Millicent Glenn's Last Wish: A Novel

by Tori Whitaker

  How are maternity wards of today similar to or different from maternity wards of the 1950s? How has the treatment of expectant mothers changed, if at all? Are doctors still seen as gods?

  Were you aware that one in three women who give birth in US hospitals have cesarean sections? What factors contribute to this trend? How do you feel about it?

  Which do you believe Millie longed for more: to be a wife and mother and raise a large family? Or to make a professional contribution to business and earn her own money? Do you consider Millie a feminist?

  Describe the role of friendship in Millie’s circle. Did her lifelong friendship with Pauline resonate with you? Was Abbie Glenn ever Millie’s friend? Was Nurse Breck?

  What were Millie’s motivations for keeping the truth from Jane for so long? How might their mother-daughter relationship have been different had Millie been open about Kathleen early on?

  How do you feel about the book’s ending? Did Millie’s story resolve in a way that you expected or hoped? What will Millie’s family look like five years from now?

  Discuss the grandparent relationships in this novel: that of Opa and Millie, and of Millie and Kelsey. Share a special memory of one of your own grandparents. Do you have a photograph of when this grandparent was young?

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Photo © 2019 Nina Parker Photography

  Tori Whitaker grew up in the Midwest. She now resides outside Atlanta, Georgia, where she and her husband of more than forty years live near their two sons. When Tori was born, she marked the fifth living generation in her family, and when her grandchildren came along, her family had five generations again—this experience might’ve influenced her love of stories that shift between the past and present. Tori belongs to the Historical Novel Society, and her feature article, “Multi-Period Novels: The Keys to Weaving Together Two Stories from Different Time Periods,” appeared in the Historical Novels Review. Tori graduated from Indiana University and is chief marketing officer for a national law firm. She is also an alum of the Yale Writers’ Workshop. Millicent Glenn’s Last Wish is her first novel.

  Connect with Tori at www.ToriWhitaker.com; on Instagram at tori.whitaker.37; on Facebook at Tori Whitaker, Author; and on Twitter @ToriLWhitaker.