Although there has been a lot of talk of late about how no one reads anymore, thanks to the recent study released by the National Endowment for the Arts, I am fortunate to meet enthusiastic readers on a regular basis. There are twenty or so book groups that I know of in the town where I live (and probably many more I haven't heard about). I have visited with several of these groups, as well as a number of library book groups in my area and around New England. Many of the readers I have met in book groups tell me they prefer reading novels to non-fiction. We may not show up in the statistics as strongly as we would like, but readers are alive and well, and book groups are clearly thriving. I am delighted to meet with book groups, either in person or by phone. If you would like to arrange to have me visit your group or talk with your group via a phone conference, please e-mail me at katherine.towler@verizon.net. Below are questions intended as a guide to discussion for book groups reading Snow Island or Evening Ferry, or for teachers assigning the books. Keep scrolling for a suggested reading list.

Snow Island discussion questions:

1. What is the significance of the island and what role does its isolation play in the novel?
   
   
2. Why are the stories of George and Alice told together in this book? Is there a connection between them?
   
   
3. Why is Alice so unlike her friend Lydia? What sets the two of them apart?
   
   
4. Both George and Alice are marked by their experiences of war for the rest of their lives. How do their experiences differ? What is the importance of war as a theme in the book?
   
   
5. What does Alice feel toward the summer people? Why is Lydia so interested in them? Is there something Lydia wants that Alice doesn't need?
   
   
6. How do the themes of life and death operate throughout the novel? Does the book make a statement about these themes?
   
   
7. Why do both Alice and George return to the island and what does their return signify?
   
   
8. Various sorts of love are depicted in the relationships in the book. Which loves turn out to be the most enduring and why?

Evening Ferry discussion questions:

1. Rachel Shattuck is at a crossroads at the opening of Evening Ferry, after her recent divorce and the death of her mother. How would you describe where she stands at the book's end and the journey she has made?
   
   
2. The structure of the novel presents two voices — Rachel's point of view and the first person voice of Phoebe in the diaries — and two time periods. How do the shifts in voice and time affect your understanding of both Rachel and Phoebe? Is the structure of the book effective and what does it achieve?
   
   
3. Why does Nate want Rachel to read her mother's diaries? And why does Rachel read them in secret, trying to prevent her father from discovering that she has read them?
   
   
4. The Vietnam War hovers in the background of the story. Is the war significant? Why do you think the author set this book in 1965 and 1966 rather than 1969 or the early 1970s, when American involvement and anti-war sentiment were at their strongest?
   
   
5. Phoebe struggles with her role as a mother, especially to Andy, her disabled child. Is Phoebe's response to being a mother surprising? Did her handling of the decision to institutionalize Andy change your understanding of Phoebe in any way?
   
   
6. Readers have commented that the island itself is a character in both Snow Island and Evening Ferry. Do you think this is true? How does the island setting inform the story? Could this story take place somewhere else?
   
   
7. At the end of the book, do you think that Rachel's relationship with her father has changed? What has Rachel learned and how do you think it will affect her understanding of herself and her father in the future? How does it affect her understanding of her mother as well?
   
   
8. Evening Ferry is the second volume of a proposed trilogy. Why do you think Katherine Towler chose to jump 20 years ahead of Snow Island in this volume and to focus on a different set of main characters? What does this achieve?
   
   
9. War is an underlying theme in Snow Island and Evening Ferry. How does Katherine Towler explore this theme?

Suggested Reading

This is a fairly random list of books I have especially enjoyed in recent years. Most of these authors are contemporary, though I have included a few writers no longer with us whose books I consider under-appreciated gems or deserving of another read. These ones come first on my list. The majority are novels or short stories, but there are some non-fiction titles. Happy reading!

Frost in May by Antonia White (and all White's other novels)
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
The Complete Claudine by Colette (the Claudine novels)
Hunger by Knut Hamsun
The Complete Stories of Truman Capote
The Slave by Isaac Bashevis Singer
Island by Alistair MacLeod (stories)
No Great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod
Brown Girl, Brownstones by Paule Marshall
Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko
Girl in Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien (stories)
The Country Girls Trilogy by Edna O'Brien
A Fanatic Heart by Edna O'Brien (stories)
Runaway by Alice Munro (stories)
The Master by Colm Toibin
Waiting by Ha Jin
When Heaven and Earth Changed Places by Le Li Hayslip (non-fiction)
Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by ZZ Packer (stories)
Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott (non-fiction)
Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer (non-fiction)
Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi (non-fiction)
A Girl Named Zippy by Haven Kimmel (non-fiction)
Reading, Writing, and Leaving Home by Lynn Freed (non-fiction)
Limbo by A. Manette Ansay (non-fiction)