Hi book bloggers!
I’m in a book club that meets weekly to discuss one book per month. I write up summaries + discussion questions each week, and I welcome you to use them or transform them for your own enjoyment! Feel free to chat in the comments about your thoughts on the read. Read the summaries and discussion questions for the first quarter of the book, Chapters 1-7 here; the second quarter, Chapters 8-14 here; or the third quarter, Chapters 15-21 here.
About the Book:
Synopsis: “Alix Chamberlain is a woman who gets what she wants and has made a living, with her confidence-driven brand, showing other women how to do the same. So she is shocked when her babysitter, Emira Tucker, is confronted while watching the Chamberlains’ toddler one night, walking the aisles of their local high-end supermarket. The store’s security guard, seeing a young black woman out late with a white child, accuses Emira of kidnapping two-year-old Briar. A small crowd gathers, a bystander films everything, and Emira is furious and humiliated. Alix resolves to make things right.
But Emira herself is aimless, broke, and wary of Alix’s desire to help. At twenty-five, she is about to lose her health insurance and has no idea what to do with her life. When the video of Emira unearths someone from Alix’s past, both women find themselves on a crash course that will upend everything they think they know about themselves, and each other.
With empathy and piercing social commentary, Such a Fun Age explores the stickiness of transactional relationships, what it means to make someone “family,” the complicated reality of being a grown up, and the consequences of doing the right thing for the wrong reason. “
Week 4: Chapters 22-28:
- Chapter 22 – Emira + her friends go party, Kelley arrives. Josefa (friend of Emira) shows a video of The Incident. Drunkenly, the girls confront Kelley. He denies it, but they don’t believe him. They scoured his phone and found the sent email. Kelley and Emira break up.
- Chapter 23 – Alix (+ her children) uninvitingly pop over to Emira’s apartment. Alix offers Emira a full-time nanny job (with benefits!). Emira says yes, and then they also organise the local news interview.
- Chapter 24 – Zara and Emira arrive for the news interview. Zara overhears Alix admitting it was she who leaked the video of The Incident. Zara convinces Emira to leave her job.
- Chapter 25 – The Interview goes DOWN. Emira uses the break up line that Kelley used.
- Chapter 26 – Emira quickly says goodbye to Briar. Alix acts incredulously and bitchy and possessive. She ends almost in tears, and Emira tells her that she needs to try to like her own kid.
- Chapter 27 – Flashback of the last day of school: Alex is cleaning the lockers. She finds some of her letters, in the locker under Kelley’s. It was Robbie’s. Instead of owning up to her mistake, she rewrites the story to make her look as best as possible. She likes that she can blame Kelley and have this attachment to him forever.
- Chapter 28 – Where Emira is now: working as an assistant (happily) for the Greens Party. Her boss cares about her profession success, and doesn’t try to be her friend. Later that year, Emira spots Kelley (with his new girlfriend, who is a light-skinned black girl). Four months after that, she sees Briar + Alix in a costume shop. Briar asks 2x black nannies for help, as Alix is preoccupied by her preferred child. Emira slips by without noticing.
Discussion Questions:
- Did you expect that to be the end of Kelley and Emira?
- Do you wish the interview had gone any other way?
- Isn’t it ironic that Kelley lost another relationship due to the mis-accusation that he revealed private information?
- Do you think it’s poetic justice that Kelley ended up with a half white/black girl – like the perfect blend of Alix and Emira?
- What did you think about Alix’s instinctual reactions from the interview? Did you find her self-obsessed, or asking the important questions?
- What do you think will happen to Briar?
Expect a review of this book soon!
Cal's Reading Corner 