Certain Women book discussion questions

Certain Women explores the sensitive issue of death and, more specifically, the fear of dying with unresolved issues. In this novel (which I did not finish), Emma Wheaton disrupts her successful stage career to be with her dying father, David Wheaton. David is also an actor, having performed in a number of plays during his long career. However, he is obsessed with the one play he never got to do – an unfinished play about the Old Testament King David, written by Emma’s estranged husband, Nik.

As David Wheaton’s nine wives and eleven children gather to say their final goodbyes to David, the stories of both him and King David are simultaneously woven together and unraveled.  Since Emma is the main female protagonist, the novel focuses on her upbringing and experiences being raised by the great actor that was David Wheaton.  As she is surrounded by her extended and eclectic family, painful memories resurface that begin to allow her to confront her past and start the process of healing.  As David Wheaton faces his approaching death, Emma grapples with her future.

 http://crazy-for-books.com/2011/02/faith-n-fiction-roundtable-discussion-certain-women-by-madeleine-lengle.html

- Were there too many characters to keep track of and was it difficult to follow the author’s shift from King David to David Wheaton?
- First, if you died today, is there anything left unresolved in your life that you would regret?
- So, can anyone be redeemed, regardless of what he or she has done, as long as they atone for their sins?
- If a person has wronged you in a devastating way, how can we truly just forgive and move on?

August 2013 book: Gone Girl

Becky has picked "Gone Girl"
by Gillian Flynn for our August 2013 read.

"I've heard it is really good and just heard they are going to be making a movie," explained Becky.

ABOUT THE BOOK
Marriage can be a real killer.
   One of the most critically acclaimed suspense writers of our time, New York Times bestseller Gillian Flynn takes that statement to its darkest place in this unputdownable masterpiece about a marriage gone terribly, terribly wrong. The Chicago Tribune proclaimed that her work “draws you in and keeps you reading with the force of a pure but nasty addiction.” Gone Girl’s toxic mix of sharp-edged wit and deliciously chilling prose creates a nerve-fraying thriller that confounds you at every turn.
   On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy's diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer?
   As the cops close in, every couple in town is soon wondering how well they know the one that they love. With his twin sister, Margo, at his side, Nick stands by his innocence. Trouble is, if Nick didn’t do it, where is that beautiful wife? And what was in that silvery gift box hidden in the back of her bedroom closet?
   With her razor-sharp writing and trademark psychological insight, Gillian Flynn delivers a fast-paced, devilishly dark, and ingeniously plotted thriller that confirms her status as one of the hottest writers around.

July 2013 book: Certain Women

Amy has picked "Certain Women" by Madeleine L'Engle for our July 2013 book. It's a book she's read before and she's always wanted to chat about it with others.

 ABOUT THE BOOK

From Library Journal

In Certain Women , terminally ill David Wheaton, a prominent and much-married American actor, obsessively recalls an unfinished play about King David, a role he coveted. L'Engle explores Christian faith, love, and the nature of God by framing the delayed-maturation story of Emma, Wheaton's daughter, within three subplots: the Wheaton family saga, the story of King David, and the history of the play's development. The characterizations of both Davids are compelling, but the primary interest here is the community of women that surrounds each man. L'Engle describes complex truths very simply, pointing out, for instance, that "Life hurts" and that if there's "no agony, there's no joy." Because she also details the emotional cost of discovering and accepting such concepts, many readers will find these observations memorable rather than simplistic. Appropriate for all but the smallest general collections. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/15/92.
- Jane S. Bakerman, Indiana State Univ., Terre Haute

From Publishers Weekly

"Marrying was a habit with me, a bad habit," David Wheaton declares from his deathbed in this disappointing novel by the Newbery Award-winning CK author of A Wrinkle in Time . As the 87-year-old actor's boat plies the waters of the Pacific Northwest, Wheaton looks back on his life with eight wives and 11 children. Also on board is his devoted daughter Emma, stunned by the imminence of her father's death and by the recent dissolution of her marriage to a playwright whose drama about King David and his wives provides the framework for L'Engle's relentless analogies between the Old Testament monarch and the modern-day actor. Recasting the biblical tale as a meditation on love and marriage, L'Engle piles on literary references: David met Emma's mother while making a film version of The Mill on the Floss , named their daughter after the heroine of Madame Bovary and calls his boat the Portia . But name-dropping does not a work of literature make. The epigraph from St. Luke--"Certain women made us astonished"--is not borne out by these two-dimensional characters, who don't astonish in the least as they speak and act by formula. The heavy-handed biblical subtext overwhelms rather than enhances the contemporary drama. ( Oct.

