Jacqueline Winspear: The Ideal Book Club Read

Our focus on crime fiction continues this week with Jacqueline Winspear, the author of the Maisie Dobbs series, who ruminates on the nature of book clubs --- and how one particular encounter she had with several reading group members illustrates the power of story. Jacqueline's novels featuring Maisie Dobbs, a Psychologist and Investigator in post-World War I London, are Maisie Dobbs, Birds of a Feather, Pardonable Lies, Messenger of Truth and, most recently, An Incomplete Revenge.


Since my first novel, Maisie Dobbs, was published in 2003, I have spoken to many book clubs, large and small, established and new --- in fact, I was recently at an event where a group of women had just met and decided over lunch to organize a book club and planned to start their new venture with the Maisie Dobbs series.

In his book The Great Good Place, Ray Oldenburg says that every person needs a "third place." What's a third place? Well, home is the first place, work is the second place, and the third place is "where everyone knows your name." Society once had lots of third places --- pubs, community centers, evening classes, sports halls, etc. --- but as the individual became all-important, so we thought we could lose the third place because we had everything we needed at home, from a bar to a movie. In the past few years we've seen people struggling to build community, that thing we once had but didn't need to think about. As I've traveled across the country on book tours and speaking engagements, I have come to see the book club as a great third place, even if the location is a different house each month.

It would seem that the ideal book club read is one that resonates on different levels, a book that inspires personal sharing of experiences, a dialogue about current events, or spirited conversation on an issue that moves people. Since people first began connecting through the myths and legends that still enchant us today, we have reached out to each other with our stories. A book club is a latter-day version of our ancestors around the crackling camp fire. As we discuss the characters, the plot, the language, the pace and our response to a chosen book, we celebrate our individuality, our diversity and the reflection of ourselves we see in each other.

A couple of years ago I was signing copies following a bookstore presentation on my series of novels, when I noticed three women waiting on the sidelines for everyone to leave. It was clear they wanted to talk to me alone. After the audience had left, I waved them over and we sat down around the table together and they unfolded their story. The women belonged to a local book club and did not know each other well when the group was formed. Each month they would meet in the house of one neighbor or another, and though there might be a little back and forth personal talk over a glass of wine, they would soon get down to talking about their chosen book of the month.

They wanted to tell me about the Maisie Dobbs discussion. As readers will know, a significant part of the main character's history is her experience as a nurse in the Great War, on the battlefields of northern France in 1916. As the discussion progressed, one of the women told the group that the book had impacted her deeply because she had been a nurse in Vietnam. She had never talked about what she had seen and experienced, and had never acknowledged the impact of wartime service on her life. Another woman began speaking, sharing the same experience, then another said, "I was also a nurse in Vietnam..." As the women reached out to each other, so they were held by the other members of their book club. Coming to that "third place" had changed their lives.

That is the power of story, and it also shows the possibility for connection within a book group, and the catalyst for deeper conversation inspired by a love of literature.

It bears saying that a mystery lends itself to book club discussion, not least because some of the best literary fiction today is mystery fiction. In the storytelling tradition, a mystery represents the archetypal journey through chaos to resolution --- or not, as the case may be. With that as a framework and a guide, a mystery is the perfect vehicle for literary insight into the experience of ordinary people in extraordinary times or situations, into the social challenges of our day, and into the fragile human condition itself. The mystery novel offers another lens through which to view history, and can help us make sense of the present --- a rich dish to serve along with that book club beverage of choice!

---Jacqueline Winspear

Crime Fiction Week: Craig Johnson

Today we venture into new territory with mystery scribe and guest blogger Craig Johnson, who has crafted a humorous story about a book club on the range. "It's fiction," says Craig, "but very well could have happened in my neighborhood. I live in UCross Wyoming, pop. 25."

Craig is the author of four books in Viking/Penguin's Walt Longmire mystery series about a straight-shooting Wyoming sheriff: The Cold Dish, Death Without Company, Kindness Goes Unpunished and the forthcoming Another Man's Moccasins (on sale May 29).


The Tractor was Better than the Movie

The first meeting of the Bighorn Mountain/Powder River Book Club didn't start very well. The first selection made by the nominating committee, Maintenance and Care of the Ford 8N Tractor: circa 1948, wasn't being as well-received as I'd hoped.

"I didn't like the ending."

I glanced at one of my fellow ranchers in the circle of folding chairs and asked, "What'd you not like about it, Mike?"

He thought about spitting a stream of tobacco juice onto the hardwood floor of the branch library but swallowed instead. "I thought it kinda left ya hangin'."

"In what way?"

He thought. "Everybody knows the number one problem with the 8N is the way it tends to rollover and pull a Merle."

A Merle is the historic, if insensitive, reference to famed bluegrass musician Doc Watson's son, who perished in just such an action with his own vintage tractor. "Yep, but do you think that's the real point the author is trying to make?"

Mike nodded but had his mouth full so another rancher, Bob Belus, from out on Jim Creek Hill joined in. "Yer dern right it is. We're dealing with big issues here, life, death and a periodic oil change --- and they're all intertwined." He nodded wisely, and the other cowboys bobbed their heads in unison, some going so far as to pull a Will.

A Will is the ubiquitous pushing back of your hat and smiling with sage-like, yet boyishly charming understanding of complex issues like famed humorist, Will Rogers. "Well, I can see your point but what about the pacing and the characters?"

Tom Koltiska, who is from Cat Creek, felt obliged to weigh in and thumbed the worn, red cover of the now out-of-print manual. "They spent way too much time on the hydraulic system, it's just a simple three-point deal and I don't see any reason why..."

