All Good Books Group – New Schedule

The All Good Books group will meet on the following dates for the rest of the year and discuss the books listed. All meetings are held in the Church Library of the Mission Road Congregation of Community of Christ (7842 Mission Road, Prairie Village, KS)

7:00 PM, June 16, 2022: How the Word Is Passed by Clint Smith (Jane Landrum will introduce the book)

7:00 PM, July 21, 2022: Keep Sharp by Sanjay Gupta (Tom Jowett will introduce the book)

7:00 PM, August 18, 2022: The Duchess by Wendy Holden (Eloise Snider will introduce the book)

7:00 PM, September 15, 2022: The Last Boat Out of Shanghai by Helen Zia (Marge Trinkl will introduce the book)

7:00 PM, October 20, 2022: Enough about Me by Richard Lui (Jonathan Bacon will introduce the book)

7:00 PM, November 17, 2022: The Lost and Found Book Shop by Susan Wiggs (TBD)

December: No book club, December Break

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Suggested Book Titles

Book club members (during our hiatus) have suggested several book titles that might be good reading and excellent discussion material. The titles are listed below with links to Goodreads (for descriptions).

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones

Beloved by Toni Morrison

Dear Grace by Clare Swatman

Elementary, She Read by Vicki Delany

Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly

Homecoming by Yaa Gyasi (couldn’t find on Goodreads, so this link is to Amazon)

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

Kindred by Octavia Butler

Make Your Bed by William H. McRaven

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

Radical Kindness by by Angela C. Santomero

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The Lost and Found Bookshop by Susan Wiggs

The Oysterville Sewing Circle by Susan Wiggs

The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman by Denis Theriault

Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center

Happy reading!

“Anxious People” Discussion Questions

The All Good Books Group will meet this evening, Thursday, March 18, 2021, at 7:00 PM on Zoom using our usual weblink. We’ll discuss Fredrik Backman’s novel “Anxious People.” We hope you can join us to discuss some of these questions.

1. The book starts with the narrator talking about “idiots.” Though it’s easy to declare someone an idiot, it’s also true how difficult being a human is. What’s the narrator saying about human nature? When you read the word ‘idiot’ what comes to mind? Do you routinely encounter “idiots?”
2. At the onset of the story, it’s about a bank robber and a hostage drama. Why does the “bank robber” decide to rob a bank? How experienced is the bank robber? What does the bank robber’s choices say about desperation and how it can limit our vision?
3. The story is told in a nonlinear fashion with the hostage storyline, multiple events on a bridge and numerous background stories. How are these storylines connected?
4. How does the story involve Jim and Jack? Who are they? Are they main characters or peripheral to the storyline? How is Nadia involved?
5. How does the bridge storyline impact Jack’s life and career choices? Nadia’s life choices and career?
6. We learn about Jim and Jack’s family through the non-linear nature of the novel. How does their family history factor into decisions they make about the bank robber?
7. How would you react if you were a hostage?
8. How did the people held hostage react? What do we learn about each character during the hostage situation? What did you learn about grief, fear and loneliness, the inability of couples to communicate and why people react to those forces?
9. While searching for an apartment are the characters really searching for something else?
10. How did your perception of the characters change as you read more of the novel? Which character “spoke to you the most?” Why?
11. At the conclusion of the story, the narrator states, “The truth is that this was a story about many different things, but most of all about idiots. Because we’re doing the best we can, we really are. We’re trying to be grown-up and love each other…. We’re looking for something to cling on to, something to fight for, something to look forward to. We’re doing all we can to teach our children how to swim. We have all of this in common, yet most of us remain strangers, we never know what we do to each other, how your life is affected by mine.” What does that observation mean to you and do you agree?
12. Would you recommend the novel to your reader friends? How would you classify it? How would you describe it to potential readers?

Thank you to Heather Caliendo whose discussion questions (bookclubchat.com/books/book-club-questions-for-anxious-people-by-fredrik-backman/) inspired many of these questions.