JANUARY 23
The definitive novel of the Jazz Age...The story of the
fabulously rich Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful
Daisy Buchanan, of lavish parties at a time when The New
York Times noted that "gin was the national drink..." This is
a beautifully written tale of America in the 1920s, and a
great classic of twentieth-century literature.
SUGGESTED QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
January 23 - The Great Gatsby - 1920s
1. The poem at the beginning of the book was actually by Fitzgerald
(D'Invillers is a character from in his first novel). Why might
Fitzgerald have thought the poem was needed at the very
beginning?
2. Why does Nick miss the Midwest after spending time with Gatsby?
How did average Americans live in the 1920's?
3. What do the East Egg and West Egg represent, and why does
Fitzgerald place Tom and Daisy in the East Egg, and Gatsby in the
West Egg?
4. When Gatsby and Daisy reunite, Fitzgerald finally reveals Gatsby's
true past. How does that affect the reader's opinion of Gatsby?
5. Nick considers himself to be an honest observer of those around
him. Is he? How does his view affect his relationship with Jordan?
6. There are eyes throughout the novel. Who is watching whom, and
why - what power do the eyes represent? Why would those behind
the eyes be so important to Tom and Daisy?
7. Before Gatsby's death, it becomes apparent that Daisy is deciding
to remain with Tom. Why? Would Gatsby have eventually won
Daisy if he had lived? At what boundaries did Gatsby's power begin
and end?
8. Daisy chooses to hit the woman rather than the car. Do you think
she knew who Myrtle was?
9. How does Daisy's class affect her appeal to Gatsby and the reader?
Would any of the characters be as interesting if they were not rich?
10. Nick concluded that Tom and Daisy were selfish people who only
thought of themselves. Was his view fair?
11. How does the novel assess the values of 1922, the "Lost
Generation", and the Jazz Age? Why is the generation "lost"?
12. Nick felt that Gatsby's constant gazing at the green light
represented his extraordinary gift for hope. Was Nick a good judge
of Gatsby's character?
13. This novel is considered to be an example of a writing genre
popular in 1920-1930 called "modernist" fiction, meaning that the
writing focuses on how things are perceived rather than having
objective narrators and clear moral positions. How does the story
demonstrate that technique?
14. Was Gatsby portrayed in the film the same way you imagined
him while reading the book? Robert Redford's version of Gatsby
was quite different from that of Leonardo DiCaprio. If you have
seen the earlier version, which do you think was closer to the
character in the book?
15. The reviewer for the New York Times called this "...an eminently
enjoyable movie", but the reviewer at the Roger Ebert website felt
that the hip-hop soundtrack and special effects "distract from the
film's true heart: the actions and feelings of its characters". Do you
agree?
AUTHOR: F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
Born Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, September 24, 1896, in St.
Paul, MN. Novelist, poet, playwright, screenwriter, and author of short
stories. Attended Princeton University, 1913-17. Married Zelda Sayre
(an artist, dancer, and writer), April 3, 1920. Worked briefly as a
screenwriter at motion picture studios in Los Angeles, California,
including at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and at United Artists, 1927-40,
contributing to film scripts such as "Winter Carnival," "The Women,"
and "Gone With the Wind," all 1939. Military service: U.S. Army, 191719; became second lieutenant. Child: Frances Scott Fitzgerald Smith
(formerly Mrs. Samuel J. Lanahan). Died of a heart attack, December
21, 1940, in Hollywood, CA, buried at St. Mary's Cemetery, Rockville,
MD. - from Gale Literature Resource Center
OTHER NOVELS BY F. SCOTT FITZGERALD

This Side of Paradise – Written in three parts, this first novel tells the story of
Amory Blaine through his studies at Princeton, several romances, and his life
after service in WWI. Fitzgerald gives the reader a view of the lives and
morality of young Americans in the post-war era. Scribner, 1920, reprinted,
1971.

The Beautiful and Damned – A story of the Eastern elite at the beginning of
the Jazz Age through the story of Anthony Patch, a 1910s heir to a large
fortune, his relationship with his wife, Gloria, his military service subsequent
alcoholism. Revised edition of original text, Scribner, 1922.

