OCTOBER IS OUR FANNIE FLAGG MONTH

The October meeting of the All Good Books discussion group will occur on Thursday, October 18, 2018, at 7 PM. The group will meet in the Church Library and discuss ” The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion” by Fannie Flagg. Everyone is invited!

Thanks to the Mount Prospect Public Library for the following discussion questions!

1. How did you like the book? What about it left a lasting impression on you?
2. What, if any, were your favorite moments? How about least favorite moments?
3. After learning she was adopted Sookie said, “I’m an entirely different person than I was, even a few minutes ago. Everything has changed.” Sookie goes from identifying as a Southern Methodist English person to now identifying as Polish and Catholic. Why do people generally try to identify themselves in such short descriptors?
4. How has how we identify ourselves changed or not changed over the years?
5. Why was Lenore so obsessed with what side of the family Sookie’s traits came from?
6. What are Sookie’s similarities to Lenore? Differences?
7. Is Lenore a realistic character?
8. Why didn’t Sookie tell Lenore she was adopted?
9. If you were Sookie, would you have told Lenore you knew you were adopted? Why or why not?
10. If Sookie never learned about her adoption, would her vision of Lenore ever change?
11. How did Sookie’s relationship with her kids differ from Sookie’s relationship with her mom?
12. A lot of this book focuses on how Sookie feels about her mother. How did Sookie feel about her father? How do you feel about her father?
13. How were the men treated in this book? (Buck, Earle, Sookie’s father)
14. We don’t really see much of Winks. What was his role in the book? Did you like the letters?
15. Were you surprised to learn about the WASPs? Why are they not more known in history?
16. How did the WASP’s storyline impact your reading of Sookie’s storyline?
17. How did Sookie view Lenore differently by the end of the book?
18. What, if any, are the similarities between Lenore and Fritzi?
19. What do you think about the relationship between the psychiatrist and Sookie?
20. What makes this book Southern?
21. A lot of people said they didn’t like this book because they disliked the characters. Can you like a book and not like the characters? In what situations is that the case or not the case? Where do you draw the line for yourself?
22. Were you mad that Fritzi lied about Sookie’s mother’s death? Why did she lie?
23. Did reading The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion leave you changed in any fashion?
24. If you had to describe this book in just one word, what would it be?

Questions copyright 2017 Mount Prospect Public Library. All rights reserved. Used with Permission.

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The Wright Brothers by David McCullough: Suggested Discussion Questions

The All Good Books group will meet this Thursday, June 8, 2017 at 7 PM at the Community of Christ Congregation, 7842 Mission Road, Prairie Village, KS. We will discuss “The Wright Brothers” by David McCullough. The following are some suggested questions to kick off the discussion.

