The December Fiction Book Club selection is….

“Landline” by Rainbow Rowell. It’s available in several formats for you – Polaris (our online catalog) shows that you can get the novel in either regular print or large print and it’s also available as a Playaway. You can find it (as an audio) on Overdrive, too! Read it and join us for the discussion (please contact Rachel Shaw for the day & time at rshaw@franksarrislibrary.org).

Did you miss the discussion of Reconstructing Amelia?

Even if you missed the book club meeting, you didn’t totally miss out on your chance to discuss the book! The below are questions about Reconstructing Amelia. Yes, there are a lot of them! Don’t let that intimidate you, though, you’re free to respond to as many – or as few – as you’d like!

1. What is Amelia’s relationship like with her mother? Why doesn’t she share more with Kate? Why are adolescents often so reluctant to talk to their parents about the events in their lives—especially problems they are having with friends?
2. Describe Amelia. Is she a typical teenager? Talk about her friendship with Sylvia. What drew the girls together? What about her relationships with Zadie and Dylan? What made her feel so close to her Internet friend, Ben?
3. Might Amelia’s situation have been different if she’d had a larger family around her? What if that family had been larger, but more filled with conflict?
4. Is Kate a good mother? She believes she knows her daughter well, but does she? What does she discover about Amelia that surprises her? What does she discover that confirms her deepest beliefs about Amelia and their relationship?
5. What kind of a support network does Kate have to rely on? Does she bear any blame for the events that occur? Is there any way she could have prevented the tragedy? What about Grace Hall—how much, if any, responsibility does the school bear for Amelia’s death? Who can you turn to for help in handling a problem involving your child?
6. Why is being popular so important in adolescence? Has the Internet and social networking added to the pressures teenagers must cope with?
7. What impact does class play in the story? What about sexuality—Amelia’s recognition of her own desires? What about Amelia’s need to be perfect—her drive to be a good student?
8. Why does such a smart girl like Amelia fall into the trap of the secret clubs? Why isn’t she more suspicious of the Magpies and the boys around them? How did her keeping the secret about the Maggies impact her relationship with Sylvia? Why are some children cruel to others? Did your school have a hierarchy or clubs like the Magpies? Where did you fit it?
9. If you have a child, how much do you know about his or her life? How far should parents go to monitor their child’s life? Do children have a right to privacy the way adults do? What might someone learn if they tried to “reconstruct” you from your emails, correspondence, texts, tweets, messages, blog posts, and Facebook updates? Does social media make us too connected? What is your opinion of social media—do you think it’s a positive development or an erosion of who we are and how we interact?
10. How does the author ratchet up the suspense in the story? What clues does she provide to point you toward the truth—or away from it?
11. Bullying is a major topic across the media and throughout society. Do you believe it is a serious issue, or do you think it’s a phase that all children go through? How has the rise of the Internet contributed to the severity of bullying and to our awareness of it? Can we decrease the incidents of bullying? How do we learn to stand up to mean people?
12. Does Kate get closure when she discovers the truth? Where do you think she will go from here?

Our November Fiction Book Club Selection…(drum roll, please)

It’s been decided! If you didn’t make it to this month’s meeting, you’re undoubtedly wondering what’s planned for next month. Well, you needn’t wait any longer…our November fiction book club selection is Orphan Train by Christine Baker Kline. Join us November 6th at 4pm to discuss to it.

Here’s the description provided by Amazon:

Penobscot Indian Molly Ayer is close to “aging out” out of the foster care system. A community service position helping an elderly woman clean out her home is the only thing keeping Molly out of juvie and worse…

As she helps Vivian sort through her possessions and memories, Molly learns that she and Vivian aren’t as different as they seem to be. A young Irish immigrant orphaned in New York City, Vivian was put on a train to the Midwest with hundreds of other children whose destinies would be determined by luck and chance.

Molly discovers that she has the power to help Vivian find answers to mysteries that have haunted her for her entire life – answers that will ultimately free them both.

PS: In case you were wondering, Orphan Train is available through Overdrive 🙂

Discussion Questions for The Poisoner’s Handbook

When it comes to the discussion questions, please keep in mind that they’re only a guide – you won’t lose points for not answering all of them, from straying from the topic, etc.  Here are a few examples relating to The Poisoner’s Handbook (the June read for the Non-fiction book club)…

1. Did the title, subtitle and cover accurately represent the book? Was the book what you expected?
2. Did you know anything about the time period before reading the book? Did you learn anything new?
3. What was the most interesting part of the book?
4. Who did you find more interesting, chief medical examiner Charles Norris or toxicologist Alexander Gettler?
5. How did you find the pace of the book? Did the author’s method of unfolding the
events make you feel you were living through the era?

We’d love to have you join us in this “virtual discussion group” – if you’ve read the book, please feel free to post a reply with your responses!

Exciting News…..

If you’ve been interested in taking part in one of our book clubs, but have been unable to attend because the time or day – or even the location – just doesn’t work for you, now you can still “play” with us! We’ll be making the book clubs available to anyone with internet access. It won’t be long before you see posts asking for suggestions for the next month’s choice and those will be followed by polls that allow you to vote. Once the selection has been made, some questions for discussion will be posted for you to reply to at your convenience.

Not sure what all of that means? Hopefully, this hypothetical time frame will help…

October 16: Suggestions for November are requested
October 16-22: Suggestions for November are accepted
October 23: Poll is posted, listing the November suggestions
October 23-29: Voting ensues
November 1: November selection is announced
November 8: Discussion questions for November’s book are posted

To see what “typical” discussion questions look like, watch this space – an example will be posted within the next couple of days!