The Color Purple

Book menu for The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Food mentioned in The Color Purple:
Blackberry jam, 11
Ham, 49-50
Eggs, 49
Grits, 49
Coffee, 49
Flapjacks, 49
Orange juice, 49
Grapefruit, 49
Strawberries and cream, 49
Biscuits, 49-50, 226
Boxed chocolates, 56-57
Fried chicken, 60
Blackberry pie, 60, 208
Cornbread, 60, 208
Lemonade, 64-65, 288
Whiskey, 71
Sandwiches, 133
Cookies, 133
Tea, 133, 214
Dutch chocolate, 138
Palm wine, 147
Chicken and peanut stew, 147, 149
Watermelon, 164
Fruit punch 164beer, 203, 208
Ham and greens, 208
Chitlins and black-eyed peas, 208
Pickled okra, 208
Caramel cake, 208
Oatmeal, 225
Egg rolls, 244
Wonton soup, 244, 246
Fried rice 244
Fortune cookies, 244
Tuna casserole, 261
Potato salad, 288

Books/Authors mentioned in The Color Purple:
Hamlet / William Shakespeare, 256

Music mentioned in The Color Purple:
"Do Like You" / Steven Wonder, epigraph
"A Good Man is Hard to Find" / Bessie Smith, 71
Sophie Tucker, 106
Duke Ellington, 106

Discussable quote from The Color Purple:
"If [God] ever listened to poor colored women the world would be a different place, I can tell you". p.187

The Title is mentioned on:
Page 191: "I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it."

Page 192: "Well, us talk and talk bout God, but I'm still adrift. Trying to chase that old white man out of my head. I been so busy thinking bout him I never truly notice nothing God make. Not a blade of corn (how it do that?) not the color purple (where it come from?). Not the little wildflowers. Nothing."

Page numbers refer to the hardcover edition (ISBN: 0151191549))

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Tinkers

Book menu for Tinkers by Paul Harding

ISBN of edition I read: 9781934137192 (hardcover)

Food mentioned in Tinkers:
Potato salad, 9
Rolled slices of roast beef, 9
Ginger ale, 9
Chicken and mashed potato, 69
Pancakes, 71, 139, 173
Coffee, 72
Ham crusted in brown sugar and molasses, 83
String beans, 83-84
Apples, 104-105, 135-136
Ham sandwich, 123
Saltwater taffy, 152
Roast chicken, 164
Eggs and ham, 173
Blueberry cobbler, 173
Oranges, 174, 181
Pork chops, 176
Apple pie, 176
Meatloaf, 185
Banana cream pie, 185
Meatloaf sandwiches, 186
Cola, 186

Books/Authors mentioned in Tinkers :
The Scarlet Letter / Nathaniel Hawthorne, 37-38, 43, 178
Mark, the Match Boy / Horatio Alger, Jr., 104

Magazines mentioned in Tinkers:
Saturday Evening Post, 19

Great vocabulary in Tinkers:
vastation, 10, 180
anneal, 64
reliquaries, 146
atavistic, 151
intaglio, 181

Title mentioned on pages:
p.12: "He tinkered. Tin pots, wrought iron. Solder melted and cupped in a clay dam."
p. 12: "Tinkerbird, coppersmith, but mostly a brush and mop drummer."
p. 15: "Tinker, tinker. Tin, tin, tin. Tintinnabulation. There was the ring of pots and buckets."
p. 74: "I hope you are right--there is little need for a tinker on Mars. Now higher again..."
p. 125: "His despair came from the fact that his wife saw him as a fool, as a useless tinker, a copier of bad verse..."
p. 169: "How to Make a Bird's Nest: Take a wafer of tinker's tin. With heavy scissors, cut four triangles."

Libraries mentioned in Tinkers: (I can't help it, I am librarian and LOVE to see how novelists portray us and our buildings!) 
p. 35
p. 152: "No one knew whether Sabbatis and Red were related by blood. Some of the librarians, who had a sense of the town's history, thought they might be distant cousins, and could easily be provoked into heated arguments about the matter during a slow twilight at the checkout desk in the library."

Discussion questions for Tinkers:
Discuss the technical aspects of the books (chapters, alternating points of view, lack of quotation marks for dialogue, the use of multiple verb tenses).

What, if any, is the significance of the book's title?  Is it aptly titled? Why or why not?

What literary elements does the author use throughout his novel?

What are the parallels between George and his father Howard?  How did they differ?

What scene stayed with you long after you finished reading Tinkers?

What aspects of Tinkers do you think made it worthy of a Pulitzer Prize?

What significance is there in the references to The Scarlet Letter?

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Empire Falls

 
Book menu for Empire Falls by Richard Russo

ISBN of edition I read: 0375726403 (paperback)

Food mentioned in Empire Falls:
Burgers, 21
Lobster bisque, 27
Green Mountain coffee, 28
Granola bar, 38
Lemonade, 46
Cookies, 47
Coffee, 47
Hot cocoa, 48
Sugar doughnuts, 84
Chinese food, 101
Fried haddock, whipped potatoes with gravy,
     apple sauce and parker house rolls, 101
Italian food, 102
Mexican food, 102, 423Steamer clams, 135-6
Clams casino, 139
Escargot, 140
Caviar, 144
Cheetos, 173, 374
Chicken salad sandwiches, 181
Seltzer with lime, 191
Beer nuts, 193
Flautas, 211
Hot dogs, 307
French toast, 319
Ham, 319
Roast chicken, 319
New England pot roast, 319
Dairy Queen hamburgers and fries, 334
Prime rib, 365
Seafood enchilada, 429

Books/Authors mentioned in Empire Falls:
The Great Gatsby / F. Scott Fitzgerald, 63
Ernest Hemingway, 127, 370
Ralph Waldo Emerson, 181
Robert Frost, 228
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn / Mark Twain, 232
Emily Dickinson, 245

Music mentioned in Empire Falls:
Abba, 30
     "Mama Mia", 193
     "Dancing Queen"
Barry Manilow, 30
     "Copa Cabana"
Rolling Stones, 41
Beatles Anthology, 75
Perry Como, 278

Artists mentioned in Empire Falls:
Andrew Wyeth, 104
Pablo Picasso, 181, 183, 187
Van Gogh, 360
Dali, 444

Discussion questions for Empire Falls:
Why is Mrs. Whiting so generous to Miles?

Did you notice which chapters are told in the present tense? (Any patterns?; effective?)
[Chapter 4, 10, 30]

What, if anything, does Tick have in common with either of her parents?

Any parallels between Miles and his mother?

Irony: Both Janine and Grace Roby confess their affairs to a priest.

What is the author's opinion of the Catholic church?

Describe the relationship between Janine and Tick?

Which character would you most like to meet?

What role does the river play in the story?(Symbol, metaphor)

How do you feel about most of the kids' treatment of John Voss?

Is Tick a believable character? Explain.   Is she ahead of her time/wiser than her years?

Discuss the author's choice of the name 'Tick'.

Any similarities between Tick and John?

Describe Zack in ONE word.

Why doesn't Tick have friends?

For what is the cat a metaphor?

Describe Jimmy Minty in one word.

What are examples of the 'Empire' falling?

Libraries mentioned in Empire Falls:
page 260: "Hey, speaking of getting pushed around, will you please stand for school board again? The damn fundamentalists are going to ban every library book worth reading if I don't get some help."

page 468 (entire first full paragraph).

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