All Fall Down
Jennifer Weiner, 2014
Atria Books
416 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781451617788
Summary
Has your drinking or drug use become a problem?
Allison Weiss got her happy ending—a handsome husband, an adorable little girl, a job she loves, and a big house in the suburbs. But when she’s in the pediatrician’s office with her daughter and a magazine flips open to a quiz about addiction, she starts to wonder whether her use of prescription pills is becoming a problem.
On the one hand, it’s just prescription medication, the stuff her doctors give her. Is a Percocet at the end of a hard day really different than a glass of wine? Is it such a bad thing to pop a Vicodin after a brutal Jump & Pump class…or after your husband ignores you?
Back in the car, with her daughter safely buckled behind her, Allison opens the Altoid tin in her purse and slips a chalky white oval underneath her tongue. The pill unties her knotted muscles, erases the grime and ugliness of the city, soothes her as she frets about the truth of her looking-good life: that her husband’s becoming distant, that her daughter is acting out, that her father’s early Alzheimer’s is worsening and her mother’s barely managing to cope. She tells herself that the pills let her make it through her days…but what if her ever-increasing drug use, a habit that’s becoming expensive and hard to hide, is turning into her biggest problem of all?
All Fall Down is the story of a woman’s slide into addiction and struggle to find her way back up again. With a sparkling comedic touch and tender, true-to-life characterizations, this tale of empowerment and redemption is Jennifer Weiner’s most poignant, timely, and triumphant story yet. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—March 28, 1970
• Where—De Ridder, Louisiana, USA
• Raised—Simsbury, Connecticut
• Education—B.A., Princeton University
• Currently—lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Jennifer Weiner is an American writer, television producer, and former journalist. She is based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Background
Weiner was born in DeRidder, Louisiana, where her father was stationed as an army physician. The next year, her family (including a younger sister and two brothers) moved to Simsbury, Connecticut, where Weiner spent her childhood.
Weiner's parents divorced when she was 16, and her mother came out as a lesbian at age 55. Weiner has said that she was "one of only nine Jewish kids in her high school class of 400" at Simsbury High School. She entered Princeton University at the age of 17 and received her bachelor of arts summa cum laude in English in 1991, having studied with J. D. McClatchy, Ann Lauterbach, John McPhee, Toni Morrison, and Joyce Carol Oates. Her first published story, "Tour of Duty," appeared in Seventeen magazine in 1992.
After graduating from college, Weiner joined the Centre Daily Times in State College, Pennsylvania, where she managed the education beat and wrote a regular column called "Generation XIII" (referring to the 13th generation following the American Revolution), aka "Generation X." From there, she moved on to Kentucky's Lexington Herald-Leader, still penning her "Generation XIII" column, before finding a job with the Philadelphia Inquirer as a features reporter.
Novels and TV
Weiner continued to write for the Inquirer, freelancing on the side for Mademoiselle, Seventeen, and other publications, until after her first novel, Good in Bed, was published in 2001.
In 2005, her second novel, In Her Shoes (2002), was made into a feature film starring Cameron Diaz, Toni Collette and Shirley MacLaine by 20th Century Fox. Her sixth novel, Best Friends Forever, was a No. 1 New York Times bestseller and made Publishers Weekly's list of the longest-running bestsellers of the year. To date, she is the author of 10 bestselling books, including nine novels and a collection of short stories, with a reported 11 million copies in print in 36 countries.
In addition to writing fiction, Weiner is a co-creator and executive producer of the (now-cancelled) ABC Family sitcom State of Georgia, and she is known for "live-tweeting" episodes of the reality dating shows The Bachelor and The Bachelorette. In 2011, Time magazine named her to its list of the Top 140 Twitter Feeds "shaping the conversation." She is a self-described feminist.
Personal
Weiner married attorney Adam Bonin in October of 2001. They have two children and separated amicably in 2010. As of 2014 she lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with her partner Bill Syken.
