For November  2012, our Online Book Club continues our discussion of Little Princes by Conor Grennan.  Each week, we’ll add a different question for reflection on the book and its ideas. Feel free to add your thoughts below.

Question for Week 2:
Why did Conor return to Nepal even though the country was in the midst of a civil war? How did Conor’s mission change as he learned more about how the children at Little Princes orphanage came to Kathmandu?

After leaving Nepal, Conor felt a deep bond with the children at Little Princes orphanage.  Aware of how easy it was to make promises and not fulfill them, Conor felt compelled to return.  When  his plans to rescue a group of children was aborted, Conor determined to find the children and make sure they were educated and cared for.  When he discovered the orphans had parents living, he looked into ways to reunite them with their parents.  Believing it might be better for the children to continue their education in Kathmandu, Conor worked to find ways for these children to communicate and visit with parents.  He also set up hostels in the capital of the region where children could stay, keep in touch with their families, and continue their education.

Design*Sponge at Home created by journalist Grace Bonney is probably the kind of the Gen X/Gen Y’s answer to Martha Stewart in terms of DIY, crafts, design, entertaining, and food.  One of her columns is her Living In film Series where she takes inspirations from the Breakfast Club to Downton Abbey and translates them into historical references of fashion and accessories.  

For November 2012, our Online Book Club discusses Little Princes by Conor Grennan.  Each week, we'll put forth  different questions to prompt reflection on the book and its ideas. We hope you will participate in the discussion by adding your comments below.

Question for Week 1:

How did Conor Grennan’s decision to volunteer in an orphanage in Kathmandu before spending a year of traveling abroad change his life?  What preparation did Conor have to work as an orphanage volunteer?  Looking back, was there a time in your life when what you thought was an insignificant decision or act turned out later to make a difference?

Conor felt he needed to justify his self-indulgent decision to spend a year traveling around the world when he left his job working for an international organization.  Volunteering at an orphanage in Nepal where he planned to trek to Mt Everest Base Camp was an opportunity to do charitable work at the beginning of the trip.  Before volunteering, Conor had no experience with children. After arrival in Kathmandu he was given a week’s training including an orientation to Nepali culture and a home stay with a family in a village outside Kathmandu.  Conor's work  was "hands-on" and the experience lingered throughout the remainder of his trip and his return to the United States.

Sometimes an insignificant act makes a difference:  A month after relocating to a new city, looking for opportunities to make new friends, I filled out a volunteer form for a nonprofit organization, expecting to be called help with fundraising.  To my surprise, I was asked to be part of a group training for telephone crisis counseling.  The following months of training and probationary volunteer work was one of the most challenging and rewarding periods of my life and led me to volunteer with other nonprofit organizations.

At his recent talk at San Jose State, Conor Grennan urged his listeners to not to question their motives, but to volunteer their time and money to make little changes -- which might lead to great things.

A must-read complete collection of ghost stories by M. R. James, the British master of the macabre.  With detailed annotations by Darryl Jones, the book illustrates James' style of 'historical' horror fiction.  Similar to Stephen King, James fabricates his horror tales based on real

places and persons of the period to lend a realistic sense to the storyline.  With haunted

houses and bizarre objects as central plots these tales offer ghost stories in their

purest essence.