I’m super excited to announce our book club selection for Nov. and Dec.

The Hunger Games

by Suzanne Collins

I chose this book specifically for this holiday season.  I am hoping it will help remind us of all the blessings we have in our lives.  We live with incredible freedoms and opportunities in this day and age.  This book helps us to remember and be great full for them.

So what is The Hunger games about anyway?

Katniss is a 16-year-old girl living with her mother and younger sister in the poorest district of Panem, the remains of what used be the United States. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called, “The Hunger Games.” The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed. When Kat’s sister is chosen by lottery, Kat steps up to go in her place.

With this stormy cold weather, it’s a perfect time to curl up with a good book.  And this one is great!!

I’m also SUPER DUPER excited to introduce our sponsor for this book club session:

I was incredibly impressed with this shop.  I love anything that instills values in my children and gives them a sense of who they are.  Plus I am all about frugality and her prices are AMAZING!!  Interested?  Click on the banner image above to go to her shop and look for the sponsor introduction post {next week} to learn more about Fairy’s and Flutterbys.    You will definitely want to read the Hunger Games so you can enter the giveaway from this AWESOME shop!!

Happy Reading!!

You might also like:

Quirky Tip of the Day {Gardening}Blogapaloosa Day 10Flower bun with woven ribbon tutorial

For September and October we read

Sarah’s Key

by Tatiana De Rosnay

I was mesmerized by this book.  The story was haunting and it stayed with me.  I cannot imagine living in that time.  The uncertainty and powerless you would have as a parent.  Knowing you could not protect your children.  I don’t know how I would handle it.  It is hard for me to understand why people went along with this regime of evil.  Why didn’t everyone rise up and say no, you are crazy and we are not going to follow you.  It’s something I will never understand.

The Vel d’Hiv roundup was a dark hour in France’s history.  In humanity’s history.  I find myself having a hard time coming up with the words for this review.  How do you put into words the cruelties of this period?  How do you express the agony of Sarah’s inner turmoil as she realized she couldn’t go back home?  How do you even think of her brother and what he experienced when no one came back?  I think that is why I wanted someone to talk with about this book so badly.  Because I didn’t have the words myself.  So I will just open up the discussion to you all.  I truly do want to hear your thoughts on this book.   Please leave your thoughts in the comments.  Please come back and read what others said and please feel free to add your thoughts again as you read over other’s comments.  This book is special to me.  I hope we can do it justice.

Here are some discussion  questions:

1. What did you know about France’s role in World War II—and the Vél d’Hiv round-up in particular—before reading Sarah’s Key? How did this book teach you about, or change your impression of, this important chapter in French history?
2. Sarah’s Key is composed of two interweaving story lines: Sarah’s, in the past, and Julia’s quest in the present day. Discuss the structure and prose-style of each narrative. Did you enjoy the alternating stories and time-frames? What are the strengths or drawbacks of this format?
3. Per above: Which “voice” did you prefer: Sarah’s or Julia’s? Why? Is one more or less authentic than the other? If you could meet either of the two characters, which one would you choose?
4. How does the apartment on la rue de Saintonge unite the past and present action—and all the characters—in Sarah’s Key? In what ways is the apartment a character all its own in?
5. What are the major themes of Sarah’s Key?
6. de Rosnay’s novel is built around several “key” secrets which Julia will unearth. Discuss the element of mystery in these pages. What types of narrative devices did the author use to keep the keep the reader guessing?
7. Were you surprised by what you learned about Sarah’s history? Take a moment to discuss your individual expectations in reading Sarah’s Key. You may wish to ask the group for a show of hands. Who was satisfied by the end of the book? Who still wants to know—or read—more?
8. How do you imagine what happens after the end of the novel? What do you think Julia’s life will be like now that she knows the truth about Sarah? What truths do you think she’ll learn about her self?
9. Among modern Jews, there is a familiar mantra about the Holocaust; they are taught, from a very young age, that they must “remember and never forget” (as the inscription on the Rafle du Vél d’Hiv) Discuss the events of Sarah’s Key in this context. Who are the characters doing the remembering? Who are the ones who choose to forget?
10. What does it take for a novelist to bring a “real” historical event to life? To what extent do you think de Rosnay took artistic liberties with this work?
11. Why do modern readers enjoy novels about the past? How and when can a powerful piece of fiction be a history lesson in itself ?
12. We are taught, as young readers, that every story has a “moral”. Is there a moral to Sarah’s Key? What can we learn about our world—and our selves—from Sarah’s story?

I can’t wait to hear your thoughts!!

You might also like:

Quirky Tip of the Day {Gardening}Blogapaloosa Day 10Flower bun with woven ribbon tutorial

Here is  our selection for Book Club for the months of September and October.  Hopefully with kids back in school and colder temperatures we will be able to cuddle up and get our read on!!

So I honestly don’t go out to the movies that often and I didn’t know that our last selection {The Help} was being made into a movie.  And it came out while we were reading.  So in looking up this book apparently it is also coming out as a movie.  But reading the book is almost always better than the movie anyway.

