How I Live Now - Some Discussion Points

As you guys should know, I chaired/moderate a YA Book Club this Saturday just gone for the Southbank Centre, as part of their Festival of Love (and hopefully, they will continue to do this in the future. They are some great books coming out in YA and in crossover that will be great to discuss - not just do we like the book or not, but on bigger subjects such as race, sex, gender identity, feminism, mental health, what it means to be human, etc). As you know, this month's book was How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff. Now, I know most of you love this book and, if you have read my review yesterday, I strongly disliked it.

But what I found with this book (and last month's, I'll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson [review for I'll Give You The Sun is here and discussion points are here]) is that these books are rich with discussion! And because I am feeling kind, I thought I would, again, share some of my discussion points - yes, it's that bit at the end of some books that are super useful for books clubs.

Before I hand over some of my points, I just want to say thank you to the South Bank Centre for asking me to moderate the YA Book Club & the the people who came! Now, with that done, let's show some discussion!

I'll Give You The Sun - Some Discussion Points

As you guys were aware, I chaired/moderate a YA Book Club on the Saturday just gone, as part of the South Bank Centre's Festival of Love. The book was I'll Give The Sun by Jandy Nelson. Now, to get myself ready for hosting this event, I read the book and made notes on everything that caught my eye and thought would create a good discussion.

I thought that made you should see a few of them. Not all - I might be using them again for next month's YA Book Club read for the South Bank (How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff). But I am curious on what you guys think on these (if you've read the book). Basically, this post is that annoying section at the back of that book, aimed for book clubs.

So... here we go!

Before we go into book, let’s talk cover & blurb (read blurb if needs be). Do these reflect the book actually?

How do you guys feel about this book covers the South Bank’s description of “cover themes such as Modern Love, Digital Love, Love as Social Action and Art & Love.”?

Touching on from this, the pages within this are covered with paint splatters, brush strokes (mainly within Noah’s timeline - more on that later). Did this make you feel connected with Noah & Jude’s art? 

I mentioned timelines. This book has dual narrators - Noah at 13/14 and Jude at 16. Did this work for the story? Did you enjoy reading these voices? And does the age between the narrators help us with the story and understand the characters. 

Noah is gay and tackles a same sex relationship, which means some people would call this a LGBT novel? Is this solely an LGBT book or is there more to it? 

Do we feel that this book is about first love and family? Or is it grief?

Speaking of grief, Jude’s knowledge of diseases and her stating facts she knows about diseases, is this a sign of her’s (or the author’s) belief that guilt is a disease? 

Earlier, I mentioned art (a theme we’re going to jump back and forth on), but Jude is more spiritual. She reads Grandma Sweetwine’s bible and she talks to her and her mother’s ghosts. Why are they important to Jude’s story?

Why do we think all the characters within this book are damaged? 

This book tackles underage sex. How do we feel about this? How do you feel this subject was handled?

How do we feel about the ending? Do we like that it was all wrapped up in a “Happily Ever After” or was it too neat? 

I HAVE NEWS!!!

I have news to share with you! I have been sitting on this for the past few weeks, but now I have given the a-ok to talk about it! So, here we go!

I was asked by the lovely people of the South Bank Centre to moderate two YA Book Club events as part of this year's Festival of Love!

If I had more time and wasn't having a tiny panic, I would insert a gif of someone panicking. I won't as while I am very nervous over this, I am oh-so-very-excited and very honoured over doing this.

So, quick story time. Are we sitting comfortably?

Last year, I did a tiny event at South Bank Centre with Casey (from Dark Readers) and Lucy (from LucyTheReader) about blogging hosted by Andy Robb (due to UKYA Blogger Awards). And all three of these will tell you that I got quite nervous before the talk happened. But once we started, I had a blast and didn't feel nervous. It was such fun!!!

Sometimes, doing things that scare us is a good thing.

Anyway, fast forward nearly a year later, the lovely people from South Bank Centre emailed me, asking me if I wanted to moderate these two YA Book Club events. And I took my time thinking over this (only a few hours. Maybe 24 hours...) as I was going "Can I do this and do this well?"

Not sure I will do this well, but am going to try my damnedest to do this right! To discover new stories and authors, discuss topics that these stories tackle, and see how other readers react (as reading and blogging is very sole thing).

So, yes! I am doing these two events and I am excited! The first is Saturday 9th July and the second is Saturday 20th August, both at 3pm till 4pm. You can get more details at http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whatson/young-adult-book-club-97784!

BUT WAIT, I hear you type, WHAT BOOKS ARE YOU READING?!

Well... that is up to you guys. South Bank Centre will, in the next few days/weeks, tweet a poll of three titles. The title that wins will be the book to read. The second poll (for the August Book Club) will be sometime in June or July. (I've seen the list of the shortlist of books and we can talk OH SO MUCH about topics! Not saying what but OHH! We are going to get our teeth into these books and it will be delicious!). South Bank's Twitter is https://twitter.com/southbankcentre and I will retweet the poll on my Twitter/Facebook and I will be doing a lot of shouting.

Plus, if we have time in the first event, we might be able to talk about YA in general, I hope. Or blogging. If not, I will lurk outside for a while before running away and power reading next month's read!

But we shall be reading and chatting. Again, I am thrilled/honoured/terrified over this and I can not wait to get started (and again, thank you South Bank Centre for asking me).