Get the most engaging The Measure book club questions (without spoilers!) to foster insightful discussions. New York Times bestselling author Nikki Erlick‘s thought-provoking Read with Jenna book club pick imparts messages about the meaning of life.
You’ll also get free printable book club questions to use as a book club resource at your in-person book club about this BookTok favorite. Let’s get literary!
Quick Summary of The Measure With Themes
The book about death and dying The Measure blends magical realism, literary fiction, dystopian, philosophical, and speculative fiction elements. Ultimately, it’s a character-driven novel about fate and choice.
One day, every adult over age 22 awakens to find a box at his or her doorstep. The box reads,
“The measure of your life lies within.”
Inside the box is a length string corresponding to the recipient’s lifespan.
Instantly, the world is changed. Some characters grapple with what to do with their time left, while others are too afraid to even look in the box.
Meanwhile, history, current affairs, and politics show the consequences of the strings, from the good, like the formation of support groups, to the bad, such as various forms of discrimination against short and long “stringers.”
CHARACTERS LIST
The reader meets such characters as:
- Nina and Maura – a couple with different string lengths
- Amie – Nina’s sister who holds support groups
- Ben – an architect reeling from a string-related breakup
- Anthony – a presidential hopeful grappling with the strings on a larger scale
- Jack – Anthony’s nephew and dispassionate military school graduate
- Javier– Jack’s roommate and passionate military school graduate
As time passes and the meaning and impact of the strings play out in various contexts throughout the world and in the characters’ lives, the reader is left with existential questions about whether the strings are a blessing or a curse.
10 years after receiving the box, Maura dies. Ben, who has a terminal illness, and Amie are married with children, but they both die in a car accident. Nina finds a short string in Amie’s box. She adopts Amie’s and Ben’s children and hopes to live with the bravery of a short-stringer.
The Measure is a good book club book because its filled with discussion-worthy themes of life expectancy, fate vs. free will, morality and ethics.
Watch Jenna Bush Hager discuss this book with Nikki Erlick on The Today Show on Youtube:
The Measure Book Club Questions (Without Spoilers)
Discuss the meaning of the epigraph by Mary Oliver: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
What does “The measure of your life lies within” mean?
Would you look in your string box?
How do you think you would react to looking in your string box?
Compare and contrast how the characters reacted to the length of their strings.
Would you ask others about their strings as the characters in the book did?
Why do you think 22 was the age at which the strings were first delivered?
Did any of the real-life events the strings affected surprise you?
Did you like or dislike the magical realism element of this book?
Is The Measure a dystopian novel?
Do you think the media’s reaction to the strings was realistically portrayed?
Discuss the significance of books, letters, and other art, which were prominently featured throughout the narrative.
Ben said it was “better to believe in miracles.” Do you agree?
Would you consider pretending your string was different, like one of the main characters did?
Discuss the consequences of string-switching.
What role did secrets play in the narrative?
Would you ever secretly look in someone else’s box?
What were the consequences of the string database?
Compare and contrast the strings to real events that cause people to think about life, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
Discuss how the strings brought certain people together and pulled certain people apart.
Discuss the theme of fate versus free will.
How did the strings affect faith and spirituality?
How did the strings affect the field of medicine?
The historical timing of the strings was discussed in the book. How may their occurrence in the present have differed from any other given time in the past?
Would masks, like the ones discussed in Venice, be freeing?
Discuss the meaning of the New Year in the book.
How did public perception of the strings change over time?
What are the pros and cons of being a short stringer versus a long stringer?
What are your thoughts on the ending for each of the characters?
What do you take away about life from this book?
Printable PDF Reading Guide of these Discussion Questions
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Book Club Ideas for Food and Games
- Eat: “string” cheese and other string-like food, such as spaghetti, pretel sticks, and Twizzlers, fortune cookies
- Do: Any sort of string game or knitting, the Magic 8 ball game, go to the Broadway show Rent
Book Club Books to Read Next
If you loved these The Measure book club questions, discuss these books at your next meeting:
remember, it’s a good day to read a book. – jules
I want to do a test in my bookclub everybody receives a box with a string. They have to decide. I need think of what else to do to make it interactive