The Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America
Amy Chua, Jed Rubenfeld, 2014
Penguin Group (USA)
304 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781594205460
Summary
That certain groups do much better in America than others—as measured by income, occupational status, test scores, and so on—is difficult to talk about. In large part this is because the topic feels racially charged. The irony is that the facts actually debunk racial stereotypes. There are black and Hispanic subgroups in the United States far outperforming many white and Asian subgroups.
Moreover, there’s a demonstrable arc to group success—in immigrant groups, it typically dissipates by the third generation—puncturing the notion of innate group differences and undermining the whole concept of "model minorities." Mormons have recently risen to astonishing business success. Cubans in Miami climbed from poverty to prosperity in a generation. Nigerians earn doctorates at stunningly high rates. Indian and Chinese Americans have much higher incomes than other Americans; Jews may have the highest of all.
Why do some groups rise? Drawing on groundbreaking original research and startling statistics, The Triple Package uncovers the secret to their success. A superiority complex, insecurity, impulse control—these are the elements of the Triple Package, the rare and potent cultural constellation that drives disproportionate group success. The Triple Package is open to anyone.
America itself was once a Triple Package culture. It’s been losing that edge for a long time now. Even as headlines proclaim the death of upward mobility in America, the truth is that the oldfashioned American Dream is very much alive—but some groups have a cultural edge, which enables them to take advantage of opportunity far more than others.
- Americans are taught that everyone is equal, that no group is superior to another. But remarkably, all of America’s most successful groups believe (even if they don’t say so aloud) that they’re exceptional, chosen, superior in some way.
- Americans are taught that self-esteem—feeling good about yourself—is the key to a successful life. But in all of America’s most successful groups, people tend to feel insecure, inadequate, that they have to prove themselves.
- America today spreads a message of immediate gratification, living for the moment. But all of America’s most successful groups cultivate heightened discipline and impulse control.
But the Triple Package has a dark underside too. Each of its elements carries distinctive pathologies; when taken to an extreme, they can have truly toxic effects. Should people strive for the Triple Package? Should America? Ultimately, the authors conclude that the Triple Package is a ladder that should be climbed and then kicked away, drawing on its power but breaking free from its constraints.
Provocative and profound, The Triple Package will transform the way we think about success and achievement. (From the publisher.)
Author Bios
Amy Chua
• Birth—1962
• Where—Champaign, Illinois, USA
• Education—B.A., J.D., Harvard University
• Currently—lives in New Haven, Connecticut
Amy L. Chua is the John M. Duff, Jr. Professor of Law at Yale Law School. She joined the Yale faculty in 2001 after teaching at Duke Law School. Prior to starting her teaching career, she was a corporate law associate at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton. She specializes in the study of international business transactions, law and development, ethnic conflict, and globalization and the law. She is widely known for her parenting memoir, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother (2011), and The Triple Package (2014), co-authored with her husband Jed Rubenfeld.
Background
Chua was born in Champaign, Illinois. Her parents were ethnic Chinese from the Philippines who emigrated to the United States. Amy's father, Leon O. Chua, is an Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences professor at the University of California, Berkeley and is known as the father of nonlinear circuit theory, cellular neural networks, and discovered the memristor. She was raised as a Roman Catholic and lived in West Lafayette, Indiana.
When she was eight years old, her family moved to Berkeley, California. Chua went to El Cerrito High School and graduated magna cum laude with an A.B. in Economics from Harvard College in 1984. She obtained her J.D. cum laude in 1987 from Harvard Law School, where she was an Executive Editor of the Harvard Law Review.
Books
Chua has written four books: two studies of international affairs, a memoir and her latest on Ethnic-American culture.
• World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability (2003), explores the ethnic conflict caused in many societies by disproportionate economic and political influence of "market dominant minorities" and the resulting resentment in the less affluent majority. The book—a New York Times Bestseller, was selected by The Economist as one of the Best Books of 2003 and was named in The Guardian as one of the "Top Political Reads of 2003"—examines how globalization and democratization since 1989 have affected the relationship between market dominant minorities and the wider population.
• Day of Empire: How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance—and Why They Fall (2007), examines seven major empires and posits that their success depended on their tolerance of minorities.
• Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother (2011), is a memoir that ignited a global parenting debate with its story of one mother’s journey in strict parenting techniques.
• The Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America (2014) outlines three personal traits that make for individual success. It is co-authored with Jed Rubenfeld, her husband.
Personal
Chua lives in New Haven, Connecticut and is married to Yale Law School professor Jed Rubenfeld. She has two daughters, Sophia and Louisa ("Lulu"). She is the eldest of four sisters: Michelle, Katrin, and Cynthia. Katrin is a physician and a professor at Stanford University School of Medicine. Cynthia, who has Down Syndrome, holds two International Special Olympics gold medals in swimming. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 2/18/2014.)
Jed Rubenfeld
• Birth—1959
• Where—Washington, D.C., USA
• Education—B.A., J.D., Harvard University
• Currently—lives in New Haven, Connecticut
Jed Rubenfeld, (born 1959 in Washington, D.C.), is the Robert R. Slaughter Professor of Law at Yale Law School. He is an expert on constitutional law, privacy, and the First Amendment. He joined the Yale Law School faculty in 1990 and was appointed to a full professorship in 1994. Rubenfeld has also taught as a visiting professor at both the Stanford Law School and the Duke University School of Law. He is also the author of two novels and a nonfiction work, co-authored with his wife, Amy Chu.
Education
Rubenfeld was a summa cum laude graduate of Princeton University (A.B., 1980) and a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School (J.D., 1986). He also studied theater in the Drama Division of the Juilliard School between 1980-1982. Rubenfeld clerked for Judge Joseph T. Sneed on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in 1986-1987.
After his clerkship, he worked as an associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and as an assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York.
Books
2001 - Freedom and Time: A Theory of Constitutional Self-Government
2005 - Revolution by Judiciary: The Structure of American Constitutional Law
2006 - The Interpretation of Murder, a novel
2010 - The Death Instinct, a novel
2014 - The Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of
Cultural Groups in America (with Amy Chua)
Personal
Rubenfeld is Jewish. He lives in New Haven, Connecticut and is married to Yale Law School professor Amy Chua, author of several nonfiction works, the most well-known of which is her 2011 memoir on parenting, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother (2011). They have two daughters. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 2/18/2014.)
Book Reviews
The Triple Package as a book is a real head-scratcher.... It’s part sociological study, part national call to arm...and even part self-help book.... Connecting these far-flung dots seems to require, first of all, a lot of repetition of the phrase “Triple Package” (on one page it appears seven times). What’s curious...is how dull the prose is.... The continual restatement of the thesis (which is a kind of truism—who actually expects addiction and complacency to be success markers?), and the winners-versus-losers emphasis, makes reading this book feel like being slugged over and over again by a bully wearing kid gloves.
Sandra Tsing Loh - New York Times Book Review
The problem with the The Triple Package is that its fundamental argument is half-baked. The question of how cultural, societal, economic, and historical factors interact, and how this interaction gives rise to problems like inequality, is one of the trickiest in the social sciences, and Chua and Rubenfeld fail to give it its intellectual due. .... It’s also worth pointing out that The Triple Package isn’t without its charms. Chua and Rubenfeld’s recountings of how various ethnic groups carved out chunks of the American dream are engaging and concise.
Jesse Singal - Boston Globe
This book has stirred up a storm of controversy. But why shouldn't Tiger Mother Amy Chua and her husband investigate the success of certain cultural and ethnic groups? The question is: are they right in their explanation of it?... Whether the authors' explanation as to why some groups thrive is valid is another question, and it's a problem with this kind of book that the marketing hook, in this case the "triple package"—a clunky formulation the authors have chosen "for lack of a less terrible name" —is often too flimsy or too broad to be meaningful.
Emma Brockes - Guardian (UK)
(Starrerd review.) In their provocative new book, Chua (Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother) and Rubenfeld (The Interpretation of Murder)—Yale Law professors and spouses—show why certain groups in the U.S. perform better than others.... This comprehensive, lucid sociological study balances its findings with a probing look at the downsides of the triple package..
