READERS GUIDE

Author of the bestselling Shopaholic novels Sophie Kinsella has delighted readers around the globe with her all-too-human characters caught in an array of zany dilemmas. In that spirit, The Undomestic Goddess tells the fast-paced, riotously funny tale of a high-powered corporate lawyer who trades legal torts for fresh-baked tortes in the riskiest career move of her life.

Samantha Sweeting has always been a workaholic; she can’t even enjoy a massage unless her BlackBerry is within reach. Following in her mother’s footsteps, she has risen to the top of London’s legal circles by devoting every ounce of her energy to a prestigious law firm. But just as she discovers she’s been made a partner, she also discovers that she has seemingly made a mistake so huge, it will ruin her career, and cost the firm millions. Going into utter meltdown, she boards a train bound for anywhere. Dazed and ashamed, she finds herself on the streets of a charming country town and stops to ask for help at a big, beautiful house. In a brilliant comedy of errors, she’s mistaken for a job applicant and is soon offered employment as a housekeeper. Samantha accepts the job–even though she barely knows how to boil water. She doesn’t know how to run a vacuum cleaner, sew on a button, turn on an oven, or poach an egg. How long will she be able to fool her new bosses? That depends on whether a handsome gardener named Nathaniel is willing to keep her secret. A refreshing novel about finding a life to love, and finding a loved one to share it with, The Undomestic Goddess is boiling over with delights.

The questions, discussion topics, and author biography that follow are intended to enhance your reading of Sophie Kinsella’s The Undomestic Goddess. We hope they will enrich your experience of this witty and endearing novel.

Questions and Topics for Discussion

1. How would you have responded to the questions that introduce Chapter One? Have you ever been accused of being addicted to stress? What’s the difference between having a busy life and being a workaholic?

2. How did the office politics at Carter Spink compare to your experience in the world of work? Who is the Ketterman in your life, dropping huge, last-minute projects on your desk?

3. What accounts for the different lives led by Samantha and her childhood friend, Freya? What fun and essential roles does Freya play in Samantha’s life?

4. Before Samantha leaves London, what are her highest expectations regarding love? Was there anything appealing about six-minute sex with Jacob? What stokes her attraction to Guy?

5. Samantha wistfully adores "The Waltons." Why is her family so different from the one depicted in that show? What does the ideal family look like in the twenty-first century?

6. Discuss the debate between Samantha and Mrs. Farley at the end of Chapter Three. Is sewing on a button a valuable skill, or at least as valuable as Mrs. Farley says it is? What are the most valuable skills for women to master?

7. Samantha describes the disorder of her desk–and her life–that made her vulnerable to the alleged registration mistake. What did her clutter indicate about her state of mind at that time?

8. With her uncanny knack for numbers and her fiercely competitive streak, Samantha was a natural for corporate law. Was she also a natural domestic goddess, even though the basic instruction had been withheld from her as she grew up? Does Melissa have what it takes to succeed in law?

9. What do Nathaniel’s and Samantha’s histories have in common? What makes them an unlikely couple, yet a perfect couple? How do they gradually learn to trust each other?

10. Are Trish and Eddie good bosses? Would you want to work for them?

11. At times, Samantha suffers from a sort of withdrawal after leaving Carter Spink. What is the equivalent of Carter Spink in your life–the community or organization without which you would feel empty? Have you ever had to face the prospect of losing that connection? What alternative plan would you come up with, as Samantha stumbled into the Geiger plan?

12. Chapter Sixteen describes the experience of Iris’s kitchen and Samantha’s awakening to simple, natural miracles such as rising bread. What healing perspective does Iris impart to Samantha?

13. Much to her horror, Samantha is hounded by the media for sound bites and pursued by advertisers to become an icon for products. Do the headlines in Chapter Twenty-four raise any real-life issues? Do women and men face identical challenges in the modern corporate world?

14. Which of the novel’s scenes kept you on the edge of your seat the longest? Could you have maintained a false identity for as long as Samantha did? Would you have gone back to work for Carter Spink?

15. What do you predict for Samantha and Nathaniel’s future?