Homestead
Japhia Baker, 2015
Independently published
332 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781512393903
Summary
This book is about the birth of these people's lives and the birth of their town.
As everything else. Especially the birth of the land ( property ), its struggle and achievements.
It is about death and rebirth. It is about the past dead and how the future was born and how they managed to survive. The land, the property. People as we go on this great adventure in the lives. It has a few special characters that you will fall in love with and appreciate. Its also nowledgeable, and it is worth it.
Author Bio
• Birth—December 14, 1984
• Where—Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
• Education—A. D., Lincoln College of Technology
• Currently—lives in Cincinnati, Ohio
Her own words:
I Was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. I love education, always have and always will. I made good grades in school and did my best to stay on the honor roll. Failure was my worst fear. I knew education was my out, so I finished high school and went to college. I'm now working on my second book, Homestead 2. (From the author.)
Visit the author's page on Amazon.
Discussion Questions
1. Which character do you like best and why?
2. Were you surprised to find out who the king was?
3. Why do you think the things happen to Dreary the way they did?
4. What did you think about Jules?
5. Why do you think Ellie continued to work and do different things to make sure she'll be alright?
6. What did they think of Mr. Green
(Questions courtesy of the author.)
Stoner
John Williams, 1965
New York Review of Books
288 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781590171998
Summary
William Stoner is born at the end of the nineteenth century into a dirt-poor Missouri farming family. Sent to the state university to study agronomy, he instead falls in love with English literature and embraces a scholar’s life, so different from the hardscrabble existence he has known.
And yet as the years pass, Stoner encounters a succession of disappointments: marriage into a "proper" family estranges him from his parents; his career is stymied; his wife and daughter turn coldly away from him; a transforming experience of new love ends under threat of scandal. Driven ever deeper within himself, Stoner rediscovers the stoic silence of his forebears and confronts an essential solitude.
John Williams’s luminous and deeply moving novel is a work of quiet perfection. William Stoner emerges from it not only as an archetypal American, but as an unlikely existential hero, standing, like a figure in a painting by Edward Hopper, in stark relief against an unforgiving world. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—August 29, 1922
• Where—northeast Texas, USA
• Death—March 3, 1994
• Where—Fayetteville, Arkansas
• Education—B.A., M.A., University of Denver; Ph.D., University of Missouri
• Awards—National Book Award
John Edward Williams was an American author, editor, and professor. He was best known for his novels Stoner (1965) and Augustus (1972). The latter won a U.S. National Book Award.
Early life
Williams was raised in northeast Texas. His grandparents were farmers; his stepfather was a janitor in a post office. Despite a talent for writing and acting, Williams flunked out of a local junior college after his first year. He worked with newspapers and radio stations in the Southwest for a year, then reluctantly joined the war effort by enlisting in the United States Army Air Force early in 1942. He spent two and a half years as a sergeant in India and Burma. During his enlistment, he wrote a draft of his first novel, which was published in 1948.
Education and writing
At the end of the war Williams moved to Denver, Colorado and enrolled in the University of Denver, receiving Bachelor of Arts (1949) and Master of Arts (1950) degrees. During his time at the University of Denver, his first two books were published, Nothing But the Night (1948), a novel depicting the terror and waywardness resulting from an early traumatic experience, and The Broken Landscape (1949), a collection of poetry.
Upon completing his MA, Williams enrolled at the University of Missouri, teaching and working on his Ph.D. in English Literature, which he obtained in 1954.
Teaching and writing
In the fall of 1955 Williams returned to the University of Denver as Assistant Professor, becoming director of the creative writing program. His second novel, Butcher's Crossing (1960) depicts frontier life in 1870's Kansas. He edited and wrote the introduction for the anthology English Renaissance Poetry in 1963. His second book of poems, The Necessary Lie (1965), was issued by Verb Publications. He was the founding editor of the University of Denver Quarterly (later Denver Quarterly), which was first issued in 1965. He remained as editor until 1970.