Publishers Weekly
Some ethnic or religious groups seem disproportionately successful.... Chua (Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother) and Rubenfeld (The Interpretation of Murder), professors at Yale Law School and wife and husband, researched the question.... This is popular sociology at its best: well researched, heavily noted, and clearly written.... [L]ikely to promote debate. —David Azzolina, Univ. of Pennsylvania Libs., Philadelphia
Library Journal
This book explores why...Asian-Americans dominate admissions at the Ivy League..? Why are so many Nobel Prize winners Jewish? Why are there so many Mormon CEOs? Why are Nigerian-born Americans overrepresented among doctorates and MDs? Though coolly and cogently argued, this book is bound to be the spark for many potentially heated discussions
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.)
Mister Owita's Guide to Gardening: How I Learned the Unexpected Joy of a Green Thumb and an Open Heart
Carol Wall, 2014
Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam
304 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780399157981
Summary
A true story of a unique friendship between two people who had nothing—and ultimately everything—in common.
Carol Wall, a white woman living in a lily-white neighborhood in Middle America, was at a crossroads in her life. Her children were grown; she had successfully overcome illness; her beloved parents were getting older. One day she notices a dark-skinned African man tending her neighbor’s yard. His name is Giles Owita. He bags groceries at the supermarket. He comes from Kenya. And he’s very good at gardening.
Before long Giles is transforming not only Carol’s yard, but her life. Though they are seemingly quite different, a caring bond grows between them. But they both hold long-buried secrets that, when revealed, will cement their friendship forever. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—N/A
• Education—B.A., Vanderbilt University
• Currently—lives in Roanoke, Virginia, USA
A graduate of Peabody College for Teachers at Vanderbilt University, Carol Wall has taught high school English in both public and private schools in Tennessee and Virginia. Carol’s articles and essays centering on family life have been popular features in publications such as Southern Living Magazine and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for more than twenty years.
An accomplished public speaker, Carol served as Writer-in-Residence for Roanoke County Schools, where high school audiences learned to look forward to her entertaining and engaging presentations. Beginning in 1973, with her first teaching job at East High School in Nashville, TN—Oprah Winfrey’s alma mater—Carol has been known for her ability to connect with listeners, sharing her passion for storytelling and eagerly reaching out to include even the most reluctant student. Whether she’s describing the culinary exploits of her husband—a “binge cooker”—or detailing the day her little beagle Rhudy was banished from an exclusive spa for dogs, she brings a trademark wit and liveliness to ordinary subjects.
Her professional life has unfolded against the backdrop of a busy household where the Walls’ three children were joined by a teenage foster son and exchange students from Lithuania and Croatia.
Carol is active in the P.E.O. Sisterhood, a philanthropic educational organization which boasts 250,000 members worldwide and provides college scholarships for women. She sings second soprano in an eight-member women’s ensemble at her church.
She and her husband have three grown children, three beautiful granddaughters, and a grandson. They make their home in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Carol has been battling Stage 4 breast cancer since 2008. Mister Owita’s Guide to Gardening is her first book (From the author's website.)
Book Reviews
In this lovely memoir, a surprising friendship blossoms between a horticulturist with a harrowing secret and the author, a cancer survivor with a bad attitude and a sad yard. A perfect spring awakening.
Good Housekeeping
(Starred review.) [A] moving memoir.... [Carol] Wall enlists a neighbor’s gardener, a man from Kenya, to help her maintain her garden. What begins as a purely professional relationship...blossoms into an intimate friendship.... This tender narrative gently probes the complicated terrain of American race relations, dealing with serious illness and facing the death of loved ones.
Publishers Weekly
Wall, a white woman with grown children who had survived illness and was now contemplating her next move, noticed a black man working hard in a neighbor's yard. Giles Owita, who had come from Kenya and bagged groceries to make ends meet, was soon cleaning Wall's yard, too. They became friends, bonding over secrets they've both hidden, and the result is this much-touted memoir.
Library Journal
I couldn’t put this book down. I found myself liking the principal characters from the opening pages, and my affection for them never wavered. If you enjoy inspirational memoirs or gardening books (or both), this moving account of a life-changing friendship is for you.
