The Deadbeat Club – Part 4 (pages 230 – 303)

Summer is coming to an end, and so is The Word On The Street’s Book Club discussion of The Deadbeat Club!

This week, book club leader Christine has a few last questions based on page 230 to the end of the book. Feel free to use these as a jumping-off point for any other thoughts or questions you may have too.

Thanks to all who’ve read along and shared their thoughts on the book!

Dietrich Kalteis reads at the Great Books Marquee at 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM on Sunday, September 27th.

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Hi everyone! Welcome to our last week of discussion. This month has completely flown by and it has been such a wonderful experience to read and discuss this book with you all. Thank you again for taking time to read and comment regularly. Because of that, we got some really great conversation flowing in the past three weeks in the comments. So without further ado, lets move forward with the final discussion questions.

1) We left off last week with the drug war really unravelling and coming to the forefront. Were you surprised to see that the cops had more involvement in the final chapters? I felt that they really developed more for me (Lance especially) in the final chapters. It’s interesting because we truly did move away from the typical hero story where we follow Grey.

2) How did you feel about Nick Rosco’s end? Were you expecting it at all?

3) Were you satisfied with how the entire story wrapped up? Specifically what about character specific narratives like Grey, Dara and Travis?

4) Lastly, to bring it back to a question I asked in the first week about titles… Now that we’ve finished the book, what do you make of the title The Deadbeat Club? What do you think it means having finished the book? Who specifically is “TDC”?

As always, feel free to add your own questions as well in the comments.

Thank you again for participating in the book club! I hope you had a wonderful time. I hope to see you all next month at The Word On The Street!

Cheers,
Christine

The Deadbeat Club – Part 3 (pages 158 – 229)

The Word On The Street’s Book Club discussion of The Deadbeat Club continues!

This week, book club leader Christine has questions based on page 158 (…Girl on the Ceiling) to page 229 (…Below the Salt)

Next week we’ll conclude with page 230 (…Shootout At the Ah-So-Easy) to page 303 (…Mountain High).

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Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to week three of the discussion. We are 3/4 of the way through the book – AMAZING! I want to thank you all again for taking the time to read and comment weekly. It has been a lot of fun in the comments! As always, please feel free to bring up your own questions as well.

We left off last week with the death of another character (is there a theme? haha) and the general consensus from the comments was that it was a pretty upsetting one. We get a nice character and bam! 😦

This week’s questions will look at the reading of: page 158 (…Girl on the Ceiling) to page 229 (…Below the Salt) – btw for any Supernatural fans, did the chapter title of “Girl on the Ceiling” bring back any feelings? 😉

1. The more we read of Grey and Dara – I’m slowly coming to the realization that I really don’t know much about Dara at all. One particular line really intrigued me and I hope that they will develop this further and that was: “Happy. She had just dodged going back to her mother’s basement, something that scared her more than facing Nick Rosco” (163). What do you think of Dara? Do we think she’s reliable and trustworthy? I don’t know why…but I just have a bad feeling about her! What do you think about this particular passage in general? It is meant to “build” Dara, but at the same time, I’m feeling quite disconnected from her as a character.

2. This book has given us an inside look into the drug selling world but it has barely focused on the effects of drugs. I found that in this week’s reading we got more of that, but more amped up! We saw before Dara and Grey smoking Eight Miles High, but in this section, we got to see what happened to Nick when he was drugged by Grey. Pot largely surrounds this book so it was an interesting change to see other drugs come into play. What do you think about introducing this other component of drugs? Was it simply a plot device to maneuver the scene where Jaelene steals from Nick? Is it weird that the focus is not really on Eight Miles High at all?

3. The last chapter we read from this section ends with some craziness. We are finally seeing the drug war come to the frontlines of the book. We are seeing “crews” develop and solidify. Grey does not seem like the fighting type, but his friend is missing and dead and he seems to be “on the run” to avoid trouble. What do you hope to see with Grey? Do you think that he’ll stand up and take action?

As always, please share other questions you may have about the reading. I hope you all have a wonderful week and I will see you next week for our final reading! 🙂

Cheers,
Christine

The Deadbeat Club – Part 2 (pages 79 – 157)

The Word On The Street’s Book Club discussion of The Deadbeat Club got started last week. Check out the conversation!

This week, book club leader Christine has a few questions based on page 79 (…Getting Their Man) to page 157 (…Payback).

Next week we’ll discuss page 158 (…Girl on the Ceiling) to page 229 (…Below the Salt), and following that we’ll conclude with page 230 (…Shootout At the Ah-So-Easy) to page 303 (…Mountain High).

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Hi everyone!

Welcome to week two of discussion. We left off last week with “…Loose Lips” where Nick left Travis standing with the limp body of Tuff Dubb.

1) With that, did any of you anticipate that happening? We saw another one of Grey’s “associates” get their teeth kicked in but escalating to the point of death, I simply did not see that coming. I had anticipated Travis being the one that would do something like that, but it really shocked me that it was Nick. How did you all feel about this? Do you think there’s a chance at all that Tuff Dubb may have survived the shot?