Williams' third novel, Stoner (1965), is the fictional tale of a University of Missouri English professor. A year later the book was out of print, but it was reissued in 2003 and again in 2006. His fourth novel, Augustus (1972), a rendering of the violent times of Augustus Caesar in Rome, remains in print. It won the National Book Award for Fiction, which it shared with Chimera by John Barth (the first time the award was split).
Williams loved the study of literature. When asked in a 1985 interview whether literature should be entertaining, his response was emphatic: "Absolutely. My God, to read without joy is stupid."
Retirement and death
In 1985, Williams retired from the University of Denver. He died of respiratory failure in 1994, at his home in Fayetteville, Arkansas. He was survived by his wife and descendants. A fifth novel, The Sleep of Reason, was unfinished at the time of his death and never published.
Critical response
Critic Morris Dickstein called the 1965 Stoner "something rarer than a great novel—it is a perfect novel, so well told and beautifully written, so deeply moving, it takes your breath away."
He also noted that, while Butcher's Crossing, Stoner, and Augustus are "strikingly different in subject," they "show a similar narrative arc: a young man's initiation, vicious male rivalries, subtler tensions between men and women, fathers and daughters, and finally a bleak sense of disappointment, even futility."
Novelist and scientist C.P. Snow wrote of Stoner: "Why isn’t this book famous?… Very few novels in English, or literary productions of any kind, have come anywhere near its level for human wisdom or as a work of art."
In his introduction to the 2006 edition of Stoner, author John McGahern wrote,
There is entertainment of a very high order to be found in Stoner, what Williams himself describes as "an escape into reality" as well as pain and joy. The clarity of the prose is in itself an unadulterated joy.
Steve Almond praises Stoner in the New York Times Magazine, writing, "I had never encountered a work so ruthless in its devotion to human truths and so tender in its execution. (Author bio adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 11/29/2015.)
Book Reviews
John Williams’s Stoner is something rarer than a great novel—it is a perfect novel, so well told and beautifully written, so deeply moving, that it takes your breath away.
New York Times Book Review
The book begins boldly with a mention of Stoner’s death, and a nod to his profound averageness: "Few students remembered him with any sharpness after they had taken his courses." By the end, though, Williams has made Stoner’s disappointing life into such a deep and honest portrait, so unsoftened and unromanticized, that it’s quietly breathtaking.
Boston Globe
Stoner by John Williams, contains what is no doubt my favorite literary romance of all time. William Stoner is well into his 40s, and mired in an unhappy marriage, when he meets Katherine, another shy professor of literature. The affair that ensues is described with a beauty so fierce that it takes my breath away each time I read it. The chapters devoted to this romance are both terribly sexy and profoundly wise.
Christian Science Monitor
Williams didn’t write much compared with some novelists, but everything he did was exceedingly fine…it’s a shame that he’s not more often read today…But it’s great that at least two of his novels [Stoner, Butcher’s Crossing] have found their way back into print.
Denver Post
Stoner, by John Williams, is a slim novel, and not a particularly joyous one. But it is so quietly beautiful and moving, so precisely constructed, that you want to read it in one sitting and enjoy being in it, altered somehow, as if you have been allowed to wear an exquisitely tailored garment that you don’t want to take off.
Toronto Globe and Mail
One of the great forgotten novels of the past century. I have bought at least 50 copies of it in the past few years, using it as a gift for friends…The book is so beautifully paced and cadenced that it deserves the status of classic (Top 10 Novels).
Colum McCann - Guardian (UK)
Stoner is undeniably a great book, but I can also understand why it isn’t a sentimental favorite in its native land. You could almost describe it as an anti-Gatsby…Part of Stoner’s greatness is that it sees life whole and as it is, without delusion yet without despair…The novel embodies the very virtues it exalts, the same virtues that probably relegate it, like its titular hero, to its perpetual place in the shade. But the book, like professor William Stoner, isn’t out to win popularity contests. It endures, illumined from within.
Tim Kreider - The New Yorker
A masterly portrait of a truly virtuous and dedicated man.