Bob wasn't quite through, though, and interrupted. "I ran one of those three bottom plows on an 8N once, and you gotta make sure the frame/beam is straight or else it won't plow the same way in both directions. You have to make sure that all the plow shares set flat on the ground."

I thought I'd better try and get a hold of the book club meeting before we spun completely out of control and pulled a... Well, you get my meaning. "Do you think there was a kind of symbolic quality to the hydraulic system, in a metaphorical sense?"

The group looked at me, Mike once again their speaker. "No. Any damn fool knows that if you were looking for an intrinsic, metaphoric symbol for the 8N tractor or an existential critique of the human condition it'd be the Marvel-Schebler gravity-fed, down-draft carburetor."

They all nodded in agreement.

In way of apologia I did a Will. They were, of course, correct.

---Craig Johnson

Crime Fiction: A Bookseller's Perspective

Murder and mayhem is the theme this week on the ReadingGroupGuides.com blog, to tie in with Thursday's annual Edgar Awards sponsored by Mystery Writers of America (MWA). Starting us off today is Joanne Sinchuk, the owner of Murder on the Beach Mystery Bookstore in Delray Beach, Florida, who talks about the three mystery-themed book clubs she facilitates. Guest blogging the rest of the week will be four mystery and thriller authors. We'll keep you in suspense about who they are...


ReadingGroupGuides.com: How many mystery book clubs do you host at your store?
Joanne Sinchuk: Two. One meets the third Wednesday of the month at 6:30 pm, and the other meets the third Sunday of the month at 3:00 pm.

RGG.com: Are the book clubs at your store focused on a specific theme or type of book?
JS: One reads books chosen by the group members themselves. The other is reading the books listed in 100 Favorite Mysteries of the 20th Century, selected by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association and published by Crum Creek Press.

RGG.com: About how many people participate in each discussion at the store?
JS: Anywhere from 6 to 20 depending on the time of year.

RGG.com: Beyond the official store club do you also work with other book clubs?
JS: We also lead a book club at the West Palm Beach Library.

RGG.com: Do you use discussion guides?
JS: Whenever possible. We use ReadingGroupGuides.com whenever we can.

RGG.com: Have authors ever participated in the discussions, either by phone or in person?
JS: Both, along with other guest speakers. One group is reading The Maltese Falcon next month because it is Broward County's one book/one read choice, and Tara Zimmerman from the Florida Center for the Book will be the guest speaker in person to discuss why it was chosen.

The West Palm Beach Library book group is reading the Top 2007 Mysteries as published by mystery reviewer Oline Cogdill of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, and Oline has graciously consented to speak to the group in person on why she chose some of the books.

We have had many local authors speaking in person, and have had many others on speaker phone to address the groups.

RGG.com: Why does crime fiction make for great discussions?
JS: Because they are so plot intensive, most of our discussions revolve around plot. Also motive: We all sense within ourselves the potential for crime motivation.

RGG.com: What books have inspired the most interesting conversations?
JS: The Virgin of Small Plains, A Place of Execution, The Thirteenth Tale, Murder in the Marais, What the Dead Know, Jar City, Blood Hollow, and To Kill a Mockingbird.

When Reading Selections Go Awry

Regular contributor Jamie Layton shares some of the highs and lows of her reading group's selections...and why she might consider breaking some book club rules.


I'm in a quandary. I started and facilitate a reading group that has been meeting at our store for more than five years. Some members have attended since our first meeting in November '02 and some have joined within the last few months, but we've been going strong with an average turn-out of eight interesting, intelligent and diverse women who like to read. Selections over the years have run from Salinger's short stories to Barbara Kingsolver's essays; Steinbeck's classics to Eggers' modern fiction, House of Sand and Fog (our first book) to Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits (our most recent book). We've discovered a strong proclivity for historical fiction and short stories, and almost every meeting includes at least one member stating, "I didn't vote for this book, but I'm glad I read it!"

Every six months I spend days putting together a list of potential titles from which to choose our next books. I include at least twelve titles from a wide variety of genres utilizing all the tools that I as a bookseller have access to, including suggestions from the group. Members are emailed a brief summary of each book (including any important reviews or awards) that they may look over at their leisure. At the next meeting, each woman votes for the six books she would most like to read from the proffered list; I tally the votes and voila! The six top vote getters comprise our next reading list.

Sometimes we accidentally end up with a list in which a majority of the titles touch on the same subject, like the spring we read Confederates in the Attic and March and The Known World. How to predict that the Civil War titles which only comprised a quarter of the original list would get picked and end up being half of the final list! Then there are the winters when the entire group starts griping because "we always read sad books! Why don't we ever read happy books?" My stock answer to this complaint is that "there is very little to discuss in a happy book." (Yes, I know, there are always exceptions. But really, have you ever tried to fill two hours by discussing a happy-happy-joy-joy book? Let me know.)

Right now we are in the middle of our current list. And after years of picking very few duds, we've really managed to stick it to ourselves this time. I have to say in all fairness that the year leading up to this list was pretty darn good and hard to top. We devoured Julia Child's My Life in France, swooned at The Awakening & Other Stories (Kate Chopin), dove into The Highest Tide, sprung for A Thousand Splendid Suns in hardcover and finished the year with a lively January discussion of Whistling in the Dark, in which we were joined via telephone by author Lesley Kagen. Maybe we unintentionally set ourselves up. All I know is that so far our current list sucks.

