Madame
Antoni Libera, 1998 (trans., Agnieszka Kolakowska, 2000)
Canaongate Books
438 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781841955209

Summary
The comic "sentimental education" of a schoolboy who falls in love with his French teacher.

Madame is an unexpected gem: a novel about Poland during the grim years of Soviet-controlled mediocrity, which nonetheless sparkles with light and warmth.

Our young narrator-hero is suffering through the regulated boredom of high school when he is transfixed by a new teacher—an elegant "older woman" (she is thirty-two) who bewitches him with her glacial beauty and her strict intelligence. He resolves to learn everything he can about her and to win her heart.

In a sequence of marvelously funny but sobering maneuvers, he learns much more than he expected to—about politics, Poland, the Spanish Civil War, and his own passion for theater and art—all while his loved one continues to elude him. Yet without his realizing it, his efforts—largely bookish and literary—to close in on Madame are his first steps to liberation as an artist. Later, during a stint as a teacher-in-training in his old school, he discovers that he himself has become a legendary figure to a new generation of students, and he begins to understand the deceits and blessings of myth, and its redemptive power.

A winning portrait of an artist as a young man, Madame is at the same time a moving, engaging novel about strength and weakness, first love, and the efforts we make to reconcile, in art, the opposing forces of reason and passio. (From the publisher.)

Author Bio
• Birth—April 19, 1949
• Where—Warsaw, Poland
• Education—Warsaw University; Ph.D., Polish Academy of
   Sciences
• Awards—Grand Prix of Znak
• Currently—N/A

Antoni Libera, a Polish leading literary critic, translator, writer, theatre director, is best known for his translations and productions of Samuel Beckett's plays. Other translated authors include Shakespeare (Macbeth), Sophocles (Antigone), Wilde (Salome), Hölderlin and others. He translated a number of operas as well.

Libera's first novel Madame (1998) was awarded Grand Prix of Znak (a major publishing house in Poland) and has been translated into 20 languages. (Adapted from Wikipedia .)

Book Reviews
Madame is at the same time an enthralling read, a nostalgic tale of youthful passion, and a sober analysis of growing up under Eastern Europe's gray skies in the sixties. Antoni Libera, known in Poland up till now as a translator and director, proves himself here to be an experienced and absorbing prose writer.
Times (London)

Antoni Libera's Madame, set in Soviet-controlled Warsaw in the 1960's, demonstrates the power of the coming-of-age novel to renew itself with each generation.... Libera's portrayal of a gifted mind learning courage and honor in the most deprived of circumstances is inherently powerful and dramatic.
David Walton - New York Times Book Review

Stendhal would have loved this novel. If he had known Polish, he would even have been able to write it himself.
Washington Post

The hero of this excellent novel is a high-school student, trying to fulfill his romantic destiny in the decidedly unromantic world of the Communist Polish People's Republic... As the boy investigates his beloved's complicated past with a particularly earnest and endearing deviousness, he is forced to make sense of the social and political myths he has inherited.
The New Yorker

A teenage boy's doomed love for his glamorous French instructor in 1960s Poland informs the masterfully constructed debut of Warsaw critic and drama director Libera. When a beautiful 32-year-old teacher, known primarily as "Madame," takes over the narrator's high school French class, he is entranced by her combination of austere intelligence and immaculate beauty. He soon begins following her and researching her life to feed his obsession. When he flirtatiously taunts her in class with covert references to her past, she seems only mildly indignant. Finally, he discovers that she is the daughter of a man who left Poland for political reasons during the 1940s, and that she has felt uncertain of her own identity for much of her adult life; this revelation fills him with empathy for her. The unlikely chemistry between the immature pupil and his adult teacher is electrifying, and the tantalizing pace builds to a mystifying and heart-wrenching climax. Libera paints the narrator's obsession with Madame with a wit worthy of Nabokov (in a crystalline translation by Kolakowska) as his satire of the youth's reckless romantic impulse mixes with heated romantic intrigue. In the course of researching his amour, the narrator sees Picasso's The Human Comedy drawings and Lelouch's film A Man and a Woman, both new at the time; the attitude toward physical and psychological love expressed in both adds a complex and fitting symbolism to the intense politics and passion in the narrative. The layers of the student's obsession unravel with impressive measure as well, even if Libera occasionally gives too much attention to the inner workings of his hero's mind or the history of Poland's oppression by Communist forces. This epic fantasy is deeply satisfying, heartbreaking and enthralling.
Publishers Weekly


