This Is Where It Ends
Marieke Nijkamp, 2016
Sourcebooks
288 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781492622468
Summary
10:00 a.m.
THE PRINCIPAL of Opportunity, Alabama's high school finishes her speech, welcoming the entire student body to a new semester and encouraging them to excel and achieve.
10:02 a.m.
THE STUDENTS get up to leave the auditorium for their next class.
10:03
THE AUDITORIUM doors won't open.
10:05
SOMEONE starts shooting.
Told from four perspectives over the span of 54 harrowing minutes, terror reigns as one student's calculated revenge turns into the ultimate game of survival. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Marieke Nijkamp was born and raised in the Netherlands. A lifelong student of stories, language, and ideas, she is more or less proficient in about a dozen languages and holds degrees in philosophy, history, and medieval studies. She is a storyteller, dreamer, globe-trotter, geek. Her debut young adult novel This Is Where It Ends, a contemporary story that follows four teens over the course of the fifty-four minutes of a school shooting, was published in 2016 by Sourcebooks Fire. (From the author's website.)
Book Reviews
A highly diverse cast of characters, paired with vivid imagery and close attention to detail, set the stage for an engrossing, unrelenting tale. The starkly chilling realism and themes of abuse, death, and assault, among others, may prove too much for younger or sensitive readers, but the story unquestionably leaves an indelible mark (Ages 14–up).
Publishers Weekly
The four main narratives are joined by text messages, tweets, and blog entries...allowing for more viewpoints and commentary without narrative clutter. Although the work is devastating, it offers a small moment of optimism and closure.... [A] thrilling narrative (Gr 8-up). —Susannah Goldstein, Convent of the Sacred Heart, New York City
School Library Journal
It is a challenge to establish an understanding of some characters and their relationships due to the swift changes in voice, but the core message and potential to open thoughtful discussion make this a solid choice for teen readers (Ages 12 to 18). —Stacey Hayman
VOYA
Strong characterizations capture diversity in gender, race, ability, and sexuality. Even reluctant readers will anxiously pursue the ending, unable to turn away from the tragedy and in desperate hope for a resolution, knowing there cannot be a happy ending
Booklist
Nijkamp's emotional, powerful debut fictionalizes an all-too-frequent occurrence in today's world. Her strong storytelling pulls readers into a school shooting, leaving them amongst the gunman's victims in Opportunity High's auditorium (4 stars).
Romance Times Reviews
The language can occasionally feel a bit melodramatic, with lines like "we're fighting for hope and a thousand tomorrows," but this is a minor side note to this compelling story of terror, betrayal, and heroism. This brutal, emotionally charged novel will grip readers and leave them brokenhearted (Ages 14-18).
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. There are many different kinds of relationships in this novel: family, friendship, romantic. How do these relationships inform what is at stake for each of the main characters?
2. Each character reacts differently to the shooting. Choose two characters and describe how they responded. Do you agree with the decisions they made? How might you have acted differently?
3. This is Where It Ends is interspersed with texts, social media posts, and blog excerpts. How do you think technology has affected the way we experience and respond to tragedy?
4. If you could save one character in this novel, who would you save and why?
QUESTIONS ABOUT THE CHARACTERS
Sylv
5. Family is very important to Sylv, so much so that she’s willing to give up her dream to take care of her mother. If you were in her shoes, would you do the same? Why or why not?
6. Sylv tries to save Steve and Asha because “we’re all responsible for each other.” What does Sylv mean by this? Do you agree?
7. Autumn and Sylv keep secrets from each other. Do you think this helps or hurts their relationship? Do you agree with their decisions or would you have encouraged them to speak up?
Autumn
8. Autumn doesn’t feel as if she belongs in Opportunity. She tells Sylv, “If I stay here, I don’t think I’ll matter.” What does she mean by this?
9. While speaking of Autumn’s mother, Autumn’s father says, “Dance took everything from her.” Is that the case for Autumn too? What did dance give her?
Tomás
10. Early in the novel, Tomás has the opportunity to escape the school. Instead, he chooses to try to help his classmates. Discuss Tomás’s decision. What would you have done?
11. When Fareed is on the phone with the police, Tomás comments that Fareed suppresses his accent so he won’t be marked as a suspect. Do you think that was necessary? Do you think that is fair?
Claire
12. There are moments in the novel when Claire says she hates herself for wanting to be happy. Why does she feel that way? If you were her friend, what would you tell her?
13. Claire and Chris feel helpless as they wait for news about what is happening inside the school. In your opinion, was it more difficult for the characters inside the auditorium or those waiting to hear about their loved ones? Why?
