These Girls (38 page)

Sarah:
Treat writing like exercise—you need to do it nearly every day to get results. For people who say they’re too busy to write a book, I’d encourage them to search for little windows of time in their day. Maybe wake up half an hour earlier than usual, or carry around a notebook and write a few paragraphs on the bus ride into work. Jodi, I remember that you and I once chatted about how we both wrote in car-pool pickup lines outside our kids’ schools because it was one of the few quiet times we could carve out of the day. I’d advise other writers to fight for those little snippets of time, and the page count will pile up, slowly but surely.

Jodi:
What is the most bizarre fan encounter you’ve ever had?

Sarah:
I love that you asked me this question, because it was the very first question I ever asked you! Years ago, I was writing a newspaper article on strange things that happen to big-name authors at book signings, and you told me about the time someone asked if you’d ever consider writing nonfiction. You replied that it seemed daunting because one had to be meticulous about getting every single fact straight . . .and then you brought up James Frey, who got into trouble for making up parts of his memoir
A Million Little Pieces
. And a few minutes later, the librarian in charge of your book signing brought over two audience members to meet you: James Frey’s parents. This was during the time when Oprah was eviscerating him, but you merely brought up his situation as an example and didn’t pass judgment or make a joke. I thought it was very classy, and even his parents weren’t bothered by your comment, which says a lot.

So . . . as for
my
most bizarre fan encounter, I’d have to say it was the time when my husband and I took our three kids out to dinner at a busy restaurant. One of our sons was very tired and cranky—we later learned he hadn’t eaten lunch at school that day—and while we were waiting for a table, he completely melted down, crying and whining. We quickly left, and then my two-year-old tripped and fell on the sidewalk and he started crying, too. So there we were, this hot mess of a family, and suddenly a woman stopped and pointed at me and yelled, “Aren’t you Sarah Pekkanen? I love your writing!” And that remains, to this day, the first and only time I have ever been recognized in public. (And I’m still kicking myself for not answering, “No! I’m J.K. Rowling!”)

“Sarah Pekkanen’s latest celebrates the healing power of female friendship for three very different young women sharing a NYC apartment. At turns bittersweet, laugh-out-loud funny, and painfully real, you’ll wish you could move in with these girls.” —Jodi Picoult,
New York Times
bestselling author of
Lone Wolf
and
Sing You Home

These
Girls

SARAH PEKKANEN

A Readers Club Guide

QUESTIONS AND TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION

1. Discuss the role of work in each girl’s life. To what extent do they find a sense of identity in their jobs? How do they define success or failure in their work lives, and how does either affect the way they think about themselves?

2. Each character in
These Girls
seems to be facing both an internal and an external struggle. Can you identify these? Are these struggles resolved by the novel’s conclusion?

3. Did you initially empathize with Abby or Joanna? Did your feelings toward Joanna change as the novel progressed? Does the fact that Abby has an affair with a married man make her less of a sympathetic character to you? Why or why not?

4. Describe the ways that each girl interacts with and connects to other people. How are their relationship styles similar, and how are they different?

5. Given the close bond that Trey and Abby share, do you think that he should have told her what happened to their brother? Why or why not?

6. How are mother-daughter relationships depicted in this novel? Was there one dynamic in particular that you identified with?

7. After Cate reminds her mother not to call her at work, she thinks to herself,
“It felt odd to be imposing such restrictions and curfews on her mother, as if they’d somehow swapped roles during the past few years”
(78). To what extent is this true of all the parent-child relationships we see in
These Girls
?

8. What is
These Girls
saying about the role—and effect—of secrets in relationships? Are some secrets necessary, or are they all inherently negative? Do you agree with Abby’s assessment that “The hardest things to talk about are also the most important things to talk about?”

9. Discuss some of the challenges that Cate’s new job presents. How does she handle these? In particular, what role does gender seem to play in them?

10. Each girl sees something in another of her roommates’ disposition that she covets. What are these qualities? Is this kind of desire an essential component of female friendship?

11. In the last scene of the novel, Cate tells Trey,
“I don’t want to be the girl who chose a guy over her friends.”
How did you feel about their final encounter? Did you agree with how Cate handled this situation? Would you have handled it differently?

