E.B. White

Our next book group meeting is Wednesday, December 8th @ 1pm. What are we reading? ...any of E.B. White's childrens' books.

What surprised our group was finding out that White only wrote three childrens books; Stuart Little (1945), Charlotte's Web (1952), and Trumpet of the Swan (1970).

And what is White's connection to Maine? He summered here as a child and moved his family from New York to Maine where he lived for twenty-eight years on a small farm in North Brooklin, Maine. Check out this Mapquest map to locate North Brooklin in Hancock County, Maine.

"Strong for Potatoes" --Cynthia Thayer

Check out Macmillan's readers guide for our next selection, "Strong for Potatoes" by Cynthia Thayer. Readers Guide

What is the connection this month to Maine? Thayer lives with her family on Darthia Farm, an organic farm, in Gouldsboro, Maine. Her website is http://www.darthiafarm.com/.

"Strong for Potatoes" was Thayer's first novel. We hope you join us when we discuss her book at our November 10th meeting @ 1pm.

"The Shipping News" Discussion Questions

We're following a Maine theme this year. What's the connection with Maine and "The Shipping News"?


The following questions are provided by the publisher:

1. Proulx describes Quoyle as "a great damp loaf of a body." What kind of man is Quoyle? How does Proulx's sublime, comic style make you feel about him?

2. When Quoyle writes for the Mockingburg Record he never seems to understand the dynamics of journalism, yet in writing "The Shipping News" he transforms The Gammy Bird and eventually becomes managing editor of the paper. Discuss some of the other changes Quoyle experiences from the beginning of the novel to the end.

3. As Quoyle arrives in Newfoundland, he hears much of his family's past. In fact, there is an old relative, "some kind of fork kin," still alive in Newfoundland. Why does Quoyle avoid Nolan -- seem angry at the old man from the start? Is the reason as simple as Quoyle denying where he came from, especially after learning the details of his father's relationship with the aunt?

4. Proulx tells us the aunt is a lesbian, yet never makes a specific issue out of the aunt's sexual orientation. Does this fact add dimension to the story for you? Does it add to the aunt's character? We, as readers, assume that characters are heterosexual without needing to hear specifically about their sexual life. Does the matter-of-course way Proulx treats the aunt's sexuality help make the reader a less judgmental critic?

5. Discuss Quoyle's relationship with Petal Bear. Can you justify his feelings for her? Even after her death, she continues to have a strong hold on him, and her memory threatens to squelch the potential of his feeling for Wavey Prowse. Is this because Quoyle doesn't understand love without pain? Both Quoyle and Wavey have experienced abusive relationships previously. How do they treat each other?

6. Newfoundland is more than the setting for this story, it is a dreary yet engaging character onto itself. Does the cold weather and the rough life add to your enjoyment of the book?

7. Do you think the chapter headings from The Ashley Book of Knots, The Mariner's Dictionary, and Quipus and Witches' Knots add to the atmosphere of the book? Did their humor illustrate some of Proulx's points, or did they simplify some of her issues? Notice especially the headings for chapters 2, 4, 28, 32, 33, and 34.

"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon" by Stephen King

Our book group really enjoyed "On Writing" by Stephen King and we look forward to sharing our views on King's "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon". Join us on Wednesday, August 11th at 1pm. I am sure there will be plenty of discussion, since this is not a typical King story.

Our Maine Focus

Here we go again! It's a new year for the Falmouth Memorial Book Group. We're starting fresh in July with a new focus....Our Maine Focus. All the books we are reading have some Maine connection and each month we will focus on that connection. We hope to add new members this year, please contact Andi Jackson-Darling @ library@falmouth.lib.me.us or at 781-2351 if you have any questions.

So, what's our first book? The group decided to pick Stephen King for both July and August. In July we will be discussing "On Writing" King's memoir. We will be reading King's "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon" for our August 11th selection. Please join us for our first meeting of the group's new year on Wednesday, July 14th @ 1pm.

Announcement for the May 12th Book Group

Just a reminder to all FML Book Group members....we will be reading Jane Austen's "Mansfield Park" for May and watching the movie as well! Please be sure to view the movie and read the book before coming to the May 12th meeting. We will be discussing both the book and movie.

Discussion Questions provided by ReadingGroupGuides.com

1. Mansfield Park was written after a silence of more than a decade. During this period, Austen moved several times, saw the deaths of her father and a potential suitor, and became the dependent old maid we find so often among her more pitiable characters. The Napoleonic Wars continued; England embarked on imperialistic adventures. Austen followed both with interest. Do you see evidence of these things in the novel?

2. At the heart of its plot, Mansfield Park has three sisters. What kind of family life do you imagine would account for Mrs. Bertram and Mrs. Norris and Mrs. Price? Find something good to say about Mrs. Norris.

3. Fanny is an Austen heroine who, throughout the course of the book, has nothing to learn. In this she stands in sharp contrast to Emma Woodhouse. Do you like Fanny as well as you like Emma? Less? More?

