What roles do the current events of 2016—the presidential election and racial and political protests—play in the characters' lives? How does Annabelle’s job monitoring the news affect her mental health?

Read Borges’s short story “The Aleph” and discuss how it relates to the characters and themes of The Book of Form and Emptiness. What is the symbolism of Alice’s artist name being “the Aleph”?

The Book of Form and Emptiness is structurally complex, including different points of view, narrative styles, and direct address between the characters and text. What argument is Ruth Ozeki making about art, creation, and literature by employing such a complex narrative structure?