Discussion Questions and Relevant Material for Mark Adams’: Turn Right at Machu Picchu:

This book cover is incredibly beautiful and designed by Nancy Resnick

Published by Penguin in 2011.

Book Review from 5 Minutes for Books.com:

One hundred years ago on July 24, 1911, explorer and Yale lecturer Hiram Bingham excitedly cabled the US from Peru about his discovery of an ancient site, potentially the “lost city of the Incas.” That site was Machu Picchu, or “the old peak” in the local language of Quechua, a city of architectural grandeur and ancient temples. Now in 2011, his claim is disputed, and he is accused of stealing historical artifacts and trumpeting up a “discovery” of something that was never actually lost. But there’s no question that he turned the world’s attention to South America and Inca history, and that he may have done even more—inspired the Indiana Jones stories.

Mark Adams, working a desk job editing adventure travel stories, decided to find out the truth for himself, at least as much as possible. He set out to the Andes to retrace the famous explorer’s steps and in the process to study Bingham’s life and writings as well as Inca history. The result is Turn Right at Machu Picchu, a fascinating read which combines a history of Inca-Spainard clashes in Peru, Bingham’s adventures in exploring, and a travelogue of Adams’ own adventures in Peru, with an Australian guide right out of Crocodile Dundee and Indiana Jones. http://books.5minutesformom.com/17279/turn-right-at-machu-picchu/

(Hiram Bingham in 1916)

Some articles on NPR regarding the book including a interview with the author: http://www.npr.org/books/titles/137871117/turn-right-at-machu-picchu-rediscovering-the-lost-city-one-step-at-a-time

NY Times Review: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/travel/in-peru-machu-picchu-and-its-sibling-incan-ruins-along-the-way.html?pagewanted=all

Excellent slide show of the Inca Trail from the NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2011/06/26/travel/06262011MACHU-6.html

Mark Adams’ Book Site with some photos and more: http://markadamsbooks.com/index.htm

A video by a Photographer with John Leivers on the Inca Trail: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/travel/in-peru-machu-picchu-and-its-sibling-incan-ruins-along-the-way.html?pagewanted=all

Discussion Questions for now: 

1. Have you traveled to Peru? Machu Picchu?

2. Discuss the guide, John Leivers, and his role and how he impacts the author’s trip.

3. Discuss the similarities and differences between Bingham I, II and III.

4. On page 52, John says to Mark regarding hiking and that it will get easier as his body adapts, “ There’s a general law in life. The body and mind only get stronger when they’re traumatized.” Do you agree with this law of John’s? Have you experienced this yourself or not?

5. Discuss the author’s transition from desk editor to adventurer/explorer and how it changes his life.

6. Why does the Inca culture and civilization hold so much fascination for us today?

7. Why was the longer traditional second trip to Machu Picchu more meaningful that the author’s first trip there?

8. Discuss the role and interrelatedness of the different Inca sites and paths.

9. Discuss the Spanish encounters with the Inca civilization and how its effect are evident today.

10. Does this book inspire you to visit Peru? Machu Picchu? If so, why and if not, why?

Map of the Inca Trail from NY Times: 

Dearest Friend, A Life of Abigail Adams: Overview, Review, Letters read aloud and Discussion Questions

Overview:  This is the life of Abigail Adams, wife of patriot John Adams, who became the most influential woman in Revolutionary America. Rich with excerpts from her personal letters, Dearest Friend captures the public and private sides of this fascinating woman, who was both an advocate of slave emancipation and a burgeoning feminist, urging her husband to “Remember the Ladies” as he framed the laws of their new country. John and Abigail Adams married for love. While John traveled in America and abroad to help forge a new nation, Abigail remained at home, raising four children, managing their estate, and writing letters to her beloved husband. Chronicling their remarkable fifty-four-year marriage, her blossoming feminism, her battles with loneliness, and her friendships with Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Dearest Friend paints a portrait of Abigail Adams as an intelligent, resourceful, and outspoken woman. (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dearest-friend-lynne-withey/1001815951)

NY Times Book Review:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/books/review/Norton-t.html?_r=0

John and Abigail’s Letters are read aloud by members of the Mass. Historical Society, including Ted Kennedy and others: 

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/202656-1

Letter contents:

Miss Adorable

By the same Token that the Bearer hereof satt up with you last night I hereby order you to give him, as many Kisses, and as many Hours of your Company after 9 O’Clock as he shall please to Demand and charge them to my Account: This Order, or Requisition call it which you will is in Consideration of a similar order Upon Aurelia for the like favour, and I presume I have good Right to draw upon you for the Kisses as I have given two or three Millions at least, when one has been received, and of Consequence the Account between us is immensely in favour of yours,

John Adams

Octr. 4th. 1762

Discussion Questions created by John:

1. What made the situation in Boston so much more severe before and at the beginning of the revolution than for the rest of the country?