We started off in February reading a contemporary classic set in Latin America (and recently made into a movie) that, while we all agreed the writing was exquisite, we did not care for at all. Adding insult to injury, it was a very long, time consuming book. Next up was a novella (or was it short stories?) that totally missed the mark in terms of character development, depth of plot, etc. Someone mentioned that maybe a second or third reading would somehow bring it all together, but I doubt anyone is going to devote any more precious book time to this one. Now we are into dud number three --- an aid worker's account of two years spent in an Asian country. The locale is totally foreign to me so that is somewhat interesting, but the writing is very tedious, almost completely narrative and I am very, very disappointed.

I am now working under the superstition that the next three books left to read will probably follow in the footsteps of their list mates. What should I do? Risk losing new members whose only experience with our reading group is these three books? Change our list, which I never, ever do as a rule but which might appease everyone? Cross my fingers and toes and tell myself we couldn't possibly have picked six blah books in a row? I really don't know what I'll end up doing. but I do know that I only have two days left to figure it out and read the aid worker's book because another thing I almost never, ever do is not finish a book. Who said rules aren't made to be broken?

---Jamie Layton

Dual Book Club Gatherings

Four years ago guest blogger Liz Engl's book club met with another group to compare notes, and here she tells us how their December get-together became an annual tradition...and why.


Living on an island in the middle of the Niagara River in Western New York, midway between Buffalo and Niagara Falls, provides residents with a unique, somewhat secluded, environment --- the perfect spot for book clubs to thrive.

The one I belong to --- an offshoot of a monthly luncheon group of women new to the Island --- has flourished for more than 15 years. Little did I know when I agreed to host the first meeting what I was signing up for. Years later I'm still preparing the book notes, assigning the hostesses, sending out meeting notices and reminders, and forwarding dozens of internet newsletters from publishers, bookstores and other book-related sites to members weekly.

One of the members of our book club met a friend in one of the other island groups --- a more homogenous tribe of moms with school-age children --- who reported their group had intermittent problems with attendance and keeping on topic. After comparing notes, they agreed improvements might follow a joint meeting with our group to compare how we handle our get-togethers. I was thrilled to have an opportunity to discover how the other group handled these same tasks.

The other group, who had only been meeting for a few years, deferred to ours to settle the arrangements. We were fortunate to have a member in our group with a home large enough to accommodate both groups comfortably for our joint meeting, and she volunteered to be the hostess. The title we chose, Nancy Reisman's The First Desire, is set in our area so it would be of interest to both groups. Because we provided the location and the book, the other group graciously agreed to bring the refreshments.

We chose the month of December to hold the meeting. December had always been a problem month for attendance. Everyone was getting ready for the holidays and never seemed to get around to reading the book we had chosen. But the thought of getting together with new people and hearing new perspectives about a book got everyone excited, and they immediately planned to attend.

Almost more important than our discussion about that night's title was the chance to share the characteristics of each group: How often do you meet? Who hosts the meetings? Do you serve refreshments? Do you read different genres? Who chooses your titles? Do you choose books several months ahead of schedule? Do you have a moderator? Do you use prepared notes? If so, does someone in the group compose them or do you use notes available on the Internet? How do you keep your group on topic? What are the best books you have read in the past year? What are the worst?

Although we shared similarities (we both meet monthly, rotate hostesses, generally read fiction and serve appetizers and desserts), there were some differences. Having a moderator (or facilitator) was one of them. Prepared, printed book notes for each member was another (we used both; they used neither). Is that what made our older group more successful? The members of my group thought so. But we all could agree that the choice of a good book was crucial. It could make or break a meeting. And a long string of bad choices could endanger the interest of all group members.

The joint meeting was a great success. We all enjoyed discussing the book and the area we call home. We agreed it should become an annual event.

Since that first December meeting four years ago, we have kept our pledge and met every year with the same enthusiasm and camaraderie that we experienced at our first meeting. This year we decided to branch out to an off-Island locale for a more festive setting for our meeting. We were able to find a restaurant that was willing to host just our group for the evening. During our "socializing" time, we compared book lists of the past year to get ideas for the coming one. We noted how the other group had begun doing some things "our" way, and we had also put some of their advice to use.

The "secretary" of the other group now keeps in touch with me by e-mail. Together we helped our Island librarian plan a meeting of all Island book groups to discuss To Kill a Mockingbird in conjunction with the NEA's Big Read in February. Despite a snow storm, that was a success as well. All the groups that participated have agreed to meet at the Library again in October for the next Big Read event. Joint meetings are catching on!


---Liz Engl

Discussion Books Beyond the Bestsellers

Some novels like The Kite Runner and Middlesex have become book club phenomenons because of the rich and varied material they provide for discussions, but ReadingGroupGuides.com contributor Esther Bushell shines the spotlight on some lesser-known titles that can make for conversations that are just as compelling.


The hue and cry from book groups is consistent: isn't there another Middlesex
out there for us to discuss? My answer is that we're waiting for Jeffrey Eugenides' new book, but then I always remind them about books that no one ever expected to be hits and that they really loved! It's not just Khaled Hosseini or Lisa See whose provide fodder for lively discussions; there are some fine pieces of literature, some riveting stories, and some just plain terrific novels that have also captivated my book groups.

Imagining Argentina, written in 1987 by Lawrence Thornton, is the first in a trilogy that takes place in Buenos Aires in 1977, when women, wearing white scarves, began walking in the Plaza de Mayo to protest the "terrors of the disappeared." Between 1976 and 1983, there were 8,900 cases of people picked up and never heard from again. The terror that pervaded Argentina at the time was psychological as well as physical, for there were no trials, no charges, and no records of the missing. The title refers to the protagonist who has the gift of imagination; he comes to believe that his "gift" is just another tool to be used to keep hope alive. This novel offers both the embodiment of and a manifesto for the memorializing power of literature and the moral force of the imagination transcribed. It reminds us that bearing witness matters because it rights the balance of power.