The New Yorker
Serious, beautiful and affecting, what makes Stoner so impressive is the contained intensity the author and character share.
Irving Howe - New Republic
A quiet but resonant achievement.
Times Literary Supplement
It’s simply a novel about a guy who goes to college and becomes a teacher. But it’s one of the most fascinating things that you’ve ever come across.
Tom Hanks - Time
Stoner is written in the most plainspoken of styles…Its hero is an obscure academic who endures a series of personal and professional agonies. Yet the novel is utterly riveting, and for one simple reason: because the author, John Williams, treats his characters with such tender and ruthless honesty that we cannot help but love them.
Steve Almond - Tin House
A poignant campus novel from the mid-’60s—an unjustly neglected gem.
Nick Hornby - People
Williams’ descriptions of the experience of reading both elucidate and evince the pleasures of literary language; the "minute, strange, and unexpected combinations of letters and words" in which Stoner finds joy are re-enacted in Williams' own perfect fusion of words.
n+1
The best book I read in 2007 was Stoner by John Williams. It’s perhaps the best book I’ve read in years.
Stephen Elliott - Believer
Discussion Questions
1. "Stoner’s colleagues, who held him in no particular esteem when he was alive, speak of him rarely now; to the older ones, his name is a reminder of the end that awaits them all, and to the younger ones it is merely a sound which evokes no sense of the past and no identity with which they can associate themselves or their careers." Having read the whole book, do you think the summary of Stoner’s life, as described on the first page of the novel, is a fair assessment?
2. "He did not rise above the rank of assistant professor, and few students remembered him with any sharpness after they had taken his courses." Why do you think the author begins the novel by summarising Stoner’s life and telling us how little he is remembered after his death? Having already had a summary of Stoner’s life, what did you think the book would be about and did you find it irritating to know, upfront, that nothing sensational would happen?
3. In the introduction, John McGahern cites an interview in which the author says: "I think he’s a real hero. A lot of people who have read the novel think that Stoner had such a sad and bad life. I think he had a very good life." Do you agree with the author’s view that Stoner is a hero?
4. "From the earliest time he could remember, William Stoner had his duties." Stoner’s life is filled with many failures—his marriage, his stymied career and his short-lived affair. Do you think Stoner views these unpleasant parts of his life as duties he must endure? How do you think his rural upbringing has affect his personality?
5. "The required survey of English literature troubled and disquieted him in a way nothing had ever done before." Stoner is troubled by his initial foray into English literature and in a class with his English instructor, Archer Sloane, he is unable to answer a question on a Shakespearean sonnet. Why do you think Stoner changes his course of study from agriculture to English?
6. "Her childhood was an exceedingly formal one, even in the most ordinary moments of family life. Her parents behaved toward each other with a distant courtesy; Edith never saw pass between them the spontaneous warmth of either anger or love. Anger was days of courteous silence, and love was a word of courteous endearment." How much do you think Edith’s upbringing affects her life with Stoner? Why do you think she is constantly compelled to wage battles against Stoner—what is she trying to prove?
7. "Throughout the late spring and early summer she was tireless in her search [for a house], which seemed to work an immediate cure for her illness." What do you think is the cause of Edith’s recurring illnesses? Do you think her illnesses are psychosomatic?
8. "And so, like many others, their honeymoon was a failure; yet they would not admit this to themselves, and they did not realise the significance of the failure until long afterward." There are several turning points in the novel, where Stoner’s life could go down different paths. Do you feel he takes control of his life and lives in accordance with his values, or do you think he remains too passive and stoic during the course of his life? Do you think stoicism is a good quality?
9. "William fell instantly in love with her; the affection he could not show to Edith he could show to his daughter, and he found a pleasure in caring for her that he had not anticipated." Do you think Stoner is a good father to Grace? Do you think one parent carries more blame for Grace’s early pregnancy and alcoholism, or do you think both parents share equal blame?
