Returns and Exchanges
Yuri Kruman, 2013
Author House
426 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781491813843
Summary
Five young New Yorkers brought together on the verge of greatness—by the chance of fate—do battle to transcend through pangs of City grit and pleasure, to achieve.
Helen, a modern woman caught between professions, men and fears, has a stark choice to make. Jacob, a violin prodigy, frantically writes a symphony to win his love and prove himself. Conrad, ambitious Texan in New York, catches a break beyond his wildest dreams, with just one caveat. A childhood sin he can't expunge takes playboy-at-his-peak Lisandro from dream life to damning nightmare, half a world away. Senator's son and journalist Aidan risks everything for story that will make him great.
In the dark heart of Africa, against the Russian winter and the heel of influence, in the East-West bazaar of choice and genius mind of Jacob Frenkel, the mettle of a generation will be forged.
Author Bio
• Birth—April 13, 1983
• Where—Moscow, Russia
• Raised—Lexington, Kentucy, USA
• Education—B.A., University of Pennsylvania; J.D.,
Benjamin Cardozo School of Law
• Currently—lives in New York, New York
Yuri Kruman was born in Moscow and, at the age of nine, moved to Kentucky where he grew up. He studied neuroscience and anthropology at University of Pennsylvania before receiving his law degree from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. He has worked on Wall Street and in healthcare. He lives with his wife and daughter in Manhattan. (From the author.)
Visit the author's website.
Visit the author on Goodreads.
Discussion Questions
1. List some of the classical and modern euphemisms for European/"Western" civilization found in the book
2. What are some of Jacob Frenkel's motivations for writing a symphony?
3. What would one conclude about millenials from this book?
4. Is Conrad's experience in New York a wild success, a sell-out's dream, just plain fate, or all of the above?
5. What do we learn about the creative process from Jacob Frenkel's experience in writing a symphony?
6. How does a modern woman like Helen Silkin manage to navigate the multiple pressures of professional success, marriage, her parents' immigrant dreams, pressures on an only child, desire to see and experience the world, plus the weight of generations and her own idea of what success entails? Does she, indeed, manage?
7. What does it take for a famous man's son to step out from his shadow? Can he ever?
8. What are we to learn, if anything, about the ever-dying, beleaguered Western civilization from the events of Berlin in this book that New York fails to teach?
(Questions provided courtesy of the author.)
To Tuscany with Love
Gail Mencini, 2014
Capriole Group
392 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781938592003
Summary
Can one college semester abroad change the course of your life?
Bella Rossini, a vivacious college junior, lands in jail overnight with acquaintances whom she mistakes for friends. Shipped off to Tuscany by her mother, Bella is suddenly thrust into living with seven strangers during one life-altering summer.
Meet Hope, the sturdy and practical girl, steadfast in her loyalty to her boyfriend; Meghan and Karen, identical twins with an eye for fashion and beauty to match; Stillman, haunted by his hard past, and Phillip, an athlete, both fueled by competition; Lee, by family mandate in pre-med; and Rune, the Hollywood-bound wild child. All add sizzling chemistry and rebellious humor to the mix.
In one whirlwind summer, while uncovering the charms of Italy, they discover both friendship and love. After their summer together, life – and loss – happens. Returning to Tuscany 30 years later, their dreams, anger, secrets and disappointments create an emotional kaleidoscope. Their reunion sends them on a startling collision course that none of them could have predicted.
Set against the allure of Tuscany, with an irresistible fusion of heartbreak and humor, this debut novel, To Tuscany with Love, explores the fear of letting the past determine the future and the power of friendship. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—state of Nebraska, USA
• Education—B.A., Wartburg College; L.L.M, University
of Denver, College of Law
• Currently—lives in Denver, Colorado
Gail Mencini makes her literary debut with To Tuscany with Love (January 7, 2014, Capriole Group) an adult coming-of-age novel set in central Italy.
Born in rural Nebraska, Mencini graduated with honors in 1976 from Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, where she majored in accounting, economics and business administration. She holds a Master of Laws of Taxation degree from the University of Denver College of Law.
Mencini co-owned an accounting firm and practiced for 15 years in public accounting, specializing in tax law related to mergers and acquisitions and real estate. She also spent time in the higher education field, working as an adjunct professor at the University of Colorado and Metro State College, as well as the University of Denver College of Law. She was a repeat speaker at national continuing education seminars and a featured presenter in a real estate conference in the Caribbean.
