Tree at the front of the book?) 12. What do you think happened to Hank, the first man to tesser? Will we ever know? Have you read other books by L'Engle in which these characters appear again? 13. What is the importance of community in this book? How might this compare to Sebastian Junger's idea of humanity's need for community in Tribe? Along those lines, please come to O'Neill on June 4th for a discussion of Junger's book as part of the social justice book club, this month's theme "changing the world together". Follow-up: Hello Mamas! Thank you to all of you who came out for our discussion of A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle. Some of us will have to read the rest of the series to see what happens next! We are having a social night in June, so please join us for that, and in the meantime, you can read ahead for August when we will discuss Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. Looking forward to seeing you there! It is still best to be honest and truthful; to make the most of what we have; to be happy with simple pleasures and to be cheerful and have courage when things go wrong. -Laura Ingalls Wilder, "from the form letter distributed by Harper when she became too frail to answer her voluminous mail" (Fraser, 511) We FINALLY find ourselves at the end of our own long winter! And as I reached the end of Caroline Fraser's detailed chronicle of Wilder's life, I was reassured by a voice from the past suggesting that heroism is found in "daily perseverance, the unprized tenacity of unending labor...of chores, [and] repetitive tasks defined by drudgery" (Fraser, 515). Perhaps Fraser was referring to Wilder's struggles with farming or settling or housekeeping or life in general, but the first thing that comes to my mind is the timeless struggle of motherhood. Almost one hundred years after the first publication of Little House in the Big Woods and as for millions of readers who have come before us, Laura Ingalls Wilder's steadfast words encourage us just as much today as they always have. Please join us this Wednesday as we discuss Prairie Fires by Caroline Fraser and compare it to our childhood (or more recent) impressions of reading the "Little House" books. Drop a line and let us know if we can hope to see you! Discussion Questions: 1. Did you like this book? 2. What do you make of the title? 3. The book jacket calls the book a "historical biography". Is that a genre? Perhaps a new genre, as historical fiction was now to Laura Ingalls Wilder? 4. What sections of the book did you appreciate most? Map? Notes? Index? Was there anything lacking? (i.e., I would have appreciated a timeline of Laura's life and publications) 5. What lessons can we learn from the past? (i.e., about politics, fake news/advertising, industry, economy, environmental concerns) 6. Were Native American rights pushed to the side in this book or were they handled appropriately? (I found it particularly fascinating that Fraser referenced Grann's 2017 book Killers of the Flower Moon: Oil, Money, Murder and the Birth of the F.B.I., p.512 and epilogue 8.) 7. Weren't you just so mad that MacBride got the copyrights?! 8. How did this biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder change or affirm your impressions of her and her family? 9. What do you make of Laura as a woman and mother? Why doesn't she name her baby boy? 10. Almanzo Wilder: carefree or careless? How did Laura put up with him? 11. Charles Ingalls: wanderer or pioneer? And what about Caroline Ingalls? Does she get short shrift at all? 12. How did Laura's life shape her calling and passion for writing? (exposure to nature, hardship, family storytellers, teaching, historical fiction to read (p148) 13. Why did the pioneers stay? (p167: "It may have seemed, Rose wrote later, that calamities had befallen the Ingallses at every turn, but she recalled them as sublimely content with their lot. "The truth is they didn't expect much in this world," she wrote, "and they just shed thankfulness around them for what they had.") 14. Why do they keep believing railroad propaganda to move to...Minnesota? Dakota? Florida? and Missouri? 15. Laura's parting with her parents as the Wilders leave for Missouri is tearful. They had left before, what made this different? 16. When they take off for Missouri, Laura claims they are "not covered wagon folks!...We got above that..." (p186). She had left a dozen homes behind and had lived in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Kansas, Florida and Dakota. How could she have made this claim? Was this an attempt to hide or walk away from the shame of poverty? 