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[lizardbooks]

THE HOST ;; arrested - dehydrated 

what memory does the soul experience first? what is significantly different about this body from the others that the soul has inhabited? She has a memory of a woman being pursued. She throws herself down an empty elevator shaft instead of letting her pursuers catch her. This is the first human body the soul has inhabited. what makes melanie a more difficult host than most? Most of the time, when a host is inserted into another living thing, that thing is then totally gone. But this time, the host has a lot of the same memories and emotions as Melanie … she can even still hear her in her head. who is jared and how did melanie meet him? Jared is Melanie’s boyfriend. They met while they were both scavenging. why did the seeker come to see wanderer? She's wondering if Wanderer has had any more progress on finding Melanie's relatives whereabouts in her memory. But Melanie has Jared's location locked up tight, and Wanderer can't get through. what does wanderer decide to do in hopes of gaining insight on the decision she has to make?  Wanderer says she wants to talk to her Healer before deciding anything. She decides to drive to Chicago and see what Fords Deep Waters has to say about this. jared hesitates to be with melanie, but she says that in their circumstances, convention doesn’t matter. who do you agree with in this situation? The age difference is honestly gross and I don’t think that their circumstances are dire enough to make up for it. Honestly, the fact that he’s attracted to a sEVENTEEN year old is unsettling. IDK what Stephanie Meyer’s thing is with huge age differences, but it comes up a lot. So I don’t think it’s a good idea because of that alone, but ALSO because getting pregnant now would not be ideal given their current situation. what choice does melanie offer to wanderer on the way to Tucson? She wants to go find Jared and Jamie and eventually decides to trust Wanderer enough that she will give them their location - they are both worried about Jared and Jamie, thanks to Wanderer having Melanie’s memories. So she decides she will give Wanderer what she needs and trusts that she won’t betray them to the seeker. what do you think of this book so far?  At this point I’ve actually finished the book but … I think 100 pages in I was enjoying it. It was a little slow, but also interesting — not a fan of the huge age difference between Jared/Melanie, but I did like what I knew of them both as characters.

[lizardbooks]

THE COLOR PURPLE ;; the whole book

how does celie come to get married? Mr. _____ comes around and tries to marry her younger sister, Nettie. Celie thinks that her sister marrying him would be a good thing because it would get her away from their father who has been raping Celie, but their father forbids it and, instead, offers him Celie. At first, Mr. _____ isn’t happy with this second offer, but finally comes around. what do celie and mr. ___ tell harpo to do to get sofia to listen to him? how does this turn out? Physical violence! (wow so great!) They both think that Sofia gets away with way too much and that Harpo basically needs to show her who is boss. Sofia, however, does not take this lying down and when Harpo tries to smack her around, she beats him up. what happens when sofia meets the mayor and his wife? Sofia is driving around with her children and Buster. The mayor’s wife happens by and starts fawning over Sofia’s children. The woman tells Sofia that her children are so clean and maybe Sofia would like to work for her. To which Sofia responds, "Hell no." The mayor gets angry and slaps Sofia and so she assaults the mayor and then she ends up in jail. what is Shug’s surprise? Mr.__ thinks she’s bringing a car for him because she’s making "big money" now. When Shug comes, it turns out she brings a "skinny big toof man wearing red suspenders"—her new husband. His name is Grady. Shug also brings a car, but she said she bought it as a wedding present for herself and Grady. (So not a surprise that either Mr. _____ or Celie were hoping for). how does celie get a letter from nettie? what does it say? After telling Shug about her sister, Shug asks if Nettie might be living somewhere far away? She says she’s seen Mr. _____ get letters with weird stamps on them that he will just pocket. So, now knowing this, Shug gets one from him and gives it to Celie. Her letter says that she wants Celie to know that Nettie isn’t dead. She assumes that Mr. ______ has been keeping her letters from her. She wants Celie to know that she’s coming home soon … and that she’s bringing Celie’s children with her! what has nettie been up to? After being thrown out of Mr. ________’s house, Nettie ends up at the Reverend's place and recognized his daughter as Celie’s child, Olivia. She stays with them: the family is very religious and good to her. Nettie ends up going with them to Africa, as they are missionaries. • She’s learning so much she never knew before. For example, that Africa had great cities long before Atlanta existed. And that Africans sold their brothers and sisters. She realizes how ignorant she used to be. Corrine and Samuel are apparently wonderful people. They have a great marriage and they are so grateful to God for sending them Olivia and Adam. Nettie admits that Olivia and Adam are definitely Celie’s children. She assures Celie that the children are well cared for. how do the men in olinka remind nettie of her father? The men’s treatment of the woman mostly - they think of them entirely as less than. They speak to them only to give instructions and the woman aren’t even allowed to make eye contact with them!! They do not think that the woman should be educated — and the reverend and his family are scolded when it becomes known that they were trying to teach Olivia’s friend. what does the road mean for the people of olinka? When the road reached the Olinka village, the villagers assume that the road is for them and hold a celebration feast. Turns out, though, that the road isn’t done yet and is supposed to continue right through the village, and right through Catherine’s field. The villagers are really mad, but the road-builders have guns and are supposed to shoot if the villagers resist. The church, school, and missionary huts are torn down within hours to make way for the road. The Olinka chief sets out to complain and try to get reparations. However, all he returns with is bad news: The Olinka village and the surrounding area now belongs to an English rubber-manufacturing company. The Olinka now have to pay rent to live in their village and pay a tax to use the water. The villagers have rebuilt the school, church, and destroyed huts and are waiting to see what will happen now. how did samuel and corinne come to adopt olivia and adam? Samuel reveals how he got the children to begin with, from a shady character he’d known before he became a religious man. This man—Celie and Nettie’s Pa—turns out not to really be their father after all. He’s their stepfather. Their real father owned a successful store but was lynched by white folks who were angry that he was taking away so many of their customers. Apparently, after their real father was murdered, their mother kind of lost it. The neighbors had to keep bringing over food to feed young Celie and Nettie. Then a stranger came into town and married Celie and Nettie’s mother. The woman was pregnant every year from then on. According to Samuel’s story, the woman (Nettie and Celie’s mom), had two children just before she died that she was unable to care for—Olivia and Adam. Samuel never told Corrine about how he got the children, they just considered the kids gifts from God. Samuel says that when Nettie showed up, he assume that his ex-friend ("Pa") had been messing around with a young girl and that Nettie was the kids’ real mom. That’s why he so willingly took her in. shug and celie have a discussion about what god looks like. what is your god like? Not going to lie — I don’t exactly have the words to currently answer this question! This is something I’m going to need to think about more, before I answer. how does celie start to provide for herself when she’s with shug? She started making and selling pants. do you have any thoughts or comments on how the women’s relationships with one another in this book help them to face their struggles? It’s VERY clear by the first page that men hold all the power and women have to decide whether to try to fiercely (and sometimes unsuccessfully) fight against their men or to be completely trampled on. The only ones who can easily stand up for themselves are women like Shug who are financially independent. However, the women in this novel have found strength in numbers!!!! And it gets better for them when they stand together and learn to stick up for themselves — the men loosing their power because the women refuse to abide by it.

