One of the unexpected pleasures of writing Church Sweet Home: A Restoration to Warm the Soul has been hearing about book clubs discuss it.

Recently, a group at the Wadena City Library in my hometown selected the book for discussion, which honestly delighted me because the project itself was always deeply visual. Half the experience of renovating a 100-year-old church involves standing in the middle of chaos saying things like, “Well, this seems concerning.”

My mom, who led the book club, shared some of her photos of our project but apparently several readers wanted more photographs than the book included, which I completely understand. Fortunately, many additional restoration photos are available right here on this blog under the Before & Afters tab, where you can see the transformation from “slightly alarming 126-year-old church” to “surprisingly cozy place where people now argue about paint colors and dishwasher leaks.”

One thing I’ve noticed over the years is that readers genuinely enjoy discussion questions at the end of books. Most of my books include them because they help book clubs move beyond “Did you like it?” and into the far more interesting territory of shared memories, disagreements and storytelling.

Oddly though, my latest book Prime Time: Ups & Downs of a Minnesota TV Man does not currently include discussion questions.

This may have been an oversight caused by spending too much time thinking about vintage television repair and not enough time thinking about literary infrastructure. (The book, however, does share pictures of Dad at work through the years.)

But the more people read the book, the more I realize it naturally invites conversation. Not just about television, but about small-town life, family businesses, changing technology, Minnesota culture and the strange speed at which ordinary life becomes history.

I worked up a Discussion Guide, which you can download here.

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If you’d like to talk books, memoir writing, church restoration, vintage television or your own hometown memories, I’ll be appearing at 11:30 a.m. tomorrow, Saturday June 6 at the Wadena City Library, 304 First St. SW.