Attention Book Clubs
I’m thrilled to hear that several book clubs are already adding No Secrets Among Sisters to their reading list. Thank you for taking a chance on a new author!
To stimulate your discussions, I’ve suggested a few topics below. Let me know what you think?
While it may not always work out, I’m also willing to consider popping in virtually to your meetings. I’m still juggling a fulltime job, but reach out anyway! I’d love to hear from my readers.
Reading Group Questions:
1. Frankie and Amelia are both concerned about how women are treated in political life, Frankie because women in 1915 weren’t allowed to vote, and Amelia, because women face harsher scrutiny and personal attacks than men. Do you agree that women still face barriers today to participation in politics? Have you seen or heard examples of female politicians who’ve been treated poorly? What about other groups? If so, what do you think could be done about it?
2. What did you know about the suffrage movement before the book? Were you aware of the violent Suffragettes who were active in Britain? Did the book change your opinions about the movement?
3. “Amelia tries to imagine what it would have been like for Sarah Ford on the farm – a horse and buggy trip away from any other civilization, the country at war, two daughters in the city, slow-moving post the only method of regular communication.” First the telephone, later internet, smart phones, social media – all of this has created a world where instant communication is expected. What if it all disappeared? How do you think you would handle being thrust back in a world where letters were the only lifeline?
4. The book opens with the fire that destroyed the Canadian parliament buildings in 1916, but in the story, someone sets the fire. In actual fact, the Royal Commission that looked into the fire, did not find a definitive cause, concluding that it must have come from an errant cigar or cigarette in the Reading Room where it began. How much license do you think authors should take with real historical events?
5. Amelia is struggling with grief due to the loss of her father. Caleb recognizes it and says he feels a similar loss because he’s been separated from his children. Would you agree that these two events could produce similar feelings? Or do you think Caleb is overreacting to his own situation?
6. Frankie changes from a timid teen girl to a confident, daring young woman over the course of the book. What are some of the key events that complete her transformation?
7. Amelia’s frustrated by the state of journalism, ruing the fact that traditional news sources are in competition with so many other non-traditional sources – bloggers, podcasters, citizen journalists. She doesn’t think these news sources meet the same standards as the paper where she’s worked for decades. What do you think? Do you believe that these non-traditional sources have brought down the level of professionalism? Do you think they are less trustworthy? Less reliable?
8. Frankie’s landlady, Witty, struggles knowing her husband is on the front lines of the war, and not knowing if he’s alive. The author mentions in the acknowledgements that she relied on some of the diaries of Lucy Maud Montgomery to understand the psyche of women on the home front. Did her rapidly unravelling state of mind seem authentic to you? Or did the author go too far?
9. Emma often knows what Amelia’s thinking before she says it. And Frankie finds it impossible to keep secrets from her sister, Mattie. Are there people in your life with whom you’re so tightly connected, you can’t hide anything, no matter how innocent? Are they also family? Could these bonds exist outside of family members?
10. The author was inspired by a true family history written by her great-aunt. Do you have family stories that you think could be a jumping off point for you to write a work of fiction? What are they? What’s stopping you?