[lizardbooks]

ME BEFORE YOUR ;; chapters 10-epilogue 

where does lou plan to take will? how did she find this place? After talking with her online friends, Lou's finally figured out a locale for the trip—the Four Wind Ranch in California. It's specially designed for quadriplegics, allowing them to engage in a bunch of fun activities they never would be able to otherwise. what happens when patrick discovers what exactly lou’s work trip will entail? after this scene, where do we next see lou? Patrick demands that she cancel the trip, but Lou tells him that Will needs her. Lou then moves into the Traynor house. just before they’re to leave, what happens to will? He is struck by pneumonia. where do lou, will and nathan end up going? how does the trip go? They go to Mauritius, a small tropical island off the coast of Madagascar. At first, Will isn’t feeling too well but by the third day, he’s more himself. Lou goes scuba diving, Nathan meets a native, and Will is having a great time!! on their last night, what does lou confess to will? how does he respond and what does he tell her of his future plans? Lou kisses Will. Will stops Lou. It's not that he doesn't want to, but that he knows he can't give her the life he wants to give her. Kissing her reminds him of that. Lou reveals that she knows about Will's plan. She tries to convince him that his life is worth living and even tells him that she loves him, but he's resolute—he's going through with it. The conversation doesn't end well, to say the least. when teena clears the messages off the answering machine, what does she find? when lou calls the person back, what do they want? It’s Camilla Traynor. Will is still alive, and Mrs. Traynor has booked Lou a flight out to Switzerland that night. how does the novel end? how do you feel about this ending and about the novel in general? The novel ends with Will dying. After his death, Lou is continuing with school and goes to that cafe in Paris where she opens a letter from Will that was written before his death. The letter explains that Will is leaving Lou a small amount of money so she can go through with her education. He also tells her that she should live life with a new sense of zeal, though he knows that it will be hard at first. So I loved this book!!!!! The ending was so sad (in the movie, it actually made me cry a little which is huge b/c I don’t really cry from movies). before his accident, will was a philanderer and a corporate raider who would probably never have given louisa a second look. why is it that people are so often unable to see what’s truly important until they’ve experienced loss?  I think it all comes back to “you don’t know what you have until it’s gone”. I think it is very easy to get caught up in what you think is important and all of those superficial things that seemed like there were everything, become nothing. I think loss really puts a focus on your life and you reevaluate everything and basically it has the potential to cause a huge shift in your life and the way you look at things.

[lizardbooks]

LES MISÉRABLES ;; part three: books 1-5

where do little gavroche’s parents live?  His family lives in the same apartment building that Jean Valjean used to live in. Unfortunately, Gavroche's family dislikes him and does nothing for him, even though he's just a little boy. how did monsieur gillenormand come to care for marius? So, Monsieur Gillenormand had two daughters with two different wives. The older daughter still lives with him, but the younger one died at thirty. This other daughter had married a soldier who fought under Napoleon. Monsieur Gillenormand has always despised this son-in-law and considers him a disgrace to the family because he fought for Napoleon. Or in other words, he fought for an army that stood for everything Gillenormand hates – like democracy and revolution. Monsieur Gillenormand lives with his older daughter. The only other person living with them is Monsieur Gillenormand's grandson (Marius), who is the son of Gillenormand's dead daughter, and therefore the son of the military man who Gillenormand considers a disgrace to the family. what last request does pontmercy make of marius? Marius reads one last letter that his father wrote to him. It claims that his father was made a baron by Napoleon, but that this title hasn't been acknowledged since Napoleon's defeat. It also tells the story of how the man's life was saved by someone named Thénardier at Waterloo. The man's dying wish is for Marius to find Thénardier and repay the favor. how does knowing the truth about his father change marius? The more he reads about his father, the more Marius comes to identify with the French Revolution's ideals of freedom. His whole life, he's been taught by his grandfather to look down on his father and the Revolution. But that's all changing now. who are the friends of the abc and how does marius come to know them? On the surface, it simply aims to educate children. But its real mission is to raise a generation of revolutionaries MUHAHAHAHAHA. • One day, a member of the ABC Society named Laigle de Meaux sees Marius (who has just been banished from his grandpa's house) driving around in a carriage and not knowing where to go. Laigle recognizes Marius from law school and tells Marius the story of how he [Laigle] sacrificed himself in role call and posed as Marius in order to keep Marius' name from being registered as absent. Thanks, dude. At this same time, another ABC Society guy named Courfeyrac comes out of a bar and hears Marius say that he has nowhere to go. He offers for Marius to stay with him, since he's a wealthy young man with his own place. They become quick friends over the next few days. how does marius’ speech in defense of napoleon go over? One day, Courfeyrac asks Marius point-blank about his political opinions. Marius says he believes in Napoleon and democracy, which is a radical thing to say. But Courfeyrac laughs at him for not being radical enough. how does marius help his neighbors? One day, Marius learns that his neighbors in the next apartment, the Jondrette family, are about to be turned out for not paying their rent. He doesn't have much money, but he has enough to pay their rent and buy them some food. He asks the landlady not to tell them where the money came from, though. what scheme does marius’ aunt devise? how does it go? She decides to replace Marius with Théodule. She instructs him to just agree with everything that her father says, but it doesn’t go well and her dad just thinks Théodule is a fool and honestly just wants Marius back.

