Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine Book Club Kit

Book Club Kit for Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman includes book club discussion guide and party menu.

A copy of the book Eleanor Oliphant is on the table.

Every May I try to pick a book club book with a mother as the main character or one that has a unique mother-daughter relationship to explore.

This year’s book is likely to spark the most discussions yet!

Peanut Blossom Book Club

This book was our official May 2019 pick for the Peanut Blossom Book Club.

Want to see what we’re reading today? Check out our book club book list here.

Want Free Reminders for Each Book?

This book club pick is one of the awesome books from our fifth year of book club.

We’re still going strong! Want to join us?

You can join our book club for free by signing up for my email newsletter right here:

What is Eleanor Oliphant About?

Here’s what Amazon had to say about the book:

“No one’s ever told Eleanor that life should be better than fine.

Meet Eleanor Oliphant: She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she’s thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding social interactions, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy.

But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office. When she and Raymond together save Sammy, an elderly gentleman who has fallen on the sidewalk, the three become the kinds of friends who rescue one another from the lives of isolation they have each been living. And it is Raymond’s big heart that will ultimately help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one.

Soon to be a major motion picture produced by Reese Witherspoon, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine is the smart, warm, and uplifting story of an out-of-the-ordinary heroine whose deadpan weirdness and unconscious wit make for an irresistible journey as she realizes. . .
The only way to survive is to open your heart.”

Get a copy of the book here.

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine Book Club Questions

I believe the best book club questions to spark a lively discussion in your group help readers make personal connections to the story.

You can read about how to write the best book club questions on your own here, but hopefully these will get you started!

Question 1:

Eleanor is a very unique protagonist, how did you feel about her as you read through the story? Did your feelings change from the beginning to the end?

Question 2:

Eleanor says: “Loneliness is the new cancer.” Do you agree? In light of the loneliness epidemic, do you think Eleanor’s lifestyle is more or less common now than it used to be?

Question 3:

“Did men ever look in the mirror, I wondered, and find themselves wanting in deeply fundamental ways?” How did you feel about this particular quote? Do you know men for which this statement is not true?

Question 4:

“If someone asks you how you are, you are meant to say FINE.” How often do you respond “fine” when you are not really? Is there someone you feel comfortable always responding with the truth?

Question 5:

Eleanor is worried she’ll become like her mother, do you share that same fear? Do you recall your mom ever worrying about that?

Question 6:

Did you see the big plot twist coming? What were some hints from earlier in the book that might have tipped you off?

Question 7:

What do you think happens to Eleanor after the end of the book?

Book Club Party Menu

For the book club party menu, use Eleanor’s favorite foods as a place to start.

Each evening, Eleanor Oliphant makes herself some pasta with pesto sauce because it tastes nice and fulfills her dietary needs.

You could make my cheese tortelloni with pesto or a batch of my pesto chicken sliders.

On the weekends, Eleanor bakes a Tesco frozen pizza. My homemade cheese pizza would be a delicious upgrade.

She learns to love cheese scones once Raymond starts taking her out into the world more. For a sweeter touch, my easy blueberry scones would work as a snack or a sweet treat.