Sarah’s Key

by

Tatiana DeRosnay

You know I don’t like to give away a lot about books before we start reading them, but I feel I must say a few things about this book.  It is a haunting yet beautiful tale.  It deals with a period of time during WWII when Jews were rounded up in France.  It goes into some bad conditions they endured including concentration camps.  This is a story that will stay with you.  However I think it is well worth the read.  If you would like to know more, please read the synopsis.  And if you have any questions about his book, please feel free to contact me.

Synopsis

Rosnay’s U.S. debut fictionalizes the 1942 Paris roundups and deportations, in which thousands of Jewish families were arrested, held at the Vélodrome d’Hiver outside the city, then transported to Auschwitz. Forty-five-year-old Julia Jarmond, American by birth, moved to Paris when she was 20 and is married to the arrogant, unfaithful Bertrand Tézac, with whom she has an 11-year-old daughter. Julia writes for an American magazine and her editor assigns her to cover the 60th anniversary of the Vél’ d’Hiv’ roundups. Julia soon learns that the apartment she and Bertrand plan to move into was acquired by Bertrand’s family when its Jewish occupants were dispossessed and deported 60 years before. She resolves to find out what happened to the former occupants: Wladyslaw and Rywka Starzynski, parents of 10-year-old Sarah and four-year-old Michel. The more Julia discovers—especially about Sarah, the only member of the Starzynski family to survive—the more she uncovers about Bertrand’s family, about France and, finally, herself.

You might also like:

Quirky Tip of the Day {Gardening}Blogapaloosa Day 10Flower bun with woven ribbon tutorial

I hope it was helpful to have 2 mos.  to read this time.  Let me know your thoughts on the time.  Is it too much time and you forget or do you like the extra time?

For July and August we read:

The Help

By Kathryn Stockett

I really liked this book.  It talked about a time and a people I didn’t know too much about.  The maids of this era weren’t far removed from their house slave ancestors.  Yet I loved how the author brought them to life.  They had families, fear and injustices of their own.  And their lives were truly intertwined with the families they worked for.  For better or worse.

This book made me disappointed.  Disappointed in humanity of that era.  That others could be treated with such disdain.  These are the souls raising our children.  And loving our children despite how their parents behave.  Walking with danger and treading on broken glass daily is no way to live.  Yet it was reality for them.

I am also proud.  That we have evolved from this time.  That we can treat all people with dignity.  To learn from others regardless of who they are or how they were born.  To realize that everyone has something of value and if we just look for that value, our lives will be richer.

I would hope that was the intended outcome these characters risked their very lives for.  And I know we as a people are not perfect in any way.  Hopefully the writing of this book will remind us of how far we have come and what we want to continually strive for.

I would LOVE to hear your thoughts on this book.  I enjoy recommending good books to others, but the BEST part is hearing what they thought of them.  Please leave me your review in the comment section.  I will be responding to you through the comments to keep the discussion going.   Please check back often to see what others are saying and join in the conversation.  You can comment as often as you like.  Leave your review, ask a question you had while reading, answer a discussion question, comment on another readers review and generally talk about the book.  If you’d like to, you can subscribe to comments from this post so you don’t miss out on the conversation.

I have the best readers and am so looking forward to your thoughts on this book!!

P.S. also tell me what you thought of the time line for book club.  Was two months a good time or too long??

Here are some discussion questions to get the conversation going:

1. Who was your favorite character? Why?
2. What do you think motivated Hilly? On the one hand she is terribly cruel to Aibileen and her own help, as well as to Skeeter once she realizes that she can’t control her. Yet she’s a wonderful mother. Do you think that one can be a good mother but, at the same time, a deeply flawed person?
3. Like Hilly, Skeeter’s mother is a prime example of someone deeply flawed yet somewhat sympathetic. She seems to care for Skeeter— and she also seems to have very real feelings for Constantine. Yet the ultimatum she gives to Constantine is untenable; and most of her interaction with Skeeter is critical. Do you think Skeeter’s mother is a sympathetic or unsympathetic character? Why?
4. How much of a person’s character would you say is shaped by the times in which they live?
5. Did it bother you that Skeeter is willing to overlook so many of Stuart’s faults so that she can get married, and that it’s not until he literally gets up and walks away that the engagement falls apart?
6. Do you believe that Minny was justified in her distrust of white people?
7. Do you think that had Aibileen stayed working for Miss Elizabeth, that Mae Mobley would have grown up to be racist like her mother? Do you think racism is inherent, or taught?
8. From the perspective of a twenty-first century reader, the hairshellac system that Skeeter undergoes seems ludicrous. Yet women still alter their looks in rather peculiar ways as the definition of “beauty” changes with the times. Looking back on your past, what’s the most ridiculous beauty regimen you ever underwent?
9. The author manages to paint Aibileen with a quiet grace and an aura of wisdom about her. How do you think she does this?
10. Do you think there are still vestiges of racism in relationships where people of color work for people who are white?
11. What did you think about Minny’s pie for Miss Hilly? Would you have gone as far as Minny did for revenge?

Can’t wait to hear your thoughts!!

You might also like:

Quirky Tip of the Day {Gardening}Blogapaloosa Day 10Flower bun with woven ribbon tutorial