Gender bias in the media
Weiner has been a vocal critic of what she sees as the male bias in the publishing industry and the media, alleging that books by male authors are better received than those written by women, that is, reviewed more often and more highly praised by critics. In 2010, she told Huffington Post,
I think it's a very old and deep-seated double standard that holds that when a man writes about family and feelings, it's literature with a capital L, but when a woman considers the same topics, it's romance, or a beach book—in short, it's something unworthy of a serious critic's attention.... I think it's irrefutable that when it comes to picking favorites—those lucky few writers who get the double reviews AND the fawning magazine profile AND the back-page essay space AND the op-ed...the Times tends to pick white guys.
In a 2011 interview with the Wall Street Journal blog Speakeasy, she said, "There are gatekeepers who say chick lit doesn’t deserve attention but then they review Stephen King." When Jonathan Franzen's novel Freedom was published in 2010 to critical acclaim and extensive media coverage (including a cover story in Time), Weiner criticized what she saw as the ensuing "overcoverage," igniting a debate over whether the media's adulation of Franzen was an example of entrenched sexism within the literary establishment.
Though Weiner received some backlash from other female writers for her criticisms, a 2011 study by the organization VIDA bore out many of her claims, and Franzen himself, in an interview with the Daily Telegraph, agreed with her:
To a considerable extent, I agree. When a male writer simply writes adequately about family, his book gets reviewed seriously, because: "Wow, a man has actually taken some interest in the emotional texture of daily life," whereas with a woman it’s liable to be labelled chick-lit. There is a long-standing gender imbalance in what goes into the canon, however you want to define the canon.
As for the label "chick lit", Weiner has expressed ambivalence towards it, embracing the genre it stands for while criticizing its use as a pejorative term for commercial women's fiction.
I’m not crazy about the label because I think it comes with a built-in assumption that you’ve written nothing more meaningful or substantial than a mouthful of cotton candy. As a result, critics react a certain way without ever reading the books.
In 2008, Weiner published a critique on her blog of a review by Curtis Sittenfeld of a Melissa Bank novel. Weiner deconstructs Sittenfeld's review, writing,
The more I think about the review, the more I think about the increasingly angry divide between ladies who write literature and chicks who write chick lit, the more it seems like a grown-up version of the smart versus pretty games of years ago; like so much jockeying for position in the cafeteria and mocking the girls who are nerdier/sluttier/stupider than you to make yourself feel more secure about your own place in the pecking order.
(Author bio adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 5/21/2014.)
Book Reviews
The everymom heroine in this novel becomes a hard-core pill addict–and it’s impossible to look away.
Glamour
Weiner’s sly portrayal of family, entitlement and recovery culture is a romp—with an edge.
Good Housekeeping
[A] page-turning saga about a working mom, Allison Weiss, who uses pills to deal with recurrent pain, not to mention life’s increasing challenges.... Although the ultimate explanation for Allison’s problems is cliched, Weiner...convincingly shows that addiction can, indeed, be overcome, but only with genuine commitment and hard, hard work.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) An absolutely heartbreaking read that will leave readers haunted. Great for book clubs or for anyone trying to understand a loved one's addiction.
Library Journal
(Starred review.) Weiner, who is a master at creating realistic characters, is at her best here, handling a delicate situation with witty dialogue and true-to-life scenes. Readers will be nodding their heads in sympathy as Allison struggles to balance being a mother, a daughter, and a wife while desperately just wanting to be herself.
Booklist
Discussion Questions
1. Why does Allison initially turn to painkillers as a way to solve her problems, or at least to make her feel better for a few hours? How do her answers to the magazine quiz she takes at Ellie’s doctor’s office make her feel, and how does she justify taking a pill in the car just moments after she completes the quiz? How would Allison’s story have been different if she had sought help immediately after taking the quiz?
2. From her work and her marriage to her role as primary caretaker for her daughter and parents, how do the pressures on Allison contribute to her addiction? Do you think that the pressures that Allison faces justify her addiction, or does she use the challenges in her life as an excuse to take more pills? How are the pressures facing Allison unique to her role as a mother and a wife, and what is the author saying about the pressures on women in society in general?
3. After Dave’s book deal falls through and Allison’s blogging becomes their primary source of income, how does their relationship change? Why do you think the author chose to have Allison write for a website specifically geared toward women and women’s issues?
