Book Discussion Kits

All Adult Titles with Summaries

The Kits: All adult titles, with summaries | All adult titles, by author | All adult titles, by title | New Adult Titles | New Youth Titles |
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Kits by Genre or Age: Contemporary Fiction | Historical Fiction | Memoir/Autobiography | Mystery | Nonfiction | Grades 4-5 | Grades 6-9

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Abani, Chris. GraceLand.
Elvis Oke, a teenage Elvis impersonator, comes of age in a violent, impoverished ghetto permeated by American popular culture in Lagos, Nigeria. Book Discussion Questions from Picador.

Abu-Jaber, Diana. Crescent.
An Iraqi-American is the chef at a small Los Angeles café, where Arab-Americans come to feel at home. A folkloric family story is interwoven with this contemporary tale of love, food and home. Book Discussion Questions from W. W. Norton.

Ackerman, Diane. The Zookeeper's Wife.

The story of Jan Zabinsky, the director of the Warsaw zoo, and his wife Antonina, who sheltered 300 Jews and Polish resisters in the zoo's cages and sheds during WWII. Book Discussion Questions from BookBrowse.

Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. Half of a Yellow Sun.
The story of the Biafran War (1967-1970) along with family, love, racial, ethnic and class conflicts in Nigeria is told from the perspectives of a 13-year old houseboy, the daughter of a wealthy, well-connected Igbo family, and a British ex-patriot. Book Discussion Questions from BookBrowse.

Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. Purple Hibiscus.
When she visits her liberated and loving aunt, life dramatically changes for a 15-year old Nigerian girl who has grown up in sheltered privilege with a wealthy father who is politically courageous but religiously fanatic. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Albom, Mitch. The Five People You Meet in Heaven.
Albom’s first novel introduces Eddie, an amusement park maintenance worker, who up until his death finds his own life mostly insignificant. In a fable-like style he is shown otherwise via five people he meets in heaven. Book Discussion Questions from MPL.

Albom, Mitch. For One More Day.
Albom explores the idea of having one more day to relive with someone you love in this novel. Here, alcoholic ex-baseball star Chick encounters his dead mother after his attempted suicide. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupChoices.

Albom, Mitch. Tuesdays with Morrie.
After hearing his college professor was dying of Lou Gehrig’s disease, Albom made weekly visits and learned from him “life’s greatest lessons” of love, forgiveness and the meaning of life. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Alexie, Sherman. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.
A humorous, gritty, autobiographical novel of a budding cartoonist, who leaves his troubled school on a Spokane Indian reservation to attend an all-white town school. Book Discussion Questions from Sherman Alexie.

Allende, Isabel. Daughter of Fortune.
An orphan raised in Valparaiso, Chile, by a Victorian spinster and her rigid brother, Eliza Sommers follows her lover to California during the Gold Rush of 1849 and meets a Chinese herbalist, who becomes her soul mate, on the journey. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Alvarez, Julia. How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents.
Interwoven stories of four Latina sisters chronicling their assimilation into the United States and their visits back to the Dominican Republic. Book Discussion Questions from Tacoma PL.

Atkinson, Kate. Behind the Scenes at the Museum.
Ruby Lennox gives an account of family life above a petshop in England, revealing the lives of the women in her family, from her great-grandmother's affair with a French photographer to her mother's unfulfilled dreams of Hollywood glamour. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Atwood, Margaret. The Blind Assassin.
In this multi-layered novel, a dying octogenarian recalls her past, including her forced marriage, her sister's suicide, and the publication of her sister's science fiction novel, The Blind Assassin. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Bakopoulos, Dean. Please Don't Come Back from the Moon.
In suburban Detroit the lives of teenage sons are dramatically altered after the fathers in their neighborhood disappear. Book Discussion Questions from Marshall Cook, UW.

Barker, Pat. Regeneration.

Patients and the doctors that treat them for shell-shock are the focus of this World War I novel based on actual people and events. Book Discussion Questions from MPL.

Barr, Nevada. Winter Study.
Anna Pigeon returns to Isle Royale, this time in winter, to participate in a wolf study. Strange happenings and enormous pawprints fuel the anxiety of she and her cabin-mates. Book Discussion Questions from MPL.

Barry, Brunonia. The Lace Reader.

A self-confessed unreliable narrator relates this mystery set in modern day Salem, Mass. The novel is filled with eccentric characters, historic details, and women's issues. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupChoices.

Berg, Elizabeth. Open House.
Samantha’s husband leaves her with her 11-year-old son, and after a spending spree with her ex’s money, she gets a temp job and takes in boarders, but mostly learns how to make her own happiness. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Bloom, Amy. Away.
Lillian Leyb, survivor of a Russian massacre, immigrates to New York in 1924. Upon learning her 3-year-old daughter may still be alive, she journeys across North America through the Yukon wilderness and over the Bering Strait to find her. Book Discussion Questions from BookBrowse.

Bloom, Stephen. Postville.
The author, a secular Jew and journalism professor, explores his own identity as a Jew and the culture clash that erupts in a nearby Iowa town when a Lubavitch group from Brooklyn establishes a Kosher slaughterhouse there. Book Discussion Questions from MPL.

Bohjalian, Chris. The Double Bind.
A literary thriller with a tricky, intriguing premise and a fictional backdrop from The Great Gatsby begins with the attempted rape and murder of a young woman bicyclist on a rural Vermont road and involves the mysterious past of a homeless man. Book Discussion Questions from the author.

