Review: THEO OF GOLDEN (+Discussion Questions)

Title: Theo of Golden by Allen Levi

Book Beginnings/First Line Friday quote (from the Prologue):

Friday56 quote (actually from page 41, last page of preview):

Summary: Theo, a mysterious older gentleman, shows up in Golden, Georgia one spring day. Over the next year he performs anonymous acts of kindness and generosity, starting with the purchases of the portraits hanging in the local coffee shop which he returns to the subjects of the portraits. Along the way he makes friends with just about everyone he meets including a homeless woman, a cello-playing college student, a bookstore owner, a guitar-playing busker, and a disabled young girl and her father, a custodian at the college. Along the way he also befriends the artist who created the portraits Theo is now buying and then giving away. Everyone's life is changed by their friendship and their interactions with Theo over the successive year.

Review: We selected Theo of Golden as a book club choice for this month's meeting based on the high praise given it by one member who said she listened to the audiobook and loved it so much once the story was ended she wanted to start up at the beginning and listen to it again immediately. That was the highest praise for a book ever spoken by this gal, who usually remains fairly neutral about our club choices. She did caution us though that the beginning of the book will seem kind of repetitive as Theo starts giving away the portraits and meeting new people -- there are 92 portraits, after all.

I also listened to the audiobook and was mesmerized by the narration done by David Morse. As we start learning about Theo's backstory we come to understand he grew up in Portugal in a wine-growing region of the country. David Morse read Theo's lines with a Portuguese accent which I found charming but my friend who speaks Portuguese said was irritably wrong. (If you also speak Portuguese, may I recommend the print version to you!)

I "liked" Theo of Golden for the first 80% of the story. I thought it was sweet, thoughtful, and moving. But the last 20% of the book moved my estimation up to "love." I found the story to be very spiritual and inspirational. I was both crying and clutching my chest for the beauty of the message of this wonderful book.  I felt moved to be a better person by Theo's example.

Since we will be discussing this book soon, I thought I'd play around with some discussion questions which always seem to have spoilers. So you plan on reading this book, don't read them. Just skip on down and sign up to join in the Friday56 discussion with other book bloggers!

My rating: 5 stars.

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Theo of Golden Book Discussion Questions

(Modified from BookClubChat)

1. How did your impression of Theo change over time?

2.  What would you think if you happened upon a coffee shop full of portraits of real people? Why do you think most people hadn't bought their own portraits? Were the subject's reactions to Theo's gift authentic?

3. Why do you think Theo was so interested in helping Ellen? Which of his interactions with Ellen did you like best?

4. Of the many friends Theo makes, whose story touched you the most? Why?

5. Why was Theo so reciticent to share his story with others? What did you think of the writer's decision to dribble out Theo's backstory so slowly?

6. What was your impression of the way religion was presented in the story? Do you think this is a Christian story?

7. What were some of your favorite moments in the story?

8. What did you think of the way Theo died and the denouement of the novel?

9. What were the key messages of Theo of Golden?

10. Theo of Golden was published in 2023 and yet it is just now (2026) starting to gain attention and a following. Why do you think it took a while to catch on?

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-Anne

Nonfiction Review: FURIOUS HOURS: MURDER, FRAUD, AND THE LAST TRIAL OF HARPER LEE (+Discussion questions)

In a 2024 survey, 12.6% of respondents named To Kill a Mockingbird as their all-time favorite book from a given list. In 2021 a British survey found that 13% of the respondents named TKAM as the most inspirational novel. In the 2018 PBS "The Great American Read" it was named as America's best-loved novel overall. All of these surveys took place over 50 years after 1960 when Harper Lee penned her famous book and still today people everywhere sing its praises. If I were asked what is my all-time-favorite novel I'd answer To Kill a Mockingbird, too. So why, with all this success, did its author not publish another book for the next 50 years? 

Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper by Casey Cep attempts to answer that question but it also shows how Harper Lee did attempt to write another book, a true-crime book, but abandoned her attempt many years into the project.

Back in the 1960s and 70s there was a black preacher in Alabama named Willie Maxwell. He was well liked and often called Reverend Maxwell, even when he didn't have a church. Then in in August 1970s his wife's bloated, dead body was found in a car in a remote area off the highway. She has clearly been beaten to death and all signs pointed to the Reverend as the suspect in her murder. A neighbor reported that around 10 pm Mary Lou had told her that Willie had called and needed a ride home, that his car was broken down. She was the last person to see Mary Lou alive. It was well know that the Reverend had many lady friends but what wasn't known was how many insurance policies were written in Mary Lou's name with Willie being the beneficiary. In those days it was surprisingly easy to take out life insurance policies on anyone and name yourself the beneficiary. It took the state a surprisingly long time to bring charges against Willie and by then the neighbor had changed her story about what Mary Lou said to her the night of her death. What the jury didn't hear was by that time Willie and this neighbor had become friendly and were planning to get married.