[lizardbooks]

ME BEFORE YOU ;; chapters 14-19

for what does will receive an invitation? how does he react and what does lou do with the invitation? He received an invitation to Rupert and Alicia’s wedding (wow!!! that won’t be awkward at all). Lou asks him if he wants to throw it out and he kind of says yes, but since he isn’t super definite about it, she keeps it, just in case. while on an outing, lou and will both get tattoos. do you have any tattoos? if not, would you like to get some, someday? I don’t have any tattoos and probably won’t ever get any … but if I had to get one, I would probably get 1-4-3 tattooed somewhere small. It’s how my grandparents used to sign their letters and it meant “I love you.” where does lou’s father get a job? what is significant about this? He has a new job working maintenance at the castle … which means he will be working for Mr. Traynor. what is the sleeping arrangement problem at lou’s house? how does will propose to solve it? what does patrick then decide? Lou moved into Treena’s room after Treena went away to college, but Treena and Thomas both come back on weekends, so that means they are in Lou’s old room, which is so tiny … which caused the Clarke parents to give up their room and sleep in the living room, which made Lou feel really bad. So she goes to Patrick’s on weekends now, but that isn’t working out that well, either. Anyway, she comes to work exhausted and when Will asks her what’s up, she tells him and he offers her the spare room in the annex that no one is using. She decides to do that, until Patrick finds out and that does not sit well with him, so that’s when Patrick decides that he and Lou are ready to move in together. who visits will through the back door of the annex? what is strange about this visit and what does lou later discover about his profession? A man dressed professionally and carrying a briefcase comes to call through the back door of the annex. He asks to speak with Will privately. Lou is super curious about what they are meeting about and while she doesn’t eavesdrop, she does go and talk to him after and finds out that he is a lawyer, specializing in wills … why does will ask lou if she’s free on saturday? how does their outgoing go? He wants to go to Alicia and Rupert’s wedding together. At the reception, Will engages in a series of interactions, some of which are stilted and awkward, some of which are surprisingly normal. He seems to be having a great time. Lou ends up talking to a woman named Mary Rawlinson, who helps people looking to take part in adult education. She gives Lou her card. Alicia and Rupert finally come by to say hello. It isn't the most charming interaction in the world, but it could have gone a lot worse. while dancing, what does lou get will to agree to do? He agrees to go on a real trip with her, somewhere. what does lou fail to do which greatly worries nathan?  He wasn’t a fan of how she cared for Will when they were at the wedding. She let him drink a lot, which isn’t good for him.

[lizardbooks]

EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED ;; 17 november 1997 to 22 november 1998

what does jonathan write in his diary? when alex reads a section, how does he feel about it? He says that it is notes for his story. Alex reads a passage, which is actually about him. He's kind of angry that Jonathan is writing about him, then he feels sad, grateful, and angry again, over and over in circles. what happened in trachimbrod when the nazis invaded, according to not-augustine? The Nazis lined up everyone and forced them to either spit on the Torah or be shot. Most people spit. Except for Not-Augustine's father. He refused to. So the General shot her sister, and she fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes (that's why the fallen potato made Not-Augustine cry earlier). They then pull down Not-Augustine's older sister's underwear and put the gun there. Her father still refuses to spit, so they shoot her there. Horribly, she doesn't die. She crawls away, leaving a trail of blood behind her. So then they put the gun to her father's head. "Spit,” the General said, and we will kill you. And he spit. The sister's baby died, but she did not. She later crawled back to Trachimbrod and nothing was left, so she took everything she could find: gold fillings, hair. She bought the house closest to Trachimbrod and promised to stay there until death: It was her punishment for surviving. what does alex’s grandfather ask alex for down on the beach? Grandfather wants Alex's savings so that he can find Augustine. He won't take Alex or Little Igor with him: he wants to go alone. Alex doesn't think that Grandfather will ever find Augustine, and he wonders what to do. who is in the photograph that jonathan pulls out of the IN CASE box? what does grandfather have to say about them? Jonathan pulls out a photo of… Grandfather. Whaa??? He looks just like Alex (the younger) in the picture. Grandfather has a hard time explaining this, eventually saying that the woman in the photograph is his wife. She is holding Alex's father. And the man with them is Herschel. Herschel was a Jew and Grandfather’s best friend. Grandfather admits that he murdered him. safran arranges his books by the color of their spine. how do you arrange your books? I arrange them by author. :) I’ve thought about arranging them by subject matter and then author or even by color, but both of those methods seem like they would get complicated, so I’ve stuck to my by author method. I do also have a section that are children’s books that are all together on a tall shelf since that’s the only place where they fit, but other than that, everything else is by author. what happened with grandfather and herschel in illumination? He and Herschel were best friends, but Herschel was a Jew and so when the Germans came to town and lined everyone up and asked who was a Jew, Grandfather turns over his friend in order to save his family. Herschel begged and begged, but Grandfather does it anyway and Herschel is sent to the synagogue to be burned with the rest of the Jews. what does the letter from grandfather to jonathan say? It explains that Alex gave all of his money to his father and told him to leave and never come back. He knows that this is what is best for the family, but he also doesn’t want to be a burden to them, so that’s why he killed himself. what did you think of this book? So, while I did enjoy it, I will say that I was a little disappointed. I lOVED extremely loud and incredibly close so much, that I had pretty high expectations for this one, as well. This book didn’t grab me at the start and honestly took several chapters before I was at all invested. It definitely had some chapters (specifically the WW2 flashbacks) that were supER emotional and intense and I did love those. I definitely did expect a little more from the end, though.