Do not overlook Abide with Me, Elizabeth Strout's second novel and one that generated discussions about its many layers. Strout has the gift of omniscient narration, and the novel takes place in a small Maine town where all of the residents have a secret, including the Rev. Tyler Caskey, the protagonist. When Tyler's young wife dies of cancer, he is left with two very young daughters and a town full of casserole ladies. He is also left with a faltering sense of self and an emerging sense of inadequacy at the same time that the townspeople converge to become a Greek chorus, self-righteous and hypocritical. If you like this, and I know you will, look for Strout's new novel, Olive Kitteridge, that's just been published. It's another gift for book groups.

William Trevor is no stranger to readers of literary fiction because he's always being referred to as a modern Chekhov, aware of the emotional undercurrents of his characters' lives. The Story of Lucy Gault can be read as an allegory, for Lucy and Ireland are one and the same: the place defines the characters' actions and lives. The superb intrusion of the past and the present, the paradox between our inner and outer lives, shows us how Lucy, like Ireland, is permanently maimed. This is also an elegy for a vanished world, and we in post-9/11 America can relate to this, for it's one of the illnesses of our time. Crime and punishment; forgiveness, redemption, and salvation; silences and secrets; and blame are areas to discuss and explore. Trevor's writing is spare, economical, and terse; the tension of waiting in this novel is almost unbearable.

Julie Chase, a long-time friend who works at Just Books, Too, an independent bookstore in Old Greenwich, Connecticut, recommended Old Filth by Jane Gardham. (Julie's recs never fail.) Old Filth is the major character; his name is an acronym for Failed in London, Try Hong Kong. Did you know about Raj orphans? We didn't, and Rudyard Kipling was a Raj orphan as was Filth. Gardham is concerned here with the child's or adolescent's eye-view and the relationship between the interior life, built up from buried memories and fantasy, and the public faces we adopt to get through our everyday lives. Reading this book reminded us all of rubbernecking, for Gardham is a master of observation. The book is built anecdote upon anecdote, with descriptions of Hong Kong that are right on. Old Filth reminded me of Lear --- all briskness on the surface and all turbulence underneath. I suspect that if you read and discuss this novel, you'll continue to explore Gardhams' other books.

Don't hesitate to let me know what you think of these recommendations --- or if you need more recommendations --- and of course, I'm also eager to hear what your book group loved.

---Esther Bushell

Do the Books You Enjoy Reading the Most Make for the Best Discussion?

Anita Diamant's The Red Tent has long been a reading group favorite. BookClubGirl.com's Jennifer Hart shares why, years after reading it, she still vividly recalls her group's discussion of the Biblical-themed novel.

I've found out something in my book group --- the books I often most enjoy reading don't necessarily engender the greatest discussion. And books that on an initial reading I might not love can sometimes generate the most enlightening and engaging discussions. The biggest example of this phenomenon as I've experienced it was reading Anita Diamant's The Red Tent.

Don't get me wrong --- I enjoyed reading the book and learning about the history of Dinah and her story as told by Diamant. But as I was reading it, I remember thinking, I'm not sure if we'll have enough to talk about here. How wrong I was. Our group quickly got into talking about the rites of passage that young women in that time experienced. While obviously the lives of women are better now, many of us mourned that in our time (excepting bat mitzvahs and quincineras) there really isn't a universal cultural celebration of a girl's passage into adulthood. (I don't count the overly commercialized "sweet sixteen").

Diamant admits that what went on in the red tent is her invention, and while we definitely balked at the idea of being removed from the community on a monthly basis, we found ourselves imagining the luxury that this could afford and we appreciated the time that women were allotted to be on their own just in the company of other women. This led to discussing our roles as daughters and our (at that time) eventual roles as mothers of daughters and how we might approach celebrating our own daughters' growing up, as opposed to what we may have experienced.

I have never forgotten that discussion, though it took place probably more than ten years ago, and I've applied things we discussed that night in my relationship with my daughters. It's made me recommend The Red Tent over and over again --- something I would not have done if I'd just read the book on my own. And isn't that what book groups are meant to do in the first place --- help us gain a greater understanding and appreciation of the books we read and by extension, ourselves?

---Jennifer Hart

More Library Offerings

National Library Week came to a close on April 19th, but as Barbara A. Genco, one of our guest bloggers, pointed out, libraries should be celebrated year round --- and we'll be hearing from librarians on a regular basis. In this post, Kathryn Andrews, a librarian from Warrenton, Virginia, shares what some of the area's library book clubs are reading --- and how being close to the U.S. capital plays a part in inspiring lively discussions. She also shares tips about a service offered on some library websites: saving book lists. And if you're looking for a book club to join, check with your local library. As Kathryn illustrates, they sometimes host a diverse array of groups.


Fauquier County Public Library is a three-branch system in a county about 45 miles outside Washington, D.C. We have many patrons who commute to the District daily for work, and so our CDs and audiobooks are always at least 30% off the shelf/checked out at any given time. People say they are "lifesavers" when it comes to spending several hours on the highway in traffic, moving or not.

We have many avid readers who keep track of their reads in loose-leaf notebooks, on index cards in a file box, and in journals. I've even seen computer printouts with checklists brought to the desk to place holds on an author's other books. Our library website now has a "reading history" button, so that with each checkout, a patron can opt to keep his or her list online. They can go back at any time to refer or to delete, as they wish.