A year after their marriage this second wife was also found dead in a car alongside a country road. She had seventeen life insurance policies in her name. "For the Reverend," writes Cep, "becoming a widower was quite a lucrative business." After her death the Reverend took out life insurance policies on his mother, his brothers, his nephew, his aunt, even his just legitimized infant daughter and the bodies started piling up. Everyone knew it was the Reverend but getting the charges to stick was another story. Eventually justice was found for the Reverend but not through the courts. 

Enter Harper Lee and the second half of the book. It's been fourteen years since TKAM was published. Everyone is bugging Lee to write another book. Why not write a true crime story and go about the research the way she did when she was helping Truman Capote do his research for In Cold Blood? Eventually Lee spent a year in town interviewing and going over all the evidence she could get her hands one for the Maxwell cases. She worked with the lawyer who had been Maxwell's attorney. She uncovered every stone there was to uncover, then she returned to New York to write her book she was calling The Reverend. 

Unfortunately, after years of trying she gave up the project admitting she just didn't know how to organize all the information. During the intervening years between TKAM and this project the editor, Tay Hohoff, who worked with Lee at J.B. Lippincott, had either died or was retired. Lee floundered without the guidance of such a strong and capable editor behind her. Oddly, Casey Cep, this books author, was able to put together the whole Maxwell Murders debacle into a very interesting and compelling account in the book's first part and went on to write an excellent biography of Harper Lee in the 2nd. 

Time Magazine's Lucas Wittmann said this about Cep, "In elegant prose, she gives us the fullest story yet of Lee’s post-Mockingbird life ... an account emotionally attuned to the toll that great writing takes, and shows that sometimes one perfect book is all we can ask for, even while we wish for another."

In some ways I'm sorry I read Furious Hours because Harper Lee, the author of my favorite book, didn't come out smelling like roses here. She drank an awful lot and was, perhaps, an alcoholic. Whether she was or wasn't, alcohol use got in the way of her ability to write from Cep's reporting. After the collapse of the Reverend project, she never again attempted to publish anything other than a few letters or essays. In fact, just this year, a collection of stories and essays by Lee was published in The Land of Sweet Forever. And right after Lee's death in 2016 her sister published Go Set a Watchman, the book she wrote before To Kill a Mockingbird. It was a book she never wanted to publish (and many people wished hadn't been published since it casts the hero, Atticus Finch, in a very bad light.)

I read Furious Hours book for an upcoming book club. I gave the book the rating of 4 stars.

Discussion questions for Furious Hours:

1. How did the book change the way you think about Harper Lee and her literary legacy? What were you most surprised to learn?

2. What were the most disturbing aspects of Reverend Maxwell’s murder spree and the connection between him and his victims? 

3. What surprised you the most about the life insurance policies and the way these companies did business?

4. Discuss how race played into the case of the Reverend Willie Maxwell.

5. What were your first impressions of Tom Radney? How did your perception of him change as you read the book?

6. What do you think about the morality of Robert Burns’s decision to murder the Reverend Willie Maxwell? Do you think his acquittal was right? 

7. How did Harper Lee and Truman Capote’s relationship play into the larger story? How do you think Lee’s experience with In Cold Blood shaped her approach to writing her own true crime tale?

8. Why do you think the Maxwell case captivated Lee’s attention enough to dedicate years of her life to writing it? Do you think she finished it? If not, what do you think stopped her? What do you think happened to whatever existed of the manuscript?

9. Furious Hours combines the horror and mystery of a true crime tale with the in-depth history and detail of a biography. How does Cep integrate the two different pieces of the book? Why do you think Cep was able to pull off what Lee couldn't?

10. How does Furious Hours distinguish itself from other nonfiction books you have read? What other narrative nonfiction books have you enjoyed reading and would recommend to others?

(These excellent discussion questions come from the Sarasota Springs Public Library. I tweaked them just a bit but credit to the librarians at that library.)

-Anne

Favorite Book Club Selections of 2024

Favorite Books Club Selections of 2024

I am in two book clubs. This year I read 21 unique books and two rereads. These are my favorite book club selections based on themes and discussions. As in years past, I asked for input from other club members.

