Nordic Book Club discussion

Thank you to everyone who came out last night to Scandinavia House for a discussion on "They Know Not What They Do," by Jussi Valtonen! We'd love to continue discussing the book with any online readers. Here are some of the questions that interested us -- please feel free to add your own!

1. How did you experience reading this book? Were you immediately drawn into it, or did you connect more to it as you continued to read?

2. How did you feel about the characters — did you find them relatable? Were there certain characters that you related to more than others?

3. What did you think about the lead character, Joe, and the different choices he made? Did you find his decision-making to be questionable or hypocritical in any ways?

4. What did you think about the critiques aimed at different subjects in the book, such as technology and devices, academia, animal rights and activism, and parent-child relationships? Did you find these fairly delivered? Why is it useful to be exploring those subjects?

5. What did you think of the iAm device? What would be your thoughts on having this available in the real world? Do you think it would create the same problems in causes in the book?

6. What did you think about the way that people did (or did not) communicate with one another in the book? What were the consequences of the way they did or didn't speak to each other, and what message do you think Valtonen was trying to send with that?

7. What did you think about the relationships between parents and their children in the book? How did you feel about the levels of awareness that parents had of what was going on with their children?

8. What did you think about the presence of "Freedom Media"? How much does it relate to things going on today in academia and publishing?

9. What did you think about the way animal testing and animal activism is explored in the book? How do you think both sides justified their decisions?

10. What did you think about the way the author explored Finnish and American cultural differences? How did you find these related to the overall themes in the book?

10. What message did you think the author was trying to send about communication, and the way that people look at and respond to different viewpoints? In what ways do you find this to be relevant in contemporary society?

Thanks as always for being part of our book group!

Thanks for the questions! Is there a book for March?

Hi Judy, thanks for checking in with the book club!

Our book for March will be "You Disappear" by Christian Jungersen. I've just updated this on the site here.