A Hundred Flowers
Gail Tsukiyama, 2012
St. Martin's Press
320 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781250022547
Summary
A powerful new novel about an ordinary family facing extraordinary times at the start of the Chinese Cultural Revolution.
China, 1957. Chairman Mao has declared a new openness in society: “Let a hundred flowers bloom; let a hundred schools of thought contend.” Many intellectuals fear it is only a trick, and Kai Ying’s husband, Sheng, a teacher, has promised not to jeopardize their safety or that of their young son, Tao. But one July morning, just before his sixth birthday, Tao watches helplessly as Sheng is dragged away for writing a letter criticizing the Communist Party and sent to a labor camp for “reeducation.”
A year later, still missing his father desperately, Tao climbs to the top of the hundred-year-old kapok tree in front of their home, wanting to see the mountain peaks in the distance. But Tao slips and tumbles thirty feet to the courtyard below, badly breaking his leg.
As Kai Ying struggles to hold her small family together in the face of this shattering reminder of her husband’s absence, other members of the household must face their own guilty secrets and strive to find peace in a world where the old sense of order is falling. Once again, Tsukiyama brings us a powerfully moving story of ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances with grace and courage. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—San Francisco, California, USA
• Education—B.A., M.A., San Francisco State University
• Awards—Academy of American Poets Award;
PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award
• Currently—El Cerito, California
Readers know Gail Tsukiyama through her best-selling novel The Samurai’s Garden (1994). Her other works include Women of the Silk (1991), Night of Many Dreams (1998), The Language of Threads (1999), The Street of a Thousand Blossoms (2007), Dreaming Water (2002), and A Hundred Flowers (2012).
Born to a Chinese mother and a Japanese father, she grew up in San Francisco and now lives in El Cerrito, California. She earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in English with a concentration in Creative Writing at San Francisco State University. With an understanding of her heritage, Tsukiyama explores the sights, sounds and feelings of China and Japan in her novels.
She was one of nine fiction authors to appear during the first Library of Congress National Book Festival in 2001. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
I was following this family almost as though it were my own and stayed all the way to the end of their story.
NPR, All Things Considered
Tsukiyama adopts the contemporary template of multiple perspective narration to explore the relationships of a close family in a closed society. Though complex human beings fail to emerge from the facade of stock voices, the tenderness the author shows for her characters creates a sympathetic portrait of intellectuals trying to live honestly in the shadow of oppression.
Publishers Weekly
Best-selling author Gail Tsukiyama, recipient of PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award, takes us back to those times not by painting a panorama but in her thoughtful and forthright way by showing the consequences for one family.
Library Journal
Tsukiyama’s close attention to detail and descriptive language paint a vivid picture of the daily life of Kai Ying and her family. Tsukiyama gently envelops the reader into the quiet sadness that permeates the entire household while weaving in the multiple hardships the family faces under communism. Strength of community; support and love of family, both natural and adopted; and the ability to heal and overcome loss are major themes within the moving novel.
Booklist
A young boy and his family struggle to adjust after the imprisonment of his father, an outspoken intellectual, in this dour slice-of-life novel about Maoist China from Tsukiyama.... For all the delicacy of the prose, the novel substitutes moral cliches against abuse and authoritarianism for emotional energy. The result reads like a faded black-and-white photo, charming but indistinct.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Wei and Sheng have different philosophies of life as evidenced by their statements on page 17. Wei says to "look for the quiet within the storm" while Shen states to walk "straight into the storm." As the plot unfolds do you feel that these early declarations are true to each man's character?
2. On page 83 Kai Yeng remembers Sheng telling her that worrying about the worst things that could happen in life takes the same amount of energy as hoping for the best. Do you agree? What examples of hope do you find in the book? Do you feel that Sheng had hope? Kai Yeng?
3. Why is the character of Suyin necessary to the plot? What different roles does she play for the other members of the household?
4. Do you agree with Wei's observation (page 239) that China "could easily have caught up with the rest of the world if she weren't always being dragged backward"?
5. In the end the Kapok tree heals itself. Do you feel that the relationship between Wei and Sheng was healed? Are they truly "more alike than either of us knew" (page 281)? How might this also be true for others in the book? Explain.
