Skipping Christmas

December, 2010

1. This book has been called a "modern day Christmas classic." What does the term mean—what makes the book a "Christmas classic"? Do you agree that it is?
2. As you were reading the book, did you find yourself siding with the Kranks' decision to skip Christmas...or did you disgree with them?
3. What are your feelings toward the Christmas holidays? Has this book affected how you will view the season?
4. When friends and neighbors learn that the Kranks plan to skip Christmas, they try to convince them to change their minds. Why do the neighbors find the Kranks' plans so disturbing? Do you find the neighbors' interference appropriate ... or inappropriate?
5. When the Kranks learn Blair is returning from Peru for the holidays, they decide to cancel their cruise and celebrate the holidays as they had in the past. Yet they decided not to tell Blair what they had been planning. Why...what was their reasoning behind the decision to hide their plans from Blair? Does it seem strange that parents would behave this way toward an adult child?
6. Talk about the commercialization of the Christmas season. Do you agree with the Kranks that it is excessive and detracts from the true meaning of Christmas? Or do you feel that the holiday with all its commercial trappings is festive and exciting...that the Kranks are being Scrooges...and that you take the good with the bad? (There's no "right" answer here....) Is it possible to avoid or escape the commercialism and still celebrate Christmas?
7. Once the Kranks change their plans with Blair's arrival, the neighbors pull together to help them pull off their traditional holiday celebration. Did your opinion of the neighbors change?
8. If you skipped Christmas, what would you miss the most? Alternatively...what would you enjoy the most?
9. Did you find this story enjoyable, even endearing? Have you read other Grisham books? If so do you think he should stick to writing legal thrillers?

- Marge

The Great Gatsby

November, 2010

Hello Old Sports! This Sunday is our Great Gatsby Book discussion, at 12106 Emory at 10 am. Please find the questions below,

1. This book is infused with symbolism, particularly the green light at which Jay Gatsby gazes so intently, and the eyes of Dr. Eckleburg on the billboard. What do these symbols suggest?

2. Discuss the main characters. Who, if any, do you find most sympathetic? Most important, in what way do the events of the novel affect Nick Carraway? How, or to what degree, does he change?

3. In the very last line of Chapter Three, Nick Carraway claims: "I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known." By the end of the book, Jordan Baker decides that this statement itself a lie. Is Nick Carraway honest or dishonest?

4. Is Nick Carraway a necessary character in this story? If we were not given the story mediated through his perspective, what would we gain? What would we lose?

5. Is Gatsby great? In what way? How might he not be great? Does his greatness evolve over the course of the novel? What is the difference, in this text, between perceived greatness and actual greatness?

6. Who really was driving when Myrtle was struck and killed? Can Nick be sure? Can we? If Nick insists that a person shouldn’t criticize others, then why does it matter who killed her?

- Andy

Salem's Lot

October, 2010

I am looking forward to hosting our first spooky book club!  The Marsten House should be ready for visitors on Friday!  I think it's no coincidence that Jerusalem's Lot, or to the locals "The Lot", resides in Cumberland County and Andy and I live in Cumberland!  I hope my previous email gets you in the moooooood!!  muwah ha ha!  In addition, here are our discussion questions!

1. What is the theme of Salem's Lot?
2. Why did Stephen King put the end of the story in the prologue?
3. Did you think the book was scary?  Was it the scariest book you've ever read?
4. Certain scenes, Hank Peters & Royal Snow delivering the sideboard were such creepy and intense senes but nothing really happened... the mood was perfectly executed by Stephen King.  What other scenes, if any, had you on the edge of your seat?
5. Do you feel S. King does a nice job of letting the readers do some of the work?  Is this the key to a good suspense story?
6. Why did Barlow & Straker need a furniture store?
7. Did you enjoy the book?  As a kid I had a love/hate relationship with scary movies!  I would watch them all!  Couldn't wait to see them, but always was terrified for days (weeks?) afterwards!  What, if any, are some of your favorite spooky stories you saw/read as a kid?  Any recent books/movies that you would consider a great work of horror?