I used to write my titles and authors on the calendar and try to "best" myself by reading more books each year. Now I use the journal method, as I can write a four of five line synopsis. That's especially helpful when friends and family (and dentists and others) ask for a recommendation. And you can always jot down the author's other books if you want to make a future reading list.

We have several book clubs that meet at our library branches. Last month the Mystery Book Club (all women and one man) discussed The Savage Garden by Mark Mills, and this month the group's selection was Evelyn David's debut novel Murder Off the Books. Our two Great Books clubs (one meets during the day and the other in the evening) are small but evenly matched in gender, and members select classical reads --- such as On Liberty by John Stuart Mill and The Drum Major Instinct by Martin Luther King Jr. --- and have powerful and deep discussions. Very stimulating!

The other groups are more general and are composed primarily of women. They read a lot of contemporary fiction but do like to vary it up with some classics and non-fiction, such as the occasional political book-of-choice. These are probably the liveliest discussions, as we are so close to the White House and seat of the U.S. government. Fauquier County itself is rich with history of the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. We have a great genealogy room that's visited by people from across the United States and Canada searching for their ancestors, immigration info, plantation records, etc. It's quite interesting, even before you get to the stack on the ghost sightings and various haunted buildings in the area. One book club has even read some local history titles and then done walking tours of the small towns and villages in the area.

Our knitting/stitching groups get together once a month at the branches to knit and gab about their projects, latest books read, trade patterns, etc. It's a very diverse county --- all peoples, all levels, many who are home schooled, and the library is well-used. Our website is chockfull of information and useful for all age levels.

When I left nursing after thirty-five years, I knew I wanted to get back to books and my passion for reading in some form. I feel I get to work in the "candy store" now. A library is such a real treasure that I hope the physical book never becomes obsolete. There is something about seeing, picking up and reading the flyleaf of a new book that can't ever be duplicated.

---Kathryn Andrews

National Library Week: Themed Discussions

In celebration of National Library Week (April 13-19), we've invited librarians to share their insights about book clubs. Today's guest blogger is Polly Thompson Wolf, who wears many hats at the Culver Union-Township Public Library in Culver, Indiana, including working with the library's book club, Hooked on Books. Here she shares some ideas for centering reading group discussions on an author or theme rather than a single title.


Two years ago, Hooked on Books was born. Fifteen people decided the first three titles: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, The Wal-Mart Effect: How the World's Most Powerful Company Really Works--and How It's Transforming the American Economy by Charles Fishman and Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee.

The first month was successful, but by the second month I had begun to meddle. I couldn't fathom how anyone could really have that much to say about Wal-Mart. You either liked them or didn't, and once you knew their floor plan and how they positioned their merchandise, well, it wasn't going to fill up 90 minutes. I remembered my insurance agent had been the man in charge of putting in the Wal-Mart in our neighboring community, and I invited him to the meeting. He told his story: his climb through the ranks of Wal-Mart and how he eventually put his keys on the desk and walked out. He had been squeezed like a sponge. It made for a good discussion and filled more than 90 minutes.

The third month, I added the novel Beasts of No Nation by Uzodinma Iweala along with Coetzee's Disgrace and called the meeting "Africa, Africa." This was the beginning of using themes in our book club. Even though the stories were very different, the discussion had real muscle to it. We lost a member of the group with "Africa, Africa," though. He simply didn't want to be part of a group that read about child rape in Africa.

I then became panicky because my selections for the next month (with adult themes) were Walter Mosley's mysteries Little Scarlet and Devil in a Blue Dress. I worried all month that no one would show and that would be the end of the book club. Not so. Mosley mysteries rule. The group showed up and assured me they could handle adult themes. That was the beginning of authors as a theme.

When the group decided to read Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, I enhanced the theme of "Circus, Circus" by adding a book of short stories, The Circus in Winter by Cathy Day. Day's family had been part of the circus that wintered in Peru, Indiana, and I called the old winter home and talked to a 97-year-old lady who used to be a trapeze artist and who had also trained elephants in her youth. While I didn't get her as a speaker, I did get two gentlemen from Peru's Circus Museum to tell the winter circus story and show rare footage from that era.

The "Circus, Circus" theme was easy and everything fell into place, but what about a good book with an uncertain appeal? One month I chose The Egg and I, Betty MacDonald's memoir about her adventures on a chicken farm in Washington State. It appealed to me because my husband and I have a small three-acre hobby farm and raise chickens, and when we were first married we lived in the Pacific Northwest. I could identify with MacDonald's humorous story, but I wasn't sure the book would appeal to the males in our group and so I paired it with Nick Hornby's High Fidelity. I called the meeting "That was Then, This is Now," comparing rural Pacific Northwest life in the 1940s and '50s to London in the 1990s, traditional values and wholesale shallowness. Our gentlemen readers really didn't care much for Rob, High Fidelity's antihero, but he was supported and understood by the women in our group. Conversely, one gentleman thought MacDonald's description of the Pacific forests was just flat good. He really liked it. Though you can't predict who will like what, you can broaden the appeal.

I had read A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka and wanted to include the title for a future book club read. After friendly ribbing by my co-worker on the appeal of Ukrainian tractors, I decided to pair this bittersweet, dark comedy with a nonfiction title called Borderland: A Journey through the History of the Ukraine by Anna Reid. The theme was "Borders and Boarders." To understand Lewycka's book, you need to know the Ukraine, and the appeal was broadened with the addition of Borderland to the discussion.

Authors we've read have included Jack London, Cormac McCarthy and, as mentioned previously, Walter Mosley. I selected one title for discussion and then, for the second book, opened it to reader's choice. The core read for Jack London was one of his short story collections, When God Laughs, and for McCarthy, it was Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West, and Mosley's was Little Scarlet.

