Gravity Brings Me Down by Natale Ghent

Gravity Brings Me Down

A story bout self-discovery, acceptance, and finding friendship — all in the places you’d least expect.

Sioux Smith is sharp, funny, and wry, and is pretty certain that she sees the world of high school differently from everyone else — a belief that is cemented when she makes an uneasy discovery about one of her school’s “popular” teachers. And while she feels alone at her high school and in her unique slant on small-town life, Sioux finds a kindred spirit in the most unlikely of people: an elderly stranger, who has more insight despite her progressing dementia than anyone else in Sioux’s life. What Sioux and “Miss Marple” learn about each other over tea, illicitly secreted wine, and Coronation Street, makes for a novel with heart.

This book is also available as a free e-book if the library copy at Secord is unavailable.

Discussion questions:

• Do you think you could ever have a relationship with an elderly person like the one that Sioux developed? What was it about "Miss Marple" that Sioux found irresistable?
• This book has been touted as a "book of self discovery". After reading this book, what, if anything, did you learn about yourself that you never knew about yourself before?

Fishtailing by Wendy Phillips

Fishtailing. High school . Four lives caught up in a game. The problem with games is that there may be winners, but there are always losers.

The poems by these four high school students: Natalie, Kyle, Tricia and Miguel unfold in this story in the style of "free verse".

When Natalie moves to a new high school, she makes friends with three unwitting victims and draws them into her spider-web of manipulations, lies and deceit. Through the poetry and assignments of an English assignment, we get a glimpse of the world of these teens. This story weave us through their lives via their poetry and culminates where the four lives fishtail out of control.

Discussion questions:

• Did you like the style of writing of free verse that the author used to tell this story?
• Even though each of these four students came from different backgrounds and all had different life experiences, what element drew them together and, as a group, what did they all have in common?

Fear The Worst By Linwood Barclay

Your daughter doesn't come home one night from her summer job.

You go there looking for her. No one has seen her. It's worse than that.

No one has ever seen her. So where has she been going every day? Where is she now?

Linwood Barclay has a new thriller which leads us through an ordinary man's desperate search for this daughter. This search leads him into a dark world of corruption, explotation and murder.

Sydney has vanished into thin air. Even her closest friends seem to be at a loss. Days pass without a word. As Tim retraces his daughters steps, he is unaware that his every move is being watched by those who want to find Sydney as much as Tim does. Let's just say that these people watching Tim do not plan on a "Welcome Home" party for Sydney if they find her first.

Discussion questions:

• Did you find the character of Tim Blake to be a believable protagonist? Did he act like a dad bent on finding his daughter or did you perhaps think that the character of Sydney was a bit too thin to make the reader feel the connection to her that the author intended?
• The elements of a mystery story include lots of clues and intrigue. Were you able to figure out the most important element, "who-done-it?"