A Better Book Club

Yeah, this door would take a long time to describe.   Welcome to the Name of the Rose discussion! Buckle up your saddles, you're in for a wild ride.  1a. Eco has described the first 100 pages of the novel as a “penitential obstacle”; in terms of Dante, if you endure the purgatory of the first day (if you get all the way up Mount Purgatorio), you’ll enter Paradise.  Well, not really.  But you will be ready for the rest of the book.  He’s training you as a reader. Did you feel that 100 pages like the purgatory he planed?  1b.Adso is with William because his father wants him kept out of trouble and out of the way of the fighting, and also (unstated) so that Adso doesn’t become a hostage.  Adso’s father is nobleman fighting for the emperor; therefore, our naive and earnest narrator would be a valuable tool in the hands of his father’s enemies.  Adso is represented as an old man recalling events of many years ago. Does he seem to be a reliable nar...

The Origin Story: While Lisa Genova was pursuing her PhD in neuroscience at Harvard University, her grandmother was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s. Genova was able to understand the science of her grandmother’s diagnosis, but she had a hard time imagining what her grandmother actually felt, what she was going through. Through this insightful book, readers are able to imagine what it’s like to live with the disease. 1. When Alice becomes disoriented in Harvard Square, a place she's visited daily for twenty-five years, why doesn't she tell John? Is she too afraid to face a possible illness, worried about his possible reaction, or some other reason? 2. After first learning she has Alzheimer's disease, "the sound of her name penetrated her every cell and seemed to scatter her molecules beyond the boundaries of her own skin. She watched herself from the far corner of the room" (pg. 70). What do you think of Alice's reaction to the diagnosis? Why does...

1.  What effect does it have on the novel that the heroine has no first name? 2. What kind of character is our heroine—as she presents herself at the beginning of her flashback? Describe her and her companion, Mrs. Hopper. 3. What kind of character is Maxim de Winter, and why does a man of his stature fall in love with the young heroine? What draws him to her? 4. The heroine describes Maxim thus: "His face...was arresting, sensitive, medieval in some strange inexplicable way...rob him of his English tweeds, and put him in black, with lace at his throat and wrists, he would stare down at us in our new world from a long distant past—a past where men walked cloaked at night, and stood in the shadow of old doorways, a past of narrow stairways and dim dungeons, a past of whispers in the dark, of shimmering rapier blades, of silent, exquisite courtesy." Why is this an apt description? In other words, how does it set the tone and foretell the events of the novel? 5. Th...

1. What sort of social and cultural setting does the Tallis house create for the novel? What is the mood of the house, as described in chapter 12? What emotions and impulses are being acted upon or repressed by its inhabitants? How does the careful attention to detail affect the pace of Part One, and what is the effect of the acceleration of plot events as it nears its end? 2. A passion for order, a lively imagination, and a desire for attention seem to be Briony's strongest traits. In what ways is she still a child? Is her narcissism—her inability to see things from any point of view but her own—unusual in a thirteen-year-old? Why does the scene she witnesses at the fountain change her whole perspective on writing? What is the significance of the passage in which she realizes she needs to work from the idea that "other people are as real as you. And only in a story could you enter these different minds and show how they had an equal value" [p. 38]? Do her actions be...

 "Bigger. Biggest ranch. Biggest steer. Biggest hat. Biggest state. A mania for Bigness. What littleness did it hide?" P. 199 1.Why did Ferber name her story Giant and how was her message/lesson connected to that? 2. When Giant was released in 1952, Edna Ferber made many in the south angry with what they felt was an unfair characterization of southern culture and its customs.The Dallas Morning News headline on Lon Tinkle’s review read “Ferber Goes Both Native and Berserk: Parody, Not Portrait, of Texas Life.”   Do you feel Southerners had a right to be angry? What are some specific instances you can remember described in the story that would warrant that reaction? 3. It was a big deal in 1952 American to have a female author write about race and discriminatory practices in the South, especially using a female protagonist such as the character of Leslie to paint a disparaging picture of life in Texas at the time.  What do think  would have been the reacti...

Discussion Guide for Born a Crime by Trevor Noah 1.  Trevor Noah opens his memoir with a story about being thrown from a car by his mother. In what ways does this story illustrate the overarching narrative of Trevor Noah’s early life? 2.  In Born a Crime, Noah seeks to dispel the myth that the ending of apartheid was bloodless. How much did you know about the end of apartheid before reading this book, and what did you learn about the history of South Africa by reading Noah’s story? 3.  One of the most impressive characteristics that Noah conveys about his mother is her faith. How did Patricia’s faith impact young Trevor, and what do you think has been the lasting impression of Patricia’s faith on Trevor Noah’s life? 4.  Trevor Noah learned to speak six different languages growing up. What impressed you about the ways that Trevor and his mother navigate neighborhoods, cultures, and family; and how did language make that possible? 5.  With all of the c...