READERS GUIDE

Reader’s Guide
The Minuscule Mansion of Myra Malone by Audrey Burges
Discussion Questions:

1. In many ways, The Minuscule Mansion of Myra Malone is about the places and people we always carry with us. What’s a place—a room, a destination, a home—that you’ve never really left behind? What details of that place stick with you? Why?

2. Friendship is as big a theme in this book as love. Who is your Gwen? Who is your Ellen? What moments in your life have they gotten you through, and how?

3. Myra has dedicated her life to an activity that most people would consider a hobby. What’s something you’re passionate about that the rest of the world may not understand? If you could make it your day job, would you? Why or why not?

4. Alex and Myra fall in love with each other’s words first, long before either of them lays eyes on the other. Have you ever started a relationship sight unseen? What happened? Are there words that still resonate with you from the experience?

5. Many of the lessons Myra learns from Trixie and Lou don’t dawn on her until much later, when she’s grown. What are some things you learned as a child that didn’t seem significant until you were an adult?

6. If you could shrink anything you loved down to a size that you could keep it with you always, would you do it? What would it be, and why?

7. A major theme of the book centers on the idea of characters becoming the person they need to be—in Willa’s case, quite literally, and in Myra’s, Alex’s, and Diana’s cases, more figuratively. What parts of the story allow them to do this, in your view? Have you ever transformed yourself? What, or who, helped you?

8. This book features several love stories. Which one was your favorite? Your least favorite? Why?

9. The book opens with a blog entry from Myra—“Once upon a time, there was a house”—that
invites the reader to imagine their own perfect space. What would yours be and where would it be located?

10. Did you ever have a Trixie in your life? Who was it, and what did they mean to you?

11. What themes, scenes, or elements of this story stayed with you the most? Why?

12. If you could have a conversation with any of the characters in the novel, who would it be, and where would you have it?