The Reader's Den

I hope you all have been enjoying The Heretic’s Daughter by Kathleen Kent. The following are some discussion questions to help get the conversation rolling! Feel free to post your own thoughts and comments to let us know what you think about the book.

In the novel, Sarah comments on how her mother did not show strong affection towards her little sister because young children during this time period did not have a long life expectancy. However, Sarah feels that her mother doesn’t show much affection towards anyone. Do you find this trait is shared by other characters in the novel? Is Martha Carrier trying to distance herself in order to be more protective of her emotions?

While you read the novel, are you coming across new information that you weren’t familiar with about the Salem Witch Trials? Has Kathleen Kent successfully painted a believable portrait of this time period?

Stop by next week for some more discussion questions as we finish up the novel.

Welcome to week two of this month’s Reader’s Den! The Heretic’s Daughter is Kathleen Kent’s first novel based on the Salem Witch Trials. While Kent did an extensive amount of research, the story is very close to her heart as she is a “tenth-generation descendant” of the main character, Martha Carrier. Her family was very proud of their ancestor's role in this tragic moment in history.

“I grew up hearing stories about Martha Carrier and the fact that she was the only woman that directly confronted her accusers and the judges. My grandmother took almost gleeful pride that Martha was so outspoken and contentious. She always used to say Martha Carrier was not a witch, just a ferocious woman.” (Publisher’s Weekly)

Click here to watch a video of Kathleen Kent discussing her fascinating family story and why she wrote the novel. Stop by next week as we begin our discussion of The Heretic’s Daughter!

Welcome to this month’s edition of The Reader’s Den! We will be reading and discussing the historical fiction novel, The Heretic’s Daughter by Kathleen Kent. You can request a copy of the book by visiting the New York Public Library’s online catalog or stopping by your local branch to pick up a copy.

Sarah Carrier is the daughter of Thomas and Martha Carrier, who have recently fled the town of Billerica, Massachusetts in order to escape the deadly smallpox disease. They are coolly welcomed in the town of Andover and suspicions arise about the new Carrier family. However, the smallpox disease isn’t the only thing to spread throughout Massachusetts. Villagers are beginning to accuse their own neighbors of witchcraft, and the finger is eventually pointed at Sarah Carrier’s mother, Martha. Based on factual events and figures of the infamous Salem Witch Trials, The Heretic’s Daughter offers a page-turning glimpse into one of America’s most tragic events in history.

Feel free to post your thoughts and comments any time during the discussion by clicking on the “comment” link below.

Thank you participating in this month’s online book discussion. I hope you enjoyed The White Tiger as much as I did. If you didn’t have a chance to read the book and participate, please feel free to post your thoughts at a later time. The discussion will remain online in the Reader’s Den and hopefully, others will read the book and join in, as well.

Join us next month for our discussion on Kathleen Kent's historical fiction novel, The Heretic's Daughter. Request the novel online or visit your local library branch!

~Lynda P.

In his novel, Adiga highlights the dichotomy between the rich and the poor. He discusses the poorer Indian peoples' subservient relationship with their rich masters and their reluctance to rebel against the establishment because of ingrained and learned beliefs passed down from generation to generation. The rooster coop reflects the desperate existence of the poor in India and the perpetual power of the rich to manipulate the system to suit their needs. "Hundreds of pale hens and brightly colored roosters, stuffed tightly into wire-mesh cages, packed as tightly as worms in a belly, pecking each other, jostling for breathing space; the whole cage giving off a horrible stench--the stench of terrified, feathered flesh. On the wooden desk above his coop sits a grinning young brother, showing off the flesh and organs of a recently chopped-up chicken, still oleaginous with a coating of dark blood. The roosters in the coop smell the blood from above. They see the organs of their brothers lying around them. They know they're next. Yet they do not rebel. They do not try to get out of the coop" (p.147).

What is Balram's perspective on how and why the Rooster Coop works?

To what extent is the narrator finally able to break this obedience to tradition?

~Lynda P.

Early on in the novel, we learn that Balram is a successful businessman in Bangalore and an extremely complex character. In his first letter to the Chinese premier, he writes "my country is the kind where it pays to play it both ways: the Indian entrepreneur has to be straight and crooked, mocking and believing, sly and sincere, at the same time." What are your thoughts about Balram? Is he a psychopath?

Sudheer Apte, a reviewer for Mostly Fiction Book Reviews, wrote, "the most enjoyable part of this novel is the richly observed world of the have-nots in India: the flocks of drivers hanging out by their vehicles outside air-conditioned buildings, waiting for their masters to summon them, the beggars at traffic stops, who get money mostly from the poor; the petty manipulations among the servants of the house. This is the view most missing from so many Indian novels with a middle class sensibility" (Mostly Fiction Book Reviews). If it is one thing Adiga captures in his novel, is the division between the "haves" and "the have-nots" and how both sides are corrupt and manipulating the other in their own way. Because of his circumstances as a servant in India, do you feel Balram was justified in committing murder as a means to an end? Do our circumstances in life ultimately decide who we are?