6. The Kapok tree is almost a character unto itself in this book. Explain its significance to one or more characters.
7. What role do you think Tian plays in the book? If Tian was not on the train, do you think Wei would have been successful? After Tian leaves Wei and the story, speculate what happens to Tian. Do you think he gets involved with the Lee family afterwards?
8. At first Tao seems to resent having Suyin living with his family. What happens that changes his feelings to her? Compare this to Tao's forgiveness of his school friend Little Shan.
9. Compare and contrast the marriages in the book.
10. Although this concentrates on a difficult time period in Chinese history, how do each of the characters embody a sense of hope for the future?
11. What do you think will happen with Sheng? Why?
12. Was grandfather Wei wrong to write to "The Party" when he knew it might endanger the family?
(Questions issued by publisher.)
American Boy
Larry Watson, 2011
Milkweed Editions
224 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781571310781
Summary
We were exposed to these phenomena in order that we might learn something, but of course the lessons we learn are not always what was intended.
So begins Matthew Garth’s story of the fall of 1962, when the shooting of a young woman on Thanksgiving Day sets off a chain of unsettling events in small-town Willow Falls, Minnesota. Matthew first sees Louisa Lindahl in Dr. Dunbar’s home office, and at the time her bullet wound makes nearly as strong an impression as her unclothed body. Fueled over the following weeks by his feverish desire for this mysterious woman and a deep longing for the comfort and affluence that appears to surround the Dunbars, Matthew finds himself drawn into a vortex of greed, manipulation, and ultimately betrayal.
Immersive, heart-breaking, and richly evocative of a time and place, this long-awaited novel marks the return of a great American storyteller. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1947
• Raised—Bismark, North Dakota, USA
• Education—B.A., M.F.A., Unversity of North Dakota; Ph.D.,
University of Utah
• Awards—Milkweed National Fiction Prize, Mountains and
Plains Bookseller Award, Friends of American Writers
Award, Banta Award, Critics Choice Award, ALA/YALSA
Best Books for Young Adults Winner
• Currently—lives in Milwaukee, Wisoconsin
Larry Watson was born in 1947 in Rugby, North Dakota. He grew up in Bismarck, North Dakota, and married his high school sweetheart. He received his BA and MFA from the University of North Dakota, his Ph.D. from the creative writing program at the University of Utah, and an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Ripon College. Watson has received grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (1987, 2004) and the Wisconsin Arts Board.
Watson is the author of five novels and a chapbook of poetry. His fiction has been published in more than ten foreign editions, and has received prizes and awards from Milkweed Press, Friends of American Writers, Mountain and Plains Booksellers Association, New York Public Library, Wisconsin Library Association, and Critics’ Choice. Montana 1948 was nominated for the first IMPAC Dublin International Literary Prize. The movie rights to Montana 1948 and Justice have been sold to Echo Lake Productions and White Crosses has been optioned for film.
He has published short stories and poems in Gettysburg Review, New England Review, North American Review, Mississippi Review, and other journals and quarterlies. His essays and book reviews have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Chicago Sun-Times, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, and other periodicals. His work has also been anthologized in Essays for Contemporary Culture, Imagining Home, Off the Beaten Path, Baseball and the Game of Life, The Most Wonderful Books, These United States, and Writing America.
Watson taught writing and literature at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point for 25 years before joining the faculty at Marquette University in 2003. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
Graceful shifts from observation to insight, capturing the spare beauty of the landscape.
New York Times Book Review
Filled with rugged prose sometimes as biting as a northern plains wind, the next page is as inviting and lyrical as a well-stoked stove. Watson writes of people universal in their flaws and virtues, a community hat cannot be defined or limited to one region or genre.
Washington Post Book World
There’s something eminently universal in Watson’s ponderings on the human condition, and it’s refracted through a nearly perfect eye for character, place, and the rhythms of language.
The Nation
[Watson] spins charm and melancholy around the same fingers, the result a soft but urgent rendering of a young man coming of age in rural America that is recognizable to even those of us who were never there.
Denver Post
Watson will] harvest a bumper crop of readers this autumn.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Watson is sure-footed on familiar ground in American Boy.... [He’s] made something of a specialty of that space where teenagers struggle between hormonal urges and moral decisions as they grope toward adulthood. His evocation of that difficult passage feels as sure as his evocation of small-town life in the upper Midwest more than one generation ago... As convincing as it is lonely and bleak.
