But now, I want to invite any of you who have already read the book to join in our Bookclub chat, for the “Fireworks over Toccoa Bookclub.” There is a linky on the bottom of the post, so if you are a blogger, I invite you to write your responses on your blog and a link up (As always — you can respond to any or all of the questions, or mention other themes you saw in this book apart from the questions). If you aren’t a blogger, join the discussion via the comment section below.

A good review should never contain SPOILERS, but the discussion is designed for those who have read the book, so THERE WILL BE SPOILERS. This book has a surprising twist at the end, so don’t spoil it for yourself, if you haven’t read the book, don’t read any more of this post!

The questions with an asterisk are from *the discussion guide that is available online. I have not included them all here, so feel free to use them for your discussions or to stimulate your own thinking (Am I the only one who looks at discussion guides after reading a book and thinks about them, even if it’s just me reading it??). The others were written by our team.

• Many of the characters in the novel deal with regret and/or loss. How did these themes affect the characters? How did it affect their decisions? With whom could you relate as they struggled through these emotions?
• *Do you think duty is ever more important than love?
• How would you describe the love between Jake and Lily? Was it genuine? Born of fear or loneliness? Could it have survived the intricacies of “real life,” or could it only have existed in the tiny pocket of time outside of reality that they had?
• How much of this story is a wartime story? Would Jake and Lily and her father and mother have reacted differently had they not been in the midst of a war? How has your family been affected by war?
• *What was your response to Lily’s decision to offer a thirsty African-American soldier a rare ice cold Coca-Cola in the middle of busy downtown 1945 Toccoa, Georgia? Do you think she should have been more direct in her action to help him, or stayed out of it entirely?
• *Honey speaks the name of her son, Jonathan, only once in the story after he is killed in the war. Do you think the way she deals with his death is understandable? Do you think it’s healthy? What effect do you think it has on Lily?
• *Lily’s father Walter is very clear with her about what he expects her to do when he speaks to her the morning after she has been out all night with Jake. What was your response to how Walter handled this situation? In his place, in what ways would you have reacted similarly or differently?
• Though not a typical Young Adult coming-of-age novel, how is Fireworks over Toccoa the story of Lily’s coming of age?
• What personal connection, if any, did you have with this novel?: the place (Toccoa, Georgia), the World War II setting, influential families in small towns, military deployment, the loss of a child or sibling, temptation in marriage?

Bloggers — link up your posts discussing the book (not reviews — those go HERE). Feel free to candidly discuss all plot points, but do your readers a favor and issue a SPOILER warning at the top of the post.

As always, after you link we encourage you to visit around and respond to other bloggers’ thoughts about the story.

Check out our current giveaways. Subscribe to our feed. Follow us @5M4B on Twitter.

This is the post for you to link up your reviews.

It’s my thought that this review would not include spoilers, because who likes that?? Obviously you can discuss the major plot line (anything covered in the amazon.com editorial reviews is fair game), but not the specific plot twists and resolution.

However, I think that to really discuss this book, to express your feelings about the book, you have to discuss some of the plot. Do you agree?

In the next couple of days, I will post some discussion questions. I will include a separate linky at that time, and those who want to really share thoughts about the book can link up a separate review visit around and comment and have a little bookclub “chat” can do so. This is also where those of you whose bookclubs received copies will discuss it — in the comments, or perhaps by sending me Word doc summary of your discussion of this book, or an email, or even a short video (how fun would that be??).

Remember, anyone who links a review up here by April 13th at 8:00pm EST (whether or not you received the book from our promotion) is eligible to receive a $25 amazon gift certificate.

The review has to be posted on your blog, and linked in here by that time for you to be eligible.

On April 14, I will randomly select one person to receive the gift certificate.

Any questions? Let me know. Otherwise link up:

Check out our current giveaways. Subscribe to our feed. Follow us @5M4B on Twitter.

One thing that I liked about Fireworks Over Toccoa is that it’s a quick, easy, inviting read. It’s only 272 pages, and the writing is descriptive and yet not overly flowery (which I sometimes enjoy, but I have to admit it does take more time to wade through).

