Book Club Forum #16: Cheap Cabernet: A Friendship

Book Selection Status: READ

Month: June 2011
Genre: Non fiction Chic-Lit Memoir
Book of the Month: Cheap Cabernet: A Friendship
Author: Cathie Beck
Question source: http://www.cathiebeck.com/my-book/reading-group-guide/

Discussion Questions:

1. Why does Cathie feel the need to start a women’s group? What crossroads has she arrived at in her life? How does her children moving away from home change the way she feels about her place in society?


2. Cathie and Denise become fast friends, but their relationship is far from smooth, even at the beginning. In what ways do their personalities clash? In what ways do they complement one another? Why do you think their complex relationship ends up being so special?

3. Why does Cathie retell the story of applying for food stamps when her children are young? What does that story tell the reader about Cathie’s life as a young mother? What do we learn about her background, and how does it inform the woman we meet in the memoir?

4. Discuss issues of ownership as they are portrayed in the memoir (Cathie’s need to own a house, and Denise’s need to own garage sale bargains). What does owning material objects mean to each of the women? How do their different backgrounds inform this need?

5. Denise and John have unique and unconventional marriage. How does Cathie feel about their relationship? Do you think she envies them, or pities them? What about the marriage works for Denise, and in what ways does the arrangement fail her? Do you think John and Denise are in love? Why or why not?

6. Cathie had very complicated, mixed feelings about Denise’s illness. In what ways does Cathie let Denise’s MS affect their friendship? Would you say that Cathie takes care of Denise when she is ill? In what ways does Denise’s MS frustrate and disappoint Cathie?

7. Discuss Cathie and Denise’s trip to Jamaica and Cuba. In what ways is the trip a turning point for both women? What do they each discover about themselves on the trip and what do they discover about one another?

8. Why does Cathie include the story of her visit to New York to see where Denise grew up? What does visiting Denise’s home, and meeting the women she grew up with tell us about Denise and her upbringing? Why does meeting these women have such a profound effect on Cathie?

9. Toward the end of the memoir, Cathie writes about her own mother, and the struggles she faced raising Cathie and her siblings. Is Cathie anything like her mother? In what ways does Cathie escape her families’ legacy? In what ways does she continue where her mother left off? How does her family and her childhood haunt her into her adult life?

10. In the end, Cathie and Denise have a falling out and Cathie does not attend her friend’s memorial service. Do you think Denise orchestrated their rift to protect Cathie, as Cathie assumes? Do you think Cathie can really find closure?

11. Cheap Cabernet follows in a tradition of many great memoirs, novels, and movies about women’s friendships. How does this book fit in to that tradition? How is Cathie and Denise’s friendship unique from others you have read about or seen?

Book Club Forum #15: The Passage

Book Selection Status: READ
Month: May 2011
Genre: Science Fiction
Book of the Month: The Passage
Author: Justin Cronin
Question source: http://bestsellers.about.com/od/bookclubquestions/a/The-Passage-By-Justin-Cronin-Book-Club-Discussion-Questions.htm

Discussion Questions:

1. What do you feel were the main themes Cronin was wrestling with in this novel?

2. What was your favorite quote/intro to which section of the novel and how do you feel it best set up what was to come?

3. Did you think the national response to the crisis was realistic (ex. California seceding from the U.S.)?

4. Do you think Cronin’s writing techniques and style changes were successful in bringing this world to life? Why or why not?

5. Did you have a hard time transitioning from the first third of the book to the last two-thirds? Why or why not?

6. Was there any point in the story where you felt you couldn’t read anymore?

7. Did you have any issues with the pacing of the novel? Why or why not?

8. Which character do you think loved Amy the most? Which do you think Amy loved the most?

9. Was the ending satisfying or did it leave you thirsty for more?

10. Rate The Passage 1 to 5.



Book Club Forum #14: Push

Book Selection Status: CURRENTLY READING
Month: April 2011
Genre: Nonfiction: Nonfiction
Book of the Month: Push
Author: Sapphire
Question source: http://www.randomhouse.com/book/160691/push-by-sapphire/9780307474841

Discussion Questions:

1. What does this story tell us about the inadequacy of ordinary schools to deal with students' problems and with their resulting learning handicaps? "I got A in English and never say nuffin', do nuffin'"[p. 49], Precious says. Precious's principal in effect tells her teacher to give up on her, saying, "Focus on the ones who can learn"[p. 37]. Is this an understandable or forgivable attitude? How would you describe Mr. Wicher and his teaching methods? Is he merely a coward or is he trying his best?