In this first novel from Polish critic and theater director Libera, the high school-aged protagonist finds life in Soviet-dominated Poland to be dreary and lacking in the drama of earlier eras. The pressure to conform politically and socially thwarts his desire for pure artistic expression. His resignation to the unremarkable is interrupted by a growing obsession with his elegant and enigmatic French teacher, Madame—seemingly out of reach at age 32. Thus, the young man spends his final year of high school uncovering the details of Madame's personal life, hoping to use these details to woo her through a covert operation that involves the intricate manipulation of the spoken and written word. While engaged in this espionage, he learns that the dramatic is made up of the everyday and that the Polish-Soviet system promotes mediocrity while burying the exceptional. This deeply symbolic Bildungsroman is full of tragedy and comedy, exuberance and suffocation. Highly recommended. —Rebecca A. Stuhr, Grinnell Coll. Libs., IA
Library Journal

Though numerous digressions sometimes take away from the flow of the novel, the narrator's lively and passionate voice keeps the reader engaged. The only other detraction is the untranslated French throughout the text, but overall, this is an impressive debut. —Kristine Huntley
Booklist

Discussion Questions
(Many thanks to Monterey County Free Libraries, of California, for developing and sharing the following questions as part of their Book Club to Go program.)

1. What makes this book distinctive?

2. Did you notice any symbolism or underlying themes?

3. How is the setting and period important to the theme?

4. Recollect your time in High School and compare your school with the one portrayed in the book.

5. Did you have any memorable teachers similar to any teacher portrayed in the book?

6. How did you perceive the countries from behind the “iron curtain”? Did you learn something new about life in Eastern Europe in the sixties?

7. How did the ending of the book change your perception of the whole story?

8. Did any literary allusions encourage you to read more books, like “Victory” by Joseph Conrad or plays by Samuel Beckett?

9. Which of the characters from the book would you like to meet in person? What would you like to talk about with her/him?

10. In your opinion, why was Madame so desperate to leave Poland?

11. What do you think really happened to Madame and what was her life like after she left Poland?

12. In your opinion, why didn’t the protagonist escape from Poland? Do you think he finally did, when he finished the book?

13. What can be the meaning of the fact that we don’t know characters’ names?

14. Would this book make a good movie? Why or why not?

(Questions issued by Monterey County Free Libraries of California. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)

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Not My Daughter
Barbara Delinsky, 2010
Knopf Doubleday
352 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780307473233

Summary
When Susan Tate's seventeen-year-old daughter, Lily, announces she is pregnant, Susan is stunned. A single mother, she has struggled to do everything right. She sees the pregnancy as an unimaginable tragedy for both Lily and herself.

Then comes word of two more pregnancies among high school juniors who happen to be Lily's best friends—and the town turns to talk of a pact. As fingers start pointing, the most ardent criticism is directed at Susan. As principal of the high school, she has always been held up as a role model of hard work and core values.

Now her detractors accuse her of being a lax mother, perhaps not worthy of the job of shepherding impressionable students. As Susan struggles with the implications of her daughter's pregnancy, her job, financial independence, and long-fought-for dreams are all at risk.

The emotional ties between mothers and daughters are stretched to breaking in this emotionally wrenching story of love and forgiveness. Once again, Barbara Delinsky has given us a powerful novel, one that asks a central question: What does it take to be a good mother? (From the publisher.)

Author Bio
• AKA—Ruth Greenberg, Billie Douglass, Bonnie Drake
• Birth—August 9, 1945
• Where—Boston, Massachusetts, USA
• Education—B.A., Tufts University; M.A., Boston College
• Awards—Romantic Times Magazine: Special Achievement
   (twice), Reviewer's Choice, and Best Contemporary
   Romance Awards; from Romance Writers of America:
   Golden Medallion and Golden Leaf Awards.
• Currently—lives in Newton, Massachusetts

Barbara Delinsky (born as Barbara Ruth Greenberg) is an American writer of twenty New York Times bestsellers. She has also been published under the pen names Bonnie Drake and Billie Douglass.

