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Crescentby DianaAbu-Jaber 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
The Zookeeper's Wifeby DianeAckerman 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
Purple Hibiscusby Chimamanda NgoziAdichie 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
American Dervishby AyadAkhtar This coming-of-age story centers on young Hayat Shah, a Pakistani-American living in Milwaukee. His family's dynamics, and their various levels of engagement with Islam, are at the center of the novel.
Book Discussion Questions from Book Browse
For One More Dayby MitchAlbom 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
Daughter of Fortuneby IsabelAllende 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
The Wasted Vigilby NadeemAslam 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
Behind the Scenes at the Museumby KateAtkinson 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
Case Historiesby KateAtkinson Private detective Jackson Brodie investigates three cases: two disappearances from long ago and a search for a witness to a murder. In typical fashion for this series, however, Brodie's personal life shares center stage with the detective work.
Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides
The Blind Assassinby MargaretAtwood 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
The Elegance of the Hedgehogby MurielBarbery
54 year-old Renée and 12 year-old Paloma come from very different backgrounds, but both have a deep emotional life that they shield from the world. An unlikely friendship forms as they share their journeys and perspectives on everyday life.
Book Discussion Questions from Europa Editions
Regenerationby PatBarker 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
The Sense of an Endingby JulianBarnes This Booker Prize winner is suspenseful tale of memory and self-knowledge. When Tony receives a classmate's diary from 40+ years before, it leads to a re-examination of his younger years and what he thought was true.
Book Discussion Questions from Princeton Book Review
Winter Studyby NevadaBarr 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
Borderlineby NevadaBarr National Park Service ranger Anna Pigeon is on vacation in Texas's Big Bend National Park when a guided rafting trip meets with multiple tragedies and Anna must care for a newborn baby.
Book Discussion Questions from MPL
The Scent of Godby BerylBissell A former nun recounts her cloistered life as well as her romance with a priest 25 years her senior that culminated in marriage. Joys and sorrows follow as she has two children, yet loses her husband to cancer and one daughter to murder.
Book Discussion Questions from the author
The Postmistressby SarahBlake Interwoven stories of three American women at the start of World War II: a single 40-year old postmistress in a small town on Cape Cod, a newlywed new to the town, and a reporter in London working under Edward R. Morrow.
Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides
Awayby AmyBloom 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
The Double Bindby ChrisBohjalian 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
The Womenby T. C.Boyle 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
The Tortilla Curtainby T.C.Boyle Two couples, an undocumented Mexican husband and wife camping in a canyon and well-heeled Americans living in a gated community, cross paths repeatedly and usually unknowingly in this novel set in Southern California.
Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides
The Weird Sistersby EleanorBrown Three sisters, all named after Shakespearean characters by their English professor father, reunite in an Ohio college town when their mother is stricken with cancer. Drama ensues, but with a light comedic touch.
Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides
A Walk in the Woodsby BillBryson 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. The full title is A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail.
Book Discussion Questions from MPL
In a Sunburned Countryby BillBryson 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
The Tin Roof Blowdownby James LeeBurke 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
Cold Sassy Treeby Olive AnnBurns 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
The Ghost Mountain Boysby JamesCampbell In 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
Farm City: the Education of an Urban Farmerby NovellaCarpenter
In this memoir, Carpenter describes how she became an urban farmer after moving to an inner-city neighborhood in Oakland, California. Starting with a garden in an abandoned lot, she expands into animal husbandry with frustrating, comical and delicious results.
Book Discussion Questions from MPL
Wild Swans: Three Daughters of Chinaby JungChang 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
Educating Esmeby EsmeCodell 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
The Hunger Gamesby SuzanneCollins
Katniss Everdeen, the heroine of Collins’ violent trilogy, stands in for her sister in the Hunger Games, where teenagers must fight each other to the death for the entertainment of people living in a darkly envisioned near-future US.
Book Discussion Questions from Reading Group Guides
The Chatham School Affairby ThomasCook Young Henry was fascinated with his new school teacher, who was unconventional by the local standards of their seaside town. The adult Henry harbors a secret-- and it involves a murder in Chatham long ago.