2) I also found it interesting in this section that you saw more interactions and dialogue between Grey/Dara and Travis/Lexie. Do you think that the story is perhaps progressing in the direction of a redemption arc for Travis instead heroic arc for Grey? I’m asking this because I’m finding that Kalteis is really good at subverting the reader’s expectations.

3) This book does not “build the world” for the reader in the typical way. How did you feel about passages like: “Said he wanted to pay me in syringes” (85) to build the setting? Do you think they build the setting instead of regular descriptions? Do you also think that it was deliberate on Kalteis’ part on choosing the setting of Whistler given the active drug scene there?

As always, please feel free to share other thoughts you had for this passage and ask questions as well! Happy reading all 🙂

Cheers,
Christine

The Deadbeat Club – Part 1 (pages 1- 78)

Welcome to The Word On The Street Book Club!

We’ve selected four great Canadian reads by authors appearing at the 2015 festival as part of our second summer book club. We’ll be discussing the books each week for the next month, and on September 27th, everyone will have the chance to meet the authors in person at Harbourfront Centre.

Share your views in the comments of the blog, using the questions posed by our book club leaders as a jumping-off point for any other thoughts or questions you may have.

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The Deadbeat Club
Dietrich Kalteis

Book Club Leader: Christine Nguyen

Blog: Padfoots Library

Christine is a 25 year old book blogger who is also a graduate student. She particularly enjoys Japanese contemporary literature and some of her favourite authors are Haruki Murakami and Kazuo Ishiguro. She reads a wide range of books from Adult fiction and non-fiction to YA fiction. She started writing book reviews as a platform to sing her praises for books she really loved and to connect with the online book community. Take it away, Christine!

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Hi everyone! Welcome to the start of the book club for The Deadbeat Club by Dietrich Kalteis. I want to first thank you all for taking the time to select this book and for joining me in discussing this book for the next four weeks. I’m so incredibly excited and hope you are too! I will split the book into four parts for us all to discuss. So for this week’s questions, the reading for it will be from Page 1 to Page 78 (The last chapter you will read is titled “…Loose Lips”).

Discussion Questions:

1. What are your first impressions of the book so far?
2. Is there a character that you were immediately intrigued by? (I was instantly curious about Travis and I want to learn more about him and his motivations!)
3. When I first started this book, I was instantly struck by the name of the chapters. Do you feel like the chapter titles foreshadow the events to come as if to set the foundation? Are the titles used ironically?
4. Immediately I felt the story was more plot driven than character driven because you are thrown into this world and you hit the ground running. Did you find that the events of the story unfolded quickly?

Join The Word On The Street’s Book Club!

Email programming@thewordonthestreet.ca to sign up today!

The Word On The Street’s Book Club is back! 

We’ve selected four great reads for The Word On The Street’s second summer book club.

Chat with other CanLit fans, share your point of view, and get a free Advanced Reading Copy or book by a featured author at the biggest book festival in Canada.

Participation is FREE! Visit our website for more info about the books, and to join the club. We’ll be posting discussion questions right here on The Word On The Street blog in August.

Meet our 2015 Book Club Leaders

We’re excited to have four book-loving bloggers leading the discussions this summer!

The Man Who Saved Henry Morgan by Robert Hough
Book Club Leader: Karen Ma
Blog: One More Page

Karen Ma has been a bookworm her whole life and can often be found reading and walking at the same time. Her love of books inspired her to create her blog, One More Page, which has been featured on CBC Books’ “Canadian Blogs” section. When she’s not reading, Karen can be found playing board games, watching TV, and looking at cute animal pictures online.

The Deadbeat Club by Dietrich Kalteis
Book Club Leader: Christine Nguyen
Blog: Padfoots Library

Christine is a 25 year old book blogger who is also a graduate student. She particularly enjoys Japanese contemporary literature and some of her favourite authors are Haruki Murakami and Kazuo Ishiguro. She reads a wide range of books from Adult fiction and non-fiction to YA fiction. She started writing book reviews as a platform to sing her praises for books she really loved and to connect with the online book community.

The Road to Atlantis by Leo Brent Robillard
Book Club Leader: Jenn Hubbs
Blog: Lost in a Great Book

Born in small town Ontario to a librarian and a high school teacher, Jenn grew up surrounded by books of all genres and a family of readers. A former teacher, she is a public librarian and a selection and events coordinator, working with publishers across North America. As a proud CanLit supporter, Jenn continues to read, review and recommend books to anyone who will listen.

I Can’t Believe It’s Not Better by Monica Heisey
Book Club Leader: Michele Daniels
Blog: Just a Lil’ Lost

According to her family, Michele started reading when she was 3 – and she hasn’t put a book down since. Her love of reading and the online world inspired her to start her site, Just a Lil’ Lost, where she connects with others and writes about books and pop culture topics. She enjoys books in all genres; from adult and young adult fiction to non-fiction and graphic novels. As the creator of #ParisMonth, an annual blog event that just wrapped its fourth year, she celebrates her obsession with the French city all month long every April. When she doesn’t have a book in hand, Michele can probably be found with a coffee in one, and a macaron in the other.