[lizardbooks]

ME BEFORE YOU ;; chapters 7-13

after lou cuts will’s hair, who visits the annex? what does lou then overhear? She overhears a woman shouting about how "selfish" Will is. Will introduces her to Lou as Georgina, his sister, who currently lives in Australia. what deal does will strike with camilla? why does she agree to do it? Mrs. Traynor confirms that Will tried to kill himself in January. She also reveals that he made her promise to take him someplace called "Dignitas" after an agreed-upon six-month period (which Georgina responded to with anger and horror). Dignitas is a place where they help with assisted suicide … so basically, Will agreed to give them six more months … and then he wants to die. what does treena suggest lou do for will? She thinks that Lou should take Will on a bunch of trips to convince him that life is worth living. how do the traynors react to lou’s plans for will? Camilla, Steven, and Georgina Traynor are all surprised when Lou tells them about her plan. Mrs. Traynor seems oddly hesitant, but Lou says that she'll quit if they refuse. where does lou, nathan and will go on their outing? how does the day go? Lou’s decided to take Will to the horse races under the guise of giving Nathan his first experience at the track. Will reluctantly agrees. Things go wrong almost immediately. When they reach the parking lot, our heroes realize that it's a grass field, which will cause Will to "sink" if he wheels across it. Strike one. After carrying Will toward the entrance (slowly), they make their way to their seats. And it starts raining. Strike two. Will impatiently asks how long they'll have to stay, though Nathan seems to be getting into it. They decide to grab lunch after a race or two. When they arrive at the restaurant, however, our heroes learn that it's only open to visitors with "Premier Area" badges, which our trio does not have. Lou lets loose on the server, but it doesn't help things at all. And that's strike three, folks. After getting a small lunch at a food stand, our trio decides to head back to the car. There's just one problem: the rain has turned the grass into mud, making it impossible for Lou and Nathan to lug Will across the field. Lou finds a group of veterans and lies to them, saying that Will was disabled during the Iraq War, in order to get their help. And they do help. Quite drunkenly, we might add. Back at the house, Will is giving Lou the cold shoulder. He finally tells her that he's always hated horses, and that she would have known that if she had just asked him. lou recalls the exact day she stopped being fearless. are you or have you ever been fearless? is there a distinct moment in your life when you remember passing from the innocence of childhood into adulthood? I wouldn’t describe myself as fearless … at all. I mean, I’ve had my moments, but for the most part, I’m not (and I wouldn’t say that i ever have been. I feel like I’m definitely more cautious and timid as a person, tbh). I also don’t really remember an exact moment that marked my passing from a child to an adult? I feel like that just sort of gradually happened. I guess, if I had to choose, it would be going off to college? I’d been homeschooled and led a super sheltered life up to that point, and was definitely just kind of thrown out into the world (was soooo shocked that first night talking w/ my roommates haha). 
what does will attempt to give lou tickets to see? what is her one requirement for going? He has tickets to see an orchestra — one of his friends is the lead violinist. Lou isn’t super interested in going, but she promises that she will: if only Will goes with her. 
how does will come to meet lou’s parents? how does the evening go and what does will give lou?  Lou invites Will to her birthday dinner. It's a little awkward at first, but Will quickly hits it off with both of her parents. Lou's dad seems to get a real kick out of this upper-class bloke. Patrick—a little bit less so. He arrives unfashionably late and immediately gets confrontational with Will, pushing the idea that he could recover if he only exercised more. It's gift time. Lou's parents give her a lovely photo album. Patrick gives her a necklace that is "not remotely Lou”. Will, on the other hand, blows them all out of the water. He gets Lou two pairs of her precious bumblebee tights—custom-made. Before leaving, Will alludes to Lou's skills at giving baths to Patrick. Awkward.

[lizardbooks]

EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED ; overture to the commencement of a very rigid journey to the dial, 1941-1804-1941

have you ever read this book before or seen the movie? If not, what do you know of the story?  I’ve never read this book before nor I have seen the movie! I don’t really know anything about it, except what I remember from the movie previews … which was just Elijah Wood in a suit and glasses standing in a field of sunflowers. 
 where did alex’s grandfather work and why is he coming out of retirement?  He worked for Heritage Touring as a driver. He decided to come out of retirement to drive around a young Jewish American man who needs to get to the town where his grandfather lived. He is looking for a woman named Augustine who saved his grandfather’s life during the war. why did yankel’s wife leave him? how did she break the news to him?  She left him to go be with another man. She told him that she was leaving by leaving a simple note that said: I have to do this for me on his door. Apparently she would leave notes like that all the time to him and Yankel was struck by how casual it was … and just like that, she was gone. what is brod’s role in the parade? have you ever been in a parade before? She is the Float Queen. She’s dressed like a little mermaid and it is her job to throw bunch of sacks into the river, so the men can dive in and retrieve them. I have been in a parade, once. When I was about ten I was in a production of The Nutcracker and my town has an annual Christmas-themed parade and so a bunch of us from the ballet company were in it. I was a teddy bear, lol. 
what happens to brod on her way home from the parade? what does she discover when she finally arrives?  Brod has to evade all of the drunks who follow her. Except one. It doesn’t go into detail, but given the chapter beforehand, its highly implied that she was raped. Anyway, despite that, she seems to be in a very good mood when she comes home to find Yankel … that is, until she discovers that he’s dead. (So night really a great day for her, at all! :/) what is alex saving his money for? For his trip to America. He means to move there as soon as he has saved enough. He’s fascinated by the country and is constantly asking Jonathan for articles to read about it. It seems that he mainly wants to go there, however, so that his little brother, Little Igor, can have a better life. how does the search for trachimbrod go? they drive all over the countryside, looking for Trachimbrod (no one knows where the heck it is) or Augustine (no one knows who the heck she is, either). Eventually they find a woman who, like everyone else, has never heard of Trachimbrod or Sofiowka. However, she does seem to recognize the woman in the photograph. Then she admits that they are in Trachimbrod. "You are here. I am it"  what happens to the kolker after he gets the job at the mill? One day a saw blade spins off its bearings and embeds itself vertically in the Kolker's skull… But somehow, he lives. Sadly, he has brutal mood swings, and abuses Brod (and others) verbally and physically.