Book Discussion Questions from LitLovers
Belong to Meby MarisaDe los Santos 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
A Discovery of Witchesby HarknessDeborah In this mix of history, mythology and magic Diana Bishop, a young scholar and descendant of witches, discovers a long lost manuscript on alchemy in the Bodleian Library, summoning a fantastical underworld which she explores with vampire geneticist Matthew Clairmont.
Book Discussion Questions from Penguin
The Inheritance of Lossby KiranDesai 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
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeedby JaredDiamond 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.
A Yellow Raft in Blue Waterby MichaelDorris 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
Look at Meby JenniferEgan Questions of identity and reality in contemporary American society are explored in this novel with three intersecting main characters: a New York model who's face is destroyed in a traffic accident; an aspiring internet magnate; and a Middle-Eastern terrorist living in NYC. Published the week before 9/11, the novel strikes some reviewers as having remarkable prescience.
Book Discussion Questions from Reading Group Guides
Zeitounby DaveEggers The story of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath is told through the experiences of Zeitoun, a Syrian-American and Muslim who stays in New Orleans to watch over his home and business. He helps rescue his neighbors, but is later arrested and imprisoned.
Book Discussion Questions from Random House
The Marriage Plotby JeffreyEugenides A love triangle between Brown University students Madeleine, an English major writing her senior thesis; Leonard, a brilliant student with bipolar disorder; and Mitchell, a religious studies major, is the backdrop for this novel set in the 1980s.
Book Discussion Questions ReadingGroupGuides
Middlesexby JeffreyEugenides 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
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Downby AnneFadiman 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. The full title is The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures.
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweetby JamieFord 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
The Jane Austen Book Clubby Karen JoyFowler 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
Freedomby JonathanFranzen The personal dynamics and moral compromises of a married Midwestern couple, their son Joey, and their rock star friend Richard Katz are explored against a backdrop of contemporary American issues including ecological degradation and war profiteering.
Book Discussion Questions from Reading Group Guides
The Hungry Tideby AmitavGhosh An Indian-American researcher arrives in a remote area of India to study the freshwater dolphins and meets two very different men, each important to her work and life there.
Book Discussion Questions from MPL
Three Junesby JuliaGlass 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
A Reliable Wifeby RobertGoolrick 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
Ape Houseby SaraGruen In this novel of drama and satire, the bombing of the Great Ape Language Lab and the subsequent removal of their bonobo apes to a new life on reality TV brings together married reporter John Thigpen and primate-loving scientist Isabel Duncan.
Book Discussion Questions from Oprah
A Spot of Botherby MarkHaddon 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
When Madeline Was Youngby JaneHamilton 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
Plainsongby KentHaruf 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
Seabiscuit: An American Legendby LauraHillenbrand 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
Unbroken: a World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemptionby LauraHillenbrand Louis Zamperini, a champion runner in the 1930s, joined the U.S. Army Air Force in 1941. As a bombardier in World War II, he crash-landed in the Pacific, surviving forty-seven days on a raft and two years of abuse in Japanese POW camps. His post-war life was a happy and productive one, a relief to the reader that Hillenbrand recounts in the final quarter of the book.
Book Discussion Questions from Laura Hillenbrand
Smilla's Sense of Snowby PeterHoeg 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
The Kite Runnerby KhaledHosseini 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
Steve Jobsby WalterIsaacson Biography of the creative entrepreneur and head of Apple, Inc. who was a complex, driven, perfectionist as well as a bully. Isaacson was granted extensive access to Jobs himself as well as his family, friends, colleagues, and competitors.
Book Discussion Questions from Simon and Schuster
Death Comes to Pemberleyby P. D.James In this sequel to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, set six years after Elizabeth and Darcy’s marriage, the domestic tranquility of their estate at Pemberley is disrupted when a visitor is found murdered in the woods.
Book Discussion Questions from Lit Lovers
A Stolen Lifeby DugardJaycee Kidnapped and held captive for 18 years by a man and woman in their backyard, Dugard shares the details of her life in captivity, the birth of her children while there, and how she was finally discovered and freed.
Book Discussion Questions from Reading Group Guides
Sing You Homeby PicoultJodi A music therapist whose marriage falls apart after a miscarriage subsequently finds love with another woman and wants to start a family with her new partner. At the same time, her ex-husband, a recovering alcoholic, joins an anti-gay church.