Tyler
14. Tyler told his father he wanted to go back to school to “set things right.” Discuss his motivations. How could he have gone about this differently?
15. Autumn and Tyler were both grieving their mother and dealing with family and school. How did they each cope with their troubles? Why do you think they both felt so alone?
QUESTIONS ABOUT DEATH AND GRIEVING
16. In the epilogue, the survivors come together to remember those they lost by sending lanterns into the sky. Mei describes this as a way to “make sure the darkness is never absolute.” What does that mean to you?
17. How can you ensure the darkness is never absolute—for yourself or your peers or your family?
18. What do you think happens to the survivors after the book ends? What would come next for them? How do you think their experiences changed them?
QUESTIONS ABOUT SCHOOL SHOOTINGS
19. At the end of the book, someone asks, about the shooting: “How could it happen here? Why couldn’t we stop it?” How would you answer those questions?
20. In your opinion, what can be done to prevent school shootings?
(Questions found on author's website.)
The Past
Tessa Hadley, 2016
HarperCollins
320 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780062270412
Summary
Three sisters and a brother, complete with children, a new wife, and an ex-boyfriend’s son, descend on their grandparents' dilapidated old home in the Somerset countryside for a final summer holiday.
Simmering tensions and secrets rise to the surface over three long, hot weeks.The house is full of memories of their childhood and their past—their mother took them there to live when she left their father—but now, they may have to sell it. And beneath the idyllic pastoral surface lie tensions.
Sophisticated and sleek, Roland’s new wife (his third) arouses his sisters’ jealousies and insecurities. Kasim, the twenty-year-old son of Alice’s ex-boyfriend, becomes enchanted with Molly, Roland’s sixteen-year-old daughter. Fran’s young children make an unsettling discovery in an abandoned cottage in the woods that shatters their innocence.
Passion erupts where it’s least expected, leveling the quiet self-possession of Harriet, the eldest sister. As the family’s stories and silences intertwine, small disturbances build into familial crises, and a way of life—bourgeois, literate, ritualized, Anglican—winds down to its inevitable end.
Over five novels and two collections of stories, Tessa Hadley has earned a reputation as a fiction writer of remarkable gifts. She brings all of her considerable skill to The Past, a work of breathtaking scope and beauty—her most ambitious and accomplished novel yet. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—February 28, 1956
• Where—Bristol, England, UK
• Education—B.A., Cambridge University
• Currently—lives in London, England
Tessa Hadley is a British author born and raised in Bristol, England. Her father was a teacher who loved jazz, and her mother, a homemaker who loved painting. Her family was not devoid of literary chops: Hadley's uncle is the noted London playwright Peter Nichols.
As a girl, Tessa read extensively. She studied literature at Cambridge, which she found a "chilly, funny, odd place. Nursing idealistic dreams of changing lives, she decided to become a teacher.
It was a complete disaster. I was 23. I went to a rough comprehensive. I was political: I wanted to bring light where there was darkness. All that rubbish. I was hopeless. The kids ran rings around me. I cried on my way to school every morning.
Her misfortunes as a teacher sapped Hadley of her confidence to become an author. Additionally, two other major life events took over: marriage and children. Having attempted a book early on, it took another 23 years, plus three children and three stepchildren, before publishing her first novel in 2002. That book, Accidents in the Home, was longlisted for The Guardian First Book Award.
In addition to six novels (see below) she has two volumes of short stories, both of which were New York Times Notable Books. Her stories appear regularly in The New Yorker.
Hadley lives in London.
Books
2002 - Accidents in the Home
2003 - Everything Will Be All Right
2007 - The Master Bedroom
2007 - Sunstroke: and Other Stories
2011 - The London Train
2012 - Married Love: and Other Stories
2013 - Clever Girl
2016 - The Past
2018 - Late in the Day
(Author bio adapted from interview in the Independent, 5/25/2013, and from the publisher.)
Book Reviews
Hadley is adept at delineating the Cranes' brand of cultured middle-class Britishness in all its generational mutations.... The Past offers a contemporary variant on the pastoral idyll. Hadley's evocation of Kington's Arthur Rackham-like tangle of mossy woods and slippery brooks is deliciously precise, as is her charting of the cultural implications of the area's recent upgrade from poor farmland to gentrified vacation spot…But even as we come to understand why Kington has such a deep psychological pull over the Crane children, we are shown how Britain's enduring class divisions ensure that they remain outsiders in this place.... Hadley's many fans will welcome this solid addition to her continuing narrative of how brainy women and blundering men negotiate the slippery class and sex wars of modern-day Britain.