1. The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese - The Covenant of Water has everything I like in a book: a detailed plot -- in this case one which covers three generations of a family and many/many side characters; characters who are fully fleshed out, not one-dimensional beings; a theme which is very evident throughout the whole text; literary quotes and thoughts interspersed throughout; an author who treats his readers as intelligent and knowledgeable -- in this case about medical and genetic issues; AND, this may not surprise you, one which clearly has a very spiritual, often scriptural, message. This was the #1 favorite book of the RHS Ladies book club. (Fiction)

2. Lady Tan's Circle of Women by Lisa See - Lady Tan's Circle of Women is tremendously interesting and scrupulously researched. This is the third book I've read by Lisa See and I felt the same way about the other two books. I learned so much and had my eyes opened about aspects of history I knew nothing about.  The existence of women in the 15th century in China (and all around the world) was so bleak. They had few rights and were never thought of as equals with men. Yet, here is Lady Tan, an amazing woman and physician that defies all expectations and lives an important life, one that matters even today. This was another favorite book for the RHS Ladies book club and maybe one of the best discussion books I've ever encountered. (Fiction based on the life of an actual person)

3. The Huntress by Kate Quinn - The Huntress was SOTH Gals February's  book club selection. There was a bit of anxiety among members because the the book is over 540 pages long. But once women started reading it, the page length anxiety evaporated. To a person everyone spoke about how much they liked the plot and the pages just flew by. Mid-month I talked to one club member who was upset because she didn't have any time that day to read. This has NEVER happened before and our club has been around for almost thirty years. (Yes, you read that right. 30 years.) Our discussion reflected the enthusiasm for the book. It shouldn't surprise you, therefore, this was the club's favorite book of the year. (Fiction)

4. House Lessons: Renovating a Life by Erica Bauermeister - House Lessons was an unlikely book club 'best book.' We all had so much fun with our discussion over this half memoir, part house restoration, part history/information book! All of the ladies in the book commented on the writing and the organization. For example, in the chapter 'Architects and Builders' readers not only meet the professionals the Bauermeisters hired for their house restoration project but we learn information about famous architects like Frank Lloyd Wright and Mies van der Rohe and some of their famous projects. We also learned about why there are so many lovely, aging Victorian houses in Port Townsend, a small, artsy town on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State. For a book none of us had ever heard of before we were all pleasantly surprised by this little gem and I think to a woman we would recommend it to you. It was tied as the 3rd favorite book of the SOTH Gals club. (Memoir, nonfiction)

5. The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende - Three people: Irina Bazili, Alma Belasco, and Ichimei Fukuda are all victims of war and politics. They live in a world blinded to their predicaments, too. The story has many plot lines and moves forwards and backwards in time but eventually everyone's story comes out and the reader is left with a sense of the lingering sadness in all three characters lives. Allende does a masterful job drawing all the lives together into a touching story. It was rated as the SOTH Gals second favorite read of the year. (Fiction)

6. Plainsong by Kent Haruf - Kent Haruf reveals a whole community as he interweaves the stories of a pregnant high school girl, a lonely teacher, a pair of boys abandoned by their mother, and a couple of crusty bachelor farmers. It's as if Haruf has conjured up a whole community in the fictional town of Holt in eastern Colorado and then immersed the reader in its dramas. Every women in the SOTH book club really loved this book. No one could really put their finger on it but all loved it. And we had a fantastic discussion more about our lives when we were growing up than the book. I recommend it as a club selection if you are looking around for a good book. Bonus: it is short also. (Fiction)

7. West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge - All the gals in the RHS book club loved the book, and picked as their third favorite of the year, saying that it struck the exactly right tone. It told two stories really. The first and obvious story was the trip of the giraffes who started their journey very precariously by being trapped aboard a ship when a hurricane hit off the East Coast of the USA. The second story was the story of the dust bowl and the Great Depression. Woody Nickel was a dust bowl orphan who was just trying to get to California, when he was tapped to drive the giraffes across the country with a zookeeper. Stories about people's lives during such desperate times emerged as they made their way from state to state aiming for San Diego. Headlines taken from newspapers served as chapter dividers so that readers could get a feel for how much energy and excitement these two, rare beast caused in the lowdown lives of people along the way. (Fiction based on actual events.)

8. Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer - Back in 2015 a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer, published Braiding Sweetgrass. In 2023 she published a young adult version of the book, which is what I read. As a botanist Kimmerer was trained to observe nature through science. As a member of the Potawatomi Nation she knew that plants and animals are some of our oldest and best teachers. In her book she brings together these two types of knowledge to share the ancient wisdom in a way that it even makes sense with science. This book tied for third place with the SOTH Gals club. They read the adult version and liked it but when I told them about the YA version with its illustrations, they wished they had read it instead. (Nonfiction)

9. The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty - The Rabbit Hutch weaves together the daily dramas of tenants in a run-down apartment complex in a run-down fictitious town named Vacca Vale, Indiana. They are all living down-and-out lives in their down-and-out apartments in the #1 Dying City in America. "Set over one sweltering week in July and culminating in a bizarre act of violence that finally changes everything, The Rabbit Hutch is a savagely beautiful and bitingly funny snapshot of contemporary America, a gorgeous and provocative tale of loneliness and longing, entrapment and, ultimately, freedom" (Publisher). When I told the club this was my third favorite selection of the year everyone at the meeting moaned.  To be clear, two members loved the book, two hated the book, and the rest fell somewhere in the middle. Afterwards all admitted that we had a fantastic discussion, even those who didn't like the book. So don't be afraid to pick this book for your future club meetings. You might want to start by reading my review, linked above, and make copies of the discussion questions we used since the publisher provided none. (Fiction)

10. The Women in the Castle by Jessica Shattuck - The Women in the Castle was November's SOTH book club selection. Every gal who braved the windy forecast for a 'bomb cyclone' said they really enjoyed the book. So did I. Oddly and to a person, we all noticed the similarities between the politics of Germany in the 1930s and 40s under the Nazis and what we are experiencing today in American politics. Most WWII books stop at war's end. This book is mainly set after the war's end when Marianne sets out to find and protect the other resister's widows. She finds two and brings them and their children to live with her in the old family castle that is a cold and leaky place. The stories of these three women, and to a smaller degree their children, populate the book. War has all kinds of victims. Some die in the fighting, others can't seem to make sense of their lives after it is over. This book addresses those grey zones of life in the shadows and aftermath of war. It was another third place favorite of the SOTH Gals, tied with Plainsong and House Lessons. (Fiction)

It was another strange year for me concerning book club selections. In my RHS group we picked five or six books ahead of schedule and I read them out of order, whenever they arrived from the library. Sometimes it was months before that book was discussed at a meeting and I found I'd lost a lot of the details in my brain by then. The last book we discussed, Sipsworth by Van Booy, I'd almost completely forgotten all the details. Now maybe that says more about me than the books but I do want to give a shout out to two additional books that probably would have fared better on this list if I read them in a timely manner: The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters and Go As a River by Shelley Red.

Interested in all the books we read this year? Here is a link to all my book club book reviews.

Looking for even more suggestions?

Click links to check my past book club favorites by year:

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

-Anne

TTT: Solid Choices for Book Clubs That Don't Like Too Much Drama

Top Ten Tuesday: 

    The assignment - Give my sister a list of books which would be good, solid choices for her book club. 

    The caveat - This list cannot include books with too much drama or deep, troubling topics. Her club members, made up mostly of aging teachers, only want to read good books that generate a lively discussion.

    I accept this challenge. 

    Here are my book suggestions:

1. Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy

This is a future club selection for me but I already know this book will be an excellent choice for a club seeking a sweet book which also has a lot to discuss about aging, personal connections, and grief. (David R. Godine, 2024. 240 pages.)

2. Plainsong by Kent Haruf

My club just discussed this book at our last meeting and to a person everyone liked it but no one could quite put their finger on why. Could it be because of its accurate portrayal of life in small towns? Not sure, but this book was a winner. Another book by the same author, Our Souls at Night would also be an excellent choice. (Plainsong: Vintage, 1999. 301 pages. Our Souls: Alfred A. Knopf, 2015. 179 pages.)

3. News of the World by Paulette Jiles

Covering a little-known time in history when news was spread to small communities in Texas by itinerant readers who would travel to towns to read the news from various newspapers. The relationship between this reader and his charge, a white girl who had lived with Native Americans for years, is priceless. (William Morrow, 2016. 209 pages.)

4. The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

If your club can manage a longer book, this one is the best. All the bad stuff you think is going to happen, doesn't. (Viking, 2021. 576 pages)

5.  Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

Patchett was inspired to write this book by Thornton Wilder's play, Our Town. It about a mother, her three daughters, and her memories of acting in the play. (Harper, 2023. 309 pages.)

6. Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout

I craved books about the experiences I lived through during the COVID lock-downs. This is that book. We've read several books by this author and she never has disappointed us and gives us plenty to discuss. When in doubt of what to read next, pick something by Strout. (Random House, 2022. 291 pages.)

7. The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett by Annie Lyons

Another book about the challenges of aging and the importance of human connections. A winner. (William Morrow, 2020. 372 pages.)

