A free reading-group guide to books by Amrinder Sahota
Choose one book and four questions. A good conversation does not need to cover every page or reach a unanimous verdict. Use a passage to explain your reading, listen for a different one, and leave room to change your mind.
This guide introduces themes without revealing major plot turns. It contains discussion prompts, not an answer key. You can use it alone, with a friend or in a reading group. Each book can be read independently.
Reading guides: The Kindest Hunger reading notebook · Mrig · Sun and Moon · The Day She Wasn’t Dead · Meeting plan · Notes to bring
Give everyone one minute to name a question they would enjoy discussing. A group drawn to childhood, friendship and foreknowledge can begin with the Mrig introduction. A group drawn to ancestry, memory and evidence can begin with the Punjabi family-history guide. Then compare the book descriptions and available editions before choosing your shared reading.
A group drawn to second chances, family secrets and the consequences of changing the past can begin with The Day She Wasn’t Dead: the time-travel mystery and available editions.
Reading The Kindest Hunger? Use its spoiler-safe reading notebook to track help, obligation and the freedom to refuse.
Harmin Sahota is reborn as Mrig in the world of the Mahabharata. Memories of another life meet the demands of growing up, friendship and costly power. This is an imaginative reincarnation fantasy, not a historical account or a literal translation of the epic.
What comes with a second chance? Find a moment when memory helps Harmin, complicates a decision, or leaves him unprepared. What separates knowing something from being able to act on it?
Who gets to define a person? How does the name Mrig affect your understanding of the character? Look for a passage where his view of himself meets another person's expectations.
What does childhood change? Choose an ordinary task, conversation or frustration. How does experiencing it as a child affect the scene, even when the character remembers an adult life?
When is help difficult to accept? How do the interactions with Kripa shape your view of learning and trust? Does a specific exchange complicate your first impression of either character?
Can friendship change a familiar story? If you already knew figures from the Mahabharata, did that knowledge shape your expectations? If you did not, what did the novel give you to form an opinion? Compare the two reading experiences without treating one as the correct starting point.
How do limits make power interesting? Choose a decision where an ability, its cost or its limitation matters. What would be lost from the scene if the character could solve the problem effortlessly?
When does care become interference? Discuss a choice made for someone else's sake. What does the other person want? If the text leaves that unclear, how does the uncertainty affect your judgment?
What are you still unsure about? At your agreed stopping point, name one expectation and one unresolved question. Keep a prediction separate from something the text has established.
For a group meeting before reading, discuss only the premise and what you hope to discover. These questions do not assume that a free sample contains every relevant scene.
Explore the Mrig reading guide · Mrig on Amazon Canada · Mrig on Amazon US
At your agreed stopping point, choose one decision and make four short notes. This helps readers who know the Mahabharata and readers meeting its figures for the first time compare what is actually on the page.
Established in this scene: what the narration or dialogue directly shows, with a chapter or short identifying phrase.
Remembered or expected: what Mrig believes he knows, and whether the scene confirms it.
My prediction: what you think may happen, labelled as your inference rather than a plot fact.
The human cost: who could be helped or hurt by the decision, and whose wishes remain unknown.
Keep any knowledge from another telling of the epic in a separate note. It is context you bring to the novel, not proof of what this fictional version will do. At the next meeting, revisit one prediction and record the passage that changed it. No advance plot summary is needed.
New to the premise? Start with Inside Mrig: the premise and reading expectations, then choose an edition on the Books page.
This reflective nonfiction follows a personal search through ancestry, Punjab's heritage, family memory and belonging. The names Suhotra, Sahotra, Sahota and Sihota help frame that search; similarity between names is not, by itself, proof of a genealogical connection.
What makes a name meaningful? Choose a passage where a name raises a question. Is its importance personal, cultural, historical, or a combination? What evidence would be needed for a separate claim about descent?
Which kind of account are you reading? Find an example of remembered experience, inherited tradition or a claim linked to a document. What clues identify it? If the distinction seems unclear, mark the question rather than resolving it by guesswork.
What can memory preserve? What does a remembered detail convey about someone's attachments or values? Which parts could a document help check, and which would require a different kind of question?
Where does belonging widen? Find a passage that affects the boundary between “my people” and people outside that group. Does it challenge your understanding, reinforce it or leave you unconvinced? Explain with the text.
How should a reader handle uncertainty? Choose a claim you would like to investigate further. Write down the precise question, the source given, and what kind of additional evidence could help. A question worth checking need not be an accusation.
What should an inheritance ask of us? The book asks how courage can be carried forward without inherited hatred. Which passage gives that question substance for you? Is there a tension the book leaves open?
What can remain private? Discuss how family stories might be shared with care. You may use the book rather than your own family as your example; nobody needs to disclose personal history to participate.
What has changed after reading? Name a question you now ask differently. It is equally useful to identify a point where you disagree or need more evidence.
Read the free Sun and Moon preview · Sun and Moon on Amazon Canada · Sun and Moon on Amazon US
Read the Sun and Moon preview on this site
This short session works before anyone commits to the full book. Open the free Sun and Moon opening preview and source notes.
Read for five minutes. Choose one sentence about a name, a remembered feeling or belonging. Each reader may choose a different passage.
Compare for five minutes. What does the sentence tell you about the narrator's experience? Does it make a separate historical claim? Check the accompanying source note where one is given, and leave unanswered questions open.
Decide for five minutes. Name what you want to explore next and whether this reflective approach suits your group. Nobody needs to share private family history or agree with the narrator.
For a practical follow-up, use the family-history interview prompts and worked evidence example. Keep a remembered story, a document and your interpretation separately labelled.
First 5 minutes: agree on the reading boundary and spoiler limits. Anyone may pass on a question.
Next 10 minutes: each reader names a moment or idea that stayed with them, without rebuttals.
Next 30 minutes: explore three or four questions. Ask which passage supports an interpretation, and invite a different reading.
Next 10 minutes: discuss a disagreement or unresolved question. For a factual claim, note what would help check it instead of voting on whether it is true.
Final 5 minutes: choose one question to carry away. No one has to deliver the last word on the book.
Book, edition and agreed stopping point: ________________
Passage or chapter I want to discuss: ________________
What the text says: ________________
My interpretation and another possible reading: ________________
Question still open: ________________
Source or passage to check next: ________________
Chapter titles or a few identifying words can be more useful than page numbers when readers use different editions. Avoid sharing long extracts; bring your own copy or the official sample.
Leah Arden can return to the day someone died. Her twenty-four hours in the past can change the world she comes back to. This standalone novel combines time travel, family secrets and psychological suspense. Agree on a stopping point before discussing it; these prompts reveal no resolution.
What would count as a second chance? Before reading, distinguish the wish to save someone from the wish to undo regret. What different expectations do those wishes create?
What makes a choice reasonable at the time? Choose one decision within your reading boundary. What does Leah know then, and what are you only assuming? Avoid judging an early choice using a later revelation.
Who bears the cost of changing the past? Identify whose interests a decision serves and whose wishes remain uncertain. Support your interpretation with a passage rather than an imagined ending.
How does the time limit shape suspense? Find a moment where urgency changes your reading. Would the scene feel different without the twenty-four-hour boundary?
When does a family secret change meaning? Compare your first impression of a detail with your view at the agreed stopping point. Separate a confirmed fact from a prediction.
Which question deserves to stay open? Each reader names one unresolved question. At the next meeting, return to it and explain what changed your view.
Before choosing it for your group, read The Day She Wasn’t Dead synopsis and explore Amazon editions. You do not need to disclose personal experiences of loss to take part.
For more about the author and the books, visit Amrinder Sahota's website.