Dolly All the Time
Cut along the dashed lines and pass the cards around the table.
Where did you read most of this one, and did it become a stay-up-too-late book or a sip-it-slowly book?
Dolly Parton is stitched into the title and the mood. What is your own relationship to Dolly, warm, indifferent, or full-on devoted?
This book is interested in the comfort of being known for a long time. Who in your life knows the oldest version of you, and how does that feel?
Monaghan writes humor and heartache in the same breath. Was there a moment where you laughed and then felt a small ache, and what was it?
The story treats going back to a place you came from as both tender and complicated. What did it stir up about your own hometown or family home?
Dolly Parton's whole public self is warmth plus steel. Which character here felt the most like that combination to you, and did you find it comforting?
Without giving anything away, there is a point where a character has to decide whether to keep protecting an old story about themselves. Have you ever quietly let go of a story like that?
By the last pages, what did this book seem to believe about forgiveness, and did you come away believing the same thing? Answer however vaguely you need to.