8. Girl Waits with Gun by Amy Stewart

Stewart creates a story about the first female police deputy in New Jersey, which is based on a real person. This book is a lot of fun. There is even a bit of a mystery. There are several books in the series. I've read three of them and liked them all. (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015. 408 pages.)

9. Virgil Wander by Leif Enger

Quirky characters and small-town life. I am a huge fan of this book and this author! (Grove Press, 2018. 303 pages.)

10. The Walk by Richard Paul Evans

All the gals in my club became big fans of this book and the whole series. Very inspiring story from a Christian perspective. (Simon and Schuster, 2010. 289 pages.)

11. The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett

Both of my clubs read this one and liked it. The uncommon reader is none other than the queen. Very funny. (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2007. 120 pages.)

12. A Man Called Ove or Anxious People by Fredrik Backman

Both books start out at one level and go so much deeper than you think they will go. (Ove: Atria Books, 2012. 337 pages. Anxious: Atria, 2019. 336.)

13. The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Dare

Set in Nigeria about a girl who above all else wants an education. Her transformation is a sight to behold. (Duttons Books, 2020. 371 pages)

14. The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams.

The writing of the Oxford English Dictionary from a female perspective. So many words weren't included because they were thought to be female words. (Affirm Press, 2020. 380 pages.)

How'd I do? Can you think of some other titles that would fit the bill?

-Anne

Review: NIGHT WATCH -- Where I try to figure out why this book won the Pulitzer? (+Book Club Discussion Questions)

To the shock of just about the whole world, Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction this year. No one was talking about this book. It wasn't on anyone's end-of-year best books of 2023 lists. (Fact check:  this compilation.) Awarding this high literary honor to Night Watch and the other two finalists felt like a minor league team won the world series without anyone knowing they were even in the playoffs.

So why did Night Watch win the Pulitzer? Let's see if I can figure anything out.

Night Watch is set in West Virginia before, during, and after the Civil War. Instead of focusing on slavery or on the death tolls of the battles, this book examines the horrors citizens had to endure in the aftermath of the conflict. It also shines a light on one example of enlightened treatment of the mentally ill during this time period.

ConaLee, the twelve-year-old daughter of a man who went off to war and never returned, opens the book with her first person narration. The point of view switches throughout the book as other characters come in and out of focus, but ConaLee is the only one who tells her own story. She was born after her father left for war and her mother, Eliza, is raising her alone in the mountains of Appalachia, with the help of a neighbor, Dearbhla, an Irish healer who acts like her grandmother.  At some point a terrifying man arrives and tells ConaLee to call him 'Papa'. She thinks this man is her father. He is not, but he stays on and tyrannizes Eliza to the point where she has a complete mental and physical breakdown. There is a horrifying rape scene which is so graphic I cringe to think of it. Finally this terrible man dumps both ConLee and her mother at the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum. This ends up being a good thing because the director is following the moral practices of  Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride, an actual historical person. Under the care of the director of this facility, Eliza starts to recover and ConaLee, who is posing as her nurse, find solace from their tortured life outside. While inside they meet a cast of characters among them is the Night Watch, a man with a history of his own.

Kirkus Reviews describes the book as having "haunting storytelling and a refreshing look at history." The Guardian sums up its review with "Night Watch is tough, even excruciating at times, but small notes of grace make an appearance throughout the novel." While Dwight Garner, writing a review of the book for the New York Times said, "Jayne Anne Phillips’s new novel...is sludgy, claustrophobic and pretentious. Each succeeding paragraph took something out of me." And Greg, a vlogger at Supposedly Fun, had this to say, "I hated, hated, hated this book." He explains several of his issues deal with the confusing way Phillips tells the story, dribbling out details, moving backwards and forward in time, including unnecessary characters and information that does not move the story forward. He thinks the Pulitzer Committee made a mistake in selecting Night Watch.

Wow. Some good and some extremely eviscerating comments from reviewers who know a whole lot more than me about what makes a book a good one. I was especially shocked by the NYT times reviewer calling the book sludgy and claustrophobic. Is such a negative review even allowed? 

So why did the Pulitzer Committee select Night Watch over standouts like North Woods, Tom Lake, Absolution, and The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store? Greg, from Supposedly Fun, criticizes the clandestine process the Pulitzer uses to select their winners. No one even knows who the judges are until after the process. No short list of books are announced ahead of time. Each year's panel of judges can use, and do use, whatever set of selection guidelines they choose. These guidelines, therefore, change every year. 2023 Pulitzer prize went to the two top books of the year so Greg wondered it this year's committee decided to do the opposite and give the award to a more obscure book. In fact, Michael Chabon, one of the jurors this year, wrote, "Beyond the winner and 2 runners-up, I want to shine a light on three excellent books, among the many nominees I deeply dug, by less well-known, less heralded writers." This tells me that at least Michael Chabon was focused on bringing forward less well-known works to light in his role as a Pulitzer judge. How maddening is that? Ann Patchett, James McBride, Alice McDermott were all at the top of their game and they and their books get shoved aside because Night Watch was less well-known. That seems like a ludicrous reason to select a book for this award.

