1) Public attitudes toward unmarried mothers have changed drastically over the years. Jules was a pariah; today’s single mothers are not. What led to the change in perspective and how has it affected society over the years?

 

2) Did the book bring back memories? Did your family have a party telephone line? Did they have electricity and running water in their home? Did they read True Story magazine, Ladies’ Home Journal or the Saturday Evening Post? Did they live (or die) during the flu epidemic of 1918?

 

3) In the book, men like President Harding and Babe Ruth also had illegitimate children. Their reputations weren't tarnished by such revelations. Why are men not held as accountable as women for children born outside of marriage? How might that change in the future?

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4) How did you react to the characters’ treatment of the black hairdresser, Posey Fryer? The book takes place in 1921-22, which was 60 years after slavery was outlawed in the United States. What remnants of slavery existed in the early 1920s? What remnants still exist? How might the institution of slavery still affect African-Americans? 

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5) If you could time travel, would you go back to the 1920s? How would your life be different? What would be better or worse? Would you stay there?

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6) In the scene where the characters gather at the boardinghouse to listen to the World Series being broadcast for the first time on the radio, Jules says, "In the same flicker of time, the whole nation -- from President Harding to Zane Grey to us - was united ... We were together, alone." One hundred years later, people still feel together, alone. How has that happened?