Book Discussion: Annie Bot by Sierra Greer

 In what ways do you think some of the details of an AI Robot might become a reality in our world?

There has been a lot of talk lately about ChatGPT, AI, and the future. Do you think “robot partners” are a possibility? Do you think they are a good idea? Can you imagine who would want to buy them? Do you think they would look and act like Annie?  

While you were reading the novel, at what point, if ever, did you start to see Annie as essentially human?

Considering that we get to know Doug in the privacy of his own home through the gaze of a robot, how reliable is the portrayal of him?

• Why do you suppose he evokes such powerful reactions? 
• Is he familiar, normal, a monster, or something else? 
• How does Doug’s ability to command Annie change him? 

Doug designs Annie to resemble a specific person from his past. Why is this important? What does this tell us about Doug’s character, his understanding of women, and his desire for control?  

What are the different episodes of betrayal that happen in the novel, and do the reactions to betrayal seem justified to you?

Doug is highly motivated to keep Annie, and she has no choice in the matter. In real life, couples stay together for many reasons even when their relationships are unhealthy. What are some of those reasons, and do you think the novel treats the issue of domestic abuse sensitively?

How do Annie’s other relationships—with Fiona, Christy, Delta, and Cody—cause her trouble or help her grow? How do you think third parties can affect, for better or worse, romantic relationships?

How do the concision and pace of Annie Bot add or detract from the novel? Are there places where you wish you knew more?

The novel includes references to many other books, writers, and poets. Have you read any of the mentioned works? How do you think the allusions mirror the situations and themes of Annie Bot? How are the books, and Annie Bot, related to the ways men and women are socialized in our culture?

• Borges "The Labyrinth Stories"
• The Lottery
• Hills Like White Elephants

What does Doug feel after finding out Annie Cheated? Is Doug responsible for Annies betrayal because he designed and trained her?

Were you surprised by the ending? Was it satisfying? What events do you imagine might follow?

How would this novel have been different if a human woman had purchased a robot boyfriend, or if the relationship involved LGBTQ+ partners?

What leads annies desire to learn programming?

What do you think of Dougs friend Roland?

On Page 66 Doug gets angry with Annie and tells her to never tell him what to think of feel again. Why do you think he reacted so strongly in this instance?

Why does Doug want Delta to think Annie is a human. Do you think Delta knew?

At the end what changes for Annie that she distrusts Doug?

How does her feeling about the way he treats her change over time?

Book Discussion: While You Were Out: An Intimate Family Portrait of Mental Illness in an Era of Silence by Meg Kissinger

Would you recommend this book to another reader? Why or why not?

How does this book compare to different memoirs you have read in this genre?

Did you find the author’s writing style easy to read or hard to read? Why? How long did it take you to get into the book?

Who was your favorite character? What character did you identify with the most? Were there any characters that you disliked? Why?

Did any part of this book strike a particular emotion in you? Which part and what emotion did the book make you feel?

Did the book change your opinion about anything, or did you learn something new from it?

Did the direction of the book surprise you?

Were there any parts of the book that frustrated you?

Did you highlight or bookmark any passages from the book? Did you have a favorite quote or quotes? If so, share which and why?

How would you adapt this book into a movie? Who would you cast in the leading roles?

Were there any instances in which you felt the author was not being truthful? How did you react to these sections?

Book Discussion: The Last Animal by Ramona Ausubel

Colossal Labs aims to introduce mammoth genes into the Asian Elephant for conservation purposes. The project claims: "The return of the Woolly Mammoth to the Arctic tundra it roamed thousands of years ago has significant benefits for combating climate change. Mammoths will stir up the icy surface of the landscape, stomp out-thick, low-oxygen trees, and expose healthy, carbon-trapping grasses. That action can restore the tundra, which in turn protects the climate and balances greenhouse gasses."

Read more: https://colossal.com/how-de-extinction-works/#:~:text=The%20return%20of%20the%20Woolly,healthy%2C%20carbon%2Dtrapping%20grasses.

