Buckingham Palace Gardens - discussion questions

“Buckingham Palace Gardens” by Anne Perry

Perry is a prolific writer of historical and Victorian-era mysteries, most of which feature either Thomas and Charlotte Pitt or William Monk. BUCKINGHAM PALACE GARDENS is her 25th novel with the Pitts.

1.     The plot involves finding the body of a prostitute in the linen closet at Buckingham Palace. Was this a little bit too shocking for you? 

2.     The list of suspects includes four proper couples as well as all of
the household and personal servants. The Queen is traveling abroad,
so the Prince and Princess of Wales are left to entertain four
couples at Buckingham Palace and talk about railroad project in Africa.  After the body was discovered, did you suspect that the murder may perhaps something to do the Africa’s mission?

3.     What do you think about agent Thomas Pitt of the Special Services branch?  Police labor force in Victorian time was drawn primary from the ranks of the semi-skilled and unskilled people. Is Pitt taken seriously by the affluent businessman and the Price of Wales?

4.     The story and investigation take a significant turn when the wife
of one of the gentlemen turns up dead in the same manner as the
butchered prostitute. Clues point to the husband of the victim.  Did you suspect Julius Sorokine to be the murderer?

5.     Which characters did you think committed the crime? Did you believe Cahoon Dunkel to be the killer before the end?

6.     Pitts’ wife, Charlotte (née Ellison), comes from an upper-class family.  She has married beneath her position and can no longer take part in society events.  Emily’s great aunt by marriage Vespasia Cumming-Gould.  Aunt Vespasia is an elderly woman who has aged gracefully and has friends and acquaintances in the upper levels of society and even in the nobility.  Did her connections help Thomas in solving the murder?

7.     What do you think about Gracie, the Pitts’s diminutive maid?  Pitts enlist her help to discover the gossip among the palace servants.  Did she fulfill her role?  Was this task not too dangerous for an ordinary maid?

8.      In many British novels portraying his period, we see very clear cuts between the “Upstairs, Downstairs” class dramas.  Did you like the way Ann Perry depicted both groups?  Which were more interesting, passages involving the “downstairs” group of servants or the passages involving the
“upstairs” suspects?

9.     What did you learn about the Victorian England you didn’t know? How the time period influences the characters’ actions and beliefs?

10.                         Do you agree that uniqueness of this book may be attributed to skilful character development, engaging plot, and details about the residence of the British royal family?

11.                        After reading  “Buckingham Palace Gardens” would you be interested in reading  more books by Ann Perry?

Discussion at Joanna's

Fault in Our Stars- 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?

4. Do you find some of the descriptions of pain, the medical realities that accompany cancer, or the discussion of bodily fluids too graphic?

5. At one point, Hazel says, "Cancer books suck." Is this a book about cancer? Did you have trouble picking up the book to read it? What were you expecting? Were those expectations met...or did the book alter your ideas?

5. John Green uses the voice of an adolescent girl to narrate his story. Does he do a convincing job of creating a female character?

7. Hazel considers An Imperial Affliction "so special and rare that advertising your affection for it feels like a betrayal." Why is it Hazel's favorite book? Why is it so important that she and Gus learn what happens after its heroine dies? Have you ever felt the same way about a book as Hazel does—that it is too special to talk about?

8. What do you think about Peter Van Houten, the fictional author of An Imperial Affliction? This book's real author, John Green, has said that Van Houten is a "horrible, horrible person but I have an affection for him." Why might Green have said that? What do you think of Van Houten?

9. Green once served as a chaplain in a children's hospital, working with young cancer patients. In an interview, he referred to the "hero's journey within illness"—that "in spite of it, you pull yourself up and continue to be alive while you're alive." In what way does Green's comment apply to his book—about two young people who are dying? Is theirs a hero's journey? Is the "pull yourself up" phrase an unseemly statement by someone, like the author or any reader, who is not facing a terminal disease?

