Questions to use as starting points for discussion (we can make up others specific to the book as we go along). Book Klub leaders can and should contact libraries, the author, the publisher and search the internet for possible sources for questions. Below are some generic sets of questions for fiction and nonfiction books. As I find more generic questions, I'll post them here...
Betsy
General Questions for Fiction
The following general questions can be applied to any novel, and they provide a good starting point for creating your own discussion questions for a given work.
1. What was unique about the setting of the book and how did it enhance or take away from the story?
2. What specific themes did the author emphasize throughout the novel? What do you think he or she is trying to get across to the reader?
3. Do the characters seem real and believable? Can you relate to their predicaments? To what extent do they remind you of yourself or someone you know?
4. How do characters change or evolve throughout the course of the story? What events trigger such changes?
5. In what ways do the events in the books reveal evidence of the author's world view?
6. Did certain parts of the book make you uncomfortable? If so, why did you feel that way? Did this lead to a new understanding or awareness of some aspect of your life you might not have thought about before?
Generic Questions for Nonfiction Books:The questions are from http://www.litlovers.com/questions_nf.htm
1. If your book offers a cultural portrait—of life in another country, or in a different region of your own country, start with these questions...
a. What does the author celebrate or criticize in the culture? Consider family traditions, economic and political structures, the arts, language, food, religious beliefs.
b. Does the author wish to preserve or reform the culture? If reform, what and how? Either way—by instigating change or by maintaining the status quo—what would be gained or what would be at risk?
c. How does the culture differ from yours? What was most surprising, intriguing, difficult to understand? After reading the book, have you gained a new perspective—or did the book affirm your prior views?
2. Does the book offer a central idea or premise?
What are the problems or issues raised? Are they personal, spiritual, societal, global, political, economic, medical, scentific?
3. Do the issues affect your life? How so—directly, on a daily basis, or more generally? Now or sometime in the future?
4. What evidence does the author give to support the book's ideas? Does he/she use personal observations and assessments? Facts? Statistics? Opinions? Historical documents? Scientific research? Quotations from authorities?
5. Is the evidence convincing? Is it relevant or logical? Does it come from authoritative sources? (Is the author an authority?) Is the evidence speculative...how speculative?
6. Some authors make assertions, only to walk away from them—without offering explanations. It's maddening. Does the author use such unsupported claims?
7. What kind of language does the author use? Is it objective and dispassionate? Or passionate and earnest? Is it polemical, inflammatory, sarcastic? Does the language help or undercut the author's premise?
8. Does the author—or can you—draw implications for the future? Are there long- or short-term consequences to the problems or issues raised in the book? If so, are they positive or negative? Affirming or frightening?
9. Does the author—or can you—offer solutions to the problems or issues raised in the book? Who would implement those solutions? How probable is success?
10. Does the author make a call to action to readers—individually or collectively? Is that call realistic? Idealistic? Achievable? Would readers be able to affect the desired outcome?
11. Are the book's issues controversial? How so? And who is aligned on which sides of the issues? Where do you fall in that line-up?
12. Can you point to specific passages that struck you pesonally—as interesting, profound, silly or shallow, incomprehensible, illuminating?
13. Did you learn something new reading this book? Did it broaden your perspective about a difficult personal issue? Or a societal issue? About another culture in another country... or about an ethnic / regional culture in your own country?
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