So–if you are a mom who wants to read, but don’t have a lot of time, this is the kind of book you want to pick up. Give yourself a few hours, and you can brag that you read a whole book!! Perhaps you are like me, and don’t need extra incentive to while away the hours by reading instead of cleaning your house. Fireworks Over Toccoa has something for you as well. No matter how much we read, any of us like that immediate satisfaction of finishing a book quickly!

I also think that this book will appeal to

• Fans of World War II era fiction
• Georgians (the state, not those from English historical period)
• Military wives
• Romance-readers

Read my review of Fireworks over Toccoa to find out about what I liked about the book.

We are also going to host a sort of a bookclub here in mid-April, inviting you to link up your review or discuss the book along with us. Stay tuned for more details. However, I do know that anyone who links up a review by the deadline will be entered to win a $25 amazon gift card (sponsored by me — thanks to amazon affliliate rewards!)

If you are interested in receiving a copy of Fireworks over Toccoa and know that you will be able to read it and review it on your blog by mid-April, send an email with “blogger book” in the subject field to 5minutesforbooks (AT) Gmail DOT com. Tell me why you want to read the book, provide a link to your blog, and tell me why you’d be a good word-of-mouth advocate for this book (assuming you like it — we do want you to post your honest thoughts). This is open to U.S. and Canadian shipping addresses.

Not a blogger? Remember, anyone can still join in our bookclub and still be entered to win the amazon gift certificate.

• You can read over 100 pages of the book right now at FireworksOverToccoa.com. You can also enter to win one of 300 books!
• Read my full review of Fireworks over Toccoa at 5 Minutes for Mom to find out more about the book.
• Are you in a book club? The publisher would like to give you up to 12 copies of this book if you can read it for your April or May bookclub. Find out all the details about having Fireworks over Toccoa as your bookclub selection at 5 Minutes for Books.
• Email me (see above) to ask for a free review copy to feature on your blog. I’ll write you back within a couple of weeks to let you know if you’ve been accepted.

Check out our current giveaways. Subscribe to our feed. Follow us @5M4B on Twitter.

*Disclosure: This is a paid campaign with the publisher to help them reach bloggers and bookclubs. However, as always, our opinions are our own.

But they can also be hard to coordinate — finding a book that everyone will enjoy and have time to read.

And they can be expensive as everyone has to buy a copy of the book.

Or they can be risky, as some put their name at the bottom of a long line of library requests hoping to receive it before the next meeting.

We, along with the publishers of FireworksOverToccoa.com, want to solve this problem for you. That’s right, we want to give you up to 12 copies of the book so that you can discuss it in your April or May bookclub.

You’d need to commit to meeting in April or May to discuss the book, which probably would involve switching some things around — but we’ll send you the books, so it’s probably worth it, right? Then you can report to us and let us know how the discussion went. We’ll even be posting some discussion questions here later this month, so that’s another difficult task out of the way.

Fireworks over Toccoa is a quick, easy, read, but one that will evoke feelings and emotions and memories. I think that the discussions will be rich. Click on the title to read my full review over at 5 Minutes for Mom.

The books can be sent out to one person, or to each individual member of the bookclub (U.S. and Canadian addresses). Then you just have to set a date, and get reading!

If you are interested in reading Fireworks over Toccoa for your next bookclub, send me an email at 5minutesforbooks AT gmail (DOT) com with “book club” in the subject line.

In the email let me know why you think that this would be a good fit for your bookclub, and when you would be meeting to discuss it.

I’ll let you know before the end of the month if you’ve been selected (we’re hoping to provide several bookclubs with books!), and the books will be shipped out at the end of the month, after the publish date of March 30.

