All the Light We Cannot See

Book Club #6!

About the Book:

All the Light We Cannot See

Summary: 

Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great-uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel.

In a mining town in Germany, the orphan Werner grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments, a talent that wins him a place at a brutal academy for Hitler Youth, then a special assignment to track the resistance. More and more aware of the human cost of his intelligence, Werner travels through the heart of the war and, finally, into Saint-Malo, where his story and Marie-Laure’s converge.

Characters:

• Maurie-Laure leBlanc: blind girl growing up in Paris
• Daniel leBlanc: Marie-Laure's father, lockmaker at the Paris Natural History Museum
• Werner: orphan boy, radio prodigy
• Jutta: Werner's sister,
• Frau Elena: French woman runs the orphanage
• Gemologist seeking Sea of Flame diamond
• Housekeeper
• Uncle

Questions:

1. What do you think happened to Daniel, Marie's father, and who was his angel that delivered the letters?

2. Do you think the mayor made the right decision to surrender Saint Malo so quickly? Pros/Cons

3. What do you think the title means?

4. There were times characters questioned whether they were on the right or wrong side of the war. How would you determine who is right or wrong in war?

5. If you hear enemies were coming to bomb your town, what would be your course of action?

6. In the story, messages were passed from bread to radio. If you had to pass on a message what route would you take?

7. Is there any new technology that astounds you that you believe may be commonplace in the future?

8. Marie-Laure had to make quick decisions on who to trust, including strangers, how did she come to her decisions and in her place how would you decide who to trust?

Conversation Summary:

Discussion topics:

• title - radio waves, electricity and physics that are invisible to the naked eye, goodness of people in dark times, hope in tragedy
• author's writing style - beautifully descriptive, narrative jumps between characters and timelines
• do not listen to audiobook, confusing with character and timeline jumps
• author inspiration
• what happened to each character 
• personal disaster plans in case of war or natural disasters
• being in a position of power and integrity  
• struggles of being handicapped and needing to make quick judgements on who to trust

Next time do not pick a book that just won a big prize (like a pulitzer) because it's hard to find the book.

1/3 bears finished book and loved it

References:

1. Inspiration from Saint Malo and cell phones

http://www.npr.org/2014/05/25/314566791/world-war-ii-in-a-new-light-empathy-found-in-surprising-places

Game of Thrones - Book 1

Book Club #5!

About the Book:

A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 1)

Summary: 

A super long book with a ton of characters from different families with various forms of family drama all somehow cross paths in this fantasy novel involving power, battle, incest, and dragons. Most characters are located in the Seven Kingdoms. Told from the view points of different characters, each person is mostly trying to not get killed and possibly be in some ruling leadership position. Members of the former ruling family, Targaryen, are exiled but seeks to return to the Seven Kingdoms and reign again by marrying into a nomad Dothraki tribe. If only they had some more dragons. Within the Seven Kingdoms, the King's right hand is no longer and the patriarch of the Stark family is requested to fill the role. The many children of the Stark family each have a wolf as a pet that come in very handy because many people seem to want to harm them. Though the noble Eddard Stark seems to be a man of integrity, the new position ties the Stark family to the Lannisters who hide a secret. Many characters get killed in the process but then new ones get introduced.

Characters:

• Not even going to try...

Questions:

1. Who was your favorite character?
2. What did you think about the language?
3. Did you like the author's use of different characters' points of view to tell the story?
4. What were the different character's motivation?
5. What does it mean to play the game of thrones? Is it possible to be moral and have integrity?

Conversation Summary:

Discussion topics:

• author's writing style 
• character analysis 
• fantasy genre
• favorite characters - all the outcasts, khal drogo, dany, jon snow, arya
• character motivations and integrity
• being in a position of power and integrity
• where the characters start and end up
• favorite characters murdered, many characters murdered
•  book should include a summary/index of all characters
• sansa willing to harm family for a boy
• this book was very long, it's hard to finish a 800+ page book

2/3 bears unable to finish book. 3/3 happy to watch the tv show.