Book Discussion Questions Simon & Schuster
Broken for Youby StephanieKallos A septuagenarian invites a young woman to live in her mansion while both heal from their troubled pasts.
The Secret Life of Beesby Sue MonkKidd 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
The Strength in What Remainsby TracyKidder Escaping from civil war and genocide in his home country of Burundi, Deogratias, a young medical student, comes to New York city with $200. Despite facing many obstacles, Deo becomes an Ivy League student and eventually goes back to Burundi to found a public health clinic.
Book Discussion Questions from Lit Lovers
The Bean Treesby BarbaraKingsolver Young, independent Taylor heads west from Kentucky to Tucson, seeking a life change. Young, independent Taylor heads west from Kentucky to Tucson, seeking a life change.
Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides
Prodigal Summerby BarbaraKingsolver 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
The Lacunaby BarbaraKingsolver Harrison William Shephard, whose father is American and mother is Mexican, lives in Mexico in the 1930s with Diego Rivera, his wife Frida Kahlo, and their houseguest Leon Trotsky.
Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides
The Namesakeby JhumpaLahiri 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
Isaac's Stormby ErikLarson 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
The Devil in the White Cityby ErikLarson 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
The Girl with the Dragon Tattooby SteigLarsson Lisbeth Salander, a pierced and tattooed genius hacker, and Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist, investigate the disappearance and perhaps murder of Harriet Vanger, young scion of one one of the wealthiest families in Sweden.
Book Discussion Questions from Bookbrowse
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nestby StiegLarsson The final installment of the Millennium Trilogy. Here Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist are joined by a couple of secondary female characters that are strong and appealing, and this third book returns to earlier story threads to tie up loose ends.
Book Discussion Questions from Reading Group Guides
Black Outby JohnLawton 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
Still Aliceby GenovaLisa
Written by a neuroscientist, this novel explores early onset Alzheimer's as experienced by Alice Howland, an esteemed Harvard professor of psychology, happily married with grown children.
Book Discussion Questions from Reading Group Guides
The Soloistby SteveLopez Journalist Lopez befriends a schizophrenic former Juilliard student playing a battered violin beside a shopping cart of belongings in L.A. Chosen by Porchlight as their Madison Cares community read. The full title is The Soloist: a Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music.
Book Discussion Questions from Porchlight
Heatby MikeLupica Michael Arroyo, a recent immigrant from Cuba, loves to play baseball, but some of his rivals think he may be lying about his age. Will he be able to find his missing birth certificate in time?
Book Discussion Questions from Common Sense
Life of Piby YannMartel 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.
Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides
Under the Tuscan Sunby FrancesMayes 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
The Color of Waterby JamesMcBride 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
The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agencyby AlexanderMcCall Smith 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
Let the Great World Spinby ColumMcCann New York City in the early 1970s is portrayed in this set of connected stories including a street priest, a judge, heroin addicts, mothers of sons killed in Vietnam, and a man who walks on a cable between the World Trade Center towers in August, 1974.
Book Discussion Questions from LitLovers
Saturdayby IanMcEwan 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
The Paris Wifeby PaulaMcLain Hadley Richardson’s marriage to Ernest Hemingway, then a young reporter, took her from small-town St. Louis to the glamour of Paris in the 1920’s. Based on letters, biographies, and memoirs, this is a fictional account of their marriage, told from Hadley's point of view.
Book Discussion Questions from Random House
Twilightby StephenieMeyer In a sleepy Washington town, high school students Bella and Edward fall hard for each other. But Edward is a centuries-old vampire, and being with merely-human Bella brings danger and heartache for both.
Around the country, Twilight is being used as a shared reading opportunity for mothers and daughters to talk about love and relationships. We’ve made a guide-within-a-guide to help you if you’re interested.
Book Discussion Questions from Lit Lovers
The Senator's Wifeby SueMiller 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
The Night Circusby ErinMorgenstern Le Cirque des Reves (The Dream Circus) appears unexpectedly on the outskirts of towns and treats its audiences to dazzling illusions. Danger lurks behind the scenes, however, as two powerful teachers have set up a duel-to-the-death between their two magician proteges.
Book Discussion Questions from Random House
Three Cups of Teaby GregMortenson 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. The full title is Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations-- One School at a Time.