• You can read over 100 pages of the book right now at FireworksOverToccoa.com. You can also enter to win one of 300 books!
• If you’re a blogger, find out how 5 Minutes for Books is teaming up with the publisher to get this book in the hands of a lot of bloggers. If you read the book and post a review, you’ll be eligible to win a $25 amazon gift certificate. Find out how you can be considered to receive a book in this post at 5 Minutes for Books.
• Email me (see above) to nominate your bookclub to receive up to 12 copies of the book.
• Read my full review of Fireworks over Toccoa at 5 Minutes for Mom to find out more about the book.

Check out our current giveaways. Subscribe to our feed. Follow us @5M4B on Twitter.

*Disclosure: This is a paid campaign with the publisher to help them reach bloggers and bookclubs. However, as always, our opinions are our own.

Originally posted here on May 29, 2009:

This was a lovely lovely book.

Seventeen-year old Pasha and his best friend Ahmed spend the summer exploring life and love and the unfairness of the totalitarian regime of 1973 Iran. The characterization of a young man’s journey from his late teens into adulthood is perfect — first loves, first stands on issues, hellos, goodbyes.

The language is beautiful, the story is strong, the characters are dear, and it’s suspenseful, so it pulled me right along. Parts of the story are told in flashbacks, so the reader is brought closer and closer to the crisis event, and you can’t help but keep asking, “What happened to change the course of events in these characters’ lives?”

When that crisis is revealed, the end of the novel continues in a suspenseful vein, as I yearned to find out what is going to happen to the characters that I had come to love.

An interesting section at the end has an interview with the author as well as a reader’s guide for discussion and then recommended reading, including sections for history and culture and memoirs/novels/poetry. Recommended titles include Funny in Farsi (linked to the review that Dawn did here a few months ago), as well as the House of Sand and Fog and Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books, both of which have been on my radar a while. In fact, I think I’m going to load up the House of Sand and Fog on my Kindle for my summer travels.

So, I’d say that if you’ve read, and enjoyed, any of those titles, you’d like this one too. The comparisons to The Kite Runner are also inevitable — although they are set in different countries, they both deal with events that precipitate a coming of age, set in the backdrop of a totalitarian regime. The Kite Runner is a wonderful book, but I think that Rooftops of Tehran has more heart, more range (since I laughed aloud a time or two in addition to being touched throughout), and is overall a better story.

A wonderful literary page-turner — my favorite kind of read.

Read more in Mahbod Seraji’s guest post “On Reading.”

Upcoming bookclub schedule:

• November 3: Any work by Louisa May Alcott
• December and January: off months — eat some extra holiday pie

Join us for our other community events each Tuesday:

• October 13 — Children’s Classics: Re-read a childhood favorite (I can’t wait for this–both to read and read others’ thoughts)
• October 20 — Kids’ Picks
• October 27 — What’s on Your Nightstand

Managing Editor Jennifer Donovan seems to be stuck in the middle-east, at least in the pages, because she loves books with an interesting cultural setting. Read about her life in Connecticut (interesting to a transplanted Texan, at least!) at her blog Snapshot.

Want to know more about it? Read my review, and the author’s guest post On Reading.

If you have read it (or are in progress), I hope you are enjoying it. When you write your bookclub post (or join us in the comments if you are not a blogger), you can use one or all of these questions to guide you, or you can simply post your own review.

The end of the book also includes some discussion questions, and you are free to use these as well.

If you are a member of a bookclub, feel free to use these questions as a springboard for your own discussion.

1. The story is told with some mysterious flashbacks. What affect did this have on you? Did it pique your curiosity? Confuse you? Intrigue you?
2. A heavy theme of the novel is friendship. What friendships make an impact on you? Do they seem similar to our own contemporary American relationships, or different?
3. I felt like this was generally an uplifting story, though set amidst some trying circumstances. Did you agree? If so, how did the author achieve this?
4. How do characters in the book perceive the United States? How did the way that they see the U.S. change the way you see it?
5. Did reading this book give you a greater understanding of Iranian culture or politics? Did you read (or have you read) any of the suggested works that are listed in the back of the book? How do they compare and contrast with this portrayal of Iran? What does the fact that the author included a list of suggested readings, and the other personal information that he includes after the novel ends say about his purpose in writing it?
6. If you’ve read the book and it brought a question to your mind, leave it in the comments, and maybe some people will address it.

