The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing Discussion Guide: Home
Articles, Interviews, and Reviews
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The Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing by Mira JacobThe Rumpus
Reviewed By Kavita Das
January 8th, 2015 -
Goodreads Reviewsgoodreads.com
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Book Review: The Sleepwalker's Guide to DancingBoston Globe Book Review
By Laura Collins-Hughes
August 02, 2014 -
I Gave A Speech About Race To The Publishing Industry And No One Heard Mebuzzfeed.com
Mira Jacob
Sept. 17, 2015 -
The Sleepwalker's Guide To DancingEntertainment Weekly
Rebecca Ascher-Walsh
July 4 2014 -
“One of the most moving experiences of my life.” Author Mira Jacob on her first audiobook recording.booksontape.com
Jennifer Rubins
July 21, 2014 -
At The Table With...Mira Jacob, Author of "The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing"paperplatesblog.com
October 15, 2014
Videos
Discussion Questions
(From the publisher)
1. The book starts in India, but doesn’t go back. Why do you think the author chose to open the book there?
2. Why do you think Amina was unhinged by taking the picture of Bobby McCloud? Do you believe her own explanation?
3. What do you think compelled Amina to photograph the worst moments at the wedding?
4. Sanji is presented as different than the rest of the adults in the Albuquerque “family.” What might make her different and why?
5. Kamala is a very polarizing character in the book. Were you drawn to or repelled by her? How do you think the author feels about her?
6. Kamala and Amina seem at odds most of the time, but what traits do they have in common?
7. Amina uses the camera to express herself. Kamala uses her cooking. Is there anything that you use (cooking, art, music, work) to connect to your world and the people in your life?
8. Akhil is angry with America in a way that Amina isn’t. What is the source of his anger?
9. If Akhil had lived longer, who else would he have painted on his ceiling?
10. Do you think Sunil was really sleepwalking when he set fire to the house?
11. All of the Eapens go through tremendous change, though Amina’s are more subtle than most. What is the biggest change in Amina’s personality?
12. If Jamie and Amina hadn’t shared their past, do you think she would have been able to trust him?
13. When Thomas sees Akhil, he believes it’s a genuine visit, not a side effect of his tumor. When Amina sees Akhil, she thinks it’s a symptom of her depression. Which explanation are you more inclined to believe?
14. What invention do you imagine Thomas was last working on?
15. Why do you think the author titled her novel The Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing?
Reserve a copy
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The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing by
ISBN: 9780812994780With depth, heart, and agility, debut novelist Mira Jacob takes us on a deftly plotted journey that ranges from 1970s India to suburban 1980s New Mexico to Seattle during the dot.com boom. The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing is an epic, irreverent testimony to the bonds of love, the pull of hope, and the power of making peace with life's uncertainties.
Suggestions for further reading
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Everything I Never Told You by
ISBN: 9781594205712Lydia is dead. But they don't know this yet . . . So begins the story of this exquisite debut novel, about a Chinese-American family living in 1970s small-town Ohio. -
The Girl in the Garden by
ISBN: 9780446572682The redemptive journey of a young woman unsure of her engagement, who revisits in memory the events of one scorching childhood summer when her beautiful yet troubled mother spirits her away from her home to an Indian village untouched by time, where she discovers in the jungle behind her ancestral house a spellbinding garden that harbors a terrifying secret. -
The Lowland by
ISBN: 9780307265746An extraordinary novel, set in both India and America, that expands the scope and range of one of our most dazzling storytellers: a tale of two brothers bound by tragedy, a fiercely brilliant woman haunted by her past, a country torn by revolution, and a love that lasts long past death.