READERS GUIDE

Questions and Topics for Discussion

1. Would you be brave enough to have a conversation with a woman you didn’t know in an airport restroom?

2. Have you ever met someone, at a coffee shop, work, or a social event and immediately felt at home or as if you had an instant, friend-like connection?

3. This book was released right around the time the Icelandic volcano erupted and stranded travelers all over the world.  Although something similar happens in this book, can you imagine what your response might be if you were stranded?

4. All of the women in this novel, in spite of their misgivings, decided to take a chance and room with strangers.  Can you see yourself taking such a risk?

5. Besides their carry-on luggage, each of the women in this story has some personal excess baggage. Do you think this is true of most women?  How about yourself?

6. Kris Radish loves to deal with the possible in her novels.  In Hearts on a String the notion of psychics is part of the story.  What are your feelings about people who may have special gifts?

7. Until the storm in the book begins to rage, the women all seem reluctant to open up and trust.  Often, in real life, it takes something unexpected—a moment, an event, another person—for someone to move forward and release what they’ve been holding back.  Do you agree with this?

8. Celebrating life and living—not simply existing—is an important message in this book as well as in other Radish novels. How could you join the party and celebrate your own life in ways that you are not currently celebrating?

9. Change always involves risk. Do you think as women grow older that they are better able to handle the consequences of what might happen (or not happen) when they decide to change? If not, why?

10. Would you be brave enough to form a chapter of the Estrogen Defense League in your own town?  If so what would your meetings be like?

11. Do you believe, as Kris Radish does, that all women are connected?  If so, in what ways?