The Last Child by John Hart

January 17th

@ 7:00 pm

Johnny Merrimon, 13, had the perfect life: a warm home and loving parents; a twin sister, Alyssa, with whom he shared an irreplaceable bond. He knew nothing of loss, until the day Alyssa vanished from the side of a lonely street. Now, a year later, Johnny finds himself isolated and alone, failed by the people he’d been taught since birth to trust. No one else believes that Alyssa is still alive, but Johnny is certain that she is --- confident in a way that he can never fully explain. Determined to find his sister, Johnny risks everything to explore the dark side of his hometown. A powerful story of loss, hope, and courage in the face of evil

Meetings are the 3rd Tuesday of the month at 7:00 pm

Please pre-register by calling 419-586-4442 or

emailing Connie Gray at grayco@oplin.org

I Remember Nothing by Nora Ephron

Tuesday

December 20, 2011

6:00 pm

Special Holiday Meeting at

Java Nation

101 S Main, Celina

Join us for dinner or coffee and dessert-Dutch Treat

Conversation Starters

1. In the title essay, Ephron writes, “ . . . I have been forgetting things for years, but now I forget in a new way” [p.5]. How do the examples she uses capture the difference between her past and present ways of forgetting?

2. Does Ephron’s list of the symptoms of old age mirror your own experiences or things you have observed in older friends or relatives [p.6]? What does Ephron’s inability to identify the celebrities in People magazine, for example, reflect about the different interests that naturally develop as we get older? How does this relate to Ephron’s list of what she “refuses to know anything about” [p. 10]?

3. Ephron writes about the start of her career as a writer in “Journalism: A Love Story.” Does the essay explain the rather unusual subtitle she has chosen? What does the atmosphere she encountered at Newsweek show about the times?

4. “The Legend” offers a colorful portrait of Ephron’s childhood surrounded by Hollywood and literary celebrities, including her mother, a highly successful screenwriter, and the noted New Yorker writer, Lillian Ross. What does the anecdote at the heart of the essay, as well as the vignette about her graduation, convey about Ephron’s feelings for her mother? How does she capture the ambivalence experienced by a child of an alcoholic?

5. What does “Twenty-five Things People Have a Shocking Capacity to Be Surprised by Over and Over Again” reveal about human nature and our tendency to accept conventional beliefs despite lots of evidence to the contrary? What particular needs, emotions, or prejudices perpetuate our “capacity to be surprised”? Which entries resonated with you? What would you add to her list?

6. “The Six Stages of E-Mail” is a very funny chronicle of Ephron’s evolving reactions to e-mail. Do you share her mixed feelings about e-mail and more recent (and, perhaps, more intrusive) technological advances like Facebook and other social networks? Have these new forms of communication made life easier or more complicated?

7. In one of the most moving pieces in the collection, Ephron describes the traditional Christmas dinners she shared with friends for twenty-two years and the changes that occur when Ruthie, one of the participants, dies. What does “Christmas Dinner” reveal about the particular pain of losing friends as you get older?

8. Ephron writes, “The realization that I may only have a few good years remaining has hit me with a real force . . . ” [p. 129]. How do her memories of her younger years inform her feelings of loss and how do they shape her approach to the years to come?

9. Several essays are entitled “I Just Want to Say” and go on to explore a specific topic. What do these pieces have in common? What do they and her short, funny, and to-the-point personal revelations like “My Aruba,” “Going to the Movies,” “Addicted to L-U-V,” and “My Life as a Meatloaf” contribute to the shape and impact of the collection?

10.Reread the lists (“What I Won’t Miss” and “What I Will Miss”) at the end of I Remember Nothing and create your own versions highlighting what you cherish—as well as you’d gladly give up.

Meetings are the 3rd Tuesday of the month at 7:00 pm

Please pre-register by calling 419-586-4442 or emailing Connie Gray at grayco@oplin.org

22 Britannia Road by Amanda Hodgkinson

Tuesday, November 15

7:00 pm

By the end of World War II, Silvana is a ghost of the wife Janusz once had. She and their 7-year-old son Aurek travel from Poland to England to reunite their family--a family that has been separated for 6 years. That's where 22 Britannia Road, Amanda Hodgkinson's stunning debut novel, begins. As the past unfolds from multiple points of view, it becomes clear that despite their determination to make a fresh start, the hidden secrets of the past threaten to destroy Silvana and Janusz's dreams of becoming a family once again. The irreversible events that passed during their years of separation still linger, including the horrors of war, Janusz's betrayal by a love affair with another woman, and the devastating secret that Silvana will do anything to conceal.

Please be aware that this discussion guide may contain spoilers!

1. On the ship to England, Silvana is asked if she's a housekeeper or housewife. Why does this question jar her?

2. Aurek thinks of Janusz as "the enemy." How do his feelings change over the course of the book, and why?

3. Hodgkinson toggles back and forth from the past to the present in this novel. How does telling the story in this particular way affect the experience for the reader? Could she have told it in any other way?

