July 2010: Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale

Choices

Dashti had a choice to go into the tower with Lady Saren. Why did she make that choice? Would you?

One book

If you were going to be locked in a tower for seven years and could take just one book, what would it be?

My Lord the Cat

How did you feel when Dashti sang to My Lord to get him to be loyal to Lady Saren instead?

Dashti

At the beginning of the book, Dashti describes herself simply as "a mucker and a lady's maid", but by the end of the story she has become so much more. When Lady Saren orders her to stay, Dashti muses to herself, "Strangely, her words held no sway over me. Maybe it's wrong, but I don't think I have to do what she says just because I'm a mucker and she's an honored lady" (p. 274). What do you think has brought about these changes in her? What words would you use to describe Dashti?

Lady Saren

Did your feelings about Lady Saren change over the course of the book? Did you like her more or less after they escaped the tower? After they started working in the kitchen? When Saren orders Dashti to stay with her? What do you think brought about her changes?

Dashti and Saren

Describe teh two young women in this story, Lady Saren and Dashti. In what ways are they different from one another? How does each cope with the deprivations of the tower? Why is it left to Dashti to communicate with the visitors who come to the tower?

Dashti's voice

Do you like the way in which this story is told: with Dashti narrating through her journal? How would you describe Dashti's voice- boastful, self effacing, bright, uncertain, strong..?
Does her voice change throughout the story?

Background

How did Dashti's background prepare her to endure the isolation of the tower and the hardships of the Mongolian landscape?

Relationships

Dashti had to weigh her growing feelings for Kahn Tegus vs. her loyalty to Saren. How did you feel about the budding relationship between Dashti and Tegus?

Healing songs

How would you describe Dashti's healing songs- are they poetry, folk lore, magic? What is their purpose: why does Dashti use them , and why would Hale include them as part of the story?

Breath of the soul

"Things worn closest to the skin, to the heart, carry the scent of a person, and of course, scent is the breath of the soul." What might Dashti mean by the last 5 words?

Changing it up

Hale based this book on a Brothers Grimm folk tale, "Maid Maleen", in which the imprisoned lady is the heroine, not her servant. Why might Shannon Hale have changed the heroine in her reworking of the original?

Overview

Does the book deliver in terms of engaging you all the way through? Are characters compelling, is the plot suspenseful, and are you satisfied with how the story ends?