Delinsky was born near Boston, Massachusetts. Her mother died when she was only eight, which she describes on her website as the "defining event in a childhood that was otherwise ordinary."

In 1963, she graduated from Newton High School, in Newton, Massachusetts. She then went on to earn a B.A. in Psychology from Tufts University and an M.A. in Sociology at Boston College.

Delinsky married Steve Delinsky, a law student, when she was very young. During the first years of her marriage, she worked for the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. After the birth of her first child, she took a job as a photographer and reporter for the Belmont Herald newspaper. She also filled her time doing volunteer work at hospitals, and serving on the Board of Directors of the Friends of the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center and their Women's Cancer Advisory Board.

In 1980, after having twins, Delinsky read an article about three female writers, and decided to try putting her imagination on paper. After three months of researching, plotting, and writing, she sold her first book. She began publishing for Dell Publishing Company as Billie Douglass, for Silhouette Books as Billie Douglass, and for Harlequin Enterprises as Barbara Delinsky. Now, she only uses her married name Barbara Delinsky, and some of her novels published under the other pseudonyms, are being published under this name. Since then, over 30 million copies of her books are in print, and they have been published in 25 languages. One of her novels, A Woman's Place, was made into a Lifetime movie starring Lorraine Bracco. Her latest work, Sweet Salt Air, is published by St. Martin's Press.

In 2001, Delinsky branched out into nonfiction with the book Uplift: Secrets from the Sisterhood of Breast Cancer Survivors. A breast cancer survivor herself, Barbara donates the proceeds of that book and her second nonfiction work to charity. With those funds she has been able to fund an oncology fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital that trains breast surgeons.

The Delinsky family resides in Newton, Massachusetts. Steve Delinsky has become a reputed lawyer of the city, while she writes daily in her office above the garage at her home. (From Wikipedia. Retrieved 5/21/2013.)

Visit Barbara Delinsky's website.

Book Reviews
A pregnancy pact between three teenaged girls puts their mothers' love to the ultimate test in this explosive new novel from Barbara Delinsky, “a first- rate storyteller who creates characters as familiar as your neighbors.
Boston Globe

In her new family drama, Barbara Delinsky examines the roles people unconsciously play in families. This is fast-paced, commercial entertainment.
USA Today

Provocative.... Delinsky is interested in how the lies we tell for love can destroy us instead—and she lays out this particular deception so painstakingly that even the most honest reader will sympathize.
People


Thought-provoking tale of three smart, popular teenage girls who make a pact to become pregnant and raise their babies together. Lily, Mary Kate, and Jess also happen to be the daughters of best friends Susan, Kate, and Sunny, and the mothers are thrown into a tailspin by this unexpected news.... Susan, the principal of the town's high school, has the most to lose, when the schools superintendent and editor of the local newspaper question her abilities as a leader and mother.... Timely, fresh, and true-to-life, this novel explores multiple layers of motherhood and tackles tough questions.
Publishers Weekly

Popular author Delinsky [tackles] tough issues...balances out the emotional angst [with] an absorbing story that will appeal to the author's substantial fan base.... Teen girls will [also] be drawn in by this accessible novel's focus on mother-daughter relationships and pact behavior.
Booklist

Three high-school seniors form a pact to become pregnant.... But Lily, Mary Kate and Jess are the top girls, academically, athletically and socially, in the Maine coastal village of Zaganack. Boasting old roots and rigid values, this company town for an upscale retailer is scandalized. Most of the scandal comes from the fact that Lily's mother Susan is the high-school principal. The old men on the school board are outraged at the example the three girls have set, and all fingers are pointing in Susan's direction.... Delinsky has a knack for exploring the battlefields of contemporary life, and this emotionally intelligent, though formulaic, new novel offers her fans what they want—high drama and romantic realism.
Kirkus Reviews

Book Club Discussion Questions
1. What do the novel’s opening pages tell you about Susan’s relationship with her daughter? What advantages and disadvantages did Susan experience as a single parent? Would you have married Rick at age 18 if you had been in her situation?

