artsy musings of a bibliophile

book club

Book Club: SS&D Week Four

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The other day Epic Reads decided to revamp their Book Club on Goodreads and picked up Something Strange and Deadly for the month of August. I decided to join in because I seem to need an extra bit of motivation when it comes to reading books set in the past. There are pictures of 1876 Philadelphia, first impressions of Daniel Sheridan and a discussion going on about favorite characters in the series.
Then I happen to discover that Susan Dennard also started her own book club for both the books in the Something Strange and Deadly series. It’s a lot of fun because there’s happen to be discussion questions going up every Monday and there’s also participation and weekly giveaways (if you want to participate, click here).
Onto week four discussion question:

“‘Eleanor, you have a choice,’ [Jie] said softly. ‘You always have a choice’” (p. 166, Something Strange & Deadly)

How do you think this quote relates to the overall theme of Something Strange and Deadly? Do you think Eleanor behaves as if she has a choice at the start of the book? What about at the end of the book? And do other characters behave as if they have a choice or do some see themselves as victims of circumstance?
I believe that the overall theme of Something Strange and Deadly are choices. One of my favorites quotes from the book is about choices and by Eleanor: “The fault is not in our stars,” I whispered to the ceiling. “But in ourselves. This was my choice.”


At the start of the book, Eleanor does believe that she has a choice. An ordinary sister would’ve have given up on Elijah and moved on in life just as Mrs. Fitt did. But Eleanor’s mindset isn’t anything like that. She is quick to accept whatever situation she is in and acts accordingly. It is admirable and one of the reasons Eleanor is such a kickass character. 
As for the other characters, the Spirit-Hunters are the epitome of making choices and working together on them as they go along. However, Allison and the Virtue Sisters (from what I could make of them) definitely see themselves as victims of circumstances which I find to be very weak. Clarence Wilcox does see himself as a victim but he acts on it despite not changing his mindset which sets him apart from all the other characters.

So choices are important, right. What do you think? I want to know!

Book Club: SS&D Week Three

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The other day Epic Reads decided to revamp their Book Club on Goodreads and picked up Something Strange and Deadly for the month of August. I decided to join in because I seem to need an extra bit of motivation when it comes to reading books set in the past. There are pictures of 1876 Philadelphia, first impressions of Daniel Sheridan and a discussion going on about favorite characters in the series.
Then I happen to discover that Susan Dennard also started her own book club for both the books in the Something Strange and Deadly series. It’s a lot of fun because there’s happen to be discussion questions going up every Monday and there’s also participation and weekly giveaways (if you want to participate, click here).
Onto week three discussion question:

Eleanor finds herself more and more intrigued by (perhaps even attracted to) Daniel Sheridan, the inventor of the Spirit-Hunters. What is it about him that appeals to her? And vice versa, what do you think attracts Daniel to Eleanor?
Then there’s Clarence Wilcox, the seemingly perfect eligible bachelor. Why do you think Eleanor doesn’t like Clarence?
Daniel is complicated, he’s mysterious, arrogant and intelligent. It’s an interesting combination as opposed to Clarence who is merely someone who does things for himself and to his advantage. It took one meeting for Eleanor to figure Clarence out. He took her to be gullible, underestimated her.

On the other hand, Daniel simply chose to be indifferent to her which is far more interesting than someone who opens up to you after you call on their bluff. So I think that Daniel’s personality is appealing to Eleanor because he fights Death despite it giving him no personal benefit on top of endangering his life. While, Clarence’s selfishness isn’t because she cares about other people and it’s hard to connect with someone who’s only looking out for himself.

What do you think of Daniel and Clarence? Do you agree with me? Disagree? I want to know!