My critiques:

• Dialog is clunky and unbelievable. All three female characters have the same voice and personality. 

Eve’s and Vera’s young lives involve constant travel: “They had grown up on the road, on the move, in countries all over the world. They had been brave, or else they had had no choice.”

What does this nomadic life give to Jane and Sal’s daughters, and what does it take away?
Consider how the family functions when they are abroad versus when they are home in Berkeley. Which lifestyle do you think is better for them as individuals or as a family?
Jane is the only female scientist on her research team. In what ways does her gender hold her back? Do you think this phenomenon is limited to science? What does it mean that Jane’s daughters observe this kind of sexism in action? Do you think Jane would make the same daring choices in response to it all if her daughters weren’t in the picture?


How would you describe Eve and Veras relationship to each other. What do each of them desire in life?

How do Eve and Veras vision of the future differ?

In what ways does Jane fail and succeed at parenting the girls?

• Jane is a woman achieving alongside her family, not in spite of it
• When Pearl is born why isn't Jane documenting anything. Is this a science experiment or just a wild, fun adventure for her?
• On page 121 why all of the sudden does Jane give the girls a pass for drinking but reacts so strongly about Eve being sexually active?
• When Pearl is born Jane is totally unprepared. Has no idea what to feed her.
• Jane is constantly texting Helen about Pearl when Helen is in the hospital with George. She texts as if she is the priority.
• When Jane sends the girls out to get baby formula and coconut milk why didn't she think to tell them to get a bottle too!
• pg 211 the girls escape from the boat with a hole convinced Helen is trying to kill them all only to then go their mom and ask if they can leave her there alone and go find the place their dad died. If they were so concerned why on the next page are they trying to leave their mom alone with perceived danger?
• Jane avoids ever asking for her husbands police report of his death. Why?

Okay WTF is up on page 123 with Eve artificially inseminating herself with caveman DNA. Was that believable?

Also WTF is up on page 180 when Jane instinctually tried to breast feed Pearl?

Describe Vera’s relationship with Lars. In what ways does this teenage romance point to shifting dynamics between Eve and Vera? Jane’s reaction to learning that they are dating causes Vera to do something very unusual with the remnants of her father’s research. What do you think she is trying to prove to her mother—and more importantly, to herself?


For a nonspeaking character, Pearl plays an essential role in this story. What did Pearl make you feel? What did she symbolize for you? What do Eve’s and Vera’s reactions to Pearl show us about their feelings toward their mother and their status in the family?


Do you think Helen was trying to kill the girls by sending them out on a boat with a hole in it? What motives would she have?


What events lead Eve and Vera to start becoming distrustful and suspicious of Helen and george?


Did The Last Animal make you think at all differently about the history or future of the planet?

What do you think of the idea of bringing back extinct species? What might happen if science takes gene editing more into its own hands?

Book Discussion: Death Valley. by Melissa Broder

Has anyone been to the Mojave dessert or Death Valley?

How did you find the short chapters in the book?

What were some memorable humorous moments in the novel?

On page 1, the narrator’s friend texts her this philosophical quote from Kierkegaard: “Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.” How does this idea resonate throughout the rest of the book? How can we as humans embrace that philosophy?

What is the narrator’s relationship with her father like? Consider the quote: “It is easier to have an intimate relationship with the unconscious than the conscious, the dead than the living. As my father slumbered, I created a fantasy version of him --- resurrecting the man from my youth” (page 4). How does this fantasy of her father come to play a role in the novel?

What does the giant cactus represent to the narrator?

• asylum for both her greatest wishes and everything she was attempting to escape.

How does this novel of transformation in wilderness solitude differ from other books within that genre like Wild or A Walk in the Woods?

• sometimes the peace of solitude can reveal horrors

What are some of the coping mechanisms the narrator uses to deal with her father's convalescence?

Why do you think the author chose to not reveal the narrators name?