2. How does Susan’s life compare to the lives of the other moms in the book, Kate, Sunny, and Pam? What do their daughters (Lily, Mary Kate, Jess, and Abby) have in common? Are there any similarities between the way the mothers interact and the girls’ circle of friendship?

3. How did you react when Abby revealed why she had wanted to form a motherhood pact with her friends? What longings were they each hoping to fill by becoming pregnant? Were they seeking unconditional love, or rebellion against their parents, or something else altogether? How did their motivations change throughout the novel?

4. Though Not My Daughter is entirely a work of fiction, in the summer of 2008, media coverage erupted over a group of teenage girls in Gloucester, Massachusetts, who allegedly made a pact to become pregnant and raise their babies together. What does this say about the way our idea of motherhood has changed over generations? Do pregnancy and parenting mean something different to modern women, compared to our grandmothers’ generation?

5. Jess’s extended family is full of interesting contradictions. How was she shaped by Samson and Delilah, and by the ongoing friction between them and Sunny? Is Sunny right to think of Martha and Hank as “Normal with that capital N”? How does Jess define normal, based on her family life?

6. The girls have unrealistic ideas about how much it costs to raise a child. Already living on a tight budget, Will and Kate are especially upset by the financial implications of Mary Kate’s news. How does money affect parenting? Who are the best parents in the novel?

7. How did Rick and Susan’s relationship change over time? Is Lily the only reason they stayed connected, or were there other constants that gave them an emotional attachment into adulthood?

8. How would you have responded to Lily if she had been your daughter? Would you have wanted her to have the baby, and if so, would you have wanted her to give up the child for adoption? Would you offer to raise your children’s children?

9. How is Lily transformed by the unsettling news of CDH? Was she prepared for the ultimate parenting job of managing a crisis and responding to events that are beyond her control?

10. Why does Lily resist Robbie? Is there a difference between girls’ and boys’ responsibilities when a teen pregnancy occurs? Should fully adult dads have more rights than teenage ones?

11. PC Wool represents a dream fulfilled for Susan. What do the colors, the creativity, and the camaraderie mean to her? If Perry & Cass is a metaphor for family, what kind of family is it? How was Abby affected by her parents’ wealth, and the Perry legacy?

12. Discuss the relationship between Susan and her brother, Jackson. Why do he and Ellen have so much animosity toward her? How does Lily feel about family after she attends her grandfather’s funeral? How does Susan’s understanding of her mother change with the revelation that Big Rick and Ellen were once very close?

13. How did you respond to George Abbott’s editorial in Zaganack Gazette? Was Susan in any way responsible for Lily’s pregnancy? Whose responsibility is it to prevent teen pregnancy: schools? parents? the media? someone else? On some level, was Lily trying to embarrass her mother by letting history repeat itself?

14. Discuss the novel’s title and the way it captures some parents’ belief that their children are immune from peer pressure. How much do you trust your children? How much did your parents trust you?

15. How did the epilogue compare to the ending you had predicted? What did all children in the novel (adults and infants alike) teach their mothers?

16. What truths about the gifts of motherhood are illustrated in Not My Daughter, and in other novels by Barbara Delinsky? What is special about the way she portrays the bonds between parents and their children?
(Questions from author's webpage.)

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The Sweet By and By
Todd Johnson, 2009
HarperCollins
320 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780061579516

Summary
I want you to know something if you don't already. Life is choosing whom and what you love. Everything else follows...

Among the longleaf pines and family farms of eastern North Carolina, days seem to pass without incident for Margaret Clayton and Bernice Stokes until they discover each other in a friendship that will take them on the most important journey of their lives. Margaret, droll and whip smart, has a will of iron that never fails her even when her body does, while Bernice, an avid country-music fan, is rarely lucid.