Our discussion focuses on the core book, but people who have read other titles often share interesting insights and help flesh out identified problems. Can you imagine moderating a group on Cormac McCarthy, a relatively unknown writer to our group, when everyone has read a different title? A few people had read Blood Meridian and didn't like the violence; another read The Road, another started The Border Trilogy (All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing, Cities of the Plain) and someone else read one of his earlier plays. Luckily, I had read them all. They went for his psychic jugular, and I think that was fair.

Jack London was different. I had purchased London's biography on DVD, and we used half of the discussion time watching it and learning about London's fascinating life. The men loved the short stories and wanted to talk about each one, which was not surprising as they have masculine themes. The group identified a purity of thought, reminiscent of "older" authors and a different time.

In retrospect from a reader's advisory perspective, we've adapted our book club's reading list to accommodate the way members like to read. Whether they prefer a fast-paced book or one with detail, something that's warm and fuzzy or just plain funny, offering choices through themes and authors has worked for our group. I hope it does for yours.

---Polly Thompson Wolf

National Library Week: Discussing a Debut Novel

In celebration of National Library Week (April 13-19), we've invited librarians to share their insights about book clubs. In this post, Kaite Mediatore Stover, head of Reader Services at the Kansas City Public Library in Kansas City, Missouri, and Booklist's "She Reads" columnist, recommends a title that is sure to inspire a lively book club discussion --- and might even lead to rediscovering some of literature's classic heroines.


Anyone interested in messing with the heads of their book group members should suggest The Heroines by Eileen Favorite.

This fanciful debut novel is full of literary humor poked liberally at the dramatic, tragic, soap-operatic heroines of the classics.

Budding teenager Penny Entwhistle is helping her mother, Anne-Marie, operate a home-based bed-and-breakfast business in a small Illinois town in 1974. The guests are typical tourists, but every once in a while a special guest stumbles out of the woods or the rain and onto the Entwhistle doorstep. It is a heroine from classic literature seeking temporary respite from her tumultuous story.

Penny's mother dutifully administers warmth and comfort, but no advice, to the heroines. For the most part, Penny doesn't mind the demanding, whiny heroines, until the arrival of the most troublesome heroine of all: Deirdre of the Sorrows.

Deirdre is proving to be quite a handful. She is monopolizing all of Anne-Marie's time and attention and has taken up residence in Penny's bedroom. In fury, Penny runs to the forbidden woods behind her home and comes face to face with a Hero --- or is he a Villain --- determined to steal Deirdre back to their story.

Penny's report of King Conor's presence in the woods behind the bed-and-breakfast meets with a horrified reaction from her mother and well-meaning protection in the form of a psychiatric ward for hysterical and wayward girls. Now Penny must rely on her own heroic qualities to escape the hospital and summon her own Hero to her rescue.

Book groups can have a lot of fun with this title. Bring in copies of Madame Bovary, Gone with the Wind, Franny and Zooey, The Scarlet Letter and Wuthering Heights for members to peruse when the heroines make their appearance. Or offer a quick literary quiz to members about the demise of all the visiting heroines. Consider discussing the heroic qualities of Penny, Anne-Marie and Gretta, in comparison to the escaped heroines. Don't forget to ask what happens when well meaning individuals attempt to meddle in the pre-determined fates of others.

---Kaite Mediatore Stover

National Library Week: A Twist on a Yearly List

In celebration of National Library Week (April 13-19), we've invited librarians to share their insights about book clubs. Today, Robin Beerbower, a Library Associate and Readers' Advisor at the Salem Public Library in Salem, Oregon, tells us about her take on an annual tradition.


Librarians love lists. Everyone knows it. And librarians love books. So, of course, they love book lists best of all.

And that means it's an annual bonanza when a new year begins and publications from every corner of the literary world start sprouting lists of the best books of the previous year. I eagerly await these lists because they provide the foundation for a special annual project: a Best Books list that I create for library patrons and lively Best Books presentations that I give to library book club members every February and March.

I've been compiling the annual list for 12 years, but my list has a twist. Instead of just relying on the critics and editorial lists, I want to also include the passions of "real people." So, I query the entire library staff (including volunteers), library book group members, colleagues, and friends for their favorite books of the year.

The recommendations are compiled into a "Staff and Patrons Favorites" of 30-35 books that include fiction, genre fiction, and nonfiction. Since this list is subjective (one never knows what unexpected title will appear --- 2007 favorites included Sharyn McCrumb's NASCAR-themed novel Once Around the Track and the children's book Edward's Eyes by Patricia MacLachlan), I let the critics have a say as well. After combing all the best lists I can find -- including Booklist, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, The New York Times Book Review, Bookreporter.com and local newspapers --- I whittle the final selections down to 30-35 titles of "Critics' Choices."

Once the list is completed, we turn it into a booklet for easy distribution. Then I give presentations that highlight the selections. These are fast-paced events; I show titles and book covers on a PowerPoint presentation and give a brief thumbnail sketch of each book on the list (all 70 plus of them!). I fire off brief plot descriptions, appeal factors (librarian talk for what people enjoy about a book) and/or author information, incorporating quotes from "the real people," all within 90 minutes.

We promote the program to book groups looking for ideas and enthusiastic readers looking for new mind food. We love the response; the presentations draw the highest attendances for a library staff-generated program (who says people aren't interested in reading?). The program is also presented at a local retirement facility, where a large audience is always guaranteed. The printed list is available to library patrons throughout the year.