17. What do you make of Rose Wilder Lane? Do you believe Fraser's argument that Rose spends her life rebuilding houses to replace the one she may have felt responsible for burning down on the Dakota tree claim? Follow-up: Hello Mamas, Thank you so much for coming out to discuss Prairie Fires last night! Who knew we would have such a large turn out for such a tome even if it did with the Pulitzer in 2018?! :) Some of you shared other titles and series that complement the Little House books or that you also enjoyed reading as a child. Could you also share the titles and podcasts with this list? Thank you so much! Now for upcoming events! On May 7th at 6:30pm the O'Neill Social Justice Book Club is discussing You Don't Have to Say You Love Me by Sherman Alexie. Many of us enjoyed discussing this memoir last fall, and given the recent accusations made against Alexie as part of the #metoo movement, I am interested in revisiting this discussion. Please join if you can! And now for May: Please join us on May 30th as we discuss A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle, now a movie! Happy reading, everyone! What if women ran the world? Join us this Friday night as we discuss The Power by Naomi Alderman. I am excited to exchange ideas on this one. I started with the audiobook and found it hard to listen to -- the theatrical reading just added to the intensity. However, last week I was able to pick up a paper copy (thank you, Clara!) and was intrigued by the formatting. I read eagerly through to the clever ending which blew me away (reminds me of how I smiled at S.E. Hinton when I reached the end of The Outsiders). Suggested discussion questions are below. Drop us a line and let us know if we can hope to see you! Discussion questions: 1. Did you like this book? 2. How would a world run by women be different? 3. What do you make of Naomi's comment that a world run by men would be more peaceful? 4. How are the archives similar to the "Museum of Civilization" in Station Eleven? 5. Is there a character's section you were more drawn to read? 6. Who is the voice inside Allie/Eve's head? 7. What do you make of Mrs. Montgomery Taylor? 8. What do you make of the formatting? 9. Why did Joslyn's power fail her in her fight with Darryl? 10. Did any of the women use their power for good? 11. Who did Tunde mail his film and journals to in Idaho? 12. How would you have punished Roxy's dad? 13. What do you make of Alderman's attempt to include scientific basis for the events -- i.e. the aura of oranges pre-strike akin to seizures, the details like when men aren't wearing rubber boots, the theory that some chemical was released into the water supply after WWII? Is she more or less convincing than St. John Mandel's creations in Station Eleven? 14. What is the appropriate governmental response to something like this? 15. Does Moldova really have a sex trafficking problem? (According to Wikipedia, yes.) 16. What did you make of the new Bessapara? (According to Wikipedia, in 1812 most of the regions of Moldova were ceded to the Russian Empire under the name of Bessarabia. Likely an aside, but Bessapara is also the name of a region in Bulgaria.) 17. Why does the author feature these places in particular -- USA (Wisconsin..and Alabama?), Nigeria, Moldova, UK, Saudi Arabia? 18. How can we engage in efforts against sex and human trafficking locally and abroad? 19. The characters wonder why the power comes to women now, and I wonder, why was this book written now? What are the takeaway points for us? Follow-up: Hello! Thanks for coming out to discuss The Power by Naomi Alderman last night! Most of us, it seems, would have preferred a more imaginative ending, something different from the same old story of the masses standing by while a few extremists (with questionable mental health) blow up the world. Afterward, I wondered how we could use our dissatisfaction to motivate us to act in more constructive ways to fight oppression of women. I offer the following suggestions: 1. Consider discussing pornography use in trusted circles, encouraging users to get help for addiction if needed, and to install Internet blockers. 2. Consider donating to Truckers Against Trafficking (TAT) A friend of a friend of mine runs this non-profit out of Colorado that began in 2009, getting 501c3 status in 2011. TAT "exists to educate, equip, empower and mobilize members of the trucking and busing industries to combat human trafficking." 2015, TAT was awarded the Suzanne McDaniel Memorial Award for Public Awareness as part of the annual Congressional Victims’ Rights Caucus Awards in Washington, D.C. 3. Consider donating to the Cambridge Legal Defense Fund for Immigrants This fund is being used to serve immigrants as well as "asylum seekers, unaccompanied minors/juveniles, and other highly vulnerable persons including victims of trafficking, sexual, and/or domestic violence" in our community. Details for upcoming books and events are below. On April 25th we will discuss Prairie Fires by Caroline Fraser. This biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder will hopefully extend our discussion of Native American rights that we began with Alexie's You Don't Have to Say You Love Me. Be forewarned, this book is 500+ pages, though looks quite compelling! We hope you can join us on one or more of these nights! March Meet the Author! When: Wednesday, March 14th, 6:30pm Where: O'Neill branch of the Cambridge Public Library, 70 Rindge Avenue What: Discussion of The Most Important Year by Suzanne Bouffard (Cambridge parent and book club member!) Cheers and happy reading! I have your summer travel plans all mapped out. Check out this site to learn about how we too can cruise from Paris to Nice, sampling French wine along the way! Alternatively, there are a variety of lodging establishments to choose from in Sanary-sur-Mer (coastal town between Marseilles and Nice). Jean Perdu certainly painted a picture I could dive into! But first, and more locally, please join us this Wednesday as we discuss The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George. Bring your questions, brings your thoughts. Suggested discussion questions are below to get you started. (I will ask the question in bold to start us off.) Also, please bring any question you have been mulling over since our last meetings. Some questions that others are still pondering include: 1. Was the protagonist (Herb) in "The Christmas Dance" black or white? 