Irreverent and brazen at every turn, they make a formidable pair at the home where they live, breaking all the rules and ultimately changing the lives of those around them. Lorraine, their churchgoing, God-questioning nurse, both protects and provokes them while they are under her watchful eye, as her daughter, April, bright and ambitious, determinedly makes her way through medical school. Rounding out the group of unlikely and often outrageous friends is Rhonda, the Bud-swilling beautician who does the ladies' hair on her day off and whose sassy talk hides a vulnerable heart, one that finally opens to love.

Weaving this tightly knit and compelling novel in alternating chapters, each woman gets to tell her story her own way, as all five learn to reconcile troubled pasts, find forgiveness, choose hope, and relish the joy of life. Rich with irresistible characters whose uniquely musical voices overflow the pages, The Sweet By and By is a testament to the truth that the most vibrant lives are not necessarily the most visible ones. (From the publisher.)

Author Bio
• Reared—Charlotte, North Carolina, USA
• Education—B.A., University of North Carolina; M.A., Yale
   Divinity School
• Currently—Litchfield County, Connecticut

Todd Johnson grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina, the great-grandson of a rural Baptist preacher. After graduating from UNC-Chapel Hill with honors in history and receiving his master's degree from Yale Divinity School, Todd moved to New York City to pursue a career as a musician. Armed with a handful of demo reels, he made the rounds, knocking on the doors of advertising music producers. A few weeks later, he sang his first national commercial and went on to sing and arrange countless jingles for television and radio. He has also performed with a long roster of major artists, including Garth Brooks, Celine Dion, Tony Bennett, Marc Anthony, Barry Manilow, Al Jarreau, Michael Bolton, Sarah Brightman and Natalie Cole.

After singing the praises of cleaning products, cars, airlines, beverages, and even toilet paper, Todd decided to give himself to his longstanding passion for theatre. In 2006, he received a Tony Award nomination as a producer of The Color Purple on Broadway.

A longtime resident of Manhattan’s Upper West Side, Todd recently moved to a 250-year-old house in Litchfield County, Connecticut, where it has come in very handy that he’s an Eagle Scout. When he’s not working on his next book, he rides horses and tries to keep the garden under control. (From the author's website.)

Book Reviews
Packed with so much poignancy readers might want to keep tissues handy.... This novel carries in it lessons of family, friends, kindness, generosity and love...heartfelt.... [Johnson] realistically portrays the challenges the elderly face and captures the authentic voices of these five very different women. This is a novel not to be missed.
Las Vegas Review-Journal

Give Todd Johnson an "A." He made me laugh and cry. Johnson's...five women...are as convincing as Reynolds Price's Kate Vaiden and Allan Gurganus' Lucy Marsden. From the first page they step into your life and start talking pure Southern music.
Raleigh News & Observer

Gentle, sensitive...sometimes funny, occasionally sad, and ultimately life-affirming. Johnson has done an admirable job of making each woman distinct and memorable. The reader will have a clear picture of each in mind-and will feel fond of them..a fine debut. I look forward to seeing what Johnson writes next.
Winston-Salem Journal

This debut novel eloquently tells the story of five North Carolina women, and it is quite simply one of the most beautifully written books you'll ever read. The story plays like music in the heart. Descriptions promise a laugh. Beautifully crafted dialogue brings a quick catch in the throat. Strength fills this book, while reinforcing the love and respect Southerners hold for their mothers, grandmothers, friends, and daughters. Packed with so much poignancy readers might want to keep tissues handy...this novel carries in it lessons of family, friends, kindness, generosity and love...heartfelt... [Johnson] realistically portrays the challenges the elderly face and captures the authentic voices of these five very different women. This is a novel not to be missed.
Southern Living

Read The Sweet By and By. In his debut novel, Todd Johnson explores the lives of five Southern women who are unexpectedly connected to each other. While most of the action takes place in a nursing home, their stories never fall short of livelihood. Think of it as Steel Magnolias meets The Golden Girls.
Real Simple