2. "The tesses paint a picture of me wif no brain," says Precious. "The tesses paint a picture of me an' my muver—my whole family, we more than dumb, we invisible"[p. 30]. In what way are Precious and her family members invisible to the larger world? If you have read Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, can you compare the way the two authors use the metaphor of invisibility for their characters?

3. During the course of the story, Precious is obliged to confront her own prejudices and modify or reject them. Her experience with the Hispanic EMS man makes her look at Hispanics for the first time as human beings like herself; her friendship with Ms. Rain and Jermaine makes her reexamine her knee-jerk homophobia. Early in the novel she says, "I hate crack addicts. They give the race a bad name"[p. 14], but later she questions that uncompromising position. In an interview, Sapphire said of Precious that "she doesn't know that hating gay people or hating Jews or hating foreigners is detrimental to her" (Interview, June 1996). Why is it detrimental to her? Why is it imperative that she lose her prejudices before she, herself, can be helped?

4. How would you describe Precious's self-image at the beginning of the book, and how would you describe it at the end? How have her friends and supporters succeeded in helping to alter her view of herself?

5. What is Precious's attitude toward Louis Farrakhan and his movement at the beginning of the story? How does this attitude change during the course of her education? Why have Farrakhan and his opinions become such a vital part of her worldview? What do you deduce the author's attitude toward him to be?

6. A famous—or perhaps infamous—Labor Department study, the Moynihan Report, blamed the absence of fathers and the dominance of women (rather than economic and racial inequality) for the problems confronting the African American family. Many black scholars and activists have argued against the report's conclusions. Which side of the argument do you believe Push to support?

7. Push presents what one reviewer called "one of the most disturbing portraits of motherhood ever published" (City Paper, November 1996). How would you explain or interpret Precious's mother's behavior?

8. "Miz Rain say we is a nation of raped children, that the black man in America today is the product of rape" [pp. 68–69]. What does Ms. Rain mean by this metaphor, and does it strike you as an accurate one?

9. Precious tells Ms. Rain that the welfare helps her mother, to which Ms. Rain responds, "When you get home from the hospital look and see how much welfare has helped your mother" [p. 73]. What does this novel indicate about abuses and inadequacies in the system? How might an ideal system be constructed?

10. Precious's file reflects the government "workfare" point of view, that Precious should already be earning her own living, possibly as a home attendant. Precious objects violently to this idea. Can you understand the social worker's point of view? Have Precious's and Jermaine's arguments [pp. 121–123] changed any opinions you previously held on this subject?

11. "Miz Rain say value. Values determine how we live much as money do. I say Miz Rain stupid there. All I can think she don't know to have NOTHIN'"[p. 64]. Which opinion do you agree with, or is there something to be said for both? What answer, if any, does the novel offer?

12. "One of the myths we've been taught," Sapphire has said, "is that oppression creates moral superiority. I'm here to tell you that the more oppressed a person is, the more oppressive they will be" (Bomb, Fall 1996). How does the novel illustrate the concept of the cycle of abuse? How does Precious break that cycle, and what aspects of her own character enable her to do so?

13. Push has been called a Dickensian novel, to which Sapphire has responded, "Part of what's so wrong in this story is that we're not in a Dickensian era. Those things shouldn't be happening in a post-industrial society" (Bomb, Fall 1996). She sees the novel as "an indictment of American culture, which is both black and white" (ibid). What aspects of our culture have enabled the inequities described in the novel to develop? Would you say that contemporary American cities consist, as Dickens's London was said to, of two entirely different cultures, the rich one and the poor?

14. Why do you think Sapphire has chosen to end the story where she does? Does the book end on a sad or hopeful note? What sort of future do you envision for Precious?

15. What is the significance of the novel's title, Push? At what points in her life is Precious enjoined to "push"? What is meant by this word, and how does Precious respond to the injunctions?