10. "A kind of joy came upon him, as if borne in on a summer breeze. He dimly recalled that he had been thinking of failure—as if it mattered. It seemed to him now that such thoughts were mean, unworthy of what his life had been." In the end, do you think Stoner has any regrets about the way he has lived his life? Do you think Stoner is a good man or a weak man?
(Questions issued by Random House, Australia.)
Danny's Mom
Elaine Wolf, 2012
Arcade Publishing
223 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781628725131
Summary
Friday Night Lights meets Ordinary People when Beth Maller returns to her job in Meadow Brook High School shortly after an unspeakable tragedy.
Railing against the everyday injustices she had overlooked until her world cracked open, Beth stirs up the moral battles being waged in the school, where administrators cling to don't-rock-the-boat policies and mean girls practice bullying as if it were a sport.
As Beth struggles to find her "new normal," she learns to speak out, risking her career and her marriage—the very life she’s embraced.
Danny’s Mom is a story about reinventing ourselves and about finding strength and courage when our illusion of safety fractures. Mostly, though, Danny’s Mom is a novel about relationships—marriage and friendship, parents and children.
Author Bio
• Birth—1948
• Where—Great Neck, New York, USA
• Education—B.A., M.A., New York University
• Currently—lives in Los Angeles, California
Known as "the anti-bullying novelist," Elaine Wolf writes about what really goes on behind the closed gates and doors of our camps and schools. The issues she explores in her novels are those she is passionate about and knows well.
She was a camper and camp counselor for many summers. When she entered "the real world," she taught in public schools in California and New York. In her most recent teaching position, she served as a high school reading specialist, and then she became the district language arts chairperson. In that position, Wolf designed and supervised reading and writing programs for students at all grade levels, facilitated reading groups and writers’ workshops, and selected books for classroom libraries as well as for ancillary and summer reading lists.
One of the author’s greatest joys was getting wonderful books into the hands of students, teachers, and parents. In the time before Kindles and iPads, she spent countless hours stocking shelves with "good reads." And she dreamed of seeing her books on those shelves. Now she is thrilled that Camp and Danny’s Mom are there.
Although critics call her novels "mesmerizing" and "must-reads," what pleases Wolf more than great reviews is the fact that Camp and Danny’s Mom have given her a literal bully pulpit—a platform from which to carry on the anti-bullying conversation so that, in concert with professionals, we will make our camps and schools kinder, more embracing communities for everyone. Wolf is committed to keeping this conversation going until the bullying epidemic ends.
The author and her husband raised their children in Roslyn, New York, where she was a co-facilitator of an adult writers’ workshop. Then they moved to Northampton, Massachusetts, a community brimming with readers, writers, artists, and musicians. Shortly after settling there, Wolf won a prize for short fiction (the perfect welcome for her). Currently, she and her husband live in Los Angeles, California. (From the author.)
Visit the author's website.
Follow Elaine on Facebook.
Book Reviews
Brutally honest, no-holds-barred narrative….Wolf writes with insight and authority about an issue that society cannot afford to ignore.
Kirkus Reviews
Readers may recognize their past selves in the fragile students outside the high school’s guidance office…hoping for a nod from a reassuring face.
Booklist
With its themes of grief, rage, school bullying, sexual orientation, hate crimes, and how much educators can and should do to protect students and themselves, this novel seems ideal for reading groups.
Jefferson County Public Library, Alabama
An excellent and essential read for mothers, adults who work in schools, and the LGBTQ community.
Advocate.com
Once you start, it’s hard to put down.
Instinct Magazine
Danny’s Mom is an eye-opening novel about what really goes on in schools and with the people in charge. This is an excellent read.
Coming Out Journal
Wonderful book…very inspiring. Danny’s Mom made me sit up and take notice…I truly enjoyed this book and believe it will give many something to think about.
MoonShine Art Spot
We can all learn a thing or two from Danny’s Mom.
GRAB Magazine
From the beginning pages, Elaine Wolf had me weeping into the pages, my heart feeling the exact pain that [the protagonist] felt. Wolf has captured that pain with utmost precision.