Bohjalian, Chris. Water Witches.
Vermont environmentalists seeking to preserve a mountainous wildlife habitat confront developers of a ski resort promising new jobs. Book Discussion Questions from Simon and Schuster.

Bourdain, Anthony. Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly.
Memoir by the celebrity chef of Les Halles in New York City gives eye-opening behind-the-scenes look at the restaurant business. Book Discussion Questions from MPL.

Brooks, Geraldine. The People of the Book.

Hanna Heath, a rare book expert restoring an old Jewish manuscript, traces the journey of this 500+ year-old tome that survived centuries of purges and wars via the protection of people of several faiths who risked their lives protecting the volume. Book Discussion Questions from Penguin Putnam.

Bryson, Bill. In a Sunburned Country.
Bill recounts his travels in Australia, home of deadly plants and animals, lots of empty space, and an atonishing variety of cities and towns, each unique. Book Discussion Questions from MPL.

Bryson, Bill. The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid.
Bryson's own childhood in 1950s America is the focus this time. Book Discussion Questions from MPL.

Bryson, Bill. A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalacian Trail.
After living 20 years in England, Bryson reacquaints himself with America by walking the Appalachian Trail and shares his comic insight into the trail's people, politics and history. Book Discussions Questions from MPL.

Buford, Bill. Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany.
A chronicle of a journalist's apprenticeship at Mario Batali’s New York restaurant Babbo, as well as a stint learning butchering in Italy. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupChoices.

Burke, James Lee. The Tin Roof Blowdown.
The devastation caused by hurricane Katrina is the backdrop for this novel of the investigation into the shooting of two looters in a wealthy neighborhood and the search for the third. Book Discussion Questions from MPL.

Burns, Olive Ann. Cold Sassy Tree.
A humorous and loving look at small town life at the beginning of the 20th century. Young Will Tweedy narrates the tale of his grandfather's romance with a younger woman, his purchase of the first automobile in the county, and life at the general store owned by his family. Book Discussion Questions from MPL.

Campbell, James. The Ghost Mountain Boys: Their Epic March and the Terrifying Battle for New Guinea, the Forgotten War of the South Pacific.
Campbell follows in the footsteps of the WWII soldiers known as the Ghost Mountain Boys across New Guinea’s mountainous jungles, a journey that historians describe as "one of the cruelest in military history." Book Discussion Questions from MPL.

Cather, Willa. My Antonia.
Written in 1918, this enduring classic tells the story of a Bohemian immigrant to Nebraska, Antonia, through the eyes of her orphaned friend Jim. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Chabon, Michael. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.
A look inside the comic book industry of the late 1930's and a tale of a family divided by the Atlantic Ocean while World War II looms. This novel won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2001. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Chabon, Michael. The Yiddish Policemen's Union.
In an intricate, alternate reality noir detective novel set Alaska where 2 million displaced Jews settled after World War II. Book Discussion Questions from HarperCollins.

Chang, Jung. Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China.
Chang tells the story of three generations of women in her family who survived the political upheaval of China during the 20th century, beginning with her grandmother, a concubine to a warlord in feudal China, her mother, who rose to a prominent position in the Communist Party, to the author, raised during the Cultural Revolution until she was sent to study in England in 1978, giving a history of China from a personal perspective. Book Discussion Questions from MPL.

Chessman, Harriet. Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper.
Harriet Chessman's second novel gives a voice to artist Mary Cassatt's older sister Lydia. While living in Paris in the 1870s and 1880s, Lydia posed for several of Mary's paintings and struggled with a terminal illness. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Chevalier, Tracy. Girl with a Pearl Earring.
A maid in the house of the artist Vermeer inspires the painter to do a portrait of her wearing his wife's pearl earring, causing a scandal that changes the young woman's life. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Codell, Esme. Educating Esme.
Your first year teaching at a poor urban school can really be tough. Esme, however, has energy, wit, big ideas and a touch of cynicism. Written in diary form, we read about her successes and failures as a teacher as she experiences them over the course of a year. Book Discussion Questions from MPL.

Crombie, Deborah. A Share in Death.
Scotland Yard’s Duncan Kincaid’s Yorkshire vacation is ruined when he stumbles upon a murder. A country house whodunit. Book Discussion Questions from MPL.

De los Santos, Marisa. Belong to Me.

The intertwined stories of three women in suburban Philadelphia: newly arrived Cornelia searching for a new life; judgmental, perfectionist Piper struggling with her best friend's cancer; and elusive, free-spirited Lake. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

De los Santos, Marisa. Love Walked In.

A young single woman falls in love with a seeming prince charming, then ends up more committed to his delightful daughter than he. Book Discussion Questions from Penguin

Desai, Kiran. The Inheritance of Loss.
Winner of the Booker Prize, this novel has two story threads: a granddaughter in the Himalayan foothills fall in love with her tutor, and an immigrant from the same place tries to make it in NYC. Book Discussion Questions from BookBrowse.

Diamond, Jared. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed.
Diamond spans the globe and millenniums to determine the reasons for the demise of ancient civilizations like the Anasazi and the Mayans. Examining the past provides lessons for the future so that we may avoid another devastating collapse. Book Discussion Questions from BookBrowse.

Diaz, Junot. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.
Sweet ghetto nerd Oscar dreams of being a famous writer… and of falling in love. He may not get either wish, due to a curse that’s dominated his Dominican family for generations. A Pulitzer Prize winner. Book Discussion Questions from Penguin.