Fernanda Eberstadt - New York Times Book Review
Hadley should be a bestseller rather than literary fiction’s best kept secret…. [She] is an exquisite writer, a writer’s writer, with a fine eye for detail and a way of crafting sentences that stop and make you inhale.
London Times
Exquisite…. For anyone who cherishes Anne Tyler and Alice Munro, the book offers similar deep pleasures. Like those North American masters of the domestic realm, Hadley crystallizes the atmosphere of ordinary life in prose somehow miraculous and natural.... Extraordinary.
Ron Charles - Washington Post
I finished The Past sadly—why did it have to end?—with a sense that I had understood something profound about both Hadley’s characters, and my own life. Many readers will, I suspect, in the presence of this exhilarating novel feel the same.
Boston Globe
Hadley glides like a familiar spirit through the rooms of the house and the perspectives of her characters…. Her novels have a moral spaciousness that gives their ordinary settings and conflicts a philosophical range.... The Past shows Ms. Hadley’s gifts in fine fettle.
Wall Street Journal
Hadley’s formidable storytelling talent and compassionate understanding of humanity pull us right into this beautifully told narrative…. A memorable novel that continues to resonate well after the reader has turned the last page, and makes us long for the next work of fiction by this outstanding English writer.
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Each player... is so distinct, so warmly dimensional you soon feel you know them as well as they know each other. This alone... is a marvel. More marvelous still is Hadley’s seamless, steady control, moving individual and collective stories forward and backward in time — a splendid work.
San Francisco Chronicle
[An] expertly wrought depiction of family life. Hadley’s arresting descriptions of the physical and emotional landscape, and her tender approach to love, lust and, crucially, the passing of time underline her reputation as one of the UK’s finest contemporary novelists.
Financial Times (UK)
Masterly….When it comes to domestic drama Hadley is without rival, and here her considerable talent is poured into an astonishingly astute grasp of ‘the sheer irritation and perplexity of family coexistence,
Independent (UK)
A new Tessa Hadley novel is a pleasure to be savoured. In her five novels and two collections of stories, Hadley has matched the psychological insight of Henry James with the sharp dialogue of Elizabeth Bowen.... A hugely enjoyable and keenly intelligent novel, brimming with the vitality of unruly desire.
Daily Telegraph (UK)
Tessa Hadley has become one of this country’s great contemporary novelists. She is equipped with an armoury of techniques and skills that may yet secure her a position as the greatest of them.
Guardian (UK)
Hadley’s beautifully composed new novel... recalls Elizabeth Bowen’s The House in Paris in its dovetailing story lines, but the author’s genius for the thorny comforts of family... are entirely her own.
Vogue
Not much happens in this sixth novel from Hadley, yet even its most quotidian events seem bathed in meaning and consequence. Set exclusively on the rambling grounds of a crumbling English cottage estate, the story follows four middle-aged siblings.... This is familial drama at its best—unabashedly ordinary yet undoubtedly captivating
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) A fresh take on a familiar story of fractious family reunions where old resentments resurface, new alliances form, and long-buried secrets are uncovered. A great read whether at the cottage or just dreaming of one. —Barbara Love, formerly with Kingston Frontenac P.L., Ont.
Library Journal
Placing fraught family relationships under the microscope, Hadley, wise and discerning, offers a subtle-yet-bold examination of complex emotional subtexts that have the power to bring kin together or destroy the bonds that would otherwise unite them.
Booklist
(Starred review.) [A] quietly masterful domestic portrait.... Broken up into three dreamy sections—two in the present and one set in the same house a generation earlier—the novel might seem overly precious if it weren't so bracingly precise. Hadley is the patron saint of ordinary lives; her trademark empathy and sharp insight are out in force here.
Kirkus Reviews
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 start a discussion for The Past...then take off on your own:
1. Talk about the book's title and the role the past plays in the adult Crane siblings' lives. Can any of us escape the hold that the past has on our lives? Can the Crane family?
2. Why does Kington have such a deep psychological pull over the Crane children?
3. Describe each of the four Crane siblings: Harriet, Alice, Fran, and Roland. How are their lives portrayed by Tessa Hadley? Whom do you find most sympathetic and whom least?
4. Why do Roland's sisters continue to dismiss him, even see him as "slightly ridiculous," when he has so obviously made a success of his life? Is their treatment of him a fair assessment or simply mean spirited?
