Book Discussion Kits

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March 2010

Berg, Elizabeth. Home Safe.
In this work of fiction, a popular and prolific novelist faces the death of her husband, writer's block, and conflict with her daughter. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Boyle, T.C. The Women.
Frank Lloyd Wright’s life is explored through his relationships with four women in this novel narrated by his fictional Japanese apprentice. Book Discussion Questions from Penguin.

Myron, Vicki. Dewey: The Small Town Library Cat Who Touched the World.
A cat found in the book return at a small town Iowa library became a library resident and enchanted customers for nearly 20 years with his winsome personality. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Seliy, Shauna. When We Get There.
An Eastern European family and friend network is rocked by the death of 13 year old Lucas’s father and the fleeing of his mother. And on the broader stage, this Pennsylvania coal mining town is dying, as is their way of life. Book Discussion Questions from MPL.

Stein, Garth. The Art of Racing in the Rain.
A tale of love, loyalty, child custody, death and betrayal with parallels to the sport of auto racing... narrated by a dog. Book Discussion Questions from HarperCollins.

February 2010

Lopez, Steve. The Soloist: A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music.
When L.A. Times journalist Lopez encounters Nathaniel Ayers playing Beethoven on a battered violin beside a shopping cart of belongings, he knows it’s a newspaper column, at least. When he learns Ayers is a classically trained musician who left Juilliard in 1972 due to his schizophrenia, Lopez wants to know more-- and perhaps to help. Chosen by Porchlight as their Madison Cares community read. Book Discussion Questions from Porchlight.

December 2009

Aslam, Nadeem. The Wasted Vigil.
Intertwined stories of four people devastated by the war in Afghanistan: a British doctor mourning the loss of his Afghan wife and daughter; a former CIA officer; the sister of a missing Russian soldier; and an orphan raised into a Taliban madrassa. Book Discussion Questions from Barnes and Noble.

Ford, Jamie. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet.
A chance discovery of items left behind by Japanese-Americans forced into internment camps during World War II causes Henry Lee, a Chinese-American and recent widower, to reflect on his first romance with Keiko, which ended when her family was evacuated. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Goolrick, Robert. A Reliable Wife.
A gothic tale set in 1907 Wisconsin told from two viewpoints: Ralph Truitt, a wealthy businessman who advertises for a wife for practical reasons, and Catherine Land, a beauty hungry for riches, posing as a dowdy daughter of a missionary. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Picoult, Jodi. Handle With Care.
A daughter born with a severe bone disease is the central focus of the family, to the detriment of her older sister and her parents’ marriage. When her mother pursues a suit against her obstetrician best friend, the family implodes. Book Discussion Questions from Barnes and Noble.

Talarigo, Jeff. The Ginseng Hunter.
A subsistence farmer supplementing his living by hunting ginseng on the Chinese side of the Chinese-North Korean border befriends a North Korean prostitute and learns about the plight of the refugees around him. Book Discussion Questions from MPL.

Vargas, Fred. Have Mercy on Us All.
In this detective novel/biothriller French medievalist and archaeologist author Fred Vargas combines historical cryptology, the history of the plague and street life in modern day Paris. Book Discussion Questions from MPL.

September 2009

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.

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.

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.

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

April 2009

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

February 2009

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

January 2009

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.

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.

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.