In January I created a tiered ranking list of all the Pulitzer novels I've read. I created the categories myself, from BEST to DIDN'T LIKE and several levels between. Right now, if I were to place Night Watch onto my tiered ranking list, it would be on the bottom level, 'Didn't Like', with Tinkers, A Visit From the Goon Squad, and Breathing Lessons. I wouldn't go as far as Greg, who hated the book, or Dwight who thought the book sucked the life out of him. But I doubt I will tell anyone to read the book and might even go into details why I hope they don't. I'll start with a warning about the rape scene. Ugh. Shivers. 😖

The publisher has not prepared any discussion questions that I could find, so a friend and I came up with our own questions before our meeting. Here they are. Help yourself:

Night Watch Discussion Questions:

1. What did you think of Night Watch by Jane Anne Phillips?
2. Kirkus Reviews describes the book as having "haunting storytelling and a refreshing look at history." What do you think were its moments of “refreshing storytelling?"
3. The Guardian sums up its review with "Night Watch is tough, even excruciating at times, but small notes of grace make an appearance throughout the novel." List a few of the grace notes in Night Watch.
4. Dwight Garner, writing a review of the book for the New York Times said, "Jayne Anne Phillips’s new novel...is sludgy, claustrophobic and pretentious. Each succeeding paragraph took something out of me." Describe Night Watch in one or two sentences.
5. How did this book add to your knowledge of the Civil War and its effects on soldiers and families?
6. How did the lack of quotation marks add to or detract from the story?
7. Which characters did you find the most compelling and why?
8. The Trans-Allegheny lunatic Asylum was a real place and used moral treatment. What did you think of the strategies used to treat the patients?
9. When did you suspect that the night watch was ConaLee's father? Did Eliza know earlier on? 
10. Did you find the ending realistic or contrived? Why? 
11. What importance and structure did Dearbhla provide to the story? 
12. How necessary was it to portray graphic rape or war violence in a book about the Civil War? Is the brutality necessary to our understanding of the conditions of this time? 
13. Night Watch won the Pulitzer Prize. Do you think it deserved it? What does its winning do to your regard for the selection process?
14. Where would you rank Night Watch among the other Pulitzer Prize novels you’ve read? [These are the Pulitzer Prize winners we've read: March; Sympathizer; Goldfinch; Nickel Boys; Less; Night Watchman; Demon Copperhead; Night Watch.]

2024 Twenty Books of Summer Challenge

8 / 20 books. 40% done!

 

 

Review: WEST WITH GIRAFFES

Title: West With Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge

Book Beginnings quote (from Prologue): 

Few true friends have I known and two were giraffes, one that didn't kick me dead and one that saved my worthless orphan life, and your worthy, precious one.

Friday56 quote:

Because if ever I could claim to have seen the face of God, it was in the colossal faces of those giraffes.

Summary: This summary piece from the back of the book was so good I thought I'd snip it out so you could see and read it instead of writing a similar summary myself:

Review: I've seen this book on the blogosphere for several years and was delighted when my book group selected it for our April meeting. I didn't know at the time of selection that the story of two giraffes making their way across the country by truck in 1938 was based on an actual event. Though the book is a novel, with made up characters, it is based on fact and some of the people mentioned in the book were real. One prominent person who really lived was the first female Head Zookeeper, Bell Jennings Benchley, of the San Diego Zoo.

All the gals in the book club loved the book saying that it struck the exactly right tone. It told two stories really. The first and obvious story was the trip of the giraffes who started their journey very precariously by being trapped aboard a ship when a hurricane hit off the East Coast of the USA. The second story was the story of the dust bowl and the Great Depression. Woody Nickel was a dust bowl orphan who was just trying to get to California, when he was tapped to drive the giraffes across the country with a zookeeper. Stories about people's lives during such desperate times emerged as they made their way from state to state aiming for San Diego. Headlines taken from newspapers served as chapter dividers so that readers could get a feel for how much energy and excitement these two, rare beast caused in the lowdown lives of people along the way.

