Wild Girl by Jim Fergus

Ned Giles, a teenager who is orphaned when his father commits suicide during the Great Depression heads West hoping to start a new adventure. Ned joins the 1932 Great Apache Expedition in Douglas Arizona. The Expedition is traveling into the Sierra Madre mountains of Mexico to free the kidnapped son of a wealthy Mexican landowner. The Expedition is made up of wealthy men who have paid for this adventure, including Tolley Phillips, a gay man who hires his own English valet. It also includes Margaret, a young anthropologist from the University of Arizona, and two Apaches scouts, Joseph Valor and his grandson, Albert. When a captured Apache girl escapes this leads this small band of friends to find her and use her as a ransom for the Mexican boy. This novel is based on historical fact as was his previous novel 1,000 White Women. Fergus brings us rich characters, incredibly vivid scenery and insightful journey into the Indian struggle with "White Eyes".

How Jim Fergus came across the idea for "Wild Girl"

Fergus was traveling in Mexico. In the village of Casas Grandes in the state of Chihuahua, he met an old man who told him the story of a young Apache girl they called la ni-a bronca, who had been treed in the mountains by the hound dogs of an American mountain-lion hunter in 1932. He didn't know what to do with her, so he brought her into town. She was so wild that she tried to bite anyone who touched her, so they tossed her into jail. Apaches played a sort of mythic part in the beliefs of the Mexican populace, and there were a lot of people who came to see her out of sheer curiosity. So many that the sheriff was able to charge admission, and the old man, at the time a young boy was among those who paid to see her. He confessed his story with shame to Fergus. And he would not say what happened to the girl. Fergus concludes, "I couldn’t get the story of la ni-a bronca out of my mind, and I knew I had to find out for myself what happened to her. In this way the novel was born." Thus proving that sometimes, seeing how sausage is made is actually appetizing. And that history need not be dry or matter of fact. more

Discussion Questions

1. Who was you favorite character?

2. Did the character of Tolley, a vocal, flamboyant homosexual, surprise you considering the time period of the 1930's?

3. Did you feel that Ned and the Wild Girl relationship ended with the right choice?

4. How sympathetic toward Joseph/Goso where you when you found out what his role was in capturing Charlie?

5. Considering this book was written in the perspective of a man and 1,000 White Women was written in the perspective of a women, which was more believable? Which did you like better?

Nov 14th

Are we on for the 14th?

Next Meeting

Let's set the next meeting for November 14th

1st The Wild Girl by Jim Fergus

2nd Brother I'm Dying by Edwidge Danticat

3rd The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

In nineteen minutes, you can mow the front lawn, color your hair, watch a third of a hockey game. In nineteen minutes, you can bake scones or get a tooth filled by a dentist; you can fold laundry for a family of five....In nineteen minutes, you can stop the world, or you can just jump off it. In nineteen minutes, you can get revenge. (from the jacket) In this emotionally charged novel, Jodi Picoult delves beneath the surface of a small town to explore what it means to be different in our society. In Sterling, New Hampshire, seventeen-year-old high school student Peter Houghton has endured years of verbal and physical abuse at the hands of his classmates. His best friend, Josie Cormier, succumbed to peer pressure and now hangs out with the popular crowd that often instigates the harassment. One final incident of bullying sends Peter over the edge and leads him to commit an act of violence that forever changes the lives of Sterling's residents. ~Reading Groups Guide Interview with Jodi Picoult.

What drew you to the subject of a school shooting for the premise of a novel?

As a mom of three, I've seen my own children struggle with fitting in and being bullied. It was listening to their experiences, and my own frustrations, that led me to consider the topic.

What facts did you uncover during your research that might surprise

readers whose knowledge of school shootings comes solely from media coverage?

Although the media is quick to list the "aberrant" characteristics of

a school shooter, the truth is that they fit all teens at some point in their adolescence! Or in other words -- these kids who resort to violence are not all that different from the one living upstairs in your own house, most likely -- as scary as that is to imagine. Two other facts that surprised me: for many of these shooters, there is the thinnest line between suicide and homicide. They go to the school planning to kill themselves and decide at the last minute to shoot others, too.

What appealed to you about bringing back two characters from previous novels: defense lawyer Jordan McAfee and detective Patrick DuCharme? Why the romantic resolution for Patrick this time?

Okay, I'm just going to admit it to the world: I have a crush on Patrick DuCharme. And of course, he DIDN'T get the girl at the end of Perfect Match. So I really wanted him to star in another story, where he was front and center.

Did you have the surprise ending in mind when you began writing Nineteen Minutes, or did it evolve later in the process?

As with all my books, I knew the ending before I wrote the first word. ~Book Browse Interview

10 Myths About School Shootings
(Which of these fit Peter's profile?)

Myth No. 1: 'He didn't fit the profile’

In fact, there is no profile. “There is no accurate or useful ‘profile’ of students who engaged in school violence.”

Myth No. 2. “He just snapped.”

Rarely were incidents of school violence sudden, impulsive acts. Attackers do not “just snap,” but progress from forming an idea, to planning an attack, to gathering weapons.

Myth No. 3. “No one knew.”

Before most of the attacks, someone else knew about the idea or the plan. "In most cases, those who knew were other kids: friends, schoolmates, siblings and others. However, this information rarely made its way to an adult.”

Myth No. 4. “He hadn’t threatened anyone.”

Too much emphasis is placed on threats. Most attackers did not threaten anyone explicitly

Myth No. 5. “He was a loner.”

In many cases, students were considered in the mainstream of the student population and were active in sports, school clubs or other activities.

Myth No. 6. “He was crazy.”