Enrique's Journeyby SoniaNazario A Honduran young man rides the tops of trains through Mexico to the U.S. to reunite with his mother as chronicled by Pulitzer Prize winning author Nazario. From his family’s life of poverty in Honduras to life-risking attempts to cross the border to political realities in Mexico and the U.S., this highly engaging work is sure to challenge some of our beliefs about immigration. Chosen as UW's 2011 Go Big Read selection.
Book Discussion Questions from MPL & UW Madison
Suite Francaiseby IreneNemirovsky 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
One Dayby DavidNicholls In a friendship of complete opposites Emma and Dexter meet once a year on the anniversary of their meeting in a humorous and moving story chronicling their relationships, families and careers.
Book Discussion Questions from Lit Lovers
Her Fearful Symmetryby AudreyNiffenegger A gothic ghost story and tale of sibling rivalry begins with the death of Elspeth Noblin, who bequeaths her London flat bordering on historic Highgate Cemetery to the twin daughters of her long estranged twin sister in Chicago.
Book Discussion Questions from Regal Literary
The Tiger's Wifeby Tea Obreht Set in the Balkans, this novel blends contemporary storytelling and myth by combining the difficulties of a present day war-torn place with a grandfather's recollections of the past and the folktales of the region.
Book Discussion Questions from LitLovers
Snowby OrhanPamuk 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
The Heat of the Moonby SandraParshall This psychological mystery and romance set in suburban Washington, D.C. focuses on a veterinarian, her sister and mother, and the death of her father in an automobile accident when she was a child.
Book Discussion Questions from MPL
State of Wonderby AnnPatchett
Deep in the Amazon, a medical researcher making incredible discoveries is keeping them secret from the company funding her work. When the first colleague dispatched to get answers goes missing, another is sent, and readers follow along on a perilous journey full of ethical quandaries.
Book Discussion Questions from LitLovers
Still Lifeby LouisePenny 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
Truck: A Love Storyby MichaelPerry 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
House Rules : a novelby JodiPiccoult Jacob Hunt, a teen with Asperger’s syndrome, becomes a suspect in a terrible murder which shines the spotlight on his family. This medical courtroom drama deals with issues of what it means to be different, how autism affects the family, and how the legal system can fail people who cannot communicate well.
Book Discussion Questions from Simon & Schuster
The Virgin of Small Plainsby NancyPickard 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
Handle With Careby JodiPicoult 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
My Sister's Keeperby JodiPicoult 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
Rise and Shineby AnnaQuindlen 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
Blessingsby AnnaQuindlen 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.
Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: a Tale of Love and Falloutby LaurenRedniss Radioactive is an an innovative type of book: a graphic biography that adeptly combines the author’s vibrant cyanotype prints with a narrative story of Marie and Pierre Curie and their discovery of radioactivity and its applications in the last century. Weaving her own narrative and images together with historical documents, photographs, and artwork, Redniss has created a reading and viewing experience that uniquely blends art and science.
Book Discussion Questions from MPL & UW
Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Tableby RuthReichl 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.
Driftlessby DavidRhodes Narrated with humor, suspense, and empathy, a diverse cast of characters in small town in Wisconsin get entangled in family secrets, legal battles with a corrupt milk cooperative, gambling, dogfighting, and a miracle cure, amongst other things.
Book Discussion Questions from ICB
Women, Food and Godby GeneenRoth Designed to be discussed, this self-help book proposes that a woman’s problems with food, in the form of overeating and perpetual dieting, stem from her relationship to herself, her family and her life and can only change when the roots of the problems are faced.
Book Discussion Questions from Reading Group Guides
Swamplandia!by KarenRussell A thirteen-year-old girl tries to save her family’s rundown alligator-themed Florida park after the death of her mother. A novel of magical realism, with a strong heroine, yet in a credible, believable world.
Book Discussion Questions Random House
Persepolis 2: The Story of a Returnby MarjaneSatrapi 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
Persepolisby MarjaneSatrapi 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
Snow Flower and the Secret Fanby LisaSee 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
Shanghai Girlsby ShanghaiSee Threatened by bankruptcy, May and Pearl, two beautiful girls living in Shanghai in the 1930s, are placed in arranged marriages to Chinese men living in Los Angeles where the girls struggle to form a new life.
Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides
The Bookseller of Kabulby AsneSeierstad 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
When We Get Thereby ShaunaSeliy 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
The Thirteenth Taleby DianeSetterfield 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
Unlessby CarolShields 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
The Stone Diariesby CarolShields 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
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacksby RebeccaSkloot The story of Henrietta Lacks, an African-American cancer patient, wife and mother, and of her cells, known as HeLa cells. HeLa cells are used daily in labs worldwide, yet Lacks' family was unaware of their use until more than 20 years after her death.
Book Discussion Questions from MPL and UW
The Light Between Oceansby M. L. Stedman A lighthouse keeper and his wife, who live on a remote island off Western Australia, are desperate to have children. When they find a baby miraculously washed up on shore, they adopt her-- a decision that leads to ethical dilemmas for everyone involved.
Book Discussion Questions from Simon & Schuster
Crossing to Safetyby WallaceStegner 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. 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.
Book Discussion Questions from MPL
The Helpby KathrynStockett In 1960s Jackson, Mississippi aspiring author Skeeter, who is white, gains the trust of some of the town's black maids and departs from her newspaper advice column assignment to secretly write a book from their point of view about being 'the help.'
Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides
Olive Kitteridgeby ElizabethStrout This ‘novel in stories,’ set in small town Maine, centers on Olive Kitteridge, a difficult-to-like retired teacher and her friends and acquaintances. Together they reveal their follies, foibles, difficulties and capacity for change.
Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides
The Ginseng Hunterby JeffTalarigo 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
Brooklynby ColmToibin In 1950s Ireland, when Ellis Lacey is unable to find a job in her home country, she leaves reluctantly for Brooklyn, NY. After a period of isolation she begins to find happiness, yet when a tragedy takes her back to Ireland the limitations of her old life conflict with her newfound possibilities in America.
Book Discussion Questions from Barnes & Noble
Lemon Treeby SandyTolan 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
The Slapby ChristosTsiolkas A slap of an obnoxious toddler at a backyard party results in an arrest and court case, and leads to an exploration of the diverse lives of the partygoers.
Book Discussion Questions from MPL
Women of the Silkby GailTsukiyama 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
The Glass Devilby HeleneTursten A police procedural mystery set in Sweden, where Inspector Huss solves violent crimes, yet manages a happy home life including teenage twin daughters and a husband.
Book Discussion Questions from MPL
Digging to Americaby AnneTyler 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
The Dressmaker of Khair Khanaby GayleTzemach Lemmon The daily life of women in Afghanistan is documented in the true story of Kamila Sidiqi who, trained as a teacher, was confined to her house when the Taliban seized control of Kabul. After her father and brothers were forced to flee she supported her family by creating a thriving business, staffed by women.
Book Discussion Questions from Reading Group Guides
Have Mercy on Us Allby FredVargas 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
Cutting for Stoneby AbrahamVerghese
Twins born in Ethiopia to an Indian nun who dies in childbirth are raised by two Indian doctors in Ethiopia on the brink of revolution. A novel of love, betrayal, compassion and redemption spanning five decades in India, Ethiopia, and America.
Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides
The Glass Castle: A Memoirby JeannetteWalls 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
Half Broke Horsesby JeanetteWalls A fictionalized biography of the author's grandmother, Lily Casey Smith, who was a mustang breaker, school teacher, bootlegger, poker player, racehorse rider, bush pilot, ranch wife and mother.
Book Discussion Questions from Simon & Schuster
Before I Go To Sleepby S. J.Watson Following a mysterious accident, a woman suffers amnesia and cannot remember her past or form new memories. She desperately tries to uncover the truth in this psychological thriller concerned with questions of memory and identity.
Book Discussion Questions from Reading Group Guides
The World Without Usby AlanWeisman 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
You're Not Youby MichelleWildgen A UW student involved in an unrewarding love affair with a married TA takes a job as a caretaker for a 36-year-old stylish and accomplished woman who is almost completely paralyzed by ALS.
Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides
The Lotteryby PatriciaWood 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
The Book Thiefby MarkusZusak Narrated by Death, this novel for adults and teens tells the story of Liesl Memeinger, a German girl living through the Holocaust who finds strength and wisdom in the books she steals.
Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides