Good as Gone
Amy Gentry, 2016
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
288 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780544920958
Summary
Thirteen-year-old Julie Whitaker was kidnapped from her bedroom in the middle of the night, witnessed only by her younger sister.
Her family was shattered, but managed to stick together, hoping against hope that Julie is still alive.
And then one night: the doorbell rings. A young woman who appears to be Julie is finally, miraculously, home safe. The family is ecstatic—but Anna, Julie’s mother, has whispers of doubts.
She hates to face them. She cannot avoid them. When she is contacted by a former detective turned private eye, she begins a torturous search for the truth about the woman she desperately hopes is her daughter.
Propulsive and suspenseful, Good as Gone will appeal to fans of
Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1977-78
• Raised—West Houston, Texas, USA
• Education—B.A., University of Texas-Austin; Ph.D., University of Chicago
• Currently—lives in Austin, Texas
Amy Gentry lives in Austin, Texas, with her husband and two cats.
After graduating in 2011 with a PhD in English from the University of Chicago, she began a freelance writing career, writing book reviews, cultural criticism, and, for one strange and wonderful year, a fashion column.
She frequently reviews fiction for the Chicago Tribune Printer’s Row Journal, and her writing has appeared in Salon.com, xoJane, The Rumpus, the Austin Chronicle, the Texas Observer, LA Review of Books, Gastronomica, and the Best Food Writing of 2014. Good as Gone, her first thriller, is set in her hometown of Houston, Texas (From the publisher.)
Read the interview with Austin Statesman.
Book Reviews
If the central question of the novel is inescapably simple—Is this person Julie Whitaker or isn't she?—there are only two possible answers. But the attendant riddle of identity is correspondingly complex. In the end, Gentry's novel isn't primarily about the version of the self that comes from a name and a family of origin; instead, it draws our attention to the self that's forged from sheer survival, and from the clarifying call to vengeance.
Jean Hanff Korelitz - New York Times Book Review
A mother, a daughter, a zealot, an investigator, a family, a stripper, and more than a few survivors lay the riveting groundwork, but it's Amy Gentry's realistic portrayals of victims and their families that set Good As Gone apart from other page-turning crime dramas.... The end result is a true "novel of suspense": a book that's hard to put down not only because of our investment in the plot, but also because of our investment in the lives of the complicated characters.
Austin Chronicle
Compelling and emotionally nuanced.
Seattle Times
Both a mother-daughter and a family-under-fire story, Good As Gone is laden with confused identities and a thrumming plot. Amy Gentry's debut also holds a mirror up to the myriad ways rape culture is perpetuated.
Bustle
[S]uspenseful if flawed first novel.... Gentry does a good job of making the characters, especially Anna, psychologically plausible, but the final revelation is a letdown.
Publishers Weekly
Clever perspective changes give Gentry's debut building suspense.... Fans of Paula Hawkin's The Girl on the Train will enjoy the shifting points of view and the complex female characters, and those who liked Samantha Hunt's Mr. Splitfoot will appreciate the seedy characters and haunting theme of childhood vulnerability.... Gentry's depiction of a family working through immense suffering will connect with many readers.
Booklist
A kidnapped girl, missing for eight years, shows up on her parents' doorstep…but is it really her?... [B]ack-and-forth points of view which eventually dovetail in the big reveal (and the big reversal) are a popular tactic for the emotional thriller.... Debut novelist Gentry delivers on genre expectations with crisp, unobtrusive writing and well-executed plot twists.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
(We'll add specific questions if and when they're made available by the publisher. In the meantime, use our generic mystery questions.)
GENERIC DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Mystery / Crime / Suspense Thrillers
1. Talk about the characters, both good and bad. Describe their personalities and motivations. Are they fully developed and emotionally complex? Or are they flat, one-dimensional heroes and villains?
2. What do you know...and when do you know it? At what point in the book do you begin to piece together what happened?
3. Good crime writers embed hidden clues in plain sight, slipping them in casually, almost in passing. Did you pick them out, or were you...clueless? Once you've finished the book, go back to locate the clues hidden in plain sight. How skillful was the author in burying them?
4. Good crime writers also tease us with red-herrings—false clues—to purposely lead readers astray? Does your author try to throw you off track? If so, were you tripped up?
5. Talk about the twists & turns—those surprising plot developments that throw everything you think you've figured out into disarray.
- Do they enhance the story, add complexity, and build suspense?
- Are they plausible or implausible?
- Do they feel forced and gratuitous—inserted merely to extend the story?
6. Does the author ratchet up the suspense? Did you find yourself anxious—quickly turning pages to learn what happened? A what point does the suspense start to build? Where does it climax...then perhaps start rising again?
7. A good ending is essential in any mystery or crime thriller: it should ease up on tension, answer questions, and tidy up loose ends. Does the ending accomplish those goals?
- Is the conclusion probable or believable?
- Is it organic, growing out of clues previously laid out by the author (see Question 3)?
- Or does the ending come out of the blue, feeling forced or tacked-on?
- Perhaps it's too predictable.
- Can you envision a different or better ending?
8. Are there certain passages in the book—ideas, descriptions, or dialogue—that you found interesting or revealing...or that somehow struck you? What lines, if any, made you stop and think?
9. Overall, does the book satisfy? Does it live up to the standards of a good crime story or suspense thriller? Why or why not?
(Generic Mystery Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
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You Will Know Me
Megan Abbott, 2016
Little, Brown and Co.
352 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780316231077
Summary
An audacious new novel about family and ambition.
How far will you go to achieve a dream? That's the question a celebrated coach poses to Katie and Eric Knox after he sees their daughter Devon, a gymnastics prodigy and Olympic hopeful, compete.
For the Knoxes there are no limits—until a violent death rocks their close-knit gymnastics community and everything they have worked so hard for is suddenly at risk.
As rumors swirl among the other parents, Katie tries frantically to hold her family together while also finding herself irresistibly drawn to the crime itself.
What she uncovers—about her daughter's fears, her own marriage, and herself—forces Katie to consider whether there's any price she isn't willing to pay to achieve Devon's dream.
From a writer with "exceptional gifts for making nerves jangle and skin crawl" (Janet Maslin), You Will Know Me is a breathless rollercoaster of a novel about the desperate limits of parental sacrifice, furtive desire, and the staggering force of ambition. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1971
• Where—near Detroit, Michigan, USA
• Education—B.A., University of Michigan; Ph.D., New York University
• Awards—Edgar Award for Outstanding Fiction
• Currently—lives in New York City, New York
Megan Abbott is an American author of crime fiction and a non-fiction analyst of hardboiled crime fiction. Her novels and short stories have drawn from and re-worked classic subgenres of crime writing, with a female twist.
Abbott grew up in suburban Detroit and graduated from the University of Michigan. She is married to Joshua Gaylord, a New School professor who writes fiction under his own name and the pseudonym "Alden Bell."
Abbott was influenced by film noir, classic noir fiction, and Jeffrey Eugenides's novel The Virgin Suicides. Two of her novels reference notorious crimes. The Song is You (2007) is based around the disappearance of Jean Spangler in 1949, and Bury Me Deep (2009) is based on the 1931 case of Winnie Ruth Judd, who was dubbed the "Trunk Murderess."
Abbott has won the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Award for outstanding fiction. Time named her one of the "23 Authors That We Admire" in 2011.
Works
2005 - Die a Little
2007 - The Song Is You
2007 - Queenpin (2008 Edgar Award; 2008 Barry Award)
2009 - Bury Me Deep
2011 - The End of Everything
2012 - Dare Me
2014 - The Fever
2016 - You Will Know Me
(Author bio from Wikipedia. Retrieved 8/9/2016.)
Book Reviews
What Megan Abbott knows, as so many maestros of the heebie-jeebies do, is that it's not strangers who are scary; it's the people you think you know and love.... Abbott…is in top form in this novel. She resumes her customary role of black cat, opaque and unblinking, filling her readers with queasy suspicion at every turn.... You Will Know Me revisits some of the author's favorite themes—community hysteria, the chaos of adolescent sexuality—but with a slight twist. Usually, teen-girl misanthropy and anxiety figure prominently into Ms. Abbott's novels. Here, the author is far more interested in the way adults recapitulate teenage behaviors, fretting and sniping and stirring the pot.
Jennifer Senior - New York Times
[B]rilliant.... There's a stroke of genius in this: The reader appreciates the satisfaction of the solution, which is simple, shocking and perfect. At the same time, the purpose of solving the mystery is, arguably, to undermine the idea that mysteries can ever be solved in a meaningful way.... We imagine we have our bearings, and then the murder knocks us off course. Then with each new fact that emerges, a piece of what we thought we knew is dislodged, leaving in its place a mystifying blank patch. By the end of the novel, everything...is an unanswerable question. All of this Abbott pulls off with breathtaking skill.
