Open City
Teju Cole, 2011
Random House
272 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780812980097
Summary
A haunting novel about identity, dislocation, and history, Teju Cole’s Open City is a profound work by an important new author who has much to say about our country and our world.
Along the streets of Manhattan, a young Nigerian doctor named Julius wanders, reflecting on his relationships, his recent breakup with his girlfriend, his present, his past. He encounters people from different cultures and classes who will provide insight on his journey—which takes him to Brussels, to the Nigeria of his youth, and into the most unrecognizable facets of his own soul.
Open City was named a "Best Book" on more than 20 end-of-year lists. These include: New Yorker ♦ Atlantic ♦ Economist • Newsweek/Daily Beast ♦ New Republic • New York Daily News ♦ Los Angeles Times ♦ Boston Globe ♦ Seattle Times ♦ Minneapolis Star Tribune ♦ GQ • Salon ♦ Slate ♦ New York magazine ♦ The Week ♦ Kansas City Star ♦ Kirkus Reviews (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—June 27, 1975
• Where—U.S.
• Raised—Nigeria
• Education—B.A., Kalamazoo College; M.A., University of London; M.Phil.,
Columbia University
• Awards—Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award; International Literature
Award (for the German transl.)
• Currently—lives in Brooklyn, New York City, New York
Teju Cole is a Nigerian-American writer, photographer, and art historian, best known for his 2011 novel, Open City. For that work, Cole won the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award.
Biography and work
Cole was born in the United States to Nigerian parents, raised in Nigeria, and moved back to the United States at the age of 17. He received his Bachelor's from Kalamazoo College, an M.A. from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, and his M.Phil. from Columbia University.
He is the author of Every Day is for the Thief, a novella published in 2007 in Nigeria and in 2014 in the U.S. His anovel, Open City was published in 2011.
Cole lives in Brooklyn, New York City, and is currently the Distinguished Writer in Residence at Bard College. He is also writer in residence of the Literaturhaus Zurich from June to November, 2014. Cole is a regular contributor to publications including the New York Times, Qarrtsiluni, Granta, New Yorker, Transition, New Inquiry, and A Public Space. He is currently at work on a book-length non-fiction narrative of Lagos, and on "Small Fates." (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 6/16/2014.)
Book Reviews
With every anecdote, with each overlap, Cole lucidly builds a compassionate and masterly work engaged more with questions than with answers regarding some of the biggest issues of our time: migration, moral accountability and our tenuous tolerance of one another’s differences…Cole's writing is assured, his ideas are well developed, and his imagery is delicious…
Miguel Syjuco - New York Times
Little happens in this impressionistic novel, but that hardly matters. The book is full of so many beautifully phrased observations that it's easy to be simply mesmerized.
Nora Krug - Washington Post
This year, literary discovery came, for me, in the form of Teju Cole’s debut novel, Open City, a deceptively meandering first-person narrative about a Nigerian psychiatry resident in New York. The bonhomous flâneur who strolls Manhattan from top to bottom, reveals, in the course of his walking meditations, both more about the city and about himself than we—or indeed he—could possibly anticipate. Cole writes beautifully; his protagonist is unique; and his novel, utterly thrilling.
Clare Messud - Globe and Mail (Canada)
On the surface, the story of a young, foreign psychiatry resident in post-9/11 New York City who searches for the soul of the city by losing himself in extended strolls around teeming Manhattan. But it's really a story about a lost nation struggling to regain a sense of direction after that shattering, disorienting day 10 years ago. A quiet, lyrical and profound piece of writing.
Seattle Times
Beautiful, subtle, and finally, original…What moves the prose forward is the prose—the desire to write, to defeat solitude by writing. Cole has made his novel as close to a diary as a novel can get, with room for reflection, autobiography, stasis, and repetition. This is extremely difficult, and many accomplished novelists would botch it, since a sure hand is needed to make the writer’s careful stitching look like a thread merely being followed for its own sake. Mysteriously, wonderfully, Cole does not botch it.
James Wood - New Yorker
A complicated portrait of a narrator whose silences speak as loudly as his words—all articulated in an effortlessly elegant prose…Teju Cole has achieved, in this book, a rare balance. He captures life’s urgent banality, and he captures, too, the ways in which the greater subjects glimmer darkly in the interstices.
