Planning the Perfect Book Club Meeting for The Lines Between Us

Guest post by Rebecca D’Harlingue

Books offer us a way to travel in time and space, to imagine the lives of others, and often to reflect on our own lives, and with your book club, you can share your thoughts on all of these. I think you’ll find plenty to discuss with The Lines Between Us, in which a young girl flees seventeenth-century Madrid in fear for her life, vanishing with an awful secret. Three centuries later and a continent away, a woman utters two strangers’ names on her deathbed, lamenting that she has failed them. In a packet wrapped in an old quilt, her daughter discovers her connection to the young girl who lived so long ago, to those who came between, and to the oath that binds them all.

Now, if your book club is like mine, there isn’t just food for thought, there are always some delicious snacks, and if they can take their inspiration from the book, all the better. The Lines Between Us takes place in three locales: Spain, Mexico City, and St. Louis, Missouri. If you do a dinner at your book club, you could consider paella, fajitas, or St. Louis barbequed ribs. If snacks are more your club’s style, think of tortilla española (a type of potato omelette), which can be cut into bite-sized pieces and eaten cold, chips and salsa, or toasted (aka breaded and deep-fried) ravioli. Drinks could include sangria, margaritas, or a St. Louis beer.

You might set out some decorations to help set the mood. Ask if anyone might have a Spanish shawl or fan they could contribute for the evening, or maybe someone has a souvenir from Mexico to contribute. For something whimsical, it’s easy to find inexpensive snow globes with the St. Louis arch on the Internet.

For music, Spanish or Mexican guitar or jazz can be played in the background while the guests chat and munch before the meeting starts. 

All of the book club members that I know come to the meeting brimming with topics they want to discuss. Still, some prepared questions can get the ball rolling, and might take the conversation in some new directions. Here are some for The Lines Between Us. You can find even more on my website: 

• Which of the three main characters, Ana, Juliana, or Rachel, did you think were the most completely portrayed? Which character spoke to you the most?
• What did Emilio gain by keeping his journal? How did reading his journal affect Ana?
• Why was Sebastián so obsessed with honor?
• Juliana referred to the convent as “restraint as well as refuge.” Which aspect played the larger role?
• How did you view Rachel’s reactions to the papers? How does she change over the course of the novel?
• Juliana wonders whether her descendants “will find it strange that there was a time when men were so violent against women, and that women were blamed for it.” What would she think about the world that Rachel lives in?
• Was Mercedes’ anger and revenge justified?
• How did the letters from Juliana’s descendants affect your reaction to the novel?
• What part does the theme of family secrets play in the novel? Was it an important aspect for you?
• What did you think about the use of a dual timeline? Did Rachel’s story enhance the novel for you?
• How is the book the same or different from other historical fiction novels you have read?
• What might you wish to see added to the book? What might you have left out?

As a final activity, you could hand out pens and papers, and have each member write down one thing that they would like their descendants to know about them. Decide ahead of time whether you will share the ideas at the meeting or not.

If you’d like to know a little more about the writing of the novel, you can go here.

You might find this “conversation” between Ana and Rachel interesting:

Finally, I’d love to meet with your book club over Zoom! Just contact me through my web page.

Have a great meeting!