Hopefully, you were able to get yourself a copy of The White Tiger and are enjoying the novel as much as I did. Here are a few questions to think about:

Why is Balram addressing his letters to the Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabo? What is his intention in writing these letters?

In the first chapter, Balram describes himself as "a thinking man" and "a man of action." Do you agree or disagree? What examples do we see that he is both?

What is the significance of the title, The White Tiger?

~Lynda P.

Welcome to the Reader's Den! This month's online book discussion will be The White Tiger, by Aravind Adiga. Feel free to participate and make comments.

Aravind Adiga was born in Madras, India in 1974. In high school, he and his family immigrated to Australia. Later, he studied at Columbia and Oxford Universities and published his first novel, The White Tiger, in 2008. The White Tiger received the Man Booker prize for 2008, an esteemed accomplishment for a first time author. Adiga was also a correspondent for Time magazine and has also written for the Financial Times, the Independent and the Sunday Times.

The White Tiger tells the story of a young Indian man named Balram Halwai, who makes it of the "darkness" by brutally killing his rich master. The story takes place over the course of seven days while Balram, the son of a poor rickshaw puller from a small village in Bihar India, writes daily letters to the Premier of China, Wen Jiabao. In these letters, Balram tells his deepest, darkest secrets and how he came to be an entrepreneurial success. We learn that Balram murdered his master, Ashok and stole a great deal of money in order to get where he is today. He justifies his wrongdoings by rationalizing that it is the unfairness of the Indian society that forced him to do it. Told in a sardonic wit, The White Tiger will make you laugh, while also revealing the corruption of both the rich and the poor and give readers a look at the many sides of modern Indian life.

Reserve your copy of The White Tiger through The New York Public Library Catalog or at your local branch. The discussion will take place over the next four weeks. I look forward to hearing from all of you!

Lynda P.

Thank you for joining this month's Reader's Den. I hope everyone enjoyed The Gathering, or at least got something out of the discussion. Please stay tuned for next month's book, The White Tiger, by Aravind Adiga.
 read more »

More discussion questions about Anne Enright's The Gathering.

Liam’s suicide seems to be a sort of catalyst for Veronica to explore her childhood memories of him and search for the point in their family life that set him off course. Was the guilt she has about Liam’s abuse present throughout her life, or do you believe the memories have only resurfaced after his death?

Liam's child Rowan was previously unknown to the Hegartys but he is met with love and happiness. What is his role within the family?

What does the future hold for Veronica in regard to her husband and family? Has her character grown throughout the novel, and, if so, how? Did you find her empathetic?

Continuing on with our discussion of Enright's novel, consider this quote from page 164. "There was great privacy in a big family . . . no one ever pitied you or loved you a little."  read more »

The first words of Anne Enright's book, The Gathering are as follows:

"I would like to write down what happened in my grandmother's house the summer I was eight or nine, but I am not sure if it really did happen. I need to bear witness to an uncertain event. I feel it roaring inside me--this thing that may not have taken place. I don't even know what name to put on it. I think you might call it a crime of the flesh, but the flesh is long fallen away and I am not sure what hurt may linger in the bones."

This quote is from the narrator, Veronica Hegarty, about an event that may or may not have occurred to her recently deceased brother, Liam in their childhood. As she tries to piece together her memories from childhood in the wake of Liam's suicide and funeral, she confronts the possible sexual abuse of her brother by her grandmother's friend and landlord.

The Gathering switches back and force from the present to Veronica's childhood and back even further to her grandmother Ada's youth. Her memories of childhood events are contributed to and sometimes changed by her siblings while they gather for the wake of their brother. This event is something Veronica feels a tremendous amount of guilt for, but in the beginning she's not even sure if it happened. How does this change over the course of the novel?

Welcome to the Reader's Den! This month we will be reading and discussing The Gathering by Anne Enright. You can reserve your copy through the catalog link above, or visit your local branch to see if they have one available.

Please feel free to leave any comments, questions or reviews for others to read and respond to. Check back often!

About the Author

Anne Enright at Literaturhaus Köln/Cologne (Germany) 18th November 2008, via Wikimedia Commons

Anne Enright was born in Dublin in 1962. She has written eight books and is a frequent contributer to The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Granta and The Guardian among other publications. The Gathering won the Man Booker prize in 2007. To read more about her and the Booker prize award, check out this interview of her in The Guardian.

Thank you for participating in this month's book discussion! If you were unable to pick up a copy of The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner, it is never to late to read the book and join the discussion. Feel free to post your comments any time by visiting The Reader's Den!

If you enjoyed the book, here are a few more titles you might like:

Avoiding Prison and Other Noble Vacation Goals by Wendy Dale
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson

Join us next month as we discuss Anne Enright's The Gathering!

I hope you have been enjoying The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner. Here are a few discussion questions to think about as you finish up the book. Feel free to post your own thoughts and comments!