Tender Is the Night: A Romance - Dick Diver, a promising young
psychoanalyst, struggles in his life with wife and heiress Nicole, who is also
one of his patients. Slowly Nicole improves, but Dick becomes falters in their
extravagant lifestyle. This was the last novel that Fitzgerald completed.
Decorations by Edward Shenton, Scribner, 1934, new edition with Fitzgerald's
final revisions, preface by Malcolm Cowley, 1951.

The Last Tycoon - This unfinished novel follows the 1930s Hollywood rise to
power of producer Monroe Stahr and his conflicts with Pat Bradley, a rival
studio head. Published with other selected stories and additional notes by
Fitzgerald, with a foreword by Edmund Wilson, Scribner, 1941.
Source:
Gale Literature Resource Center
ADDITIONAL READINGS & READALIKES
Bruccoli, Matthew Joseph (2002), Some Sort of Epic Grandeur: The Life of F. Scott
Fitzgerald (2nd rev. ed.), Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, ISBN 157003-455-9
One Sunday Morning, by Amy Ephron. This readalike tells the story of four women in
Jazz Age New York who witness an acquaintance leaving the Waldorf hotel with
another girl’s fiancé. Despite their mutual promise to keep what they've seen to
themselves, someone gossips and brings on heartbreaking consequences for them
all. A riveting drama of gossip, indiscretion, secrets, and betrayal. Paperback, 213
pages, Harper Perennial. ISBN 9780060585532
Jazz, by Toni Morrison. It's Harlem in the 1920s, right after a murder of passion. In
this readalike, middle-aged Joe Trace has shot his fickle young lover, and the story
goes back to before the murder to expose the secrets and sorrows of Joe and Violet’s
past that could only have been caused by the dark influence of the Jazz Age. 256
pages, Publisher: Vintage. ISBN 978-1400076215
FEBRUARY 13
Though the old circus days have now long gone by,
Jacob Jankowski's memories do still linger. Memories of
himself as a young man, alone and reaching onto a rickety
train that was home to the Benzini Brothers' Most
Spectacular Show on Earth...a world of illusion and wonder,
but so real, you could feel it in the air.
SUGGESTED QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
February 13 - Water for Elephants - 1930s
1. Why was Jacob alone on the train? Would his forced departure from
school and subsequent homelessness be different in America today?
2. At first Jacob finds August to be gracious and charming. What does
August do early on that tells the reader this is not true?
3. How do Jacob's and August's views of Marlena differ?
August's abuse, what kind of power does Marlena have?
Despite
4. How has the elderly Jacob changed from the younger Jacob? What
has he learned?
5. What does the behavior of Uncle Al say about the book's view of
businessmen and the power they have over employees? Is it a fair
view of that era? Is it a fair view today?
6. How do the different individuals' attitudes towards Rosie illuminate
their character?
7. What do you think Jacob and Marlena's life was like after the circus
closed? Which of them do you think ultimately dominated their
relationship and why?
8. How did the illusions of the circus meet the needs of the American
people in the 1930's?
9. The elderly Jacob feels his stories are not appreciated by his
children and grandchildren. How can older people help younger
family members keep an interest in family stories, and why might
this be important?
10. At the end of his life Jacob says he could run away to the circus
again. What do you think he is imagining or hoping his life would
be like if he did? What do you think happens to him after Charlie
let him stay?
11. The story repeatedly jumps back and forth between Jacob's past
and the present. How does that technique help the author reveal
Jacob and the other characters to the reader?
12. None of the story's characters were rich, yet there was a definite
hierarchy. What demonstrates privilege and rank when almost
everyone is poor?
13. Why do perceptions of a book or a film differ from reader to
reader, and viewer to viewer?
14. In the film Uncle Al's character (owner of the circus) is combined
with that of August (the animal trainer). Do you feel that helped or
hindered the movie? Did any of the other characters in the film
seem different from how you imagined them while reading the
book?
AUTHOR: SARA GRUEN
Author photo by Lynne Harty
Born 1969, in Vancouver, British, Columbia, Canada; married
with three children. She attended Carleton University, B.A., and in
1999 moved to the United States from Canada for a technical writing
job. When laid off two years later, she began writing fiction. E-mail:
sara@saragruen.com. Gruen was inspired to write Water for Elephants
after reading about the traveling circuses of the 1920s and 1930s.
OTHER NOVELS BY SARA GRUEN

