PUSHING THE LIMITS OF CONNECTION
Here’s an opportunity to spend time reading, thinking, and talking about what CONNECTION means to you. How it feels. Why it’s so vital to humans. We stretch ourselves to connect across time and across the universe. These are some of those stories.
Read the featured book below
Watch the video interview with the author
Watch the connection-themed featured video
Jumpstart your group conversation with our discussion questions
Pick a new themed topic, and repeat!
FEATURED AUTHOR
Erik Larson
Available In English & Spanish
FEATURED BOOK
Thunderstruck
Painstaking research and technological history combine in this suspenseful story about pushing the limits of inter-continental connection. Thunderstruck is a book where true events are depicted in novel-style prose. Erik Larson creates compelling characters and...
Discussion Questions
AUTHOR INTERVIEW
Erik Larson
Sneak Preview: Larson wasn’t compelled to tell Marconi’s story. And he wasn’t driven to write about the life of serial killer, Harvey Hawley Crippen. What fascinated Larson was the connection between the two men. The impact their lives made on one another. And how Marconi...
Watch in English
w/ Spanish Subtitles
FEATURED VIDEO
Pushing the Limits of Connection
Roxanne Swentzell was born with a speech impediment that made it hard to communicate with the world around her — until the first time she created her message in clay. She’s now a renowned sculptor with works displayed around the world. Coming from a long...
Watch in English
w/ Spanish Subtitles
ROXANNE
Artist and Nurturer
Take a look at the other offerings below, curated for this theme. How do people push the limits of connection in each book
or video?
The joy is in the discovery! Making those connections as you read will enrich your follow-up conversations.
Barbarian Nurseries
At the heart of this book,
the characters we most care about can’t find an effective way to communicate with
one another. But they
keep trying. And that’s
the problem. With no
common language, their misunderstanding takes
them further and further
into trouble...
Available In English & Spanish
Discussion Questions
Tackling America’s Loneliness Epidemic
Is loneliness actually dangerous? Research says the answer is a resounding “Yes!” In this video story, we hear from a woman struggling with her aloneness, a person who loves her, and concerned citizens trying to do something about our country’s loneliness...
Watch in English
Never Let Me Go
Available In English & Spanish
It’s not exactly a horror story. Or a futuristic thriller. But it teeters on the edge of both categories. Never Let Me Go is, at its core, a story about relationships. And what it means to be human.
As children, Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy were students at Hailsham, an exclusive...
Discussion Questions
Cloud Atlas
This book almost feels like a compilation of six compelling-but-disparate novellas. Each with their own storyline, era, and writing style. That said, as we read, we start to realize that the narratives are linked in numerous, subtle ways. And those commonalities eventually form themselves into an overarching...
Available In English & Spanish
Discussion Questions
I Love My Cell Phone and Miss My Notebook
How have people journeyed around the world for thousands of years without a cell phone, yet most of us won’t leave our homes without one? Have you heard of “ringxiety” or “no cell phobia”? Do you have nightmares about leaving...
Watch in Spanish w/ English Subtitles
We Sinners
Available In English & Spanish
Faith binds people together. And it tears them apart. We Sinners explores both truisms through characters who pull at our heartstrings. Along the way, we’re also forced to think about the human tendency to rebel — and how that can possibly coincide with our need to belong.
The Rovaniemi's and their...
Discussion Questions