Book Club Discussion -- The Imperfectionists

Ah, that time has come...


I hope you all enjoyed Tom Rachman's The Imperfectionists as much as I did! I sympathized with every single one of these characters. It's a great book focusing on a (sometimes) slightly dismal, but definitely captivating, sense of everyday life.

I hope you'll join us in this discussion. Most questions are from LitLovers , while a few are from our own lovely Daniela. So, curl up with some tea and your favorite blanket (yay Fall!) & let's get started!

1. The book is a series of vignettes about 11 people in the newsroom of an unnamed paper. Yet The Imperfectionists is more than collection of short stories. How are the chapters connected? How does the book manage to cohere as a novel? Or does it? Perhaps you found it difficult to jump from one character to another—did you?


2. We find out at the end of the book why Cyrus Ott began the newspaper in 1953. Did you have suspicions all along...or were you caught by surprise?


3. Talk about how the headline for each chapter ties in with the fate of the character involved—particularly, say, the seemingly unrelated headline for Lloyd Burko: "Bush Slumps to New Low in the Polls."


4. Who was your favorite character and why?


5. When you catch glimpses of one of the characters in a chapter other than his/her own, does the character show the same traits...or do you see a different facet of the personality? What is the effect of having characters reappear?


6. There is a great deal of wry humor in this book. Which parts did you find especially funny?


7. Did you spend time piecing together the full story of the Ott family as told in the italic sections of the novel?


8. What do you make of the title of the book?


9. The fictional newspaper in this work serves as a metaphor for the press in general. Talk about the fate of newspapers— their future survival. What do you think will happen to them and why? What will be the impact of their possible demise? How important is a well-trained, professional press corp to democracy? Is the egalitarianism of news reporting on the Internet a good thing...or not?


10. What do you think was the overall message of all the combined storylines?

Jane Giveaway Winner and October's book club selection

A big congratulations to Erin (of Aelia Reads.  There were so many Erin's that entered!  It's a fairly awesome name so I'm not complaining) you've won a ARC copy of April Lindner's Jane.  I'll email you shortly to get your address.  We hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

I hope you all check it out when it comes out October 11th.  It's a fun, clever take on Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre and a pleasure to read.

Well, you guys have spoken and it looks like On Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta will be our October book club selection.  I've heard so many wonderful things about this book I'm really excited to finally get around to reading it!

You. Yes. You. (Should Vote)

Did I just use some Marcus Flutie to shamelessly get your attention?

Yes I did. 

I'm sure Marcus Flutie would agree (and possibly Megan McCafferty who, you know, created him, but lets not get bogged down with things like reality) that you should help us decide what book to read for the October book club.

You have five delightful books to choose from:

Ancestor by Scott Sigler

Ancestor is the world's most-popular "podcast novel." A serialized audiobook delivered in 20 weekly episodes, Ancestor's first run played to an audience of more than 30,000 die-hard fans in 31 countries. All told, fans have downloaded more than 700,000 episodes of Ancestor. En route to a rousing final episode, Ancestor was the #1 literary podcast on iTunes and every other podcast index, including Morpheus, FeedBurner, Podiobooks.com and Podcast Alley. The book's popularity caught the attention of the broadcast world, and was the first audiobook broadcast on Sirius Satellite to the company's 4.3 million subscribers.
On a remote island in Lake Superior, scientists struggle to solve the problem of xenotransplantation -- using animal tissue to replace failing human organs. Funded by the biotech firm Genada, Dr. Claus Rhumkorrf seeks to recreate the ancestor of all mammals. By getting back to the root of our creation, Rhumkorrf hopes to create an animal with human internal organs. Rhumkorrf discovers the ancestor, but it is not the small, harmless creature he envisions. His genius gives birth to a fast-growing evil that nature eradicated 250 million years ago -- an evil now on the loose, and very, very hungry.

