Marilyn Herbert

Jhumpa Lahiris

This is a terrific resource for students and educators of literary fiction. The newer novels of our time have few supportive interpretations as of yet; the classics have too many. BOOKCLUB-IN-A-BOX is the spot to come for a literary perspective and understanding that is just right. If you have suffered from a lack of discussion topics in the past, use this guide! Sections include: Literary Interpretation; Writing Style and Structure; Themes and Focus Points; Characaterisation; Historical Information; Novel Summary; Author Information; Images, Symbols and Metaphors; Important Quotes. This set includes: The complete BOOKCLUB-IN-A-BOX Guidebook; A Read-Alongside-Guide (RAG) -- a quick reference of fast facts and things to consider while reading the novel which can be copied and distributed to members; A BOOKCLUB-IN-A-BOX sticky notepad to highlight important passages and to record your important thoughts; Bookmarks to keep your place in all those great novels you're going to read.

The Namesake

Looks at background information, themes, characters, writing style, and symbols of Kazuo Ishiguro's "Never Let Me Go."

Never Let Me Go by Katzou Ishiguro

Bookclib-in-A-Box

Sara Gruen

Running away with the circus is one of the world’s most enduring and romantic ideas. However, the reality of circus life during the Depression era was hard and painful. Jacob Jankowski, now over ninety years old, looks back on that time of desperation, cruelty and prejudice, but at the same time, he recalls a magical atmosphere, the animals, the larger-than-life circus population, love, and, of course, a special elephant named Rosie. Sara Gruen depicts a juxtaposed world of the train circus and the nursing home. The Bookclub-in-a-Box discussion guide for this marvelous novel will uncover the mystery of how to carry water for elephants. In addition, you will explore Gruen’s masterful story-telling techniques and how the worlds of aging and circus adventure intersect. Every Bookclub-in-a-Box discussion guide includes complete coverage of the themes and symbols, writing style and interesting background information on the novel and the author.

Bookclub-in-a-box Presents the Discussion Companion for Sara Gruen's Novel Water for Elephants

Looks at background information, themes, characters, writing style, and symbols of Markus Zusak's "The Book Thief."

The Book Thief

Ann Patchett

On December 17, 1996, fourteen MRTA revolutionaries stormed the Japanese embassy in Peru in the middle of a party celebrating the Japanese Emperor's birthday. The siege was deadlocked for 126 days. Ann Patchett has fictionalized this dramatic and true event in her novel, Bel Canto. Bookclub-in-a-Box shows how Ann Patchett sets the stage and has the players act out the drama of this hostage-taking incident. What should be narrated as a tense and terse action-filled tragedy turns out to be a human story told with warmth and sardonic humor. Patchett has taken a cacophony of different characters - an opera singer, a Japanese businessman, a translator, a vice-president of a small South American country, other important dignitaries and a couple of dozen terrorists - and has created a lyrical story which resonates with the similarities among people, rather than their differences. The Bookclub-in-a-Box guide to Bel Canto will interpret Patchett's novel,voice by voice.

Bookclub in a Box Discusses the Novel Bel Canto

Bookclub-in-a-Box Presents the Discussion Companion for Michael Chabon's Novel The Yiddish Policemen's Union

Bookclub in a Box Discusses Kim Edwards' Novel the Memory Keeper's Daughter

Cutting for Stone is very simply one of the best books ever written and read. The narrative begins in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, when twin boys, Shiva and Marion, are born to a nun (who dies) and a surgeon (who runs away). The babies, conjoined at the head, are successfully separated immediately after birth. The original conjoinment and separation of the boys becomes the operating theme of the novel and we are given situation after situation in which to consider the concepts of fusion and partition. Bookclub-in-a-Box looks at all that Verghese provides: history (Ethiopia and Eritrea), medicine (blood and liver disease), psychology (the search for identity), sociology (human relationships) and philosophy (of both science and religion). The narrative's real facts and descriptions are especially interesting for their thematic implications. Every Bookclub-in-a-Box printed discussion guide includes complete coverage of the themes and symbols, writing style, and interesting background information on the novel and the author.