4. As Allison sinks deeper into her addiction, her relationships with her parents, husband, daughter, friends, and boss change as everyone adapts to an Allison who is less reliable, stable, and emotionally present. How do Allison’s addiction and her subsequent efforts at recovery impact the people around her for better and for worse? How does Allison handle the changes she observes in the people she loves? What surprises her about her family’s and friends’ reactions and responses to her addiction, and what surprised you as a reader?
5. How does Allison’s definition of self change when she and Dave move to the suburbs, and why? How do Allison’s hopes for life in the suburbs compare to the reality of her new situation, and what does she give up to fit into the new life that Dave chose for them? Does living in the suburbs contribute to Allison’s addiction, or do you think she would have faced the same issues had she stayed in the city?
6. How does Allison’s ability to anonymously order pills through Penny Lane facilitate her addiction? Do you think her addiction would have reached such an extreme place if she didn’t have the knowledge and resources to order pills over the Internet? What does Allison’s reliance on ordering drugs online say about technology and the future of addiction?
7. When he finally confronts Allison about her addiction, Dave is extremely angry that she has put their daughter’s life in jeopardy. Could Dave have interfered with his wife’s addiction sooner? If you think Dave suspected that Allison was abusing drugs, why did he choose to wait so long to act? Do you think that Dave feels any responsibility for Allison’s addiction?
8. At Meadowcrest, Allison meets a range of women who are addicts, including a heroin-addicted teenage mother and a devout Christian alcoholic grandmother. Did the depiction of Allison’s friends at the rehab center change your perception of what an addict looks like? Which of the characters introduced at Meadowcrest did you sympathize or identify with most, and why?
9. From lying to Mrs. Dale about how impaired she was behind the wheel to her reluctance to share her full story with the women at Meadowcrest, Allison continually fabricates stories that hide the depth of her addiction. Why do you think Allison seems to be addicted to lying, and why is it so impossible for her to face the truth about her addiction? When do you think she finally realizes that she will never fully recover unless she is honest about her addiction with herself and others?
10. Compared to the women who wind up at Meadowcrest after committing felonies or losing custody of their children, Allison feels her story is “boring, bare-bones, drama-free,” but Mary points out that Allison just has a “high bottom” as opposed to a “rock bottom.” Discuss the concept of “high bottom” versus “rock bottom.” How does Allison’s view of her addiction and her “high bottom” make her feel different from the other women in rehab whose situations appear more dire?
11. Despite the intense subject matter of the book, the author manages to infuse humor into Allison’s journey, such as when she coaxes details about The Bachelor from Wanda the aide, or when she hatches her plan to escape by staging a musical about addiction and life in rehab. As a reader, how did you feel when you read these humorous scenes? Were you surprised that the author was able to bring some light to such a dark situation?
12. Even in the depths of her addiction, Allison strives to be a better mother than her own mother was to her, even sneaking out of Meadowcrest to attend Ellie’s sixth birthday party. What does Allison do differently from her own mother, and in what ways are they the same? Were you surprised when Allison’s mother revealed her secret toward the end of the book? How, if at all, would Allison’s life have changed if she had known the truth about her mother sooner?
13. Aubrey’s phone call at the end of the book reminds Allison how quickly addiction can consume a person. Why is it so important to Allison that she refuse Aubrey’s request to come stay with her? What do you think the future holds for both of them? In a year, where do you think Allison will be in terms of her relationships with her family and her work? In five years?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
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The Full Ridiculous
Mark Lamprell, 2014
Soft Skull
240 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781619022959
Summary
Michael O’Dell is hit by a car, and when he doesn’t die, he is surprised and pleased.
But what should have been a catalyst for a new lease on life turns into a dance with the black dog: depression. Post-accident, Michael can’t concentrate, control his anger and grief, or work out what to do about much of anything. His professional life begins to crumble, and although his wife, Wendy, is heroically supportive, his teenage children only exacerbate his post-accident angst.
His daughter Rosie punches out a vindictive schoolmate, plunging the family into a special parent-teacher hell. Meanwhile, his son Declan is found with a stash of illicit drugs, and a strange policeman starts harassing the family, causing ordinary mishaps to take on a sinister desperation.