Kelly Blewett - BookPage
Serendipitous life lessons from an unexpected source.... Owita not only performed an aesthetic miracle on Wall's property, but he also educated, enlivened and transformed her life and surroundings in graceful, heartwarming and rewarding ways. A pleasure to read. Wall's bittersweet story of human kindness has universal appeal.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Carol's friendship with Giles begins with a letter. She continues her correspondence with him throughout their friendship. How do these letters help them grow together as friends? What do they each gain by writing and receiving the letters? Do you write letters? Can writing down your feelings, worries, news, and so on be therapeutic? How is writing a letter to someone different from—or similar to—keeping a diary or journal?
2. Aristotle refers to a "friendship of virtue," in which self-seeking finds no place. Have Carol and Giles attained this level of friendship? If so, when does this happen?
3. Carol plays the role of both patient and caretaker. How does each of these roles change her? How does her role of caretaker for her parents affect her role as patient?
4. Carol did not learn until adulthood that the radiation treatment she received as a girl could cause cancer later in life. How would you deal with finding out such news? Do we, as adults, have a right to blame our parents for mistakes they may have made while raising us?
5. From the beginning, Carol finds Bienta a bit distant. In fact, Carol worries that she may have done something to offend her. She eventually learns that Bienta considers her one of her truest, closest friends. Why is Bienta unable to show this? Why does Carol's friendship matter so much to Bienta?
6. Is our Western culture too focused on romantic love, and does this focus make some friendships difficult to pursue? Can you give an example from the story?
7. Carol makes it clear at the beginning of the book that she is inept at and uninterested in gardening. Yet Giles opens her mind—and her heart. Discuss her evolution as she becomes a true gardener. How do you think her newfound interest in gardening helps her through the toughest times in her life? What parallels can you find between the improvements in Carol's garden and her spirit? Why does Carol become so interested in gardening? What is it about gardening that gives people such joy? What other hobbies facilitate a sense of renewal and rebirth?
8. We do not learn the real reason behind the decline in Giles's health until the end of the book. Were you surprised to find out that he had HIV/AIDS? Or did you suspect that he had a devastating illness? At the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, not only was the diagnosis a death sentence, it was extremely stigmatizing. Consider how the stigma associated with this illness could cause trouble for Giles's family. Why does he never tell Carol about it, even though she has shared so much of her own personal life with him? How have—or haven't—times changed over the past three decades?
9. Carol and Dick often talk about how they have so much to lose. What is Carol most worried about? What would you be most concerned about losing in your own life?
10. In the legend of Saint Elizabeth, Bienta explains, the Lord changed bread into roses. What do the roses symbolize? What about the bread? Recall that Saint Elizabeth's husband berates her for stooping to give bread to the poor. When she looks down to find her apron filled with roses, what is the message?
11. Symbols of Giles's and Carol's friendship and love for their families appear throughout the book. For instance, the rose signifies a kind of warmth in human interactions. Point to a time in the book when the rose helps convey the story's deeper meaning.
12. When Carol finds Dick's garment bag with a woman's dress inside, she accuses him of having an affair. Once the truth is made clear, she apologizes and confesses that she feels like a crazy person. Has Carol actually lost trust in her husband? Or is her overreaction due to something else? In what ways is Carol's reality turned upside down as a result of her cancer diagnosis?
13. Giles shares much wisdom from his native culture. Which of his words of wisdom was most striking to you?
14. Carol and Giles are very different people from very different backgrounds, and they navigate life's difficult challenges very differently. Yet they are kindred spirits and find that they have more in common as they learn more about each other. What are some of the things—both shared and dissimilar—that brought them close together? Why might their friendship seem so unlikely at the start? How does illness affect their friendship? How will Carol be changed in the life she lives without Giles?.
(Questions issued by publisher.)
The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II
Denise Kiernan, 2013
Simon & Schuster
416 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781451617535
Summary
The incredible story of the young women of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, who unwittingly played a crucial role in one of the most significant moments in US history.
At the height of World War II, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, was home to 75,000 residents, consuming more electricity than New York City. But to most of the world, the town did not exist. Thousands of civilians—many of them young women from small towns across the South—were recruited to this secret city, enticed by solid wages and the promise of war-ending work.
