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 Bitch is the New Black:
1. Talk about the title: what does it mean? How does Helena Andrews use the word "bitch? How does she apply the word to herself? Is it a pejorative or a compliment? Does she use the title out of malice or self-confidence?
2. Why, according to Andrews, are successful black women lonely and single? Is her assessment—that success gets in the way of romance—accurate? What are your personal experiences and observations?
3. Why does Andrews admire with astronaut Lisa Nowak?
4. Talk about Andrews' prayers for her father's return. How did his absence haunt her life as a young girl...and later, as a young woman?
5. Discuss her growing up years on Catalina Island. In particular, what do you think of her mother? What kind of mother was she? Did you agree with the friend's accusation that Frances was raising Andrews to have no feelings?
6. Talk about the kidnapping scene? What were your emotions while reading it?
7. What impact did The Bill Cosby show have on Andrews and her expectations for life? Talk about her hopes for the TV-film, Polly and its effect on her white classmates?
8. In general, how does Andrews describe the various people who enter her life—the interior designer, Reggie Love, Rayetta, or Dexter? Are her assessments of them fair, funny, mean, perceptive? Does she present them as fully-developed individuals...or as one-diminsional figures?
9. How does Andrews relate to the Obamas, Michelle in particular—her "diplomas in plural, a career in progress, a presidential husband, and perfect babies"?
10. What do you think of Dexter? At one point, he tells Andrews that she's too good for him—do you agree, or not? Why is Andrews attracted to him?
11. Talk about Andrews' treatment of difficult subjects—abortion and abusive relationships.
12. What, if anything, does Andrews come to learn by the close of her book? Do you feel she has examined her life, and her own role in its unfolding, with depth and perception? Or do you see the book as a more superficial treatment, written primarily as an entertaining, comedic take on life for a single black woman?
13. Which of the book's 16 essays are your favorites? Which parts are the most humorous? Most moving? Most enlightening? Most irritating?
14. Overall, what is your response to Helena Andrews and her book? Would you describe her writing as crass and offensive—a way to gain attention? Or is her writing a raw and openly honest presentation of life's disappointments. Does she strike a chord in your own life?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)