Spirit Car book discussion questions

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

 

1. Compare what you learned in school about the 1862 Dakota War to the way this story unfolds. What, if anything, has changed in your understanding of this event?

 

2. How might the author’s life have been different if she had had a strong sense of her Dakota heritage as a child?

 

3. Whose story is the author telling? For whom is she writing the story?

 

4. What impact is achieved by the Dakota Indian history being told through personal family stories? How is the effect different from reading about the same events in a history book?

 

5. Would Lucille’s life likely have been

better or more difficult without her boarding school experiences? What do

you think the boarding schools represented to the Dakota Indian families? 

 

6. Talk about what the author means when she talks about riding in

her spirit car. Have you ever had a similar

experience in connecting with the past?

 

7. Give examples of when the author uses

humor in the book. What role does humor play?

 

8. What is the biggest loss the author is writing about? Discuss the various losses documented in the book. 

 

9. The last sentence of the book is the author’s response to her mother, Lucille: “Yes, I think things are changing for the better.” What do the author and Lucille mean by this statement?

 

10. In thinking about your own family, do you know how and wh y they came to America (if non-Native)? Do you know of any significant history your family members lived through, such as wars or depressions or world-changing inventions like the telephone?

 

11. What is the value of understanding and having connection

to one’s family over several generations? How might

learning about something significant and troubling in your family’s history change you?

 

12. The book jacket describes the book as a counterpoint of memoir and carefully researched fiction. What is your understanding of the term “carefully researched fiction ”, and do you think this technique adds or detracts from the cohesiveness of the book? Do the stories we tell about our own lives incorporate some degree of fiction?

 

From http://www.thefriends.org/assets/documents/spirit-car.pdf

Q. What are you currently writing?

The next book will be a progression of some of the themes in

Spirit Car, although it won’t be a family

memoir. I found myself wondering, when a

person/community has done the work of reclaiming

cultural identity, what’s next? How do you restore

what was lost, how do you heal the traumas of the

past, how do you assume responsibility for the

knowledge that was given? I believe the answer to

those questions is closely tied to our relationship to

the land, to the earth.

 

Q. What do you hope your readers take away from reading this book?

People have told me that reading a family story has

helped them understand Native history because they

can relate to events on a personal level rather than at

a state or national level, as history is often written. I

hope they see how the past lives on in the present,

how an event like the 1862 Dakota War in Minnesota

is very much a part of our contemporary lives. I also

hope they see the beauty and wonder of their own

family stories and how much we’re shaped by the

generations who came before us

Introducing the Upper St. Croix Wine Trail

Check this out! There is so much that is exciting! Two new wineries in the local area! And I hadn't heard of the Wild Mountain Winery before either. Cool!

Introducing the UPPER ST. CROIX WINE TRAIL

6 wineries have formed a coalition to create the
Upper St. Croix Wine Trail

- James Perry Winery - Rush City (opening June 2013)
http://jamesperryvineyards.com/ 
  - North Folk Winery - Stark
http://www.starkwines.com/ or https://www.facebook.com/NorthFolkWinery?fref=ts 

- Wild Mountain Winery - Taylors Falls
http://www.wildmountainwinery.com/
Our regular tasting includes a selection of 6 of your favorites for $5 or a couples tasting to sample all 14 wines for $10.  All tastings include a complimentary sample of our port style dessert wine Aurora Borealis, and souvenir glass.