5. Both Pilar and Kasim are "outsiders" when it comes to British society. How does the author use them to reflect both the "archetypally English" scene, as well as each of the Crane siblings? What different perspective do they bring to the story?
6. What role does class—or class division—play in this novel? What affect does it have on the Crane family, both in the present and the past?
7. Using the rural setting of Kington, Hadley hearkens back to an ancient literary form, the "pastoral," a form that incorporates erotic encounters—the mythical god Pan who pursues wood nymphs and shepherdesses, for one. Talk about the ways sexual desire plays out in this novel.
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
The Road to Little Dribbling: Adventures of an American in Britain
Bill Bryson, 2016
Knopf Doubleday
400 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780385539289
Summary
The hilarious and loving sequel to a hilarious and loving classic of travel writing: Notes from a Small Island, Bill Bryson’s valentine to his adopted country of England
In 1995 Bill Bryson got into his car and took a weeks-long farewell motoring trip about England before moving his family back to the United States. The book about that trip, Notes from a Small Island, is uproarious and endlessly endearing, one of the most acute and affectionate portrayals of England in all its glorious eccentricity ever written.
Two decades later, Bryson sets out again to rediscover that country, and the result is The Road to Little Dribbling. Nothing is funnier than Bill Bryson on the road—prepare for the total joy and multiple episodes of unseemly laughter. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—December 8 1951
• Where—Des Moines, Iowa, USA
• Education—B.A., Drake University
• Awards—(see below)
• Currently—lives in Norfolk, England, UK
William McGuire "Bill" Bryson is a best-selling American author of humorous books on travel, as well as books on the English language and on science. Born an American, he was a resident of North Yorkshire, UK, for most of his professional life before moving back to the US in 1995. In 2003 Bryson moved back to the UK, living in Norfolk, and was appointed Chancellor of Durham University.
Early years
Bill Bryson was born in Des Moines, Iowa, the son of William and Mary Bryson. He has an older brother, Michael, and a sister, Mary Jane Elizabeth.
He was educated at Drake University but dropped out in 1972, deciding to instead backpack around Europe for four months. He returned to Europe the following year with a high school friend, the pseudonymous Stephen Katz (who later appears in Bryson's A Walk in the Woods). Some of Bryson's experiences from this European trip are included as flashbacks in a book about a similar excursion written 20 years later, Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe.
Staying in the UK, Bryson landed a job working in a psychiatric hospital—the now defunct Holloway Sanatorium in Virginia Water in Surrey. There he met his wife Cynthia, a nurse. After marring, the couple moved to the US, in 1975, so Bryson could complete his college degree. In 1977 they moved back to the UK where they remained until 1995.
Living in North Yorkshire and working primarily as a journalist, Bryson eventually became chief copy editor of the business section of The Times, and then deputy national news editor of the business section of The Independent.
He left journalism in 1987, three years after the birth of his third child. Still living in Kirkby Malham, North Yorkshire, Bryson started writing independently, and in 1990 their fourth and final child, Sam, was born.
Books
Bryson came to prominence in the UK with his 1995 publication of Notes from a Small Island, an exploration of Britain. Eight years later, as part of the 2003 World Book Day, Notes was voted by UK readers as the best summing up of British identity and the state of the nation. (The same year, 2003, saw Bryson appointed a Commissioner for English Heritage.)
In 1995, Bryson and his family returned to the US, living in Hanover, New Hampshire for the next eight years. His time there is recounted in the 1999 story collection, I'm A Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to American After 20 Years Away (known as Notes from a Big Country in the UK, Canada and Australia).
It was during this time that Bryson decided to walk the Appalachian Trail with his friend Stephen Katz. The resulting book is the 1998 A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail. The book became one of Bryson's all-time bestsellers and was adapted to film in 2015, starring Robert Redford and Nick Nolte.
In 2003, the Brysons and their four children returned to the UK. They now live in Norfolk.
That same year, Bryson published A Short History of Nearly Everything, a 500-page exploration, in nonscientific terms, of the history of some of our scientific knowledge. The book reveals the often humble, even humorous, beginnings of some of the discoveries which we now take for granted.
The book won Bryson the prestigious 2004 Aventis Prize for best general science book and the 2005 EU Descartes Prize for science communication. Although one scientist is alleged to have jokingly described A Brief History as "annoyingly free of mistakes," Bryson himself makes no such claim, and a list of nine reported errors in the book is available online.
Bryson has also written two popular works on the history of the English language—Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way (1990) and Made in America: An Informal History of the English Language in the United States (1994). He also updated of his 1983 guide to usage, Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words. These books were popularly acclaimed and well-reviewed, despite occasional criticism of factual errors, urban myths, and folk etymologies.
