I run a book club. From time to time, I find it almost impossible to find good study guides/discussion questions for the books we are reading. So I thought I would share the study guides that I created myself and offer them for your use with your own book club. I do not mind if you use these, but would greatly appreciate feedback if you found them useful.
Discussion Questions for Out of Breath by: Rebecca Donovan
1. Consider some of the other YA books we have read that feature the main characters running. (i.e. Sky, Holder, Nastya Kashnikov). Why does Emma run?
2.Why does Emma drink?Is this out of character for her or inevitable? Is Emma an alcoholic?
3. Is Gev a nice guy? Is Cole?
4. Describe Emma’s three roommates. What do they look like? How do they act? Who is your favorite? Why?
5. In many NA books, there are good guys and then there are the d-bags. What about this series? Emma is lucky to have met Cole, Evan and Jonathan. All seem like good guys, but are they really? Are these guys realistic or do their characters fall flat?
6. Emma gets drunk on the flight home to Connecticut. A realistic possibility or do you call BS?
7. Emma’s mom does one good thing for Emma. Rachel Wallace brings Evan back to Emma. How so?
8. In the ocean, Emma finally makes the decision to breathe, to live. How is this scene in the ocean different from the scene in Emma’s old house with Carol trying to kill her?Both times Emma stopped breathing. How are these scenes similar? How are they different?
9. Why is it so hard for Evan to forgive Emma? Why does Emma try to convince Evan to hate her? Should Evan hate Emma? Did he ever hate her? Should he forgiven her?
10. Why does Evan come to California? Are his motives pure?
11. Discuss the ending. Are you satisfied with where this book left things? Why or why not? Would you recommend this series?
I’ve been in book clubs that have been both planned and unplanned. Ones where someone comes up with discussion questions are always sooo much better, especially if some of the members aren’t as keen on reading:)
It’s such a great idea to share your questions!
Sunny Smith recently posted…How to Read When You’re Busy (Spoiler Alert: Listen to Audiobooks!)
Thanks Sunny! I think that the more organized a book club is, the better the experience. I mean, call me strange, but I started a book club because I really did actually want to discuss books. Sometimes it is very time consuming to come up with questions to ask, so I figured, why not share the ones I came up with???
I also run a book club, but I never really use a discussion guide or prepare anything in advance. I have in mind what I thought was interesting about the book, and just wing it, attempting to rein in far-flung tangents on occasion. Why do you use/write discussion guides? I’m open to improving my fledgling book club’s discussions.
Leila @ LeilaReads recently posted…Why I YA (And You Should, Too)
I’m gonna add my 2 cents here – I’m in several book clubs. The ones that use discussion questions or have a planned discussion are SO much more efficient and I get so much more out of the meeting. I can think of one in particular that I’m in where we talk about the book for maybe 15 minutes because no one has any new interesting things to say. If the organizer prepared questions or at least a bulleted list of what to discuss, it would be so much better.
Well based on these comments I’m definitely going to put together some discussion questions for my book club. Especially since we’re doing Outlander in November and that discussion could go all over the place.
Leila recently posted…That’s What HE Said Thursday #5
Leila I highly recommend a discussion guide. It gives you a focus and it makes people think critically and discuss things more. I have discussion guides for several of the Outlander books, but NOT one for Outlander, lol. Are yall reading the series or just the first book?
Rose we’re just doing the first one. It’s a brand new club so the whole series would be a bit much! This month is The Silent Wife by ASA Harrison. I’ve at least got a couple of things in mind. I’m interested to see how the discussion goes when I give it some direction.
Leila recently posted…The Liebster Award
I’ve always wanted to join a book club, but I live out in the sticks, so finding peeps with similar reading preferences is a huge challenge. That’s why I blog! Now I get to geek-out without ever having to leave the house.
Carmel @ Rabid Reads recently posted…Paranormal New Releases: October 7th
Virtual book clubs!