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The Hatwearer's Lesson

READING GROUP GUIDE

Terri Mills has it all: good looks, a high-powered job as an attorney, plus a sexy and successful fiancé, Derek Houser. But just when things are going perfectly, Terri’s world begins to crumble. She discovers that Derek has been cheating and her Grandma Ollie—the only parent she has ever known—suddenly falls ill and is rushed to the hospital. As her world begins to unravel, Terri struggles to get it together, but how? Her hat-wearing grandmother knows.

Terri ventures down South, back to her small-town roots, to nurse Grandma Ollie back to health—but it’s Terri who finds healing. Grandma Ollie uses her sixth sense and her powerful gift of storytelling to help her troubled granddaughter.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Grandma Ollie and Terri both put a lot faith in signs. What are some of the signs both women see throughout the book? How do the signs help Terri through her journey?

2. Why is Terri so quick to blame Zelda for Derek’s infidelities? Why does she suspect Zelda? Discuss the ways that her sabotage of Zelda plays out throughout the story.

3. Throughout the novel, Grandma Ollie tells Terri her own story of heartbreak and love. How does Grandma Ollie’s story help Terri to make her final decision? What parallels exist between Grandma Ollie’s past and Terri’s present situation? Are there any differences?

4. What role does religion play in Terri’s life?

5. Discuss Terri’s pregnancy scare. How do you think her story would have changed had she been pregnant with Derek’s child? What is the significance of her not being pregnant? Do you think it changes her priorities in any way?

6. When Terri first returns home, she makes a wish on the genie lamp. Does her wish come true?

7. Discuss the differences between Derek and Lynnwood. How does each man try to win Terri’s love? What does each man represent to Terri?

8. Discuss Grandma Ollie’s love affair with Hank. Why does she choose not to run away with him? Do you think she made the right decision? Was Hank really a bad man as Ollie’s father suggests?

9. As Terri gives Grandma Ollie a bath, she thinks about how they share the same dreams, the same hopes. Do you think this is true? Is Terri’s life what Grandma Ollie would have really wanted for her?

10. In Chapter 23, Grandma Ollie has two dreams about Terri. Discuss these dreams. What do they mean?

11. After all that Derek has done, why does Terri, in the end, still find it so hard to leave him? Why is it so hard to find the courage to finally give up on their relationship?

12. In what ways do Terri and Grandma Ollie nurture each other?

13. What about Wesley attracts the young Grandma Ollie? What does she find in Wesley that she couldn’t find in Hank?

14. Do you think Terri made the right decision in the end? Has Terri finally found the happiness she was searching for?

15. Discuss the title of the book. What is “the hatwearer’s lesson?”

AUTHOR Q & A

1. The community of Collingswood, Arkansas is very vivid and real in the novel. Is Collingswood—and the people in it—based on an actual town?

I tried to think of Monroe, Louisiana and Hope, Ak. Where my grandmothers were from respectively. I spent summers in Monroe and loved the country, folksy feel of the place.

2. How was writing this novel different from the other writing you have done?

This one seemed almost effortless. That’s because I knew Grandma Ollie so well. She has the spirit of my grandmothers and their love and sassy attitude. It was like having a conversation with them all over again through the printed page.

3. What was your inspiration for telling this story?

My relationship with my grandmothers. I was raised by them and they were a hoot!

4. What are you working on now?

I am a freelance journalist… I work for a television network a couple of times a week, I once worked at CBS for more than ten years and I’m trying to keep my toe in… I freelance articles too… just wrote a book review for the New York Times. And I teach an essay class at a community college. But my real work is being the best novelist I can possibly be.

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