[lizardbooks]

ME BEFORE YOU ;; prologue - chapter 6

have you read this novel before or anything else by jojo moyes? what do you know of this story? I’ve never read anything before by Jojo Moyes, but I have seen the film, so if it is close to the movie, I know most of what happens. as the novel opens, what is will’s life like? what happens to him at the end of the prologue? His life is basically perfect! He’s got a great apartment in the city and a beautiful girlfriend and a great job. He’s on top of the world. But that all changes in an instant when he is in an accident and becomes paralyzed. what major event has just transpired in lou’s life when we meet her? How will this affect her family and how does she mean to resolve it? She looses her job. It’s not from anything that she’s done: the cafe where she works has to close. And it sucks because her family is poor and they all live together (she, her single mom sister and her kid, her parents, and her grandfather). And so they were all counting on her income. Anyway, she’s determined to find a new job, so she goes down to the employment office to try to find something else that’s suitable. lou’s interview with mrs. traynor is something of a small disaster. What have your job interviews been like? Have any been especially memorable? I’ve had a couple of interviews. I don’t think any of them went terribly (even the ones where I didn’t get the job)??? The most memorable was for sure at the news station where I work now because they hired me on the spot (was not expecting that!). The most intense one I’ve ever had was when I applied to work at the library. It was only a part-time position but there was like a three part process and the interview was the final thing. what big decision has treena recently made? what does this announcement mean for lou? She’s decided to go back to college, which means that Lou needs to keep this job since Treena won’t be working anymore. why do rupert and alicia visit? how does will react to their news? They visit to tell Will that they are getting married (ouch). He’s calm (at first) but when Lou is making tea in the next room, she hears a bunch of crashing and he’s knocked all of the pictures of him an Alicia together to the ground, shattering the frame. what surprises lou at the hospital? why do you think this is significant? She accidentally goes into the examination room before he’s finished with the doctor and he has his shirt off. She leaves quickly, but not before noticing that there are vivid red scar marks on his wrists … meaning that he’s tried to kill himself in the past. why does lou have to stay the night? where does mrs. traynor find her in the morning?  Lou stays the night because of the snow storm. Mrs. Traynor finds her and Will asleep in Will’s bed together the next morning. So … awkward.

[lizardbooks]

THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN ;; rachel: saturday, august 10, 2013 - rachel: tuesday, september 10, 2013

what does rachel remember when she revisits the underpass? She remembers watching Anna getting into Tom's car, but Anna was supposed to be at home (because Anna told the police she saw Rachel that night). after tom says he saw rachel, rather than spoke with her on the phone as he’d said originally, what does anna begin to wonder? She remembers the good ol' days, back when Tom was cheating on Rachel with her: "I'm a good liar", he used to tell Anna. Anna talks herself out of her slump by convincing herself that Tom would never lie to her; she knows when he's telling the truth. (Yeah, right, honey—you keep thinking that.) That night, however, Anna realizes that Tom did lie to her: He said he had a meeting when he was really talking to Rachel in person. Growing suspicious, Anna cracks open a bottle of wine and tries to guess the password for Tom's laptop. what happens when rachel goes to scott’s house the day before her job interview? When Rachel gets to Scott's place, he's been drinking. He's upset because the DNA results came back… and Megan's wasn't pregnant with his child. It was another man's baby. Yikes. Scott flips out and grabs Rachel, demanding she tell him about all of Megan's lovers. Oh wait—she can't because she never knew Megan. Scott gets even angrier because Detective Riley told Scott that Rachel was just "a sad little liar with no life”. Dang. He grabs Rachel's purse and shakes out all its contents. Her phone clatters onto the table, and Scott reads the screen—it's a text confirming her appointment with Dr. Abdic and now he thinks Rachel was in cahoots with Abdic. He drags her upstairs and locks her in a spare bedroom. Rachel scrambles around for something to defend herself when Scott comes back. She finds a broken photo of Scott and Megan and she grabs a shard of glass, just in case. Scott returns with the list Rachel made way back in Chapter 7. He mocks her and calls her pathetic and tells her to get out of his house. Rachel runs for it and escapes. who is andy and what is learned from him? Andy is the mysterious red-haired man. This time when Rachel sees him, she speaks to him and asks him about what happened the night Megan disappeared. He says she'd fallen and cut herself and her "bloke” was heading the other direction. Could that have been Tom? Andy says the other man was with a woman. He offered to go after them, but Rachel told him not to. what does anna discover in tom’s gym bag? to whom does it belong? She isn’t sure at first because there isn’t much on it. But going through the messages, she’s certain that he is having an affair. When she calls the outgoing message, she realizes that it isn’t Tom’s phone: it’s Megan’s. when rachel was with tom, he used to tell her how she’d acted when she was drunk, especially the more violent occasions. what does she come to remember about these incidents? who does she remember actually seeing get into the car with tom on that saturday? Rachel realizes that "everything is a lie”. She didn't hit Tom with the golf club—he swung it at her. And she's positive Tom hit her that night in the underpass. One more memory returns to Rachel in this short chapter: It wasn't Anna getting into the car with Tom… it was Megan. who killed megan and why? It was Tom. They were having an affair. Megan confessed the affair to Scott and when he freaked out on her, she contacted Tom. She told him that she was pregnant with his kid and he told her to get rid of it. She told him that she wasn’t going to do that and he got angry and killed her. how does this novel end? how did you like the ending? the novel overall? It ends with Rachel killing Tom. Anna and Rachel explain together to the cops that it was self defense. Rachel tries to rebuild her life after receiving a good bit of money from her mom. So … I liked this book, but I didn’t love it. The most annoying part was that it was super obvious the entire time that it was Tom??? And to be honest, that’s usually the ~main~ draw for me for murder mysteries — is trying to figure it out … but there wasn’t even any time to do it here. But overall, I did enjoy the book. I thought it was well written and it was fast paced. I read it a few years ago at the beach and it was a nice vacation read.

