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Reading book Questions regarding "The Notebook" Apr 20, 2008 3:34 am
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Reading Group Discussion Questions

FEEL FREE TO ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS!!

1] At one point in the novel Gus says to Noah, "My daddy used to tell me 'the first time you fall in love it changes your life forever, and no matter how hard you try, the feelin' never goes away. This girl you been tellin' me about was your first love. And no matter what you do, she'll stay with you forever." Do you think this is true? Can you remember your first love?


2] The restored house Noah lives in plays an integral role in the novel. In fact, an article about the restoration is what draws Allie back to New Bern. What do you think the house represents? What does this say about the importance of place? Does Noah restore anything else in the novel?

3] When Allie decides to come down to see Noah "one last time," do you think she wanted to see him just to say good-bye, or was she secretly hoping to fall in love with him again? Was it right for Allie, who had already agreed to marry Lon, to make this visit? Would your answer be different if she were already married?


4]When asked by her mother, Allie claims to be in love with both Noah and Lon. Do you think this is true? While it is possible to love more than one person equally, is it possible to be in love with two people at the same time?

5] Allie's mother regrets having hid Noah's letters to Allie for so many years. Why does Allie's mother change her mind, especially when Allie's wedding is less than three weeks away? Can you understand Allie's mother's motivation for hiding the letters in the first place? As a parent, wasn't she responsible for watching out for her daughter?

6] Were you at all surprised when it is revealed that Allie had decided to marry Noah, or was there never any question in your mind?

7]Noah and Allie's love for each other at the end of the novel seems as pure and as powerful as it was in the beginning. Is it possible for the intensity of first love to last that long? Is it unrealistic to expect it to?

8] Although he's not in the best shape himself, Noah goes to Allie's bedside and reads "The Notebook" to her every day. As a result, Allie is in much better shape than the other Alzheimer's patients. Do you think this is plausible? Is her stable health a result of her hearing the story of her life every day, or are greater forces at work? What does Noah's devotion suggest about marriage? About the nature of love itself?

9] The letters Noah and Allie write to each other, the poems they share, "The Notebook" Noah reads to Allie every day are all integral parts of this novel. And during World War II, a book of poetry actually saves Noah's life. What does this suggest about the power of the written word? Why is this power such an important part of The Notebook?

10] The Notebook has been a best-seller not only in America, but also around the world. Why do you think this is? What is it about the book that speaks to such a broad range of people?
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Background info on "The Notebook" Apr 20, 2008 3:19 am
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by Nicholas Sparks(author of the Notebook
(from a speech given at the Maui Writer's Conference, 199

". . . It wasn't easy to come up with the plot for my first novel, but in the end, I decided to go with something that I knew I could do. But before I go into the writing process, I'd like to tell you a little about the beginning of the story, since it had its roots in something that happened in 1989.

The Notebook was inspired by my wife's grandparents, two wonderful people who spent over 60 years together. My wife was very fond of these two people -- the other set of grandparents had died when she was young -- and she was one of those people who loved to visit on the weekends, growing up. When she turned sixteen, as soon as she got her license, she would drive up to visit them on the weekends and even when she went off to college (about two hours away) she still went to visit them a couple of times a month just to check on them, to make sure they had groceries, and all those things a nice granddaughter would do.

Since they were so special to her, my wife was, of course, looking forward to having these two people involved in her wedding. But, unfortunately, the day before the wedding, we got a call and were told that the grandparents wouldn't be able to attend. Even though they were only forty minutes away by car and someone else could drive them, they were in such ill health that their doctor recommended they stay at home. My wife was very sad about that, but the day was so hectic, she did her best to put it out of her mind. I guess it finally struck home for her when she was standing in the back of the church and getting ready to walk down the aisle. In the back of the church was a small table and on the table was a box that had been brought by the florist. It contained the corsages and boutonnieres for the wedding party and our parents, but as she was standing there, she couldn't help but notice there were two flowers left untouched -- those that had been meant for the grandparents.

