Date Selection

This is our last meeting before summer vacation :)  Please let me know (either through email or just leave a comment below), whether you would be able to attend Friday, June 3 or Friday June 10. 

Trilogy Part Deux

'Ello Govna!!  Thanks to all the ladies who stopped by on Friday for the joint Royal Wedding Watch/Freedom Book Club discussion.  It was the perfect combination of wedding gushing, book conversing, Pippa bashing (I mean honestly, whoever flawlessly pulls off a white silk dress should not be allowed in public, it just isn't fair to the rest of us) and delicious food consumption.  We decided to squeeze in one more meeting before we break for summer and went with a book that should be a fairly quick read.  Next on the docket: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.   Our host, Julie, is double checking on possible dates to make sure they work but we are aiming to get together at the end of May or beginning of June.  I just wanted to get the next selection out there so everyone can get started.  Happy reading!!

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

REMINDER!!!!!

Hello Book Clubbers!  I just wanted to send out a reminder and get a quick head count for our meeting this Friday, April 29 at 8pm.  I am hosting, so shoot me an email if you need directions to my lovely and spacious apartment.  As always, apps and wine are always welcome.  For those concerned, I will DEFINITELY be recording the royal wedding so we can watch it during any intermissions... bring your tissues ladies!!  Discussion questions are below, can't wait to see you Friday!!  

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Jonathan Franzen refers to freedom throughout the novel, including the freedom of Iraqis to become capitalists, Joey's parents attempt to give him an unencumbered life, an inscription on a building at Jessica s college that reads USE WELL THY FREEDOM, and alcoholic Mitch, who is a free man. How do the characters spend their freedom? Is it a liberating or destructive force for them? Which characters are the least free?
2. Freedom contains almost cinematic descriptions of the characters dwelling places, from the house in St. Paul to Abigail's eclectic Manhattan apartment. How do the homes in Freedom reflect the personalities of their occupants? Where do Walter and Patty feel most at home? Which of your homes has been most significant in your life?
3. As a young woman, Patty is phenomenally strong on the basketball court yet vulnerable in relationships, especially with her workaholic parents, her friend Eliza, and the conflicted duo of Richard and Walter. What did her rapist, Ethan Post, teach her about vulnerability? After the rape, what did her father and the coaches attempt to teach her about strength?
4. What feeds Richard and Walter's lifelong cycle of competition and collaboration? If you were Patty, would you have made the road trip with Richard? What does Freedom say about the repercussions of college, not only for Walter and Patty but also for their children?
5. How would you characterize Patty's writing? How does her storytelling style compare to the narrator s voice in the rest of the novel? If Walter had written a memoir, what might he have said about his victories, and his suffering?
6. Which tragicomic passages in Freedom made you laugh? Which characters elicited continual sadness and sympathy in you? How does Franzen balance poignant moments with absurdity?
7. Discuss the nature of attraction, both in the novel and in your own experience. What does it take to be desirable in Freedom? In the novel, how do couples sustain intense attraction for each other over many phases of their lives?
8. Does history repeat itself throughout Walter's ancestry, with his Swedish grandfather, Einar, who built roads, loathed communism and slow drivers, and was cruel to his wife; his father, Gene, a war hero with fantasies of success in the motel business; and his mother, Dorothy, whose cosmopolitan family was Walter s salvation? What do all the characters in the novel want from their parents? How do their relationships with their parents affect their relationships with lovers?
9. After her father s death, Patty asks her mother why she ignored Patty s success in sports, even though Joyce was a driven woman who might have relished her daughter's achievements. She doesn't get a satisfactory answer; Joyce vaguely says that she wasn't into sports. Why do you think Patty did not garner as much attention as her sisters did? How did your opinion of Veronica and Abigail shift throughout the novel? Does Patty treat Jessica the same way her parents treated her?
10. How is Lalitha different from the other characters in the novel? How does her motivation for working with the Cerulean Mountain Trust compare to Walter's? Does Walter relate to the cerulean warbler on some level?
11. What accounts for the differences between Joey and Jessica? Is it simply a matter of genes and temperament, or does gender matter in their situation?
12. What does Joey want and get from Jenna and Connie? What do they want and get from him?
13. Did Carol and Blake evolve as parents? What sort of life do you predict for their twin daughters?
14. Near the end of the novel, Franzen describes Walter s relationship with Bobby the cat as a sort of troubled marriage. Was their divorce inevitable? When Patty is eventually able to serve as neighborhood peacemaker, even negotiating a truce with Linda Hoffbauer, what does this say about her role in Walter's life? Does she dilute his sense of purpose and principle, or does she keep him grounded in reality?
15. How would you answer the essential question raised by Walter's deal with the Texas rancher Vin Haven: What is the best way to achieve environmental conservation?
16. Consider the novel s epigraph, taken from Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale. The lines are spoken by Paulina in the final act, after she learns the fate of her dead husband. She receives the news while surrounded by happy endings for the other characters. The most obvious parallel is to Walter, but who else might be reflected in these lines?
17. What unique truths emerge in Freedom? In what ways does this novel enhance themes (such as love and commitment, family angst, the intensity of adolescence, and the individual against the giant corporate, governmental, and otherwise) featured in Franzen's previous works, including his nonfiction?