Johnson's bittersweet and often humorous hen-lit debut portrays the lives of five very different Southern women: compassionate Lorraine, bossy Margaret, grief-stricken Bernice, ambitious April and brusque Rhonda. At the center of this character-driven novel is Lorraine, a nurse at the nursing home where Margaret and Bernice live. As the three women drift into friendship, hairdresser Rhonda arrives to take a part-time job, and the older women begin to change her life. Lorraine's daughter, April, meanwhile, is also gradually drawn into the circle. The story unfolds slowly over decades and life milestones, giving the characters plenty of time to reveal themselves. Johnson has a sure ear for Southern speech, though the dialect can become tiresome, and the narrative's lack of plot makes the novel feel overlong. Nevertheless, the underlying message of the power of love and friendship resonates, as does its depiction of the way in which people leading unremarkable lives can have a tremendous impact on those around them.
Publishers Weekly

You may feel like your Southern ladies lit shelf is crammed, but you'll want to save a place for this debut novel—essentially a hymn of praise for licensed practical nurses (LPNs). Set in an eastern North Carolina nursing home, the book follows Lorraine, an African American nurse; her daughter, April; Margaret and Bernice, elderly white patients; and Rhonda, a younger, white hairdresser who comes on Sundays. Moving back and forth in time, Johnson does a fine job of illustrating the rich inner lives of those imprisoned by failing mental or physical health. Although not without its flaws, the novel moves beyond stereotypes as Lorraine lives in loving service to those unable to do for themselves. Like so many Southern novels, strong women predominate, and good men seem scarce. One may wish to know more about Rhonda's and April's lives, but the irrepressible Bernice and her obsessive antics over a prized stuffed monkey compensate. Even with the conundrum of an abundance of good fiction and limited budgets, novels about everyday people like Lorraine are in short supply. Strongly recommended for popular and Southern fiction collections.
Rebecca Kelm - Library Journal

Two nursing-home residents inspire their hairdresser and caregiver, in Broadway producer (The Color Purple) Johnson's often preachy first novel. Lorraine, an African-American practical nurse, suppresses traumatic memories of an abusive husband and the crib death of her firstborn by concentrating on creating a semblance of normalcy for her charges at Ridgecrest, a North Carolina nursing home. Lorraine's favorites are Margaret, who is struggling to maintain her faculties in this dementia-conducive setting, and Bernice, frankly and unapologetically gaga, accompanied always by her monkey doll, Mister Benny. Rhonda, painfully conscious of her poor white origins, does hair at Ridgecrest once a week, and, spurred on by Margaret, Lorraine and Bernice, gradually gains self-acceptance. April, Lorraine's daughter, has become a doctor, making her mother proud. The present arc takes us through various occasions at the nursing home—Christmas, Mother's Day, Fourth of July, etc.—where we see in action the ambivalence and anger of Margaret and Bernice toward the middle-aged children who have consigned them to Ridgecrest. In a scene that fails to deliver its tragicomic intent, Benny meets his end when he's tossed on a barbecue grill by a crotchety geezer. There's the obligatory escape sequence, wherein Margaret and Bernice slip out the back door at night and head for a local ice-cream parlor, then to Raleigh, where they spend the night in a hotel. After the adventure proves too much for Bernice (she passes away in her sleep in the hotel room), the story loses whatever impetus it had. Letters left behind, written by Bernice to her beloved younger son Wade after his death in a car crash, convincingly if anticlimactically document her descent into madness. Extended meditations by the surviving principals (except Margaret, who thankfully retains her refreshing cynicism) on the Big Questions make for a predictable and lifeless denouement. Earnest, and funny in spots, but it too often sacrifices depth for wisecracks and original insights for cliches.
Kirkus Reviews

Discussion Questions
1. The Sweet By and By is told through the first-person perspectives of five women. Aside from the chapter titles, how does the author keep each of these voices distinct and immediately recognizable? What does each unique woman bring to the story?

2. From Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July to Margaret and Bernice’s escape to the Tastee Freez, holidays and food are powerful motifs in The Sweet By and By. What function do these motifs play in the story?

3. In Chapter Twenty-Six, April claims there are only two unforgivable sins: sickness and aging. Why do you think she says this? Do you think this statement is true to the novel?

4. Several of Lorraine's chapters take place in church. How does Lorraine understand the role of God in her life, and does that change over the course of the novel?

