Speaking of Books
- Thread starter beth6395
- Start date
sancho
Cathlete
I belong to a book club. It's about 12 women from my neighborhood. It is very laid back. One month during the summer, we have a meeting to pick 11 books (that way you know ahead of time and can buy off a discount site or get it from the library). Everyone brings suggestions and then we vote. This meeting can get a bit rowdy. Then we assign each book to a particular month. We meet the last Monday of each month. We meet at a different persons house each month and a different person runs the "review". The reviews often include information about the author, more information about the setting or period of the book and then discussion questions for us all to comment on. We also go around the room and give the book a number rating. Jodi Picoult books always offer a lot of chances for discussion. We also have good discussion with historical fiction (where the events are based on fact, but the emotions and characters thoughts and motivations are speculated). We tend to discuss more about the book events and characters than the writing style of the author.
Twice we've gotten the author to call us during our meeting. One time we all disliked the book but pretended to like it while we had her on the phone (didn't want to be rude, she was taking the time to call us). It was really interesting to hear the author's perspective on the characters and to get our questions answered directly instead of guessing what the author was thinking.
For Halloween one year, we were supposed to dress up as characters from the book we read. I was so mad, the hostess and I were the only ones who dressed up. THIS is why I don't do dress up parties (this is the second time that has happened to me . . . NEVER AGAIN!)
I enjoy our bookclub. It's nice that everyone gets input on the books we read and running the meeting. Each person brings a different perspecitve.
Twice we've gotten the author to call us during our meeting. One time we all disliked the book but pretended to like it while we had her on the phone (didn't want to be rude, she was taking the time to call us). It was really interesting to hear the author's perspective on the characters and to get our questions answered directly instead of guessing what the author was thinking.
For Halloween one year, we were supposed to dress up as characters from the book we read. I was so mad, the hostess and I were the only ones who dressed up. THIS is why I don't do dress up parties (this is the second time that has happened to me . . . NEVER AGAIN!)
I enjoy our bookclub. It's nice that everyone gets input on the books we read and running the meeting. Each person brings a different perspecitve.
I've met some authors, but not very well-known ones. Lee Smith was great. It was at a book-reading and she was wonderful and warm and funny. I met Donald McCaig, who wrote Rhett Butler's People, the sequel to Gone with the Wind. My husband and I actually went to his farm in Bath County for a sheep dog trial he was having there. It was many years ago, and he had only written books about Border Collies back then: Nop's Trials and Eminent Dogs, Dangerous Men. He was wonderful! A great host and wonder shepherd! But, as I said, these are hardly celebrity writers by any means.
I started a book club in the early '90s that I loved! It was six or seven woman I knew, and the books we read were great, and, whether a member liked them or not, they started some really great discussions: Emma by Jane Austen; Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter; Their Eyes Were Watching God by Nora Zeal Hurston; We the Living by Ayn Rand; Paris Trout by Peter Dexter; Fair and Tender Ladies by Lee Smith. Everyone was pretty serious about keeping up with the reading. But, I went back to school to major in English, so there was no way I could be in a book club, and it dissolved.
I've tried to get a few others started, with little success. I started one at a Borders, and, being open to the public was a blessing and a curse! We did Their Eyes Were Watching God (yes, I read it again...so worth it!), and an advanced 11th grade English class from the Governor's School joined us, which was wonderful. Hearing what these young kids thought about this story and the character of Janie was such a different way of looking at an old favorite. We bring so much of our life's experience to our reading, you know? And these kids had such fresh ideas, even a little naive, but definitely worth hearing. But, the group wasn't as intimate and there was this woman in it who was a pain. She never read any of the books, but kept showing up and complaining about our choices; she'd make comments like, "We're reading ANOTHER African-American woman author??" Oh, yes, please, let's read more of the white male-dominated canon that we've had a steady diet of through all our years of school! A few of us reformed, and took it somewhere else without informing her, but there just wasn't the passion to keep it going.
The thing about a book club is that the book can be fantastic, but still not be a good book for discussion. For example, I started a book club where I worked once, and, since it was an architectural firm, I picked for our first book, "The Devil in the White City, Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America," by Erik Larson. Interesting, well-written book, but a dud for discussion.
Unfortunately, some of the modern writers I've come across lately seem as if they're writing just for a book club. Which is a shame. But, book clubs have gotten so popular over the years, I guess it makes sense.
Are you planning on starting a club?
I started a book club in the early '90s that I loved! It was six or seven woman I knew, and the books we read were great, and, whether a member liked them or not, they started some really great discussions: Emma by Jane Austen; Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter; Their Eyes Were Watching God by Nora Zeal Hurston; We the Living by Ayn Rand; Paris Trout by Peter Dexter; Fair and Tender Ladies by Lee Smith. Everyone was pretty serious about keeping up with the reading. But, I went back to school to major in English, so there was no way I could be in a book club, and it dissolved.
I've tried to get a few others started, with little success. I started one at a Borders, and, being open to the public was a blessing and a curse! We did Their Eyes Were Watching God (yes, I read it again...so worth it!), and an advanced 11th grade English class from the Governor's School joined us, which was wonderful. Hearing what these young kids thought about this story and the character of Janie was such a different way of looking at an old favorite. We bring so much of our life's experience to our reading, you know? And these kids had such fresh ideas, even a little naive, but definitely worth hearing. But, the group wasn't as intimate and there was this woman in it who was a pain. She never read any of the books, but kept showing up and complaining about our choices; she'd make comments like, "We're reading ANOTHER African-American woman author??" Oh, yes, please, let's read more of the white male-dominated canon that we've had a steady diet of through all our years of school! A few of us reformed, and took it somewhere else without informing her, but there just wasn't the passion to keep it going.
The thing about a book club is that the book can be fantastic, but still not be a good book for discussion. For example, I started a book club where I worked once, and, since it was an architectural firm, I picked for our first book, "The Devil in the White City, Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America," by Erik Larson. Interesting, well-written book, but a dud for discussion.
Unfortunately, some of the modern writers I've come across lately seem as if they're writing just for a book club. Which is a shame. But, book clubs have gotten so popular over the years, I guess it makes sense.
Are you planning on starting a club?
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buffettgirl
Cathlete
TeTe, I LOVE Lee Smith.
I belong to a book club that has been going for about 8 years now. We are a group of 7 women. We meet every 5 weeks at my house--because we have a gallery and they like sitting in the gallery..art & antiques from Asia We take turns in selecting anywhere from 4 to 6 books and presenting them to the rest of the group. Then we vote on them and if we really can't decide the presenter gets final say. Also the person who is presenting is responsible for bringing food. At first anyone could suggest anything but we found that some people weren't good salespeople and felt that their book was never or rarely chosen. Taking turns allows everyone to be sure of a chance to have their book selected. I love it as I have been introduced to authors I probably would never have read. Right now we are reading Alexander Dumas The Three Musketeers. Hard to get into but once there it is fabulous. Our meeting is tomorrow and I haven't finished it so I should get off here and read.