2. How did this play a role in making Abigail and John among the more fervent advocates for the independence?

3. How did John’s role in politics affect Abigail as mother, wife and provider?

4. How did this in turn affect the children and how they developed and the choices they made for careers and the adults they became?

5. Discuss the complicated relationships between the Adams, Franklin and Jefferson.

6. Why has history not treated the Adams better until recently?

The Hobbit – Summary, Questions, Etc.

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien is a magical tale, in all the best senses of that phrase.  It tells the story of a hobbit named Bilbo Baggins, an every-man despite the fact that he isn’t a man.  He deals with his unexpected adventure the way most of us would.  He’s scared, cranky, and more often than not, wishing that he had stayed at home in his nice comfy hobbit hole.  But the fact that Bilbo didn’t really want to be on this trip doesn’t take away from the adventure, it adds to it because it is through Bilbo that the reader feels connected to the story.  It may be hard to relate to a wizard or a dwarf, but Bilbo is familiar to us, because in some way, he is us.  Bilbo is thrown into the midst of a party of dwarves looking to reclaim their homeland from the dragon, Smaug.  Along the way, they encounter giant spiders, men who turn into bears or vis versa, elves, goblins, and a magical ring.  Bilbo grows from a frightened hobbit to the leader of these brave souls.  He grows and is never the same again. (http://carolinelibrarybookclub.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-hobbit-review-and-discussion.html)

Discussion Questions: (From various sources and some of our own)

1. How might Tolkien’s tone and content change if he included a few lady hobbits, elves, or dwarves in this adventure? Why do you think he didn’t include them? http://www.shmoop.com/hobbit/questions.html

2. Are you reading this for the first time? If this is a re-read, what is different from your first time? How has the experience changed?

3. Did the author do a good job of world building? Why or why not?

4. Which of the characters did you like the most? Which did you dislike? Were you able to keep the characters straight?

5. Were there parts of the book you especially enjoyed, or parts you did not like?

6. Did the plot take turns you did not expect, or did you find it predictable?

7. What was the most influential factor in drawing you in or turning you off the book? (Pick a passage, a character, a scene, an idea, etc.)

8. The Hobbit is 75 years old. Why do you think we are still reading it (and making movies of it)?

9. A frequent complaint about The Hobbit is the amount of songs and poems included. Did you read them? If you did, did you enjoy them? (http://www.galesburglibrary.org/BookClub/Hobbit.pdf – questions 2-9)

10. Have you read the original chapter “Riddles in the Dark” that later was revised to accommodate Lord of the Rings?

11. Why do you think that Gandalf picked Bilbo to go on the quest with the dwarves?  He lies and tells them that Bilbo is a burglar, but adds that hobbits can often go unnoticed.  Why include a hobbit at all since they hate adventure? (http://carolinelibrarybookclub.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-hobbit-review-and-discussion.html)

12. What is different from the story and the movie?

Movie Information and Site: http://www.thehobbit.com/

Official Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDnYMbYB-nU

Bernd Heinrich’s Winter World – Questions and More!

The Golden Crowned Kinglet

Here are some questions to consider as you read:

1. How has this book affected the way you view winter now? Has your view changed?

2. What did you find surprising in how animals adapt to winter?

3. What adaptations have you made personally to handle winter?

4. What observations have you made of animals and insects in winter, outside and inside?

5. What is your favorite form of H20? How do you interact with it?

6. Have your spotted any nests now that it is winter and they are more readily visible?

Article about the book:

http://business.highbeam.com/152432/article-1G1-161990872/interview-bernd-heinrich-author-winter-world-ingenuity

Interview with Steve Paulson: 

http://ttbook.org/book/bernd-heinrich-winter-world

Heinrich’s winter home in Maine

Alder Stream, Maine, where Heinrich looks for Kinglets (p. 119)

Here is a site for nest identification: http://www.thebirdersreport.com/egg-and-nest-identification

Resources for the Discussion of Just Kids by Patti Smith

On January 10th, we will be discussing Patti Smith’s, Just Kids, where she writes about her artist studded life in NYC during the late 60s and into the 70s and her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe.