We went through the ceremony and reception, we talked to family and danced, did all those typical things, and went back to the hotel. When I woke the next morning, my wife rolled over and met my eyes, looking just about as beautiful as I'd ever seen a woman look.

"Do you love me?" she asked.
"Of course I do," I whispered, wondering why she asked. "Why -- you're tops of the Christmas tree. You're peaches and cream. You're the best."
"Well good," she said, clapping her hands and speaking in an authoritarian tone. "Then you're going do something for me."
"Yes ma'am," I said blinking in surprise and wondering how on earth my sweet wife had suddenly taken charge of the relationship and felt comfortable enough to give orders like a drill sergeant.

Anyway, what she had me do was put on my tuxedo again. She slipped into her wedding dress, grabbed those two flowers (she'd brought them to the hotel), a piece of wedding cake, and a video that my brother-in-law had shot the day before, and we brought a little wedding up to the grandparents.

They had no idea we'd be coming and were excited to see us. My grandfather-in-law slipped into his jacket and put on the boutonniere and we took photographs with them; we went inside and watched the video as we ate a slice of cake, and it was then they told us the story of how they met and fell in love, parts of which eventually made their way into The Notebook.

But though their story was wonderful, what I most remember from that day is the way they were treating each other. The way his eyes shined when he looked at her, the way he held her hand, the way he got her tea and took care of her. I remember watching them together and thinking to myself that after sixty years of marriage, these two people were treating each other exactly the same as my wife and I were treating each other after twelve hours. What a wonderful gift they'd given us, I thought, to show us on our first day of marriage that true love can last forever. . ."

did you know. . .

The Notebook was only the third novel in recent history to spend over a year as a hardcover best-seller?

The title for the novel was chosen by Theresa Park, his agent?
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Remembering the lovable Farley Apr 20, 2008 3:04 am
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By Donna Bowman

Most newspapers comics are frozen in time; Beetle Bailey never gets older, Hagar The Horrible never gets bored with the same old Viking raids, and Blondie and Dagwood haven't changed much physically since their 1930 debut.

A few comic strips tell generational stories, letting their characters grow up over time, but even the ones that tackle real-world issues and serious topics usually keep their stable of characters intact, to preserve the dynamic that made the strip popular in the first place.

It's rare for a comic strip to permit a permanent change: characters that grow up, significantly alter their lives, or reach a final conclusion. It's rarer still for a comic strip to tackle the grim subject of death. Which is why Lynn Johnston's "For Better Or For Worse" sparked an uproar when it killed off Farley, a sheepdog who'd grown up alongside the strip's human cast.

Fans had long enthused over the way Johnston's characters matured over time, going from slobbery infants to children to teenagers to married adults with their own slobbery infants. But few were ready for the dramatic plotline where Farley heroically saved the young April from drowning in a flooded river, then died of shock and cold. Johnston has noted that chronologically, Farley had become improbably old, and it was necessary for him to go. Actually, the same can be said for an awful lot of newspaper comic strips.

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Passing of Doug Marlette Apr 20, 2008 2:59 am
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I loved his comic Kudzu. I had just learned of his passing last year.

By MARTHA WAGGONER / Associated Press

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Doug Marlette, the Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist who recently turned his incisive wit toward a budding career as a novelist, died Tuesday in an auto accident in Mississippi. He was 57.

Marlette was a North Carolina native who split his time between Hillsborough and Tulsa, Okla., and was visiting Mississippi to help a group of high school students with the musical version of his syndicated comic strip, "Kudzu." He had just delivered the eulogy at his father's funeral Friday.

"You know, there's a couple of family members I'd rather have lost instead of Doug," said author Pat Conroy. "And he would have laughed at that. This has been a shock of all shocks."

Conroy spoke daily with Marlette and last talked with him Monday. The author of "The Prince of Tides" said he expected a call Tuesday evening after Marlette had wrapped up a rehearsal with the drama students at Oxford High School, adding he had no idea how he will fill the void left by his friend's death.

