A Better Book Club

1. What are the best and worst things about Addie’s invisible life? What is the emotional toll of being unable to imprint herself on the heart and mind of another person? When does it give her an advantage? 2. Discuss the intense power struggle between Addie and Luc. What makes him such a master of seduction? How does Addie reclaim her power and agency over the course of the centuries? 3. Addie slips into the homes (and even the clothes) of people from all walks of life. Which abode did you like the best? If Addie borrowed your house, what would she enjoy the most about the contents of your cupboards and your closets? 4. As we meet Addie’s many lovers, Remy stands out as the first man who lived up to her girlhood fantasies. On the magical night they met, Addie was dressed in a pair of trousers, a buttoned coat, and a tricorne hat. How did her disguise (as “Thomas”) stoke their passion? 5. Living without a bank account or a phone or an address, Addie is reduced to pilfering and theft to

 A Better Book Club Questions-March 2023  Howl's Moving Castle  by Diana Wynne Jones General Discussion Questions 1.  The author, Diana Wynne Jones had written 30 fantasy books, many of them award-winning,  prior to writing Howl's Moving Castle.  Jones said the idea for the book came directly from a young child in a school she was visiting who asked her to write a story about a moving castle.   What is it about this particular story that even today, continues to resonate with the public, inspiring a much-revered animation film and companion soundtrack?   As an adult, did the story hold any magic for you?    2. The characters are related in many ways to each other. Which relationships are key to the book, in your opinion.  3. Why do you think the Witch of Waste chose to curse Sophie with old age instead of turning her into a turnip?   4. How does the fact of being prematurely aged affect Sophie and her perception of herself? Does the experience influence her understanding of the

 T H E  T E N  T H O U S A N D  D O O RS  O F  J A N U A R Y  - Questions courtesy of The Gloss Book Club 1. Did you enjoy the book? Rate it from 1 - 5. 2. Do you normally read fantasy?Is this a book you would you have chosen yourself? 3. The Ten ThousandDoors of January could be described as a coming-of-age novel. How does January change overthe course of the novel? What does she learn? 4.In what way does Cornelius Locke treat January as one of his specimens? 5. The main events of the plot take place in 1911. Why do you think the book is set in this time period? How would the story change if it was set earlier orlater? 6. The Ten Thousand Doors of January is written as a book within a book. Why do you think the author decided to frame the story this way? How does it relate to the themes surrounding doors? 7. January and her friends read a lot of early-twentieth-century fiction: boys' adventure stories, serialized novels, and story papers. How do those stories influence the way she

Group Activity: Keeper of Lost Things Jr. Sleuths  For October book club, we are going to do a group activity where we pretend that we have been by Anthony Peardew and his Keeper of Lost Things organization to discover the true story behind several items that were found in an old estate sale.     What you need to bring :  Please bring 1 item or photo that has special meaning to YOU and place it  in  a clear plastic zip lock baggie (no bigger than gallon size).  As some of you in book club are related, the item should be something that NO ONE ELSE in the club would know about.  What will happen : When you arrive for book club, please place your items on the designated table  and during our pre-dinner and before our book club discussion time, everyone will have an opportunity to quickly examine the items on the table and will be asked to write on a Post It Note ONE GUESS they think might be TRUE about each item.    If everyone shows up to book club, each item will have 6 possible guesses

  The Trees by Percival Everett  Summary by Reading Group Choices: Percival Everett’s  The Trees  is a page-turner that opens with a series of brutal murders in the rural town of Money, Mississippi. When a pair of detectives from the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation arrive, they meet expected resistance from the local sheriff, his deputy, the coroner, and a string of racist White townsfolk. The murders present a puzzle, for at each crime scene there is a second dead body: that of a man who resembles Emmett Till. The detectives suspect that these are killings of retribution, but soon discover that eerily similar murders are taking place all over the country. Something truly strange is afoot. As the bodies pile up, the MBI detectives seek answers from a local root doctor who has been documenting every lynching in the country for years, uncovering a history that refuses to be buried. In this bold, provocative book, Everett takes direct aim at racism and police violence, and does so in

1. What were your thoughts about this book as you discovered that there were both the Deal with Devil concept combined  with Aliens, alongside of the main character, Katrina, being revealed as transgender? And what about the donut shop? *** Den of Geek Interview: First, what brought together the two very different speculative fiction tropes—soul-bargaining and stargates—together into the same story for you? How did you create a universe in your head where both things worked without contradicting each other? Ryka Aoki: I respect both science fiction and fantasy, but I had honest intentions and reasons to mix them in  Light from Uncommon Stars . I was a little bit worried about how people would accept this—or not. But I’ve been thrilled with how readers have embraced and accepted this book. I think this book might resonate with readers because we  all  hold seeming contradictions. In the book, Shizuka Satomi mentions how great pieces of music contain such different-sounding sections and