4. Janusz longs for an English life. What are some of the things he does to try to adapt and assimilate to his new homeland?

5. The relationship between Silvana and Janusz and their English neighbors Doris and Gilbert is complicated. Do you believe they are genuinely friends?

6. Silvana is obsessed with discarded clothes and photographs of children. What do these objects represent for her, and how do they comfort or help her?

7. What is it that draws Silvana to Tony? How does her relationship with Tony differ from her relationship with Janusz?

8. When he learns the truth about Silvana, Janusz tears up his English garden and begins planting trees. What does this act accomplish for him?

9. Almost everyone in this novel has a secret—is there any instance in which keeping the secret might have been better in the end? Are secrets always destructive in relationships?

10. In the final third of the book, there's a shocking revelation about Silvana's past. How did you react to this development? How did it make you feel about her as a character?

Meetings are the 3rd Tuesday of the month at 7:00 pm

Please pre-register by calling 419-586-4442 or emailing Connie Gray at grayco@oplin.org

The Widower's Tale by Julia Glass

Tuesday, October 18, 2010

In a quirky farmhouse outside Boston, 70-year-old Percy Darling enjoys a vigorous but mostly solitary life — until, in a complex scheme to help his oldest daughter through a crisis, he allows a progressive preschool to move into his barn. The abrupt transformation of Percy’s rural refuge into a lively, youthful community compels him to reexamine the choices he’s made since his wife’s death, three decades ago, in a senseless accident that haunts him still. No longer can he remain aloof from his neighbors, his two grown daughters, or, to his shock, the precarious joy of falling in love. With equal parts affection and satire, Julia Glass spins a captivating tale about the loyalties, rivalries, and secrets of a very particular family.

1. From the stories characters remember and tell, what kind of mother was Poppy?

2. How do Percy's age, background and profession shape the way he thinks about the world around him? How do others describe Percy, and how does he describe himself?

3. By the end of the novel, how has Percy changed/evolved?

4. Why has Percy not been with any women since Poppy's death? Is it habit and routine, nostalgia and commitment to his wife, or guilt over her death; or a combination of all three?

5. Why is the novel called The Widower's Tale? What do you think of this allusion to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales?

6. This is a novel about family and the intricacies of the intertwining relationships between family members. Discuss and compare some of the central familial relationships in the novel.

7. Discuss the importance of the tree house in the novel. What does it represent, if anything, for the four main characters?

8. How have libraries changed over the course of Percy's working in one, through his youth, his daughter's youths, and now Robert's youth? Percy doesn't seem to approve of the direction libraries are going. Do you?

9. "Daughters. This word meant everything to me in that moment: sun, moon, stars, blood, water (oh curse the water!), meat, potatoes, wine, shoes, books, the floor beneath my feet, the roof over my head." (page 109). Compare and contrast Percy's two daughters.

10. While visiting a museum, Percy's friend asks, "What sort of landscape are you?" And Percy replies, "A field. Overgrown and weedy." "Or a very large, gnarled tree," his friend adds. (pages 281-82) How would you describe him?

Meetings are the 3rd Tuesday of the month at 7:00 pmPlease pre-register by calling 419-586-4442 or emailing Connie Gray at grayco@oplin.org

Every Last One by Anna Quindlen

Tuesday, September 20th, 7:00 pm



Every Last One by Anna Quindlen is a novel about facing every last one of the things we fear most, about finding ways to navigate a road we never intended to travel, to live a life we never dreamed we'd have to live but must be brave enough to try.



Meetings are the 3rd Tuesday of the month at 7:00 pm
Please pre-register by calling 419-586-4442 or emailing Connie Gray at grayco@oplin.org

The Lace Reader: A Novel by Brunonia Barry

August 16th, 7:00 pm

Brunonia Barry dreamt she saw a prophecy in a piece of lace, a vision so potent she spun it into a novel. The Lace Reader retains the strange magic of a vivid dream, though Barry's portrayal of modern-day Salem, Massachusetts--with its fascinating cast of eccentrics--is reportedly spot-on. Some of its stranger residents include generations of Whitney women, with a gift for seeing the future in the lace they make. Towner Whitney, back to Salem from self-imposed exile on the West Coast, has plans for recuperation that evaporate with her great-aunt Eva's mysterious drowning. Fighting fear from a traumatic adolescence she can barely remember, Towner digs in for answers. But questions compound with the disappearance of a young woman under the thrall of a local fire-and-brimstone preacher, whose history of violence against Whitney women makes the situation personal for Towner. Her role in cop John Rafferty's investigation sparks a tentative romance. And as they scramble to avert disaster, the past that had slipped through the gaps in Towner's memory explodes into the present with a violence that capsizes her concept of truth.