Didion, Joan. The Year of Magical Thinking.
Joan Didion addresses her own feelings and the events surrounding her daughter’s hospitalization and the death of her husband by heart attack. Her loving marriage was based in part on a shared intellectual vigor, which she brings to this memoir. Book Discussion Questions from Borzoi.

Divakaruni, Chitra Banerjee. The Conch Bearer.
In this fantasy full of mysticism and moral dilemmas, set in modern-day India, Anand meets Abadhyatta, a member of the Brotherhood of Healers, who asks Anand to return a magicial conch shell to its rightful home hundreds of miles away. Book Discussion Guide from Simon & Schuster.

Divakaruni, Chitra Bannerjee. Sister of My Heart.
Two cousins in Calcutta grow up together as sisters despite their differences. Told in each of their alternating voices, we learn of family secrets, jealousies and their arranged marriages. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Doig, Ivan. Dancing at the Rascal Fair.
Part immigrant saga, part Western, part romance, the McCaskill family trilogy begins with the arrival of the Scotsman Angus McCaskill to Montana in 1889. Book Discussion Questions from Ivan Doig.

Dorris, Michael. A Yellow Raft in Blue Water.
Set on an Indian reservation in Montana, this saga of three generations of Indian women is told from each of their viewpoints and depicts the hardships they encounter both on and off the reservation. Book Discussion Questions from MPL.

Dumas, Firoozeh. Funny in Farsi: a Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America.
Dumas chronicles her life in America with a collection of zany-but-true family stories. Book Discussion Questions from MPL.

Edwards, Kim. The Memory Keeper's Daughter.
A story of how the actions taken by a father, done with good intentions, can lead to the destruction of his family. Book Discussion Questions from MPL.

Edwards, Kim. The Secrets of a Fire King.
This collection of stories spans generations and continents, covering people living on the edges of society, including a fire eater, a juggler, an Asian war bride living in upstate New York, and a trapeze artist. Book Discussion Questions from KET TV.

Ehrenreich, Barbara. Nickel and Dimed: On Not Getting By in America.
Journalist Ehrenreich, leaving her past life behind and working a series of low wage jobs, chronicles the barriers to even getting by while waitressing, cleaning houses and working at Wal-Mart. Book Discussion Questions from the author.

Enger, Leif. Peace Like a River.
Set in 1950s rural Minnesota, Enger weaves spirituality into this coming-of-age quest novel. Family connections and the importance of the land are two main themes. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Ephron, Nora. I Feel Bad About My Neck.
A candid, wry, amusing collection of essays on women getting older and dealing with the tribulations of maintenance, menopause, empty nests---and life itself. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Eugenides, Jeffrey. Middlesex.
A young girl discovers she's actually a hermaphrodite in her teen years. This is a story of her family's history beginning with their escape from Greece as well as her own experiences growing up in Detroit in the 1960's. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Fadiman, Anne. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures.
In chapters that alternate between the history of the Hmong and a highly personal story of a young Hmong girl who is severly ill with seizures, we learn about Hmong culture and the dramatic clash between it and American medicine in the early 1990s. Book Discussion Questions from Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

Fielding, Helen. Bridget Jones's Diary.
Echoing Pride and Prejudice, this funny debut novel takes a look into the diary of a single, almost-thirty Londoner who has a series of hilarious adventures and emerges hopeful about love and life. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Flagg, Fannie. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café.
The novel on which the popular movie was base, this account of four women's lives in the Depression-era South is humorous, while also threaded with the more serious themes of racism, feminism, and domestic violence. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Fowler, Karen Joy. The Jane Austen Book Club.
A group of six (including one man) meet monthly to discuss Jane Austen's novels. As the reader listens in on their discussions we hear not just about the books, but their lives and loves as well. Book Discussion Guide from Penguin Putnam.

Franklin, Ariana. City of Shadows.
A murder mystery set in pre-Nazi era Berlin centers on the claim of Anna Anderson that she is Anastasia, the surviving daughter of the massacre of the last Russian tsar's family. Book Discussion Questions from MPL.

Frazier, Charles. Thirteen Moons.
An epic set in the wilderness of 19th century North Carolina, this novel follows life of a young Will, a trading store worker, who befriends the local Cherokee Indians, then lives to see and recount their forcible removal. Book Discussion Questions from About.com.

Garcia Marquez, Gabriel. One Hundred Years of Solitude.
A multigenerational story of 100 years in the South American town of Macando. A classic, this comic and tragic novel is the apex of Nobel Prize winner Garcia Marquez’s career. Book Discussion Guide from Oprah.

Gilbert, Elizabeth. Eat, Pray, Love.
A memoir of a year-long journey of soul searching and self discovery through the sensual delight in Italy; meditation in India; and love in Indonesia. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Gladwell, Malcolm. Blink: the Power of Thinking Without Thinking.
Gladwell uses real-life examples to investigate the concept of “thin-slicing,” the way in which one’s unconscious makes instantaneous decisions. Book Discussion Guide from the author.

Glass, Julia. Three Junes.
A rich, layered family saga triptych that spreads over Greece, Scotland, New York City and Long Island during three summers. The family patriarch and his son are the focus of this 2002 National Book Award winner. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Goldberg, Myla. Bee Season.
Fifth-grader Eliza Naumann surprises everyone when she wins her school’s spelling bee. Her father becomes obsessed with her potential and spends hours coaching her, while the rest of the family falls apart. Book Discussion Guide from Random House.