Riding Lessons - Olympic-level rider Annemarie Zimmer loses her prized horse
and promising career in a terrible accident. Two decades later amid a divorce,
she learns that her father is terminally ill. Taking her teenage daughter with
her, she returns to her parents' riding school in New Hampshire. While
recovering her life, Annemarie finds a neglected horse with the same coat
pattern as her mount from the accident twenty years before and she becomes
determined to discover a connection. HarperTorch, 2004.

Flying Changes – This continues the story of Annemarie, now engaged and
struggling to come to terms with her new life. Her headstrong daughter
displays a natural talent for riding, and Annemarie must choose between
protecting her and encouraging her dreams. HarperTorch, 2005.

Ape House - The novel follows Isabel Duncan and the clan of bonobo monkeys
that she studies, and looks at humans and their relationships with each other
and with animals. Spiegel & Grau, 2010.
Source:
Gale Literature Resource Center
ADDITIONAL READINGS & READALIKES
The Disapparation of James, by Anne Ursu. In this readalike, the Woodrow family is
at the circus to celebrate Greta's seventh birthday. When a clown asks for a
volunteer from the audience, James, their extremely shy five-year-old, raises his
hand. The trouble is that James really does vanish. Police and media descend on the
Woodrows, but how do you solve a puzzle with no logic? As Greta sets out to
discover what really happened to her brother, each family member grapples with the
joys and perils of loving, the persistence of loss, and the magic of everyday life. 288
pages, Hyperion, 2004. ISBN
9780786886630
The Final Confession of Mabel Stark, by Robert Hough. Barely five feet tall, suicidally
courageous, obsessed with tigers and sexually eccentric, Mabel Stark was the
greatest female tiger trainer in history. Clad in her leather suits and married five
times, she was the Mae West of tiger taming. This vibrant and moving fictional
autobiography begins in 1968. Mabel is turning 80 and is about to lose her job.
Faced with the loss of her beloved cats, she looks back on her life, her escapades
and tragedies, her love affairs with tigers and men. She confronts her darkest
secrets, her guilt at committing 'the worst thing one person can do to another'. Now,
with the end of life in sight, there is one thing above all else she needs to do. Mabel
wants to confess. 430 pages, Atlantic Monthly Press, c2001. ISBN 0871138700
MARCH 13
Three amazing women together find the courage to
forever change their town, and the way that all of them - as
mothers, daughters, caregivers, and friends - forever view
one another. A deeply moving novel about endurance,
humor, hope, and a timeless story about the lines we abide
by and the one's we don't.
SUGGESTED QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
March 13 – The Help - 1960s
1. What role do economic status and class play in the lives of the
story's maids?
2. Skeeter's mother is very worried that her daughter is not married.
What are her fears? What are Skeeter's fears?
3. How does Miss Leefolt's behavior as a mother versus her treatment
of Mae Mobley illuminate her true character? Why is she so
radically inconsistent?
4. Why do children's relationships with their maids in the story
succeed or fail in giving them a different view of race?
5. Skeeter expresses surprise at some white's feelings of love for their
maids and distain for them at the same time. From some of the
examples in the story, how do you think this happens?
6. Skeeter asks Aibileen if she wishes she could change things and
Aibileen calls it a stupid question. How does Aibileen's view change
by the end of the story?
7. Why does Yule May's imprisonment prompt the maids to talk to
Skeeter, and how does writing the book help them?
8. Skeeter calls Hilly a hypocrite, claiming Hilly would not give money
to help those in her own town, but fusses that integration will hurt
donations to the Junior League charity for Africa. What does this
say about people's view of the poor around them? Are there
examples of similar behavior today?
9. When discussing the danger if the truth of the books is discovered,
Aibileen tells Skeeter that white women behave differently from
white men. What does she mean?
10. Cilia chops down the mimosa tree because it reminds her of
Sugar Ditch. What do Sugar Ditch and cutting down the tree mean
for Cilia?
11. What behaviors foretold Stuart's response to the book? When
Skeeter reacted to his rescinded engagement offer, what did that
reveal about Stuart's power in their relationship?
12. What would the white reaction have been to Skeeter had they
known she wrote the book?
13. Do you think repercussions from a book like Skeeter's would
have been worse or not as bad in the real world of the early
1960's? Is Skeeter ignoring the danger because she is naïve or
