Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for Secrets to Happiness:
1. Reviewers note the humor in Dunn's novel, a good place to begin. What do you find funny about her book—about Holly's life, her cast of friends, and her perceptions?
2. Consider the genre referred to as "Chick Lit"—a term Holly finds objectionable. Why? What, if anything, distinguishes chick lit from all "fiction by and for women"? Does Secrets to Happiness itself fall into the chick lit category? Check out the LitLovers blog post, Chick Lit—Enough Gum to Chew On? You might also take a look at this post: Venus & Mars—Do We Write Differently Too?
3. All the novel's characters, including Holly, are searching for happiness. How do they define happiness, what are their expectations, and what eventually do they come to realize? For Holly what in particular is learned—and how does Chester help her along her path?
4. More than most of her friends, Holly seems grounded in morality—trying to doing what is right. Where does her moral compass come from—and how is it tested by her friends and her life in general? In life, just how difficult is it for any of us to stay on the straight-and-narrow ... (or is it "straightened arrow")?
5. What's with Jack? Or any of the males in this novel...Alex, Spence, Lucas?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
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