It's a great project that continues to gather steam. I know people are paying attention because I often see patrons in the stacks referring to bedraggled copies of the list, and they start asking about the new list early each year --- much in the same way librarians look forward to those "best" lists from across the country.

---Robin Beerbower

National Library Week: Join the Circle of Knowledge at Your Library

In celebration of National Library Week (April 13-19), we've invited librarians to share their insights about book clubs. We owe a big thank you to ReadingGroupGuides.com contributor Nora Rawlinson of EarlyWord.com, who introduced us to this week's guest bloggers. Today, Barbara A. Genco, Director of Collection Development at the Brooklyn Public Library, in Brooklyn, New York, shares reasons why libraries deserve to be celebrated year-round.


Libraries across the country are celebrating the many and varied ways we promote reading and support our local reading groups --- every week of the year! Reading groups are a genuine circle of knowledge, pleasure, growth and satisfaction for all who love them. And where better to enhance your reading group experiences than at your local public library. We can help you find a group to join, research a book or author, or learn about what others are reading. We host author talks year-round and can serve as a happy opportunity for reading group outings.

Happily, reading groups are becoming more and more central to the vitality of the nation's public libraries. At my own Brooklyn (NY) Public Library our adult services librarians have been trained in reading group facilitation, and more and more reading groups are springing up every month. To celebrate our reading groups we have also been adding more and more author talks to our crowded calendars. Just this past Saturday at our wildly successful "Brooklyn Writers for Brooklyn Readers" program an overflow crowd heard one of Park Slope-Brooklyn's favorite scribes, Paul Auster, who read from his forthcoming book Man in the Dark (Henry Holt, September 2008).

Like other libraries across the country we have also added literally thousands of copies of titles that have been most in demand by our countless readers groups. We have even ventured in to the world of "virtual" reading groups! We know that for some busy folks the reading group routine is sometimes interrupted by business travel, school or family responsibilities. To help satisfy that need we have launched our own online reading group, Brooklyn Book Talk. We like to think that our online service allows busy book lovers to stay connected with a wider virtual reading group community. We also help reading group "wannabes" by linking to a list of our "face to face" discussions.

Right now our librarians are highlighting Jane Eyre in our online reading group, but our staff have recently blogged about books as diverse as Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God and Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Chronicle of a Death Foretold. The information gathered at the site can also act as a real support for reading groups that might want to use background info or ideas for discussion in their own home-based groups. The great news is that you don't have to live in Brooklyn, New York City, New York State or even the United States, to be part of the conversation at our Brooklyn Book Talk site.

Our library's devotion to nurturing the countless reading groups in the Brooklyn community is not limited to the traditional school-year model. Staff is hard at work updating our very own www.summerreading.org for an exciting re-launch in early June. We have developed interactive ways for library readers of all ages to create their own online reading logs, post reviews of the books they enjoyed and learn about what others are reading. The levels of participation have grown geometrically --- especially among our adults who often miss the face-to-face interactions with fellow book lovers when family vacation schedules can keep their groups from their regular meetings.

Let's face it. For those of us who truly love reading for pleasure and community there can never be "enough" books or too many ways to connect with other book lovers. Hungry for more? Pay a visit to your local library this National Library Week! We're waiting to welcome you into a widening circle of knowledge --- and the joy and pleasure of reading groups.

---Barbara A. Genco

National Library Week: Unpredictable Book Clubs

In celebration of National Library Week (April 13-19), we've invited librarians to guest blog over the next five days. ReadingGroupGuides.com contributor Nora Rawlinson of EarlyWord.com introduced us to these marvelous librarians, who will be sharing a wealth of insights and reading suggestions. Leading off is Misha Stone, a librarian and book club facilitator at the Seattle Public Library in Seattle, Washington.


One of my favorite things about my job is my book group. As a Fiction Librarian, I get to talk with readers all day about what they like to read. That I get paid to do this is one of the most phenomenal things ever. I really love the work that I do, connecting readers with books, connecting with them over stories and the power they have to teach and entertain us. That I get paid to engage others in literary discussion --- it just doesn't get any better than that.

Like many public librarians, I was an English literature major. But once I left the cozy, intellectual environs of my small Vermont college, I realized that in the "real world" people don't get to sit around all day talking about the themes of Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom!. It doesn't take a college graduate too long to realize that during their college years they were breathing the rarified air only found in academic settings. Okay, or maybe your local indie coffee shop.

As a librarian and a book group facilitator, I get to tap into that world again. Don't get me wrong, my book group discussions are not nearly as heady or, dare I say, as "literary" as my college classroom discussions were. Nor do I think you need a college degree to engage in literary discussions or an English background to lead a group. If anything, I find that I enjoy my book group's discussions better than some of my college classes. For one, I find that I and the readers I talk with are connecting on a personal level to the books they read. They respond from an emotional place as well as an intellectual one.

Getting older myself, I now have more experience to bring to my own readings, as do my fellow readers. I guess I am trying to say, but I'm being long-winded about it, is that I am not trying to recapture my college classroom, and I discovered that I didn't really want to. I want to meet with readers of various backgrounds, varying perspectives, with different life experiences from my own. Not that my college didn't provide that (although it was, I have to admit, fairly homogeneous), but that the whole spirit of the library serving all walks of life makes a library book group in some ways more exciting and unpredictable.

As an aside, one of my favorite lines from a movie has got to be in Good Will Hunting when Matt Damon (as Will Hunting) tells the Harvard student he upstages in a bar: "You wasted $150,000 on an education you coulda got for a buck fifty in late charges at the public library."