New York Review of Books
Reminiscent of the works of W.G. Sebald, this dreamy, incantatory debut was the most beautiful novel I read this year—the kind of book that remains on your nightstand long after you finish so that you can continue dipping in occasionally as a nighttime consolation.
Ruth Franklin - New Republic
Nothing escapes Julius, the narrator of Teju Cole’s excellent debut novel…In Cole’s intelligent, finely observed portrait, Julius drifts through cities on three continents, repeatedly drawn into conversation with solitary souls like him: people struggling with the emotional rift of having multiple homelands but no home.
GQ
Reminiscent of the works of W.G. Sebald, this dreamy, incantatory debut was the most beautiful novel I read this year—the kind of book that remains on your nightstand long after you finish so that you can continue dipping in occasionally as a nighttime consolation." –Ruth Franklin, The New Republic(Starred review.) America's standing in the world is never far from the restless thoughts of psychiatry resident Julius, a Nigerian immigrant who wanders Manhattan, pondering everything from Goya...to the rise of the bedbug epidemic.... [T]he picture of a mind that emerges in lieu of a plot is fascinating, as it is engaged with the world in a rare and refreshing way.
Publishers Weekly
One of the most intriguing novels you'll likely read, this debut...is riddled with ambiguity. By the end, there is so much disjuncture that readers will wonder whether the protagonist is the classic unreliable narrator.... Verdict: The alienated but sophisticated viewpoint is oddly poignant and compelling. —Henry Bankhead, Los Gatos P.L., CA
Library Journal
For reasons not altogether clear, Julius’ walks turn into worldwide travel, and he flies first to Europe...and makes some interesting friends, then to Nigeria, and finally back to New York City. Along the way, he meets many people and often has long discussions with them about philosophy and politics.... [A] unique and pensive book [and] charming read. —Julie Hunt
Booklist
[M]asterful.... Rather than establishing momentum, the circular, elliptical narrative focuses on the everyday, though in Manhattan this encompasses muggings, car crashes.... A climactic revelation toward the end casts fresh light on all that has preceded.... Determining whether the novel's main character is hero, villain or somewhere in between might require the reader to start over with the book after finishing it.
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)
(We'll add specific questions if and when they're made available by the publisher.)
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The Matchmaker
Elin Hilderbrand, 2014
Little, Brown & Co.
368 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780316099691
Summary
A woman sets out to find love for those closest to her—before it's too late.
48-year-old Nantucketer Dabney Kimball Beech has always had a gift for matchmaking. Some call her ability mystical, while others—like her husband, celebrated economist John Boxmiller Beech, and her daughter, Agnes, who is clearly engaged to the wrong man—call it meddlesome.
But there's no arguing with her results: With 42 happy couples to her credit and all of them still together, Dabney has never been wrong about romance.
Never, that is, except in the case of herself and Clendenin Hughes, the green-eyed boy who took her heart with him long ago when he left the island to pursue his dream of becoming a journalist. Now, after spending 27 years on the other side of the world, Clen is back on Nantucket, and Dabney has never felt so confused, or so alive.
But when tragedy threatens her own second chance, Dabney must face the choices she's made and share painful secrets with her family. Determined to make use of her gift before it's too late, she sets out to find perfect matches for those she loves most. The Matchmaker is a heartbreaking story about losing and finding love, even as you're running out of time. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth— Birth—ca. 1969-70
• Rasied—Collegeville, Pennsylvania, USA
• Education—B.A., Hopkins University; University of Iowa Writers' Workshop
• Currently—lives in Nantucket, Massachuestts
Elin Hilderbrand is an American writer of Summer beach read romance novels, some 20 in all. Her books have been set on and around Nantucket Island where she lives with her husband and three children.
Hilderbrand was born and raised in Collegeville, Pennsylvania. As a child, she spent summers on Cape Cod, "playing touch football at low tide, collecting sea glass, digging pools for hermit crabs, swimming out to the wooden raft off shore," until her father died in a plane crash when she was sixteen. She spent the next summer working—doing piecework in a factory that made Halloween costumes; she promised herself that the goal for the rest of her life would be that she would always have a real summer.