Equal parts hilarious and painful, this compelling novel delves into the difficulties of family, marriage, and the precarious business of being a man. Mark Lamprell’s pithy and poignant debut novel examines the terrible truth: sometimes you can’t pull yourself together until you’ve completely fallen apart.
Author Bio
• Birth—September 26, 1958
• Where—Sydney, Australia
• Education—B.A., Macquarie University, New South Wales, Aus.
• Currently—Rome, Italy (soon to be Sydney, Australia)
(From the author.)
Book Reviews
[Lamprell] delivers a comic novel that is smoothly executed and full of minor pleasures.
Toronto Star
Screen writer Lamprell debuts with a first-rate novel told almost exclusively in the second person. It begins with Michael O’Dell being hit by a car, an accident that sets off a yearlong descent into an "Alice-less Wonderland" of personal and familial trouble. […] As Michael and his family work to resolve their crises, Lamprell manages to temper sentimentalism with a tonic wryness.
Publishers Weekly
The Full Ridiculous will appeal to readers of quirky, contemporary fiction such as The Rosie Project and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. It reminds us that sometimes, to really appreciate the beautiful highs of life, you need to hit rock bottom first.
Bookseller & Publisher
Discussion Questions
1. How does this depiction of modern society reflect your own experience? What are the similarities and differences?
2. Discuss the different descriptions of depression in the book. For example: "a winter that began in summer and lasted one whole year," or "despair descends and paralyses you ... like a chemical wash."
3. Michael is aware that other people are worse off than him. Should we compare our own difficulties to those of others?
4. The narrator tells us that the best entry point into the story is Rosie’s altercation with Eva. But the actual book starts with the car accident. And Michael comes to realise that his feelings of abandonment stem from his adoption at birth. Do the different possible beginnings mirror the different possible causes for Michael’s depression?
5. How much of Michael’s self-loathing stems from his inability to fulfill traditionally masculine roles, especially as breadwinner?
6. Discuss some of the other males in the novel and the alternative models of masculinity they exemplify (for example, George Pessites, Rat-tat-tat, Declan). What about the character Michael often contemplates—Zorba?
7. "So this perfect little person has arrived and now we get to fuck him up," Wendy says after Declan is born. Is it possible to be a parent without fucking up your children?
8. "You are no longer big, strong dependable Daddy. Daddy who puts a roof over our heads and brings home money for food and clothes. Daddy who fixes things and makes things better. Daddy who knows best" (120). What does the novel say about the importance of traditional models of fatherhood?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)
Magician's Land (Magicians Trilogy, 3)
Lev Grossman, 2014
Viking Adult
416 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780670015672
Summary
The stunning conclusion to the New York Times bestselling Magicians trilogy.
Quentin Coldwater has been cast out of Fillory, the secret magical land of his childhood dreams. With nothing left to lose he returns to where his story began, the Brakebills Preparatory College of Magic. But he can’t hide from his past, and it’s not long before it comes looking for him.
Along with Plum, a brilliant young undergraduate with a dark secret of her own, Quentin sets out on a crooked path through a magical demimonde of gray magic and desperate characters. But all roads lead back to Fillory, and his new life takes him to old haunts, like Antarctica, and to buried secrets and old friends he thought were lost forever. He uncovers the key to a sorcery masterwork, a spell that could create magical utopia, a new Fillory—but casting it will set in motion a chain of events that will bring Earth and Fillory crashing together. To save them he will have to risk sacrificing everything.
The Magician’s Land is an intricate thriller, a fantastical epic, and an epic of love and redemption that brings the Magicians trilogy to a magnificent conclusion, confirming it as one of the great achievements in modern fantasy. It’s the story of a boy becoming a man, an apprentice becoming a master, and a broken land finally becoming whole. (From the publisher.)
This is the third in the Magicians Trilogy: the first is The Magicians (2009), followed by The Magician King (2011.)