Grafton, Sue. T Is for Trespass.
Private investigator Kinsey Milhone confronts identity theft and elder abuse in this 20th novel in the series. Book Discussion Questions from MPL.

Graham, Katharine. Personal History.
Taking the helm as the Publisher of the Washington Post following her husband's suicide, Graham became involved in both making news and reporting on it as the Post became embroiled in Vietnam and Watergate. Book Discussion Guide from Random House.

Grooms, Anthony. Bombingham.
Walter Burke, a middle class black American soldier in Vietnam, reflects on his experiences in the riot-filled streets of Birmingham, Alabama during the civil rights struggle in the midst of a family crisis. Book Discussion Questions from WHC.

Gruen, Sara. Water for Elephants.
90+ year-old Jacob Jankowski reminisces in a nursing home about his days caring for animals in a travelling circus during the Great Depression. Book Discussion Guide from OneBookTwoVillages.

Guterson, David. Snow Falling on Cedars.
A Japanese-American fisherman's 1954 murder trial is the backdrop of this Pacific Northwest story that chronicles a doomed relationship between a white boy and a Japanese girl, a racially-charged land dispute, and the wartime internment of San Piedro's Japanese residents. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Haddon, Mark. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.
An autistic teen narrates this story of his adventure trying to solve a mystery surrounding the discovery of the murdered corpse of his neighbor’s pet poodle. Book Discussion Questions from MPL.

Haddon, Mark. A Spot of Bother.
In this darkly comic novel, the family patriarch mistakenly believes he is dying of cancer (it’s really eczema) while his wife and grown children swirl around him getting ready for a wedding. Book Discussion Questions from MPL.

Hamilton, Jane. When Madeline Was Young.
After his young wife suffers brain damage and is left with the mind of a 6-year old, Aaron Maciver quietly divorces her and marries her nurse, and the two raise her as their child along with their daughter and son in this chronicle of an unusual family. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Hammett, Dashiell. The Maltese Falcon.
The classic hard-boiled detective novel in which Sam Spade searches for a rare statue and Hammett introduces a new style of mystery novel. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Harr, Jonathan. A Civil Action.
In this tale of a legal system gone awry--with greed and power fighting against justice--two of the nation's largest corporations are accused of causing the deaths of children in Woburn, MA. Book Discussion Questions from WHC.

Harris, Joanne. Chocolat.
A mysterious stranger and her daughter arrive in a small village in France and open confectioner’s shop just as Lent is beginning. The chocolate here is magic, perhaps, with the power to undo and to redeem. Book Discussion Questions from MPL.

Haruf, Kent. Eventide.
Lives intertwine in this novel about the residents of rural Colorado. Single mother Victoria heads off for college, a young boy carries the load at home, and a social worker aids a troubled family. This sequel to Plainsong is both sad and hopeful. Book Discussion Guide from Random House.

Haruf, Kent. Plainsong.
Set in a small town in the plains of Colorado, this novel tells the interrelated stories of eight characters whose lives undergo radical change during the course of one year. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Hegland, Jean. Into the Forest.
In near-future California two teenage sisters find a way to survive after civilization as we know it collapses and both their parents die. As supplies and generator run out, the girls take stock and make difficult choices. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Hillenbrand, Laura. Seabiscuit: An American Legend.
Yes it's true-- a biography of a horse! Seabiscuit was an unlikely champion due to his physical proportion, but the cast of human characters (from owner to trainer to jockey) that believed in him produced a winner. Not just for 'horse people', this quick paced, exciting and much-admired book has been turned into an Academy Award (TM) nominated movie! Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Hockenberry, John. Moving Violations: War Zones, Wheelchairs, and Declarations of Independence.
National Public Radio correspondent relates his experiences reporting from a wheelchair in Baghdad, Beirut, Jerusalem and New York City. Book Discussion Questions from MPL .

Hoeg, Peter. Smilla's Sense of Snow.
When a six-year-old boy falls to his death from the top of his Copenhagen apartment building, his death is pronounced accidental. His neighbor, Smilla Jasperson, becomes an amateur sleuth and embarks on her own investigation of the murder, leading her to a corrupt Danish company. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Horan, Nancy. Loving Frank.
A fictionalized portrayal of Mamah Borthwick Cheney, her love affair with Frank Lloyd Wright, and the scandal it created. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Hosseini, Khaled. The Kite Runner.
A boy named Amir, born in pre-Soviet Afghanistan, befriends a servant’s son. Long after emigrating to California, Amir returns to Afghanistan to reconnect with his past and perhaps correct some of his childhood wrongs. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Hosseini, Khaled. A Thousand Splendid Suns.
Through three decades of turmoil in Afghanistan, two wives of the same man become the closest of friends, and the reader gets a view into difficult lives they live. Book Discussion Questions from Penguin Putnam.

Jones, Edward. The Known World.
In this Pulitzer Prize winning novel, a black slave owner dies, and his plantation begins to fall apart. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Kallos, Stephanie. Broken for You.
A septuagenarian invites a young woman to live in her mansion while both heal from their troubled pasts. Book Discussion Questions from Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

Kennedy, Pagan. Confessions of a Memory Eater.
A time travel drug allows a middle-aged man to revisit his past, with mixed results. This novel is more social commentary than science fiction. Book Discussion Questions from MPL.

Kidd, Sue Monk. The Mermaid Chair.
Jessie Sullivan returns to the tiny island of her birth upon learning that her mother has chopped off her own finger. There, Jessie struggles with her marriage, falls for a Benedictine monk and discovers the source of her mother's distress. Book Discussion Guide from BookBrowse.

