On books and reading

While doing some legwork for the Beers and Books, I headed down to Market Block Books to ask if they would be okay with me recommending them as the official indie book store of this (hopefully these) events.

While there, I asked for recommendations for books for these events.

Stan recommended Birds in Fall by Brad Kessler.

Let me say that Stan made a wonderful recommendation. It was a stunningly good book, and I have read quite a few 9-11 novels (and make no mistake, this is what it is) and I have never felt the pathos quite the same way in any of the other novels that I have read.

My issue was not with the book, but with the discussion questions provided by the "Reading Group Guide".

Here was the one that set me off:

8. After months of taking care of people in the aftermath of the crash, Kevin is tired and frustrated. "Why all this fuss for people who died so publicly - so spectacularly - in a flash, when there was nothing for the thousands who died agonizingly slow, alone, shunned inside their rooms?...All the friends in New York City he'd watched die and no one cared?...Yet Douglas, who was too young to have experienced those years in New York, needed to talk" (p. 179). What is Kevin referring to in this passage? How does Kevin's past experience as a caretaker for the dying influence his reaction to the plane crash? Discuss the very different ways Kevin and Douglas responded to the crash.

Just to give you the briefest background on the two characters mentioned.

When the book begins, Kevin is 52, and he and his partner Douglas (aged 40) have moved to Nova Scotia to start an inn, from New York City.

The book takes place around 2001, based on the timeline established.

So...readers...

What is Kevin talking about?

Do you really have to ask? Do you really have to think about it?

Did the assistant who created these questions really think that the people who read this book would have to have it spelled out for them?

This is lit-fiction, not Twilight.

I could go off on a real rant, but I would spoil the book and I do not want to do that.