What do you think is the difference between empathy and compassion? Which is harder to achieve?
empathy-when we experience the same thing or feel what another person is feeling. We need to pur ourselves in their shoes to relate. Compassion you don't need to put yourself in their shoes in order to have sympathy.

 
On page 59 the narrator says "realization: love is not always a feeling, sometimes its a verb." What does the narrator mean by that?

In chapter 18, Jethra brings up the five love languages when talking about her own father’s passing. What is your love language?

On page 56 the narrators says “Being human, always new things to forgive”. Where do we see forgiveness in the novel?

Have you ever found yourself in a dangerous situation because you underprepared? How did you handle it?

At one point while lost, our narrator remarks: “It dawns on me then that I must really want to live. And it surprises me” (page 162). How does a brush with her own mortality influence her outlook on life?

What was your impression of the narrator’s novel-in-progress? Why do you think she is stuck figuring out the “desert section”? Does her own time in the desert lead to some sort of epiphany?

Throughout DEATH VALLEY, the protagonist longs to feel less alone and talks to receptionists, anonymous Reddit users and even rocks. What does she get out of these interactions? Why is it sometimes easier to talk to strangers than the people we love? Do you think the talking rocks are an example of magical realism or a fabrication of our lonely narrator’s imagination?

Book Discussion: Big Swiss by Jen Beagin

A woman in upstate New York who works transcribing therapy sessions for a sex coach becomes infatuated with one of his clients, a repressed married woman from Switzerland who has a refreshing attitude towards trauma.

Have you ever been to Hudson, NY? How would you describe it? Similar or different from the author?

What does the beehive inside the house represent? Is there a metaphor buried there? (maggots at the heart of the hive)

In the beginning of the book we learn that Greta was diagnosed with Emotional Attachment Disorder by a therapist. (a behavioral disorder that effects the ability to form and maintain relationships.) In what ways does this manifest in her relationship with Big Swiss?

When speaking with OM about her trauma Big Swiss says on page 8 "I'm not attached to my suffering. I'm not attached to what happened to me. I don't believe it explains everything about me, because I haven't made it part of my identity. I'm a worker, not a wallflower. I would never call myself a "survivor" I'm just -not one of those trauma people." Is trauma something you think a person can ever get over? Does making trauma part of your identity hold you back or fuel you?

On page 79 Big Swiss says she accepts some responsibility for her attack because she went to his house on his own volition and ignored her instincts.  Does society condition victims to think they were players in their own trauma? What are your thoughts on this? 

On p. 247 Greta mentions Big Swiss might have something to teach her about living. To "eradicate self-pity and replace it with something productive." How do you think one can actually accomplish that?

Did you find OM an effective therapist?

Big Swiss was not able to orgasm for her whole life until the mid-point of the book. She describes masturbating to images of flowers. Is this just a metaphor or do you think there is something deeper there?

What do you think drew Big Swiss to Greta?

Throughout their affair what traits or behaviors do Greta and Big Swiss bring out in each other?

Was Greta obscuring her true identity from Big Swiss an ethical violation? How would you have handled it if you were Greta?

On page 216 at the dinner party with Luke Big Swiss says that the Swiss "like to keep each other in check. Americans could never handle that, because they're such infants, and so easily rattled. They can't ride the train without getting their feelings hurt. They can't walk down the street without being offended." Do you think this is true of Americans? If so why is that?

There are times that Greta seems to be hostile or antagonizing to Big Swiss. Where does that behavior come from? P. 232 Big Swiss tells her her tough girl routine is transparent.

What did you think of the ending?

Book Discussion: The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells by Andrew Sean Greer

On page 241-242 Greta confronts the readers and asks "why is it impossible to be a woman?" She states that men are always free to be themselves and asks "When has a woman ever been forgiven?" In our modern society how does it differ between a man or a woman receiving forgiveness? Is one gender easier to forgive? Is one gender more permanently harmed from making mistakes?

Did Dr. Cerletti's electroconvulsive therapy work on Greta? In the beginning he tells her "what they are trying to do is bring her back."