Sophie Hannah - New York Times Book Review
[Abbott's] books are driven as much by intricate character development and rhythmic sentences as they are by plot. They could easily be shelved with literary fiction.
Lucy Feldman - Wall Street Journal
Megan Abbott must have ice in her veins. In hijacking young-adult fiction for her own devious grown-up purposes, she writes from such a chilly remove you may want to turn up the thermostat. But the underlying tension she sustains is so beautifully unbearable, you may be unable to leave the couch.
Lloyd Sachs - Chicago Tribune
What puts flesh on the bones of Abbott's flying cheetah of suspense is her insight into parenting, marriage, and various sorts of interpersonal rivalry.... The characters of the adult women in this book, none completely likable, are knowingly depicted.... Abbott [is] above other writers in this genre, making her something of a Stephen King, whose work hangs right on the edge of the literary while making your skin crawl.
Marion Winik - Newsday
Megan Abbott is the mistress of noir.
Sarah Bryan Miller - St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Abbott seems to tap into that thing that makes ordinary teen girls so dangerous in that toxic mix of hormones and lack of sense of self, and then she dials it up a tick or two to homicidal.
Richard Alley - Memphis Flyer
The twists are good, as they are in any page-turner worth its salt. But Abbott is exceptional because she writes characters that are as careful as her plotting.
Kevin Nguyen - GQ.com
[You Will Know Me] will keep you glued to your beach blanket.
Marie Claire
You Will Know Me is the kind of tense, haunting tale that only Megan Abbott could tell, and once again cements her place as one of the most talented storytellers currently working in any genre.
Barry Lee Dejasu - New York Journal of Books
(Starred review.) [A]piercing look at what one family will sacrifice in the name of making their daughter a champion.... Abbott keenly examines the pressures put on girls' bodies and the fierce, often misguided love parents have for their children.
Publishers Weekly
In true Abbott style, nothing is predictable here; the plot consistently confounds expectations with its clever twists and turns. Verdict: Admirers of Patricia Highsmith, Laura Lippman, and Kimberly Pauley (Ask Me) are in for a treat. New readers have a backlist to explore! —Frances Thorsen, Chronicles of Crime Bookshop, Victoria, BC
Library Journal
(Starred review.) [E]veryday lives changed forever by an exceptional individual—in this case an Olympic gymnastics hopeful.... Being a parent is hard. Being a parent to an anomaly is something else entirely. Abbott proves herself a master of fingernails-digging-into-your-palms suspense.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use these LitLovers talking points to start a discussion for You Will Know Me...then take off on your own:
1. Who do you find more disturbing in this book: teenagers or adults? Talk about the grownups and the way their behavior mimics that of teenagers...or vice versa.
2. Why in particular does Katie Knox resent the other parents who try to "drag her into their little circle, their gym drama, their coven"?
3. How does Megan Abbott depict the world of female gymnastics? What are its contradictions in terms of the way the sport ages the girls yet restrains their maturity?
4. What hardships does gymnastics impose on the body? Discuss how the sport offers girls a means of mastering pain and taking control of their bodies. Is this discipline admirable, a good thing? What do you think, for instance, of Devon who endures the pain and never once cries?
5. Put yourself in the shoes of the Knoxes. What would you do if you were the parents of a child like Devon, "who worked harder and wanted something more than either of them ever had"?
6. Abbott is a master of deception: she drops a hint or clue with one hand, but subverts what you think you know with the other. At which point were you fairly sure of something, only to have the rug pulled out from under you?
7. Who do you find most frightening in You Will Know Me? Which character troubles you the most?
8. What is the thematic significance of the title? How well do we really want to know someone? How well CAN we really know anyone?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
Harmony
Carolyn Parkhurst, 2016
Penguin Publishing
288 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780399562600
Summary
A taut, emotionally wrenching story of how a seemingly normal family could become desperate enough to leave everything behind and move to a family camp in New Hampshire—a life-changing experience that alters them forever.
How far will a mother go to save her family? The Hammond family is living in DC, where everything seems to be going just fine, until it becomes clear that the oldest daughter, Tilly, is developing abnormally—a mix of off-the-charts genius and social incompetence.
Once Tilly—whose condition is deemed undiagnosable—is kicked out of the last school in the area, her mother Alexandra is out of ideas.
The family turns to Camp Harmony and the wisdom of child behavior guru Scott Bean for a solution. But what they discover in the woods of New Hampshire will push them to the very limit.
Told from the alternating perspectives of both Alexandra and her younger daughter Iris (the book's Nick Carraway), this is a unputdownable story about the strength of love, the bonds of family, and how you survive the unthinkable. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—January 18, 1971
• Raised—Waltham, Massachusetts, USA
• Education—B.A., Weslyan University; M.F.A., America University
• Currently—lives in Washington, D.C.
Carolyn Parkhurst is an American author who has published several books. Her first, the 2003 The Dogs of Babel (Lorelei's Secret in the UK) was a New York Times Notable Book and on the New York Times Best Seller List.
She followed that effort with Lost and Found in 2006, The Nobodies Album in 2010, and Harmony in 2016. Her first children's book, Cooking with Henry and Elliebelly, was co-authored with Dan Yaccarino in 2010.
Parkhurst grew up in Waltham, Massachusetts, the only child of parents who separated when she was two. Parkhurst spent so much time reading, she had to be sent outside to play. Her first story, she says, was written at age three by dictating The Table Family to her mother, the first of her stories to appear in print was for a Halloween contest by a local newspaper, and her first job in publishing came at 15, writing record reviews for a magazine called Star Hits.
Parkhurst received her B.A. degree from Wesleyan University and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from American University. Married since 1998 and the mother of two children, she currently resides in Washington, D.C. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 8/9/2016.)
Book Reviews
In Parkhurst’s deft treatment, Harmony becomes a story of our time, a compassionate treatise on how society judges parents, how parents judge themselves and how desperation sometimes causes otherwise rational people to choose irrational lives.... Parkhurst cements herself as a writer capable of astonishing humanity and exquisite prose, someone whose wisdom parents and their judges should heed.
Washington Post
Propulsive.... Everything from the parents’ desperation to the camp’s creepy vibe feels vividly real, and this provocative page-turner also invites important, broader conversations about autism.
People
[F]amily bonds, modern-day parenting, and the the foundations of cult-like groups, all with nuance and a liberal dose of dark humor.... Parkhurst’s memorable tale features a complex cast of characters and a series of conundrums with no easy answers. Book-discussion groups will be particularly interested in the tale’s numerous deftly explored gray areas.
Publishers Weekly
Narrated by the three female members of the family in alternating chapters that jump back and forth in time, the story maintains an air of suspense.... This blend of literary fiction and domestic suspense is an ideal choice for book clubs. —Laurie Cavanaugh, Thayer P.L., Braintree, MA
Library Journal
(Starred review.) From the first sentences of this unusual and compelling novel...pages turn with the momentum of an emotional thriller.... The characters go straight to your heart. Brilliant, funny, and beautiful monologues that show how deeply Parkhurst understands what she’s writing about. Suspenseful, moving, and full of inspiration and insight about parenting a child with autism.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. The book begins In a different world, you make it work. How do you think the Hammonds’ life might have played out if Alexandra hadn’t met Scott Bean? Do you think they’d end up in a better or worse place than they are at the end of the novel?
2. What did you think about the pieces written by Tilly scattered throughout the book? Did they help you gain insight into Tilly’s inner life?
3. What do you make of Scott Bean? What motivates him? Is he a narcissist, a manipulator, or just someone whose good intentions are hampered by his own personal demons? Do you think he genuinely cares about helping the children and families at Camp Harmony?
4. Are any of Scott Bean’s philosophies good ones? Under different circumstances, could a place like Camp Harmony be productive and beneficial for families who are struggling?
5. What do you think Tilly will be like in adulthood? Will she be able to overcome some of the issues that make it difficult for her to communicate with other people and function in the world? What about Iris—how do you think these experiences in her youth will affect the kind of adult she becomes?
6. What kind of marriage do Josh and Alexandra have? Has it been primarily strengthened or weakened by the stresses of raising Tilly?
7. How has it affected Iris to have a sibling with special needs? Do you think Iris has seen any benefits or positive effects?
8. What did you think of the epilogue? Is the metaphor of a child born with wings an accurate expression of Tilly’s particular difficulties and quirks?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
To the Bright Edge of the World
Eowyn Ivey, 2016
Little, Brown and Co.
432 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780316242851
Summary
An atmospheric, transporting tale of adventure, love, and survival from the bestselling author of The Snow Child, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
In the winter of 1885, decorated war hero Colonel Allen Forrester leads a small band of men on an expedition that has been deemed impossible: to venture up the Wolverine River and pierce the vast, untamed Alaska Territory.
Leaving behind Sophie, his newly pregnant wife, Colonel Forrester records his extraordinary experiences in hopes that his journal will reach her if he doesn't return--once he passes beyond the edge of the known world, there's no telling what awaits him.
The Wolverine River Valley is not only breabbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbthtaking and forbidding but also terrifying in ways that the colonel and his men never could have imagined. As they map the territory and gather information on the native tribes, whose understanding of the natural world is unlike anything they have ever encountered, Forrester and his men discover the blurred lines between human and wild animal, the living and the dead.
And while the men knew they would face starvation and danger, they cannot escape the sense that some greater, mysterious force threatens their lives.
Meanwhile, on her own at Vancouver Barracks, Sophie chafes under the social restrictions and yearns to travel alongside her husband. She does not know that the winter will require as much of her as it does her husband, that both her courage and faith will be tested to the breaking point.
Can her exploration of nature through the new art of photography help her to rediscover her sense of beauty and wonder?
The truths that Allen and Sophie discover over the course of that fateful year change both of their lives--and the lives of those who hear their stories long after they're gone—forever. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—February 07, 1973
• Where—Alaska
• Education—B.A., Western Washington University
• Currently—lives in Alaska
Eowyn (A-o-win) LeMay Ivey was raised in Alaska and continues to live there with her husband and two daughters. Her mother named her after a character from J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.
Eowyn works at the independent bookstore Fireside Books where she plays matchmaker between readers and books. The Snow Child, her debut novel, appeared in 2012; her second, To the Bright Edge of the World, was published in 2016. Her short fiction appears in the anthology Cold Flashes, University of Alaska Press 2010, and the North Pacific Rim literary journal Cirque.
Prior to her career as a bookseller and novelist, Eowyn worked for nearly a decade as an award-winning reporter at the Frontiersman newspaper. Her weekly articles about her outdoor adventures earned her the Best Non-Daily Columnist award from the Alaska Press Club. Her articles and photographs have been published in the Anchorage Daily News, Alaska Magazine, and other publications.
Eowyn earned her BA in journalism and creative writing through Western Washington University's honors program and studied creative nonfiction in University of Alaska Anchorage's graduate program. She is a contributor to the blog 49Writers and a founding member of Alaska's first statewide writing center.
The Snow Child is informed by Eowyn's life in Alaska. Her husband is a fishery biologist with the state of Alaska. While they both work outside of the home, they are also raising their daughters in the rural, largely subsistence lifestyle in which they were both raised.
As a family, they harvest salmon and wild berries, keep a vegetable garden, turkeys and chickens, and they hunt caribou, moose, and bear for meat. Because they don't have a well and live outside any public water system, they haul water each week for their holding tank and gather rainwater for their animals and garden. Their primary source of home heat is a woodstove, and they harvest and cut their own wood.
These activities are important to Eowyn's day-to-day life as well as the rhythm of her year. (From the author's website.) (From .)
Book Reviews
Ivey's characters, without exception, are skillfully wrought and pull the narrative forward with little effort. She does not stoop to blanket depictions of tribal life or Victorian women, and instead has created a novel with all of the fine details that make historical fiction such an adventure to read. Fans of The Snow Child will not be disappointed.
Meganne Fabrega - Minneapolis Star Tribune
Lustrous...Ivey's writing is assured and deftly paced. She presents a pleasing chorus of voices and writing styles in an amalgam of journals, letters, newspaper clippings, greeting cards, official reports and more...The couple's moving love story binds the multilayered narrative together...Ivey's first novel, The Snow Child, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and her follow-up act is certain to garner its own accolades as readers discover its many unfolding pleasures.
David Takami - Seattle Times
(Starred review.) An...entrancing, occasionally chilling, depiction of turn-of-the-century Alaska.... In this splendid adventure novel, Ivey captures Alaska’s beauty and brutality, not just preserving history, but keeping it alive.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) Ivey not only makes [this novel] work, she makes it work magnificently...The Snow Child (a lovely retelling of an old Russian folk tale), was a runaway hit, an international best seller, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Her second work is even better.
Library Journal
(Starred review.) Ivey deftly draws the reader into the perils of the journey...a compelling historical saga of survival.
Booklist
(Starred review.) Ivey's superb second novel is mainly composed of two braided journals. One is by Allen, an Army colonel.... The other is by his wife, Sophie.... Ivey anchors the tale in present-day correspondence between Allen's great-nephew and the curator of a museum to whom he's sent Allen's journals..... Heartfelt, rip-snorting storytelling.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add the publisher's questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use these LitLovers talking points to start a discussion for To the Bright Edge of the World...then take off on your own:
1. Talk about the novel's two primary characters: Col. Allen Forrester and Sophie Forrester. What do you think of them? What kind of leader is Forrester? And Sophie? In what ways does she not conform to the era's expectations for women?
