READERS GUIDE
Questions and Topics for Discussion
1. Early in the novel, Laurel reflects that “Sisterhood was being able to occasionally dislike or resent the same person you wouldn’t hesitate to give a kidney.” Did the way these sisters relate to each other resonate with your own experiences of sibling dynamics?
2. Barbara’s three daughters have very different relationships with their mother, and with motherhood in general—which daughter’s experience resonated most with you, and why?
3. Sloane is eager to embrace her “crone” identity, even as she resists the ways menopause is traditionally framed in society. How do you feel about the word “crone”? Have you seen a shift in the way media looks at aging women/women in midlife?
4. Laurel is trying to do everything “right” as a parent of a non-binary child, even if she doesn’t fully understand Vee’s experience. How do you think Laurel’s own experiences as a woman affect her as a parent?
5. Were you aware that there are Episcopalian nuns? Do you find anything interesting or intriguing about convent life? What did you make of Nanette’s experience at the gun range, or her early experience in Paris?
6. Throughout the novel, we will meet Barbara at different stages in her life. As a woman of seventy, then sixty, as a forty-year-old mother, as a college student, and as a little girl. How do you think the events of Barbara’s life shaped her as a person? Why do you think her friendship with Carol played such a significant role in her life?
7. Each sister has a different view of caring for someone with Alzheimer’s. Whose point of view did you most connect to initially, and did your opinion change as you read on?
8. Many people are afraid to have conversations with family members about dementia, and don’t like to spend much time imagining how they would like to be cared for, if they should get this disease. Did the events of Body Language change your thinking about end-of-life planning? Have you encountered a similar situation in your own life?
9. Debates are ongoing about laws concerning Right to Die, or Medical Assistance In Dying. Do you have an opinion about whether Alzheimer’s or other dementias should qualify a person for assistance in dying? Did anything in this novel strengthen, or change, your opinion?
10. The phrase fearfully and wonderfully appears many times throughout the novel, both in its original context as a quotation from the Bible, and at times taking on the character of a spell, or mantra. Did the phrase have any resonance for you? Are there any quotations or phrases that have appeared in your own life, that have guided or inspired you?