Here, she poses with Robert wearing the Persian necklace:

“The necklace was passed back and forth through the years.

Ownership was based on who needed it the most.” (p. 51)

Here are some discussion questions provided by Scribd:

(July 18, 2011 Prepared by Jennifer Beever, Marketing Consultant and CMO for Hire, http://www.newincite.com)

http://www.scribd.com/doc/60358244/Just-Kids-by-Patti-Smith-Book-Group-Discussion-Questions

1. Patti Smith’s father told her she was not attractive enough to marry; Robert Mapelthorpe said he was a parent pleaser making ‘girl art´ against his family’s wishes. How did these affect their relationship, their lives as artists?
2. Patti Smith served as nurse, caretaker, and money lender to male artists and supported some female artists like Janis Joplin. Who helped Patti Smith?
3. Victor Hugo described Arthur Rimbaud as “an infant Shakespeare” when in his teens. He was known as a libertine and restless soul, traveling extensively before his death from cancer less at 37. What was the significance of Patti Smith’s love of Rimbaud? Of Bob Dylan?
4. At the start of the book the nurses were mean to Patti Smith when she gave birth. At the end when she was hiring another guitarist for her band she commented that the men did not like a woman-led band. How did these incidents reflect the times Patti Smith lived in? How were women treated throughout the book?
5. Patti Smith felt her fame came too quickly and Robert Mapelthorpe couldn’t get his quickly enough. Why the different attitudes?
6. The book says that Andy Warhol had defaced Madonna and Christ in his art and Robert Mapelthorpe followed in his footsteps. Who else has continued this since the seventies?
7. There was a lot of loss in the book:  suicide, death, burglary. How did that affect the artists?
8. Patti Smith writes that people assumed she was a speed freak and a lesbian because of the way she looked. Do you think there was any attempt to re-write or edit history in the book?
9. Patti Smith felt that Robert Mapelthorpe saw God as universal love when she met him, but the battle between Catholic good and evil took over. Robert gave Patti a Joan of Arc medal on his the opening of his first Polaroid photo show. How did religion affect their relationship and their lives?
10. What happened to the Chelsea hotel? Does it still exist?
11. Do you think it’s true (per Patti Smith’s mother’s ‘wives tale´) – that what you do on New Year’s Day sets the tone for the rest of the year?

After a condescending remark from Fred Hughes, Patti cuts her hair and gains more notority becauseof it: “I looked at myself in the mirror over the sink. I realized I hadn’t cut my hair any different since I was a teenager.  . . I studied (the rock mags) for a while and took up the scissors, machete-ing my way out of the folk era. . . . Someone at Max’s asked me if I was androgynous.” (p. 140)

For reviews: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/books/review/Carson-t.html?pagewanted=all

Her music: http://www.last.fm/music/Patti+Smith

For interviews on NPR: http://www.npr.org/artists/14867686/patti-smith

Nathaniel Philbrick’s Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community and War

On December 6th, we will be discussing Philbrick’s Mayflower, lead by Mike. Roger will be offering some wine tasting tips. We hope you can join us.

Discussion questions can be viewed directly on the author’s site: http://nathanielphilbrick.com/books/mayflower/for-book-groups

Here are some websites to explore, regarding the book:

http://nathanielphilbrick.com/books/mayflower

http://www.massbook.org/reading_guides/Mayflower_Discussion_Guide.pdf

http://mrsplbookgroup.blogspot.com/2011/11/december-2011-mayflower.html

These short interviews with the author on NPR are worth a moment to listen to:

• Philbrick, Nathaniel. “Debunking Pilgrim Myths: Before Plymouth.” NPR’s All Things Considered. November 22, 2006. [audio: 3 min 44 sec]
• Philbrick, Nathaniel. “Debunking Pilgrim Myths: The First Thanksgiving.” NPR’s All Things Considered. November 23, 2006. [audio: 3 min 29 sec]

 