1. How would you describe the Wright brothers; who was older? Describe their dress, work habits, politics and social skills?
2. What did the author mean by saying that Katherine could turn “wrathy?”
3. What did you discover about Wilbur and Orville’s father?
4. Do you agree with Bishop Wright’s advice to his sons when he said, “It is assumed that young folks know best, and old folks are fogies. It may be so, but old folks may be as right about new fangles as young folks are about fogy ways. Make business first, pleasure afterward, and that guarded. All the money anyone needs is just enough to prevent one from being a burden on others.” (Page 13-14)
5. What’s your reaction to the story of Oliver Crook Haugh and Wilbur Wright? (Page 14) Were you aware of that part of Wilbur’s history?
6. While many were in favor of the newfangled bicycle, other “voices were raised in protest. Bicycles were proclaimed morally hazardous. Until now children and youth were unable to stray very far from home on foot. Now, one magazine warned, fifteen minutes could put them miles away. Because of bicycles, it was said, young people were not spending the time they should with books, and more seriously that suburban and country tours on bicycles were ‘not infrequently accompanied by seductions.’” (Page 22) Do you see any parallels to technological advances in the late 20^th Century and early 21^st Century?
7. What caused Wilbur to write to his Father, “In business it is the aggressive man, who continually has his eye on his own interest, who succeeds [he wrote]. Business is merely a form of warfare in which each combatant strives to get the business away from his competitors and at the same time keep them from getting what he already has. No man has ever been successful in business who was not aggressive, self-assertive and even a little bit selfish perhaps. There is nothing reprehensible in an aggressive disposition, so long as it is not carried to excess, for such men make the world and its affairs move. . . . I entirely agree that the boys of the Wright family are all lacking in determination and push. That is the very reason that none of us have been or will be more than ordinary businessmen.” (Page 24) Did Wilbur’s prediction hold true?
8. The writings of Octave Chanute, a celebrated French-born American civil engineer (bridge and railroad builder) and Samuel Pierpont Langley, creator of the pilotless “aerodrome,” and backed by the Smithsonian, were helpful to the Wright brothers according to the author. How much of a debt do the Wright brothers owe to these pioneers? What do you remember about their relationships with each man?
9. Have you heard stories that the Wright brothers were really not the first to succeed in human flight? How does the author treat these claims?
10. According to the author, “All the same, and importantly, the times were alive with invention, technical innovations, new ideas of every kind. George Eastman had introduced the “Kodak” box camera; Isaac Merritt Singer, the first electric sewing machine; the Otis Company had installed the world’s first elevator in a New York office building; the first safety razor, the first mousetrap, the first motor cars built in America—all in the dozen years since Orville started his print shop and Wilbur emerged from his spell of self-imposed isolation.” (Page 35) Is that atmosphere of constant innovation past for America? Why or why not?
11. How did the Wright brothers decide on Kitty Hawk as the location for their tests? What were they looking for? (Page 40). Where was Kitty Hawk located? Was that the hometown of the Wright brothers?
12. Who or what were the “skeeters” that arrived on Kitty Hawk on July 18, 1901? (Page 58)
13. Who stated in 1901, that “not in a thousand years would man ever fly…?” (Page 64)
14. What events in the history of flight and the lives of Wilbur and Orville Wright were you surprised to discover from the book by McCullough?
15. What momentous claim could John T. Daniels make? (page 106)
16. On page 107 the author states, “incidentally, the Langley project had cost nearly $70,000, the greater part of it public money, whereas the brothers’ total expenses for everything from 1900 to 1903, including materials and travel to and from Kitty Hawk, came to a little less than $1,000, a sum paid entirely from the modest profits of their bicycle business.” Is that kind of individually funded entrepreneurship possible today? Likely?
17. Why do you think the U.S. War Department was so slow to show any interest in the Wright brother’s flying machine? (Page 122-123)
18. Were you aware that Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge, a twenty-six-year-old West Point graduate had flown with Orville and died in a crash that almost killed Orville? What are your thoughts on Selfridge and the incident? How badly injured was Orville? What caused the accident? (Page 190-192)
19. When Wilbur started giving rides in his two-seater, what was the criterion for filling the empty seat? (Page 223)
20. Were you surprised by the legal battles that ensued over the Wright brother’s patents? React to the following quote from McCullough’s “Epilogue.” “Of far the greatest importance to both (Wilbur and Orville)—more than the money at stake—was to secure just and enduring credit for having invented the airplane. It was their reputation at stake and that mattered most. Their pride of achievement, quite understandably, was great. Eventually nine suits were brought by them, three brought against them. Over time they won every case in the American courts.”

 

January Meeting to Discuss “The Aviator’s Wife”

The next meeting of the All Good Books Club is at 7:00 PM, this Thursday, January 15, 2015 at the Leawood Pioneer Library (4700 Town Center Drive, Leawood, KS) to discuss  “The Aviator’s Wife” by Melanie Benjamin.

Unless you’re already familiar with more than the typically brief “history book” version of the Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh story, you will probably learn far more than you want to know in Benjamin’s well researched novel.  Much has been written on Lindbergh and most American’s think they know his history, but in most cases that “knowledge” is superficial (see http://www.history.com/news/history-lists/10-fascinating-facts-about-charles-lindbergh and http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/lindbergh/sfeature/fallen.html for a sampling of little know facts).

A few questions that might generate discussion for Thursday night’s meeting:

1. What is the most significant fact or event in the life of Charles Lindbergh that you didn’t know prior to reading The Aviator’s Wife?
2. What is the most significant fact or event in the life of Anne Morrow Lindbergh that you didn’t know prior to reading The Aviator’s Wife?
3. Why do you think that Anne Morrow married Charles Lindbergh? Why do you think Charles married Anne?
4. What’s your reaction to the Lindbergh’s parenting skills and methods?
5. Describe the marital relationship between Anne and Charles. Why did it work? What didn’t work?
6. What clue does the following quote offer about the role of women in the 1930s-1950s? Does the quote apply today? “I was Mom. I was Wife. I was Tragedy. I was Pilot. They all were me, and I, them. That was a fate we could not escape, we women; we would always be called upon by others in a way men simply never were. But weren’t we always, first and foremost —woman? Wasn’t there strength in that, victory, clarity— in all the stages of a woman’s life?” – page 340.
7. The author suggests “JEALOUSY IS A TERRIBLE THING. It keeps you up at night, it demands tremendous energy in order to remain alive, and so you have to want to feed it, nurture it—and by so wanting, you have to acknowledge that you are a bitter, petty person. It changes you.” – page 333. Do you agree or disagree? How was Anne changed?
8. How has your view of Lindbergh changed as a result of reading The Aviator’s Wife?

We hope you’ll join us on Thursday evening!