A Thousand Spended Suns

Discussion questions for A Splendid Thousand Suns
What affect did Mariam being called a 'Harami' by others, including her mum, have on her life?
Does the meaning of Harami as "an unwanted thing; ...an illegitimate person who would never have a legitimate claim to the other things people had, things such as love, family, home, acceptance" (page 4) fulfill itself in her life?
What affect did Mariam's childhood have on her life?
- The relationship between her parents
- Her mother's mental health problems?
When/ what age do you think parents fall from their children's idolatry?
How does Mariam cope?
Do you think Rasheed should have asked Mariam to cover up in public?
What affect does love have on Mariam?
What does Mariam and Laila learn from each other?
Is Laila right to lie to Zalmai about the death of his father?
How important is it that those who are educated return to post-conflict areas to help rebuild them?

Happy reading!

Andrea Levy's Small Island

On Tuesday night book club members met to discuss Small Island by Andrea Levy. We had a lot to discuss with the book and also the recent BBC TV adaptation of the book over Christmas. Questions we discussed include:

• What are your general impressions of the book?
• What were the similarities between Queenie and Hortense?
This created quite a discussion and things we through the two characters shared included
Family background: both (felt) unloved
Strength of character/ courage
Both can be mean to people around them (Queenie to the kids who come begging for food and Hortense to her friend who goes out with Gilbert)
Married to escape
Found some love for their husband
Love/ attraction to Michael Roberts
Both forced men to join the war effort (Queenie in her off the cuff/ angry comment to Bernard and Hortense’s telling people about Michael’s affair with the school mistress caused him to sign up to the RAF).
• Did anyone see the tv adaptation? Did you think it portrayed the book well?
• Where there any similarities between Bernard and Gilbert?
• Did Queenie force Bernard to go to war?
• What do readers learn from the different portrayals of war in the book?
Arthur
Bernard
Gilbert
Michael
• Do you think Bernard was racist due to his upbringing or his experiences during the war, or both?
• What picture does Small Island paint of racism in Britain in the 1940s and 1950s? Has it changed much now?
• What do you think about Queenie giving away her child? Was it the right thing to do?
• Do you think Bernard could have ever learnt to accept Baby Michael as his own?
• Which is the ‘Small Island’ the book is talking about?
• Can we identify with Hortense (and to some extent Gilberts) love for the Mother Country?
• Do you think by the end of the book Hortense and Gilbert loved each other?
• Is Small Island a great book?

The Hobbit

On Thursday night (21st January 2010), we discussed the Hobbit. Below are the key questions discussed:

1. What was your favourite moment in the book?
2. Did you think that the Hobbit works as a book of fantasy?
3. What do you think about the insignificant of female characters in the story? Is this sexist?
4. What is the central moral of the story?
5. What social/historical issues influenced this book?

Probably the best bookshop in the world?

When I went to Paris, my workshop was held at Shakespeare and Company, the most fantastic bookshop ever. Thought you'd like to read about it. So follow the link to my blog to find out more...

Virginia

A wacky idea

Today I have received an invite from a friend to take part in National Novel writing month, a project which aims to encourage people to write a 50,000 word novel in one month. As it says on the website:

"Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.

"Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.

"Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It's all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.

"Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that's a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down."

You can find out more by visiting www.nanowrimo.org.

This has got me thinking, while I personally do not have the time or energy to try and write a 50,000 word novel – what about our book club writing something each for one of our meetings? It could be anything at all – a short story – a novel – a poem – or a title. And if people feel totally uninspired to write anything, well then they can bring along their ideas to discuss so there is no pressure. The idea would be to discuss work in progress: our inspirations, what we found easy or hard and see the other side of reading: the creative process. And if people would find it easier this way, we could always limit the amount of time spent on it – like NaNoWriMo.

A wacky idea, but whatcha think?

Little Plug

Not sure if anyone likes poetry, but my big sister has got 8 poems in the Rialto magazine out today. I'm so excited!

Virginia

Socials

We also meet regularly for socials! I have been promising to send around the brownie recipe which i made at our last social to book club members for ages now, so here goes!

BROWNIES from The Joy of Cooking.

Pre heat oven to 350 degrees F and grease a 9 x 13 inch pan.

Melt together and mix 6 oz Butter/ Marge and 3oz cocoa and cool the mixture on the side.

In another bowl beat with an electronic beater until light in color and foamy in texture 4 eggs at room temperature and half a teaspoon of salt.

Add gradually and continue beating until well creamed 2 cups of sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla.

Fold into this mixture the chocolate mixture by hand and before the mixture becomes uniformly colored 1 cup of sifted flour (white) and if desire 1 cup of pecan nuts.

Bake for 25 minutes and take out to cool. If you want them moist then usually take out at 25 minutes, NOT when a scuer comes out clean.

Happy eating.