MY MEMOIR IS:
ADVENTURES WITH DAD:
A Father and Daughter's
Journey Through a Senior Acting Class
Published by: AM Ink Publishing
BOOK WEBSITE: LeeGaleGruen.com
PUBLISHER'S WEBSITE: aminkpublishing.com
SYNOPSIS
Lee Gale Gruen (she uses “Lee Gale” as her first name) had a thirty seven year career as a Probation Officer. After retiring at age sixty, just for fun she started attending an acting class for seniors. A few weeks later, her mother died and she invited her grieving father, age eighty-five, to come to class with her. This is the true tale of their magical journey attending that class together for three years and their relationship during that time.
Lee Gale wrote the comedy scenes they performed twice a year at the class showcases. Included in the book are all six scenes along with the motivation and process of writing them, rehearsing them and gathering the props. The father/daughter team became a popular item, performing their scenes before an adoring audience.
Lee Gale eventually transitioned from the class into the world of professional acting. As her fledgling, second career started going uphill, her dad’s health started going downhill. Nevertheless, their two paths continued to intersect as a result of their shared interest in acting. Lee Gale would recount to her dad each of her new experiences while she sat beside his bed at the nursing home where he resided in his final years.
This remarkable, heartwarming story of the love and bonding that grew between a father and daughter, both in their later life, as they attended an acting class for seniors together, will resonate with Baby Boomers, seniors, and their family members, friends and acquaintances everywhere.
This book can be purchased through:
amazon.com
barnesandnoble.com
Your local book seller
BLOG & LECTURES
Lee Gale lectures publicly on "Reinventing Yourself in Your Retirement" and blogs at LeeGaleGruen.wordpress.com, both with the goal of helping retirees find joy, excitement, and satisfaction in life after they retire.
BOOK CLUB DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Are seniors vital members of the community? Do they contribute to the general welfare? How?
2. Should colleges, community centers and other institutions offer classes and programs for seniors?
3. How do seniors benefit from staying active and engaged? How do those close to them benefit? How does society benefit?
4. Why was the father in the book such an angry, insecure man? Discuss his relationship with his own father.
5. What is the stereotypical First Generation (naturalized foreign born) experience and the Second Generation (children of those parents) experience in the United States...in other countries? Discuss the similarities, differences and conflicts between them. Is this different from parents and children both born in the same country?
6. What is the father/daughter dynamic in this memoir? Discuss parent/child dynamics in general.
7. Why was the author’s sister never able to forgive their father?
8. What is the common thread running through all the acting class, comedy scenes that the author wrote? How do those comedy scenes relate to the author’s real-life relationship with her father?
9. Why was the author willing to do anything she could to keep her father alive? Discuss the impact on a child of the loss of a parent. What are the similarities and differences depending on the child's age?
10. What was the attraction between the author’s father and mother? How did their personality types influence her?
11. How did the author’s mentally challenged child impact her life? How did her normal child impact her life?
12. Why are insecure people attracted to acting? Discuss how insecurity can manifest itself in opposite behaviors: always wanting to call attention to yourself versus never wanting to call attention to yourself.
Lee Gale Gruen (she uses “Lee Gale” as her first name) had a thirty seven year career as a Probation Officer. After retiring at age sixty, just for fun she started attending an acting class for seniors. A few weeks later, her mother died and she invited her grieving father, age eighty-five, to come to class with her. This is the true tale of their magical journey attending that class together for three years and their relationship during that time.
Lee Gale wrote the comedy scenes they performed twice a year at the class showcases. Included in the book are all six scenes along with the motivation and process of writing them, rehearsing them and gathering the props. The father/daughter team became a popular item, performing their scenes before an adoring audience.
Lee Gale eventually transitioned from the class into the world of professional acting. As her fledgling, second career started going uphill, her dad’s health started going downhill. Nevertheless, their two paths continued to intersect as a result of their shared interest in acting. Lee Gale would recount to her dad each of her new experiences while she sat beside his bed at the nursing home where he resided in his final years.
This remarkable, heartwarming story of the love and bonding that grew between a father and daughter, both in their later life, as they attended an acting class for seniors together, will resonate with Baby Boomers, seniors, and their family members, friends and acquaintances everywhere.
This book can be purchased through:
amazon.com
barnesandnoble.com
Your local book seller
BLOG & LECTURES
Lee Gale lectures publicly on "Reinventing Yourself in Your Retirement" and blogs at LeeGaleGruen.wordpress.com, both with the goal of helping retirees find joy, excitement, and satisfaction in life after they retire.
BOOK CLUB DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Are seniors vital members of the community? Do they contribute to the general welfare? How?
2. Should colleges, community centers and other institutions offer classes and programs for seniors?
3. How do seniors benefit from staying active and engaged? How do those close to them benefit? How does society benefit?
4. Why was the father in the book such an angry, insecure man? Discuss his relationship with his own father.
5. What is the stereotypical First Generation (naturalized foreign born) experience and the Second Generation (children of those parents) experience in the United States...in other countries? Discuss the similarities, differences and conflicts between them. Is this different from parents and children both born in the same country?
6. What is the father/daughter dynamic in this memoir? Discuss parent/child dynamics in general.
7. Why was the author’s sister never able to forgive their father?
8. What is the common thread running through all the acting class, comedy scenes that the author wrote? How do those comedy scenes relate to the author’s real-life relationship with her father?
9. Why was the author willing to do anything she could to keep her father alive? Discuss the impact on a child of the loss of a parent. What are the similarities and differences depending on the child's age?
10. What was the attraction between the author’s father and mother? How did their personality types influence her?
11. How did the author’s mentally challenged child impact her life? How did her normal child impact her life?
12. Why are insecure people attracted to acting? Discuss how insecurity can manifest itself in opposite behaviors: always wanting to call attention to yourself versus never wanting to call attention to yourself.