Reader's Guide: February 2009

	The Blue Jay's Dance by Louise Erdrich

Mothers often cling to single moments, small gestures, and specific memories in order to grasp all that happens in the first blurry year of a baby's life. In The Blue Jay's Dance, writer Louise Erdrich has assembled a photo album of snapshots such as these: the days and images that collectively define the passion, ambivalence, yearnings, and satisfactions of carrying, birthing, and nurturing a baby...

1. What was your overall response to this book?

2. Which days, images, seasons described in the Birth Year most resonated with you and your experiences? Or gave you unexpected/new perspectives?

3. How do her bits, pieces, pages of Nature fit with you?

4. Erdrich writes briefly of her mother's birthing experience/influence on her daughter. What was your mother's—or someone else's—influence on you?

5. Were some of your own questions/fears about the birthing/nurturing process unaddressed in this story?

6. How would you describe her husband?

7. Have you eaten "pierogies"? Do you know where in Austin you can get them?