Al’s Discussion Points for Linda Greenlaw’s: The Hungry Ocean

1. Why do you think there is so much dread and second-guessing associating with the departure? Have you ever embarked on a trip that you had mixed feelings about? How long did it take to put the feeling behind you?  (Chapter 3)
2. There is barely one brief mention of the personal hardship that fishing puts on Linda Greenlaw. On page 50, ever so briefly, she lets her guard down and blurts out, “Who knew that I desperately wanted a husband, a house full of children, a boring job?” Do you think she really meant that statement, or was it intended to be just contrast and put perspective on the life that she had so willingly chosen?
3. Why does Linda Greenlaw even want to be a fisherman? Does it have to do with proving something in a male-dominated industry? Is she different from any other woman you have ever met?
4. Try and envision yourself in Linda’s shoes. How would you handle crew problems? How would you go about leading a group of hardened men? (Chapter 5)
5. Learning about the complexity and the uncertainties of the fishing business in general, and sword fishing in particular (including the long- and short-term preparations, and the physical aspects of the job), does that give you any respect for people that choose this career? (pages 173-175)
6. Have you ever been challenged to apply the persistence that Linda Greenlaw had in her quest for catching halibut (pages 203-206)? Would you have been able to stand up to the crew in a situation like that?
7. On page 248, she quotes Alden Leema, her mentor, as having quoted his own father as having said, “Anyone who chooses to make fishing his occupation solely for the money is in the wrong business.” After reading this book do you feel that advice was right or wrong? Are there other careers that are similar in that they consume your life and return so little?
8. Did the payouts depicted at the end of the book surprise you? The captain’s pay is good at $14K for a good trip, but the crew is working for $5,500/month, with a couple days per month actually spent off the boat.
9. Has this book changed how you will look at seafood the next time you are at Heller’s Seafood staring into the glass case at the swordfish steaks?

More Photos for Thubron’s Shadow of the Silk Road

Here are some more photos to accompany Thubron’s, Shadow of the Silk Road:

Uzbekistan, Samarkand: (p. 184-)

Shah-i-Zinda (p. 206): “Their colours are turqoise and kingfisher blue, often on a dark blue field,  . . .”

Margilan, Silk capital of the Soviet Union  (p. 189) –

Tamerlane, the Conqueror of the World of the mid 1300s: (p. 197-)

Bukhara (p. 209-)

Tea house of Bukhara: (p. 209)

Friendship Bridge from Termez into Afghanistan:

Mazar-e-Sharif (p. 221) – ”  . . Outside, the few street lights flickered out, until only the twin domes of the Hazrat Ali Shrine – legendary tomb of the caliph Ali – went on shining in a necklace of amber lights.”

 Same shrine during the day:

“But the domes were white with pigeons. Pigeons misted the whole sanctuary like a snowdrift.” (p. 223)

Grim fort of Qala-i-Jangi, north of Mazar – regional headquarters of Dostum, (p. 228-

Abdul Rashid Dostum, leader of NIMA (p. 228-)

Tehran, Iran: (p. 284) – 15 million live here in this not so tourist friendly place:

Gawhar Shad Mosque in Herat, where Shah Rukh’s queen was buried: (p. 254)

Shadows of the Silk Road – Photos

Colin Thubron beautifully describes his journey along the Silk Road, but I still was curious about what things actually looked like, so here are some photos I found online to accompany the reading:

Xian, The Capital:

“Yongchang: The Last Gate Under Heaven”, pp. 69-; A statue includes a Roman soldier, where it is believed that Roman soldiers settled this area 2000 years earlier – perhaps those who were marched away after Crassus and his Roman army  were defeated in 53 BC – (click on photo for more information):

Traces of Roman Ancestry – see accompanying article by clicking on photo:

The oasis of Dunhuang, p. 87:

Xinjiang – at the edge of the great Taklamakan, one of the largest deserts in the world (p. 100):

p. 102 – ” the earth would smooth to a savannah of bleached grass . . .” (click on the photo for more photos)

Kyrgyzstan: (p.154) – Click on photo for more . . .

Caravanserai of Tash Rabat: P. 155:

This is just a start.

Check back later for more.

Feel free to add some of your own finds!

Hope to see you soon!

Discussion Points for Shadow of the Silk Road by C. Thubron

Here are some themes for us to discuss at the next meeting:

1. Religions found along the way; Christians, Nestorians, Taoism, Muslims, etc.

2. SARS virus and impact on the author’s journey, p. 84, 86, 104

3. Inventions dispersed east and west, p.15,  78, 103

4. Behaviors and values of the Chinese people, p. 46, 109

5. The Sogdian Trader evoked by the author

6. Caves and objects at Dunhuang, p. 87-

7. Relationship between the Tibetans and Chinese

8. Characters met along the way, p. 58, 115, 124

9. The Tocharians, p. 110