She graduated from Johns Hopkins University and became a teaching/writing fellow at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. In 1993 she moved to Nantucket, took a job as "the classified ads girl" at a local paper, and later started writing.
Her first novels were published by St. Martin's Press. With A Summer Affair, published in 2008, she moved to Little, Brown and Company. (From Wikipedia. Retrieved 7/11/2013.)
Book Reviews
A loving portrait of an island....It's like renting a cottage on Nantucket for the weekend—breezy and sad when you come to the end.
Washington Post
Hilderbrand's charming, poignant 13th novel chronicles what happens after a woman's true love returns to her 27 years.... Hilderbrand's narrative is thoroughly readable, with likable heroes and believably despicable antagonists. One misstep is the downer ending; though you see it coming, it still feels like it belongs in another book. Despite this, Hilderbrand's story is an engaging read
Publishers Weekly
Hilderbrand's essentially sunny setup, bolstered by many summer parties and picnics...takes a sudden, somber turn. Hilderbrand has a way of transcending the formulaic and tapping directly into the emotional jugular. Class is often an undercurrent in her work, but in this comedy of manners-turned-cautionary tale, luck establishes its own dubious meritocracy. Beach reading with an unsettling edge.
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)
(We'll add specific questions if and when they're made available by the publisher.)
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Written in My Own Heart's Blood (Outlander Series, 8)
Diana Gabaldon, 2014
Random House
848 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780385344432
Summary
In her now classic novel Outlander, Diana Gabaldon told the story of Claire Randall, an English ex-combat nurse who walks through a stone circle in the Scottish Highlands in 1946, and disappears...into 1743. The story unfolded from there in seven bestselling novels, and CNN has called it "a grand adventure written on a canvas that probes the heart, weighs the soul and measures the human spirit across [centuries]." Now the story continues in Written in My Own Heart’s Blood.
1778: France declares war on Great Britain, the British army leaves Philadelphia, and George Washington’s troops leave Valley Forge in pursuit. At this moment, Jamie Fraser returns from a presumed watery grave to discover that his best friend has married his wife, his illegitimate son has discovered (to his horror) who his father really is, and his beloved nephew, Ian, wants to marry a Quaker. Meanwhile, Jamie’s wife, Claire, and his sister, Jenny, are busy picking up the pieces.
The Frasers can only be thankful that their daughter Brianna and her family are safe in twentieth-century Scotland. Or not. In fact, Brianna is searching for her own son, who was kidnapped by a man determined to learn her family’s secrets. Her husband, Roger, has ventured into the past in search of the missing boy . . . never suspecting that the object of his quest has not left the present. Now, with Roger out of the way, the kidnapper can focus on his true target: Brianna herself.
Written in My Own Heart’s Blood is the brilliant next chapter in a masterpiece of the imagination unlike any other. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—January 11, 1952
• Where—Flagstaff, Arizona, USA
• Education—B.S., Northern Arizona University; M.S., Scripps
Oceanographic Institute; Ph.D., Northern Arizona University
• Awards—Favorite Book of the Year, Romance Writers of
America, 1991 (for Outlander); Romantic Times Career
Achievement Award, 1997; Odom Heritage Award, 2000;
Quill Award for Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror, 2006
• Currently—lives in Flagstaff, Arizona
To millions of fans, Diana Gabaldon is the creator of a complex, original, and utterly compelling amalgam of 18th-century romantic adventure and 20th-century science fiction. To the publishing industry, she's a grassroots-marketing phenomenon. And to would-be writers everywhere who worry that they don't have the time or expertise to do what they love, Gabaldon is nothing short of an inspiration.
Gabaldon wrote her first novel while juggling the demands of motherhood and career: in between her job as an ecology professor, she also had a part-time gig writing freelance software reviews. Gabaldon had never written fiction before, and didn't intend to publish this first novel, which she decided to call Outlander. This, she decided, would be her "practice novel." Worried that she might not be able to pull a plot and characters out of thin air, she settled on a historical novel because "it's easier to look things up than to make them up entirely."
