Well, we’ve come to the end of Week 1 of The Opposite of Everyone Readalong. Erin @ Deep South Magazine has some seriously great questions/thoughts to ask/for you to think about- so hop over to Deep South Magazine 🙂
Over here, though, we’ll be talking characters and quotes (2 of my many favorite things!)
When I began reading The Opposite of Everyone, the names Kai and Kali were confusing me at first- so I was glad when Joshilyn Jackson started talking about Kali as Paula.
Here are a few of the characters you ran across in Chapters 1-4 with some commentary:
1. Kai- Paula/Kali’s mother. Free spirit. Single mother. Teller of stories.
2. Paula Vauss (aka Kali Jai). Kali Jai means: Mother goddess who brings hope and springtime. Lawyer. Badass. Just for kicks- I looked up what the name Paula means- it means “small”. Does that fit in with what we know about Paula so far?
3. Zach Birdwine: Private investigator. Paula’s ex-lover.
4. Julian Bouchard (aka Ganesha). Ganesha is the Hindu god with elephant head and means Lord of luck and fortune. Paula’s half-brother. Julian means: youthful, downy. Does that fit in with what we know about Julian so far?
Quotes:
She spoke with all the authority vested in her by her flea-market prayer beads and her lotus-flower tramp stamp.
Our post-sex pillow talk was about the Braves’ chances or the angles of a current case or where my bra had gone.
Did you have any quotes in chapters 1-4 of The Opposite of Everyone that you just loved?
Don’t forget- we have a Twitter chat with Joshilyn Jackson on March 18th!
Happy Reading and Bookishly Yours,
T @ Traveling With T
Traveling With T 
Sorry I missed this readalong. It sounds like a good book!
Still time to join in!
I’ll be working an author event in August where Joshilyn will be one of our author guests (in Minnesota.) I’m looking forward to meeting this great author in person!
You are going to LOVE her. She’s crazy funny. Just get prepared to laugh (a lot!)
She is one of my favorite authors!!!
She’s pretty great 🙂 Join in (if you can!)
Running behind!! Will try though
Girl, I’m running behind too! Hope to see you around in some internet chatter about book (and BTW- we need to plan another book date!)
Yes we do!!!
I’ll text/email you this week to see what your next few weeks look like about a get together 🙂 I’m about ready to go see some baseball games!
Whoop!!! Sounds like a plan!
Perfect! 🙂
Thought I would weigh in, as names are almost always important in my books. I use them two ways—to make a literary reference or for the meaning. Paula’s first name is a reference to the apostle Paul. If you aren’t a big Bible person you may not know him, but Catholic review describes him thusly, saying Saint Paul can “leave unfriendly impressions upon his readers, appearing pompous, cantankerous, superior, harsh and even a misunderstanding son of the presumptions of his culture.” Which might fit better with what you know of Paula so far.
I did have the meaning in mind when choosing her last name: Vauss. Paula says in chapter 1 that it is pronounced like the German name Voss; It means “Fox.”
I LOVE this explanation of the names. Thanks for chiming in!
Thanks for weighing in, Joshilyn! Wow, Paula and St. Paul have a lot in common. I’ll be curious to hear more about the original names Kai gave her children and your inspiration for her stories during our Twitter chat.
I do think Paula becomes a lot more likable in part two after you find out how tough she had to be to endure foster care. It’s sweet how Julian softens her up.
I’m so glad that Joshilyn weighed in on the names. I def want to hear more about the names in the chat! Agree with you about Paula- she does become softer- Julian does balance her, softens her!