If you're in a book club and have chosen Tiny Acts of Love as one of your discussion books, then thank you! I attended my first book club meeting recently and it was fascinating - I learned loads about my own book and came away bursting with ideas for a follow up!
Here are some questions you might like to use to start off the discussion. (NB. If you haven't read the book yet there might be a few spoilers here.)
1. ‘When Sophie had been born, when she’d fought her way out of my body and into the world, she had taken my heart with her.' What does Cassie mean by this? How does it affect her life and her relationships?
2. Is Malkie’s behaviour selfish?
3. ‘Every time, we fell apart along the same fault line.’ Could Cassie and Malkie ever be happy as a couple?
4. Do you think Cassie saw a real ghost on the night of the Workplace Phantoms vigil? If not, what was it?
5. ‘Once there was one lie nestling in the space between two people, there was always just enough room to tuck in another one, and then another.’ Do you think Cassie was right to tell Jonathan about Malkie? How might the story have been different if Dita had been more honest in her marriage, and with her children?
6. 'At that moment I was more than just me; I was the atomic heart of this small family, its forces and energies spinning and bending around me.' Being a wife and mother makes Cassie feel that she’s more than herself, but is she also less than herself?
7. 'Sometimes its easier to see love from a distance than when you're standing right in the middle of it.' Do you think that's true?
8. ‘With all the confidence of an expert surgeon, he would sweep in and perform a sort of anxiety bypass in three minutes flat.’ How do Jonathan and Cassie deal differently with anxiety, and the worries associated with parenthood? Do you think Cassie is a drama queen? Does she learn to conquer her anxiety by the end of the story?
9. ‘For some reason I felt that these two elderly people belonged in my life; that I needed them in ways I couldn’t yet understand.’ Why does Cassie need Jean and Gerry?
10. Do you think Cassie makes the right decisions about her life at the end of the story? Do you see the characters as living happily ever after? What else might come along and rock the boat?
Here are some questions you might like to use to start off the discussion. (NB. If you haven't read the book yet there might be a few spoilers here.)
1. ‘When Sophie had been born, when she’d fought her way out of my body and into the world, she had taken my heart with her.' What does Cassie mean by this? How does it affect her life and her relationships?
2. Is Malkie’s behaviour selfish?
3. ‘Every time, we fell apart along the same fault line.’ Could Cassie and Malkie ever be happy as a couple?
4. Do you think Cassie saw a real ghost on the night of the Workplace Phantoms vigil? If not, what was it?
5. ‘Once there was one lie nestling in the space between two people, there was always just enough room to tuck in another one, and then another.’ Do you think Cassie was right to tell Jonathan about Malkie? How might the story have been different if Dita had been more honest in her marriage, and with her children?
6. 'At that moment I was more than just me; I was the atomic heart of this small family, its forces and energies spinning and bending around me.' Being a wife and mother makes Cassie feel that she’s more than herself, but is she also less than herself?
7. 'Sometimes its easier to see love from a distance than when you're standing right in the middle of it.' Do you think that's true?
8. ‘With all the confidence of an expert surgeon, he would sweep in and perform a sort of anxiety bypass in three minutes flat.’ How do Jonathan and Cassie deal differently with anxiety, and the worries associated with parenthood? Do you think Cassie is a drama queen? Does she learn to conquer her anxiety by the end of the story?
9. ‘For some reason I felt that these two elderly people belonged in my life; that I needed them in ways I couldn’t yet understand.’ Why does Cassie need Jean and Gerry?
10. Do you think Cassie makes the right decisions about her life at the end of the story? Do you see the characters as living happily ever after? What else might come along and rock the boat?