Kept very much in the dark, few would ever guess the true nature of the tasks they performed each day in the hulking factories in the middle of the Appalachian Mountains. That is, until the end of the war—when Oak Ridge’s secret was revealed.
Drawing on the voices of the women who lived it—women who are now in their eighties and nineties—The Girls of Atomic City rescues a remarkable, forgotten chapter of American history from obscurity. Denise Kiernan captures the spirit of the times through these women: their pluck, their desire to contribute, and their enduring courage.
Combining the grand-scale human drama of The Worst Hard Time with the intimate biography and often troubling science of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, The Girls of Atomic City is a lasting and important addition to our country’s history. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—July 31, 1968
• Where—N/A
• Education—M.A., New York University
• Currently—lives in Asheville, North Carolina
Denise Kiernan is an American journalist, producer and author who lives in Asheville, North Carolina. She has authored several history titles, including Signing Their Rights Away (with Joseph D'Agnese, 2011), The Girls of Atomic City (2013), and The Last Castle: The Epic Story of Love, Loss, and American Royalty in the Nation's Largest Home (2017)
Education
Kiernan graduated from the North Carolina School of the Arts with an emphasis in music. She earned a BA degree from the Washington Square and University College of Arts & Science in 1991 and an MA from the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development of New York University in 2002.
Career
Kiernan started out in journalism, and as a freelance writer, her work appeared in the New York Times, Village Voice, Wall Street Journal, and Ms. Magazine among other publications. She served as the head writer for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire during its first season. She has produced pieces for ESPN and MSNBC.
Additionally, she has authored several popular history titles and ghost written books for athletes, entrepreneurs and actresses. Her most recent book, The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II, traces the story of the women who worked on the Manhattan Project, unknowingly helping to create the fuel for the world's first atomic bomb. The book became a New York Times best seller in its first week of publication.
Personal life
Kiernan is married to author and journalist Joseph D'Agnese, with whom she co-authored several books including Stuff Every American Should Know (2012); Signing Their Rights Away (2011); Signing Their Lives Away (2009). (From Wiipedia. Retrieved 2/21/2014 .)
Book Reviews
The image of Rosie the Riveter—women filling in at factories to help the war effort—is well known. But women also assisted on the Manhattan Project, signing up for secret work in Oak Ridge, Tenn., to help build the atomic bomb. Kiernan looks at the lives and contributions of these unsung women who worked in jobs from secretaries to chemists.
New York Post
Fascinating.... Kiernan has amassed a deep reservoir of intimate details of what life was like for women living in the secret city, gleaned from seven years of interviews and research.... Rosie, it turns out, did much more than drive rivets.... The fascinating story of the Manhattan Project has been told often, and often told well.... But given the project's significant and lasting impact, there's plenty more mining to be done, and Denise Kiernan has found a rich vein in The Girls of Atomic City. Rosie, it turns out, did much more than drive rivets.
Scott Martelle - Washington Post
Kiernan…brings a unique and personal perspective to this key part of American history.... Instead of the words of top scientists and government officials, Kiernan recounts the experiences of factory workers, secretaries, and low-level chemists in a town that housed at its peak 75,000 people trained not to talk about what they knew or what they did. She combines their stories with detailed reporting that provides a clear and compelling picture of this fascinating time.
Boston Globe
Much was at stake, and in The Girls of Atomic City, Denise Kiernan tells a fascinating story about ordinary women who did the extraordinary. It may be difficult for today's readers to imagine so many people united behind cause and country to do what the women and men at Oak Ridge's Clinton Engineer Works did in just two years.
Patty Rhule - USA Today
Kiernan’s book, the result of seven years of research and interviews with the surviving 'girls,' sparkles with their bright, WWII slang and spirit, and takes readers behind the scenes into the hive-like encampments and cubicles where they spent their days and nights.... The Girls of Atomic City brings to light a forgotten chapter in our history that combines a vivid, novelistic story with often troubling science.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Kiernan’s focus is on the intimate and often strange details of work and life at Oak Ridge. It’s told in a novelistic style and is an intimate look at the experiences of the young women who worked at Oak Ridge and the local residents whose lives were changed by the presence of the project.