4. In one of the book's most famous scenes, Fanny sits wilted in the heat at the Rushworth's estate, while the other characters come and go around her. Discuss the ways this epitomizes the entire plot of the book.

5. The various roles played in The Lover's Vows often result in Austen characters who are, under the cover of the play, allowed to act in ways more congruent with their real natures than polite society permits. They perform themselves.Meanwhile, William H. Galperin suggests that, when Fanny Price insists she cannot act, she is actually demonstrating her "inability to know one is always acting." Galperin speaks of "a fundamental duplicity in which one literally performs one's inability to act."Think about this until your head explodes.

6. Plato has suggested that one cannot be both a good actor and a good citizen. What do you imagine he meant? Discuss the relevance of this to Mansfield Park.

7. In most books, the villains are identifiable through their mistreatment of the hero/heroine. In Mansfield Park, the Crawfords are among the tiny handful of people who see the value of Fanny Price. Are they ever unkind to her?Why is Fanny so little moved by their interest and esteem?In your opinion, is any of this esteem genuine?

8. The Crawfords are superficially the most attractive characters in the book. Where do their virtues become vices? Answer the same question with regard to Fanny and Edmund.

9. Kingsley Amis said, "Edmund and Fanny are both morally detestable and the endorsement of their feelings and behavior by the author . . . makes Mansfield Park an immoral book." Do you agree? Is there any difference in your mind between Austen herself and the book's narrator?

10. Earlier Austen novels suggest a society in positive transformation; earlier heroines struggle towards the possibility of improvement. In contrast, Mansfield Park is about a society threatened with transformation. Fanny Price makes no positive movement. She protects Mansfield Park by her resistance, by her refusal to change. In the end, the society represented by the estate of Mansfield Park will not and cannot be saved? What in that society seemed valuable to you? Is there anything to regret about its loss?

"The Colour" by Rose Tremain

Our next book group meeting will be Wednesday, April 14th at 1pm. Please pick up a copy of April's selection "The Colour" and join us in the discussion. We will also be reading and discussing poems in celebration of Poetry Month!

Discussion questions from the publisher:

1. Consider the concept of Englishness in the novel, and how you feel Tremain deals with the idea of 'reassembling' little pieces of England in New Zealand.
   
   
2. How does Tremain handle the presence of the Maoris in the novel, in relation to the English people who have descended upon them?
   
   
3. Many of the characters are driven by the force of escapism, an over-powering urge to leave all that is behind them and find a brave new utopia in New Zealand. Who do you think is most driven by this romantic notion, and is Tremain critical of this in any way?
   
   
4. Compare Tremain's treatment and characterisation of the indigenous Maoris, and their desire for greenstone, with that of Joseph's, and the other gold-diggers, whom she describes as 'Men like moths, going towards a golden light' (p148).
   
   
5. How does the 19th century notion of Goldrush relate to our modern day? Consider whether you can think of any contemporary examples where the Goldrush mentality - and all its social and cultural effects - is still manifest in our society.
   
   
6. 'Without desire, nothing is made.' (p138). How important is this line to the overall story? Consider the concept of desire and the different forms it takes on in the novel.

March 10th Book Group Meeting-"House of the Spirits"

We meet again on Wednesday, March 10th @ 1pm in the library's Russell Room. Please feel free to join us. If you need to obtain a copy of our selected title, please contact the library @ 781-2351 and have your Falmouth Memorial Library card number ready!

SUGGESTED TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION(provided by http://www.booksattransworld.co.uk

1. The way in which Allende writes about the women gives this novel an extraordinary power. In what ways does Allende explore the evolution of the feminine consciousness over the generations (beginning with Clara, and ending with Alba) throughout the novel and how does she express her concern for the position of women in Latin American society?

2. 'I wanted to show that life goes in a circle, events are intertwined, and that history repeats itself there is no beginning and no end'. How do Allende's comments shed light on this novel?

3. Are you able to feel any sympathy for Esteban Trueba despite his boorish tyrannical ways? Do you see him as a despicable monster or as a product of his time and social class?

4. Although The House of the Spirits is a profoundly political novel, Allende's narrative voice and characterisation is so rich that it never read likes a political tract. Would you agree with this and, if so, how do you think Allende achieves this?

5. What other books have you read that explore political events and social injustice, using metaphor and allegory in such a way?

6. The novelist Barbara Trapido wrote 'Alongside the grim ''outer'' narrative of power struggle, corruption and brutality, it presents an alternative ''inner'' version of history: a feminine sub-culture of extrasensory understanding. If this sounds a shade polemical it is wholly redeemed by a fine humour in the telling'. Does this strike you as an accurate assessment of this novel?

7. What other elements of this novel struck you as particularly effective and moving?

Book Group This Wednesday

The FML Book Group meets this Wednesday, February 10th at 1pm. We have read "The Flame Trees of Thika" by Elspeth Huxley.

Book group members, remember April is Poetry Month so bring in your selection no later than our March 10th meeting!