In 1990 when she married her husband, Mencini became an “instant mother” of three boys plus another son two years later, which opened the doors to becoming a full-time mother and igniting her long-time passion for creative arts, gourmet cooking and traveling.
She went on to become a contributing editor and photojournalist for Buzz in the ‘Burbs, writing monthly cooking columns featuring dinner themes, recipes and complementary wine suggestions. She also served as interim director of marketing for Wine Master Cellars as the company transitioned to new leadership. She has been a member of the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers for nearly 20 years as well as the Pikes Peak Writers for over 10. She most recently joined Author U based in Aurora, Colo.
She writes and cooks in Denver, Colorado, with her husband and family who are always ready to critique her abundance of story ideas and recipes. (From the publisher.)
Visit the author's website.
Book Reviews
Gail Mencini’s debut novel adds the volatility of young love to an enchanting landscape. Bella Rossini’s love triangle, supplemented by the stories of her friends, is a passionate entanglement that complicates the course of her life. … Rewarding elements include the theme of travel as a restorative force; Italy emerges not as a touristic, escapist destination, but as a place with deep significance in the characters’ search for forgiveness and a new sense of direction. … A clear-eyed look at the many ways plans can derail, and at the resilience of those who get back on track. …[An] entertaining account of the realization that old friendships can restart to provide support amid hardship.
ForeWord Reviews
A powerful debut novel that transports readers to the lush Italian countryside and into the lives of these college students on summer holiday in Tuscany. The lies & lust experienced by the characters left me enraptured and flipping pages quickly. The Big Chill -feel type reunion at the end bring it all together and the truth that comes out left me absolutely gob smacked. Highly recommend that you read this with a large glass of Cabernet Sauvignon.
Mandy Brooks - Book People in Austin, TX and Erica Bates - Tattered Cover in Denver, CO
For anyone who loves anything Italian, Gail Mencini's charming "coming of age" debut To Tuscany with Love is an entertaining novel of a small group of college students spending a life-changing summer together discovering love and friendship against the beautiful Italian landscape. The group is reunited in Tuscany thirty years later resulting in an unpredictable set of circumstances. Author Gail Mencini's familiarity with Tuscany is refreshing. Her debut novel leaves the reader considering the importance of friends in one's life as well as the "marks" they've left on one's life during varying ages and stages. Great reading group pick too.
Cynthia Callander - The Vero Beach Book Center, Vero Beach, FL
A fun, poignant story about eight college students' shared experience in Italy and how their youthful idealism and indiscretions affect their adulthoods. Mencini’s debut novel starts in the present day with the middle-aged Bella Rossini receiving an invitation to reunite with people from her past.... An intriguing tale about how people can affect one another long after they part ways.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Discuss the goals of each of the characters as they return for their reunion: redemption, forgiveness, retribution, escape, inspiration, opportunity for a new direction, and reuniting with a lost love are all possibilities to contemplate.
2. How do the events during and immediately following their college semester abroad shape Bella’s future?
3. Discuss the reasons why people might stay in relationships that are destructive or unfulfilling.
4. Consider the good and bad life choices the characters make and how that impacts not only them, but also others.
5. Karen and Lee each acted in an inappropriate or "wrong" manner. Discuss how their actions might have helped one or more of their friends in the long run.
6. How do the characters each grow as a person during the course of the novel?
7. For each character, discuss whether the group’s friendship impacted the characters’ individual growth during their semester abroad, later during their reunion, or during both periods of time.
8. Stillman’s childhood molded his future in more than one way. Discuss how his future was shaped by his past, whether you would have made similar choices or not, and why.
9. Consider the varying reactions of the characters to stresses and disappointments in their lives.
10. What specific event or element of each character’s past do they fear will guide their future? (This could be an event, the continued search for an unfulfilled goal, or their previous mistakes.)
11. Consider how the individual characters were positively and negatively impacted by the existence of, or their need for, a family.
12. Compare how the characters’ different backgrounds impacted their lives, goals, and personalities.
13. Consider the importance of friends in your life and how they impact you during different ages.
14. Discuss reunions and your own fears and hopes when attending one.
15. Share your favorite or least favorite reunion story with your group.
(Questions issued by publisher.)