ambitious?
14. Did the white characters in the story realize that their power in
the community was changing? Which was better at alluding to
these changes, the book or the film?
AUTHOR: KATHRYN STOCKETT
Born 1969, in Jackson, Mississippi. Graduated from the University
of Alabama with a degree in English and Creative Writing. Married,
one daughter, Lives in Atlanta, GA.
Worked in New York magazine
publishing and marketing for nine years. The Help is her first novel.
ADDITIONAL READINGS & READALIKES
The Summer We Got Saved, by Pat Cunningham Devoto. In Bainbridge, Ala. thirdgeneration farmer Charles Rutland, father of five, watches the family business spiral
into debt, and a gubernatorial candidate with a pro-integration message captures his
attention, roiling local politics. His sister, Eugenia, comes to visit and sneaks his two
oldest daughters, Tab and Tina, off to Tennessee's Highlander Folk School, an
interracial training camp for civil disobedience and social advocacy. In a parallel story
of Maudie May, the Tuskegee polio patient starts a voter-registration school, while
Tab goes to a lunch counter sit-in in Nashville, an experience that forever changes
her.
416 pages, Warner Books, c2005. ISBN 0446576964
The Queen of Palmyra, by Minrose Gwin. Florence Forrest, lives in Millwood, Miss.,
the small segregated town where her father, Win, a burial insurance salesman, is the
proud leader of the local Klansmen. It's 1963, and Florence can't figure out why her
mother, Martha, fears Win. Florence spends days at her grandparents' house where
she irritates the surly black housekeeper, Zenie (named for Zenobia, the queen of
ancient Palmyra), and the afternoons with Zenie's family. Zenie has no particular
affection for Florence, but tolerates the lot of them out of necessity. Zenie's niece,
Eva, comes to town to sell insurance to earn money for college and Millwood will
never be the same. 390 pages, William Morrow Paperbacks, 2010. ISBN-10:
0061840327
APRIL 10
At a café table in Lahore, as a bearded man converses
with an uneasy American, he begins the tale that has
brought them to this fateful meeting. His once adopted city
has been suddenly overturned, and the love in his life
eclipsed, with Changez's own identity shaken in a seismic
shift, unearthing old allegiances more fundamental than
money, power, and maybe even love.
SUGGESTED QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
April 10 – The Reluctant Fundamentalist – Present Day
1. Changez says that he could easily identify the man in the café as an
American. For Changez, what does that imply?
2. How does Changez's declining family status in Pakistan affect his
view of Americans?
3. While in Greece, Changez makes a comment to friends about a
nuclear Islamic republic. Why might Erica have found the remark
funny, and why did the others not?
4. Why did his smile at seeing the towers fall change Changez life?
5. In the story Changez lets his beard grow. Why does he do this and
why does he keep it when he leaves Pakistan?
6. Why did Changez consider himself a New Yorker, but never an
American?
7. His early career gives Changez a good opportunity to succeed in
America. But by the time he goes to Chile his view of American
business is changing. Why does American success no longer appeal
to him?
8. In Chile, who were the janissaries and why does Changez identify
with them?
9. Which of Changez' criticisms of America have merit, and which do
not? Changez is not from a poor family. Do you think that his view
of America might be shared by other middle class people around
the world, and if so, what might be the reason?
10. What is Erica's significance for Changez, and when she becomes
ill, how does her leaving affect his point of view?
11. Who was the waiter and why did he signal Changez to stop the
American? What do you believe happened next?
12. Does Changez hold Pakistan and himself to the same standards
as Americans, and if so or not, why? What does that say about
Changez' view of Americans?
13. In the book, the American listening to Changez remains
unknown to the reader. But in the film he was given a name and
some background information was provided. Did this improve the
film experience or detract from it?
AUTHOR: MOHSIN HAMID
Born 1971, in Lahore, Pakistan born to a middle-class family in
Pakistan, but his parents sent him to the United States for his
education. Immigrated to the United States and then immigrated to
England, 2001, where he became a citizen in 2006. Married to Zahra;
one child, Dina. Education: Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson
School of Public and International Affairs, 1993; Harvard Law School,
J.D., 1997. Writer and journalist. McKinsey & Co., New York, NY,
management consultant, beginning 1997; worked as a journalist in
Lahore, Pakistan. Religion: Muslim.
OTHER NOVELS BY MOHSIN HAMID

