Can you name the source of that quote? Just curious. It popped into my head when I was thinking about some things today and seemed to apply. Literary inspiration, as it were. Sort of.
I am no good at this kind of thing, so I'll just jump right in. I'm afraid that, unless someone else is willing to step in, I'm going to have to call a gradual end to our book club. Things have been changing for everyone over the past few years, and it seems that life is a little busier for everyone. I know that for me, these next couple of weeks are going to bring a lot of change as I start a part-time teaching job and my son starts kindergarten. I've got a lot to do to get ready for school and two subjects to prepare for and I'm simply having trouble keeping up. I feel like I'm bailing on everyone, but I am having trouble keeping up with everything. I apologize for that because it has definitely affected the quality of our book club meetings these past few months and I never want to feel that I'm wasting your time when you make the effort to get your family taken care of and leave your home for a couple of hours in an evening in order to, hopefully, have an intellectually stimulating discussion about something you have read.
We've had a pretty good run of it. Would having quarterly meetings be an option? Is it best to stop altogether for awhile? Perhaps one of you is interested in taking the reins at this point - if you are, please let me know!
Here is what I propose for August:
With our scheduled meeting falling the day before school starts, I'm sure I will not be the only one spending that day getting a lot of things ready and wanting to get to bed a little early to be prepared for the early start and busy day to follow. I don't know what your progress has been with Rain of Gold, but I am only 200 pages into a 552 page book and I don't see it happening by next Tuesday evening. What about you? If enough of you have finished it and someone wants to host it, then let's go ahead and have a meeting. Otherwise, my suggestion is that you read as much of it as you can or would like to, and then return your book to me by Thursday, August 19th. The kit is due back on the 21st and that will give everyone enough time to return their books and enough time for me to return them to the library. What do you think?
We will still have our book club meeting on September 14th to discuss Mockingjay! That book will be out in just a couple of weeks and I'm sure it will be a fast read and a great discussion encompassing all three books in the series. Let's have some food at this one. We need to have a party - if Julie is okay with all of that, since she is hosting that meeting at her house.... :)
Thank you all for being part of this book club. You've been very patient with and very supportive of me over these past few years. I have truly enjoyed your company and the discussions we've had.
Your comments and questions are welcome. Please post them here rather than replying to the Goodreads email as they will be easier to follow here than in multiple emails.
Speaking of Goodreads, that will be a great forum for us to continue staying in touch about the books we're reading and what we think about them. It wouldn't be too difficult to have an informal book club meeting via the discussion board on our group page, which I will be happy to leave open and running. Is that an agreeable compromise?
Friday, August 6, 2010
Monday, July 26, 2010
Touching base with everyone
Things are getting busy with school about to start, so here are a couple of things to be aware of:
I still have copies available of Rain of Gold. We will discuss this book on August 10th - the day before school starts! You've still got two weeks if you'd like to give it a try.
September's book is Mockingjay. If you didn't order a copy earlier this year (which should arrive at the end of August), then you're on your own to find a copy to read before September 14th. I think there is a good chance that those who will have their own copies may finish them quickly enough to loan them out, but we'll have to see.....
September's book club meeting will be at Julie's house. Thank you, Julie!
October's book is The Help by Kathryn Stockett. It is available at Amazon for $13.72 and Walmart for $13.70. If we order at least two books through Amazon, we'll get free shipping. Let me know if you are interested in ordering.
I apologize for letting the discussions kind of wander at the last couple of book club meetings. I will certainly try to be more prepared this next time, and I would ask the same of all of you. I'm not trying to sound cranky, but even though it's a great chance to get together and visit I would still like to make sure that we spend more than half of our time actually talking about the book! :)
Any questions/comments/concerns? Please let me know.
I still have copies available of Rain of Gold. We will discuss this book on August 10th - the day before school starts! You've still got two weeks if you'd like to give it a try.
September's book is Mockingjay. If you didn't order a copy earlier this year (which should arrive at the end of August), then you're on your own to find a copy to read before September 14th. I think there is a good chance that those who will have their own copies may finish them quickly enough to loan them out, but we'll have to see.....
