SBBC - Miss Scarlet's School of Patternless Sewing

Miss Scarlet’s Patternless School of Sewing by Kathy Cano-Murillo (ISBN 9780446509237)

Book Genre: Chick Lit

Summary: Scarlet Santana is never happier than when creating fabulous fashions for women of all shapes and sizes. Now, after years of hard work, she finally has the chance to live her dream and study under the hottest designer in New York. To raise money for her move, Scarlet opens an after-hours sewing school in a local record shop, teaching a type-A working mom who rigid parenting style is causing her family to unravel and an enigmatic seamstress with a mysterious past. But as stitches give way to secrets and classmates become friends, the women realize an important truth: There is no single pattern for a good life. Happiness is always a custom fit.

Swap details: I've set the sign-up date for about three weeks from now to give folks time to pick up a copy and read it a bit (if you wish) before you decide to join this swap, but you can start reading whenever you'd like. For this swap, you can either hand-write or type and send (via snail mail) the answers to your questions. Please use your best judgment. If it elicits a yes or no, please answer it with at least one complete sentence. I would say most questions should be answered with a minimum of a few sentences. The purpose is to create a dialog, a discussion about the book - with your assigned partner, perhaps you will be in touch via e-mail, or private message or through the forum as part of a larger group, or you just want to see what someone else thinks about what we've read. If you only answer yes or no, it doesn't really leave room much room for a discussion.

Category 1 (answer all 6 of these questions for your partner)

1. Have you ever read this book before? Did this book fall in the usual genre of books you read?

2. As an overall experience, how did you feel about this book? Did you enjoy it, hate it, did it make you irritated, angry, sad, did you find it easy to read or did it take you a while to get into, was it entertaining, annoying or something else entirely?

3. Did you have a favorite part of the book? Describe what it was. If you didn't like the book, please tell more about why.

4. Would you recommend this book to others?

5. On a scale of 1 to 10 (one being low and 10 being high), how would you rate this book?

6. Does this book remind you of others you have read? if so, recommend a book that has some likeness in your opinion (even if the likeness is not apparent). Please include the title, and author and a brief description about the book, or why it reminded you of this one.

Category 2 Please pick 6 of the following questions (below) to answer with the above questions. These questions are taken directly from the discussion guide on bookmovement.com. Please be honest in your answer and use constructive criticism. You can choose to answer more questions below, but you must choose a minimum of 6. If there is something not asked in the questions that you'd like to share, please feel free to discuss that too.

1. When you first heard the term “patternless sewing”, what did it make you think of?

2. What type of “pattern” do you have for your life?

3. Can you think of a time when a traditional pattern, either literally or metaphorically, didn’t work and you had to make adjustments?

4. Scarlet had issues with her family. She thought it was because they didn’t respect her; they thought it was because she was too busy for them. Have you been in a situation like that? How did you resolve it?

5. Olivia looked to DaisyForever.com as her daily dose of inspiration. After reading Scarlet’s postings, can you see why? Did her words have an effect on how you see the world?

6. Scarlet was almost obsessed with Daisy de la Flora. Do you think this helped her or held her back from her fashion career?

7. If you were Mary Theresa, how would you have handled the situation with Hadley? Do you think he had valid reasons for leaving?

8. Rosa had to share her life with Daisy because of the guilt from the car crash. Do you think she did the right thing?

9. How important do you think Scarlet was to Marco’s life? If he hadn’t allowed the class to work at the shop, do you think he would have ever come to terms with his brother’s death?

10. Though teenagers, Jennifer and Stephanie connected with older women in the class. Do you think these relationships will help shape what kind of women they will grow up to be?

11. Olivia took a bad experience and transformed it into something positive. What is a recent downfall you had where you had the opportunity to do the same?

12. Rosa, Marco, and the sewing class had to deal with the death of a loved one. How did their grief differ?