If you were able to transmigrate to two other versions of yourself in a time before our own, which two time periods or years would you travel to?

What do you think drove Greta to continue the treatments and travel back in time? What was she trying to accomplish?

Where there any discrepancies in the science of the time travel in this book that bothered you or took away from your enjoyment of it?

In the beginning of the novel on page 8 Felix asks a neighbor who was reprimanding him and Greta  "When you were a little girl, madam," he said, gesturing to her, "was this the woman you dreamed of becoming?" How did this foreshadow other events in the novel?

Book Discussion: Eileen by Otessa Moshfegh

Discussion Questions:

• How did it feel to be inside Eileen's head? Did you understand her or sympathize with her?
• Is Eileen the hero, villain, or victim of her story? 
• On page 27 Eileen encounters a rape victim wanting to face her accuser at the prison and she denies her access. Eileen says "I don't know why I was so cold to her. I suppose I may have been envious. No one ever tried to rape me, after all. I'd always believed that my first time would be by force." What other ways does violence show up in the book? 
• The book is narrated by Eileen as a much older woman, how does the space between narrative and narrator affect the development of the story?
• The narrator tells us that ‘this is not a love story’ and at times that a certain detail or scene is ‘not the point of this at all’. Do you always agree with her? Does this narrative signposting help us understand the ‘point’ of it all? What effect does this interjection have on the plot?
• Eileen is often obsessing over her own body and describing it terms of shame, disgust, violence and fascination. On page 24 she mentions "I didn't want anyone to think I was susceptible to bad breath or that there were any organic processes occurring inside my body at all. Having to breathe was an embarrassment in itself." What were some other body obsessions she had? How do they contribute to the mood or plot of the book. How do they effect the way you view Eileen?
• Eileen enjoys living in her own filth, is obsessed with her bowel movements, and most of the time she wishes her father were dead. Of her own moral character, she tells: ‘I was a shoplifter, a pervert, you might say, and a liar.’ Do you agree with her self-assessment? How does Eileen’s ‘likability’ affect your reading? Are there moments that shock or awe you? Does liking the protagonist matter?
• In an interview with the Guardian Moshfegh says, ‘Eileen is not perverse. I think she’s totally normal… I haven’t written a freak character; I’ve written an honest character.’ Do you agree? Discuss the different ways truth is explored in the novel.
• At the end of the very first chapter we read: ‘So here we are. My name was Eileen Dunlop. Now you know me… This is the story of how I disappeared.’ And so we learn very early on that something is going to happen, and soon. The novel is peppered with hints of an impending schism. How does this foreboding affect the reading experience? In what other ways does the author build suspense and mystery?
• Eileen tells her story as an old woman, looking back at a twenty-four-year-old version of herself. Her memory, she admits, is fallible and there are some things she remembers more clearly than others. She also benefits from hindsight. How might this unreliable narration affect the story? What is its effect on the plot and perception of the characters? Is the narrator Eileen a different character to the young Eileen?
• Moshfegh admitted she wrote the book "as a fuck-you joke, also I’m broke, also I want to be famous. It was that kind of a gesture." Knowing that does it influence the way you interpret the novel? Could the authors intent have formed who Eileen was?
• Let's talk about Rebecca. Do you think she was a real person or a manifestation of Eileen?

Book Discussion: After Birth by Elisa Albert

Questions:

Women over time have fought hard to gain control over their bodies and the decisions surrounding their bodies ( abortion, birth control, elective surgery.) When it comes to birth does that all go out the window?

What is it that separates Ari from connecting with other women. Do you think women often find it difficult to find common ground with other women?

What are your thought on how the male characters were portrayed in the book?

What allows Mina and Ari to become fast friends.
        -Safe place to be vulnerable with each other

What fuels Ari's anger?

Ari is insensibly honest in the book. In our culture how do we praise or punish honest in people?

Did this novel read as the author's manifesto?

What are your thoughts on the way we treat birth in this country?

Mina describes what happened to Ari during her birth as rape, do you agree with that statement?