September's book club meeting will be at Julie's house. Thank you, Julie!
October's book is The Help by Kathryn Stockett. It is available at Amazon for $13.72 and Walmart for $13.70. If we order at least two books through Amazon, we'll get free shipping. Let me know if you are interested in ordering.
I apologize for letting the discussions kind of wander at the last couple of book club meetings. I will certainly try to be more prepared this next time, and I would ask the same of all of you. I'm not trying to sound cranky, but even though it's a great chance to get together and visit I would still like to make sure that we spend more than half of our time actually talking about the book! :)
Any questions/comments/concerns? Please let me know.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Peace Like a River discussion questions
Better late than never, right? Here they are:
1. As the novel begins—indeed, as the very life of this novel's narrator begins—a miracle happens. Describe it. How does it happen? Who accomplishes it? Begin your discussion of this book by recounting the major and minor miracles that occur throughout. What role do they play in Peace Like a River?
2. Born with a severe case of asthma, Reuben Land, our young hero and narrator, must often struggle to bring air into his lungs. Throughout the book, Reuben is preoccupied with his own breathing, and the act of breathing functions in this story as a metaphor for life itself. How does Reuben cope with his ailment, and how is his character influenced by it? Provide instances where breathing takes on special meaning in the narrative.
3. Consider the details of the double homicide committed by Davy, Reuben's older brother. Does Reuben see Davy as a murderer, or as one who acted in self-defense? Does he want Davy brought to justice, or does he think justice has already been served? What about the other main characters: how do they feel? And what about you, the reader? How was your impression of Davy—and of this novel—influenced by his actions? Discuss how the novel explores the idea of loyalty.
4. Peace Like a River is set mainly in rural Minnesota and the Badlands of North Dakota during the early 1960s. Like early American pioneers, or perhaps like mythic heroes, the Lands set out to rescue one of their own amidst the beauty and cruelty of the natural world. How does the Land family contend with this raw, uncivilized, and sometimes brutal landscape? Identify events or circumstances in which the novel's setting contributes to its elemental or mythic quality.
5. Swede, Reuben's imaginative, prolific, and precocious younger sister, creates an epic poem about a cowboy named Sunny Sundown. Talk about Sunny's ongoing saga as an ironic commentary on Reuben's larger narrative. What are the parallels?
6. Besides the Sunny Sundown text, several other outlaw tales, literary allusions, biblical legends, and historical asides are offered—by Swede or by Reuben himself. Identify a few of these stories-within-the-story, explaining how each enriches or influences the main narrative.
7. Discuss the character of Jeremiah Land, Reuben's father—and the center of his moral compass. What are Jeremiah's strengths, as a person and a parent? Does he have any weaknesses? Why did his wife leave him, all those years ago? And why does he "heal" the grotesque employer who fires him (p. 80)? Explain how the novel's dual themes of familial love and ardent faith are met in this character.
8. Both during Davy's trial and after his escape from prison, we encounter a variety of public viewpoints on what Reuben's brother has done. Such viewpoints, usually presented as personal letters or newspaper editorials, are always steadfast yet often contradictory. What does Reuben seem to realize about the so-called "court of public opinion," in light of these viewpoints?
9. Prayer is described in many ways, and on many occasions, in Peace Like a River. Reading this book, did you discover anything about the activity of, reasons for, or consequences of prayer? What larger points—about religion and human nature, say—might the author be making with his varied depictions of people at prayer? For instance, when remembering a prayer he said that included blessings for even his enemies, Reuben comments thus regarding Jape Waltzer: "Later I would wish I'd spent more time on him particularly" (p. 285). Why does Reuben feel this way? What power does he recognize in his own prayers? Discuss the impact prayer has on Reuben, and how it transforms him.
10. Recovering from a near-fatal asthmatic collapse, Reuben muses: "The infirm wait always, and know it" (p. 290). Given Reuben's physical condition, and given what we know about his ancestry and the story at hand, what is Reuben "waiting" for? How is his waiting resolved? Can this analogy be applied to any of the other characters?
