About The Lost City of Z

Our May Featured Book of the Month is a true adventure story! In The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann, renowned British explorer Percy Fawcett embarked on an expedition deep into the Amazon jungle in 1925, vowing to make archaeological history by locating an undiscovered ancient civilization he called the Lost City of Z. He was never heard from again ...

While researching a story, The New Yorker writer David Grann stumbled on a reference to Fawcett's role in inspiring Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 1912 novel, The Lost World. Intrigued, Grann began reading as much as possible about Fawcett and became fascinated by his idea of Z. Armed with information uncovered in Fawcett's private diaries and logbooks, he headed into the Amazon, determined to discover the truth about the explorer and his fatal mission--despite his utter lack of outdoorsmanship, his terrible sense of direction, and the knowledge that over 100 "Fawcett Freaks" had perished in the jungle before him ...

Did Fawcett find Z? Did Grann find Fawcett? Let's read and find out!

Next week, I'll post more information about author David Grann. And in the weeks to come, I'll post some discussion questions and a related reading booklist. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy The Lost City of Z. Your comments are always welcome!

Let’s Get Started: Discussion Questions for All the Living

So, tell us, Readers, what do you think of All the Living?

Did it grab you right away, or did it take hold slowly? Did you enjoy the author’s style? How do your feelings about it match up to all the rave reviews?

I’ve lifted a couple questions from ReadingGroupGuides.com that I would love to hear you comment upon—and don’t worry, they don’t give away any plot twists or spoil the ending! Here they are:

Though All the Living unfolds in the 1980s, many members of this community hold fast to old-fashioned attitudes. What are the costs and benefits of living in a locale that is removed, in some ways, from the modern world?

How did your understanding of the characters’ circumstances change as you read All the Living, based on what was revealed and withheld in the opening scenes? Were your first impressions of Aloma and Orren accurate?

Do you have a discussion question of your own you’d like to pose? Share it with us!

About C. E. Morgan

As I mentioned in Thursday's post, the author of our Featured Book of the Month for April is a Kentuckian, born in Ohio. She attended Berea College, where she studied English and voice, and earned her master’s in theological studies from Harvard Divinity school.

Her career is still quite young, so information about her is limited. Listed below are a few items I've pulled together that should help give you a slightly more well-rounded idea about who she is and how she views her craft:

The first is an audio clip of an interview with Morgan from Random House of Canada’s website, Booklounge.ca. She talks at length about her experience writing All the Living.

The second is from the "Book Notes" feature of the blog Largehearted Boy, in which the author is asked to provide a musical playlist for their novel. In Morgan’s case, the result is a classical music primer, of sorts. Here’s what she says about her list: “What follows is not comprehensive and not programmatic..these pieces don't impress through virtuosity alone, and I make no claims for their supremacy within the genre. I just believe that the best place to start is with whatever moves you”

(At the bottom of her music list you’ll also find a nice collection of more than a dozen links to reviews of All the Living)!

And lastly, here’s a link to a short story she wrote which was published in the New York Times in December of 2008, titled, “Over by Christmas”.

I hope you're enjoying the book so far. Leave a comment and tell me what you think!