5. What does the title The Sweet By and By allude to? What do you feel it means in relationship to your own life?

6. In Chapter Thirty-Five, April and her mother learn the difference between “apparent” and “absolute magnitudes” of stars. What does this distinction symbolize? How do the five main characters’ perspectives of themselves confirm or conflict with the other characters’ depictions of them?

7. The Sweet By and By covers many years, often with only subtle indications that significant time has passed. What details does the author employ to implicitly convey the passage of time? Do different parts of the novel move more quickly than others, and if so, how can you tell?

8. What role does race play in the novel? Why do you think the author waits before revealing Margaret’s race?

9. In Chapter Twenty-Four, Lorraine, Margaret, and Rhonda read Bernice Stokes’s letters to her deceased son. Lorraine says, “Don’t think she didn’t know, honey. There’s ways of knowing that we don’t know nothing about.” What do you think Lorraine means here?

10. Why does Margaret insist on naming Bernice’s second stuffed animal?

11. Are Margaret and Bernice’s escape related to Bernice’s death? Why or why not?

12. Why does Lorraine wait so long to tell April about her brother?

13. The novel is filled with uncharacteristic representations of age. In Chapter Twenty-Two, Rhonda recounts how as a child her grandmother threw away her dolls and told her, “You’re grown up now.... Let the past be in the past!” A page later, she washes “Mister Benny’s” hair for an aging Bernice Stokes. In one of the novel’s final scenes, April takes her aging mother to the planetarium. Can you think of other passages like this? What does The Sweet By and By tell us about childhood, adulthood, and aging?
(Questions from the author's website.)

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The Vow 
Denene Miller, Angela Burt-Murray, Mitzi Miller, 2005
HarperCollins
352 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780060762285

Summary
In this runaway hit novel, three best friends come together for their sorority sister's glitzy wedding in Atlanta and make a vow to get married within one year. As they embark on their search to find their soul mates, they navigate the full-contact sport known as being a SSBFLA (successful, single, black, female in L.A.) and negotiate the shark-infested waters of making a name for themselves professionally in Hollywood.

Can Trista, the hyper-driven celebrity agent, find the time to schedule a meaningful romance? Will Amaya, the sexy starlet, convince the married hip hop-label exec she has been seeing to leave his wife, or will the NBA star steal her heart in the final seconds? After undergoing a complete makeover, will Vivian, the jaded gossip columnist, win back the father of her child?

As seductive as it is empowering, The Vow is a page-turner that will keep you cheering for these women as they discover that their desire to find a husband isn't as important as finding themselves. (From the publisher.)

Author Bios
• Denene Millner is a columnist for Parenting magazine. She has worked as a senior editor at Honeyand as an entertainment and political journalist for the New York Daily News. She is also the author of The Sistahs' Rules and co-author of several books, including the novel A Love Story (with her husband, Nick Chiles), and The Angry Black Woman's Guide to Life, a humor book. Millner lives in Atlanta with her husband and their two daughters. (From the publisher.)

• Angela Burt-Murray is the editor-in-chief at Essence magazine. She has written for Essence, Honey, Parenting, and Working Mother magazines. The co-author of The Angry Black Woman's Guide to Life, Burt-Murray lives in New Jersey with her husband and two sons. (From the publisher.)

• Mitzi Miller is associate editor at Jane magazine and has written for Elle (U.K.), Parenting, and Upscale magazines. She is the former entertainment editor for Honey magazine and the co-author of The Angry Black Woman's Guide to Life. She lives in New York City. (From the publisher.)

Book Reviews
(Starred review.) Veteran author Millner (What Brothers Think, What Sistahs Know) has teamed with Burt-Murray and Miller (editors at Jane and Teen People, respectively) to produce an emotionally charged portrait of contemporary Hollywood with a cast of unforgettable characters. Reunited at a wedding on New Year's Eve, three 30-something sorority sisters pledge to become engaged within a year. Trista Gordon, a power hungry talent agent, will do whatever it takes to beat her politically connected colleague, Steven Banks, to a partnership. Beautiful actress Amaya Anderson, in line for her first leading role, juggles two boyfriends while focusing on toning down her flashy image. Slightly plump Vivian Evans, an entertainment journalist, remains hopelessly in love with her son's father, her ex-husband. Fortified with new skills meant to drive a man wild, the trio find their wants don't often meet those of their romantic prospects, who include a basketball star, a closeted gay attorney and a hip-hop artist. Readers will eagerly turn the pages of this edgy, sexy novel to learn what's happening next.
Publishers Weekly