[lizardbooks]

LADY SUSAN ;; the entire novella

as the novel opens, where is susan going and why? She’s a widow has been staying with the Manwarings. She’s been flirting with Mr. Manwaring a LOT and so that’s obviously nOT been appropriate behavior at all (on top of it, Manwaring has not only been flirting back, but he is now in love with her). So Susan has to leave. She’s going to stay with her late husband’s brother’s family. They aren’t exactly eager to receive her since she tried to break up their marriage before it happened, but she’s family and so they don’t feel they can turn her away. of all the accomplishments a lady can possess, which ones does susan believe to be the most important? what does she hope Frederica will achieve in her education? Grace and manner (of which Frederica has neither — at least according to her mother). But her mother is less concerned with educating her daughter and would rather just have her married and settled. She’s been trying to get her to marry Sir James (who Frederica will not have). She’s sent her to school as a punishment until she agrees to finally marry him. who does alicia wish susan to marry? what are susan’s objections? Alicia wants her to marry Mrs. Vernon’s brother, Reginald. He’s wealthy and the only son of a Count, so even though he’s young, Susan would gain a lot from this marriage. Susan doesn’t find him super appealing though b/c his father would have to die before they could get his fortune and she doesn’t feel like waiting around for that to happen. when sir james shows up at churchill, to whom does frederica apply to persuade her mother to send him away? how does susan react and what does she believe to be the relationship between frederica and this person? Frederica has been forbidden by her mother to go to either her aunt or uncle for help re: Sir James, so she goes to the only other person she feels she can: Reginald. After talking with her, he agrees that she should not be forced to marry him and takes her side against her mother on this which causes a rift between Susan and Reginald. just when reginald is to leave churchill, how does susan make amends? why does she decide to preserve their relationship? All she had to do was to tell him that she didn’t want him to leave because of her, and that she should be the one to leave. She also promises to send away Sir James (which she does, although she still has no intentions to stop trying to get him and her daughter together). how does reginald come to change his opinion of susan? Okay!!! So Reginald is visiting Susan and she’s alSO expecting Manwaring (which is bad -- and she does nOT want them to meet) so she sends him with a note to Alicia, hoping that Alicia will keep him distracted until she can get rid of Manwaring. Well, Alicia is out and Mrs. Manwaring is there meeting with Mr. Johnson aBOUT her relationship with her husband/his relationship with Susan. So it all comes out and Reginald finally see what kind of person Susan really is. how does this story end? what are your thoughts on the ending? on the novella overall?  Lady Susan ends up marrying Sir James herself. Frederica goes to live with her aunt and uncle and eventually marries Reginald. Alicia is banned from having any more contact with Lady Susan by her husband. The Manwarings separate. I loved!!!! this book so much!!!!!! It was so fun and I love how it was written entirely by letters and how you see so much of their POV and how they change based on who they writing, etc. It was such a fun read!!!!

[lizardbooks]

TWILIGHT ;; chapters 7-12

what does bella dream? Bella has a dream that she's in the woods with Jacob. Jacob senses something dangerous and seems to become a red-brown wolf. Edward appears, revealing vampire fangs while and telling Bella to trust him. The wolf leaps at Edward to protect Bella. She wakes up screaming, "No!” what happens when bella tries to find a bookstore on her own? Some sketchy guys start to follow her and then corner her and on top of that, she’s lost. She’s not sure what to do and trying to remember self-defense techniques when a Volvo pulls out and the driver tells her to get it. It’s Edward. by the end of chapter nine, of what is bella absolutely certain? She’s certain about three things 1) that Edward is a vampire; 2) that part of him thirsted for her blood; and 3) that she was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him (which is the most surprising thing b/c damn!!! that was so fast!!!!) when jessica sees bella and edward together, what questions does she want to ask? how does edward say bella should answer? She wants to know if they are secretly dating and how Bella fells about him. Edward tells her to say yes to the first question … it’s easiest to explain, that way. She also tells Jessica that she likes Edward a lot, more than he likes her. (Edward contradicts this and says that that’s not at all true). Why does Mike say that he doesn’t like Edward and Bella as a couple? He says he doesn’t like the way that Edward looks at Bella. He says that he looks at her like she’s something to eat (HA). how do edward’s sisters feel about his relationship with Bella? His sister, Alice, is super encouraging but his sister Rosalie is less pleased. Edward says that it is more about the situation, than Bella herself. Since everyone sees them together, it is a risk to them all if something should happen to Bella, after spending so much time with Edward.

[lizardbooks]

THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN ;; rachel: sunday, july 21, 2013 - megan: thursday, june 20, 2013 

what happens at rachel’s meeting with scott hipwell? why does he later call her? Scott invites her in and fixes her some tea. They talk for a bit, and Rachel says she's Tom's ex-wife and used to live down the street. (truth) Then she says she knew Megan from the gallery (lie), and that she saw Megan outside with another man (truth) and they were kissing (also true). She describes the man, and Scott wonders if it's her therapist, Kamal Abdic. They go online, and Rachel looks at the picture. Yep—the secret smoocher was totally Dr. Abdic, Megan's therapist. He calls her later and thanks her for the info and says that he told the cops to check up on the good doctor. They'd already talked to him but they said they'd speak with him again. Scott mentions he saw Tom, Rachel's ex, too. Tom asked Scott if he was okay, like a good neighbor. That's sweet of him. Scott didn't tell Tom he knew Rachel, though, which Rachel is glad about. Scott continues talking, telling Rachel he feels guilty. The night Megan disappeared, she and Scott had a huge fight (he won't say why), and she stormed out. Scott didn't go after her and he wonders if she would be okay if he had. who is arrested in connection with megan’s disappearance?  Kamal Abdic. what is discovered in corly wood? Megan’s body. why does megan visit kamal on june 13th? what does she reveal to him? Megan starts off by apologizing for what happened the night before, and then she tells him about her brief relationship with Mac after her brother died. She got pregnant, and even though she couldn't take care of the baby, she still had it, and named her Libby. One day, Mac left her for days. Megan was cold so she climbed into the bathtub with the baby. She fell asleep, though, and the baby drowned. Yikes. who does rachel meet on the train after lunching with her mother? what is revealed about that saturday? On the way home, the red-haired man sits next to Rachel on the train. Thinking about that Saturday night brings back a bad memory of Rachel being hit and knocked to the ground. She's afraid of the red-haired man so she moves away from him to a different train car. When she sits down, she has another weird memory: a woman in a blue dress walking away from her. Anna. why does scott believe he’s the prime suspect? Kamal has been released and there is evidence that Scott was emotionally abusive … plus he didn’t seem to react distraught enough at the news about Megan’s death. what news about megan’s condition at the time of her death, does scott receive on august 7th? She was pregnant. after megan finishes sharing her story with kamal, what does he say he believes to be the cause of her insomnia?  He thinks she’s afraid … falling asleep is what killed her child.

