Years ago I played mah jongg with a great group of friends. Every few months someone would suggest a book, and we would all read it and talk about it for the next five or six weeks, in between the "one cracks," and the "two bams." I'll never forget when we read The Prince of Tides, and we were discussing the hideous villain, Callanwolde. When someone knocked on the front door, we all ran into the bathroom, shrieking with fear. Or the fight we had when we read Corelli's Mandolin, which some of us loved and others loathed. Two of the women never spoke after that.

Who knew that we were on the cutting edge — one of the first "book groups" ever? All along I have hoped that Hats & Eyeglasses would resonate with Book Club members. For the past year I have "done" many local Book Clubs, and meeting and talking to my readers has been exhilarating. Since most of you don't live in the Hudson Valley, I thought the best way to connect with you would be come to your group by speakerphone (my mother always said that talking on the phone was my Olympic sport!). Please arrange a phoner with my fabulous publicist, Christina Mancuso 212-366-2851

More Food for Thought Questions to Ask Yourself (and Your Book Club Friends) about Hats & Eyeglasses

1. In the Frankel house groups of family and friends were often gathered together playing cards in the living room or cooking potato latkes in the kitchen. Talk about what it was in your house that brought people together.

2. From an early age, Martha sought out the company of her father, uncles, and her boy cousins--she played cards with them, she leaned to read the Racing Form so she could impress them at the track, she learned sports rules so she could watch with the men. And yet she was also very close with her mother and aunts. Discuss how she straddled those two different worlds, and how you've done it in your own life, with your career and your children, or your husband and your mother, etc.

2. What did the expression "Hats and Eyeglasses" mean in the Frankel family? Does your family have any family sayings or expressions? What are they?

3. When her father dies, Martha and her mother don't really know how to bridge the gap that his death leaves. Talk about how hats and eyeglasses start to float up around them, and how they deal with it. Talk about if you have felt similarly adrift at different times in your life.

4. When Martha learns poker, she becomes obsessed with the game. Has that ever happened to you, and with what? How do you keep your obsessions from becoming addictions?

5. When Lefty is caught cheating, it leads to lots of pain for everyone in the weekly poker game. Talk about how someone else's misdeeds or betrayal have affected you and your friends or family.

6. Have you ever had to tell a loved one something so terrible that you were sure you would lose their love and respect? Were you ever so ashamed you wouldn't dare tell anyone something about your life? How did that affect you?

7. What did you think of the relationship between Martha and her mother? Was your mother anything like Sylvia? And would you have wanted her to be?

8. What did you think about how Martha finally told Steve and her family about what she had done by giving them the manuscript for this book?

9. If you were faced with a loved ones addiction or deception, how would you react? Would you have been as accepting as Martha's husband Steve or would it have been harder for you to forgive?

Questions for Martha from BookClubs

10. How has your life been since Hats & Eyeglasses came out?

11. How have your husband and family reacted to the things you said in Hats & Eyeglasses?

12. Do you wish you had never found poker?