- Winehaven - Lindstrom
http://www.winehaven.com/ 
15th Annual Raspberries and Wine Festival June 13 & 14

- Dancing Dragonfly Winery - St. Croix Falls, WI (opening May 2013)
http://www.dancingdragonflywinery.com/
Their grand opening celebration is June 8-9

- Chateaux St. Croix Winery - St. Croix Falls, WI

What a great day trip! Sampling local wines from 6 wineries in a 40 mile distance.

http://upperstcroixwinetrail.com

Visit Fort Ridgely - site mentioned in Spirit Car

One of the sites mentioned in our book for May, "Spirit Car", is a historic site that can be visited.

http://sites.mnhs.org/historic-sites/fort-ridgely

Fort Ridgely

Built in 1853 as a police station to keep peace as settlers poured into the former Dakota lands, it withstood several attacks in the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 and became a training ground for Civil War recruits. 


 The site is located within Fort Ridgely State Park and is managed by the Nicollet County Historical Society.

The restored commissary building houses interpretive exhibits and a gift shop. The stone foundations of the other fort buildings remain and interpretive markers on the grounds tell the fort's story. The site is located within Fort Ridgely State Park which offers hiking trails, horseback riding, a nine hole golf course, fishing and camping.

History

Yielding to pressure from the U.S. government in 1851, the Eastern Dakota (Eastern Sioux) sold 35 million acres of their land across southern and western Minnesota.

The Dakota moved onto a small reservation along the Minnesota River, stretching from just north of New Ulm to the South Dakota border.

 

In 1853, the U.S. military started construction on Fort Ridgely, near the southern border of the new reservation and northwest of the German settlement of New Ulm. The fort was designed as a police station to keep peace as settlers poured into the former Dakota lands.

 

Nine years later, unkept promises by the U.S. government, nefarious practices by fur traders and crop failure all helped create tensions that erupted into the U.S.-Dakota War in August 1862. Dakota forces attacked the fort twice, on August 20 and August 22. The fort that had been a training base and staging ground for Civil War volunteers suddenly became one of the few military forts west of the Mississippi to withstand a direct assault. Fort Ridgely's 280 military and civilian defenders held out until Army reinforcements ended the siege.

 

The Army abandoned the Fort in 1867. Civilians occupied the remaining buildings and later dismantled them for their own use. From 1935 to 1942 the Veteran Conservation Corps excavated the site, restored the foundations of eight fort buildings and reconstructed the entire commissary building. In 1970 the fort was added to the National Register of Historic Places, while much of the park was added in 1989. The Minnesota Historical Society assumed stewardship of the site in 1986.

 

Resources for Further Investigation

 

U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 website

 

Fort Ridgely

72404 County Road 30

Fairfax, MN 55332

See map: Google Maps

Directions

In Fort Ridgely State Park, off Minn. Hwy. 4, seven miles south of Fairfax.

Hours

Memorial Day Weekend-Labor Day: Thursday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Open Monday holidays.

Admission

$5 adults, $3 seniors (65+), students w/ID and children 6-17. Free for children age 5 and under and MHS members. Minnesota State Park vehicle permit required.
 

FYI: Cambridge Community Read

FOR YOUR INFORMATION
 The Community Read in Cambridge, Minn. this year is "Safe from the Sea" by Peter Geye. It's set in Northern Minnesota and sounds quite fascinating. (Don't be surprised if it's my book choice in a few months :)

In case you're interested:

Author Event with Peter Geye

 May 2nd

4:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m. book signing at
Scout & Morgan Books

7:00 p.m. Presentation, book signing and refreshments at the
Cambridge Community College

 

        

Set in the landscape of Northern Minnesota and on the unforgiving waters of Lake Superior, Geye tells a story of father and son who have been estranged for many years after a tragic shipwreck. When Noah receives a call from his dying father, a former iron ore ship officer, he is forced to return to Minnesota to care for a man he hasn't spoken to in years.Safe From the Sea is a beautifully written novel that describes so well the unique sense of place that is the Lake Superior landscape. Click here to listen to Peter read an excerpt from Safe From the Sea.