Skylark

Before we say anything smart: where were you physically when you did most of your reading of this one, and did the setting of your chair match the mood of the book?

Was there a sentence of McLain's you had to stop and read twice, just because of how it sounded? Bring it to the table and read it out loud, no analysis required.

Skylark is full of yearning for somewhere or someone just out of reach. Where were you when you first felt that particular ache, and did the book stir it back up or soothe it?

McLain writes women who are reaching for a bigger life than the one handed to them. Which moment of reaching made you feel protective, and which made you feel a little envious?

The title promises flight. When you were reading, did the book feel more like taking off or more like coming home? Did that change as you went?

This is a book about being seen, sometimes by the wrong person at the wrong time. Who in your own life saw you clearly at a moment when you needed it, and did reading this bring them to mind?

By the time you closed the book, had your feelings about what the main character wanted shifted from where they started? Describe the turn in your own chest rather than the plot that caused it.

McLain tends to let her characters pay for their freedom. Sitting with the whole book now, does it leave you feeling that the cost was worth paying, and would you have had the nerve?