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