Book Club Forum #13: Bury Me In My Jersey

Book Selection Status:  READ
Month: March 2011
Genre: Nonfiction: A Memoir
Book of the Month: Bury Me In My Jersey: A Memoir of My Father, Football, and Philly
Author: Tom McAllister
Question source: Original

Discussion Questions:



1. What are your overall thoughts and feelings about this story?

2. What was your perception of football before you read this book?

3. Has reading this book changed your perception of football?

4. Can you think of other forms of entertainment that tend to become a passionate means of tradition for families?

5. Who was your favorite character?

6. What (list maximum of 4) question(s) would you like to ask the author?

Book Club Forum #12: The Lotus Eaters

Book Selection Status: READ
Month: February 2011
Genre:  Fiction:
Book of the Month: The Lotus Eaters
Author: Tatjana Soli
Question source: http://www.thelotuseaters.net/HomeLotusEaters.html

Discussion Questions:

1.) Soli pulled the novel’s title, The Lotus Eaters, from an episode in Homer’s The Odyssey and uses Homer’s description of the land of the lotus-eaters as the novel’s opening epigraph. What connection do you see between Homer’s lotus-eaters and the main characters of this novel? What, if anything, in this novel acts like the lotus described by Homer, so powerful and seductive it causes one to abandon all thoughts of home? Does each character have a different "lotus" that draws them in? How does the title illuminate the main themes of the novel?

2.) The novel begins with the fall of Saigon, and then moves back in time twelve years to the beginning of the war. How do you think this structure contributed to your experience of the novel? Did this glimpse of Helen in 1975 influence how you related to her character at earlier points in her life? Did knowing the outcome affect your judgment of her actions and the actions of those around her?

3.) Helen makes a pivotal decision at the end of Chapter 1—to send Linh on the plane and stay behind to “see it end.” Why does she make this decision? How did you feel about it? Did your feelings about it change over the course of the novel?

4.) What does Helen think of Vietnam and the Vietnamese people when she first arrives in Saigon? How do her feelings evolve throughout the novel? How does this evolution affect how she comes to view the war and her role in it?

5.) In Chapter 3, Darrow says, “The cool thing for us is that when this one’s done, there’s always another one… The war doesn’t ever have to end for us.” Why does he say this to Helen? What does it show about how Darrow views the war and about Darrow himself? When Helen repeats these words back to him in Chapter 11, how has their meaning changed?

6.) In Chapter 19, Helen believes that “violence had poisoned them all....” In what ways are Darrow, Helen, and Linh poisoned? What, if anything, keeps each of them from being destroyed by it?

7.) Throughout the novel, Helen finds herself in love, and loved by, two very different men. How would you characterize each of her relationships? Did you prefer Helen in one relationship over the other? What are each relationship’s strengths and weaknesses? Which man do you ultimately believe is Helen’s great love?

8.) Mark Twain said, “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.” Bravery and courage are frequently mentioned in the novel. In what ways do the various characters display these traits? In what ways do they fail?

9.) What do you think the future holds for Helen at the end of the novel? For Linh?

Book Club Forum #11: Mercury In Retrograde

Book Selection Status: READ
Month: January 2011

Genre: Chic-Lit Fiction:

Book of the Month: Mercury In Retrograde
Author: Paula Froelich
Question source: http://www.bookmovement.com/app/readingguide/view.php?readingGuideID=13788

Discussion Questions:

1. On the surface, Penelope, Lipstick and Dana are three very different women. Why do you think they become friends?

2. Lyrics to several popular 1980s songs appear throughout Mercury in Retrograde. Why do you think author Paula Froelich decided to include them? How did they enhance your read?

3. What role does fashion play in the novel? What do each woman’s clothes say about her character?

4. Why do you think Paula Froelich included horoscopes at the start of each chapter? What do they add to the novel?

5. If she had not been fired from The New York Telegraph, would Penelope have ever quit her job?

6. Why is SocialStatus.com initially so important to Lipstick? If she “always feels dirty after reading the website” (pg. 15) why does she still visit the site?

7. Instead of staying at her parents’ home and joining the family business, why does Lipstick decide to strike out on her own?

8. Following her divorce, why is Dana so hesitant to socialize with other people? Is she afraid to get hurt, embarrassed about being single once again, or something else?

9. “And every day [Lipstick would] think, I’ll call them tomorrow. But she never got around to it” (pg. 186). Is she simply too busy, or is there another reason Lipstick never returns her mother’s telephone calls?