Darling Jim by Christian Moerk

A modern gothic novel of suspense that reveals, through their diaries, the story of sisters who fall in love with a beguiling stranger, and of the town that turns a blind eye to his murderous ways
When two sisters and their aunt are found dead in their suburban Dublin home, it seems that the secret behind their untimely demise will never be known. But then Niall, a young mailman, finds a mysterious diary in the post office’s dead-letter bin. From beyond the grave, Fiona Walsh shares the most tragic love story he’s ever heard—and her tale has only just begun.
Niall soon becomes enveloped by the mystery surrounding itinerant storyteller Jim, who traveled through Ireland enrapturing audiences and wooing women with his macabre mythic narratives. Captivated by Jim, townspeople across Ireland thought it must be a sad coincidence that horrific murders trailed him wherever he went—and they failed to connect that the young female victims, who were smitten by the newest bad boy in town, bore an all too frightening similarity to the victims in Jim’s own fictional plots.
The Walsh sisters, fiercely loyal to one another, were not immune to “darling” Jim’s powers of seduction, but found themselves in harm’s way when they began to uncover his treacherous past. Niall must now continue his dangerous hunt for the truth—and for the vanished third sister—while there’s still time. And in the woods, the wolves from Jim’s stories begin to gather.

The Next Thing On My List by Jill Smolinski


Meet June Parker. She works for L.A. Rideshare, adores her rent-stabilized apartment in Santa Monica, and struggles with losing a few pesky pounds.

But June’s life is about to change.

After a dark turn of events involving Weight Watchers, a chili recipe, and a car accident in which her passenger, Marissa, dies, June finds herself in possession of a list Marissa has written, “20 Things to Do By My 25th Birthday.” Even though they barely knew each other, June is compelled by both guilt and a desire to set things right and finish the list for Marissa.

The tasks before her range from inspiring (Run a 5K), to daring (Go braless), to near-impossible (Change someone’s life), and as June races to achieve each goal before the deadline, she learns more about her own life than she ever bargained for.

Funny, engaging, and heartwarming, The Next Thing on My List features a loveable, relatable heroine and a story with plenty of humor and heart. 

On Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

My father took one hundred and thirty two minutes to die. 

‘I counted. 

‘It happened on the Jellicoe Road. The prettiest road I’d ever seen, where trees made breezy canopies like a tunnel to Shangri-La. We were going to the ocean, hundreds of kilometres away, because I wanted to see the ocean and my father said that it was about time the four of us made that journey. I remember asking, “What’s the difference between a trip and a journey?” and my father said, “Narnie, my love, when we get there, you’ll understand,” and that was the last thing he ever said. 


‘We heard her almost straight away. In the other car, wedged into ours so deep that you couldn’t tell where one began and the other ended. She told us her name was Tate and then she squeezed through the glass and the steel and climbed over her own dead – just to be with Webb and me; to give us her hand so we could clutch it with all our might. And then a kid called Fitz came riding by on a stolen bike and saved our lives. 

‘Someone asked us later, “Didn’t you wonder why no one came across you sooner?” 

‘Did I wonder? 

‘When you see your parents zipped up in black body bags on the Jellicoe Road like they’re some kind of garbage, don’t you know? 

‘Wonder dies.’

Bright Young Things by Anna Godbersen

Bright Young Things is the first in an epic four-book series about three teenage girls finding their way in the glittering metropolis of New York City and the glamorous mansions of Long Island. It’s 1929 and Letty Larkspur and Cordelia Grey have escaped their small Midwestern town to chase big dreams and even bigger secrets. In New York, they meet Astrid Donal, a flapper who has everything she could ever want, except for the one thing Letty and Cordelia have to offer—true friendship. Set in the dizzying summer before the market crash, against the vast lawns of the East End and on the blindingly lit stages of Broadway, the three girls will find romance, intrigue, and adventure.

Just as The Luxe books brought the Gilded Age to readers of Gossip Girl, Bright Young Things will bring the Jazz Age to bestselling author Anna Godbersen’s devoted fans and to new readers alike. 