Unfortunately for me I decided to listen to the audiobook and didn't have a print copy to switch to when I found the audio recording to be too much -- too loud, too dramatic, and almost always at a level 10. The narrator, Danny Campbell, sounded like he was 100+ years old. His voice honestly sounded super old. It was a good choice since Woody Nickel was 105 at the time and writing down reflections of his trip and life. But it was just tough listening to the voice for the 12 hours it took to finish the book. Oh well. I survived. My book club friends all made fun of me since I always brag about how good the audiobook was each month. This month I had the opposite experience and had to complain about how bad it was. 

I truly loved the ending. I was blubbering big, wet tears. It wrapped up almost perfectly.

-Anne

Review and discussion questions for: THE RABBIT HUTCH by Tess Gunty

This month's book club selection was Tess Gunty's National Book Award winning novel The Rabbit Hutch. It was a unanimous choice at first but then as women started reading the book a few balked, thinking the book was too difficult and contained too many trigger topics. We decided to go ahead with our choice and, boy, am I glad we did.

The Rabbit Hutch weaves together the daily dramas of tenants in a run-down apartment complex in a run-down fictitious town named Vacca Vale, Indiana. The builders, trying to give the apartment complex an air of sophistication named it 'La Lapinière', but the residents just called it the Rabbit Hutch. (Lapinière is the French word for rabbit hutch.) We all are familiar with rabbit hutches but it is odd to think of humans living in one where "walls are so thin, you can hear everyone's lives progress like a radio play." The tenants are all living down-and-out lives in their down-and-out apartments in the #1 Dying City in America. "Set over one sweltering week in July and culminating in a bizarre act of violence that finally changes everything, The Rabbit Hutch is a savagely beautiful and bitingly funny snapshot of contemporary America, a gorgeous and provocative tale of loneliness and longing, entrapment and, ultimately, freedom" (Publisher).

As I read and listened to The Rabbit Hutch I couldn't help but think of the book Lolita by Nabokov. I've always thought of that classic book as the most beautifully written book about a depraved topic. The Rabbit Hutch is stuffed full of trigger worthy topics and themes: child abandonment, the foster care system and shortcomings, sexual abuse of a minors and predator behavior, animal sacrifices, poverty and loneliness. Think of a depraved topic, it is probably addressed in this book. But the writing is brilliant. BRILLIANT! Like Nabokov, Gunty has a beautiful command of the English language and inserts phrases and quips throughout the story which would catch me up so I'd have to stop and think about what was said and the deeper meaning. One gal at book club said the book made her think about herself and her life choices in the face of encountering similar problems with students and neighbors. A book is a wonderful thing if it causes us to stop and change directions toward a more positive future. All this depravity is broken up by humorous situations, which I suppose what made the book bearable.

I am not getting anywhere near to a good summary of the book. I hope you take the chance to read its review in the New York Times. Also take a minute to read the interview Gunty did with the editorial staff at Waterstone, an online magazine. The Rabbit Hutch won the first Waterstone Debut Fiction Award. Both of these sources helped fill out my appreciation of the book.

Now to our book club discussion. The publisher provided no discussion questions and the ones we were able to find online were very basic. I wrote several questions to augment what others were able to find and we ended up having a very robust discussion. To be clear, two of us loved the book, two hated the book, and the rest fell somewhere in the middle. Afterwards all admitted that we had a fantastic discussion, even those who didn't like the book. So don't be afraid to pick this book for your future club meetings.

The Rabbit Hutch Discussion Questions 

(Spoiler alert: Some details of the book will be revealed in the questions.)

1. What did you think was revealed in the opening lines of the book  “On a hot night in Apartment C4, Blandine Watkins exits her body. She is only 18 years old, but she has spent most of her life wishing for this to happen.” And how did this affect your feelings about the book going forward?
2. Why do you think Blandine, the 18-year-old, former foster care 'graduate', is obsessed with Catholic mystics even though she was not religious?
3. Blandine never left Vacca Vale but her whole life she felt like an outsider. How does this happen? Have you ever known anyone in a similar situation? (Our group is made up of teachers, so we could reflect back on past students.)
4. Talk about the characters: Blandine, Moses, Elsie, Joan, Todd/Malik/Jack, James, others. 
5. The theme of "home" is a recurring one. Give some examples of how the characters felt about home.
6. What aspect of "dying cities" have you been aware of where you live? What signs of resurgence?
7. The book highlights how often there is a lack of societal responsibility by its members. Discuss examples of this from the book and in your own community/life.
8. What aspects of the book did you find funny/humorous? (You might need to prompt the group with some you've thought of before the meeting. We found so many funny aspects but of course they were hidden in some awful circumstances. It took us a while to come up with some and then the flood gate was open and we couldn't stop finding new humorous quotes/quips/situations.)
9. How did you react to the chapter of visual illustrations? Did it help you understand the unfolding scene better or not?
10. Todd, Jack, and Malik start sacrificing animals at some point. How does this come to pass and why did they continue it?
11. Late in the book Jack's chapters are written in 1st person. Why do you think the author switched that point-of-view and gave Jack a front row seat? Did you notice it? How did it impact the story?
12. What are your favorite quotes/quips? Here are a few of my favorites:
• "Her voice sounded like a communion wafer -- tasteless and light."
• "He wears his testosterone like a strong cologne."
• "You couldn't go anywhere in this town without bumping into God."
• "It takes Blandine a long time to respond, and when she does, the words seem laborius for her. She lugs them in to the room as though they're pieces of furniture."
13. On the last page of the book Joan wonders what comments people would make to fill the obituary guest book if Blandine died. What comments do you think people would make and who are these people? 
14. What is your reaction to the last few lines of the book summed up as, "I'm awake. Are you?"
15. What growth/positive movement did the characters make by the end of the book?