Moth Smoke - The story takes place in 1998, the year Pakistan detonated its
first nuclear weapon and follows Darashikoh ("Daru") Shezad, a twentysomething banker who has lost his job. He then falls in love with his wealthy
best friend's wife. Daru spends most of his money on drugs, resorts to selling
them, and then turns to theft to support his needs. One day, Daru sees his
best friend, Ozi, involved in a hit and run with a boy on a bicycle. Daru takes
the dying boy to the hospital, but is framed for the accident. The story begins
with Daru in jail, waiting to hear what his sentence will be. The rest of the
story is told in flashback.
288 pages, Riverhead Trade, 2012.
ISBN
9781594486609

How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia - This unconventional novel is a mock
self-help book in which the narrator tells the story of the reader: "you." You
are a boy living in a small village and the narrator takes you on a journey to
corporate success in the big city, a journey in which you combine good
fortune with opportunism and seek the most elusive of riches: true love. Your
tumultuous love relationship both depends upon your shared past and is
frustrated by your common need to escape it. You and your siblings pursue
various business interests, but the others fail. And you pursue "the pretty girl"
whom you have loved since childhood, and build a small bottled water
operation into a hugely successful company.
240 pages, Riverhead
Hardcover, 2013. ISBN 9781594487293
Source:
Gale Literature Resource Center
ADDITIONAL READINGS & READALIKES
The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini. Amir begins his story with his affluent
childhood in Kabul, where, as a quiet, motherless boy, he yearns for attention from
his busy father, Baba, and finds a friend in Hassan, a young servant of the
household. When Amir wins a kite-flying contest, his father finally accords him the
praise he craves. But Amir loses Hassan when the boy runs off to reclaim the
winning kite and is attacked and raped by the town bully. Unable to cope with his
guilt, Amir pushes Hassan away by accusing Hassan of theft, which prompts Baba to
send Hassan out of his life. Several years the adult Amir, who fled Afghanistan
during the Soviet occupation, becomes a successful writer and learns that Hassan
and his wife have been executed by the Taliban, leaving their son, Sohrab, an
orphan. Amir returns to find Sohrab in the custody of the bully Assef, and he finally
stands up to the man who raped his friend. 324 pages, Riverhead Books, 2003.
ISBN 1573222453
Broken Verses, by Kamila Shamsie. Aasmaani discovers a letter in the private code
of her mother, Samina Akram, who disappeared 14 years ago after a lover's violent
death. Aasmaani's lifelong familiarity with intrigue has also made her paranoid: she
looks at everything with a hyper-aware suspicion, as she repeatedly re-examines the
same set of facts. Dictionaries, crosswords, fairy tales and poems become keys to
the coded messages whose authorship and purpose she is trying to understand.
Aasmaani begins to make a documentary about her mother and the women's
movement in Pakistan, still fixated on the grandeur of the past, and ultimately
remains inflexibly aristocratic, wistful for courtly thought and expression, and unable
to see in the Pakistan of today. 352 pages, Mariner Books, 2005. ISBN
9780156030533