In 2016, Bryson published The Road to Little Dribbling: Adventures of an American in England, a sequel to his Notes from a Small Island.
Honors
In 2005, Bryson was appointed Chancellor of Durham University, succeeding the late Sir Peter Ustinov, and has been particularly active with student activities, even appearing in a Durham student film (the sequel to The Assassinator) and promoting litter picks in the city. He had praised Durham as "a perfect little city" in Notes from a Small Island. He has also been awarded honorary degrees by numerous universities, including Bournemouth University and in April 2002 the Open University.
In 2006, Frank Cownie, the mayor of Des Moines, awarded Bryson the key to the city and announced that 21 October 2006 would be known as "Bill Bryson, The Thunderbolt Kid, Day."
In November 2006, Bryson interviewed the then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Tony Blair on the state of science and education.
On 13 December 2006, Bryson was awarded an honorary OBE for his contribution to literature. The following year, he was awarded the James Joyce Award of the Literary and Historical Society of University College Dublin.
In January 2007, Bryson was the Schwartz Visiting Fellow of the Pomfret School in Connecticut.
In May 2007, he became the President of the Campaign to Protect Rural England. His first area focus in this role was the establishment of an anti-littering campaign across England. He discussed the future of the countryside with Richard Mabey, Sue Clifford, Nicholas Crane and Richard Girling at CPRE's Volunteer Conference in November 2007. (From Wikipedia. Adapted 2/1/2016.)
Book Reviews
Although he's now entering what he fondly calls his "dotage"…Bryson seems merely to have sharpened both his charms and his crotchets…. [H]e remains devoted to Britain's eccentric place names as well as its eccentric pastimes…. He's still apt to seek out the obscure.
Alida Becker - New York Times Book Review
Bryson’s capacity for wonder at the beauty of his adopted homeland seems to have only grown with time.... Britain is still his home four decades later, a period in which he went from lowly scribe at small-town British papers to best-selling travel writer. But he retains an outsider’s appreciation for a country that first struck him as "wholly strange...and yet somehow marvelous."
Griff Witte - Washington Post
[Y]ou could hardly ask for a better guide to Great Britain than Bill Bryson. Bryson’s new book is in most ways a worthy successor and sequel to his classic Notes From A Small Island. Like its predecessor, The Road to Little Dribbling is a travel memoir, combining adventures and observations from his travels around the island nation with recounting of his life there, off and mostly on, over the last four decades. Bryson is such a good writer that even if you don’t especially go in for travel books, he makes reading this book worthwhile.
Nancy Klingener - Miami Herald
Fans should expect to chuckle, snort, snigger, grunt, laugh out loud and shake with recognition…a clotted cream and homemade jam scone of a treat.
Sunday Times (UK)
At its best as the history of a love affair, the very special relationship between Bryson and Britain. We remain lucky to have him.
Matthew Engel - Financial Times (UK)
We have a tradition in this country of literary teddy bears—John Betjeman and Alan Bennett among them—whose cutting critiques of the absurdities and hypocrisies of the British people are carried out with such wit and good humour that they become national treasures. Bill Bryson is American but is now firmly established in the British teddy bear pantheon.... The fact that this wonderful writer can unerringly catalogue all our faults and is still happy to put up with us should make every British reader’s chest swell with pride.
Jake Kerridge - Sunday Express (UK)
There were moments when I snorted out loud with laughter while reading this book in public... He can be as gloriously silly as ever.
London Times
Everybody loves Bill Bryson, don’t they? He’s clever, witty, entertaining, a great companion... his research is on show here, producing insight, wisdom and startling nuggets of information... Bill Bryson and his new book are the dog’s bollocks.
Independent on Sunday (UK)
Stuffed with eye-opening facts and statistics.... Bryson's charm and wit continue to float off the page....Recognising oneself is part of the pleasure of reading Bryson's mostly affable rants about Britain and Britishness.
Daily Mail (UK)
We go to him less for insights—though there are plenty of these—and more for the pleasure of his company. And he can be very funny indeed. Almost every page has a line worth quoting.
Glasgow Herald
At last, Bill Bryson has got back to what he does best—penning travel books that educate, inform and will have you laughing out loud... I was chuckling away by page four and soaking up his historic facts to impress my mates with. Sure to be a bestseller.
Sun (UK)
Bryson has no equal. He combines the charm and humour of Michael Palin with the cantankerousness of Victor Meldrew and the result is a benign intolerance that makes for a gloriously funny read.