10. What did you make of the book's humor? Is it appropriate...or inappropriate? Green has said he "didn't want to use humor to lighten the mood" or "to pull out the easy joke" when things got hard. But, he said, he likes to write about "clever kids, [and they] tend to be funny even when things are rough." Is his use of humor successful? How did it affect the way you read the book?

11. After his chaplaincy experience, Green said he believed that "life is utterly random and capricious, and arbitrary." Yet he also said, after finishing The Fault in Our Stars that he no longer feels that life's randomness "robs human life of its meaning...or that it robs even lives of people who don't get to have full lives." Would you say that the search for meaning—even, or especially, in the face of dying—is what this book explores? Why...or why not?

12. How do Hazel and Gus change, in spirit, over the course of the novel?

13. Talk about how you experienced this book? Is it too sad, too tragic to contemplate? Or did you find it in some way uplifting?

Discussion at Kathy's

Wednesday discussion at Jackie's splendid table

Inferno - discussion questions

 

Discussion questions:

 

1.      Before reading Dan Brown's thriller, how familiar, if at all, were you with the The Divine Comedy and its "Inferno" Cantica? Have you come away with a better understanding of the work? What are the ways in which the author uses Dante's great classic as a framework for his thriller?

2.      Robert Langdon and Sienna Brooks race to save the world from a crazed scientist who plans to unleash his solution to the world's overpopulation. To what extent, if any, do you (secretly) agree with the Bertrand Zobrist in his desire, if not his methods, to control overpopulation?

3.      How do you feel about this statement by Brooks:

                                                              i.      As a species, humans were like the rabbits that were introduced on certain Pacific islands and allowed to reproduce unchecked to the point that they decimated their ecosystem and finally went extinct.

4.      To what extent is overpopulation a real-life global problem? You might do a bit of research on overpopulation and look at some of the countervailing predictions, suggesting that the global population will actually begin to collapse after 2050.

5.      Talk about the real possibility of a worldwide epidemic. How plausible is the threat as portrayed Brown's book?

6.      Talk about Transhumanism. What is it, and does it pose a boon—or a threat—to the future of humanity?

a.       At the end of the book WHO Director Elizabeth Sinskey says, "We’re on the verge of new technologies that we can’t yet even imagine.” Those technologies come with dangers but also with hope.

b.      Sienna Brooks adds this about Transhumanism...

                                                              i.      One of its fundamental tenets is that we as humans have a moral obligation to participate in our evolutionary process...to use our technologies to advance the species, to create better humans—healthier, stronger, with higher-functioning brains. Everything will soon be possible.

c.       She then says...

                                                              i.      If we don’t embrace [these tools], then we are as undeserving of life as the caveman who freezes to death because he’s afraid to start a fire.

d.      What do you think?

7.      Have you traveled to any of the three sites of the novel: Florence, Venice, or Istanbul? If so, how accurate is Brown's depiction of these cities? If you haven't been to Italy or Turkey, does the author bring the cities to life? Are they places you would like to visit?

8.      Is this book a page-turner? Did you find yourself unable to put it down? If so, what makes it enthralling? If you didn't find Inferno an engaging read, what put you off the book?

9.       Brown uses a 4-part pattern for the episodes in his book: 1) Langdon is presented with a clue he must interpret, 2) he has a "eureka" moment, 3) he is pursued by villains who make a sudden appearance, and 4) he escapes after a hair-raising chase. Try going through the book to identify the pattern in various episodes.

10.  What about the book's ending? Do you find it predictable ... surprising ... shocking ... frightening ... satisfying?

11.  Have you read other Dan Brown thrillers? If so, how does this compare?

 

And while searching online, I stumbled across this little tidbit: The Funniest, Meanest Reviews of Dan Brown’s ‘Inferno’

 http://flavorwire.com/391380/the-funniest-meanest-reviews-of-dan-browns-inferno/

 

 

See you on Wednesday,

Jackie

We had a great discussion about "Team of Rivals"

Here are some pictures