Billings Gazette
Watson’s new novel about a young man’s coming-of-age in rural Minnesota during the early ’60s never veers off course.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) Watson has penned some of the best contemporary fiction about small-town America, and his new novel does not disappoint.... With his graceful writing style, well-drawn characters, and subtly moving plot, Watson masterfully portrays the dark side of small-town America. Highly readable and enthusiastically recommended.
Library Journal
(Starred review.) Eighteen years ago, Milkweed published Watson’s breakthrough novel, Montana 1948; now the author returns to Milkweed with another powerful coming-of-age story about a teenage boy [Matthew Garth] being shocked into maturity by a moment of sudden and unexpected violence.... Like Holden Caulfield trying to catch innocent children before they fall off the cliff adjoining that field of rye, Matthew struggles to save the Dunbars and, in so doing, save himself. He fails, of course, but that’s the point of much of Watson’s always melancholic, always morally ambiguous fiction: coming-of-age is about failure as much as it is about growth.
Booklist
Watson's sixth novel resonates with language as clear and images as crisp as the spare, flat prairie of its Minnesota setting.... A vivid story of sexual tension, family loyalty and betrayal.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. How does Matthew’s position as an outsider affect his description of events? Does this identity, along with his age at the time of the novel's events, make him reliable or unreliable as a narrator?
2. Dr. Dunbar is portrayed as a character of contrasts. Townspeople are divided in their opinion on him, and Matthew frequently encounters characteristics of Dr. Dunbar’s that oppose each other. Is one the true Dr. Dunbar?
3. Does Dr. Dunbar step outside the lines of professional ethics by taking the boys under his wing in his medical career?
4. Matthew identifies with the mythological figure Antaeus, comparing his own need for involvement with the Dunbars to Antaeus’s need for contact with the earth. What does this convey about Matthew’s self-image?
5. Matthew describes his attraction to Louisa by saying it was “too soon to call it love and too simple to call it lust, but I felt something powerful…” Where do his feelings rate on a scale between a schoolboy crush and mature love? Is it possible to rate the affections that one experiences in youth?
6. Matthew only briefly describes his father. How does this view contrast to his relationship with Dr. Dunbar? Is Dr. Dunbar truly a father figure to Matthew? Does Dunbar’s abandonment at the end of the novel negate the fathering and counseling that he did previously?
7. How are mothers portrayed in this novel? Think of the quiet and powerless Mrs. Dunbar, the laissez-faire Mrs. Garth, the non-existent mother of the young Louisa, and the seductive Mrs. Knurr.
(Questions issued by publisher.)
Cartwheel
Jennifer duBois, 2013
Random House
384 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780812985825
Summary
Cartwheel is a suspenseful and haunting novel of an American foreign exchange student arrested for murder, and a father trying to hold his family together.
When Lily Hayes arrives in Buenos Aires for her semester abroad, she is enchanted by everything she encounters: the colorful buildings, the street food, the handsome, elusive man next door. Her studious roommate Katy is a bit of a bore, but Lily didn’t come to Argentina to hang out with other Americans.
Five weeks later, Katy is found brutally murdered in their shared home, and Lily is the prime suspect. But who is Lily Hayes? It depends on who’s asking. As the case takes shape—revealing deceptions, secrets, and suspicious DNA—Lily appears alternately sinister and guileless through the eyes of those around her: the media, her family, the man who loves her and the man who seeks her conviction. With mordant wit and keen emotional insight, Cartwheel offers a prismatic investigation of the ways we decide what to see—and to believe—in one another and ourselves.
In Cartwheel, duBois delivers a novel of propulsive psychological suspense and rare moral nuance. No two readers will agree who Lily is and what happened to her roommate. Cartwheel will keep you guessing until the final page, and its questions about how well we really know ourselves will linger well beyond. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1983
• Where—Northampton, Massachusetts, USA
• Education—B.A., Tufts Univeristy;
M.F.A., Iowa Writers' Workshop
• Currently—lives in Texas
Jennifer duBois' writing has appeared in Playboy, The Wall Street Journal, The Missouri Review, The Kenyon Review, The Florida Review, The Northwest Review, ZYZZYVA, FiveChapters and elsewhere. Her short story “Wolf” was listed as a Notable Story in Best American Short Stories 2012, and her short story “A Partial History of Lost Causes,” excerpted from her novel, was one of Narrative’s Top Five Stories of 2011-2012. She completed a Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University. She currently teaches in the MFA program at Texas State University-San Marcos. (From the author's website.)
