Discussion questions for Pages 1-95

Here are the discussion questions for the first part of the book.

Reminder: Please remember not to post spoilers.I know we left off in mid chapter and if you couldn't put the book down, just be aware some people haven't finished yet. If you think you may be posting a spoiler, go ahead and put up a red "SPOILER ALERT" in that part of your post.

1. Each of the stories in Say You’re One of Them is told from the perspective of a child. Do you think this affected your reaction? If the narrators had been adults, might you have felt differently about the stories? Why do you think Akpan chose to depict these events through children’s eyes? In Akpan’s first two stories how does the young characters maintain innocence in the face of corruption and pain?

2. In “An Ex-mas Feast,” Maisha leaves her family to become a full- time prostitute. Do you think she chose to depart, or did her family’s poverty force her to flee? Is it possible to have complete freedom of will in such a situation? Is it reasonable to judge a person for her actions if her choice is not entirely her own?


3. How did you feel about the use of "kabire" to stop hunger? 

4. Can you imagine a life like this family was living? What makes you most sad for the family?

Any questions or thought provoking comments after our reading so far?? Post them here for others. If we get enough I may post another blog post with all the questions.

We will see you back here next Monday (Nov. 14) to discuss pages 95 to 172

Reading schedule!

Ok everyone - haven't had much of a response yet so if you are out there and reading please respond to the comments and join this blog.

The schedule will go as follows - each week is about 100 pages. Please note this book isn't really divided into chapters so I had to split weeks up kind of in the middle of things.

Week of November 1 - Pages 1- 95
Week of November 7 - Pages 95 - 172
Week of November 14 - Pages 175-269
Week of November 21 - Pages 269-322
Week of November 28 - Pages 325-360

Come back next Monday (November 7) to discuss the first 95 pages :) I'll have a post up here with my thoughts and some questions, AND I'd love for you to respond on your own with your own thoughts on this chunk of the book. Just make sure you don't discuss anything that happens after page 95 if you've read ahead, we don't want you to spoil it for others who aren't there yet!

What should be our next book??

Please comment if you have any suggestions what the next book should be. I'm then going to put up a poll so that we can pick the books for the next little while so people have time to get the books ahead of time :)

Welcome!

Welcome!!!

I love reading so much but since having Baby K, I find it difficult to get my reading in! So I have decided to create a book club to help me make sure I schedule my reading!!

This is going to be a fun process as we feel our way through and make sure each club member's voice is heard in this process.

So here are a few firsts:

1. The first book of the Book Babes bookclub will be "Say You're One of Them" by Uwem Akpan. This book was on Oprah's Book Club and has been in my Must Read book pile (there are about 50 books collecting dust!!). In the future, we'll be taking suggestions and letting everyone decide which book we read.

2. We're going to start off by reading a few chapters at a time and we'll give a date that we'll "meet" back up here to discuss the chapters we've read. I know we are all really busy so it will be more like a question/answer post that everyone can comment on in their own time and read through other comments.

We'll begin the book club on Tuesday, November 1st. I think that gives everyone plenty of time to pick up the book. On November 1st, we will announce the chapters that we'll need to read in that week and it will also say the day that we're meeting back up to discuss.

I'm really excited about this. It will keep me reading and I hope it will get lots of others to read more, too. It's always fun to discuss books-- especially the ones that leave a mark on us! If you have any suggestions on anything else - please shoot me a message.

So let's do a bit of a roll call. If you plan to participate or you're thinking about participating, please leave a comment!