The impulse to set her novel in 18th-century Scotland didn't stem—as some fans have assumed—from a desire to explore her own familial roots (in fact, Gabaldon isn't even Scottish). Rather, it came from watching an episode of the British sci-fi series Dr. Who and becoming smitten with a handsome time traveler in a kilt. A time-travel element crept into Gabaldon's own book only after she realized her wisecracking female lead couldn't have come from anywhere but the 20th century. The resulting love affair between an intelligent, mature, sexually experienced woman and a charismatic, brave, virginal young man turned the conventions of historical romance upside-down.
Gabaldon has said her books were hard to market at first because they were impossible to categorize neatly. Were they historical romances? Sci-fi adventure stories? Literary fiction? Whatever their genre (Gabaldon eventually proffered the term "historical fantasias"), they eventually found their audience, and it turned out to be a staggeringly huge one.
Even before the publication of Outlander, Gabaldon had an online community of friends who'd read excerpts and were waiting eagerly for more. (In fact, her cohorts at the CompuServe Literary Forum helped hook her up with an agent.) Once the book was released, word kept spreading, both on the Internet and off, and Gabaldon kept writing sequels. (When her fourth book, Drums of Autumn, was released, it debuted at No. 1 on the Wall Street Journal bestseller list, and her publisher, Delacorte, raced to add more copies to their initial print run of 155,000.)
With her books consistently topping the bestseller lists, it's apparent that Gabaldon's appeal lies partly in her ability to bulldoze the formulaic conventions of popular fiction. Salon writer Gavin McNett noted approvingly, "She simply doesn't pay attention to genre or precedent, and doesn't seem to care that identifying with Claire puts women in the role of the mysterious stranger, with Jamie—no wimp in any regard—as the romantic 'heroine.' "
In between "Outlander" novels, Gabaldon also writes historical mysteries featuring Lord John Grey, a popular, if minor, character from the series, and is working on a contemporary mystery series. Meanwhile, the author's formidable fan base keeps growing, as evidenced by the expanding list of Gabaldon chat rooms, mailing lists, fan clubs and web sites—some of them complete with fetching photos of red-haired lads in kilts.
Extras
• Outlander may have been Gabaldon's first novel, but she was already a published writer. Her credits included scholarly articles, political speeches, radio ads, computer manuals and Walt Disney comic books.
• Gabaldon gets 30 to 40 e-mails a day from her fans, who often meet online to discuss her work. "I got one letter from a woman who had been studying my book jacket photos (with a magnifying glass, evidently), who demanded to know why there was a hole in my pants," wrote Gabaldon on her web site. "This strikes me as a highly metaphysical question, which I am not equipped to answer, but which will doubtless entertain some chat-groups for quite a long time. (From Barnes & Noble.)
Book Reviews
(There are no mainstream press reviews online for this current installment. Below are comments for other volumes of the series.)
Outlander: History comes deliciously alive on the page.
New York Daily News
Voyager: Triumphant.... Her use of historical detail and a truly adult love story confirm Gabaldon as a superior writer.
Publishers Weekly
Drums of Autumn: Wonderful.... This is escapist historical fiction at its best.
San Antonio Express-News
The Firey Cross: Abounds with Gabaldon’s sexy combination of humor, wild adventure and, underlying it all, the redemptive power of true love.
Dallas Morning News
A Breath of Snow and Ashes: Compulsively readable mix of authentically set historical fiction and completely satisfying romance.... The large scope of the novel allows Gabaldon to do what she does best, paint in exquisite detail the lives of her characters.
Booklist
Echo in the Bone: All you’ve come to expect from Gabaldon...adventure, history, romance, fantasy.
Arizona Republic
Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade: First-rate.... From London’s literary salons and political intrigue to fearsome battle scenes in the Seven Years’ War, [Diana Gabaldon’s] writing is always vivid and often lyrical.
Washington Post
Lord John and the Hand of Devils: Deftly written, pleasantly concise stories about the ghosts of desire, each with its own discrete merits.... [Diana] Gabaldon’s strengths are on full display..
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)
(We'll add specific questions if and when they're made available by the publisher.)
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Ruin and Rising |
|
ON THE FOURTH DAY, we came upon a cavern with a perfectly still pool that gave the illusion of a night sky, its depths sparkling with tiny luminescent fish. * * *
|
Catching Air
Sarah Pekkanen, 2014
Simon & Schuster
352 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781451673531
Summary
Two married couples pursue a dream to open a bed-and-breakfast in small-town Vermont.