Consequences
Aleatha Romig, 2011
Romig Works
572 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780988489134
Summary
Anthony Rawlings had a plan-to teach Claire Nichols to behave.
Claire Nichols had a plan-to survive!
In an unfamiliar bedroom within a luxurious mansion, Claire Nichols wakes to memories of a brutal abduction. All of her recollections have one common denominator, the man she just met-Anthony Rawlings. Unbeknownst to Claire, Anthony has had her in his sights for a long time. Every action has consequences-and his actions resulted in their chance meeting.
Facing incomprehensible circumstances, Claire must learn to survive as she comes to terms with her new reality-every aspect of her livelihood is now dependent upon the tall, dark-haired, dark-eyed tycoon. Anthony may appear to the world as a prosperous, benevolent, kind businessman, but in reality Claire learns he is also a menacing, controlling captor with very strict rules: do as your told, public failure is not an option, and don't divulge private information. Failure to follow these rules and more, are met with serious consequences.
In an effort to earn her freedom, Claire learns her lessons well and before long, she unknowingly captivates her captor. Anthony/ Tony reluctantly becomes enthralled with Claire's beauty, resilience and determination. Their interaction instigates strong emotions, including-fear, anger, love, and lust-as their journey flows into uncharted waters of intrigue and passion.
From the opening criminal abduction, through the twists and turns, to the unlikely romantic thrills, the suspense climaxes as Aleatha Romig utilizes vivid detail, allowing this novel to unfold like a movie.
Can you put the pieces of the puzzle together? Claire Nichols abduction wasn't a random act-did she learn her lessons well enough? Will these unlikely lovers remain true-or will she learn the truth before it's too late?
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Raised—Mishawaka, Indiana, USA
• Education—Indiana University
• Currently—lives in Indianapolis, Indiana
Aleatha Romig is a bestselling author, who has been voted #1 "New Author to Read" on Goodreads, July 2012! She was also #9 most followed author on Goodreads, July / August 2013.
Aleatha has lived most of her life in Indiana growing up in Mishawaka, graduating from Indiana University, and currently living south of Indianapolis. Together with her high-school sweetheart and husband of twenty six years, they've raised three children.
Before she became a full-time author, she worked days as a dental hygienist and spent her nights writing. Now, when she's not imagining mind-blowing twists and turns, she likes to spend her time with her family and friends. Her pastimes include exercising, reading and creating heros/ anti-heros who haunt your dreams!
Aleatha enjoys traveling, especially when there is a beach involved. In 2011 she had the opportunity to visit Sydney, Australia to visit her daughter studying at the University of Wollongong. Her dream is to travel to places in her novels and around the world.
Consequences, her first novel, was first released August 2011 by Xlibris Publishing. Truth, the sequel, was released in 201,2 and Convictd, the final installment of the Consequences Series released in 2013. (From the author's website.)
Book Reviews
This was a good book, a book that makes you think how strong the persuasive powers of control and dependency are to a person's well-being. There is a lot that goes on and I can probably write an essay about all the psychological implications they produce but I'll just say it's worth reading and hopefully there will be sequel.
Didi Hassan - Choice Book Reviews
Consequences isn’t what I would call a romance novel. There are sex scenes but they aren’t done in a typical romance way. For me, the book would be more of a psychological thriller or straight up suspense. The book is about one relationship, Tony and Claire, but it does not follow the typical relationship pattern. Bravo to Ms. Romig for shocking the heck out of me.
Jen- Fiction Vixen Book Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Consider Claire and Tony as characters. What were your initial thoughts and feelings about them? When (if ever) did those feeling change?
2. What do you believe Claire should have done differently when she was first kidnapped? How does Anthony use “Operant Conditioning” to alter Claire’s way of thinking? When do you believe Claire changed from “victim of abuse” to “victim of Stockholm Syndrome”?
3. How does Claire’s “compartmentalization” save/ hurt her?
4. What do you believe was Anthony’s motivation at the beginning of our story? Why would a man of his wealth, looks and status jeopardize everything to kidnap a woman like Claire? What theories did you have in the beginning? When did you change your mind? Did the backstories help you see the truth?
5. Although Claire was completely isolated within Anthony’s estate for many months, his employees were present and saw her predicament. What were your feelings regarding their acceptance of Claire’s forced imprisonment and obvious duties?