Kidd, Sue Monk. The Secret Life of Bees.
Small-town Georgia in 1964 is the setting for this novel of beekeeping, civil rights, and a girl's yearning for her deceased mother. Despite the difficult subjects, this novel is sad but warm and, ultimately, uplifting. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Kingsolver, Barbara. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life.

Kingsolver and her family eat only local food for a year, including home-raised turkeys and chickens and garden grown and canned veggies. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Kingsolver, Barbara. The Bean Trees.
Young, independent Taylor heads west from Kentucky to Tucson, seeking a life change. She gets one, in the form of motherhood: an abandoned baby at a truck stop and becomes her own child. Life as a twosome in Tucson quickly broadens to include friends and neighbors. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Kingsolver, Barbara. Prodigal Summer.
Summer in a corner of southern Appalachia serves as the setting for the adventures and struggles of three free-spirited women, who have intimate ties to the natural world. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Lahiri, Jhumpa. The Interpreter of Maladies.
Nine short stories set in India and the United States which find Indians and Indian-Americans adapting to new circumstances and relationships, as well as different cultures. Book Discussion Guide from Houghton Mifflin.

Lahiri, Jhumpa. The Namesake.
Gogol is an American with Bengali parents and a deep dislike of his name. As he moves away from home (and in with various girlfriends), he also distances himself from his former identity. Book Discussion Guide from Houghton Mifflin.

Landvik, Lorna. Welcome to the Great Mysterious.
A Broadway actress returns home to small town Minnesota to care for her Down's syndrome nephew. This larger-than-life woman learns how far she's drifted from her core values, but with trademark Landvik humor. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Larson, Erik. The Devil in the White City.
Two events focused attention on Chicago in 1893: the World’s Fair with it’s hundreds of newly built structures (all white), and the investigation into the crimes of Dr. Henry Holmes, reputedly the first American serial killer. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Larson, Erik. Isaac's Storm: A Man, A Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History.
An account of the 1900 hurricane that hit Galveston, Texas and killed 6,000 people. Larson uses personal papers, letters, newspapers and government archives as the source material for this engrossing tale. Book Discussion Questions from MPL.

Lawton, John. Black Out.
Set in WWII London, Scotland Yard detective Troy initially thinks a severed arm is part of a war casualty. Soon enough he’s involved in a labyrinthine coverup of something darker. Book Discussion Questions from MPL.

Maraniss, David. They Marched Into Sunlight.
The dramas unfolding in Saigon and Madison in October 1967 are woven together in this work by Washington Post reporter Maraniss. Book Discussion Questions from MPL.

Martel, Yann. Life of Pi.
An Indian boy, Piscine Patel (aka ‘Pi’) and his zookeeping family are emigrating to Canada. While on a container ship enroute to their new life, an accident at sea leaves Pi and a tiger in a lifeboat floating on the Pacific Ocean. The hilarous and soulful 2002 winner of the Booker Prize. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Martinez, Ruben. Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail.
Martinez investigates the deaths of three migrant workers, the Chavez brothers. Martinez spends a year with the brothers’ extended family as they work their way across the U.S., including a stint at a Wisconsin meat packing plant. Book Discussion Questions from MPL.

Mayes, Frances. Under the Tuscan Sun.
A California professor and her partner buy and renovate an abandoned farmhouse in Tuscany, Italy. Part travelogue, part memoir, part renovation guide with recipes, this book has enchanted readers with its poetic descriptions and enchanting setting. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

McBride, James. The Color of Water.
This memoir combines accounts of McBride’s childhood in a mixed-race family and his mother’s life history, and is a powerful portrait of growing up, a meditation on race and identity, and a poignant hymn from a son to his mother. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

McCall Smith, Alexander. The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency.
This is the first in a series of gentle mysteries. Precious Ramotswe operates in Botswana, running an agency where the solving of the ‘mystery’ is often secondary to the exploration of family, customs and alternate methods of justice. Book Discussion Guide from Random House.

McCall Smith, Alexander. The Tears of the Giraffe.
The further adventures of Precious Ramotswe, the cunning, insightful head of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency in Botswana. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

McCarthy, Cormac. The Road.
A post-apocalyptic journey of a father and a son through a ravaged landscape. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

McCourt, Frank. Angela's Ashes.
McCourt gives us the sad and humorous tale of his impoverished Irish Catholic childhood, from his birth in Brooklyn, New York, through the family's emigration when he was four to the slums of Limerick, Ireland, and comes full circle with McCourt's return to America as a young man. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuide.

McCullough, David. 1776.
Pulitzer Prize winning author David McCullough portrays the militarys experience during the Revolutionary War, providing insight into the lives of not only the men who led the ranks, but also those who filled them. Book Discussion Questions from MPL.

McEwan, Ian. Atonement.
In a crumbling English mansion in 1935, young Briony tells a lie that sends a man to jail. Five years later, a solider retreats during World War II. These story threads come together in the book's surprising conclusion. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

McEwan, Ian. On Chesil Beach.
The trauma of a wedding night spent on the Dorset Coast centers on the couple's fears about sex and their inability to discuss them. Book Discussion Questions from BookBrowse.

McEwan, Ian. Saturday.
Although Henry Perowne is content with his personal life, he remains disturbed by the state of the world since the 9/11 attacks. When he drives through Central London and encounters a throng of anti-war protestors, a confrontation changes his life. Book Discussion Guide from Random House.

