Bring Both Sides of Then
to your book club
Free discussion guide and resources for every group. Live author visits each month.
This book was written to be discussed out loud.
It’s a true story about long-held family secrets and how it affects multiple generations when they are uncovered. It’s a story to make you ask, “what buried stories did I inherit, and how do they shape who I am today?”
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Untold History
Before Roe v. Wade, millions of unmarried young women were sent away, pressured to surrender their babies, and told to forget. Anna’s story gives voice to a chapter of American history most families kept quiet.
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The Stories We Inherit
The book traces how pain left unspoken in one generation shapes the next. Readers follow the journeys of mother and daughter together as they navigate a legacy of grief.
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Different Perspectives
Told in alternating chapters, a daughter shares her mother’s life alongside her own. Readers hold both perspectives at once and see how two women can love each other deeply and still remember the same family differently.
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Breaking the Cycle
As long-held truths finally come to light, a daughter has to decide what to do with everything she inherited. It’s a story about acceptance, forgiveness, and the hope that one generation can write a different ending for the next.
Free download
The Book Club Kit
Resources and discussion guides to tailor your group’s experience with Both Sides of Then.
- Letter from Jennifer
- Discussion questions
- Family photographs
- Historical references
- Exclusive guide: The Secret History of Adoption
- Book playlist on Apple Music
Visit with Jennifer
Book a special author visit from Jennifer.
Jennifer joins book clubs on screen and in living rooms, and she comes ready to go past the last page. Every visit moves from her story into yours.
AMA and Conversation
Bring every question you’ve been holding since the final chapter. Jennifer answers anything, then guides the group through reflection questions written to draw out what the book stirred up in each of you.
Artifacts and Archives
Jennifer shares the story of Eve’s necklace, and walks through additional historical resources and context from the Book Club Kit.
Your Own Story
The last part of the visit turns the lens on the room. Jennifer walks your group through how to unpack the story you inherited, then offers writing prompts to get the first pieces of yours onto the page. Everyone leaves with her writing guide for uncovering their own story after the visit ends.
Request a visit
Exclusive event
For Mothers & Daughters
A workshop version of the book club visit, built for multiple generations in the same room. Jennifer brings her own experience and shares a set of questions designed to be asked across the table, to help unlock the stories most families don’t get to tell.
Made for mother–daughter groups, service organizations, and anyone who has been meaning to ask their mother something for a long time.
Request a visit“Jennifer is clearly changing lives.”
The line in her speech, “Your mom had another life before you were born,” brought people to tears. […] Her booklet of questions to ask your mother will help foster deeper connections. One mom is taking the leaflet to her mother’s 85th birthday party.
From recent groups
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