(From a review by Mari Malcolm)  

Meetings are the 3rd Tuesday of the month at 7:00 pm

Please pre-register by calling 419-586-4442 or emailing Connie Gray at grayco@oplin.org

Little Heathens by Mildred Armstrong Kalish

Tuesday, July 19th, 7:00 pm

With the subtitle “Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm during the Great Depression,” this charming memoir was voted one of the 10 Best Books of 2007 by the New York Times. Kalish lived with her siblings, mother and grandparents both in a town home and, in warmer weather, out on a farm. The lifestyle was frugal in the extreme, but in spite of the austere conditions, Kalish's memories are mostly happy ones. Simple, detailed and honest, this is a refreshing and informative read for anyone interested in the struggles of average Americans in the thick of the Great Depression.

Meetings are the 3rd Tuesday of the month at 7:00 pm

Please pre-register by calling 419-586-4442 or emailing Connie Gray at grayco@oplin.org

I'd Know You Anywhere by Laura Lippman

Tuesday, June 21, 7:00 pm

If Washington, D.C. housewife Eliza Benedict sometimes seems preoccupied, it's easy to imagine why: As a teenager a quarter century ago, she was kidnapped by a serial rapist and murderer. That maniac is now sitting on death row and he is making one last macabre effort to reach out to her. Can she ignore it? And what will happen to her children if she does? I’d Know You Anywhere is a crime story, but it’s not a whodunit. Rather, it’s an exquisitely sensitive story about the psychological impact of crime on its victims. It’s a story about shame, about anger, about survivor’s guilt.

Meetings are the 3rd Tuesday of the month at 7:00 pm

Please pre-register by calling 419-586-4442 or emailing Connie Gray at grayco@oplin.org

My Name is Mary Sutter by Robin Oliveria

Tuesday, May 17, 7:00 pm

In this stunning first novel, Mary Sutter is a brilliant, head­strong midwife from Albany, New York, who dreams of becoming a surgeon. Determined to overcome the prejudices against women in medicine-and eager to run away from her recent heartbreak- Mary leaves home and travels to Washington, D.C. to help tend the legions of Civil War wounded. Rich in historical detail and full of the tragedies and challenges of wartime, My Name is Mary Sutter is an exceptional novel. Robin Oliveria has created a truly unforgettable heroine whose unwavering determination and vulnerability will resonate with readers everywhere. 

Meetings are the 3rd Tuesday of the month at 7:00 pm

Please pre-register by calling 419-586-4442 or emailing Connie Gray at grayco@oplin.org

The Postmistress by Sarah Blake

Tuesday, April 19, 7:00 pm

In the years preceding the United States' entrance into World War II, radio journalist Frankie Bard broadcasts from London during the air raids. Among her listeners are several residents of a small Cape Cod town. Writing in starkly descriptive prose, novelist Blake offers a revealing and intimate look at this moment in history, moving back and forth between small-town America and war-torn Europe and intertwining the narratives of three unique women along the way.

Meetings are the 3rd Tuesday of the month at 7:00 pm

Please pre-register by calling 419-586-4442 or emailing Connie Gray at grayco@oplin.org

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

Tuesday, March 22, 7:00 pm

Joan Didion's memoir The Year of Magical Thinking is about grieving for her husband, fellow writer John Gregory Dunne. The couple had been married since 1964 when Dunne died of a heart attack at the end of 2003. His death came suddenly, just as the couple was sitting down to dinner after visiting their gravely ill daughter in the hospital. In her memoir, Didion contemplates how the rituals of daily life are fundamentally altered when her life's companion is taken from her. Her impressions, both sharply observed and utterly reasonable, form a picture of an intelligent woman grappling with her past and future.

Meetings are the 3rd Tuesday of the month at 7:00 pm

Please pre-register by calling 419-586-4442 or emailing Connie Gray at grayco@oplin.org

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Stout

Tuesday, February 22, 7:00 pm

Olive Kitteridge, the 2008 “novel in stories” by Elizabeth Strout won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. The title character appears in all thirteen stories in the book in a variety of ways following the flow of her life from middle age into old age. At times stern, at other times patient, at times perceptive, at other times in sad denial, Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher, deplores the changes in her little town of Crosby, Maine, and in the world at large, but she doesn’t always recognize the changes in those around her. As the townspeople grapple with their problems: a lounge musician haunted by a past romance; a former student who has lost the will to live; Olive’s own adult child, who feels tyrannized by her irrational sensitivities; and her husband, Henry, who finds his loyalty to his marriage both a blessing and a curse, Olive is brought to a deeper understanding of herself and her life–sometimes painfully, but always with ruthless honesty. Olive Kitteridge offers profound insights into the human condition–its conflicts, its tragedies and joys, and the endurance it requires. 

Meetings are the 3rd Tuesday of the month at 7:00 pm

Please pre-register by calling 419-586-4442 or emailing Connie Gray at grayco@oplin.org