6. Claire’s unconsciousness showed the readers much about Claire’s past. What did her “visions” tell you?
7. Was Claire’s acceptance of Tony’s marriage proposal due to love or victimization? Why? What clues did the author give you to support your answer?
8. Do you believe Tony would have released Claire from her “debt”, if she’d accepted that option at his proposal?
9. Why did the author provide the Vanity Fair article in its entirety? What was Ms. Romig showing the readers?
10. While Claire and Tony’s life was “positive” and they’re in Europe, did you find yourself telling Claire to “follow the rules”? What were your emotions as she rushed back to the hotel in Italy, knowing she’s late? How did it make you feel, wanting her to “tow the line”?
11. A skillful romantic thriller writer knows which details to reveal and when to reveal them. How much do you know...and when do you know it? In other words, how good was Ms. Romig at burying her clues in plain sight? Now that you know the end of this book, go back and find the clues she left for you.
12. Each chapter is preceded by quotations. Did you read the quotations, and what did they tell you about the chapter?
13. When Claire notices the open key cabinet and decides to drive away...what did you anticipate would happen? Were you correct?
14. Anthony offers Claire an “out” to jail. Did you agree with her decision to refuse his offer? Why?
15. As Marcus Evergreen displays his evidence of Claire’s privileged life with Anthony Rawlings, how do you think she felt? What emotions did you feel?
16. The “box” explains so much. Why do you think the box was sent to Claire?
17. Critics have said this book contains too much description. Do you agree? Could you visualize the scenes in Consequences? At the end, did those vivid scenes come back, with a new understanding of why they were all there?
18. In chapter one Claire made a vow to herself. It began: I am not sure how or when. But I will... Did Claire accomplish her goal?
19. Movie time: Who would you like to see play what part?
(Questions from the author's website.)
Making Waves
Cassandra King, 1995, 2004
Hyperion
320 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780786891191
Summary
In a small Alabama town in Zion County, life is finally looking up for 20-year-old Donnette Sullivan.
Having just inherited her aunt's old house and beauty shop, she's taken over the business. Her husband Tim, recently crippled in an accident, is beginning to cope not just with his disability but also with the loss of his dreams. Once a promising artist who gave up art for sports, Tim paints a sign for Donnette's new shop, Making Waves, that causes ripples throughout the small southern community.
In a sequence of events—sometimes funny, sometimes tragic—the lives of Donnette, Tim, and others in their small circle of family and friends are unavoidably affected. Once the waves of change surge through Zion County, the lives of its people are forever altered. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1944
• Where—Lower Alabama, USa
• Education—B.A., M.A., Alabama college
• Currently—lives in the Low Country, South Carolina
Cassandra King is the author of five novels, most recently the critically acclaimed Moonrise (2013), her literary homage to Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. Moonrise is a Fall 2013 Okra Pick and a Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) bestseller. It has been described as “her finest book to date.”
Fellow Southern writers Sandra Brown, Fannie Flagg, and Dorothea Benton Frank hailed her previous novel, Queen of Broken Hearts (2008), as “wonderful,” “uplifting,” “absolutely fabulous,” and “filled with irresistible characters.” Prior to that, King’s third book, The Same Sweet Girls (2005), was a #1 Booksense Selection and Booksense bestseller, a Southeastern Bookseller Association bestseller, a New York Post Required Reading selection, and a Literary Guild Book-of-the-Month Club selection.
Her first novel, Making Waves in Zion, was published in 1995 by River City Press and reissued in 2004 by Hyperion. Her second novel, The Sunday Wife (2002), was a Booksense Pick, a People Magazine Page-Turner of the Week, a Literary Guild Book-of-the-Month selection, a Books-a-Million President’s Pick, a South Carolina State Readers’ Circle selection, and a Salt Lake Library Readers’ Choice Award nominee. In paperback, the novel was chosen by the Nestle Corporation for its campaign to promote reading groups.
King’s short fiction and essays have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including Callaloo, Alabama Bound: The Stories of a State (1995), Belles’ Letters: Contemporary Fiction by Alabama Women (1999), Stories From Where We Live (2002), and Stories From The Blue Moon Cafe (2004). Aside from writing fiction, she has taught writing on the college level, conducted corporate writing seminars, worked as a human-interest reporter for a Pelham, Alabama, weekly paper, and published an article on her second-favorite pastime, cooking, in Cooking Light magazine.
