Sylvie Kurtz provided the recipes for Celeste’s Wild Blues and Katherine’s Zesty Lemon Bars. Anything else you’d like me to taste test? I’m willing, able, and grateful.
As always, I depend upon feedback from my talented critique partners, Sylvie Kurtz and Ellen Gullo. Every chapter feels like a victory. A billion hugs and tons of dark chocolate!
To my agent, Jessica Alvarez, and the team at BookEnds. Thank you for everything I know you do, and everything I’m probably not even aware of. I’m glad we’re in this together.
To my editor at Kensington Books, Peter Senftleben. You are amazing! Thank you for believing in me and my stories and making us both look good. (He gets me, he really gets me!) I’m fortunate to have you in my corner.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Jessica and Peter’s accidental collaboration. They’re responsible for the wonderful title A Measure of Happiness.
To Kensington cover designer Kristine Noble. When I saw the cover for the first time, I laughed with delight. You did it again! The image expresses the story’s essence, reaches out to grab you, and pulls you in. I love it.
To everyone at Kensington Books—Karen Auerbach, Vida Engstrand, and countless others—for spreading the word about my books and making sure they’re available to readers.
Thank you to my readers. One of my greatest joys is connecting with you.
A READING GROUP GUIDE
A MEASURE OF HAPPINESS
Lorrie Thomson
ABOUT THIS GUIDE
The following discussion questions are included
to enhance your group’s reading of
A Measure of Happiness.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. How does Katherine’s childhood influence her self-image and impact the decisions she makes throughout her life?
2. After waiting nearly twenty-four years to reunite, Katherine and Zach are afraid to step up and claim their identities. Why?
3. Celeste tells Zach that she once went to a “stress management psychiatric type person” who told her to talk back to her eating disorder, aka Ed. What other naysayers are stuck in her head? How does the theme of negative voices thread throughout each character’s journey?
4. Katherine is overly fond of using tarot readings to guide her decisions. Why do you suppose she relies on this crutch? What finally convinces her to trust herself?
5. Katherine worried that her childhood experiences would’ve kept her from being a good mother to her son. But Zach, having been raised by a loving family, still has identity issues. Why? Do you think nature or nurture plays a greater role in creating character?
6. A bad high school breakup sparked Celeste’s first experience with anorexia. What other issues predisposed her to this mental illness?
7. The theme of shame threads throughout the story. Discuss each character’s relationship with food. Discuss each character’s relationship with sex.
8. Barry never gave up on Katherine, even after she divorced him. Do you think this makes him a weak or a strong character?
9. According to Katherine, the Wednesday morning mothers’ group took her advice regarding lemon bars representing the sweet and sour experience of motherhood and then promptly got pregnant within weeks of one another. Katherine calls the lemon bars a placebo treatment. But nobody tells Mrs. Jenkins that Celeste’s Wild Blues will make her more youthful and happy. How, then, do you explain Mrs. Jenkins’s metamorphosis?
10. What event from Zach’s past mirrors Celeste’s anorexia and sparks his understanding of her disorder?
11. What do you think of Celeste’s road trip after her memory returns? Is her behavior extreme? Dangerous? Exactly what she needs to heal?
12. What role does Blake serve for Katherine? Who or what does Blake represent at the beginning of the novel? The middle? The end? How is Katherine and Blake’s relationship ultimately healing?
13. Discuss Zach’s take-away insight from the show Cops. What does this say about his character and the way he views identity?
14. Celeste admits to Zach that even though she knows it’s wrong, she thinks if she gets to such and such weight, she’ll be happier. But when she gets to a certain weight, she changes the goal. Zach says, “Why not just decide to be happy now?” When have you followed Zach’s life lesson? When have you relied upon circumstances beyond your control to dictate your happiness?
15. When it comes to the theme of identity, Matt is the ultimate cautionary tale. Why?
16. Do you think Katherine will ever search for her mother and Lexi? Why or why not?
Celeste’s Wild Blues
2 cups flour
cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup plain yogurt (not Greek-style)
Juice of 1 lemon
¼ cup butter, melted and cooled
1 egg
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups wild Maine blueberries
Glaze
½ cup sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel (optional)
Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease 12 regular-sized muffin cups or 36 minis.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt until blended.
In another bowl, stir together yogurt, butter, egg, lemon juice, lemon peel, and vanilla until blended.
Make a well in the dry ingredients. Add yogurt mixture. Stir until just combined. Fold in blueberries. (If you must use frozen blueberries, thaw and drain before folding in.)
Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups. Bake regular-sized muffins 20 to 25 minutes and minis 12 to 17 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean.
Remove muffin tin(s) to a wire rack. Let cool for 5 minutes.
While muffins cool, stir sugar and lemon juice together for the glaze. If you want extra lemon flavor, grate a teaspoon of lemon peel into the mixture.
Remove muffins from cups. Spoon or brush glaze over hot muffins. Let cool before serving for a crunchy sugarcoated topping.
Katherine’s Zesty Lemon Bars
For the Crust
1½ cups flour
½ cup powdered sugar
¾ cup (1½ sticks) butter, softened
For the Filling
4 large eggs
1½ cups granulated sugar
½ cup fresh-squeezed lemon juice
2 tablespoons flour
2 to 3 teaspoons lemon zest
For Sprinkling
Additional powdered sugar
Crust. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a 13x9x2-inch baking pan with parchment paper.
With an electric mixer, blend crust ingredients on low speed until crumbly. Press crust into pan. Bake 20 minutes or until light brown.
Filling. Beat ingredients till blended and pour over warm crust.
Bake lemon bars—crust and filling combo—15 to 20 minutes, till filling is set and bars are brown around the edges. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack. Lift parchment, place bars on a cutting board, and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Cut into rectangles or squares.
36–40 servings
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
KENSINGTON BOOKS are published by
Kensington Publishing Corp.
119 West 40th Street
New York, NY 10018
Copyright © 2015 by Lorrie Thomson
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.
Kensington and the K logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.
ISBN: 978-0-7582-9332-9
First Kensington Electro
nic Edition: September 2015
ISBN-13: 978-0-7582-9332-9
ISBN-10: 0-7582-9332-1
A Measure of Happiness Page 32