"I've simply been sitting here crying all day, not knowing the answer to that question," Conroy said. "Just don't know."

Marlette started his cartooning career in 1972 at The Charlotte Observer, and most recently was on staff at the Tulsa World. He won the Pulitzer prize in 1988 for his work at The Observer and the Atlanta Constitution, the same year the Observer won the Pulitzer's public service award for its work detailing the misuse of funds by Jim Bakker's PTL television ministry.

At the time of the Pulitzer, Marlette said his biting approach could be traced in part to "a grandmother bayoneted by a guardsman during a mill strike in the Carolinas. There are some rebellious genes floating around in me."

Marlette was the passenger in a pickup truck driven by John P. Davenport, of Oxford, Miss., the theater director at Oxford High School, said Sgt. Leslie White, a spokesman for the Mississippi Highway Patrol. Davenport was treated at Baptist Memorial Hospital-North Mississippi in Oxford and released. He declined to comment Tuesday when reached at his home.

Marshall County Coroner John Garrison said the accident occurred in heavy rain about three miles east of Holly Springs. He said he believed the truck hydroplaned, then struck the tree.

The Oxford students planned to perform "Kudzu: A Southern Musical" in August at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, and Marlette planned to write a magazine story about the production, said Katharine Walton, a Marlette friend and his North Carolina-based publicist.

Marlette published two novels, "The Bridge," in 2001, and "Magic Time," in 2006. He was just "finding his voice in writing long-length fiction and was finding great joy in it," said Sarah Crichton, his editor at Sarah Crichton Books/Farrar Straus & Giroux.

"It's tremendously sad to me that he only had the chance to write these two novels because he was both brilliant at and excited by it," she said.

"The Bridge" wasn't exactly a hit in Hillsborough, the small town west of Raleigh that is home to several well-known writers. They felt Marlette based some of the book's less-than-admirable characters on local residents.

"He was an opinionated man and he would get in trouble for it," Crichton said. "Part of the great spirit of Doug was that he was both full of opinions and full of kindness."

Marlette received death threats for a cartoon he drew in 2002 that depicted a Muslim driving a rental truck with a nuclear weapon on board. Above were the words, "What Would Muhammad Drive?"

Such criticism was unlikely to dissuade Marlette, whom friend and writer Will Blythe described as a "fearless guy with a big heart. ... I never heard him say anything boring." Blythe got an e-mail from Marlette on Monday with the first chapter of his new book.

"I used to say to him that it was criminal that somebody so good at drawing should be able to write so well," Blythe said. "As great as he was at drawing, as great as he was at writing, as a conversationalist, he was equally great."

Last week, Marlette delivered the eulogy for his father, Elmer Monroe Marlette, a World War II veteran whose son registered as a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War.

"There were many tearful confrontations, arguments and shouting matches between my father and me over that abominable war, and many harsh words we wished we could retrieve," Marlette said in the eulogy.

"But when the time came for me to face my draft board, and make my case, collect the letters and testimony to my anti-war commitment from teachers, ministers and family, my father wrote the draft board the most eloquent letter one could hope for, not only testifying to the sincerity of his son's beliefs, but offering to volunteer himself to go to Vietnam in my place."

Born in Greensboro, Marlette grew up in North Carolina, Mississippi and Florida. He graduated from Florida State in 1971 and joined the Observer the next year. After more than a decade in Charlotte, he moved to the Atlanta Constitution before stops at New York Newsday and the Tallahassee Democrat.

"Cartoons are windows into the human condition," Marlette said in 2006 after joining the staff at the Tulsa World. "It's about life." Marlette was a distinguished visiting professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's journalism school, and was inducted into the school's Hall of Fame in 2002.

Robert E. Lorton III, publisher and president of the Tulsa World, told the newspaper's Web site that Marlette's death was "a great tragedy, not only for the Tulsa World family, but for all who knew Doug."

"He was more than a great cartoonist and author, he was a tremendous human being," Lorton said. "Words cannot express the grief that we are all feeling today."