Daily Express (UK)
As usual, [Bryson] scatters an entertaining mix of wacky anecdotes and factoids.... His wry observations and self-deprecating humor keep him from coming off as a bitter cynic, and his lyrical way with words keeps the pages turning.
Publishers Weekly
Bryson complements his expansive repertoire with a revisit of Great Britain, reflecting on his experiences over the past several decades as a British immigrant as he travels "The Bryson Line" from southern England to the northernmost point of Scotland.... Britain and all its quirks. —Lacy S. Wolfe, Ouachita Baptist Univ. Lib. Arkadelphia, AR
Library Journal
(Starred review.) This being Bryson, one chuckles every couple of pages, of course, saying, "yup, that sounds about right."... He clearly adores his adopted country. There are no better views, finer hikes, more glorious castles, or statelier grounds than the ones he finds, and Bryson takes readers on a lark of a walk across this small island with megamagnetism.
Booklist
[A]nother fascinating cross-country jaunt [with Bryson].... No words are minced or punches pulled where he finds social decline.... However, the majority of his criticisms bear his signature wit, and the bulk of his love/hate relationship with Britain falls squarely on the love side.... [E]ntertaining and educational.
Kirkus Reviews
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 start a discussion for The Road to Little Dribbling—then take it from there...
1. In his 1995 Notes from a Small Island, Bryson referred to what he saw as a consideration for others that permeated British communal life. Now, in The Road to Little Dribbling, he sees the absence of consideration:
The Britain I came to [in 1977] was predicated on the idea of doing the right thing most of the time whether anyone knew you were doing it or not.... You might not leave a tip...but you wouldn't pretend to leave a decent tip and then stick in a small coin.
Talk about the above observation. Is Bryson correct? Is what he sees as Britain's current self-absorption endemic to other countries? Is it true for all age groups, or is it more prevalent in young people (thus it is always so)? Perhaps you disagree with him altogether.
2. The overriding theme of Bryson's book might be put this way: "in countless small ways the world around us grows gradually [lousier]." Is Bryson simply a cantankerous older man, who uses his fame and prestige to take umbrage at whatever annoys him? Or has he earned the right to be genuinely concerned about what he perceives as England's decline, its carelessness, and its misplaced values?
3. Bryson weaves a substantial amount of research with numerous facts into his tale. For instance, 600,000 riders populate the London Underground at any one time, "making it both a larger and more interesting place than Oslo." What other tidbits of information surprised you, made you think, or even laugh out loud? Consider his stops at Sutton Hoo where he contemplates Britain's long ago past; New Forest where he considers Arthur Conan Doyle's spiritualism; or Oxford where Roger Bannister ran the first sub-four-minute mile. Was all this of interest to you...or did it drag down the book's pace?
4. Bryson lists very specific reasons for continuing to live in England. Talk about his list...and make your own list, if not for Britain, than for the place you do live.
5. Do you find Bill Bryson funny? What are some of the funniest parts of his book? Where is the humor (perhaps) strained?
6. Have you read other Bill Bryson works, specifically his 1995 Notes on a Small Island, the prequel to this book, or A Walk in the Woods (1998) an account of his trek along America's Appalachian Trail? If so, how does this book compare to either of those?
(Questions by LitLovers. Feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
Atlanta's Most Eligible Bachelor (Southern Men Don't Fall in Love, I)
Mia Mae Lynne, Chronicles of Fate, 2010
Book & Spirit, LLC
254 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781943651023
Summary
Douglas Arthur Bader
“Atlanta’s Most Eligible Bachelor” has it all. His career was on the rise at Whitman Stacks Law firm located on the perimeter of Atlanta. His cell phone rang constantly of women who wanted to possess the man with deep blue eyes and sandy blonde hair. Women of all ages fell for his boyishly handsome good looks and his impeccable manners. He was elusive to any type of commitment. “Three date max” was his motto until crossing paths with Lisa Dunbar.
Lisa Dunbar
After a moderately successful career as a traveling professional soccer player, Lisa has finally come home to settle down and start her career as a newly licensed CPA in Atlanta. She is hired at Grant & Co. CPA’s by Mona Grant. Staunchly independent, Lisa takes life’s challenges as they come. She’s satisfied with her single status as an African American woman and has no time to look for love. Her chance meeting with a man that she only knows as a commitment phobic bachelor alters her plans for her future.
The meeting, explosive. The romance intense. This first book in the “Southern Men don’t fall in Love” series explores how fate can set the time and place for a romance to begin. Doug and Lisa embark on a journey of self discovery as they learn that they are deeply connected beneath the skin.
