1. Unlike many of the people in her life, Josie is an avid reader. How does her love of reading bring her closer to certain characters and further separate her from others? Cite specific examples from the book.

2. Early in the book, Josie remembers a line written by Keats: “A thing of beauty is a joy forever” (pg. 41). Josie’s life and her surroundings are filled with ugliness, but there are also things of beauty that bring her joy. How do you see those things fulfilling Keats’ sentiment for her?

3. Throughout the novel’s development, Josie tries desperately to avoid developing the darker, meaner characteristics of some of the characters closest to her. How well do you think she achieves this? Was this inevitable, or should she have allowed more (or less) of that in herself?

4. Josie says about herself, “No matter how I parted my hair, I couldn’t part from the crack I had crawled out of” (pg. 258). To what degree do you think this defines Josie’s character? Is she being too hard on herself, or is she inevitably and forever a product and reflection of the world she came from?

5. Josie and Jesse are both characters with very difficult pasts who could have easily chosen a lifestyle of “hustle and blow” like other people in their lives. What about that life do you think compelled them to choose a different path?

6. Secrets are an integral part of the story and of how events unfold. Consider Patrick’s secret—one that is never revealed explicitly in the text. What are we to make of the role of that secret in how Patrick deals with Josie, with his father and the bookstore, and with his own perception of himself? What are we to make of the fact that Josie never expresses that she knows Patrick’s secret?

7. Josie recalls the following quote from Keats: “I love you the more in that I believe you have liked me for my own sake and for nothing else” (pg. 284). How does that quotation apply to Josie’s relationship with Patrick? With her mother? With Willie? With Cokie? With Jesse? With Charlotte?

8. Why does Josie choose to change her name? What is the significance of the name she chooses?

9. The author chose to write this story solely from Josie’s point of view. How did that choice affect you as a reader? Select another character from the story and describe how your reading experience would have been different if the story had been told from her/his perspective.

10. Josie muses about how John Lockwell displays his history publicly in family photographs, how Willie keeps hers hidden in a drawer, and how she keeps her own history and dreams “on a list in my desk and, now, buried in the back garden” (pg. 237). Where do you keep your history and dreams? How does the “where” and “how” that characterize our keeping of history affect its role in our lives?