Tuesday 29 October 2013

BOOK CLUB

Last night I tagged along with a friend to her book club. The book: The Fault In Our Stars by John Green.

There was a little confusion on what book we were reading. I started- Love In The Time Of Cholera and was part way through when I found that wasn't the book we were reading this month. With only a few days left until book club I asked Husband if he would be able to hook me up with the audio version. For the last few days I've been listening to it in the car, before bed, at the dinner table and finally finished it tonight an hour before Sarah picked me up. Phew!

Here are a few discussion questions suggested for the book.

Discussion Questions
1. John Green derives his book's title from a famous line in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar: "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings." (I,ii,139-140). What does the line mean—and why would Green have used it for his title? Even more important, why would he have altered it to read, "The fault in our stars" rather than ourselves? How does Green's meaning differ from Shakespeare's?

2. How would you describe the two main characters, Hazel and Gus? Do either of them conform, in behavior or thinking, to what we normally associate with young cancer patients? How do the two differ from one another...and how do their personality traits and interests complement each other?

3. How do Hazel and Gus each relate to their cancer? Do they define themselves by it?  Do they ignore it? Do they rage at life's unfairness? Most importantly, how do the two confront the big questions of life and death?

I was prepared for anything, because for many of us it was the first time meeting and there was rather a large group of us (16) we mostly got to know each other, drank wine and ate lovely food prepared by Liz. It was a lot of fun. Our next book is- Orange Is The New Black. I've heard a lot about this only because of it's popularity on Netflix. I'm going to pick the book up at Chapter's tomorrow; we meet again in a month.

Looks like I'm a new member of book club!

2 comments:

  1. I think I will buy it too, even though I won't be able to come to the book club. Maybe we can chat about it :)

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