 - Amber

Everyman

by: Philip Roth
September, 2010
Chosen by Gary

Where Men Win Glory

by: John Krakauer
August, 2010
Chosen by Tom

"Angela's Ashes" - Questions

Looking forward to seeing you all on the 23rd.  Hope you're enjoying the book. Following are a few questions to get everyone thinking...

1. Countless memoirs have been published, yet Angela's Ashes stands out. What makes this memoir so unique and compelling?

2. On the first page of Angela's Ashes, McCourt says, "worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood." In what ways was his childhood miserable? How did being Irish and being Catholic contribute to his misery?

3. Why do you think McCourt titled the memoir Angela's Ashes, after his mother? What significance does the phrase "Angela's Ashes" acquire by the end of the book?

4. How would you describe his mother's presence in McCourt's childhood? What role do women play in McCourt’s memoir? Is it fair to describe their characterization as stereotypical? In what ways do these interactions reflect the roles of women within their families? Do you see Angela as a strong, or weak woman.

5. McCourt writes: "I think my father is like the Holy Trinity with three people in him, the one in the morning with the paper, the one at night with the stories and prayers, and then the one who does the bad thing and comes home with the smell of whiskey and wants us to die for Ireland."

Why does Frank rarely blame his father for the suffering that his alcoholism inflicts upon the family? How does this lack of censure affect the moral tone of McCourt’s memoir? How can Frank write about his father without bitterness?

6. How would you describe McCourt's view of the Catholic Church? In what ways does the Catholic Church of McCourt's Ireland hurt its members and limit their experience? How does the Church protect and nurture its followers?

7. Irish songs and lyrics are prominently featured in Angela's Ashes. How do these lyrics contribute to the unique voice of this memoir? How does music affect Frank's experiences? How do you think it continues to influence his memories of his childhood?

8. Despite the McCourts' horrid poverty, mind-numbing starvation, and devastating losses, Angela's Ashes is not a tragic memoir. In fact, it is uplifting, triumphant even. How does McCourt accomplish this?

9. What do you think McCourt’s primary motivation was for writing his memoir?

A few questions to consider:

Was Willie a good guy or a bad guy? Was he any different than any politician today?

Did you think of the book as a political story or a love story?

What made Jack tick? Did you feel like you knew him by the end of the book?

What did the section about Cass Mastern have to do with the story?

Several parts of the book use various stereotypes in describing the citizens of the state and in particular the rural inhabitants. Did you think this added to the story?

Was it too melodramatic? What's your overall opinion?

Did you all get the directions that I sent earlier? I am not sure that I am using the blog correctly.

Questions - "The Road"

The reviews on this book.......Masterpiece.....Breathtaking........Brilliant.... 

• Do you agree?
• Did you like McCarthy's writing style?
• Did you see the movie?

The first time I read THE ROAD, I remembered it as being a 'love story' between father and son....this time I had a hard time getting through the bleakness..........

1. How did you view the story?
2. What did you picture caused the end? nuclear...volcanic...something from space, etc.?
3. Human Behavior..."unchecked"........What would happen? How would man act if he knew no one would know..........cannibles - only concerned with our own survival? etc.
4. Would compassion and mercy exsist?
5. Do you think the father believed his son to be "the new savior" of the world to carry on the fire, to beg for mercy for the strangers he meets?
6. Was their journey a symbol for something?
7. What does the book's ending suggest about the (the boy's) world to come?
8. How would you have ended the book and the father.
9. Do you think this book is in anyway realistic................could we be headed for a bleak ending?

 

The Road

I can't believe it! I am so disappointed. That's how it ends!

'Catcher in the Rye' author J.D. Salinger dies

I thought the following article might be of interest to you all since this was our last book club pick...

http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2010-01-28-salinger-obit_N.htm

I am here. Where are you?

"Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger

Thanks, Marge for another great meeting!  Holden Caulfield certainly invoked very different responses across our members and proved an interesting topic of discussion.  I, in particular, enjoyed the opportunity to check another classic off my list.  "The Catcher in the Rye" is listed as number 15 on Newsweek's Top 100 books and according to multiple sources one of the most banned books of the last century. 

Looking forward to next month's read!