Book Club Questions!

[ladyequinox]

Hi Sounis,

I dusted off my LJ account to come ask for your help because you all are the wisest people I know!

My mom's retiree book club reads a lot of WWII era historical fiction and I suggested that they branch out and try a new genre so they read The Thief. Now my mom would like to send out a list of questions to ponder before they meet to discuss

Comments

[eachase]

First, we're happy to see you back (!) and second, congrats on getting your Mom's book club to read The Thief. If they're usually into WWII fiction, that's a considerable accomplishment

[checkers65477]

These are some great questions! I'd add to it:

What did you think of the characters at the beginning of the book? How did your opinions change by the end of the book, and why did they change?

As mentioned above, What clues about the twist did you totally miss when reading the first time (because of course they'll all go back and read it again, doesn't everyone??)?

I especially like echase's question about what they think will happen to Gen in the future.

Harper Collins has some discussion questions here: http://files.harpercollins.com/PDF/ReadingGuides/0061870935.pdf#zoom=70

[ladyequinox]

Thank you both for your excellent suggestions! We incorporated them into a list of questions that was emailed out and I hope they all have a good discussion on Friday - and that they read he book before receiving the questions and weren't looking for "a twist" at the end

[checkers65477]

Wow, I hate it that I’m so impressed by ChatGPT’s questions. I’m leading a book club discussion soon and am going to try this with my questions.

[filkferengi]

You're doing an excellent job; bravo!

If they usually prefer World War II fiction, have they ever read D.E. Stevenson? She has excellent titles, many in ebook.

[ladyequinox]

They have not! Thank you for the recommendation, my mom is very excited to check the author out!

[filkferengi]

_Miss Buncle's Book_ is her most famous work. It's a kind book.

[eachase]

ladyequinox How did the book club go?

[ladyequinox]

Well, the day before my mom and I got together and we discussed all the questions she had emailed out which was a mix of questions suggested in this thread, the HarperCollins questions, and the ChatGPT ones. I had also gone back through all of Sounis' re-reads and had made my mom some cheat notes of all the great things the people of Sounis had pointed out so she could bring them up in discussion

[eachase]

ladyequinox, I think that's a great success. In my experience, fantasy isn't a favorite genre from my parent's generation, so that they read it and discussed it (for 90 minutes) and came away from the discussion with an appreciation of it is wonderful.

I love that they thanked your Mom for bringing something outside of their normal genre. I think that's part of a point of a book club -- reading books that you wouldn't otherwise pick up.