★Feel free to use these discussion questions for your book club discussion. If you publish the questions for your members or in any other publication, please give me credit. Thank you, Anne@HeadFullofBooks

-Anne

TTT: Favorite Book Club Selections of 2023

Favorite Books Club Selections of 2023

I am in two book clubs. This year I read 20 unique books, one duplicate (both clubs read it) and two rereads. These are my favorite book club selections based on themes and discussions. As in years past, I asked for input from other club members

1. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

Though the themes were generally dark, the book was so well written and provocative, we had an excellent discussion. It was also the #1 pick of my RHS Gals group. Kingsolver was inspired to write this book by Charles Dicken's David Copperfield.

2. The Mountains Sing by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai

We read this beautiful epic story of a Vietnamese family and the history of country in both my book clubs. The SOTH Ladies ranked this as their favorite of the year and the RHS Gals ranked it #2. This is a perfect book club selection where the reader learns new information which enhanced the discussion.

3. A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende

Another historical fiction novel, this one set first in Spain during their civil war and eventually in Chile where many of the "losers" of the war ended up. This one tells the story of one family over 50 years. I learned so much and we all had so much to discuss about the history of Latin America. This is also our first Isabel Allende book. She is a wonderful writer. This was SOTH Ladies #3 pick of the year.

4. The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

This book has so much to admire: good plot, likeable characters, unique setting and time period, and even a little mystery thrown in for fun. It was a club favorite and was ranked #3 by the RHS Gals.

5. The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri

Oh my. Such a sad story about Syrian refugees. It opened all our eyes after it broke our hearts.

6. Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope by Nicholas Kristoff and Sheryl WuDunn

The only nonfiction book to make the list this year. I'm sure this was no ones favorite book of the year but we all were so moved by what we learned about poverty in rural America and we had a fabulous discussion about it.

7-9. These three titles are interchangeable in ranking. 

Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

Inspired by Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, this is the story of four sisters and a boy who is friend to all. It is a story of friendship and of pain. I missed the club when this book was discussed but I understand it was a book beloved by all.

Horse by Geraldine Brooks

If you've not read a book by Brooks you are missing one of the best historical fiction writers out there. She stays with her same style telling a story from the past but including current day researchers to add to the knowledge. Yes, this story is about a horse and his black groom who was nameless until Brooks gave him one.

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

I did a little extra research AFTER our club meeting and that research increased my appreciation of this story. Patchett was inspired to write it based on the famous play by Thornton Wilder: "Our Town". She also threw in a little Chekhov for good measure to add to the literary nod. 

10. Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout

We could all relate to this novel because it was about living during COVID lockdowns and post-COVID life. Strout is an excellent writer and my book club has selected her various books several times and we've never been disappointed by her.

Honorable mention: The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams

This book was not one of my top ten favorites of the year but it was the #3 pick of the SOTH Ladies. They liked it because it felt like a real story about real people. I didn't like it because I felt the characters were stuck in bad communication patterns and didn't show any growth until the end of the book. I was in the minority. Most gals liked it a lot. Check out my review if you want to learn more about what I thought.

2023 was an odd year for book club selections. Three of the books were inspired by other literary greats: Dickens, Wilder, and Alcott. Four of the 23 books were really pretty awful. That is rare when we pick a book that no one likes, but four? I read the two rereads for the other book club in a previous year. Both of these selections had better discussions the first time around (There There by Orange and The News of the World by Jiles.) I guess timing is everything. And lastly, all five of the books not listed as a favorite, a reread, or non-favorite, could be on my favorites list this year. I liked them that much. 

Looking for even more suggestions?

Click the links to check my past book club favorites by year:

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

-Anne