The poll is on the left side bar of the main page.  Cast your vote!! (You know Marcus would want you to)

Book Club Selection — September

Well, as much as we loved The Passage, we decided to pick a book that wasn't quite as long for September. This month we'll be reading Tom Rachman's The Imperfectionists.  Here's a summary courtesy of Goodreads:

An English-language newspaper headquartered in Rome brings together a strongly imagined cast of characters in journalist Rachman's first novel. Lloyd Burko used to be a stringer living in Paris. He's still in Paris, but now he's just an impoverished former journalist who pretends to have a computer and whose latest wife has moved in with the guy across the hall. Arthur Gopal is languishing as an obituary writer until a death in his own life enables his advancement by erasing his humanity. Hardy Benjamin is a business writer, savvy and knowledgeable about corporate finance but utterly hapless in romance. What they have in common is the never-named paper, whose history is doled out in brief chapters beginning in 1953. The novel's rich representation of expatriate existence surely benefits from the author's experiences as an AP correspondent in Rome and an editor at the International Herald Tribune in Paris; his thoroughly unglamorous depictions of newsroom cubicles and editorial offices will resonate with anyone who's had a corporate job. But, while the newspaper is its unifying factor, the narrative's heart beats with the people who work there. Rachman's ability to create a diverse group of fully formed individuals is remarkable. Characters range from a kid just out of college who learns the hard way that he doesn't want to be a reporter, to an Italian diplomat's widow. Some are instantly sympathetic, others hard to like. Each is vivid and compelling in his or her own way. The individual stories work well independently, even better as the author skillfully weaves them together. Cameo appearances become significant when informed by everything the reader already knows about a character whoflits in and out of another's story. The novel isn't perfect. The interpolated chapters about the paper's past aren't very interesting; the final entry ends with a ghastly shock; and the postscript is too cute. Nevertheless, it's a very strong debut. Funny, humane and artful. 

I've heard a lot of good buzz about this book so I hope you'll join us at the end of the month to discuss The Imperfectionists!

EDIT: Help us choose what book we'll be reading for October! We've added a poll on the main page of the site.

Book Club Discussion — The Passage

Well, did you make it through Justin Cronin's The Passage? It was a long one, but it kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time and may or may not have cause one night of nightmares (let's just say I kept thinking my air conditioning unit turning off was somehow linked to the Colony's lights...hey, I was half asleep, it doesn't have to make sense).

Let's get down to it.  Some of our questions below came from Mike at About.com and many we posed ourselves. As usual, answer any, all, or pose some of your own and feel free to go off topic.

1. What do you feel were the main themes Cronin was wrestling with in this novel?
2. What do you make of the title of the book?
3. Cronin used a lot of old and modern lore about vampires (though he rarely used the term itself) how do you see his "virals" fitting into our traditional ideas about vampires? What traits did he successfully use and what new ideas did he bring to the genre?
4. Did you think the national response to the crisis was realistic (ex. California seceding from the U.S.)?
5. What do you make of the Third Global Conference on the North American Quarantine entries that are interspersed throughout the book in terms of what's happened to the rest of the world after the virals break out?
6. What was your favorite quote/intro to which section of the novel and how do you feel it best set up what was to come?
7. Why do you think Amy had a different reaction than the others that were "infected?" Why do you think some people were able to resist and others weren't? 
   
8. Did you have a hard time transitioning from the first third of the book to the last two-thirds? Why or why not?
9. There are multiple character and multiple story lines in this book, which one was your favorite and why?
10. Was the ending satisfying or did it leave you thirsty for more?
11. What predictions do you have about what story lines of the rest of the books in the trilogy (The Twelve and The City of Mirrors)?

Lit Snit Book Club - August

To celebrate the end of summer and our brand new home for Lit Snit we're reading Justin Cronin's post-apocalyptic adventure The Passage, a book we've heard nothing but good things about. 
We hope you'll join us at the end of the month to discuss this thrilling new novel.  If all the good buzz isn't enough to persuade you to check The Passage out, here's a preview courtesy of the publisher.

Book Club Discussion - The Help

We hope you enjoyed our July Lit Snit Book Club selection, The Help by Kathryn Stockett. I found some reading group questions at her website, so we'll use these as a starting point to our discussion. Feel free to veer off topic or pose your own questions!

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? Have you heard stories of parents who put away their valuable jewelry before their nanny comes? Paradoxically, they trust the person to look after their child but not their diamond rings?

11. What did you think about Minny's pie for Miss Hilly? Would you have gone as far as Minny did for revenge?

Book Club Discussion - The Book of Lost Things

We're very excited for our first ever LitSnit Book Club discussion and we hope you all are as well! Our pick for June was John Connolly's The Book of Lost Things.

Below you'll find some discussion questions, which we came up with as a jumping off point for the discussion.  Feel free to answer some or all of the questions, or even veer off topic with thoughts of your own!