2. How do the letters Allen sends to Sophie differ from his journal entries?
3. Talk about the dangers and hardships Allen and his men face during their journey. As they move deeper into the Alaskan wilderness, how do the men begin to revert to their more primal natures?
4. What role does the raven play in this story? Does it represent evil...or helpfulness...or what?
5. Sophie develops a passion for the burgeoning art of photography. How does photography open up her own journey of self-discovery?
6. Ivey has structured her novel as a story framed at both ends with another story, this one contemporary with our own time, in which Allen's great-nephew wishes to gift the letters and diaries to the Alpine Historical Museum. Why might Ivey used this framing device? What perspective does it lend to Allen and Sophie's story?
7. Discuss the spiritual, and shamanistic practices of the Native Americans who inhabit this land. How does Ivey weave those beliefs into her story? What kind of atmosphere does she create?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
Separate Lives
Lynn Assimacopoulos, 2015
Dorrance Publishing
38 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781480912472
Summary
This true story is about learning that my son's friend who had been adopted as a baby wanted to search for his birthparents. He was especially anxious about this since his adoptive parents both suddenly passed away in a car accident.
I agreed to try to help him because I had done some genealogy searching on our family however I did not know if this would be of help or not.
For months I scanned through phone books, sent letters to anyone I could think of and personally visited everything from the local library to the National Archives in Washington, D.C. which resulted in nothing but a lack of any information.
Even the person in the National Archives told me it was useless because a woman usually marries and changes her name which makes it nearly impossible to trace.
Then a random internet search produced a surprising possible clue and allowed me to begin the fascinating but uncertain journey in the search. All this is documented in my book Separated Lives. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth— April 23, 1939
• Where—Humboldt, Iowa, USA
• Education—B.S.N., University of Minnesota
• Currently—lives in Phoenix, Arizona
Lynn Assimacopoulos: Experienced in hospital ICU, home health, transcultural nursing care, nursing staff development, Red Cross volunteer Director and Nurse/Writer in long term care organization; have written for Nursing Journals, policy and procedure manuals for Nursing, Social Work, Activities, Dietary, Infection Control as well as several health related newsletters; have presented lectures on Cultural Awareness/Cultural Diversity and adult learning; worked with Federal Guidelines regarding consultations and interpretations for long term care facilities in several states; have been writing since 8 years old mainly poetry and short stories; have coordinated many health related workshops, conferences, study groups, refresher courses, seminars; member of National Honor Society, "Best Nursing Class Citizen", United Way "Best Volunteer" Award, received Best Media Award for Excellence in Journalism (Nursing print category); published several poems in book Follow the Piper (2011) and two non-fiction books: I Thought There Was A Road There (2000)- a collection of true life humorous short stories/situations relating to faith in God and current one—Separated Lives (2015). (From the author.)
Book Reviews
This book read like pages from Lynn's private diary as she details her thoughts, feelings, actions and interactions with Ryan before, during and after the search.... Lynn details their developing care, compassion and growing respect for one another, as both ride their individual emotional roller coasters.
Linda Schellentrager - Adoption Network Cleveland
I found Separated Lives highly engaging...and filled with natural emotional highs and lows about someone trying to uncover or take the lead in helping someone else discover who they really are and where they come from...in the journey to find their roots; I was impressed by both the author's tenacity, tactful but assertive methodology and empathy for her subject.
Paul A - Amazon Customer Review
This book describes her true-life search..is well written.
Lost Cousins Newsletter
Discussion Questions
1. How would you feel if your adopted child wanted to search for his/her birthparents?
2. Would you be willing to help your adopted child in their search?
3. If you had been adopted would you want to meet your birthparents?
4. Should adoption agencies be compelled to give adoptees more information than the law allows at the present time?
5. Is open or closed adoption more acceptable and why?
6. I know of a case where two parents adopted a brother and a sister but decided to return the sister to the adoption agency/home. How do you feel about this situation?
7. Should adopted children always be told that they are adopted and when is the best time to do this?
8. When reading the book what did you expect would happen?
9. What was the most surprising aspect of this book?
10. If you found someone’s birthparent(s) how would you approach them to tell his/her that you know about their placing their child for adoption?
11. Were you surprised by Ryan’s birthparents reactions?
12. Do you know of persons that actually found their birthparent(s); however, the birthparent(s) were not interested in having any kind of relationship with them?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)