Dubois' first book, A Partial History of Lost Causes, was published in 2012; in 2013, she published Cartwheel.
Book Reviews
[T]he interests of Cartwheel are overwhelmingly literary. Events in the novel are not recounted as newsworthy in themselves, best delivered untouched; rather, DuBois wrings them for that which is universally (or at least culturally) meaningful. She uses the given story, in other words, as a thematic test case: How could a well-intentioned girl—a girl like your daughter or mine—end up looking so guilty of murder, leading millions to believe the charges? How does our American blitheness, the growing sexual confidence of (some of) our young women, the openness of speech and behavior, operate out of context? When is naïveté a kind of crime? And how is a parent implicated by a child who commits such a crime?…The writing in Cartwheel is a pleasure—electric, fine-tuned, intelligent, conflicted. The novel is engrossing, and its portraiture hits delightfully and necessarily close to home.
Amity Gaige - New York Times Book Review
A convincing, compelling tale.... The story plays out in all its well-told complexity.
New York Daily News
Something more provocative, meaningful and suspenseful than the tabloids and social media could provide.... [DuBois] tells a great story.... The power of Cartwheel resides in duBois’ talent for understanding how the foreign world can illuminate the most deeply held secrets we keep from others, and ourselves.
Chicago Tribune
A smart, literary thriller [for] fans of Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl.
Huffington Post
[You’ll] break your own record of pages read per minute as you tear through this book.
Marie Claire
[A] gripping, gorgeously written novel.... The emotional intelligence in Cartwheel is so sharp it’s almost ruthless—a tabloid tragedy elevated to high art.
Entertainment Weekly
Taking themes that were “loosely inspired by the story of Amanda Knox,” Cartwheel follows American exchange student Lily Hayes, who has been accused of murdering her roommate.... While muddying the waters of right and wrong is almost always a valiant cause in literature, this novel reads more like an intellectual exercise in examining all the different angles rather than an emotional engagement with human beings.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) [DuBois] does an excellent job of creating and maintaining a pervasive feeling of foreboding and suspense.... An acute psychological study of character that rises to the level of the philosophica.... Cartwheel is very much its own individual work of the author’s creative imagination.
Booklist
Attempts to cannibalize Amanda [Knox's] story....Lily herself is a not very interesting addition to those thousands of young Americans looking to spread their wings in an exotic locale. Readers are meant to presume her innocence while retaining a tiny sliver of doubt.... A tangled tale that leaves protagonist Lily, and the crime, unilluminated.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. The first paragraph of Cartwheel ends with a chilling statement: “The things that go wrong are rarely the things you’ve thought to worry about.” Why do you think the author makes such a pronouncement at the beginning of the novel? What does she mean? Is this true in your life?
2. The story in Cartwheel is very much of our time. Lily’s case becomes an international sensation because of Facebook, blogs, and the way shocking news and information can travel around the world within minutes. Social media plays a big role in Cartwheel. Does this change your view of social media? How do you use social media to share details of your life? What about your family members?
3. Why do you think Jennifer duBois chose to tell the story from four points of view? How does that affect the experience of reading it?
4. At one point, Lily’s sister Anna says “everyone wants to love Lily,” and that she’s always played by different rules. Why does Anna think this?
5. Lily’s father, Andrew, believes “everything vile about your children was to some degree vile about yourself.” Is this a fair statement? Do Lily’s parents fail her, or is this parental guilt?
6. What impact does her sister’s ordeal have on Anna?
7. The title of the book comes from the cartwheel Lily turned between interrogation sessions. Why did the author choose this image as significant?
8. In what ways are Lily and Katy different? Why does Lily feel Katy’s life was “easy”? Is she being fair?
9. Have you, or someone you know, studied abroad? Do you think it benefits college students to visit other countries? Why do you think Lily wanted to study abroad? What was she looking for?
10. Eduardo, attorney for the prosecution, believes Lily is guilty but that she doesn’t understand why what she did was wrong. Do you agree?