San Francisco Book Review
As most of us are all too aware, the generation who fought in World War II or supported the effort from home are leaving us—their children, grandchildren, and greats—to carry on without them. Thanks to author Kiernan, we hear from a group of that generation's women, now in their eighties and nineties, whose wartime experience matched no one else's. Ever. Anywhere.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Kiernan's interviewees describe falling in love and smuggling in liquor in tampon boxes. But like everyone else, those lives were disrupted by news of Hiroshima. "Now you know what we've been doing all this time," said one of the scientists ... [An] intimate and revealing glimpse into one of the most important scientific developments in history.
Publishers Weekly
Living and working with thousands of others in a secret city built almost overnight, those involved in the "Project" were unaware that they were contributing to the most revolutionary scientific discovery of the 20th century.... Kiernan capably captures the spirit of women's wartime opportunities and their sacrifices in what is ultimately a captivating narrative. —Kathryn Wells, Fitchburg State Univ. Lib., MA
Library Journal
A fresh take on the secret city built in the mountains of Tennessee as part of the Manhattan Project during World War II.... The author parallels her account of the construction of Oak Ridge with chapters on the development of the science that made nuclear fission possible.... An inspiring account of how people can respond with their best when called upon.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Denise Kiernan explains in an author’s note, “The information in this book is compartmentalized, as was much of life and work during the Manhattan Project.” (page 18) How does the book manage to recreate the workers’ experience of months-long ignorance, and the shock of finding out what they were working on?
2. Consider the losses of lives, land, and community that resulted from the Manhattan Project. What were some of the sacrifices that families and individuals made in their efforts to end the war? How do these losses compare to the gains of salary, solidarity, and peace? Do you think the ends of the Project justify the means? Why or why not?
3. Discuss the role that patriotism played in everyday life during World War II. Do you think Americans today would be willing or able to make the same sacrifices—including top-secret jobs, deployment overseas, rationed goods, and strict censorship—that families of that era made? Why or why not?
4. Consider the African-American experience at Oak Ridge. What kinds of discrimination did Kattie and her family face? How did Kattie manage to make the best of her substandard living conditions? What role do you think race played in the medical experimentation on Ebb Cade?
5. Helen was recruited to spy on her neighbors at home and at work. Discuss the ethical implications of this request. Was it fair, necessary, or wise to ask ordinary workers to spy? Why do you think Helen never mailed any of the top-secret envelopes she was given?
6. Although the Clinton Engineer Works was, in many ways, a tightly controlled social experiment, the military didn’t account for women’s impact on the community: “a sense of permanence. Social connectivity. Home.” (page 135) Consider the various ways that the women of Oak Ridge tried to make themselves at home. Which of their efforts succeeded, and which failed? Why were some women so successful at making Oak Ridge home while others were not, were depressed, looked forward to leaving?
7. Consider the legacy of President Truman, who made the decision to use atomic weaponry for the first time. How do Americans seem to regard Truman’s decision today? How does Truman’s legacy compare to other wartime presidents, such as George W. Bush or Lyndon B. Johnson?
8. “The most ambitious war project in military history rested squarely on the shoulders of tens of thousands of ordinary people, many of them young women.” (page 159) Compare how The Girls of Atomic City contrasts “ordinary people” to the extraordinary leaders behind the atomic bomb: the General, the Scientist, and the Engineer. Are the decision-makers portrayed as fully as the workers? Do the workers get as much credit as the leaders?
9. Kiernan sets The Girls of Atomic City entirely in the past, recreating the workers’ experiences from her interviews with the surviving women. How would this book have differed if the interviews from the present day were included? Does Kiernan succeed in immersing us in the era of World War II? Explain your answer.
10. Among the workers at Oak Ridge, whose story did you find most fascinating? Which of these women do you think Kiernan brought to life most vividly, and how?
11. Discuss the scenes in the book that take place far from Oak Ridge, Tennessee: scientific discoveries in Europe, secret tests in New Mexico, political meetings in Washington, and post-atomic devastation in Japan. How does this broad view of the bomb’s creation and aftermath enrich the story of wartime life in Oak Ridge?