[lizardbooks]

LES MISÉRABLES ;; part 2: books 4-8

who is the beggar who jean valjean has been giving alms to unwittingly? Javer!! who rescues jean valjean and cosette? The old man is none other than Fauchelevent, who Valjean saved from being crushed to death beneath a cart.  how did jean valjean’s pursuer know that he was in Paris?  When he hears the story of a man in Paris who lives like a poor person but clearly has a lot of money to dish out to beggars. Javert also learns that this man has a small girl living with him. The associations come together and Javert decides to check it out by dressing up as a beggar.  hugo describes the convent in great detail. what do you think are its most notable qualities? how do you think jean valjean and cosette will be impacted by this place and the people who live there?  The intense!!! rules and dedications they have there!!! Life there is super strict … which totally makes sense considering that it a convent and private school for young girls. But yeah, I think they will still be happy because they are close together, but they can’t spend as much time together. They’ve both suffered way worse than this though, so I think that they are going to be okay … for now, they are away from Javert so that’s good! what request does fauchelevent make of the prioress? He tells the nun that his age is catching up with him and he needs assistance in his job. He asks whether his brother can come help him and live with him. Oh yeah, and his "brother" also has a young granddaughter whom he'd like to be educated in the convent. what task does the prioress demand of fauchelevent? She wants Fauchelevent to help her make sure that the dead nun is buried inside the convent – underneath the chapel floor, in fact. This is totally illegal, but the nuns don't care. It was their friend's dying wish and they think it'll bring a special blessing to their convent. what plan do jean valjean and fauchelevent devise to get jean valjean out of the convent?  Fauchelevent realizes that if he buries the dead nun inside the convent, the Paris authorities will still expect him to bury a casket in the town cemetery, since the city officials have already learned of the nun's death. That means that Fauchelevent will have to take an empty casket out of the convent and bury it in the city cemetery. And Fauchelevent plans on putting Jean Valjean nside the empty casket. what complication arises as jean valjean makes his escape? how does this turn out?  Fauchelevent gets ready to dig the grave, but he's unpleasantly surprised to meet a municipal gravedigger who's very eager to do his job. Fauchelevent was hoping that the city gravedigger would be his old drinking buddy, Mestienne. But it turns out that Mestienne has died. Fauchelevent tries to pry the new gravedigger away from the burial site with offers of booze, but nothing doing. The guy is really dedicated to his job and not a drinker. More and more dirt falls on top of the coffin until Jean Valjean is buried alive. Fauchelevent eventually has no choice but to pickpocket the new gravedigger and steal his gravedigger's license. Apparently that's a thing. When Fauchelevent asks to see the license, the new gravedigger is shocked to find that he doesn't have it on him. He runs home to go get it, which gives Fauchelevent enough time to dig up Jean Valjean and set him free.

[lizardbooks]

ONE FOR THE MONEY ;; chapters 10-14

what did stephanie find hanging from her fire escape? who, do we find out, is responsible for this? Lula! :/ She’s naked and has been beaten bloody. She was left there by (surprise, surprise) Ramirez. after leaving the shooting range, who does stephanie find in her house? what does this person propose to her? She finds Morelli. He’s just casually in her house, making her dinner and when she comes he, he tries to make a deal with her. Basically, he tells her his side of the story and says that they can work together to solve this thing. He knows Ramirez is behind all of it and he thinks that they can use Stephanie as bait, and finally get Ramirez behind bars. when stephanie goes to alpha’s, what does he tell her about what morelli told him about lula? do you believe him? Morelli is trying to get Lula to press charges, but since she’s a prostitute, she doesn’t think she has that much credibility and anything she says will probably just make things worse for her. Anyway, Alpha says he’s going to get Ramirez into therapy and that he won’t let him hurt anyone else … which is complete BS b/c he doesn’t exert much control over Ramirez because at the end of the day, Ramirez is his paycheck and he doesn’t want to lose that. who comes to stephanie’s door, and what does this person tell her?  It’s Morty Beyers. He’s still (obviously) recovering but he says he’s back to work, which means that the Morelli case is his again. He is there to take all of her files back … which will definitely make things more complicated with another PI sniffing around on Morelli’s trail! what happens to morty beyers? He doesn’t have a car, so he decides to go and take Morelli’s off of Stephanie’s hands. He knows she won’t report him, since she already stole it from Morelli (although she can’t tell him that Morelli said it was okay for her to use it, without blowing everything), so she goes down to try to stop him, but she’s not quick enough. Beyers gets into the car and turns it on and a second later, he gets blown up. Someone had been trying to kill Stephanie, but got Beyers instead. what characteristic does the witness have supposedly? where does stephanie think she has found him? He’s got a flat face (like he had been bit with a frying pan). She thinks he might work at the butcher shop, so she goes down there to investigate. how does the book end? Stephanie and Morelli follow the flat nose man and traces of heroin that link the boat to the illegal drug traffic run by a local gang. They then follow the trail to a freezer truck, where they find oil drums containing the bodies of Carmen and the witness. Morelli despairs, knowing that this has practically eliminated the chances of him clearing his name. Stephanie advocates calling the police, but Morelli refuses, tossing in a remark about her ineptitude as a bounty hunter that stings her into locking him in the freezer truck and driving it to the police station to hand him over. Returning home, Stephanie is held at gunpoint by Alpha, who tells her that managing a champion boxer like Ramirez is every promoter's dream, but Ramirez has become a sadistic psychopath, and Alpha can't control him any longer. Alpha has tried to "diversify" by using his earnings from Ramirez to buy other businesses, such as the butcher shop, but was lured into using his boat and his businesses to assist in the Jamaicans' drug trade. Carmen was on the verge of telling the truth to Morelli, which is why Ziggy killed her before Morelli arrived, and the witness took Ziggy's gun after Morelli shot him. So now, Alpha will have to have Ramirez rape and torture her to death, before Alpha shoots him and retires peacefully. Stephanie shoves Alpha to the ground, taking a bullet in her rear end from Alpha's gun, before grabbing her purse and emptying her revolver into Alpha's heart. Thanks to a microphone hidden on her by Morelli, Alpha's confession was recorded and clears Morelli's name.  did you like this book? do you think you will continue on with the series? There were some things i liked and others I didn’t??? Overall, I think I liked the book, but didn’t love it. I felt that the humor didn’t always blend well with the more serious tone at times? Like Ramirez is such an intense and disturbing character, but the rest of it plays out like a fun action rom com, but then you have this super sadistic guy and it just ??? felt weird to me??? Like, I’m all about blending genres and doing things differently, but this just felt disjointed. Also, I had mixed feelings about Stephanie? Sometimes, I really liked her and other times i found her pretty annoying.