11. The final miracle in Peace Like a River occurs, of course, when Jeremiah surrenders his life for Reuben. But why, at an earlier point in the story, does Reuben observe, "Since arriving at [Roxanna's] house, we'd had no miracles whatever" (p. 257). Discuss the truth and falsehood of this remark. How might Roxanna herself be seen as a miracle?
12. What does the character of Roxanna bring to the Land family? What does she provide that the Lands had lacked before her arrival? Over the course of the novel, Reuben's attitude and his physical descriptions of Roxanna change. In what ways does it change, do you think Roxanna’s attitudes toward the Lands as a family and Jeremiah as a person undergo a similar metamorphosis?
13. In "Be Jubilant, My Feet," the next-to-last chapter, Reuben and Jeremiah enter a world beyond this one. "Here in the orchard," our hero recalls, "I had a glimmer of origin: Adam, I thought" (p. 301). Where exactly are Reuben and his father? What happens to them? How have these crucial events been foreshadowed, and how are they new or unprecedented?
14. Much of this novel concerns the inner life of childhood: imagination, storytelling, chores, play, and school life. Discuss the author's portrayal of childhood. Do the children depicted here seem realistic? Why or why not?
15. Remembering his own childhood, author Leif Enger recently noted: "I grew up squinting from the backseat at gently rolling hills and true flatlands, where you could top a rise and see a tractor raising dust three miles away. So much world and sky is visible, it's hard to put much stock in your own influence." Does this type of relationship between the individual and the natural world appear in Peace Like a River? If so, where? Identify key passages or scenes where the characters seem inferior to the landscape, or even at the mercy of it.
16. Finishing his story, Reuben notes: "You should know that Jape Waltzer proved as uncatchable as Swede's own Valdez" (p. 309). What do the characters of Jape and Valdez represent in this novel? Conclude your discussion by comparing and contrasting Peace Like a River with the traditional morality play—the symbolic drama (dating back to medieval times) based on the eternal struggle between Good and Evil.
2. Born with a severe case of asthma, Reuben Land, our young hero and narrator, must often struggle to bring air into his lungs. Throughout the book, Reuben is preoccupied with his own breathing, and the act of breathing functions in this story as a metaphor for life itself. How does Reuben cope with his ailment, and how is his character influenced by it? Provide instances where breathing takes on special meaning in the narrative.
3. Consider the details of the double homicide committed by Davy, Reuben's older brother. Does Reuben see Davy as a murderer, or as one who acted in self-defense? Does he want Davy brought to justice, or does he think justice has already been served? What about the other main characters: how do they feel? And what about you, the reader? How was your impression of Davy—and of this novel—influenced by his actions? Discuss how the novel explores the idea of loyalty.
4. Peace Like a River is set mainly in rural Minnesota and the Badlands of North Dakota during the early 1960s. Like early American pioneers, or perhaps like mythic heroes, the Lands set out to rescue one of their own amidst the beauty and cruelty of the natural world. How does the Land family contend with this raw, uncivilized, and sometimes brutal landscape? Identify events or circumstances in which the novel's setting contributes to its elemental or mythic quality.
5. Swede, Reuben's imaginative, prolific, and precocious younger sister, creates an epic poem about a cowboy named Sunny Sundown. Talk about Sunny's ongoing saga as an ironic commentary on Reuben's larger narrative. What are the parallels?
6. Besides the Sunny Sundown text, several other outlaw tales, literary allusions, biblical legends, and historical asides are offered—by Swede or by Reuben himself. Identify a few of these stories-within-the-story, explaining how each enriches or influences the main narrative.
7. Discuss the character of Jeremiah Land, Reuben's father—and the center of his moral compass. What are Jeremiah's strengths, as a person and a parent? Does he have any weaknesses? Why did his wife leave him, all those years ago? And why does he "heal" the grotesque employer who fires him (p. 80)? Explain how the novel's dual themes of familial love and ardent faith are met in this character.