References:

1. George RR Martin to Taylor Swift's Blank Spaces
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Qhp3wnKyKA

2. George RR Martin on SNL Weekend Update
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/weekend-update-george-rr-martin/2770803

3. Seth Myers brings Jon Snow to dinner
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BabsgCQhpu4

09.2015 All the Light We Cannot See

Introduction:

A Pulitzer winning novel! All the Light we cannot see.

Book Jacket:

Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great-uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel.

In a mining town in Germany, the orphan Werner grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments, a talent that wins him a place at a brutal academy for Hitler Youth, then a special assignment to track the resistance. More and more aware of the human cost of his intelligence, Werner travels through the heart of the war and, finally, into Saint-Malo, where his story and Marie-Laure’s converge.

Book Details:

Length: 545 pages
Publisher: Scribner
Published: May 6, 2014
ISBN: 1400032717
ISBN13: 978-1400032716

Get Book: 

Amazon
Audible
Overdrive

07.2015 Game of Thrones - Book 1

Introduction:

Our first book fantasy book set in medieval times and subject of a popular tv show! It's our longest book yet! Get reading!

Book Jacket:

Long ago, in a time forgotten, a preternatural event threw the seasons out of balance. In a land where summers can last decades and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing. The cold is returning, and in the frozen wastes to the north of Winterfell, sinister forces are massing beyond the kingdom’s protective Wall. To the south, the king’s powers are failing—his most trusted adviser dead under mysterious circumstances and his enemies emerging from the shadows of the throne. At the center of the conflict lie the Starks of Winterfell, a family as harsh and unyielding as the frozen land they were born to. Now Lord Eddard Stark is reluctantly summoned to serve as the king’s new Hand, an appointment that threatens to sunder not only his family but the kingdom itself.

Sweeping from a harsh land of cold to a summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, A Game of Thrones tells a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens. Here an enigmatic band of warriors bear swords of no human metal; a tribe of fierce wildlings carry men off into madness; a cruel young dragon prince barters his sister to win back his throne; a child is lost in the twilight between life and death; and a determined woman undertakes a treacherous journey to protect all she holds dear. Amid plots and counter-plots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, allies and enemies, the fate of the Starks hangs perilously in the balance, as each side endeavors to win that deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones.

Unparalleled in scope and execution, A Game of Thrones is one of those rare reading experiences that catch you up from the opening pages, won’t let you go until the end, and leave you yearning for more.

Book Details:

Length: 864 pages
Publisher: Bantam
Published: March 22, 2011
ISBN: 0553593714
ISBN13: 978-0553593716

Get Book: 

Amazon
Audible
Overdrive
Used.addall

Curious Incident of the Dog at Nightime

Book Club #4!

About the Book:

Summary: 

Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand to be touched. And he detests the color yellow. He is quite picky about the way he lives his life and his parents must adapt to his quirks. When his neighbor's dog is killed, Christopher goes on a quest to investigate the suspicious death and is encouraged by a mentor to write a book about the mystery. The quest ends up causing him to uncover much more about his neighbors and family.

Characters:

• Christopher
• Christopher’s father (Ed Boone)
• Christopher’s mother (Judy Boone)
• Mrs. Shears (Eileen Shears)
• Mr. Shears (Roger Shears)
• Siobhan
• Mrs. Alexander
• Wellington - Mrs. Shears’s black poodle
• Toby - Christopher's rate
  

Questions:

1. Dogs are often used as therapy animals, including for autism. Why do you think the main character was so concerned about Wellington? How are animals able to connect/benefit individuals with autism?
2. Do you think the main character was more concerned about the death of the dog than the disappearance of his mother? Discuss reasons.
3. Which character were you able to empathize with most and which situation in the book highlights that sentiment?
4.  The author used an 15 yr old autistic boy as a narrator for the book. The book is not exactly linear and is filled with diagrams. How did you like this writing style?
5. Christopher is articulate about his feelings and why or why not he prefers certain things. How do you feel about this kind of honesty/interaction?
6. How do you think things might have been different if the protagonist had been an adult?

Conversation Summary:

Discussion topics:

• author's writing style
• what did you know about autism before reading the book and what is your current perspective on treatment and care of autistic individuals
• Christopher reacts strongly to different triggers such as colors, did his behavior improve as he grew older or did people around him simply adapt better to his preferences
• how his parents adapted and reacted differently to his behavior
• why his mother left
• which character did you empathize and/or sympathize for most 
• what would you do similarly or differently from the parents if you had an autistic child
• current scientific thinking about autism and causes of autism

3/3 bears happy to have read this book.

