Book Clubs
I am available for virtual AND in-person book club visits (distance and schedules permitting!) and would love to meet your book group to discuss THE FLOWER SISTERS or THE MOONSHINE WOMEN. Contact me directly at shewrites2@gmail.com to schedule a date and time.
Discussion Questions
The Moonshine Women+
- In the prologue of The Moonshine Women, the premature baby is supposed be—according to an array of old wives' tale tests and superstitions—a boy. When a disappointed Hiram Strong holds his third daughter in his hands instead, he christens her "Jace," which means "the Lord is salvation" and declares that she will save the family. Does she?
- A colt's tongue cooked in cast iron to cure epilepsy; a potato carried in a pocket to ward off rheumatism. Lidy Strong is full of what people in the Ozark hills call "granny cures." Which one did you find the most interesting or surprising? Can you share one from your own culture or upbringing?
- Alcohol—particularly "moonshine"—is problematic for the Strong family. Both Hiram and his abusive father were alcoholics; Jed's drinking dramatically changes his personality for the worse. Yet it becomes the family's livelihood during Prohibition. Shine even ends up slinging drinks at the Southern Club in Hot Springs to pay off a debt. How do they survive with this cognitive dissonance? And what does it say that none of the Strong daughters drink except for what the job requires?
- The one "Strong woman" we don't hear from directly in the novel is Alta. Hiram worships and grieves her; a put-upon Lidy resents her. Rebecca and Elsie crave her softness and stories—while Shine has no memories of her at all. How do you feel about this complicated voiceless character? Do you believe—as Shine comes to—that she shouldn't be judged too harshly for her worst transgression or mistake?
- There are many motherless daughters in The Moonshine Women, from the three Strong daughters to Birdie and little Wren. How do the women mother each other? Do sisterhood and female friendship become even more important when our mother figures are unavailable or gone?
- Hiram calls Shine his "daughter of the spirit." He wishes he could take credit for her fire, but "he knew it was not his. Yet he protected it, nourished it, tried his best to temper it. She would be the strongest Strong, the best of the batch. This Shine honored him most of all, carrying his name along with his know-how." What does he mean? How does Hiram's love and acceptance play a part in Shine's later decision to form and embrace her own unconventional family bonds? In the end, who do you think is the "strongest Strong"?
- The "cow shoes" that Shine wore to cover her tracks were just one creative way that moonshiners and bootleggers kept their operations clandestine during Prohibition. The novel mentions tricked-out cars with hidden compartments and specially crafted garments and containers worn to conceal liquor on the human body. Have you heard of others that you found particularly clever?
- Elsie is a storyteller like her mother; a young woman who desperately wants to believe in "happily ever after." How does that outlook affect her choices about motherhood and marriage? Eventually she comes to understand that "the most important stories are the ones we tell to—and about—ourselves," and that she is stronger than she (or anyone else) knew. Do you agree that sometimes we just need to "rescue [our] own damn self"?
- Throughout most of the novel, Shine is bent on revenge—first for Hiram's death and later for her friend Birdie's rape—and continually thwarted. But when she finally has a chance to exact some justice in the barn loft, Shine balks. Later, she muses that revenge had seemed "satisfying. And if not easy, at least straightforward: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. But mercy? Forgiveness? That was tougher. More complicated. Meandering. Certainly not achieved in one hotheaded instant." How does this shift in her understanding allow Shine to move forward instead of being mired in the past?
- Rebecca is not much of a conversationalist—except for one-sided talks she has with the farm animals and the wild creatures of their land. How does her reluctance to speak up about Jed cause trouble? And later, with Eulalie? Discuss some of the complicating factors in her romantic relationship. What finally pushes her to risk giving voice to her own wants and desires?
- As Lidy dies, she welcomes the transformation of her ruined earthly body into a "clear burning spirit with an unexpected kick." If Lidy is moonshine, what spirit or drink best describes you and why?
- Two devastating crashes in the novel happen almost simultaneously: Jed and Rebecca's car accident as they are pursued by the law and the stock market crash of October 1929. How does the aftermath of the wreck affect the Strong family? How does it mirror what happens to their community, Hot Springs and the country at large as the Great Depression takes hold?
- When Shine begins her bartending gig at the Southern Club, she is both starry-eyed and fearful of her first famous customer, Al Capone. She believes they are "the same on some level, willing to do whatever it took to survive and to keep their families safe and cared for." Do you agree? Or does Shine discover a line she won't or can't cross?
- Lidy believes "the lot of women [isn't] right"—specifically that an undesired pregnancy disproportionately affects the female who will be "saddled with their mistake for the rest of her life." This situation plays out repeatedly over the course of the novel, from Alta and Elsie to, perhaps most heartbreakingly, Birdie. Do you agree with Lidy? Or is hers a sentiment and symptom of the era? What about her tongue-in-cheek assertion that "There'd be no babies if it were up to men to carry and birth them. The end of the human race"?
- Jed is trouble from the beginning, and he causes headaches, heartache and even a couple of broken bones for various Strong women throughout the book. At his core, he longs to be a part of the Strong family and the moonshine business. When circumstances create the opportunity for him to join in at last, how does he handle it? Do you feel sorry for him? Are his feelings of being used and discarded valid? Or is the world—at least the Strongs' world—truly better off without him?
- John Flanagan is an idealist whose experience as a "prohi" reflects the arc of the temperance movement and failed Prohibition experiment—as he goes from passionate believer to an increasingly skeptical and finally disillusioned veteran. How does this "rule follower" fare with a rogue partner, armed mountain moonshiners and well-connected criminals? What finally jolts him out of his passivity to pursue what he really wants?