Book Club: SS&D Week Two

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The other day Epic Reads decided to revamp their Book Club on Goodreads and picked up Something Strange and Deadly for the month of August. I decided to join in because I seem to need an extra bit of motivation when it comes to reading books set in the past. There are pictures of 1876 Philadelphia, first impressions of Daniel Sheridan and a discussion going on about favorite characters in the series.
Then I happen to discover that Susan Dennard also started her own book club for both the books in the Something Strange and Deadly series. It’s a lot of fun because there’s happen to be discussion questions going up every Monday and there’s also participation and weekly giveaways (if you want to participate, click here).
Onto week two discussion question:

Magic and ghostly elements frequent the Something Strange and Deadly series. Even though corpses do awaken from time to time and hauntings are hardly that uncommon, the people of Philadelphia seem determined to pretend the Dead are not a growing threat.

Do you think that’s part of human nature? To push on and ignore the danger at our door? Or do you think Philadelphia’s ignorance—or for that matter, any ignorance/false sense of safety in modern days as well—can be pinned on politicians? Can you think of any examples where something similar happened, but rather than the Dead, it was a natural disaster/growing crime rate/etc.?
It is very easy to overlook things in life than to deal with them head on. Human nature has always been good at adaptation which could be a blessing and a curse. However, it’s not always a bad thing to ignore danger. I say this because death itself is something which is inevitable and if we lived with a constant awareness that we could die any moment then what’s the point of living? Not that constant awareness is bad but it is when it becomes an obsession because it’ll simply speed up the inevitable.

That being said, part of Philadelphia’s ignorance is due to that human nature and part due to the actions of the governing bodies. In order to feed upon the ignorance, humans tend to gorge on anything that would sustain it and so a simple reassurance will go far enough.

Today we’re using up fresh water at an alarming rate (highest 600 litres per person per day), the freshwater which makes up a total percentage of 0.37% of all the water on earth. We’re running out of water and instead of taking care in lessening our daily usage of water, what do we do? We console ourselves with the fact that seawater could easily be made into drinkable water. Yes, it can be through a desalination process. But is that reason enough to go on living as we are? No. But we still do because it’s just human nature to ignore the danger at our door.

What do you think? Is this really human nature or something else entirely?

Book Club: SS&D Week One

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The other day Epic Reads decided to revamp their Book Club on Goodreads and picked up Something Strange and Deadly for the month of August. I decided to join in because I seem to need an extra bit of motivation when it comes to reading books set in the past. There are pictures of 1876 Philadelphia, first impressions of Daniel Sheridan and a discussion going on about favorite characters in the series.
Then I happen to discover that Susan Dennard also started her own book club for both the books in the Something Strange and Deadly series. It’s a lot of fun because there’s happen to be discussion questions going up every Monday and there’s also participation and weekly giveaways (if you want to participate, click here).
I’m 38% into the book and I should say that it’s going really, really well. So onto week one’s discussion question:
Do you think, given the time period, Mrs. Fitt is justified in her demands on Eleanor? Why or why not?

While it’s not hard to see where Mr. Fitt is coming from given the dire (my attempt to go historical) financial situation of the Philadelphia Fitts, it’s also clear that for Mrs. Fitt keeping up appearances for the society is more important than happiness. She is not alone in wanting Eleanor to be who she wants to be because doesn’t everybody’s parents at some point (especially those of the 19th century!).

It is complicated because she seemed to have given up on Elijah to look after the family so she focuses on Eleanor; keeping tabs on her, dressing her up to make her look more appealing, forcing her to spend time with the richer members of the society and what not. This sounds so much more appealing and easy than losing their home, social status and money once and for all. Looking at it from this point of view might justify her demands of Eleanor but keeping Eleanor’s opinions and emotions in focus becomes impractical this way. Eleanor does what she can to dodge her attempts at conforming her according to what the society will or will not find acceptable.

I’d like to point out here that Mrs. Fitt is not one of those haughty parental characters who cast a jaded eye towards their children’s well being. She does care for Eleanor but it’s clear that she places more importance on how society looks at the Philadelphia Fitts. However, her approach is definitely unjustified and infuriating. But given the time period, I’d say it is justified because that’s what used to happen in those times.