Author Bio
• Birth—June 26, 1969
• Raised—Concord, Massachusetts, USA
• Education—B.A., Harvard College; Yale University (graduate studies)
• Awards—Alex Award; John W. Campbell Award
• Currently—lives in Brooklyn, New York, New York USA
Lev Grossman is an American novelist and journalist, notably the author of the Magicians Trilogy: The Magicians (2009), The Magician King (2011), The Magician's Land (2014). He is a senior writer and book critic for Time.
Personal life
Grossman is the twin brother of video game designer and novelist Austin Grossman, and brother of sculptor Bathsheba Grossman, and the son of the poet Allen Grossman and the novelist Judith Grossman. He graduated from Harvard in 1991 with a degree in literature. Grossman then attended a Ph.D. program in comparative literature for three years at Yale University, but left before completing his dissertation. He lives in Brooklyn with a daughter named Lily from a previous marriage and his second wife, Sophie Gee, whom he married in early 2010. In 2012, his second child, Benedict, was born.
Journalism
Grossman has written for the New York Times, Wired, Salon.com, Lingua Franca, Entertainment Weekly, Time Out New York, Wall Street Journal, and Village Voice. He has served as a member of the board of directors of the National Book Critics Circle and as the chair of the Fiction Awards Panel.
In writing for Time, he has also covered the consumer electronics industry, reporting on video games, blogs, viral videos and Web comics like Penny Arcade and Achewood. In 2006, he traveled to Japan to cover the unveiling of the Wii console. He has interviewed Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Salman Rushdie, Neil Gaiman, Joan Didion, Jonathan Franzen, J.K. Rowling, and Johnny Cash. He wrote one of the earliest pieces on Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series. Grossman was also the author of the " Person of the Year 2010" feature article on Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
Novels
Lev Grossman's first novel, Warp, was published in 1997 after he moved to New York City. Warp is about "the lyrical misadventures of an aimless 20-something in Boston who has trouble distinguishing between reality and Star Trek." His second novel Codex, was published in 2004, became an international bestseller.
In 2009 Grossman published the book that he is most well known for, The Magicians. It became a New York Times bestseller. The Washington Post called it “Exuberant and inventive.... Fresh and compelling...a great fairy tale.” The New York Times said the book "could crudely be labeled a Harry Potter for adults," injecting mature themes into fantasy literature.
The Magicians won the 2010 Alex Award, given to ten adult books that appeal to young adults; the book also and the 2011 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer.
The book's sequel, The Magician King, came out in 2011 and returns readers to the magical land of Fillory, where Quentin and his friends are now kings and queens. The Chicago Tribune called it "The Catcher in the Rye for devotees of alternative universes" and "a rare, strange and scintillating novel." It was an Editor's Choice pick of the New York Times, which referred to it as a "serious, heartfelt novel [that] turns the machinery of fantasy inside out." The Boston Globe called the it "a rare achievement, a book that simultaneously criticizes and celebrates our deep desire for fantasy."
The final book of the Magician's Trilogy, The Magician's Land, was published in 2014. Kirkus Reviews referred to it as a " brilliant fantasy filled with memorable characters" and called it "endlessly fascinating."
Grossman confirmed that he has sold the rights for a television adaptation of The Magicians but added that he's not certain the source material would be conducive to a film adaptation. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 5/21/14.)
Book Reviews
The Magician’s Land, more than any other book in the trilogy, wrestles with the question of humanity. When Quentin and Plum cast spells to become birds or whales, for instance, they prove just how easily human consciousness mucks up joy and the simple pleasure of existing. And when Alice becomes a niffin, her human impulse for suffering is burned away—but so is her empathy. The same thorny consciousness that can make us miserable also enables us to forgive, to connect, to change.... [S]tories...enable us to celebrate and comprehend the human experience. It’s in stories that we find ourselves. It makes sense, then, that as a boy, Quentin Coldwater read a series of books that led him into a life of magic. He fell in love with those books.
Edan Lapucki - New York Times Book Review
Though the tone is occasionally too ironic, and Quentin’s victories overly easy—such as a reconciliation with a key character from the first novel—this novel serves as an elegantly written third act to Quentin’s bildungsroman.... Fans of the trilogy will be pleased at how neatly it all resolves.