12. Ostensibly, Renee wants to lose weight because she thinks it will help her nab the beauty editor job. But does she have other reasons? What else could be driving her?

13. If you were casting the film version of
These Girls,
who would you pick to play each character? Why?

14. Picture where you see Cate, Renee, and Abby in five years. What do their lives look like? Share your imaginings with your group.

The Opposite Of Me

A smart, funny, and poignant novel about the desire to have it all, the relationships that define us, and the complicated, irreplaceable bonds of sisterhood.

Twenty-nine-year-old Lindsey Rose has, for as long as she can remember, lived in the shadow of her ravishingly beautiful fraternal twin sister, Alex. Now that she is finally on the cusp of being named VP creative director of an elite New York advertising agency, Lindsey’s carefully constructed life implodes during the course of one devastating night. Humiliated, she flees the glitter of Manhattan and retreats to the time warp of her parents’ Maryland home. As her sister plans her lavish wedding to her Prince Charming, Lindsey struggles to maintain her identity as the smart, responsible twin while she furtively tries to piece her career back together. But things only get more complicated when a long-held family secret is unleashed that forces both sisters to reconsider who they are and who they are meant to be.

Read on for a look at Sarah Pekkanen’s

The Opposite of Me

Currently available from Washington Square Press

Excerpt from
The Opposite of Me
copyright © 2010 by Sarah Pekkanen

1

AS I PULLED
open the heavy glass door of Richards, Dunne & Krantz and walked down the long hallway toward the executive offices, I noticed a light was on up ahead.

Lights were never on this early. I quickened my step.

The light was on in
my
office, I realized as I drew closer. I’d gone home around 4:00
A.M.
to snatch a catnap and a shower, but I’d locked my office door. I’d checked it twice. Now someone was in there.

I broke into a run, my mind spinning in panic: Had I left my storyboard out in plain view? Could someone be sabotaging the advertising campaign I’d spent weeks agonizing over, the campaign my entire future hinged on?

I burst into my office just as the intruder reached for something on my desk.

“Lindsey! You scared me half out of my wits!” my assistant, Donna, scolded as she paused in the act of putting a steaming container of coffee on my desk.

“God, I’m sorry,” I said, mentally smacking myself. If I ever ended up computer dating—which, truth be told, it was probably going to come down to one of these days—I’d have to check the ever-popular “paranoid freak” box when I listed my personality traits. I’d better buy a barricade to hold back the bachelors of New York.

“I didn’t expect anyone else in this early,” I told Donna as my breathing slowed to normal. Note to self: Must remember to join a gym if a twenty-yard dash leaves me winded. Best not to think about how often I’ll actually
use
the gym if I’ve been reminding myself to join one for the past two years.

“It’s a big day,” Donna said, handing me the coffee.

“You’re amazing.” I closed my gritty eyes as I took a sip and felt the liquid miracle flood my veins. “I really needed this. I didn’t get much sleep.”

“You didn’t eat breakfast either, did you?” Donna asked, hands on her hips. She stood there, all of five feet tall, looking like a rosy-cheeked, doily-knitting grandma. One who wouldn’t hesitate to get up off her rocking chair and reach for her sawed-off shotgun if someone crossed her.

“I’ll have a big lunch,” I hedged, avoiding Donna’s eyes.

Even after five years, I still hadn’t gotten used to having an assistant, let alone one who was three decades older than me but earned a third of my salary. Donna and I both knew she wore the pants in our relationship, but the secret to our happiness was that we pretended otherwise. Kind of like my parents—Mom always deferred to Dad’s authority, after she mercilessly browbeat him into taking her point of view.

“I’m going to check in with the caterers now,” Donna said. “Should I hold your calls this morning?”

“Please,” I said. “Unless it’s an emergency. Or Walt from Creative—he’s freaking out about the font size on the dummy ad and I need to calm him down. Or Matt. I want to do another run-through with him this morning. And let’s see, who else, who else . . . Oh, anyone from Gloss Cosmetics, of course.

“Oh, God, they’re going to be here in”—I looked at my watch and the breath froze in my lungs—“two hours.”

“Hold on just a minute, missy,” Donna ordered in a voice that could only be described as trouser-wearing. She bustled to her desk and returned with a blueberry muffin in a little paper bag and two Advil.