8. Both during Davy's trial and after his escape from prison, we encounter a variety of public viewpoints on what Reuben's brother has done. Such viewpoints, usually presented as personal letters or newspaper editorials, are always steadfast yet often contradictory. What does Reuben seem to realize about the so-called "court of public opinion," in light of these viewpoints?
9. Prayer is described in many ways, and on many occasions, in Peace Like a River. Reading this book, did you discover anything about the activity of, reasons for, or consequences of prayer? What larger points—about religion and human nature, say—might the author be making with his varied depictions of people at prayer? For instance, when remembering a prayer he said that included blessings for even his enemies, Reuben comments thus regarding Jape Waltzer: "Later I would wish I'd spent more time on him particularly" (p. 285). Why does Reuben feel this way? What power does he recognize in his own prayers? Discuss the impact prayer has on Reuben, and how it transforms him.
10. Recovering from a near-fatal asthmatic collapse, Reuben muses: "The infirm wait always, and know it" (p. 290). Given Reuben's physical condition, and given what we know about his ancestry and the story at hand, what is Reuben "waiting" for? How is his waiting resolved? Can this analogy be applied to any of the other characters?
11. The final miracle in Peace Like a River occurs, of course, when Jeremiah surrenders his life for Reuben. But why, at an earlier point in the story, does Reuben observe, "Since arriving at [Roxanna's] house, we'd had no miracles whatever" (p. 257). Discuss the truth and falsehood of this remark. How might Roxanna herself be seen as a miracle?
12. What does the character of Roxanna bring to the Land family? What does she provide that the Lands had lacked before her arrival? Over the course of the novel, Reuben's attitude and his physical descriptions of Roxanna change. In what ways does it change, do you think Roxanna’s attitudes toward the Lands as a family and Jeremiah as a person undergo a similar metamorphosis?
13. In "Be Jubilant, My Feet," the next-to-last chapter, Reuben and Jeremiah enter a world beyond this one. "Here in the orchard," our hero recalls, "I had a glimmer of origin: Adam, I thought" (p. 301). Where exactly are Reuben and his father? What happens to them? How have these crucial events been foreshadowed, and how are they new or unprecedented?
14. Much of this novel concerns the inner life of childhood: imagination, storytelling, chores, play, and school life. Discuss the author's portrayal of childhood. Do the children depicted here seem realistic? Why or why not?
15. Remembering his own childhood, author Leif Enger recently noted: "I grew up squinting from the backseat at gently rolling hills and true flatlands, where you could top a rise and see a tractor raising dust three miles away. So much world and sky is visible, it's hard to put much stock in your own influence." Does this type of relationship between the individual and the natural world appear in Peace Like a River? If so, where? Identify key passages or scenes where the characters seem inferior to the landscape, or even at the mercy of it.
16. Finishing his story, Reuben notes: "You should know that Jape Waltzer proved as uncatchable as Swede's own Valdez" (p. 309). What do the characters of Jape and Valdez represent in this novel? Conclude your discussion by comparing and contrasting Peace Like a River with the traditional morality play—the symbolic drama (dating back to medieval times) based on the eternal struggle between Good and Evil.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Stones for Ibarra discussion questions
The discussion questions in the binder for this book were very generic. ReadingGroupGuides.com didn't have any questions for this book either. So my request to you is that you each post a comments with one or more discussion questions that have come to your mind based on your reading of this book. Please.......
Mesa Library Summer Reading Program
Do you think you may not have as much time to read in the summer with the kids home from school? Here's an idea: Sign them up for the Mesa Library summer reading program and read when they do! Set aside reading time every day, challenge them to a reading contest, search the web for some games that involve reading...there are plenty of options. Here is the link to sign the kids up for the reading program at the library:
http://www.mesalibrary.org/Kids/SRP_kids.aspx
If you stop by the library, you can sign up there as well on dedicated computers in the children's library. They also have cute reading charts for the kids and stickers they can use to track their progress.
http://www.mesalibrary.org/Kids/SRP_kids.aspx
If you stop by the library, you can sign up there as well on dedicated computers in the children's library. They also have cute reading charts for the kids and stickers they can use to track their progress.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
The Bonesetter's Daughter - Discussion questions
1. Memory plays an important role in The Bonesetter's Daughter. How is Ruth’s life affected by her childhood memories? How do LuLing’s memories affect her behavior around Ruth?
