Hello, readers! From the bottom of my heart, thank you for picking A Thousand Miles as your book club selection. Consider me your very enthusiastic tour guide as you prepare to hit the road with Dee and Ben, childhood best friends who had a major falling out their senior year of high school and haven’t spoken in a decade. Since this is a second-chance road trip romance, you’ll find a lot of reflections in this book on how the places we’ve been and the people we’ve known influence who we become. If you can’t guess, I’m a deeply nostalgic person who loves to look in the rearview and reminisce. A Thousand Miles is my tribute to that. An ode to the roads we take in life, and how sometimes they bring us back to people and places we never expected to see again. There is something so distinctly intimate about traveling by car with someone you know and navigating unfamiliar territory together. I’ve wanted to write a book about it for a really long time, trying my hand at different road trip stories throughout the years. None of those drafts ever got finished. I didn’t have the right main characters. Until I landed on troublemaking firecracker Dee and people-pleasing charmer Ben. Dee and Ben’s loaded history and lifelong shorthand poured out of me. It was easy to get to the final destination with those two in the front seat. Well, maybe not easy. Writing a book is never easy. But it was exciting. There is a real windows down, music up, sun on your face, cruise control kind of energy between Dee and Ben . . . with the hovering threat of an emotional crash looming around every corner, of course. I couldn’t ignore these two if I tried. And at times, I did try! Only because their love story was so big it scared me. But Dee and Ben demanded their happily ever after. As they should. It took them ten long years to earn it. It is the honor of my life to be the one to present it to you. Happy trails,
Bridget Morrissey
discussion questions 1.
When the story starts, we learn Dee and Ben haven’t seen each other or spoken in ten years. What do you make of their first interaction?
2.
Dee hosts a successful podcast where she shares a lot of her personal life and love mishaps. Why do you think she does this? Would it make you uncomfortable to share as many personal stories as she does? Or do you think it’s brave that she’s so open?
3.
Dee and Ben come from different economic backgrounds, but Dee has recently found herself much more financially stable. How does her past affect her relationship to money? And her relationship to Ben? What do you think is most important to her about being financially secure as an adult?
4.
The majority of this book takes place in a car. In what ways does this setting heighten the tensions between Dee and Ben? What is the longest road trip you have ever taken?
5.
Ben spends a lot of the book thinking about all the dreams he used to have, like being a baseball player or an endodontist. Why do you think he is so reflective on this trip? Do you think we ever outgrow our childhood dreams?
6.
Throughout the book, we discover what happened between Dee and Ben ten years ago. How do you think they’ve grown since that moment? Do you think either of them were right?
7.
Dee and Ben open a time capsule full of high school memories and letters to each other. What do those contents tell us about the characters? What would you put in a time capsule if you made one today?
8.
We meet many of Dee’s and Ben’s friends and family throughout the book. Did you have a favorite character in A Thousand Miles?
9.
There are a lot of humorous mishaps and adventures along the road. Which one did you enjoy the most? What did those moments tell you about Dee and Ben?
10.
What makes Dee a good match for Ben? And Ben for Dee?