A native of L.A. (Lower Alabama), King currents lives in the Low Country of South Carolina with her husband, novelist Pat Conroy, whom she met when he wrote a blurb for Making Waves. (From the author's website.)
Book Reviews
You can't go wrong with this winner.
Birmingham News
[M]any surprising and remarkable moments in what must be hailed as a major novel of recent years.
Mobile Register
Zion is populated with plain-spoken eccentrics...the story blasts into a big finish.
Orlando Sentinel
Donnette and Tim have been sweethearts since childhood, but some folks in Zion County, Ala., don't think she's good enough for him. When a tragic accident ends Tim's chance for football greatness...Donnette snatches him up; they marry and buy her aunt's beauty salon.... Told in six chapters, narrated by four different characters, the novel offers a shifting moral landscape complemented by a sharp vision of Southern culture and life.
Publishers Weekly
Discussion Questions
1. Though Donnette is 20 years old, her thoughts and behavior can be very childlike. How is this most strongly demonstrated? What could account for this quality in her?
2. What are some of the sensory clues provided by the author that this story takes place in the Deep South? The novels setting, in the tiny town of Zion, Alabama is crucial to the story. Can you imagine the events and characters taking place or existing anywhere else in the United States?
3. At no time in the story does the author indicate what is happening in the world outside Zion County. What is the significance of this?
4. What role does the beauty parlor play in the town’s affairs?
5. The author makes the affection between Tim and Taylor appear to border on homosexuality—or does she? What does Tim and Taylor’s youthful relationship say about the expression of friendship between men today in this country?
6. One of the central characters of the story, the football hero Tim, did not have a voice. What was the effect of having him seen only through the eyes of others?
7. What other novels use the device of having different characters tell the story through their own voice? Is this a peculiar feature of Southern writing, and if so, why is it so?
8. Do the transformation of Ellis from a drab mouse to a glamour puss, and her rejections of religious teachings seem plausible? Could she have been the backbone of the story? What other characters seem capable of taking over the story, or perhaps spinning off a new novel?
9. Presumably Tim’s artistic abilities were suppressed for the same reason that Tim and Taylor’s love for each other was—it wasn’t "manly." What other Southern writers are known for employing themes of repressed desires and frustration?
10. Did Making Waves alter your impressions of life in the Deep South in any way? What did you learn?
11. Miss Maudie’s funeral was the catalyst that starts the novel and brings Tim and Taylor back together. What other new beginnings came about as a result of the funeral?
(Questions from the author's website.)
The Ghost Bride
Yangsze Choo, 2013
HarperCollins
362 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780062227324
Summary
Yangsze Choo’s stunning debut, The Ghost Bride, is a startlingly original novel infused with Chinese folklore, romantic intrigue, and unexpected supernatural twists.
Li Lan, the daughter of a respectable Chinese family in colonial Malaysia, hopes for a favorable marriage, but her father has lost his fortune, and she has few suitors. Instead, the wealthy Lim family urges her to become a “ghost bride” for their son, who has recently died under mysterious circumstances. Rarely practiced, a traditional ghost marriage is used to placate a restless spirit. Such a union would guarantee Li Lan a home for the rest of her days, but at what price?
Night after night, Li Lan is drawn into the shadowy parallel world of the Chinese afterlife, where she must uncover the Lim family’s darkest secrets—and the truth about her own family.
Reminiscent of Lisa See’s Peony in Love and Amy Tan’s The Bonesetter’s Daughter, The Ghost Bride is a wondrous coming-of-age story and from a remarkable new voice in fiction. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1972-73
• Raised—Malaysia
• Education—B.A., Harvard University
• Currently—lives in the San Francisco Bay Area
Yangsze Choo is a fourth-generation Malaysian of Chinese descent. Choo grew up in Malaysia but, accompanying her diplomat father, spent her childhood in various countries. As a result, she says that she can eavesdrop (badly) in several languages.
After graduating from Harvard University, Choo worked as a management consultant and at a startup before writing her first novel. The Ghost Bride (2013), set in colonial Malaya and the elaborate Chinese world of the afterlife, is about a peculiar historic custom called a spirit marriage. The novel is a soon-to-be-aired Netflix series!
The Night Tiger (2019) is Yangzse's second novel.