11. Sebastien is an enigmatic character. What do you think Lily is attracted to about him? Where do you think his addiction for obscuring half-irony comes from? What consequences does it have for the unfolding of events?
12. The author uses ambiguity to tell this story. How does that affect your understanding of what happened? Which character do you trust the most?
13. Lily calls her family “repressed,” saying they never learned how to mourn their first child, the sister who died before Lily and Anna were born. Why does she say she and Anna were treated like “replacement children”?
14. Do you believe the whole story comes out at Lily’s trial?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
Who Asked You?
Terry McMillan, 2013
Viking Adult
432 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780451417022
Summary
Family ties are tested and transformed in the new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author of Waiting to Exhale and How Stella Got Her Groove Back.
With her wise, wry, and poignant novels of families and friendships—Waiting to Exhale, Getting to Happy, and A Day Late and a Dollar Short among them—Terry McMillan has touched millions of readers. Now, in her eighth novel, McMillan gives exuberant voice to characters who reveal how we live now—at least as lived in a racially diverse Los Angeles neighborhood.
Kaleidoscopic, fast-paced, and filled with McMillan’s inimitable humor, Who Asked You? opens as Trinetta leaves her two young sons with her mother, Betty Jean, and promptly disappears. BJ, a trademark McMillan heroine, already has her hands full dealing with her other adult children, two opinionated sisters, an ill husband, and her own postponed dreams—all while holding down a job delivering room service at a hotel.
Her son Dexter is about to be paroled from prison; Quentin, the family success, can’t be bothered to lend a hand; and taking care of two lively grandsons is the last thing BJ thinks she needs. The drama unfolds through the perspectives of a rotating cast of characters, pitch-perfect, each playing a part, and full of surprises.
Who Asked You? casts an intimate look at the burdens and blessings of family and speaks to trusting your own judgment even when others don’t agree. McMillan’s signature voice and unforgettable characters bring universal issues to brilliant, vivid life. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—October 18, 1951
• Where—Port Huron, Michigan, USA
• Education—B.A., University of California, Berkeley
• Awards— Essence Award for Excellence in Literature
• Currently—lives in northern California
Terry McMillan is an American author. Her interest in books comes from working at a library when she was sixteen. She received her BA in journalism in 1986 at University of California, Berkeley. Her work is characterized by relatable female protagonists.
Her first book, Mama, was published in 1987. She achieved national attention in 1992 with her third novel, Waiting to Exhale, which remained on the New York Times bestseller list for many months. In 1995, Forest Whitaker turned it into a film starring Whitney Houston.
Another of McMillan's novels, her 1998 novel How Stella Got Her Groove Back, was also made into a movie. Disappearing Acts (2012) was subsequently produced as a direct-to-cable feature, starring Wesley Snipes and Sanaa Lathan.
McMillan also published the best seller A Day Late and a Dollar Short in 2002 and The Interruption of Everything in 2005. Getting to Happy, the long-awaited sequel to Waiting to Exhale, was published in 2010. In 2013, she published Who Asked You?, intimate look at the burdens and blessings of family, and in 2016, I Almost Forgot About You, a look at mid-life crises.
Personal
McMillan married Jamaican Jonathan Plummer in 1998; she was in her late 40s and he in his early 20s. He was the inspiration for the love interest of the main character in her novel How Stella Got Her Groove Back. Her life did not follow the movie when, in December 2004, Plummer told McMillan that he was gay; in March 2005, she filed for divorce. The divorce was settled for an undisclosed amount. In March 2007, McMillan sued Plummer and his lawyer for $40 million, citing an intentional strategy to embarrass and humiliate her during the divorce proceedings; McMillan eventually won a judgment of intentional infliction of emotional distress, but had withdrawn the suit before the case went to trial; Plummer was never ordered to pay the intended amount. On September 27, 2010, the two sat together with talk show host Oprah Winfrey to discuss their post-divorce relationship and partial reconciliation; both acknowledged that he fulfilled the role of boyfriend and husband before his coming-out, although McMillan stated that "he's not my BFF." McMillan has a son Solomon and lives outside San Francisco, California. (From Wikiipedia.)
Visit the author's website.
Book Reviews
Three generations take a long hard look at each other—and, finding lots not to like, try to outrun, ignore, or beat the demons pulling them together in this well-crafted story of acceptance, forgiveness, and hope. McMillan deftly weaves her tale of a black Los Angeles family’s disharmony...as they watch their kids stumble into adulthood.