[lizardbooks]

THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN ;; rachel: friday, july 5, 2013 - anna: saturday, july 20, 2013

have you read this novel previously? what do you know of this story? I hadn’t read this book before and I didn’t know anything about the story. Except that there was a girl who rode a train everyday to London and that someone got murdered. what does rachel reveal about the people who live in number fifteen blenheim road? about those in number twenty-three? Number fifteen is her favorite house to watch from the train. Rachel imagines the couple she often sees hanging outside the house on their lovely terrace as Jason and Jess, "a perfect, golden couple”. Rachel tells us that she used to live at twenty-three Blenheim Road, a few houses down from number fifteen. Now Tom lives there with Anna, and they've had a baby together. why is megan out of work? where does she eventually find a job and why does she end up leaving? She used to have an art gallery, but it had to shut down. After that, she became a nanny for Anna and Tom, but she only worked for them for like two days before she quit. She was there to help Anna and give her a break, but Anna ended up doing everything, anyway, so Megan felt like there wasn’t much point. where does rachel go on saturday night? what happens?She decides to go see "Jason" and tell him that she saw his wife with another man. Rachel has clearly been drinking. She gets off the right subway stop and bumps into a man with red hair, and… It's the next morning already. Rachel had a black out, and she doesn't remember what happened. what does rachel see on the yahoo homepage when she signs into her email? She sees that Jess (aka Megan) had been missing since Saturday. who is mac and what is his significance? So when Ben, her brother, died, and when she was nineteen she moved in with a man named Craig McKenzie, or Mac. They broke up but she still thinks about him a lot and has even googled him on occasion. why do the police visit rachel? the next day, what does she decide to tell them and how does that interview go? Embarrassed about her blackout—and maybe afraid of what she may have done while out of it—she concocts a story for the police, saying she went to see Tom, decided it was a bad idea, and came back home. Detective Inspector Gaskill says they knew Rachel was in the area because Anna, Tom's new wife, said she saw Rachel nearby, "acting strangely”. D.I. Gaskill asks Rachel if she saw Megan but she says she doesn't remember. The next morning, Rachel decides to go to the police and come clean. It only makes things worse, though, and she gets on the bad side of Detective Sergeant Riley, a female officer who thinks Rachel is a mentally unstable stalker. (Um… she's kind of right.) Rachel tells them she's only been pretending to go to work so that her roommate, Cathy, doesn't find out she was fired. Yeah, that's totally sane. #sarcasm DS Riley brings up an incident from the past: Rachel kidnapped Anna's baby. According to Rachel, she went to see Tom, but Anna was asleep and the baby was crying, so Rachel picked her up to quiet her. While Rachel tells the cops this story, she thinks about her own fertility issues. Unable to have a baby, Rachel got deeply depressed; that's when she started drinking and her marriage fell apart. The police reveal that Anna and Megan knew each other since Megan babysat for them. Rachel has a revelation of her own: Megan was having an affair. She describes Megan's secret boyfriend, but the police don't really seem to believe her; they tell Rachel to stay the heck away from everyone involved in this case. what is the result of rachel’s second email to scott?  She lies and said she knew Megan from the art gallery. Scott responds, giving Rachel his phone number and asking her to call him. She does, and Scott wants to talk in person. She makes plans to see him that night.

[lizardbooks]

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES ;; chapters 44-61

rather than marrying her, what is believed wickham means to do with lydia? So, judging from her letters, it seems that Lydia thought that they were eloping together, but they all fear that he means to have sex with her and then kill her. Yay! what is learned in the letter from mr. collins that arrives while mr. bennet is away? They FINALLY discovered that Charlotte had the plague haha. Mr. Collins actually decides that he will be the one to kill her (which surprised me!) and that he meant to take his own life after doing so … which leaves no male heir for Longbourn. when lydia and wickham are finally discovered, in what condition are they found? Wickham was in an accident when he was hit by a carriage. It’s left him lame and with a broken jaw. He cannot move or speak, but he was able to give his consent to marry Lydia, after all. what was mr. darcy’s arrangement with wickham? When Darcy found them, he told Wickham that he would pay off his debts and wouldn’t kill him, if he agreed to marry Lydia. The catch was that Wickham allow him to beat him lame, so that he would never be tempted to dishonor his marriage to Lydia. Darcy also requested that he become a priest. Wickham agrees to all of this. when mr. bennet takes mr. bingley out hunting, what does this entail? They hunt zombies!!! Haha. after elizabeth refuses to promise lady catherine that she will never enter into an engagement with mr. darcy, what does lady catherine mean to do? how does their skirmish end? They get into a fight to the death!!!! It goes on for a long time, but Lizzy comes out on top. She is about to behead Lady Catherine when she realizes she can’t bring herself to kill Darcy’s aunt, so she shows mercy and lets her live. how does lady catherine react to news of darcy and elizabeth’s marriage? SHE SENDS HER NINJAS TO PEMBERLEY (omg!!!!) But Darcy and Lizzy overpower them. Eventually Lizzy tells Darcy that he should make peace with his aunt. how does this novel end, in terms of the plague? what are your thoughts about this novel overall? in your opinion, how did it compare to the original? Not much has changed honestly? The plague is still going on and they haven’t found a cure. Okay, so I LIKED this book but didn’t love it? I honestly thought it got a little weird in places??? Like some of the choices the author made were just like ??? whY????? That being said, I love a lot of the clever changes he made to insert the zombies into it, too. I actually loved the movie of this wayyyy more than the book, though. but omg, the originally P&P is one of my favorite books of!!! all!!! time!!!!! and so this doesn’t even compare to that at all (it never really had a chance though, tbh) Overall, glad I read it … probably won’t read it again???