Uniquely Moi Books
Wow! Danny’s Mom is a beautiful and heartbreaking story of loss, justice, and redemption. This novel should be read by all.
Mrs. Mommy Booknerd Blog
Hard to put down….A perfect reading choice for parents and students alike.
Spa Week Daily
Discussion Questions
1. Blame and guilt are significant issues in Danny’s Mom. Why does Beth feel the need to blame Joe for Danny’s death? Does blaming Joe serve a purpose for Beth? Why do you think she initially absolves herself of guilt? And what causes Beth to realize that she shares responsibility for the accident?
2. Beth seems to think of Danny as her son only, not as Joe’s son. Why does she feel that way? How, in general, do you think the mother-child relationship differs from the father-child relationship?
3. The characters in Danny’s Mom face many conflicts. Discuss the conflict between Beth and Joe. What causes the tension in their relationship? And what causes the conflict between Joe and Al, Beth’s father? Why does Joe seem at odds with him?
4. Throughout the novel, the tension between Beth and Peter is palpable. In fact, Beth says, "Peter and I were allergic to each other." Discuss the tension in their relationship. Is Peter solely to blame for their antagonism? And is Peter alone to blame for what happens at Meadow Brook High School?
5. When characters are well drawn, readers gain insight into what motivates them. Discuss what motivates Joe. What motivates Beth? What motivates Peter?
6. Discuss the relationship between Beth and her father. Talk about the relationship between Beth and Callie. Contrast Beth and Joe’s relationship with the relationship between Callie and her husband, Tom.
7. In thinking about Joe, Beth recognizes that "Danny had glued [them] together…and now they were peeling apart." Do you think Beth’s realization applies to most marriages that have to incorporate tragedy or hard times? Discuss the difference in how Beth and Joe each respond to grief.
8. Who are the bullies in this novel? How does each one grab power and hold on to it?
9. Although we don’t experience the relationship between Beth and Danny firsthand, we know a lot about it. Do you think Beth was a good mother? Discuss Beth’s thought that "maybe [she] didn’t have enough love for a husband and a child. Or maybe [she] didn’t know how to divide it." Compare Beth as a mother to Liz’s mother, Mary Grant.
10. Many of the characters in the book make poor decisions. Talk about the decisions and/or choices made by Beth, Liz, Bob and Peter, Joe, and Ann Richardson. What, if anything, do you think Beth should have done differently at school and at home? What do you think Liz should have done?
11. Why doesn’t Liz speak out? Why doesn’t Beth speak out sooner?
12. Although Beth makes poor choices as she fights to help Liz, Beth is passionate about trying to do what she feels is best for Liz. Beth’s motivation extends beyond simply being a counselor. Why does Beth feel compelled to rescue Liz?
13. Discuss Kate Stanish. What is her motivation? Talk about the relationship between Beth and Kate. Beth trusted Kate immediately; Beth "embraced Kate’s words like a kind of religion." Why? And why does Beth obsess about Kate? What does that obsession offer Beth?
14. Discuss the symbolism in Beth’s reading To Kill a Mockingbird. Similarly, discuss the black and white clown that Zach Stanish drew.
15. Beth lies a lot. Why? What benefit does lying give her? And what harm does it do?
16. Discuss Beth’s crazy consequence game—the way she lists or counts things and invents consequences. Why does she do that?
17. Beth realizes that, maybe, parents can never fully know their children. And she wonders if parents and children are afraid of each other. What do you think? Can parents fully know their children? And do you agree with Beth that parents and children are afraid of each other?
18. Danny’s Mom has been called a coming-of-age story for adults. How does Beth grow and change and find her voice? What lessons does she learn? What have you learned as a reader, or what thoughts do you have after reading the book?
19. Discuss the cover: the image of a sinking school. Why do you think that picture was chosen?
20. There are two epigraphs at the beginning of the novel. One is attributed to Kiran Desai: "The present changes the past. Looking back you do not find what you left behind." The other is from Anne Morrow Lindbergh: "Woman must come of age by herself. She must find her true center alone." Discuss these quotes as they relate to Danny’s Mom.