- Of Lidy, Elsie says, "Right or wrong, but never indifferent. She was a Strong, through and through." Did you agree with the steely matriarch's decisions to do what she thought best—whether keeping a painful secret or ending a life prematurely?
- Making moonshine requires careful identification of the different parts of the distillate: the poisonous "foreshots," the "heads" (which still contain too much methanol for human consumption), and the coveted "hearts," the smooth sweet middle before the final slick stuff of the "tails." While Shine becomes an expert at discerning the difference at an early age, she is far less adept at handling matters of her own head and heart—until it's almost too late. Are you glad she gets a second chance with John?
- Shine decides "she would make a family like she and her daddy had made moonshine, putting together a bunch of unlikely ingredients, things that didn't come from the same place, or naturally go together. Stir it all up and see what happened. Test it. Taste it. And then crank up the heat. Because that was life, wasn't it? The fire that you couldn't always control. But what you made of it, what you did with it . . . that could be something special. Something you could see through—stunningly clear and shining and powerful. The Strong stuff." This metaphor for the complicated ways in which families are created, tested and constantly changed seems appropriate for most of our families. Do you agree?
The Flower Sisters+
- The Flower Sisters opens with a prologue set in a 1928 Ozarks dance hall that introduces us to most of the main characters in the novel. What are your first impressions of Dash, Violet, Jimmy, Ginger, Hazel and the gang? How did your assessment of any or all of them change throughout the course of the book? Why?
- As Rose is preparing 'the Mayor' for his funeral, she muses, 'Maybe we can't always be the person we want to be. Maybe not even most of the time.' The Mayor's not-so-secret extramarital affairs didn't align with his upstanding public persona. But who else in the novel is not exactly as they appear to be on the outside? Does this cognitive dissonance cause any problems?
- Rose's position as a small-town female funeral home owner and operator from the 1950s on makes her unique for the times. Even in 1970s Possum Flats, we meet Mabel as a secretary, Betty as a waitress and even Myra—employed as a newspaper editor—is assigned to the more female-focused "society page." Discuss the choices that women had career-wise during this era. Can you relate to the limitations that these women experienced? How do you think this will change for Daisy? What are your hopes for your own daughters and granddaughters?
- When Daisy bargains her way into a summer internship at The Possum Flats Picayune, Rose admonishes her to 'Write the truth, but make sure the truths you write are yours to tell.' What does she mean by that? Do you think Daisy ends up telling any truths or secrets that she shouldn't? What happens when her stories about the dance hall explosion are printed?
- Identical twins look alike—but often have extremely different personalities. Are you more of a Rose or a Violet? Did your perception of each sister change or solidify when you discovered the secrets that were revealed in Daisy's final installment?
- A major theme of The Flower Sisters is identity. Can we truly choose to be someone other than who we are? By intentionally changing ourselves and our actions, how does that create a ripple effect on those we love and our greater community? For instance, do you feel sympathy for George, who made major life decisions based on misleading information? What about the twins' mother and the loss she grieved?
- Dash says "Sometimes the punishment doesn't fit the crime, the price too high for that one unthinking moment, one ill-advised decision." This is true for Rose, Violet, Dash, Hazel and Jimmy. Have you ever made a split-second decision that you regretted for years? Or one that changed your life for the better? Can or should people be held accountable for the actions and decisions made by their high school-aged selves? Would you want to be?
- When Myra teaches Daisy how to write an obituary, she introduces her to a lot of euphemisms for death—like "passed away" or "received his heavenly reward"—which Daisy doesn't understand: "Why not just say he died?" But Myra says the town likes its obits "with a little optimism." Do you think this language is simply old-fashioned? Or is it a way of avoiding the truth or reality of death? How does the town's attitude play out in the larger story of the dance hall explosion and its aftermath?
- Rose says: "I'm a real stickler for getting everything just right with the dead. Sort of helps to make up for what I haven't been able to put right with the living." Rose's personal failures include everything from marriage to parenting to family relationships. Does she get any second chances in the novel? Do you think she can get it right this time? Why or why not?
- The concepts of "home" and the search for belonging recur throughout the novel. Daisy says, "Maybe home is something you can't run from, a place you find yourself searching for even after you think you've gotten away. You look for it in every town or city, apartment or house—but it's slippery, shifty. Because home is a feeling, and the people and place that inspire that feeling. It's about their acceptance and your belonging, whether you feel conflicted about that or not; whether they always like you or not." Do you think home is a physical place? Or is it more of a feeling? Or both? Does Daisy eventually find her home in Possum Flats? Or does Lettie make that impossible for her?
- Religion plays an important role in the novel. Dash becomes an Assemblies of God preacher as a result of the dance hall explosion. Does he question his beliefs in his old age or become more sure of them? Many Possum Flats citizens thought the explosion was the work of a punitive God. What kinds of sins were being punished? And how did that sense of shame create the shroud of silence and mystery surrounding the blast?
- The sun always comes up, making everything new and hopeful. Everyone knows that. The trick is to see the beauty in the dark while you are still in it." Rose is speaking figuratively about the moonflower vines outside her front door. But can you think of a time when you found a silver lining, something positive or hopeful in the middle of a dark period of your life? How did it change your thinking? Or help you through?
- The song "At Sundown" was the number the band was playing when the dance hall exploded in Possum Flats—and in the real-life tragedy of the Bond Dance Hall in West Plains, Missouri, in 1928. Can you remember a song that was playing at an important event in your life or in the larger world? How does that song affect you now?
- Talk about the ending of The Flower Sisters. Did you enjoy the final tour of Possum Flats? How about your slightly unconventional tour guide? What questions do you have about these characters and their futures that have been left unanswered? Are you okay with that?