Gift from the Sea - Book Club Discussion Questions

Since I am crazy and have to write my own book club questions, I thought I'd share them for those out there looking for something different for their book groups.

Gift From the Sea 

Book Club Discussion Questions

-Quote, page 131: "Looking back at a book published twenty years ago, written in the midst of a busy family life, my chief sensation is astonishment.  The original astonishment remains, never quite dimmed over the years, that a book of essays, written to work out my own problems, should have spoken to so many other women."
Question: Is this true?  Is this book still relevant to us?  Why?

-Which "shell" stage of life are you personally in right now?  (Pictures of shells below.)
-What do you think of her style of writing?  Was it easy to read?
-Is the women's movement complete?  What is missing?  Is there truly gender equality?
-Lindbergh comments that she felt her experience was very different from other people's.  Why do we feel that way?  That our personal situation is different than any other women's?
-"For to be a woman is to have interests and duties, raying out in all directions from the central mother-core, like spokes from the hub of a wheel."  What are your spokes?  How do you balance them?  Do they need to be balanced?
-pg.56 Lindbergh feels that solitude is important to center ourselves.  What purpose does solitude serve in your life?
-pg.52-53 Do you find refuge in housework?  Can this humble occupation be centering?  What would you spend an hour of solitude in doing?
-pg.50 Is it rude, as Lindbergh suggests our society feels, to say no to an event in favor of solitude?
-pg. 63 "This shell was a gift."  Why is marriage a gift?  What do you do to make your marriage feel like a gift?
-Her description of the oyster shell is beautiful.  What ages constitute "middle ages"?  Dowe, can we ever really shed out shells?  (pg 84)
pg. 96 "Women must come of age by herself"  True or False?  Have you had any "coming of age" experiences?
-pg.97 Are the qualities of hear, mind and spirit neglected?
-Do we still experience the same values stated on page 119, quantity over quality, speed over stillness, noise over silence, etc?  How do we break away from valuing quantity, speed, noise, etc?




Channelled Whelk



Moon Shell



Double-sunrise



Oyster Bed



Argonauta