(Questions courtesy of the author.)
The Witch's Market
Mingmei Yip, 2015
Kensington Books
304 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781617733239
Summary
Chinese American assistant professor Eileen Chen specializes in folk religion at her San Francisco college. Though her grandmother made her living as a shamaness, Eileen publicly dismisses witchcraft as mere superstition. Yet privately the subject intrigues her, especially after she accidentally finds out she has supernatural abilities.
When a research project takes her to the Canary Islands—long rumored to be home to real witches—Eileen is struck by the lush beauty of Tenerife and its blend of Spanish and Moroccan culture. A stranger invites her to a local market where women sell amulets, charms, and love spells.
Gradually Eileen immerses herself in her exotic surroundings, finding romance with a handsome young furniture maker. But as she learns more about the lives of these self-proclaimed witches, Eileen must choose how much trust to place in this new and seductive world, where love, greed, and vengeance can be as powerful, or as destructive, as any magic. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—Hong Kong, China
• Education—P.D. University of Paris, Sorbonne
• Currently—lives in New York, New York, USA
Mingmei Yip was born in Hong Kong, China, and received her Ph.D. from the University of Paris, Sorbonne. She has published fourteen books, written for seven major Hong Kong newspapers and appeared on many national and international television and radio programs. Mingmei's novels have been published in ten different languages. She is also an accomplished musician and calligrapher whose performance venues include Carnegie Hall and Metropolitan Museum of Arts. (From the publisher.)
Visit the author's website.
Folllow Mingmei on Facebook.
Book Reviews
Yip is truly a master. Everything about this story was enthralling...strong, memorable characters, unique setting...an emotional roller coaster.
Examiner.com
Fans will enjoy this emotionally poignant novel.
Booklist
Boundless energy that propels the reader to gratifying conclusion.
Kirkus Reviews
Intriguing backdrop...The first person narrative perfectly matches Yip's heroine's thoughts as she strives to find a safe life and love in a changing world (4 Stars).
RT Book Reviews
Rich in detail... should please readers.
Authorlink.com
Discussion Questions
1. Surveys show many people still believe in witches. Are you one of them? If so, why?
2. What is the difference between a shaman and a witch?
3. Do you believe that some people possess supernatural powers such as the ghost-seeing yin eye?
4. Should Eileen continue to be a professor of witchcraft, or should she follow her Laolao's footstep and be a shamaness?
5. Do you think Eileen would be happier with the poor furniture maker Luis, or with her rich ex-boyfriend, Ivan?
6. Each character in the novel teaches us a different life lesson. What do you think these lessons are?
6. Alfredo’s maid, Maria, is loyal to him until his death. What do you think of what she does after?
7. Laolao and Uncle Wang both seem to have supernatural powers. Do you think these powers are real? What do you think about how each uses them?
8. The protagonist, Eileen Chen, learns much of importance from her dreams. Do you learn from your own dreams?
9. Divination, or fortune-telling, plays an important role in the novel. What do you think of using divination to make important life decisions?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)
This Is/Is Not the Way I Want Things to Change (Spanner Series, III)
Sally Ember, Ed.D., 2015
Timult Books
536 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780996999823 (Kindle)
Summary
Clara, Moran, Espe, Epifanio and the alien Band of holos are back in This Is/Is Not the Way I Want Things to Change, Volume III, The Spanners Series.
Psi-Defiers launch increasingly violent protests during this five-year Transition, attempting to block Earth's membership into the Many Worlds Collective. Earth's nations and borders must dissolve and Psi-Warriors must strengthen in their battle against the rebels.
Clara, as Earth's first Chief Communicator, also juggles family conflicts and danger while creating psi skills training Campuses to help Earth through the Psi Wars. Clara timults alternate versions of their futures as the leaders' duties and consciences force them to make difficult choices across multiple timelines, continuing to train and fight.
Will the Psi-Warriors' and other leaders' increasing psi skills, interspecies collaborations and budding alien alliances be enough for Earth to make it through The Transition intact? If there is no clear path for Clara's and Epifanio's love, does she partner with Steve or go it alone?