Cutting for Stone

Ernest Hemingway was an iconic writer of the 20th century who gave modern literature a unique shape and form. Papa Hemingway was larger than life and created his own personal and professional mythical status. He was so powerful and energetic that he overshadowed the people around him. Paula McLain reaches behind the shadow to bring us an intimate portrait of Hadley Richardson, Hemingway’s first wife. Hadley, a lovely and talented young woman in her own right, met Hemingway soon after her mother died and was swept off her feet by this handsome, energetic, and passionate young man who was eight years her junior. They married and headed to Paris where they mingled with the likes of Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald and a host of other famous and about to be famous writers, poets, and artists. McLain draws a superb portrait of the Hemingways’ magical time traipsing around Europe with their friends. She poignantly demonstrates how their enchanted relationship systematically falls apart. While The Paris Wife treats us to a glimpse of the hidden Hemingway, the man he was before he became the master writer of the century, the more important part of his story is Hadley, his Paris Wife. Bookclub-in-a-Box has created a comprehensive guide to Paula McLain’s novel, The Paris Wife, and includes reflections on the personality and perceptions of Hadley Richardson and Ernest Hemingway; Hadley’s influence on her husband; Hemingway’s progress in breaking into the literary world; and the high life and exciting times of Paris in the 1920s. Every Bookclub-in-a-Box discussion guide includes complete coverage of the themes and symbols, writing style and interesting background information on the novel and the author.

The Complete Package for Readers and Leaders

Bookclub-in-a-Box Discusses The Paris Wife, by Paula McLain

This is a terrific resource for students and educators of literary fiction. The newer novels of our time have few supportive interpretations as of yet; the classics have too many. BOOKCLUB-IN-A-BOX is the spot to come for a literary perspective and understanding that is just right. If you have suffered from a lack of discussion topics in the past, use this guide! Sections include: Literary Interpretation; Writing Style and Structure; Themes and Focus Points; Characaterisation; Historical Information; Novel Summary; Author Information; Images, Symbols and Metaphors; Important Quotes. This set includes: The complete BOOKCLUB-IN-A-BOX Guidebook; A Read-Alongside-Guide (RAG) -- a quick reference of fast facts and things to consider while reading the novel which can be copied and distributed to members; A BOOKCLUB-IN-A-BOX sticky notepad to highlight important passages and to record your important thoughts; Bookmarks to keep your place in all those great novels you're going to read.This is a terrific resource for students and educators of literary fiction. The newer novels of our time have few supportive interpretations as of yet; the classics have too many. BOOKCLUB-IN-A-BOX is the spot to come for a literary perspective and understanding that is just right. If you have suffered from a lack of discussion topics in the past, use this guide! Sections include: Literary Interpretation; Writing Style and Structure; Themes and Focus Points; Characaterisation; Historical Information; Novel Summary; Author Information; Images, Symbols and Metaphors; Important Quotes. This set includes: The complete BOOKCLUB-IN-A-BOX Guidebook; A Read-Alongside-Guide (RAG) -- a quick reference of fast facts and things to consider while reading the novel which can be copied and distributed to members; A BOOKCLUB-IN-A-BOX sticky notepad to highlight important passages and to record your important thoughts; Bookmarks to keep your place in all those great novels you're going to read.

Bookclub-in-a-box Discusses Irène Némirovsky's Novel Suite Française

The Reluctant Fundamentalist is more than the usual immigrant book of adaptation, struggle, and identity. It is the gripping tale of a young man who comes to America from Pakistan just prior to 9/11. The protagonist, Changez, is a Harvard educated businessman who works for a high-profile company that assesses the economic value of other companies. Changez is very successful in his chosen career, but then September 11 happens and everything changes. The setting is Lahore, Pakistan and the tale is told by one narrator, that of Changez, as he speaks to a nameless and faceless American tourist. The narration takes place in the span of a single evening, in fact, during a single meal, and Hamid manages to swing the reader on a pendulum of conflicting emotions and thoughts. The Bookclub-in-a-Box guide explores a number of important questions: who is this nameless American and why is he in Pakistan; how can one person have equal love for two countries that are at odds with each other in culture and outlook; how does such a person come to terms with his two worlds; and what is the significance of the word “reluctant” in the novel’s title, The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Every Bookclub-in-a-Box discussion guide also includes complete coverage of the themes and symbols, writing style and interesting background information on the novel and the author.

Bookclub-in-a-Box Discusses The Reluctant Fundamentalist, by Mohsin Hamid

(a Companion Guide)

Yann Martel's Life of Pi

The story of a boy, a boat, and a tiger promises an adventure which some may find hard to believe and thoughtful questions to consider. Can miracles exist? What is the power of faith? What guarantees successful survival? Yann Martel's Life of Pi is an extraordinary book that leaves you grappling with the concept of miracles, storytelling, and adventure. Bookclub-in-a-Box looks at Martel's ideas and presents look at the importance of imagination and storytelling; an analysis of role of the narrator and the significance of numbers and an investigation of whether Pi's experience crossing the ocean with only a Bengal tiger for a companion really happened. Every Bookclub-in-a-Box discussion guide includes complete coverage of the themes and symbols, writing style and interesting background information on the novel and the author.

The Complete Guide for Readers and Leaders

Bookclub-in-a-Box Discusses Yann Martel's novel, Life of Pi

Barbara Kingsolver

Discusses the novel, The Poisonwood Bible.