10. Following the disastrous events at the Met Gala, Lipstick thinks, “What is Bitsy going to do? What will be on Socialstatus.com? What am I going to tell my mother?” (pg. 240). After previously declaring she no longer cared about what her fellow socialites think, why do these thoughts run through Lipstick’s mind?

11. Why doesn’t Dana finish decorating her new apartment? And why are the few items she does buy all in white?

12. Each woman has a complicated relationship with her parents. To what extent do they care about their parents’ approval, and do these relationships change throughout the novel?

13. Ultimately, is Penelope happy with her job at NY Access? Have Penelope, Lipstick and Dana found success both in their professional and personal lives?

14. There are several characters in Mercury in Retrograde who bear strong resemblances to real-life people. As a group, see if you can name them all.

15. Penelope, Lipstick and Dana all endure wacky, disastrous moments while on the job. Now that they’re behind you, why not share your own favorite embarrassing work story?

16. The Met Gala is an important event both in the novel and in New York society. Do some research on the soirée and post a picture of your favorite red carpet looks (maximum of 3).

Book Club Forum #10: Eat, Pray, Love

Book Selection Status: CURRENTLY READING

Month: December 2010
Genre: Memoir non-fiction:
Book of the Month: Eat, Pray, Love
Author: Elizabeth Gilbert
Question source: http://us.penguingroup.com/static/rguides/us/eat_pray_love.html

Discussion Questions:

 

1. Gilbert writes that “the appreciation of pleasure can be the anchor of humanity,” making the argument that America is “an entertainment-seeking nation, not necessarily a pleasure-seeking one.” Is this a fair assessment?

2. After imagining a petition to God for divorce, an exhausted Gilbert answers her phone to news that her husband has finally signed. During a moment of quietude before a Roman fountain, she opens her Louise Glück collection to a verse about a fountain, one reminiscent of the Balinese medicine man’s drawing. After struggling to master a 182-verse daily prayer, she succeeds by focusing on her nephew, who suddenly is free from nightmares. Do these incidents of fortuitous timing signal fate? Cosmic unity? Coincidence?

3. Gilbert hashes out internal debates in a notebook, a place where she can argue with her inner demons and remind herself about the constancy of self-love. When an inner monologue becomes a literal conversation between a divided self, is this a sign of last resort or of self-reliance?

 

4. When Gilbert finally returns to Bali and seeks out the medicine man who foretold her return to study with him, he doesn’t recognize her. Despite her despair, she persists in her attempts to spark his memory, eventually succeeding. How much of the success of Gilbert’s journey do you attribute to persistence?

 

5. Prayer and meditation are both things that can be learned and, importantly, improved. In India, Gilbert learns a stoic, ascetic meditation technique. In Bali, she learns an approach based on smiling. Do you think the two can be synergistic? Or is Ketut Liyer right when he describes them as “same-same”?

6. Gender roles come up repeatedly in Eat, Pray, Love, be it macho Italian men eating cream puffs after a home team’s soccer loss, or a young Indian’s disdain for the marriage she will be expected to embark upon at age eighteen, or the Balinese healer’s sly approach to male impotence in a society where women are assumed responsible for their childlessness. How relevant is Gilbert’s gender?

7. In what ways is spiritual success similar to other forms of success? How is it different? Can they be so fundamentally different that they’re not comparable?

 

8. Do you think people are more open to new experiences when they travel? And why?

 

9. Abstinence in Italy seems extreme, but necessary, for a woman who has repeatedly moved from one man’s arms to another’s. After all, it’s only after Gilbert has found herself that she can share herself fully in love. What does this say about her earlier relationships?

 

10. Gilbert mentions her ease at making friends, regardless of where she is. At one point at the ashram, she realizes that she is too sociable and decides to embark on a period of silence, to become the Quiet Girl in the Back of the Temple. It is just after making this decision that she is assigned the role of ashram key hostess. What does this say about honing one’s nature rather than trying to escape it? Do you think perceived faults can be transformed into strengths rather than merely repressed?

 

11. Sitting in an outdoor café in Rome, Gilbert’s friend declares that every city—and every person—has a word. Rome’s is “sex,” the Vatican’s “power”; Gilbert declares New York’s to be “achieve,” but only later stumbles upon her own word, antevasin, Sanskrit for “one who lives at the border.” What is your word? Is it possible to choose a word that retains its truth for a lifetime?