2. How does LuLing attempt to convey the difficulties of her formative years to Ruth? Does she succeed? Why/why not? In the constant sparring between Ruth and LuLing, who do you think is at fault?
3. Much of The Bonesetter's Daughter revolves around superstition. How does this aspect of Chinese culture affect LuLing’s actions? Is Ruth superstitious? Does she realize that she is manipulating her mother as a child?
4. Why does Ruth try so hard to distance herself from her Chinese heritage?
5. Why does Ruth lose her voice once a year on August 12th? In what way does Ruth "regain" her voice by the end of the novel?
6. How does Ruth use her professional talents to her advantage? In what way does her job stifle her ability to communicate? Are there any inherent advantages of Ruth’s uncanny ability to "spin gold out of dross"?
7. How is LuLing affected by the family curse? How does she react when she learns of her mother’s true identity? In your opinion, was it wrong for Precious Auntie to keep this secret from her daughter? Why does Precious Auntie keep this information from LuLing for so long?
8. What is the significance of Ruth’s learning the family name at the end of The Bonesetter's Daughter? What does Ruth learn about her name that helps change her opinion of her mother?
9. How does LuLing rebel against Precious Auntie? Is Ruth similar to LuLing in this respect? What are the consequences of Ruth’s insolence in her teenage years? Whose rebellion causes more lasting results?
10. What does Ruth learn about her mother and about her own cultural heritage that helps to mend her strained relationship with Art, as well as with Fia and Dory?
Questions obtained from http://www.readinggroupguides.com
2. How does LuLing attempt to convey the difficulties of her formative years to Ruth? Does she succeed? Why/why not? In the constant sparring between Ruth and LuLing, who do you think is at fault?
3. Much of The Bonesetter's Daughter revolves around superstition. How does this aspect of Chinese culture affect LuLing’s actions? Is Ruth superstitious? Does she realize that she is manipulating her mother as a child?
4. Why does Ruth try so hard to distance herself from her Chinese heritage?
5. Why does Ruth lose her voice once a year on August 12th? In what way does Ruth "regain" her voice by the end of the novel?
6. How does Ruth use her professional talents to her advantage? In what way does her job stifle her ability to communicate? Are there any inherent advantages of Ruth’s uncanny ability to "spin gold out of dross"?
7. How is LuLing affected by the family curse? How does she react when she learns of her mother’s true identity? In your opinion, was it wrong for Precious Auntie to keep this secret from her daughter? Why does Precious Auntie keep this information from LuLing for so long?
8. What is the significance of Ruth’s learning the family name at the end of The Bonesetter's Daughter? What does Ruth learn about her name that helps change her opinion of her mother?
9. How does LuLing rebel against Precious Auntie? Is Ruth similar to LuLing in this respect? What are the consequences of Ruth’s insolence in her teenage years? Whose rebellion causes more lasting results?
10. What does Ruth learn about her mother and about her own cultural heritage that helps to mend her strained relationship with Art, as well as with Fia and Dory?
Questions obtained from http://www.readinggroupguides.com
Monday, March 22, 2010
Want to buy some books? Make a few reading schedule changes?
I will put this on the Goodreads site as well, but just in case anyone is checking the blog:
I have also read wonderful reviews and recommendations for As a Man Thinketh. This one is available for $5.94. Check it out on Goodreads and post a comment with your opinion on whether you'd be interested in purchasing this book and possibly replacing a future reading selection with this one.
If we combine the order to get these two books at the same time, we can get free shipping, even though the Mockingjay book won't be out for a few more months.
The calendar for the year is already listed here, but it is mostly a list of ideas of books to read unless something else comes along that we're more interested in. So if either or both of these suggestions appeal to you, make a comment!
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