Author Bio
• Birth—March 4, 1966
• Where—Cleveland, Ohio, USA
• Education—B.S., University of Akron; M.S., American Graduate University
• Currently—Twinsburg, Ohio
Mia Mae Lynne lived in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. Her mom was a part-time nurse in a private nursing home and her dad was a local truck driver for Chase Brass & Copper Company. She has two sisters.
In her early life, she participated in several activities including ballet, acrobatics, roller skating, and ice skating. Realizing that her talents were classroom oriented, she focused more on academics. She completed high school in the East Cleveland School system. She was also an active member of the INROADS program.
Mia attended and graduated from the University of Akron with a B.S. in Accounting. She pledged Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority in her freshman year and spent many hours studying and partying with friends.
In September, 1989 Mia was married in Cleveland, Ohio. She and her husband moved to Louisville, KY where their first son, Carlos, was born. In 1992 the family moved to Rome, Georgia where their second son, Marcus, was born. With two beautiful boys to light up her life, Mia dedicated herself to her family. She worked full time in the aerospace industry during the day and was a soccer mom evenings and weekends. In 2008, with Christmas fast approaching, the first novel in her series, "The Chronicles of Fate," was born. Following "Tempting Fate" seven more books were written.
In 2009, Mia lost her father. In the heartbreak that followed, her marriage dissolved, she lost her job, and moved to Cleveland to be closer to her mother.
Even with all the tragedies, Mia never lost faith in her work and in 2010 Mia began the process of editing and copyrighting her series.
In April, 2015, she opened her self-publishing company, Book & Spirit, LLC. She renamed her series from "The Chronicles of Fate" to "Southern Men Don't Fall in Love". Several contributors came forward to assist with the project including her son, Carlos, who volunteered to translate the series into Spanish. He hired two of his college friends to edit the books into Spanish of the America's and European Spanish.
The first book of the renamed series was Atlanta's Most Eligible Bachelor. It was released November 4, 2015 in English, Spanish (ES and SA), large print, and standard editions in honor of her son, Carlos', birthday. She plans to release her next book, Atlanta's Most Eligible Bachelor II, on April 26, 2016 in honor of her son Marcus. She plans to release books twice a year to commemorate the two most important men in her life.
Now between writing and editing her books, her new career in the aerospace industry and watching her sons' college and professional soccer careers, Mia spends her time as a student of spiritualism. She received training from the Fellowship of the Spirit. She looks forward to visiting Lily Dale, New York, again in her future.
Trivia & Facts
♦ She is naturally left-handed.
♦ She has a Master's degree in Contract Management from American Graduate University.
♦ She is a Certified Public Accountant in the state of Georgia.
♦ In the span of nine months, she wrote eight books that were published seven years later.
♦ She does tarot readings for friends and family.
♦ She reads books on Astrology, Tarot, Numerology and related books in the metaphysical genre. (From the author.)
Visit the author's website.
Follow Mia Mae on Facebook and here for her books.
Book Reviews
If you love sweet romances about destiny deciding your soul mate, you will love this book. It was a good clean read. It really cute how Lisa and Doug's paths continued to cross. The more they ran into each other the more they realized how much they had in common.
Amazon Customer Review (Kindle)
This book was wonderful. First let me say that I usually do not like straight romance novels, however this one totally captured my interest. Such intrigue and suspense to see if they are true soul mates and meant to be together. I was actually sad to see this end. Can't wait for the next book in the series.
Amazon Customer Review - LAS
Oh my goodness, this is the most enjoyable read of 2016 for me already and I HAVE NOT EVEN FINISHED THE BOOK YET!!!! I look forward to other books from this author. I will be sad when I finish the book. I'm trying to drag it out as long as possible until the next one.
Amazon Customer Review
Good book! It's the second time in 2 days I've read that an author has included the family in the story line. Thank you for realizing that we would love reading about these kind of lovers. Can't wait for your next book
Amazon Customer Review
Riveting story. Can't wait for the next volume sometimes southern men do fall in love after all loved hearing the family background. A
Amazon Customer Review - laohio
Discussion Questions
1. Do you think Doug and Lisa were destined to be together or did they just experience Groundhog Day?
2. Did Doug really enjoy his bachelor lifestyle before meeting Lisa? Was he completely happy with his life?
3. Are there any social stereotypes portrayed throughout the novel?
4. What does Lisa find charming about Doug's arrogance, if anything?
5. Who does the author more closely relate to in the series? Doug or Lisa? How can we tell this throughout the novel?
6. Will Doug and Lisa stay together as a couple or do you think their future will be as crazy as their courtship?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)
Tiefling: Angel Kissed, Devil Touched
Barbara T. Cerny, 2015
Phantasm Books / Assent Publishing
332 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781628279863
Summary
Transformed by the devil and betrayed by God, Branan Lachlan is made to battle demons with naught but his Scottish wit.