12. Discuss how various contributors to the Manhattan Project felt about the use of the atomic bomb, including General Leslie Groves, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Albert Einstein, and Harry S. Truman. What regrets did they express about the bomb’s results, if any? Do you think a weapon of that magnitude could or should be used in present-day warfare? Why or why not?
13. Kiernan writes, “The challenge in telling the story of the atomic bomb is one of nuance, requiring thought and sensitivity and walking a line between commemoration and celebration.” (page 412) What lasting contributions to society have come out of Oak Ridge, Tennessee? Why is it difficult to celebrate or commemorate the work that has been done in that secret city?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
The Gardens that Mended a Marriage
Karen Moloney, 2014
Muswell Press
223 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780957556836
Summary
The Gardens that Mended a Marriage tells the story of how the author and her husband, an eminent architect, built a contemporary Moorish house on the top of a mountain and created a Persian garden, following the recipe laid down in the Quran for a paradise on earth.
Except it wasn’t as easy as that. The land slipped down the mountain, the neighbours sued, the town hall went into paralysis and wouldn’t allow them to finish the house. The Spanish builder turned out to be incompetent, the lawyer disinterested and the project manager seriously ill. In between times, she visited gardens all over the world for ideas and tended her precious vegetable patch in north London and waited.
Through all this, they argued, made up, disagreed about the garden, argued again, invested a lot of money and almost gave up. But over the years they came to understand that a significant shift happens in a relationship when you let go.
It was the creation of the garden that taught them. Nature will allow you to sculpt her land, nurture her plants and take control only if you agree to her conditions. So it is with a marriage. You can fight human nature only to a certain extent. It’s a trade-off. Accepting that fact is the real recipe for a paradise on earth.
Author Bio
• Birth—August 26, 1955
• Where—Gibraltar, Overseas Territory, UK
• Education—B.A., Trinity College, Dublin
• Currently—lives in London, England
Dr Karen Moloney is a business psychologist, Director of Moloney Minds, leadership coach and a futurist. She travels the world meeting remarkable business people and helping them become even more remarkable. At least, that’s her day job. But by night, she’s a writer. In the in-between times, she’s an enthusiastic but inept amateur gardener. (From the author.)
Visit the author's book website.
Book Reviews
Utterly enchanting.
Daily Mail
Like many empty-nest couples, Karen Moloney and her husband had drifted so far apart they were virtual strangers. Could they create a new dream together than would rekindle their passion?
Good Housekeeping
An amazing story of dogged determination to realise a Spanish garden vision. Frustrating obstacles are ultimately overcome in this serious but humorous book. A lesson in horticultural perseverance becomes an emotional experience for both author and reader.
Penelope Hobhouse
Moving mountains? Creating a dream garden to save your marriage? Karen Moloney recounts how she and her husband did just that. A horticultural tour de force.
Charlie Hopkinson
A beautifully written tale of courage, calamity and persistence. Great on plants too.
Ken Livingstone
Discussion Questions
1. The book narrates a six year period in the lives of a couple struggling with a new building and garden. What did you find inspiring? What did you find disappointing?
2. Was there a specific passage that had left an impression, good or bad? Share the passage and its effect.
3. Was there a lesson that you personally have taken away from this story, either about relationships, building projects or gardening? What was it and why is it important for you?
4. This book tells the story of an ambitious project. Do you have any secret ambitions and is there a chance they could ever be fulfilled?
5. If you are an empty-nester, how have you coped with the void of your children leaving home?
6. Thinking about the author’s marriage, how typical are the ups and downs she shared? What did you think of her way of coping with them? How do you cope with them?
7. Non-fiction books can sometimes be technical. Was this book written in a way that was easily accessible? Were horticultural terms and concepts explained? Did the photos help to reinforce the subject matter and were they helpful?
8. Sometimes it is hard to categorize a book, as the author wrote in the Foreword and Afterword. Where do you think this book belongs? Gardening, travel, relationships? Or does it cross over several categories?
9. How well written was this book?
10. The author recounts her differences between herself and her husband in their approach to designing a garden. Have you experienced a tension between high-control and laisse-faire styles? Maybe between you and those you live or work with? How did you resolve it?