Join us on Tuesday October 6 right here to discuss this beautiful book.

Join us on November 3 as we discuss one of Louisa May Alcott’s books (your choice!). We’re taking the busy holiday months of December and January off from Bookclub.

Find out about all of our Tuesday events at our Join In page.

Managing Editor Jennifer Donovan loves books with an interesting cultural setting. Read about her life in Connecticut (interesting to a transplanted Texan, at least!) at her blog Snapshot.

Is this your first book of letters — fiction or non-fiction? If so, do you like this particular writing style? Why or why not?

Guernsey was my first book of letters. After reading it, I’d like to read a non-fiction book of letters. I think letters give insight to a person that you’d not otherwise have. Which leads to the second question I asked:

Do you think Guernsey would have been the same if the author had employed the typical fiction narrative? Would it have been better, or worse?

Maybe I’m wrong, but I think Guernsey works because of the letters. If the book had been written from any one character’s perspective or from a third-person narrative, I don’t think I would have fallen in love with the characters as I did. This time through, I marked some of my favorite lines (with bookmarks, as I was reading a library copy and couldn’t write in the book!) These quotes revealed sides of the characters that I’m not sure a narrative could have conveyed.

Lamb also taught Hunt’s youngest daughter to say the Lord’s Prayer backward. You naturally want to learn everything you can about a man like that. (Juliet to Dawsey)

Reading good books ruins you for enjoying bad books. (Isola to Juliet)

What on earth did you say to Isola? She stopped in on her way to pick up Pride and Prejudice and to berate me for never telling her about Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy. (Juliet to Sidney)

Mrs. Guilbert has always been a nasty one, but now I know that she can’t help it – she’s got a big pit in her Benevolence spot. She fell in the quarry when she was a girl, and my guess is that she cracked her Benevolence and was never the same since. (Isola to Sidney)

He (Dawsey) did not say much at our first meeting – nor at any of our meetings since, come to think of it – but let him walk into a room, and everyone in it seems to breathe a little sigh of relief. I have never in my life had that effect on anyone, can’t imagine why not. (Sidney to Sophie)

And these are just a few of the many reasons why I adore this witty, funny, and even tear-jerking work (it’s one of my 5-Star Reads). I could go on forever, but I want to hear your thoughts.

What say you about Guernsey? Did you enjoy your visit there as much as I? Please link up your post in the Linky or leave your thoughts in the comments.

Melissa has been captivated by books for as long as she can remember. She resides in Virginia and blogs at Breath of Life.

Upcoming bookclub schedule:

October 6: Rooftops of Tehran

November 3: Any work by Louisa May Alcott

December and January: off months — eat some extra holiday pie

That’s why I’m so very excited that it’s our Bookclub choice for September (plus, now I feel justified in reading it again so soon!). If you haven’t read this delightful book, I encourage you to pick up a copy and join us on September 1st. Here are some things to consider while you read:

~Is this your first book of letters — fiction or non-fiction? If so, do you like this particular writing style? Why or why not?

~Do you think Guernsey would have been the same if the author had employed the typical fiction narrative? Would it have been better, or worse?

~Who is your favorite character? Why?

~How does the reading that brings the Society’s members together become more than an alibi? What do their literary choices say about each character?

~In her last letter, Juliet says that she is …in a constant state of surprise these days. What do you think she means by that?

Of course, these questions are merely suggestions. I think one of the marks of a great book is the discussion it sparks. I can’t wait to come back next week to see what kind of discussion we’ll have about this book that has become near and dear to my heart.

Come back on September 1 to link up your post from your own blog, or to answer the questions in the comment field, and then we’ll visit around and discuss and enjoy this book together.

Check out our schedule through the end of the year at our Bookclub page so you can make plans to join us as we get together to discuss a different book that we’ve read on the first Tuesday of each month.

Melissa has been captivated by books for as long as she can remember. She resides in Virginia and blogs at Breath of Life.