Miller, Sue. The Senator's Wife.
Intersecting stories of two next door neighbors: Delia, married to Tom Naughton, a philanderer and former senator; and Meri, recently married to an academic and struggling with her new role, pregnancy, and parenthood. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Mina, Denise. Garnethill.
Hardscrabble Glasgow is the backdrop for this gritty mystery in which Maureen O’Donnell’s boyfriend is found murdered in her apartment. Due to her psychiatric history, Maureen becomes suspect number #1 and must clear her own name. Book Discussion Questions from MPL.

Mitchell, David. Cloud Atlas.
Six different story arcs, ranging from the 19th century to post-apocalyptic, are tied together to tell a story of how the past is rewritten by those that come after.

Moehringer, J.R. The Tender Bar.
A Pulitzer Prize winning journalist recounts growing up in a bar where the barflies became family. This memoir follows Moehringer’s search for a father figure and for the life he desires. Book Discussion Questions from Hyperion Books.

Moriarty, Laura. The Center of Everything.
Evelyn, the daughter of a warm, loving, but immature and impetuous single mother in precarious financial circumstances, faces the trials of adolescence. Book Discussion Questions from Hyperion.

Morris, Gerald. The Savage Damsel and the Dwarf.
Lady Lynet, boldly setting out for King Arthur’s court with the intention of finding a suitor for her sister, meets some humorous characters and many unexpected turns throughout her quest. Book Discussion Questions from Book Bratz.

Morrison, Toni. A Mercy.
The personal costs of slavery are explored in this novel of 4 abandoned women together on a farm in upstate New York. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupChoices.

Mortenson, Greg. Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations-- One School at a Time.
During a 1993 mountain-climbing venture, author Greg Mortenson is aided by rural Pakistani villagers, then promises to help build a school there. Over the next decade, this initial promise results in his building fifty-five schools in the region.

Nafisi, Azar. Reading Lolita in Tehran.
Iranian author Nafisi recounts her time leading a secret reading group of women in the mid 1990s. Classics of western literature take on new meaning and insights in the hands of these Muslim women. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Nemirovsky, Irene. Suite Francaise.
The first two parts of an epic drama of the Nazi occupation of France written by a Russian Jewish refugee who lived in France and died in Auschwitz in 1942. This novel was rediscovered and published over 60 years after her death. Book Discussion Questions from BookBrowse.

Niffenegger, Audrey. The Time Traveler's Wife.
Claire and Henry are married. They met when Claire was a teenager, when married-to-Claire Henry traveled back in time to meet her. This is not a science fiction story, however. Rather, it is an unconventional romance with an elaborate structure.

O'Brien, Tim. In the Lake of the Woods.
A failed political campaign leads Vietnam veteran John Wade and his wife Kathy to retreat to their cabin in the woods to re-group. When Kathy disappears, John’s past collides with his present. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Packer, Ann. The Dive from Clausen's Pier.
A college-aged woman is faced with difficult decisions when her boyfriend dives off a pier and becomes a quadriplegic. Set in Madison, with many small details local readers will love. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Pamuk, Orhan. Snow.
After twelve years of political exile in Germany, Turkish poet Ka returns to Turkey, in part looking for his childhood friend, in part to report on a recent rash of suicides, and witnesses firsthand the clash between radical Islam and Western ideals. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Patchett, Ann. Bel Canto.
In the Vice President's house in an unnamed South American country, what begins as an elegant dinner party turns into a kidnapping that goes awry when the President the terrorists are intent on capturing misses the dinner. When the government refuses to give in to their demands, the hostage situation continues for a number of weeks during which a pleasant domesticity, enlivened by opera singing, begins to blur the lines between captive and captor. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Patchett, Ann. Run.
Adoption, race, class, and family are explored in this novel about three brothers and their widowed father. Book Discussion Questions from LitLovers.

Penny, Louise. Still Life.
This traditional mystery begins with the finding of the body of Jane Neal, a retired school teacher and talented amateur artist in the woods near a small Quebec village, the apparent victim of a tragic hunting accident. Book Discussion Questions from MPL.

Perrotta, Tom. Little Children.
Life on the playground benches is far from boring for this group of stay-at-home parents. A social satire with black humor and a surprising finish. Book Discussion Questions from MPL.

Perry, Michael. Population 485: Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time.
EMT and former nurse Perry moves back to his hometown - New Auburn, WI - after years away. His stories about his emergency calls are compelling and his ruminations on small town life unique. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Perry, Michael. Truck: A Love Story.
The author chronicles a year spent restoring an old pickup, gardening, and falling in love. This memoir is filled with eccentric characters, keen observation, and humorous storytelling. Book Discussion Questions from MPL.

Pickard, Nancy. The Virgin of Small Plains.
The discovery of the naked frozen body of a beautiful teenage girl during a 1987 Kansas blizzard and the subsequent disappearance of the son of a judge begin this novel with surprising twists and a convincing portrait of small town life. Book Discussion Questions from Random House.

Picoult, Jodi. Change of Heart.
Death row prisoner seeks atonement through donation of his heart to his victim's sister. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Picoult, Jodi. My Sister's Keeper.
13-year-old Anna Fitzgerald has already donated blood, bone marrow, and stem cells to save her sister’s life, but when her family asks her to donate a kidney, Anna takes legal action to regain control of her body. Book Discussion Guide from Simon & Schuster.