A chance to run a B&B in snowy, remote Vermont—it’s an offer Kira Danner can’t resist after six soul-crushing years of working as a lawyer in Florida. As Kira and her husband, Peter, step into a brand new life, she quells her fears about living with the B&B’s co-owners: Peter’s sexy, irresponsible brother Rand, and Rand’s wife, Alyssa...who is essentially a stranger.
For her part, Alyssa sees taking over the B&B as the latest in a string of adventures. Plus, a quiet place might help her recover from the news that she can’t bear children. But the idyllic town proves to be anything but serene: Within weeks, the sisters-in-law are scrambling to prepare for their first big booking—a winter wedding—and soon a shy, mysterious woman comes to work for them.
Dawn Zukoski is hiding something; that much is clear. But what the sisters-in-law don't realize is that Dawn is also hiding from someone…
Relatable and dynamic, Catching Air delves deeply into the vital relationships that give shape to women’s lives. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1967
• Where—New York, New York, USA
• Raised—Bethesda, Maryland
• Education—University of Wisconsin; University of Maryland
• Currently—lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland
Sarah Pekkanen was born in New York City, arriving so quickly that doctors had no time to give her mother painkillers. This was the last time Sarah ever arrived for anything earlier than expected. Her mother still harbors a slight grudge.
Sarah’s family moved to Bethesda, Maryland, where Sarah, along with a co-author, wrote a book entitled “Miscellaneous Tales and Poems.” Shockingly, publishers did not leap upon this literary masterpiece. Sarah sent a sternly-worded letter to publishers asking them to respond to her manuscript. Sarah no longer favors Raggedy Ann stationery, although she is sure it impressed top New York publishers.
Sarah’s parents were hauled into her elementary school to see first-hand the shocking condition of her desk. Sarah’s parents stared, open-mouthed, at the crumpled pieces of paper, broken pencils, and old notebooks crowding Sarah’s desk. Sarah’s organization skills have since improved. Slightly.
After college, Sarah began work as a journalist, covering Capitol Hill. Unfortunately, Sarah could not understand the thick drawls of the U.S. Senators from Alabama, resulting in many unintentional misquotes. Sarah was groped by one octogenarian politician, sumo-bumped off a subway car by Ted Kennedy, and unsuccessfully sued by the chief of staff to a corrupt U.S. Congresswoman. Sarah also worked briefly as an on-air correspondent for e! Entertainment Network, until the e! producers realized that Capitol Hill wasn’t, by any stretch of the imagination, what one might call sexy.
Sarah married Glenn Reynolds, completing her rebellion against her father, who told her never to become a writer or marry a lawyer.
Sarah took a job at Gannett New Service/USAToday, covering Capitol Hill. Sarah was assigned to cover the White House Correspondents Dinner and rode in the Presidential motorcade to the dinner. Sarah convinced a White House aide to let her stick her head out of the limousine moon-roof during the ride and wave to onlookers. Later, her triumph was tempered by the fact that bouncers would not allow her into the Vanity Fair after-party. Sarah attempted entry three times in case the bouncers were just kidding.
Sarah took a job writing features for the Baltimore Sun, and interviewed the actor who played Greg Brady. She refrained from asking if he really made out with Marcia, but just barely.
Sarah and Glenn’s son Jackson was born. He arrived too quickly for Sarah to receive painkillers, and Sarah was pretty sure she saw her mother smirking. When Glenn put a loving hand on Sarah’s shoulder during the throes of labor, Sarah decided the most expedient way to get Glenn to remove his hand was to bite it, hard. She was proved right.
Twenty months later, Sarah and Glenn’s son Will was born. Three weeks later, Sarah and Glenn moved into a new home and renovated the kitchen. Two weeks later, Glenn caught pneumonia and simultaneously started a new job. Ten days after the kitchen renovation was complete, the kitchen caught on fire, and Sarah, Glenn and family moved to a hotel while renovation began anew. Sarah and Glenn decided to work on their "timing" issues.
