Morton Grove Public Library’s Comments (group member since Mar 31, 2020)

Morton Grove Public Library’s comments from the MGPL Between the Lines Book Group group.

What were your first impressions of the book? Did you like the characters and the town of Broken Wheel? Would you visit--or even live in Broken Wheel yourself? Why or why not?

Welcome to the May Between the Lines Book Discussion.

The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald can be found on Hoopla Digital here as well as on MGPL's Overdrive and Axis360 collections.

Reviews, information about the book and the author, as well as some discussion questions to get you started can be found here on Litlovers

What did you like, what could have gone better? This is our first attempt at an online book discussion so let us know what you think. Would you be interested in keeping this going or would you prefer to have phone meetings, one in the morning and one in the evening?

Thanks for participating, and hope you all are doing well!

~Rebecca

I'm also going to give it a 3...I hadn't thought about the fact that a younger audience would probably get more out of it, but that's an excellent point. My first reaction was more of a 2 or a 2.5 but that was mostly having very high hopes that were disappointed, I think. After the phone discussion and all the brilliant comments here, I'm bumping my rating up to a 3. And kudos to Marie Benedict, because now I want to learn more about Hedy Lamarr.

If you haven't seen it yet, there's a documentary called Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story on Netflix and available through the MGPL's Kanopy account that goes into more detail about Hedy's later years. It works very well in concert with the book.

Maria wrote: "Morton Grove Public Library wrote: "Question 2: Hedy's acting and inventive career came about through potential one-time party conversations and chance opportunities. How do you think Hedy's time w..."

I agree I think Hedy's appearance was one of many tools she used to her advantage. I wish the book had dug into her intelligence and how that influenced as well

Maria wrote: "James wrote: "Her time in Austria in 1930 was very interesting. Especially the ever changing political and social landscape. But wi-fi in the 1940s?!?! How interesting would that have been if it wa..."

Maria, if you do pick up The Other Einstein let us know what you think!

James wrote: "It's interesting because it felt like she was uniquely positioned in most of her endeavors as the only female in her field/line of work. Whether that was as a munitions dealer's wife hosting world ..."

Yeah, I thought that was one of the more interesting pieces of characterizations. You look at Hedy Lamarr and assume she had the perfect life but of course no one actually does. The book does a good job developing how awkward she must have felt, no matter how successful

Question #1: The title of the novel is subject to several interpretations. What meanings can you glean from the title, and how did your understanding of the meaning of The Only Woman in the Room change from the beginning of the novel to the end, if at all?

Hello and welcome to our moderated Goodreads Book Discussion. James and I will be posting questions and comments over the next hour, but as always feel free to jump in and comment any time! To participate in our moderated discussion use this discussion board--either post your thoughts in a new comment or reply to a previous comment.

Any questions? Let us know!

James wrote: "Her time in Austria in 1930 was very interesting. Especially the ever changing political and social landscape. But wi-fi in the 1940s?!?! How interesting would that have been if it was developed wi..."

Now I'm curious about Marie Benedict's other books--her brand is writing about the women history has ignored or forgotten about (Albert Einstein's wife, Winston Churchill's wife, etc). I wonder if they're more fully formed or equally bland?

Question 2: Hedy's acting and inventive career came about through potential one-time party conversations and chance opportunities. How do you think Hedy's time with Fritz, hosting dinner parties with world leaders, contributed to her success in those types of moments?

James wrote: "I'll never forget when I first learned who she was and what she accomplished. I was genuinely gobsmacked at how incredible her life had been as well how multifaceted she was. Not many can say they ..."

I had the same problem! I was so excited when I saw there was a book about Hedy Lamarr because I knew she had something to do with created wifi technology (in the 40's!!) but I felt like the author was not excited about that part of her life.

That said, I did learn a lot about Austria in the 1930's, which was a lot more interesting than I thought it would be. I also got a lot of detail about her early life, which I previously knew nothing about

Question #1: The Only Woman in the Room is narrated from the first person perspective of Hedy Lamarr--what did you think of her as a character? Did you already know about her secret life as a brilliant scientist and inventor? What about the other characters--did anyone stand out to you?

Hello and welcome to our first moderated Goodreads Book Discussion. James and I will be posting questions and comments over the next hour, but as always feel free to jump in and comment any time! The discussion this morning will be taking place on this thread to get started--either post your thoughts in a new comment or reply to a previous comment.

Any questions? Let us know!

Chris wrote: "I've read a few library ebooks, but I read them on the hoopla app on my phone, so it's a little tedious. My e-reader is a basic kindle, and I don't think it connects to the library apps.

That bein..."

Good news, you can definitely read library ebooks on your Kindle--I also have a very old, pre-kindle fire version that works just fine. You just need Overdrive rather than Hoopla--you can see your options here https://www.mgpl.org/download-stream but basically you'll check out a book through MGPL's Overdrive library, then sign in through you amazon account and read it on your kindle the same way you would a book you'd purchased

My first impression was mixed--I walked away from the book feeling vaguely dissatisfied, but I was having a hard time putting my finger on why. I love both the comments Maria & Chris left, because it helped me understand worked for me and what didn't.

First, the good: I thought the first part of the book was excellent. I know generally what Europe in the 30's was like, but very little about Austria specifically and I really enjoyed the look we got at Austria's Jewish community and the complicated political position Austria was in, being in between fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. I also only knew Hedy Lamarr from her later years in Hollywood, so I liked getting a glimpse into her young life. I hadn't considered what Chris said, that this book gives a valuable insight into how domestic abuse can happen to anyone, no matter their wealth or intelligence, and that is also a really valuable takeaway!

Unfortunately, I thought the second half of the book wasn't as strong. It felt a little superficial, I think is the word I'm looking for? Considering that we were reading from Hedy's point of view I thought we would get more of her motivations, but instead I felt like I never had a clear idea of why she made the choices that she did. For example, her guilt at fleeing Austria ahead of the Nazi invasion is a natural reaction. But to have that be her only motivation for her inventions felt lacking to me. Was she passionate about science or only acting out of a sense of duty? And, did she enjoy acting or did she accept it as a profession because she didn't know any other life? I came away from the second half of the book feeling like I understood her less as a character than when I started.

Overall, I enjoyed it, but I felt it could have been a stronger book than it was. I generally enjoy historical fiction--maybe that's why I felt more critical of this book. ~Rebecca

Give us your rating, ranked 1-5 of what you thought of the book. 1 is the worst (although I've had people give books a 0 before) and 5 is the best. If you want to share why you've given the book the rating that you did you are welcome to, although you certainly don't have to.

Just for fun, try rating it before our moderated discussions, and after. Did your rating change? Why or why not?

Chris wrote: "Hi all. I'm Chris. I usually go to the Tuesday evening Between the Lines book discussion. Before the library closed, I wish I had the chance to check out a bunch of books I've been meaning to borro..."

Chris, I absolutely know what you mean. I have a stack of unread books I've been meaning to get to, but have I been reading them? Of course not. Have you tried library ebooks? It's not quite as satisfying as a physical book but that's how I've been doing most of my reading these days. Let me (or any of us) know if you want recommendations! ~Rebecca

James wrote: "Hello Everyone! My name is James and I also work at the Morton Grove Public Library. Think of me as our intrepid discussion leader's #2; the Robin to her Batman, the Ron to her Harry, the Watson to..."

I'm making you call me Batman from now on, just so you know ~Rebecca

Thank you guys for joining me! I second your thoughts--I also look forward to meeting in person again, but in the meantime I'm excited to try something new, and I also can't wait to hear what everyone has to say. Keep your eye out for new discussion boards to start going up soon. ~Rebecca