Only one-third of the attackers had ever been seen by a mental health professional.

Myth No. 7. “If only we’d had a SWAT team or metal detectors.”

Most shooting incidents were over well before a SWAT team could have arrived.

Myth No. 8. “He’d never touched a gun.”

Most of the attackers acquired their guns from home.

Myth No. 9. “We did everything we could to help him.”

"Many attackers felt bullied, persecuted or injured by others prior to the attack," and said they had tried without success to get someone to intervene.

Myth No. 10. “School violence is rampant.”

It may seem so, with media attention focused on a spate of school shootings. In fact, school shootings are extremely rare. ~By Bill Dedman (investigative reporter MSNBC)

Book Discussion Questions

1. Alex and Lacy's friendship comes to an abrupt end when they discover Peter and Josie playing with guns in the Houghton house. Why does Alex decide to keep Josie away from Peter?

2. Why did Josie stay with Matt even though she witnessed his cruelty toward other students especially Peter.

3. The expert witness for the defense, Dr. King states that Peter was suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of the bullying. Do you feel this is an accurate assessment of Peter?

4. Why does Josie choose to shoot Matt instead of shooting Peter? Did she deserve to go to jail? Why was Peter silent about this or was his happy about the outcome?

5. While reading the book did you reflect back to the numerous school shootings that have been in the news? Did the book change your opinion about those shootings?

The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs

The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs is a wonderful novel that follows the fictional lives of members of a knitting group at the Walker and Daughter yarn and knitting store in New York City.Georgia Walker is the self-reliant business owner of Walker and Daughter, the knitting store where the novel takes places. She is raising a teenage daughter, Dakota, an entrepreneurial in her own right, as a single mom. The other women in the group: Anita, Cat, KC, Peri, Lucie, and Darwin, have their own stories that weave together with each others and forms the close bonds between them. The book is expected to be adapted to a film of the same name starring Julia Roberts. It is scheduled for release in 2008. Kate Jacobs website

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

Lisa See, author of the critically-acclaimed international bestseller, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (2005), has always been intrigued by stories that have been lost, forgotten, or deliberately covered up, whether in the past or happening right now in the world today. For Snow Flower, she traveled to a remote area of China – where she was told she was only the second foreigner ever to visit – to research the secret writing invented, used, and kept a secret by women for over a thousand years.  Ms. See’s new novel once again delves into forgotten history. Peony in Love takes place in 17th-century China in the Yangzi River delta. It's based on the true story of three "lovesick maidens," who were married to the same man – one right after the other, not one reaching age twenty.

Foot Binding

The origin of the practice is uncertain. Multiple accounts attempting to 

explain its beginning exist, each advancing a different theory: from the desire to emulate the naturally tiny feet of a favored concubine of a prince, to a story of an empress who had club-like feet, which became viewed as a desirable fashion.Bound feet were considered intensely erotic. Qing Dynasty sex manuals listed 48 different ways of playing with women's bound feet.

Loving Frank by Nancy Horan

Loving Frank is a work of fiction based on events relating to the love affair of a brilliant, controversial architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, and one of his clients,
Mamah Borthwick Cheney. Mamah, along with her husband Edwin Cheney, commissioned Wright in 1903 to design a house for their family on East Avenue in Oak Park, Illinois. This book portrays the period 1907 to 1914, during which the Wright/Cheney affair flourished. by the author



"Is the purest, most liberating love you've ever known worth giving up your children, your faithful spouse, your friends – your life as you know it? For Martha "Mamah" Borthwick Cheney and her lover, architect Frank Lloyd Wright, the answer was yes."


Who was Mamah Cheney?

Mamah Borthwick Cheney was born in Boone, Iowa in 1869, just four years after the American Civil War ended. Mamah, born Martha, was no woman of the times, as it were—educated at the University of Michigan, she ultimately took a job as a librarian in nearby Port Huron. She spoke several languages, earned a master’s degree in language studies and didn’t marry until she was 30, to Oak Park’s Edwin Cheney, an electrical engineer. They eventually had two children, John and Martha, and Mamah became involved in the community, and through a social club met Catherine Wright. This chance meeting led to the Cheneys' commissioning of Catherine’s husband, Frank Lloyd Wright, to construct them a home.


Frank and Mamah soon began an affair. Both unhappily married and excited by one another, they fled Oak Park, left their spouses and children, for Europe, where they stayed in Italy for a year. Wright’s career took a massive hit, and income was low. The first thing he did was to retreat to his family homestead and build fortress for Mrs. Cheney and himself, (Taliesin - Welsh for "shining brow") On August 15, 1914, Frank Lloyd Wright was overseeing work on Chicago’s Midway Gardens, while Mamah Cheney was in their Taliesin home with her two children, two of Wright’s associates and a father and son, the father another of Wright’s colleagues. After a quarrel with Julian Carlton, one of the home’s workers, Carlton set fire to the complex, and as each tried to escape the blaze, he murdered them, one by one, with an axe. "Death in a Prairie House," published earlier this year, is a captivating look at the Taliesin massacre by William R. Drennan.Wright himself was so overwhelmed that it took him ten years to recover his confidence and return to more stable existence. He remarried in 1922 to Mariam Noel,
who was his second wife.He paid tribute to Mrs. Cheney, his greatest love, the one for whom he had thrown away a normal career, by building her the simplest grave. Wright built Taliesin Two on the ashes of Taliesin One and developed even further his defensive style. Tragedy followed tragedy. Taliesin Two was burned, and during the fire neighbors not only helped douse the flames, but helped themselves to some of Wright's oriental art as well. Brief biography of Frank Lloyd Wright