Having left her journalism job to chase around the ever-active Jack and Will, Sarah started writing a column for Bethesda Magazine and began work on a novel. She did not write it on Raggedy Ann stationery.
Her first book, The Opposite of Me, came out in 2010 and her second, Skiping, a Beat in 2011. Those were followed by These Girls in 2012, The Best of Me in 2013, and Catching Air in 2014.
Sarah gave birth to a bouncing baby boy, Dylan, and gets a little weepy every time she contemplates her good luck. (Adapted from the author's website.)
Book Reviews
Ultimately, Pekkanen shows that relationships of any kind take work, expression of love, and the willingness to take risks in order to save them.
New York Journal of Books
Pekkanen weaves a satisfying tale of the nuances of marriage and duty and how small kindnesses can reestablish the bonds of family after an estrangement.
People
Smart and soulful, Pekkanen explores the place where self and sisterhood intersect.
Redbook
When Kira and her husband, Peter, decide to join his brother, Rand, and his wife, Alyssa, in Vermont to help run their new bed-and-breakfast, it’s a big departure from their previously planned-out lives.... Pekkanen writes novels that offer thoughtful examinations of how the past shapes adult relationships and of the differences between men and women. Many of the interwoven story lines are finely wrought, and the book as a whole is compelling. —Aleksandra Walker
Booklist
The author explores issues that couples and friends face today—nothing and nobody is perfect, and life has hardships that must be endured. Verdict: Once again, Pekkanen delivers relatable characters and story lines, showcasing the strength and perseverance required to make relationships work. [A]n entertaining and emotional read. —Erin Holt, Williamson Cty. P.L., Franklin, TN
Library Journal
Pekkanen...returns to comfortable terrain by focusing on two couples running a Vermont bed-and-breakfast.... Although this novel shares some of the same qualities as Pekkanen's other successes, Dawn's subplot feels like a strained jolt of danger into an otherwise cohesive, if thinly plotted, family drama. A likable, if lesser, effort from Pekkanen.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. In what ways do Alyssa and Kira discover that they are more alike than they believed they were?
2. How are Rand and Peter contrasted throughout the novel? What are their different approaches to running the bed-and- breakfast?
3. For Dawn, following her heart rather than her head leads her into a disastrous outcome. Have you ever found yourself in a difficult situation because you were blinded by love?
4. Alyssa recalls a friend who went from weighing 350 pounds to running several marathons a year: "She hadn’t changed her habits; her habits had changed her." What’s the meaning behind this distinction? What are some of the new habits that these characters develop because they are running the B-and-B?
5. Even though Kira, Dawn, and Alyssa are all grown women, how are their childhood experiences—particularly, the degree to which they felt safe and cared for—impacting them throughout the novel? Particularly for Kira and Alyssa, how are these experiences shaping how they think about becoming mothers themselves?
6. In thinking about her marriage to Rand, Alyssa notes, "Their relationship had never been truly tested." Given that they regularly moved and traveled—and likely faced financial uncertainty as a result—did this analysis surprise you? What kinds of life events do you think really test a romantic relationship?
7. How do each woman’s memories of her mother drive her forward, or inspire her?
8. Kira becomes frustrated when she feels she’s bearing the weight of planning the wedding and the daily management of the inn without Peter equally contributing; Alyssa starts to panic when she realizes that perhaps she never really ensured that Rand also wanted a child as much as she did. To what degree is each woman responsible for the situations they find themselves in, and to what extent should they expect their husbands to behave differently?
9. Alyssa says that she was worried she’d "feel confined by bed rest" but that surprisingly, "all her traveling was what had prepared her for it." What are some other seemingly polar opposite experiences that end up being mutually beneficial?
10. Consider where we leave Rand at the novel’s conclusion. What do you think will happen to his and Alyssa’s marriage? Do you think men are less likely than women to change their patterns of behavior?
11. Kira disappears from the B-and-B and confronts two men when she arrives in Florida. What kind of power has each man held over her sense of self since she and Peter moved to Vermont, and why is it essential for her to find closure with each of them?
12. Consider the different types of relationships that are depicted in the novel—romantic bonds, blood relations, in-laws, and friends—and discuss the expectations and "norms" associated with each.
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
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