What do YOU do with wanted/unwanted changes?
This is Vol. III of the Spanners Series. Vol. I is This Changes Everything (2013). Vol. II is This Changes My Family and My Life Forever (2014).
Author Bio
• Birth—1954
• Where—Clayton (St. Louis), Missouri USA
• Education—University of Massachusetts/Amherst, M.Ed. & Ed.D.
• Currently—Creve Coeur (St. Louis), Missouri USA
Sally Ember, Ed.D., has been passionate about writing since she was nine years old. She’s won prizes for her poetry, stories, songs and plays. She began meditation in her teens. Now, Sally delights fans of paranormal and romance by blurring the lines between fact and fiction in a multiverse of multiple timelines, often including exciting elements of utopian science fiction and Buddhism. Born Jewish on the cusp of Leo and Virgo, Sally's life has been infused with change.
In her "other" professional life, Sally has worked as an educator and upper-level, nonprofit manager in colleges, universities and private nonprofits in many parts of the USA before returning to live in St. Louis, Missouri, in August, 2014. Sally has a BA in Elementary Education, a Master's (M.Ed.) and a doctorate in education (Ed.D.).
Her sci-fi /romance/ speculative fiction/ paranormal/ multiverse/ utopian books for New Adult/adult/YA audiences, "The Spanners Series," are getting great reviews.
Vol I, "This Changes Everything," ebook is FREE everywhere, $17.99 paperback.
Vol II, "This Changes My Family and My Life Forever," ebook as $3.99 and paperback $19.99.
Vol III, "This Is/Is Not the Way I Want Things to Change," released @$3.99 as ebook and paperback $19.99 on 12/8/15. Look for Vol IV – X in 2016-2021. From Timult Books.
Currently, she meditates, writes, swims, reads and hosts her Google+ Hangout On Air (HOA) *CHANGES*, conversations with authors, LIVE almost every Wednesday, 10 - 11 AM Eastern USA (on hiatus until January, 2016).
Sally blogs regularly on wide-ranging topics and includes reviews, interviews, guest blog posts, and excerpts from her books. (From the author.)
Visit the author's website.
Follow Sally on Facebook.
Book Reviews
Because this reads like a documentation of actual events, I came away from it feeling like my own little life is petty and trivial and a waste of "time." Like, I’m not part of The Movement and I ought to run right out and start a victory garden or a recycling program or find an ESP trainer and get started learning how to TK or.... The entire series is such an astounding creation it amazes me that it’s the production of just one person.
Devorah “Dee” Fox - Dee-Scoveries (fantasy/thriller author, journalist, columnist)
Discussion Questions
1. If you read Volume II, This Changes My Family and My Life Forever, which focused on the younger Spanners' views of the same five years of The Transition, what do you think are the major differences between their viewpoints ad those of the older Spanners as presented in Volume III? If you haven't read Vol. II, what do you think are the key age-related concerns expressed by these older Spanners in Vol III?
2. Compare/Contrast Epifanio Dang and Steve Jasny as partners/lovers for Clara Branon: pros and cons for each, type of person each is, type of relationship she has with each compared to her being on her own. Give your preference for her partnership status and reasons.
3. If you had to do a "Confession" as Clara does, especially in public, what would be your difficulties and why? What would you confess with the most ease and why? How would you benefit from having to do this?
4. What are your thoughts on the religious/spiritual aspects of Clara's life and those of other older Spanners in this series (Buddhism, Judaism)? What have you learned from this book and/or what would you like to learn more about due to having read this or other books on these subjects?
5. What do you think about the Many Worlds Collective's Interventions on behalf of Earthers? Favorites? Objections? Reasons? Consider: Tinting, dissolving national and regional boundaries and governments, Sequestering, making all education/Access free and available to all, hormonal adjustments to reduce/end violence and close most prisons, Excellent Skills Program trainings, communication with all species via the fish.
(Questions courtesy of the author.)
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