Write your own one- to two-page memoir about an incident you remember from your childhood. Try to capture the child's way of seeing things. Write it in your own voice and style rather than trying to imitate Karr.

Research the topic of alcoholism and the effects it has on families, particularly children. Why do some people become alcoholics while others who drink do not? Is there a cure for alcoholism?

The Karr family is forced to flee Hurricane Carla in 1961 in Texas. Using the Internet, research Hurricane Carla and other major hurricanes along the Gulf Coast. What are the weather conditions that produce a hurricane? How has the technology of predicting the path of a hurricane changed since the 1960s? (Remember that in The Liars' Club, the storm unexpectedly hits a town in Louisiana rather than Leechfield, Texas, its predicted path.)

Karr defines a dysfunctional family as ‘‘any family with more than one person in it.’’ She means that every family is dysfunctional in one way or another. Do you agree? Why or why not? How would you define dysfunctional? Do you think that people can put bad childhood experiences behind them, or do those experiences mark people for life?