Enter the world of California glitz and glamour as three friends navigate their way through Hollywood's chaotic dating scene. Trista is vying for partner at one of the hottest talent agencies in Los Angeles and finds herself caught between a former love and her current, slightly boring boyfriend. Amaya, an actress contending with the casting couch to improve her roles, obsesses about her affair with a married man while dating a basketball star. And newspaper reporter Vivian is still in love with her college boyfriend, the father of her son. Prompted by a New Year's resolution to be wed by the year's end, the women discover the strengths and weaknesses of their friendships, their families, and themselves. Millner (The Sistahs' Rules) and magazine editors Angela Burt-Murray and Mitzi Miller have collaborated before, in The Angry Black Woman's Guide to Life. Their latest endeavor brings fast-paced romances to life and features a trio of engaging characters. Perfect for light reading, this book is recommended for popular fiction collections, especially where Millner is popular. —Joy St. John, Henderson Dist. P.L., NV
Library Journal

The path to true love is never smooth for three sexy black Los Angeles women who set a deadline for landing Mr. Right. A New Year's Eve wedding celebration spurs best friends Trista, Amaya and Viv to make a pledge to find themselves husbands within a 12-month period. Should be simple, right? After all, they have talent, beauty and drive to spare. But finding men does not seem to be the problem, just getting the right one to commit. Earthy single mom Viv longs for a full-time family with her son's father, a successful plastic surgeon, but gets sidetracked by a smitten gangsta rapper; talent agent Trista seems to have met her match in smooth lawyer Garrett, but cannot get her college sweetheart Damon out of her mind; and starlet (and part-time hustler) Amaya hedges her bets with a strapping young basketball star in the hopes that her married music-mogul lover will become jealous enough to leave his movie star wife. This familiar story of friendship and self-realization from Millner (A Love Story, 2004, etc.), Teen People magazine executive editor Burt-Murray and Jane magazine associate editor Miller is peppered with Hollywood gossip about the African-American entertainment elite, along with several frank and funny sex scenes. These wannabe brides are far from chaste, and their unapologetic romps drive the love-yourself-first message better than some of the more conventional plot revelations. Through a series of crises that include a boyfriend on the down-low and a sick child, the friends are forced to face the flaws in their plan and deal with their own fears until they realize that they need each other far more than a ring. A warm-hearted Jackie Collins-meets-Terry McMillan ode to sisterhood, with few surprises.
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)

Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for The Vow:

1. Did you enjoy the unusual structure of this book: three different voices, written by three different authors? Does the story hold together—do the authors pull it off?

2. Are the three main characters authentic and well-developed as individuals? Or do you find them stereotypic: the man's women, the woman left with a baby, and the hard-charging career worman?

3. Are the characters compelling—do you care about them? Do you have a favorite among the three—Trista, Amay, or Vivian? Do you see qualities of yourself in any one of them?

4. Does The Vow do a good job of describing the cultural issues faced by single working women who are also in the market for a mate? Are the challenges the three women face authentic?

5. What about the men? Is there one you like/dislike one more than the others? Who...and why? Are the men fully developed as characters, or are they one-dimensional caricatures?

6. How would you react if you found your boyfriend was on the down-low?

7. Viv began a self-improvement program, then back-tracked. Were you disappointed in her...or sympathetic? What about Sean's justification for leaving Viv with the baby? Does his reasoning stand up? Does Viv end up with the right guy?

8. What do you think of Amaya handing over the photos of his wife to Keith?

9. What does each of the three women start to realize in the process of finding a husband...what do they learn by the end of the book?

10. Did The Vow hold your interest? Is it a page-turner...or were there times when you lost interest?

11. Are you satisfied with the way the novel ends? Do you feel each woman gets what she truly needs...or deserves? If you could, would you change the ending...and, if so, how?

(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)

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