ALPHABET WEEKENDS
Love on the Road from A to Z
Natalie and Tom have been best friends forever. But Tom wants more, and he’s going to prove to Natalie that they’re meant to be together. He makes a wildly romantic proposition: spend 26 weekends together, indulging in a different activity from A-Z. In six months, he argues, they will be desperately in love. The cautious Natalie – recently burned by a longtime boyfriend – isn’t so sure.
But Tom and Natalie aren’t the only ones coping with the vagaries of love. Natalie’s mother is going through her own personal crisis and Lucy, Tom’s unhappily married sister-in-law, yearns to give in to temptation.
Natalie and Tom have been best friends forever. But Tom wants more, and he’s going to prove to Natalie that they’re meant to be together. He makes a wildly romantic proposition: spend 26 weekends together, indulging in a different activity from A-Z. In six months, he argues, they will be desperately in love. The cautious Natalie – recently burned by a longtime boyfriend – isn’t so sure.
But Tom and Natalie aren’t the only ones coping with the vagaries of love. Natalie’s mother is going through her own personal crisis and Lucy, Tom’s unhappily married sister-in-law, yearns to give in to temptation. All of them are about to learn that no matter how clever they are, love – and life – isn’t always as easy as A, B, C…
- Harper Paperbacks
- Paperback
- February 2007
- 448 Pages
- 9780061122187
Buy the Book
$14.95
About Elizabeth Noble
Elizabeth Noble studied at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford University, before working in British publishing for several years. She is the author of two previous novels — The Friendship Test and The Reading Group, which was a bestseller in the United States and the United Kingdom. She divides her time between Surrey, England and New York with her husband and two daughters.
Praise
“This warm-hearted book by the author of The Reading Group is a reminder that no true love ever ran smoothly” —You Magazine
“This warm and funny read will take the chill off these cold winter days” –Heat
Discussion Questions
How would you characterize Natalie and Tom’s childhood friendship, and to what extent does it seem like they would make good romantic partners as adults?
How do the friendships in Alphabet Weekends (between Lucy and Marianne; Natalie and Rose; and Tom and his work colleagues, Rob and Serena) reveal differing levels of trust, dependence, and affection?
How does Natalie’s relationship with her father, Nicholas, compare to her relationship with her mother, Anna, and what are the implications of her feelings as both of her parents confront significant health problems in Alphabet Weekends?
“I’m a romantic—what’s wrong with that?” In what ways does Tom challenge Natalie’s idealized vision of romance?
Why does Natalie agree to have dinner with her ex-boyfriend, Simon? How fair to Tom is Natalie’s decision to meet up again with Simon?
How do to the trips to the Health Farm and to Paris alter the course of Natalie and Tom’s relationship and the depth of their feelings for each another?
Why does Nicholas’s stroke enable Anna to overcome her clinical depression?
Why might Patrick’s impotence and feelings of inadequacy after losing his job contribute to Lucy’s decision to seek out an extramarital affair with Alec?
Of all of the romantic relationships explored in Alphabet Weekends, which seems the strongest and why?
How did the plot of Alphabet Weekends enable your appreciation of the unfolding relationship between Natalie and Tom?