2. What would you put in the Museum of Civilization? (Station Eleven) 3. How does Jean Perdu's (The Little Paris Bookshop) grief journey compare to Sherman Alexie's? 4. Given we are surrounded by incredible diversity in Cambridge, why is it that the same white women are the ones volunteering over and over again in our public schools? 5. Why is Boston winter -- and January in particular -- so hard? (okay, this is irrelevant to our book choices but certainly relevant to life) Also, we will attempt to serve the 13 Desserts, as described in the back of the book, substituting Oprah's Pomegranate Martinis for their Ratafia. (I understand Oprah has absolutely nothing to do with French wine...but what else am I to do with this unopened bottle of sparkling pomegranate juice from Trader Joe's?) Drop a line and let us know if we can expect you! Discussion Questions: 1. What do you make of the idea of a literary apothecary? 2. Is there a book you read over and over at some point in your life that gave you comfort? 3. What would you choose to read from Jean's apothecary? 4. Where would you jet off to on a get away or journey right now? What question would you seek to answer? What person would you seek? 5. 21 years? Really? 6. Why make Jean Perdu a father figure to Max Jordan? 7. What do you make of P.D. Olson's character and his comments on American racism? (p.150: "A nation that has less than a thousand years of culture to look back on, no myths, no superstition, no collective memories, values or sense of shame; nothing but pseudo-Christian warrior morals, deviant wheat, an amoral arms lobby, and rampant sexist racism...") 8. What do we value in books? What do you make of Jean's perspective: p.164 "He calls books freedoms. And homes too. They preserve all the good words that we so seldom use...Leniency. Kindness. Contradiction. Forbearance." 9. How can she justify having two lovers? What does her conscience say? (p.171: "I can feel the burning shame in my cheeks; I can feel the longing in my knees; and the lie nestles between my shoulder blades and scrapes them sore. Dear Mamapapa, please, don't make me have to choose between them.") 10. What kind of man (Luc) agrees to an open marriage? (p.162: "This is the only life we have. I want to spend mine with you, but without impeding yours.") 11. What to make of the tango? 12. Do we carry our past loves "within us..." to "make us whole" or should we purge them to be free from their burden and distraction? (p.226-7) 13. What do you make of Jean's dad's response of what it means to become a father? How would you answer to becoming a mother? (p.228-9: "Having a child is like casting off your own childhood forever. It's as if it's only then that you really grasp what it means to be a man. You're scared too that all your weaknesses will be laid base, because fatherhood demands more than you can give.... I always felt I had to earn your love, because I loved you so, so much.") 14. Cuisery -- a real place for booklovers? From a French tourism website: "In the Burgundian Bresse, Cuisery will thrill literature enthusiasts. Here, the book is king: the village is home to several bookshops, craft workshops, a dedicated market, etc. And enjoy the historic heritage of this city founded in the Middle Ages and head of an 11th century royal "châtellerie". From the top of the hill where the village stands, admire the view over the Bresse plain." 15. How does Jean Perdu's grief journey compare to Sherman Alexie's? 16. When did Jean find out about Manon's death and when did he hide the death announcement in Proust? (p.221-2) 17. From p.287: "If you were to describe one event that made you who you are, what would it be?" 18. What do you make of Jean's list of things that make you really happy? What would you add? (p.323: "One. eat well...Two: sleep through the night...Three: spend time with people who are friendly and seek to understand you in their own particular way...Four: have more sex") 19. Was Manon afraid to make herself happy? Why are we afraid? What stands in the way? (p.346: "She said that she was so ashamed, and it was her just deserts for loving twice in one lifetime. My God! As if love were a crime...Why did she have to be so hard on herself? Why?") Follow-up: Good morning, Thank you for joining us last night for discussion of The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George. While perhaps not our favorite, it was fun to hear about other titles and authors you have enjoyed! What would happen if women suddenly had electrostatic powers? Join us next month as we discuss The Power by Naomi Alderman. If you want to read ahead, for April we will be reading Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Caroline Fraser. I think this will be our first biography! Cheers and happy reading! |
Authors
The Tipsy Mamas' Book Club is co-hosted by Corinne Foster and myself, though the spirit of our discussions is flavored by many readers. Archives
November 2022
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