Wednesday, March 20, 2013

"Midwives" by Chris Bohjalian


Did Sibyl's final diary entry change any of the opinions you formed during the course of reading about the trial?  If you had any firm ideas about home versus hospital birth, have they been changed by reading this book? Do you think that lay midwives should be allowed to practice? Would you trust yourself to the care of a midwife, or would you go to a hospital for delivery by a doctor?

For further information about the author, check out:

http://www.chrisbohjalian.com/

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley

Recovering from a painful loss, Eva Ward travels to Cornwall and the centuries-old Trelowarth House where she once spent happy summers. One morning, she hears unfamiliar voices in the next room, and on a walk she encounters a mysterious man who seems to be from another time. At first she attributes these oddities to symptoms of grief, but when the “hallucinations” continue to occur and she actually converses with the stranger in her bedroom, Eva concludes she has traveled back 300 years. Though she can’t control her comings and goings between the past and present, she begins to fall in love with Daniel Butler, a dashing man with a dangerous secret. As Eva investigates local annals, she learns some of what Daniel faced, but shes unsure whether she can or should interfere in historical events—or if she can or should find a way to stay with him forever. Told in first person and with understated sensuality, the story of Eva and Daniel’s devotion and dilemma will keep readers avidly engaged.
 If you could travel back in time to the past, where would you go?  Claire traveled back in time as well, do you think she was aware of Eva's traveling into the past all along or just when Eva was injured?