• Do you think Eric Weiner achieved his goal in finding the happiest places around the world?
• A few of the places mentioned in the book such as Iceland and Thailand seemed like surprising places to find happiness. Were you surprised by some of the locations that he picked?
• What locations around the world would you have assumed to be the happiest places?
• After visiting Switzerland and Qatar, what do you think is Weiner's conclusion about wealth and happiness?
• If you were to visit any of the places mentioned in the book, where would you go and why?

I look forward to hearing your thoughts and comments!

Eric Weiner, the author of The Geography of Bliss, has been a correspondent for National Public Radio since 1993 and has been assigned to work in various places across the globe including India, Jerusalem, Iraq, and more. Weiner reported on serious topics in these places, so The Geography of Bliss allowed him to cover new territory and happier topics. In his introduction he ponders, "What if, I wondered, I spent a year traveling the globe, seeking out not the world's well-trodden trouble spots but, rather, its unheralded happy places?"

You can find out more about Eric Weiner by visiting his website. Be sure to click on the "photos" tab to see pictures from Weiner's stay in Bhutan. Stop by The Reader's Den next week for discussion questions!

For some of us, taking an exotic vacation this summer just isn't in our budget, but sometimes it's nice (and maybe a little bit cheaper) to live vicariously through other travelers' stories. Join The Reader's Den this month as we travel with Eric Weiner in his book, The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World.

In this non-fiction travel book, you'll venture to Switzerland, Iceland, Great Britain, and more in Weiner's search for some happy places across the world. The Geography of Bliss is also a non-fiction pick on this year's adult summer reading list! Make sure to visit The Reader's Den to follow the discussion and post your comments about the book.

So take a trip to your local library and pick up a copy of The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner. It will be the cheapest vacation you take all summer.

Now that I’ve become more aware of Sinclair Lewis thanks to It Can’t Happen Here, I’ve seen references to him everywhere. And will keep my eyes and ears open for staged productions of his works—Main Street is one I’ve been wanting to see on stage for a long time now.
Back to It Can’t Happen Here. If you have had a chance to read part, most, or all of it, how believable do you think the characters are? Do they seem like real people, who act in ways real people might? Or is each character starkly sketched, the author intending them to be the embodiment of a specific point of view? We can spot “good” and “evil” characters pretty easily in this work, but which of the characters are more conflicted and morally ambiguous?

Does this book still have something important to say today, or is it just a product of its times? I would love to hear your opinion about this book, so please feel free to chime in if you are so inclined!

And, stay tuned for the next Reader’s Den selection!

I hope you’ve been able to get yourself a copy of It Can’t Happen Here. Or perhaps you’ve been reading it online, or listening to the e-audio version.

How do you like it so far? Or does "like" not apply here? Do you think Lewis meant for us to take the book as: a straight novel? a satire? a cautionary tale? a parable? something else?

The fictional characters in this work quote from, hearken back to, and mingle freely with an army of real historical personages—historians, politicians, journalists, writers, activists, psychologists, etc., etc. What’s the effect of this mingling of fact and fantasy on the reader?

And how about Lewis’ names? What associations do the following bring to your mind: Berzelius “Buzz” Windrip; Mrs. Adelaide Tarr Gimmitch; Doremus Jessup; Hector Macgoblin; Lorinda Pike; Buck Titus?

Summertime--the time of year when I get the yen to dip into some of the literature I've heard about over the years but had not gotten around to reading. Sinclair Lewis's works fall into that category and he's the writer I chose. Did I select Main Street, Babbitt, or Arrowsmith? No, It Can't Happen Here caught my fancy. And once I started it I was hooked.

It Can't Happen Here was written by Sinclair Lewis in 1935, five years after he became the first American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. The Nobel Committee selected him for "his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humour, new types of characters." And note what Lewis himself says in his acceptance speech: "in America most of us--not readers alone, but even writers--are still afraid of any literature which is not a glorification of everything American, a glorification of our faults as well as our virtues." This was another America. . .but his outrageous (yet somehow familiar) characters and scenarios can still make a reader squirm. There have been stage and screen versions of the work, and various editions over the decades. Though he's less read today, several terms and expressions from Lewis's works have entered the vernacular including Babbitt, Main Street, and "It can't happen here!" Many have described Lewis as satirist, a master of irony, and a superb mimic. I agree.

The plot: Berzelius "Buzz" Windrip runs for U.S. president as a Populist, and wins on the weight of his promise to restore prosperity and greatness to the country. His true colors are soon revealed as he turns the U.S. into a totalitarian state complete with concentration camps for his (many) enemies. Our hero, journalist Doremus Jessup, writes editorials against the state's abuse of power and suffers mightily for it. So, can it happen here? Read the book and tell us what you think.

It's widely available at NYPL, and you can also borrow it in e-audiobook format, to listen to on your computer or transfer to a portable device. Another e-book option: it's on Project Gutenberg Australia.

Tune in next week to get the discussion going--I look forward to talking to you about this book.