Choo lives in the Bay Area of San Francisco, California, with her husband, two children, and a potential rabbit. She loves to eat and read, and often does both at the same time. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
Like all good literary heroines, Li Lan is motherless, impoverished, educated beyond the custom of the times, and uninterested in marriage, especially to someone who's dead. Since she lives in 19th-century Malacca, the British colony in what is now Malaysia, this is a situation whose disadvantages Jane Austen herself would appreciate.
Martha T. Moore - USA Today
In her debut novel, Choo tells the unlikely story of a young Chinese woman who marries a dead man...an ancient custom among the Chinese in Malaysia called “spirit marriage.” ... Choo’s clear and charming style creates an alternate reality where the stakes are just as high as in the real world, combining grounded period storytelling with the supernatural.
Publishers Weekly
Li Lan is from an upper-class but financially destitute Chinese family in Malaya (modern-day Malaysia). When the wealthy Lim family proposes that she enter into a spirit marriage with their recently deceased son, she reluctantly accepts.... Choo’s first novel explores in a delicate and thought-provoking way the ancient custom of spirit marriages, which were thought to appease restless spirits. —Caitlin Bronner, MLIS, Pratt Inst., Brooklyn
Library Journal
Choo's remarkably strong and arresting first novel explores the concept of Chinese "spirit marriages" in late-nineteenth-century Malaya through the eyes of the highly relatable Li Lan.... With its gripping tangles of plot and engaging characters, this truly compelling read is sure to garner much well deserved attention.
Booklist
Young Li Lan's family was once rich and respected...[so] she's shocked and disturbed when her father asks her if she'll consent to become a ghost bride to the dead son of Malacca's wealthiest family.... Choo's multifaceted tale is sometimes difficult to follow with its numerous characters and subplots, but the narrative is so rich in Chinese folklore, mores and the supernatural that it's nonetheless intriguing and enlightening. A haunting debut.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Perplexed by her father's absences and worried by finances and marriage negotiations, Li Lan wonders, "What was happening out in the world of men?... Despite the fact that my feet were not bound, I was confined to domestic quarters as though a rope tethered my ankle to our front door." How does Li Lan chafe against notions of femininity, and in what ways does she rebel?
2. Malacca is a city settled by various ethnic groups over the centuries, with a long colonial history as well. The Chinese in Malaya, like Li Lan's family, keep their own practices and dress, but don't follow tradition as rigidly as in China. How does Li Lan benefit from this blending of tradition?
3. After Li Lan gives in to Amah's superstition and visits a medium at the temple, she observes a Chinese cemetery that has been neglected due to fear of ghosts: "How different it was from the quiet Malay cemeteries, whose pawn-shaped Islamic tombstones are shaded by the frangipani tree, which the Malays call the graveyard flower. Amah would never let me pluck the fragrant, creamy blossoms when I was a child. It seemed to me that in this confluence of cultures, we had acquired one another's superstitions without necessarily any of their comforts." What do you think the comforts of superstition are? As Li Lan interacts with the spirit world, does her perspective on superstition change?
4. Why is Li Lan drawn to Tian Bai when they meet? How do her feelings for him change over the course of the novel, and why?
5. The ghost world Li Lan enters is a richly imagined place governed by complicated bureaucracy. How does the parallel city reflect the world of the living, and in what ways is it different?
6. When Li Lan thinks that she has found her mother—a second wife in the ancestral Lim household—she is shaken by how horrible she is. How does meeting her real mother, Auntie Three, help Li Lan understand her own family?
7. When Li Lan is a wandering spirit, able to observe from another perspective, what does she realize about herself and her world? Are there positive aspects to her time spent outside her body?
8. Li Lan thinks, "All who have seen ghosts and spirits are marked with a stain, and far more than Old Wong, I have trespassed where no living person ought have." How has Li Lan's time spent in the realm of the ghost world – speaking with the dead, eating spirit offerings, seeing Er Lang's true identity – changed her? Is it possible for her to go back to normal life?
9. When Er Lang proposes to Li Lan, he warns her, "I wouldn't underestimate the importance of family." Were you surprised by Li Lan's decision at the end of the novel? If you were in her shoes, do you think you would have chosen the same route, with its sacrifices?
10. Did you know anything about traditional Chinese folklore before reading The Ghost Bride? What did you find fascinating or strange about the mythology woven throughout the novel, and the Chinese notions of the afterlife?
(Questions issued by publisher.)