Publishers Weekly
Transplanted from New Orleans in her youth, Betty Jean (BJ) is now a middle-aged, well-established Angeleno, living in a racially diverse working-class neighborhood with her share of heartaches and hardships.... Told from the perspectives of several of the characters, the novel offers an array of personalities and everyday life challenges within a story of close friends, family, and neighbors as they grow and change over many years. —Vanessa Bush
Booklist
The years pass, and McMillan's (Waiting to Exhale, 1992, etc.) characters have moved from buppiedom to grandmotherhood.... Moving from character to character and their many points of view, McMillan writes jauntily and with customary good humor, though the sensitive ground on which she's treading is not likely to please all readers; even so, her story affirms the value of love and family.... McMillan turns in a solid, well-told story.
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.
431 Superior
D.M. Pratt, 2013
Dog Ear Publishers
180 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781457523212
Summary
What do you get when you take a dance mom and a nine-to-five IT dad and drop them in the middle of a Vegas vacation—away from their six daughters? You get an idea for a new career that will take this fun-loving couple into a different world...with a whole lot of exposure.
When Nate and Lucy decide to open a sex club in their hometown—complete with performers, mazes, prototype sex machines, naughty baked goods, and theme nights—they have no idea how it will turn their lives upside down, let alone how they’ll explain it to the kids.
Join Nate and Lucy as they discover the ups and downs—and ins and outs—of running one of “those” clubs in suburban Michigan while juggling their own relationship and managing a blended family. 431 Superior is a hilarious romp through the lives of a fortyish couple who take a giant leap of faith, while granting us a peek into the lives of those who share more than their opinions.
Author Bio
• Birth—August 13, 1972
• Where—Toledo, Ohio, USA
• Education—B.A., Adrian College
• Currently—Commerce Twp, Michigan
D.M. Pratt took a break from writing children’s stories in order to write 431 Superior, which she hopes her children never read.
She lives in her favorite state of denial, and also in her favorite setting, Michigan, with her husband, four daughters, and two stepdaughters. While they may be suspiciously similar to the main characters in the book, D.M. is quick to point out that she and her husband can only wish to be as daring and fun as Nate and Lucy. So if you run into them on the street, please don’t give them any funny looks or invite them to one of “those” parties. (From the author.)
Book Reviews
One of the great strengths of the book is how it presents sexual adventures and experimentation in a healthy, loving, and positive light. The sexual scenes were graphic without being pornographic, exciting without being repulsive, and sprinkled with humor and a dose of self-deprecation. Nate and Lucy do not take themselves too seriously. They are human and fallible and they face all the not-so-romantic aspects of marriage with love and laughter. The sexual content could easily tip over into the cheesy or distasteful realm, but in this book, they come across as entertaining and titillating. I have a long history of editing and feel qualified to honestly say “Well done.”
Editor - Dog Ear Publishing
431 Superior is professionally written and fun to read. Period. Your target audience will fall in love with the characters and enjoy their sexual antics. With the humor and lighthearted fun, you’ve got a highly appealing book.
Editor - Dog Ear Publishing
Discussion Questions
1. Nate and Lucy came up with a career idea that was far out of their comfort zone to help pay for their kids’ education. How far would you go to do the same? Would you risk losing friends and alienating neighbors and family if you thought it would be a successful way to help your kids?
2. Nate and Lucy tried to keep their job from their kids as long as possible. Do you agree with this? How do you think they handled the situation when the kids started to find out?
3. What do you think of their club idea? Do you think it would work in your neighborhood?
4. Would you ever go to a club like this? What if you were out of town and no one knew?
5. Some readers think Nate and Lucy’s relationship is too ideal to be real. What do you think? Is a relationship like theirs realistic?
6. Nate and Lucy take a lot of risks just to get alone time together. Does this make them courageous and fun, or do they risk too much?
7. Their plan to use negative publicity to promote their club worked in the book. Would this work in the real world?
8. In the book, the business takes off almost too easily. Only one angry group tries to shut them down by burning them down. What are some other obstacles someone might encounter in the real world?
9. What do you think of Nate and Lucy? Would you want to be friends with them, or would you dislike and avoid them?
(Questions provided courtesy of the author.)