Bupper Club: The One Plus One by Jojo Moyes

This past Monday was my turn to host Bupper Club. I decided to take a risk and try out an author I had never read before. I did my research and Jojo Moyes came highly recommended! After reading many reviews she seemed like the perfect light-hearted, romance author. If you’ve been to the Target book section recently, you might have noticed that Jojo Moye’s books are everywhere! I read several of her synopsis’s and chose One Plus One. Think Sophie Kinsella meets Liane Moriarty. Clearly, our Bupper Club is really loving the British authors!

One Plus One centers around Jess and her somewhat unique family. Her husband bailed two years ago, she’s taken in her step-son, throw in Tanzie – her math genius daughter, and a really large dog and you’ve got yourself a chaotic life. Tanzie is offered a scholarship to a private school but Jess can hardly make ends meet, much less pay for school tuition. When Jess tries to take Tanzie to an Olympiad competition in hopes that the winnings could cover the cost of tuition she ends up on a life-changing road trip with Ed. You must read to find out more!

If you’re looking for a great book, don’t look any further!

[ the MEAL ]

Jess and her entire crew are road tripping to a math competition a good portion of the book. Jess is quite the penny pincher and won’t allow the family to eat out because it doesn’t fit into her budget. Instead, she stops at the grocery store and picks up a loaf of bread and tuna paste and the family has to make sandwiches for the entire trip. So of course, I made sandwiches! Don’t worry…no tuna paste was involved! I tried out several different recipes and ended up with a turkey bacon pesto sandwich, roast beef on a pretzel roll, and chicken salad croissants. Recipes coming soon!

And I had to represent math in some way- so I decided to order number cookies from this Etsy shop in honor of Tanzie! They tasted as good as they look!

[ discussion QUESTIONS for The One Plus One ]

I pulled all of my discussion questions from the One Plus One book summary in the back of the book. Read at your own risk! (Spoilers!)

1. Even though Marty himself is reluctant, Jess opens her home to Nicky, Marty’s son by “a woman he’d dated briefly in his teens” (p. 9), after his birth mother essentially abandons him. If you were Jess, would you be willing to raise Nicky as your own child?

2. Aileen Trent sells designer clothes at a cut rate to people who could never afford to buy them in the shops. Since Jess strongly suspects that they are stolen, is it wrong for her to buy a few items for Tanzie?

3. Jess takes the money that Ed drunkenly drops in the taxi and decides to use it to pay Tanzie’s registration fees. Would she have made that choice if he hadn’t behaved rudely to her while she was cleaning his house? Does his treatment of her excuse her decision?

4. Is it more difficult for the poor to lead law-abiding lives? To what extent is morality a matter of character or circumstance?

5. Ed’s parents couldn’t afford to send both Ed and his sister, Gemma, to public school, so they sent only him. Was it a fair decision? Is Gemma’s resentment justified?

6. Ed helps Nicky get revenge on Jason Fisher by showing him how to hack Jason’s Facebook page. Since Jason intimidated the witnesses to Nicky’s beating into not speaking out against him, is it a justifiable retaliation?

7. At what point in their journey does Ed begin to think less about himself and more about helping Tanzie and her family?

8. Does Ed’s ignorance mitigate the seriousness of his crime? Should he have spent time in prison, or do you feel he was given a fair sentence?

9. Jess’s mother “had been right about many things” (p. 166), but she never made her daughter feel loved. As a result, Jess makes it her priority as a mother to make Tanzie and Nicky feel loved. What is something that your parents did right? What is something they did wrong that you hope to rectify if you are or plan to become a parent yourself?

10. Do you support Jess’s decision to go into debt to pay for Norman’s hospital bills rather than put him to sleep?

11. Did Ed’s financial success go to his head, or was he self-centered before he was rich? What did he have to learn about himself in order to forgive Jess?

Did anyone read One Plus One? Tell me what you thought!