Survivors include his wife, Melinda, and an adult son, Jackson.
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Remembering Uncle Dub............................ Apr 20, 2008 2:52 am
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Uncle Dub

Personal Motto: "I prefer clutches to churches."

Personal History: Uncle Dub -- a mechanic who has won the Nobel Prize for car fixing – is Kudzu's surrogate Father and one character that is not afraid to say exactly what's on his mind. One of the last Good 'Ol Boys, an endangered species (Billybobbus Rednexus), Uncle Dub's idea of a healthy lunch is fried sweet potatoes sandwiches. He runs a garage where Kudzu helps and listens to Bypass' cracker-barrel philosophers, loafers and layabouts.

Place of Residence: Under the hood of an old jalopy in the sleepy town of Bypass, N.C.

Personality Traits: A talented mechanic, fiercely independent and irr
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we all remember Veranda??!! Apr 20, 2008 2:49 am
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Veranda Tadsworth

Age: 16

Personal Motto: "With God as My Witness, I Shall Never Acknowledge Kudzu Again."

Personal History: Veranda is the local teen queen of Bypass. A baton twirling, future-game-show-hostess she is without grandiose aspirations – unless you count becoming a world famous cheerleader. Yet despite her man character flaws she is perfect in the eyes of our hero Kudzu – too bad Veranda's heart only has room for Veranda.

Marlette styled Veranda's appearance after his real-life wife, Melinda.

Place of Residence: The sleepy town of Bypass, N.C.

Personality Traits: Self-centered, beautiful and empty–headed.
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my fav Pastor of alltime! Apr 20, 2008 2:46 am
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Rev. Will B. Dunn

Age: Younger than Methuselah

Headline: "Take my congregation…PLEASE!"

Personal History: For this simple country preacher, there's no business like soul business – and Rev. Will B. Dunn is quite the entrepreneur.

The eccentric minister, Rev. Dunn leaves his congregation confused and amused with his forthright criticism and his modern interpretations of the Bible. But for all his quirks, the Rev. 's kind heart shines through as he attempts to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comforted and maybe save a few souls in the process. For example, he installed a teakwood deck around the baptismal pool to boost attendance at services; launched a cable access television program; and writes a weekly spiritual guidance column for the newspaper that dishes out the most caustic - yet honest - advice ever printed. But his truest observations on life he saves for Kudzu, a local teenager whose indomitable spirit helps the minister in ways the young man can never fully appreciate.

Place of Residence: The parsonage in the sleepy town of Bypass, N.C.

Personality Traits: Quirky, sarcastic and straightforward -- everything a stereotypical minister is not.
1 comment
remember Kudzu DuBose? Apr 20, 2008 2:43 am
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Kudzu Dubose

Age: 16

Headline: "Whiz kid novelist trapped in a small town."

Personal History: Filled with raging hormones and big dreams, Kudzu is a typical teenager. But this modern-day Tom Sawyer doesn't realize that the small town he calls home – and can't wait to leave – is as special and filled with as much promise as he is. But until he sets out for the city life of his dreams, Kudzu will learn lessons about love, friendship and being a good person from his quirky companion Rev. Will B. Dunn.

Kudzu's enthusiastic spirit, big ideas and bright future appeal to the dreamer in all of us. The comic strip -- and the boy -- was named for the fast-growing Japanese vine introduced in the south to control soil erosion that has subsequently taken over the Southern landscape. Kudzu's character is patterned after its creator Doug Marlette.

Place of Residence: The sleepy town of Bypass, N.C.

Personality Traits: Clumsy and independent with a kind heart. A rising star.
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Please pray for Lorrain upon her sons death Apr 20, 2008 1:56 am
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They found her son dead. He had died from the antidepressants he was taking. His brother found him. I dont know her but she was the friend of a friend. I got an email today about it.
6 Comments
"Demonic" Dominion Theology Apr 19, 2008 4:17 pm
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This is a very dangerous movement... take the time to read the following so you will know why! This is taken from Let Us Reason Ministries
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