It's Settled...

SORRY to those who can't fit this date into their schedule!!  I will host the next book club, fingers crossed for nice weather :)

We Are at a Deadlock...

Ok, so I don't mean to pester but I can't make this decision on my own.. I need others to weigh-in.  We are at a three date deadlock for the next book club and I need your help (I really don't want to pick :( because I can't handle anyone being mad at me).  Please, please, please, pick one of the following dates so we can get a majority and get this set in stone.  Muchas gracias!!

Oprah May Have Picked it First...But Our Book Club Is Better

Certified Crack! 

I have to say that after our lively discussion about September Dawn on Friday, I spent most of my Saturday/Sunday engulfed in a Sister Wives marathon... so thank you for that!  Also, big thanks to Kath for hosting and Aunt Sharon for making those addicting toasted bread slices.  I don't know what was on them but I think I ate about ten.  Delicious!

Hopefully, everyone has had to enough time to wrap up their Mormon research so we may move onto the next book club selection, which is Freedom by Johnathan Franzen. Coincidentally, it is also an Oprah Book Club selection but I'm pretty sure she stole the idea from us...so....

There have been several suggestions sent to me so far in regards to our next meeting date, so I'm leaving it all in your hands!!  Some folks would like to get it done before Easter due to hectic schedules and others would like a little more time to get the book from the library and read it because SPOILER ALERT it is 526 pages.  Take that Beach Music!!  Please let me know which dates would work best and we will see where the majority stands :)  Happy Reading!!

Friday, April 15
Friday, April 29
Sunday, May 1
Side Note: Easter is April 24
Side Note II:  There is Good Friday (April 22) which I am fine with but I'm not sure if that will work with the more devout in the group.

September Dawn by Carole Whang Schutter

REMINDER!!

Hello Book Clubbers!!  Just wanted to send out a friendly reminder that we will be meeting this Friday, March 11 at 8pm at Kath's House.  We are trying to get a head count, so if you could let us know if you will be attending, it would be most appreciated.  There were no recommendations for contributions but obviously, we are always in need of wine, wine and more wine :)  I was unable to find any discussion questions online and I haven't started the book yet, so we will see how my speed readin' skills go!!  Hopefully, I will have some ready by Friday... wish me luck!  Can't wait to see you there.

Got the book on Wednesday, finished by this morning. Winner!  Thanks to Ang for helping me out with the questions, they are below for your perusal.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1.     What did you find surprising about the facts introduced in this book?

2.    Has reading this book changed your opinion of the Mormon religion?

3.    Does the author present information in a way that is interesting and insightful, and if so, how does she achieve this?

4.   Do you think Carole Schutter gives proper consideration to all sides the debate? Does she seem to have a bias?

5.    Has the book increased your interest in the Mormon religion or other religions?

6.   Did certain parts of the book make you uncomfortable? If so, why did you feel that way? Did this lead to a new understanding or awareness of some aspect of your life you might not have thought about before?

7.   What role do you think poverty played in the growth of the early Mormon church?  Does poverty elicit religious fanaticism?

8.    Do you think Brigham Young is guilty or innocent of compliancy of murder in the Mountain Meadows Massacre (MMM)?

9.   Polygamy played a key role in the early Mormon Church.  After it was outlawed in 1862 the practice went underground.   Recently polygamy has been brought to the forefront by the media with shows like; Big Love and Sister Wives and the news coverage of Warren Jeffs the FLDS prophet.  Do you think polygamy’s roll in the Mormon religion could be revisited?  Do you think it could be more widely accepted today than it was back in the 1800’s?

10.     Retribution for religious persecution triggered the MMM.  Do you think religious persecution exists today?  Could it or has it triggered retribution?

11.  Up until this point, the Mormon Church has offered little commentary about the massacre.  However, on the 150th anniversary, Mormon Apostle Henry Eyring offered “profound regret” for the incident but still made a point to profess Young’s innocence in the event and blamed local leaders.  Afterwards, some deemed this a noteworthy apology but church spokesman Mark Tuttle later stated, “We don’t use the word ‘apology.’ We used ‘profound regret.’” Do you think the response of the Mormon Church has been a significant one to the massacre that occurred?