Book Club in a Box Presents the Discussion Companion for Barbara Kingsolver's Novel The Poisonwood Bible

Khaled Hosseini

Book Club in a Box Presents the Discussion Companion for Khaled Hosseini's Novel The Kite Runner

Rona Arato

It's 1962 in Jackson, Mississippi, and Skeeter has just graduated from Ole Miss. At a time and place where the ideal white woman is petite with carefully groomed straight hair and even more carefully groomed manners, Skeeter is tall and outspoken, with curly hair. Her mother wants Skeeter to wed; Skeeter wants to be a journalist. With the help of two of the town's black maids, Skeeter sets out to write a book telling the maids' stories from their point of view. But in Jackson, where a black boy is blinded for accidentally using a whites-only bathroom, and Civil Rights activist Medgar Evers is shot in his driveway in front of his children, this is a dangerous undertaking. Every Bookclub-in-a-Box discussion guide includes complete coverage of the themes and symbols, writing style and interesting background information on the novel and the author.

Bookclub-In-a-Box Discusses the Help, by Kathryn Stockett

In The Finkler Question, Howard Jacobson provocatively puts forward the stereotypical arguments of culture, religion, politics, and anti-Semitism, presenting both the Jewish and non-Jewish sides at once. The story centers on Julian Treslove, a Gentile, so physically non-descript that people have trouble recognizing him. He has been wrongly identified as Brad Pitt and Colin Firth, but never Adam Sandler or Billy Crystal. Non-Jewish Treslove also has no distinct inner identity, so perhaps he can be forgiven for trying to find one as a Jew. It all begins when Treslove is violently mugged in front of a violin shop and believes that he is the victim of an anti-Semitic assault. After all, he had just come from dinner with his two close Jewish friends, Sam Finkler and Libor Sevcik. In some of the novel s funniest scenes, worthy of the humour of Woody Allen and Groucho Marx, Julian Treslove justifies his brush with aggression as an extreme case of mistaken identity. Using his three distinctly different characters, Jacobson considers who is and isn t a Jew and whether or not Jews can be anti-Semitic. More significantly, Jacobson asks who (Jew or non-Jew) has permission to discuss these touchy topics. Jacobson juxtaposes his title, The Finkler Question, against the Jewish Question, the offensive phrase made famous by Hitler as he put forward his Holocaust s Final Solution. Jacobson lays out the whole conversation to be considered from all sides and perspectives. This novel was rewarded for its courageous outlook by being awarded the prestigious Man-Booker prize, 2010. The Bookclub-in-a-Box guide for Harold Jacobson s book will spark discussion around the following topics: How can a Jew be defined and does one definition fit all? Can religious and cultural intolerance be overcome by Jews and non-Jews alike? Is it possible to discuss the Jewish question in a productive and rational manner, without falling victim to raw emotion? Every Bookclub-in-a-Box discussion guide includes complete coverage of the themes and symbols, writing style and interesting background information on the novel and the author.

Bookclub-In-A-Box Discusses the Finkler Question, by Howard Jacobson

Carol Verburg

Cutting For Stone is very simply one of the best books ever written and read. The narrative begins in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, when twin boys, Shiva and Marion, are born to a nun (who dies) and a surgeon (who runs away). The babies, conjoined at the head, are successfully separated immediately after birth. Despite their ominous beginning, they are raised by two Indian doctors and have a relatively peaceful childhood within the environment of a mission hospital, nicknamed Missing. Their loving community consists of Matron (head of the hospital), Almaz and Rosina (two servants), Rosina's daughter, Genet (born shortly after the boys), and a host of other wonderful and memorable characters. The original conjoinment and separation of the boys becomes the operating theme of the novel and we are given situation after situation in which to consider the concepts of fusion and partition. One day, political troubles with neighboring Eritrea erupt, and one twin, Marion, is forced to escape to America. Thus begins the second half of the novel, a literary doppelganger. The plot is complex, fast-paced, and emotionally moving. Bookclub-in-a-Box looks at all that Verghese provides: history (Ethiopia and Eritrea), medicine (blood and liver disease), psychology (the search for identity), sociology (human relationships) and philosophy (of both science and religion). The narrative's real facts and descriptions are especially interesting for their thematic implications. Every Bookclub-in-a-Box printed discussion guide includes complete coverage of the themes and symbols, writing style and interesting background information on the novel and the author.

Bookclub-in-a-Box Discusses Abraham Verghese’s novel, Cutting for Stone

Virginia Woolf

A resource for students and educators of literary fiction. It contains sections including: literary interpretation; writing style and structure; themes and focus points; characterisation; historical information; novel summary; author information; images, symbols and metaphors; and important quotes.

Marilyn Herbert

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