References:

1. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Official Trailer
A tony-winning play!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O704ld5WQnk

05.2015 Curious Incident of Dog in the Nighttime

Introduction:

Another mystery! Hopefully not as dark and depressing as the last book. It's our shortest book yet!

Book Jacket:

Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand to be touched. And he detests the color yellow.

This improbable story of Christopher's quest to investigate the suspicious death of a neighborhood dog makes for one of the most captivating, unusual, and widely heralded novels in recent years.

Book Details:

Length: 226 pages
Publisher: Vintage
Published: May 18, 2004
ISBN: 1400032717
ISBN13: 978-1400032716

Get Book: 

Amazon
Audible
Overdrive
Used.addall

Dark Places

Book Club #3!

About the Book:

Summary: 

Libby Day was seven when her mother and two sisters were murdered in “The Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee, Kansas.” She survived—and famously testified that her fifteen-year-old brother, Ben, was the killer. Twenty-five years later, the Kill Club—a secret society obsessed with notorious crimes—locates Libby and pumps her for details. They hope to discover proof that may free Ben. Libby hopes to turn a profit off her tragic history: She’ll reconnect with the players from that night and report her findings to the club—for a fee. As Libby’s search takes her from shabby Missouri strip clubs to abandoned Oklahoma tourist towns, the unimaginable truth emerges, and Libby finds herself right back where she started—on the run from a killer.

Setting:Kinnakee, Kansas 1985 to present-day

Characters:

• Lyle
• Libby Day
• Patty
• Ben
• Michelle
• Debbie
• Aunt Diane
• Runner
• Diondra
• Krissi Cates
• Trey

Questions:

1. How do you like the style of shifting narrators in Gillian Flynn's books?

2. Flynn is known for writing books with unsavory protagonists and twists. Did Libby, Patty, and Ben serving as narrators affect how much you liked the book?

3. Throughout the book, Libby is pulled back into reliving the evening when her whole family was killed. People with seemingly good intentions, e.g., people who wanted to help Libby or exonerate Ben, kind of force her back to the "dark place." How do you think this impacts her world view or growing up?

4. Did you have any conspiracy theories or ideas about who the killer(s) might be as you read the book?

5. Can a person's social role/how they are viewed by others/how many friends they associate be a good indicator of guilt? Should these factors be weighed heavily in an investigation. Describe how a community's assumptions and discrimination against a person/family can affect fairness in the legal system.

6. Do you think the mother's decision was justified or a good idea? What other options do you think she may have had? Why did she not chose those other options?

4. In the story, Lyle is a member of a Kill Club - a group of people that re-investigate murders. What is the most unique/interesting club or organization that you have been involved with?

Conversation Summary:

Calling through conference call seemed to be the easiest solution. Here was some discussion topics:

•  the author uses a similar narrative format of jumping between different points of view through the book, it gave the book a richer experience, readers get a better understanding of each character
• Ben was a favorite character, you can see why he had fan clubs
• the book was a bit difficult to get into the ending was not very satisfying, predictable for some but not so predictable for others
• presented issues with flaws with the legal system - using a minor's testimony, lack of substantial evidence, bias from the way the community viewed the Day family
• children being easily swayed by parents' expectations or what the children think they want to here (Libby, Krissi, etc.)
• Patty was a weak character, she had a lot of responsibilities, could she handle a farm and four children, unsure of herself and authority over Ben
• terrible choice of resolving her money problems, Patty's plans and motivations completely backfired - all the life insurance money went towards Ben's defense and the children did not have a better life
• whether Ben had a better life in jail
• changing theories of who the murderer was throughout the book
• money as a primary motivator throughout the book
• how the lack and abundance of money changed how people lived their lives (Ben working hard as a child vs. Libby not doing anything until she ran out of money vs. Les Miserables)
• whether the characters with money or no money lived meaningful existences
•  men vs. women in dealing with hardship, isolation, etc.
• 
  

References:

1.Trailer for Dark Places
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJJjy2cZeLk