Publishers Weekly
When he's not reviewing books for Time, Grossman writes engrossing fantasy that has won him the 2011 John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best New Writer from the World Science Fiction Society. Here's the conclusion to a trilogy.
Library Journal
An absolutely brilliant fantasy filled with memorable characters—old and new—and prodigious feats of imagination.... Endlessly fascinating.... Fantasy fans will rejoice at its publication.
Booklist
[A] deeply satisfying finale...[Grossman’s] characters’ magical battles have a bravura all their own.... The essence of being a magician, as Quentin learns to define it, could easily serve as a thumbnail description of Grossman’s art: "the power to enchant the world."
Kirkus Review
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.)
Bellweather Rhapsody
Kate Racculia, 2014
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
352 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780544129917
Summary
A high school music festival goes awry when a young prodigy disappears from a hotel room that was the site of a famous crime, in a whip-smart novel sparkling with the dark and giddy pop culture pleasures of The Shining, Agatha Christie, and Glee.
Fifteen years ago, a murder/suicide in room 712 rocked the grand old Bellweather Hotel and the young bridesmaid who witnessed it. Now hundreds of high school musicians, including quiet bassoonist Rabbit Hatmaker and his brassy diva twin, Alice, have gathered in its cavernous, crumbling halls for the annual Statewide festival; the grown-up bridesmaid has returned to face her demons; and a snowstorm is forecast that will trap everyone on the grounds. Then one of the orchestra’s stars disappears—from room 712. Is it a prank, or has murder struck the Bellweather once again?
The search for answers entwines a hilariously eccentric cast of characters—conductors and caretakers, failures and stars, teenagers on the verge and adults trapped in memories. For everyone has come to the Bellweather with a secret, and everyone is haunted. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1980
• Where—Syracuse, New York, USA
• Education—B.A., Universityof Buffalo; M.F.A., Emerson College
• Currently—lives in Boston, Massachusetts
Kate Racculia is a writer and researcher living in Boston, Massachusetts. Her first novel, This Must Be the Place, was published in 2010. Bellweather Rhapsody, her second novel, came out in 2014.
She was a teenage bassoonist. In her hometown of Syracuse, New York, she played in her high school band, the Lyncourt Summer Concert Band, the Syracuse Symphony Youth Orchestra, and various NYSSMA festivals. Her bassoon was named Nigel.
Kate studied illustration, design, Jane Austen, and Canada at the University of Buffalo. She has her MFA from Emerson College, and teaches novel and genre fiction workshops at Grub Street, Boston’s non-profit creative writing community. She has been a bookseller, a planetarium operator, a coffee jerk, a designer, and a proposal writer.
She posts many pictures of her cat on the Internet, is a total sucker for a saxophone solo, and has every intention of growing up to be Jessica Fletcher. (From the author's website.)
Book Reviews
(Starred review.) [A] rich brew of a novel.... In 1982, in Clinton’s Kill, N.Y., a new bride murdered her husband, then killed herself [at] the Bellweather Hotel. In 1997, high school drama queen Alice Hatmaker checks into the same room to perform at the statewide music festival.... Racculia thus sets the stage for a novel of dueling wills, marked by textured characterization and an ebullient storytelling style.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) Part ghost story, part mystery, part coming-of-age tale, and part love sonnet to music, Racculia's second nove is dark and delightful, with memorable characters inspired by both literature and pop culture. It will grab readers and keep them with multilayered plotting and writing that ranges from humorous to poetic. —Nancy H. Fontaine, Norwich P.L., VT
Library Journal
Before you can say “plot point,” Viola’s daughter, Jill, has vanished—after apparently committing suicide (it’s complicated). Whodunit? ... That most of the characters have secrets adds a layer of intrigue to a musical mystery that strikes nary a false note. Encore, encore
Booklist
(Starred review.) Racculia delivers an experience worth rhapsodizing about as a group of teenagers and their adult chaperones descend upon a hotel in the Catskills for a statewide music festival.... [A]ngst-ridden teens and adults, all with hidden secrets, are swept up in a crescendo of memories and emotions. Racculia's droll wit and keen understanding of human nature propel a story that's rich in distinctive characters and wholly engaging. A gem.
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.)