Picoult, Jodi. Nineteen Minutes.
Picoult explores a small town high school shooting from various angles: the causes, effects, emotions, and moral issues involved. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Picoult, Jodi. The Tenth Circle.
Daniel Stone, growing up tormented and full of rage as the only boy in an Eskimo village, transforms himself into a mild-mannered, stay-at-home dad and graphic novelist until he learns of his daughter’s rape and wife’s affair. Book Discussion Questions from MPL.

Picoult, Jodi. Vanishing Acts.
Delia, now 28, lived happily as a child with her father, believing her mother died a long time ago. Turns out her father abducted her years ago due to her mother's out of control alcoholism. Now he's on trial. Book Discussion Questions from MPL.

Pollan, Michael. In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto.

A tough, witty discourse on why food is more than the sum of its nutritional parts. Book Discussion Questions from MPL.

Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals.
The moral and ecological issues of the food system are traced through four meals, one from McDonald's, one prepared from Whole Foods products, one prepared from products from a small, utopian Virginia farm, and the last from foraged and hunted food. Book Discussion Questions from Sierra Club.

Quindlen, Anna. Blessings.
Found in a box on the doorstep of the richest woman in town, a newborn baby brings the parallel worlds of 'upstairs' and 'downstairs' together. Book Discussion Questions from Random House.

Quindlen, Anna. Rise and Shine.
While her mic is accidentally on, morning talk show host Meghan calls a guest a vulgar name on national television. Her entire world changes, including her career and relationships with her husband, grown son and social worker sister. Book Discussion Guide from Random House.

Reichl, Ruth. Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table.
This memoir of family, friends and food by the former restaurant critic for The New York Times and current editor of Gourmet Magazine focuses on the early childhood and adulthood of the author, and shows what led to her love of food.

Robinson, Marilynne. Gilead.
Set in Iowa during the 1950's, minister Jon Ames has recently been diagnosed with a terminal illness and is afraid that his six-year old son will never really know his father. Ames sets out to write a letter to his son informing him of his past. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Roth, Philip. The Plot Against America.
Roth imagines a historical America in which Charles Lindbergh gets elected president instead of FDR in 1940, choosing to appease Hitler and Japan instead of joining the Allies in World War II. Book Discussion Guide from Houghton Mifflin.

Roy, Arundhati. The God of Small Things.
This circuitous and suspenseful novel is set in 1960s India against a background of political unrest and social taboos deals with a family shattered by tragedy. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Russell, Mary Doria. The Sparrow.
In a novel that spands 2019 to 2060, Emilio Sandoz, a brilliant Jesuit priest, leads an expedition to a newly discovered extraterrestrial culture, yet when he returns to Earth later as the mission's sole survivor, he is accused of unspeakable violence and depravity. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Russo, Richard. Bridge of Sighs.
A slumping small town in upstate New York is the setting of this novel, chronicling three very different families over 50 years. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Salzman, Mark. The Soloist.
A child prodigy has lost his gift, and struggles to find connections as an adult. Book Discussion Questions from Pasadena, CA.

Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis.
Marijane’s years as a girl growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution are the focus of this graphic novel. Satrapi’s style is minimalist; her young self is charming and defiant. Book Discussion Questions from Random House.

Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis 2:The Story of a Return.
Marjane continues her graphic novel memoir. As a teen she leaves war torn Iran for Vienna where she tries dating and recreational drugs. Readjustment to a patriarchal, fundamentalist society follows, as she returns to her homeland. Book Discussion Questions from Random House.

Schwartz, John. Reservation Road.
The emotional consequences of the death of a 10-year-old boy in a hit-and-run accident are explored through the voices of his mother, his father, and the driver of the car. Book Discussion Questions from MPL.

Sebold, Alice. The Lovely Bones.
A murdered young woman looks down from her life in heaven as her family copes with her death and the police search for her killer. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Sedaris, David. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim.
In this collection of humorous essays, David Sedaris discusses childhood, family and relationships, revealing that "normal" is truly a relative term. Book Discussion Questions from MPL.

Sedaris, David. Me Talk Pretty One Day.
Laugh out loud essays by NPR commentator on his antic family and his life in New York and Paris. Book Discussion Questions from MPL.

See, Lisa. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan.
The story of Lily Yi and Snow Flower, intimate friends who used a secret written language to correspond, and how they were brought together and torn apart by their letters in 19th century rural China. Book Discussion Guide from Random House.

Seierstad, Asne. The Bookseller of Kabul.
A western reporter shares what she learned as a burka wearing woman living with a bookseller's family in Afghanistan. Life after the fall of the Taliban includes stories both horrifying and uplifting. Book Discussion Questions from MPL.

Senna, Danzy. Caucasia.
Birdie, the light-skinned daughter of a white mother and a black father narrates the story of her family that includes her older sister, Cole, who is darker than her sister. Activists during the Civil Rights movement of 1970's Boston, their parents divide the family along color lines when their marriage falls apart. Birdie flees with her mother, who believes the Feds are after her, and is made to act as a white Jewish girl while they are in the run. Book Discussion Questions from MPL.

Setterfield, Diane. The Thirteenth Tale.
An aging author, after creating many varying life histories for herself over the years, summons a young biographer to write her story in this gothic tale combining mystery, ghost story and family drama. Book Discussion Questions from Bookbrowse.