11. Was there something especially surprising about this story? What was it and why?
12. Does this book mainly appeal to men or women and why?
13. Memoirs trace a personal story. Did you have any preconceived opinions of the author when you first began reading and did they change in the course of her story? If so, did it change for the better or the worse?
14. Memoirs are only one side of the story, of course. What kind of book do you think Stanley would have written?
15. What do you think the next ten years will bring for the author and her family?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)
California Vines, Wines & Pioneers
Sherry Monahan, 2013
The History Press
160 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781609498849
Summary
Grab your glass and take to the wine trail with food genealogist Sherry Monahan as she traces California wine roots in California's Vines, Wines & Pioneers. While cowboys and early settlers were writing the oft-told history of the Wild West, California's wine pioneers were cultivating a delicious industry.
The story begins when Franciscan missionaries planted the first grapes in Southern California in 1769. Almost a century later, news of gold drew thirsty prospectors and European immigrants to California's promise of wealth. From Old World vines sprang a robust and varied tradition of wine cultivation that overcame threats of pests and Prohibition to win global prestige. Journey with Monahan as she uncorks this vintage history and savors the stories of California's historic wineries and vineyards.
Included are over 60 wineries who are still in business and have a historical tie. **Includes 16 pp. color-photo insert** (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—state of Illinois, USA
• Raised—state of New Jersey
• Education—N/A
• Currently—lives in Raleigh, North Carolina
Sherry has written several non-fiction books on the Victorian West. Her most recent include Mrs. Earp: The Wives and Lovers of the Earp Brothers and California Vines, Wines & Pioneers. She also penned books about Tombstone, Pikes Peak and The Wicked West.
She's currently working on Ethel's Decision, which is the remarkable true story of an upper-class family who settled the rugged land of Lake County, California in the 1880s. Their motive was to gain back the money they lost in England, but these high-society aristocrats preferred cricket, boating, and acting over the chores of farming.
In addition to being an author, she calls herself the Genie with a Bottle because she traces the genealogy of food and wine. She coined the term, Winestry, and likes to say, "History never tasted so good."
You may have seen her on the History Channel in many shows, including Cowboys and Outlaws: Wyatt Earp, Lost Worlds: Sin City of the West (Deadwood), Investigating History and two of the Wild West Tech shows. She was honored with a Wrangler Award in the Western Heritage Awards for her performance in the Cowboys and Outlaws show in 2010.
She has her own column called "Frontier Fare" in (and is a contributing editor) True West magazine. Her "Frontier Fare" column is being turned into a book that will be released in 2015.
Other publications include the Tombstone Times, Tombstone Tumbleweed, Tombstone Epitaph, Arizona Highways, and other freelance works.
She's the incoming President of Western Writers of America and holds memberships in the following organizations: Women Writing the West, the Authors Guild, Wild West History Association, The James Beard Foundation, Association of Professional Genealogists, and SASS. She's also a charter member of the National Women's History Museum.
In addition to writing, she works as a marketing consultant and professional genealogist.
Sherry is also the author of history books on the North Carolina towns of Apex, Cary, and Southport. Each includes 200+ images and historical details and recollections. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
California Vines, Wines & Pioneers, a new history of the Golden State's wine industry that began in 1769 when Franciscan friars planted wine grapes in their first mission at San Diego. Author Sherry Monahan profiles more than 50 Old World pioneers who cultivated historic vineyards in Napa, Sonoma and other counties, explaining their contributions and taking the story up through the twin challenges of Prohibition and the Phylloxera pestilence.
Pete Basofin - Sacramento Bee
Discussion Questions
1. What wine history fact surprised you the most? Why?
2. Which winery or wineries did you know were historical? Name them.
3. Which winery or wineries were you surprised to learn were historic? Name them.
4. After reading their history, are there any brands of wine you went out and sampled? Which one(s)?
5. If you sampled "history in a bottle" did you reflect on its history? How?
6. Which recipes, if any, piqued your interest? Why?
7. Did you find yourself getting thirsty or hungry as you read the book? Discuss.
8. Do you think the author did a good job in making California’s wine history fun? Why or why not?
9. Do you feel this book would make a good travel guide if you went to Napa or Sonoma? Why or why not?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)