The soul of half an angel.
The body of a demon.
The devil on his tail.
When the devil came for Branan Lachlan and turned him into a demon, he expected to train the young Scotsman to be the antithesis of God and his own damned apprentice. Cursed at twenty-one, Branan fought his demonic character armed only with an iconic sword and an unwavering light in his belly. Plagued by an internal battle of good versus evil, one part of him playing against the other, he is destined to walk Scotland forever, neither living nor dying.
Until now.
Turning his brother to save Earc’s life, Branan returns to the fold of his tiny family to lead them on a strange journey through the devil’s world on Earth. He is helped by Fionna Frazier, a young peasant girl with a shocking secret of her own.
The trio travels around Macbeth’s Scotland trying to escape from the devil’s spawn, Raum. They meet vampires, druids, murderers, and a harpy, all which add adventure and demand they make choices between good versus evil. In the end, will they win the epic battle with Raum and return to God or will they lose their souls to Lucifer forever?
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—Denver, Colorado, USA
• Education—A.S., Mesa State College; B.S., Arizona State University; M.S., Lehigh University
• Currently—Oakwood, Ohio
Author Barbara T. Cerny grew up in Grand Junction, Colorado, which at that time was a small town of 30,000 people.
She left that little burg to see the world, garner three college degrees, and to serve in the US Army. After eight years on active duty and fourteen years in the reserves, she retired as a lieutenant colonel in 2007.
While deployed to the Middle East in 2005, Ms. Cerny finally figured out she had to get going on the real love of her life, writing. She wrote her first two novels during that time and hasn’t stopped. She is presently working on novels number seven, eight, and nine.
When not writing, Ms. Cerny works as an information technology specialist and supervisor for the US Air Force. She lives with her loving husband, their two active teenagers, two needy cats, and two turtles. The turtles patiently watch her write and listen to her intently as she discusses plot lines with them. (From the author.)
Visit the author's website.
Follow Barbara on Facebook...and Twitter.
Book Reviews
(5 Stars) A fascinating read. The use of Gaelic words is a wonderful touch as it matched so well with the story. It is an interesting take on creationism and evolution, woven through with touches of Heaven, hell and life on earth in old Scotland. Love, hate, evil, fear, frustration, and anger all compete for your attention in this new twist on angels, demons, and myths of Scotland. It is a riveting read with an interesting plot, well written and totally engrossing. Barbara has a most vivid imagination and this shows clearly in the way she draws you into the story.
Carol Coetzee, Readers' Favorite
(5 Stars) I require that a novel be both well written and interesting. The Tiefling satisfied both of these requirements. The narrative, characters, and research reflected quality writing. The internal struggle of Brannan kept me enthralled. The entire plot and cast of characters were intriguing; however, I always gravitate toward inner conflict, even if the battle includes a demon within. I would highly recommend The Teifling for any lover of the time period or the genre.
Christina Bergling, author of Savages and The Waning
(5 stars) An excellent read that uses the first person point of view from more than one character. The author did a fantastic job introducing a cast of characters (human and not) and the book will keeps the reader turning pages.
JJ Hensley, author of Resolve and Measure Twice
Discussion Questions
1. The Tiefling is a new kind of demon, different from a vampire. Did this kind of “creature” set well for this story? Did you find the introduction of a tiefling well-done or overdone?
2. The book is told in first person POV from two different people’s perspective. Does this work for the storyline or would just one POV have been better. Why/why not?
3. Did you get the flavor of old Scotland from the setting and descriptions? Did the old language add to or detract from the story? Did it make it harder to read or add just the right spice?
4. Fionna followed Branan to hell and back. Could you follow your lover to hell? Do people actually fall that far into love as to give up everything they know and have worked for just to be with that person?
5. Was the turning of Earc necessary for the story? Could Branan and Fionna fought through to the end without him? Did his turning add to the plotline?
6. What was their most intriguing adventure and why? The demon horse? Druids? Hounds of Hell? Elpeth? The harpy? Why?
7. Do you believe there is angel light in any of us? Could that be what drives some people like Mother Theresa? Are we connected to angels?
8. Did you find The Tiefling to be spiritual? Why/Why not?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)