READERS GUIDE

Questions and Topics for Discussion

1. Which character do you identify with most? Why?

2. Which character has the most intriguing story? Who’s your favorite? Who absolutely gets on your last good nerve? Explain.

3. Of the four girls who would you most want to befriend? Who would be the best friend for you? The worst? How do you know?

4. How important are e-mail address screen names? What do the girls’ screen names say about them? What does your screen name say about you?

5. Early in the novel (p. 42) Taylor says, “I was most certainly professional. But I always had this dreadful feeling that one day, someone–a client, partner, senior associate–was going to push my ass to the motherfucking edge and force me to curse them the fuck out like a chickenhead on a Newark street corner.” Do you think restraining an “urban, ghetto-laced attitude” is an ongoing struggle for many accomplished African-American professionals? Is there any significant difference between a “chickenhead on a Newark street corner” and a born and raised in the ghetto midtown junior lawyer? Once the girl is out of the hood, can you, in fact, take the hood out of the girl?

6. According to Taylor, “. . . sex is a basic human right . . .” (p. 64). Roxanne says, “If the sex is good, then we date intensely for several weeks . . . If the sex is bad, I don’t return any of his calls” (p. 69). Carolyn chimes in with, “. . . almost everything, from housework to sex, is more fun with a partner. Especially sex. Clearly” (p. 79). Bianca, busy with her baubles, doesn’t really weigh in on sex at all. What do these statements (or lack of statements) reveal about these ladies? In the short and the long of it, just how important is sex anyway?

7. Bianca may not have a lot to say about sex, but she sure has a lot to say about men (and women) in her lists, her rules, and her guidelines (pp. 76 —77, 108—109, 121—123, 130—131). Which items on her lists struck a nerve with you because you either agree or disagree? If you were to make your own list of rules or guidelines, what would it say?

8. Carolyn, a woman of size, doesn’t seem to feel she deserves love. Society, in fact, has told her exactly that, in more ways than one. Can an overweight woman ever feel sexy and worthy in this thin-crazed society? If so, how? Do you think extra weight is or can be sexy?

9. We meet many male characters in this novel (many of them fatally flawed). Which ones would you have dated and why?

10. Speaking of fatal flaws, which of the FAB characters’ male companions would have caught you, too, “out there,” as they did the FAB women? Did you see warning signs or red flags regarding any of these men? Which of them would you have avoided, and how would you have known to avoid them?

11. Are the FAB women fair in their expectations of men? Did you agree with any of the characteristics they were looking for in a partner? Do you believe you could find all of the characteristics any of these ladies were looking for in one man?

12. What was the funniest line in the book?

13. On several occasions the characters address themselves and each other (as well as other women outside of their circle) as “bitch.” What does that term mean to you, and does it have different meanings in different contexts? Do you consider it affectionate? Demeaning? Do you consider yourself a “bitch”?

14. Predict the future for each of the four characters. What will they be doing in a year? Five years?

15. If you had to give each character a nickname, what would it be, and why?

16. Of all the problems each character had, which one would or could most likely be a problem for you? Which one would be least likely for you?

17. If you had an opportunity to give each of the FAB characters some advice, what would you say to them?