Shaffer, Mary Ann and Annie Barrows. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.
A novel in letters about the WWII German occupation of Guernsey, one of the Channel Islands between France and England. An often sweet and funny book, with tinges of sadness. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Shields, Carol. The Stone Diaries.
In this Pulitzer Prize winning book, Daisy Goodwill attempts to understand her place in the world as she nears the end of her life. She narrates her own biography, from her birth in Manitoba in 1905 when she loses her mother to childbirth, through her college years, her marriages and her work as a newspaper columnist. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Shields, Carol. Unless.

A daughter flees the family and begins sitting on a street corner in Toronto with a sign around her neck. Her mother confronts her own emotions and the place of women in society both through her daughter’s situation and her own struggles as a writer. Book Discussion Questions from LitLovers.

Shreve, Anita. Light on Snow.
Nicky looks back to her twelfth year when she and her father discovered an abandoned baby on a winter walk. The baby’s mother appears right before a blizzard hits. Nicky and her father must confront their own problems as they help the wayward mother. Book Discussion Questions from the Daily Mail.

Shreve, Anita. Testimony.
A sex video made at a boarding school is at the center of this morality tale. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Sijie, Dal. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress.
Two boys are sent to the countryside to be re-educated in this fable set during China's Cultural Revolution. They discover hope through forbidden western literature, but find hope can be cruel and corrupting. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Sittenfeld, Curtis. Prep.
A fictional account of one girl’s four high school years at boarding school. Neither cute enough or rich enough to fit in, Lee Fiora struggles with her conflicting desires to either go it alone or be part of the group. Book Discussion Guide from Random House.

Smith, Zadie. On Beauty.
The work and family lives of two polar-opposite academics are explored in this humorous novel. Book Discussion Questions from MPL.

Stefaniak, Mary Helen. The Turk and My Mother.
A down-to-earth multigenerational tale of a Croatian family who journey from their Balkan village to Siberia and ultimately to Milwaukee, WI. Book Discussion Guide from W. W. Norton.

Stegner, Wallace. Crossing to Safety.
This deceptively simple story traces the lives and hopes of two couples who met as young parents in Madison, Wisconsin in the early part of the 20th century. Their friendship continues through the years, and provides a glimpse into the transformative power of friendship and marriage. Book Discussion Questions from MPL.

Strayed, Cheryl. Torch.
A brooding teenage son, a responsible college daughter, and a loving common-law husband struggle with grief when 38-year-old Teresa gets cancer and dies. Book Discussion Guide from Houghton Mifflin.

Tolan, Sandy. Lemon Tree.
The history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is traced through the personal histories of two who occupied the same house at separate times: Dalia, a woman whose family of Bulgarian Jews immigrated to Israel in 1948, and Bashir, a man whose family was driven out of Palestine. Book Discussion Questions from BloomsburyUSA.

Tolle, Eckhart. A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose.
The spiritual leader who wrote The Power of Now returns with a follow-up focused on personal transformation through a changed conciousness. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Tsukiyama, Gail. Women of the Silk.
Sold into a life of slavery at the Chinese silk factory in the early part of the 20th century, Pei finds friendship and independence amongst the women there despite the horrible conditions. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Tyler, Anne. Digging to America.
A humorous exploration of personal relations and cultural clashes between two families. The traditional American Donaldsons and the Iranian-American Yazdans adopt Korean girls at the same time, with different plans and parenting styles. Book Discussion Questions from MPL .

Tyson, Timothy. Blood Done Sign My Name.
Tyson examines the 1970 murder of a young black man by a white businessman in Tyson's childhood town of Oxford, North Carolina. The book includes historical analysis of the murder and its aftermath, of race relations in the South, and of Tyson and his father's transformation by this event. Book Discussion Questions from MPL.

Vreeland, Susan. Girl in Hyacinth Blue.
Vreeland follows the trail of an unknown painting by the Dutch master Vermeer, from present day Philadelphia back in time to the creation of the painting in the artist's household. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Wallach, Janet. Desert Queen: the Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell: Adventurer, Advisor to Kings….
This biography of Gertrude Bell, a contemporary of Lawrence of Arabia, recounts her life surrounded by powerful men-- her own countrymen and desert sheiks-- and how Bell helped shape Iraq. Book Discussion Questions from MPL.

Walls, Jeannette. The Glass Castle: A Memoir.
Walls recalls growing up in a dysfunctional yet creative family with a brilliant, charismatic father, who was destructive and dishonest when he drank, and a free-spirited artist mother, who hated domesticity and the responsibility of raising a family. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Weisman, Alan. The World Without Us.

A ‘fantasy’ nonfiction book by a science writer that explores what would happen to the earth’s flora and fauna, as well as our built environment, if suddenly all humans disappeared. Book Discussion Questions from MPL.

Winchester, Simon. The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary.
A paranoid schizophrenic, incarcerated in the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum for murder, Dr. W.C. Minor provided tens of thousands of quotations for use in the Oxford English Dictionary for its first publication in the nineteenth century.

Wood, Patricia. The Lottery.
Perry Crandall (IQ 76) narrates his life after the death of his Gran, who raised him after his parents abandoned him. When he wins a $12 million lottery, his avaricious family schemes to appropriate his prize. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Wroblewski, David. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle.

Set in Northern Wisconsin, Edgar is the mute son of dog breeders Gar and Trudy. When tragedy strikes the family, Edgar pursues a unique and dangerous path. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Yee, James. For God and Country: Faith and Patriotism Under Fire.
A Muslim U.S. Army chaplain at Guantanamo Bay who was falsely accused of treason, imprisoned, and later discharged, recounts his experiences and gives an inside view of the treatment of prisoners there. Book Discussion Questions from WHC.

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