It has been said there are three prototypical stories in the world: girl meets boy, the king is dead, and a stranger comes to town. Which of these ancient stories drives the narrative in Bay Lands?

Mari’s grandmother was a legendary healer, landowner, and “witch” among her fellow Californios. In what ways did her legacy – her life and her will – empower and burden Mari?

How did the death of her best friend, Becky, in childbirth influence Mari’s subsequent decisions? Given the high mortality rates for both mothers and children, do you imagine that women viewed sexual relations differently in the 1870s? How do you suppose this riskiness affected women’s view of their own roles in the social order?

How did the women who raised Mari on her ranch – her grandmother, her mother, and Paz – influence the decisions Mari makes once she becomes boss of the ranch?

Who really owns the land in Bay Lands?

Mari and Billy discuss the meaning of “family.” Who does Mari regard as her family at the beginning of the story? How has this view changed by the end?

Mari uses the image of the “fairy rings” growing around the stumps of giant redwoods to explain life and death to Becky’s boys. How does the idea of the ever-living roots of Sequoia sempervirens inform the concepts of cultural and personal survival in the novel? How do the botanical drawings enrich this story?

Most of us today take modern medicine for granted. In Mari’s world, antisepsis was still little known, and most births were midwifed. Most healing relied on ancient knowledge of medicinal plants. Are we better off today?

How do the land and industrial investments of the robber barons in Bay Lands conflict with Mari’s connection to the land?

What does Mari’s feeling of being “alien” and “uncomprehending” in Chinatown teach her about the way white Americans few her Californio heritage?

Lee Gwai Ha tells Mari that nobody wants intelligence in a woman. How do Mari’s decisions challenge societal norms for women of her era?

Compare the economic and societal impacts of new technologies in the 1870s – the Transcontinental Railroad, the telegraph, antisepsis, microbiotics – with more recent technological breakthroughs such as AI, cell phones, computers, antibiotics, etc.

How does the systemic corruption of the men in power in the Gilded Era of San Francisco compare with systemic inequities in our social order today?

 For Mari, saving her ranch means she must find a way to succeed economically. How do her challenges in achieving economic empowerment compare to those of women today? Have you read other novels that address the economic empowerment of women?