Many of the original fairy tales written down by the brothers Grimm are dark and very violent, which Connolly seemed to draw upon in his novel.  However, we’ve grown up with much more sanitized versions of these tales.  How did you react to the darker aspects of familiar fairy tales in The Book of Lost Things?  Did these darker elements surprise you?

Which of your favorite childhood fairy tales did Connolly not
include in his book?

Who or what do you think is the real villain in the novel and why?  Who is the hero?

What do you think is the significance of the title “The Book of Lost Things”?  What has Jonathan “lost”?  What has David?

In your opinion, what is the story’s central conflict?

How did you react to the ending?  Did you find it sad/uplifting/hopeful?

If you could rewrite the ending, would you? What would be your ending?

Lastly, a fun question: if they were going to make a movie inspired by "The Book of Lost Things" who would you cast? [David, Leroi, Roland, Jonathan, etc.]

Don't Forget!

Only a couple weeks before the end of the month and we start our discussion about John Connolly's The Book of Lost Things.  I just finished it myself this weekend and can't wait to talk about it with you all!

And, because if you're anything like me, you never have enough to read (though your "to-read" pile keeps getting bigger and bigger) you should check out Jandy Nelson's The Sky Is Everywhere.  I've been borderline obsessive (as Janelle and Daniela can attest to) with the way I've been forcing this book on people, but I loved it that much.  I previously reviewed it at my blog, pre-LitSnit, and they're going to have a discussion about this fantastic book over at With A Good Book which I'll be participating in and encourage you all the check out. I just finished it for a third time this weekend and it's just as good the third time as it is the first.

So, lots to read as June winds to a close!  We hope to see you all in a few weeks for our first ever(!) LitSnit Book Club discussion!

LitSnit Book Club

One of the best things about finishing a good (or even bad) book is discussing it with some fellow book lovers. Here at Lit Snit there's nothing we love more than talking books so we thought we'd organize our very own book club, LitSnit-style. We've chosen books for the rest of the summer, since this is the time we all do the most traveling and, incidentally the most reading. We hope you'll join us each month for our discussions!

June

The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly

Summary: High in his attic bedroom, twelve-year-old David mourns the death of his mother, with only the books on his shelf for company. But those books have begun to whisper to him in the darkness. Angry and alone, he takes refuge in his imagination and soon finds that reality and fantasy have begun to meld. While his family falls apart around him, David is violently propelled into a world that is a strange reflection of his own -- populated by heroes and monsters and ruled by a faded king who keeps his secrets in a mysterious book, The Book of Lost Things.

Taking readers on a vivid journey through the loss of innocence into adulthood and beyond, New York Times bestselling author John Connolly tells a dark and compelling tale that reminds us of the enduring power of stories in our lives.

July

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Summary: Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step. Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger.

Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen’s best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody’s business, but she can’t mind her tongue, so she’s lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women — mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends — view one another.

A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don’t.

August

The Passage by Justin Cronin

Summary: “It happened fast. Thirty-two minutes for one world to die, another to be born.”

First, the unthinkable: a security breach at a secret U.S. government facility unleashes the monstrous product of a chilling military experiment. Then, the unspeakable: a night of chaos and carnage gives way to sunrise on a nation, and ultimately a world, forever altered. All that remains for the stunned survivors is the long fight ahead and a future ruled by fear—of darkness, of death, of a fate far worse.

As civilization swiftly crumbles into a primal landscape of predators and prey, two people flee in search of sanctuary. FBI agent Brad Wolgast is a good man haunted by what he’s done in the line of duty. Six-year-old orphan Amy Harper Bellafonte is a refugee from the doomed scientific project that has triggered apocalypse. He is determined to protect her from the horror set loose by her captors. But for Amy, escaping the bloody fallout is only the beginning of a much longer odyssey—spanning miles and decades—towards the time and place where she must finish what should never have begun.

With The Passage, award-winning author Justin Cronin has written both a relentlessly suspenseful adventure and an epic chronicle of human endurance in the face of unprecedented catastrophe and unimaginable danger. Its inventive storytelling, masterful prose, and depth of human insight mark it as a crucial and transcendent work of modern fiction.

We're all really looking forward to the start of The LitSnit Book Club this summer. We hope you'll join us each month to discuss these great books!