Recently, when my group discussed Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants (a novel about a circus during the Great Depression), I sat in awe, listening to the varied impressions of each member in the group. I was reminded how we each bring our experiences, our perceptions, our whole selves, to what we read. The readers in my group surprise, impress and teach me something every time.

As a book group leader and librarian, I often fight the perception that I must "know" everything or that there are distinct answers to the questions that I throw out. One reader confided in me at the close of the discussion how she felt that the group was so smart, somehow inferring that she was not or that being "smart" was a requirement to join in discussion.

Yes, I am impressed by the intelligence and the thoughtfulness of many of the readers in the group. But it's about so much more. It's about sharing your experience, learning from the experiences of others. It's about bringing your whole self to the reading of the book and sharing with the group. We may not always express our reactions, thoughts or questions with articulate ease (I know I don't!). Sometimes we are still processing what we have read. Some of us are better at articulating our thoughts out loud, some of us better in writing, and some readers just feel and cannot (or prefer not) to express.

A book group should be like a circus --- a place where we can all be different and all fit in.

---Misha Stone

An Author's Oo La La

Guest blogger Gayle Brandeis is the author of Fruitflesh: Seeds of Inspiration for Women Who Write and the novels Self Storage and The Book of Dead Birds. Here she muses about the decadent pairing of books and food.


When I started to receive invitations to visit book groups, I knew I was in for a treat. I hadn't realized that this treat would often be literal.

Books and food are two of my very favorite things in the world. I love the fact that the words have the same vowels in the center --- books and food, that wonderful double o, oo, like the sound you make when you've read or tasted something amazing. Book groups and food, it turns out, make for a most excellent pairing. They certainly make me say "oo."

When I visit book or writing groups to discuss my book Fruitflesh: Seeds of Inspiration for Women Who Write, there is often an abundant spread of fruit (strawberries often at the centerpiece --- a sweet nod to the opening line: "A strawberry changed my life.") When I visit book clubs to discuss my first novel, The Book of Dead Birds, I'm sometimes greeted with chop chae and kimchi or other Korean delicacies, sometimes a bowl of candied ginger, my main character Ava's favorite snack. My latest novel Self Storage lends itself well to potlucks, since the characters live in family student housing and often have eclectic communal meals with their neighbors. The novel I'm currently writing is set on a pear farm. I look forward to book clubs full of pear cake!

It's always fun to see what's on the literal table at book clubs --- even if it's a simple plate of store bought cookies --- as well as what book club participants bring to the table; I find it so fascinating and moving to hear my new friends' (for they always become friends over the course of the meeting) takes on my work. I love how these engaged, engaging readers often find themes and meanings I never consciously intended, how they help me see my work in a fresh new way. Even if I'm talking to a book club by speaker phone and no food whatsoever is involved, I still find the process incredibly delicious, incredibly nourishing. Oo la la, indeed!

--Gayle Brandeis

Book Club Activism

Sometimes book clubs can make a difference, as Debra Linn shows in this post. After reading Edwidge Danticat's Brother, I'm Dying, her group was inspired to take action.


Edwidge Danticat's family memoir Brother, I'm Dying riled us up. Outraged us, actually. We were incensed by the treatment her uncle received when he arrived in Miami from full-on upheaval in Haiti. Our book club had received the call to action, our chance to start living up to our name, Page Against the Machine, an opportunity for book club activism.

Book club activism sounds high-minded and formal, but really, just about any book can spur your club to action. It rises organically from your connection to the book. What Is the What by Dave Eggers leads to activism about Sudan. Water for Elephants to the Humane Society or PETA, perhaps. Even uber book clubby books like The Knitting Circle offer charitable avenues, what with the myriad illnesses and tragedies suffered by the characters. You can donate money --- or your time. You can collect books for a burgeoning neighborhood library or a juvenile justice center.

After reading Brother, I'm Dying, we wanted to act, to help, to do something other than just read. We had come to know Danticat's uncle, Joseph, a strong and thoughtful man, a minister who raised the children in his extended family, a man who preached despite having to use a voice box. Sent to the Krome Detention Center (wrongly so) pending the immigration process, Uncle Joseph became ill while in custody and died after negligent healthcare at the police ward of Jackson Memorial Hospital.

Sadly, this was not a shock to us. Krome Detention Center and the treatment of Haitian migrants --- both in the grand political scheme and hands-on physical conditions --- have long been hot-button topics in Miami.

But this was different now. This was personal. This is what the best books do (and Brother, I'm Dying certainly falls into this category). They take us inside people and worlds and situations that were just passing thoughts or images on TV.

At the suggestion of always enterprising and engaging club member Maria, we collected money to donate to the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, the organization that had been representing Uncle Joseph at the time of his death. With our group of 12, just a few dollars a woman added up quickly, and we donated a tidy little sum to an organization that gets lost amid other larger and equally worthy causes.

We didn't change the world or even get our hands dirty. We didn't utilize our skills and knowledge and outrage to their fullest. But it was a step, a first step toward acting on our widening perspective. And it made us feel good about ourselves, less paralyzed. Sure, it could be misplaced self-congratulation or just plain old guilt, but it's a place to start.

There isn't always an obvious match to that month's book selection, and you won't always feel inspired. Don't force it. But look at book club activism the same as choosing a themed restaurant or menu to match that book set in Italy --- just another way to make a book more than words on a page and a book club more than a bunch of readers.


---Debra Linn

An Author's Book Club Discovery

Debra Dean is the author of the novel The Madonnas of Leningrad and the story collection Confessions of a Falling Woman. In this post, she reveals some things she has learned from book clubs --- including insights about her own novel and how book club camaraderie often goes beyond the page.


Initially, I approached the whole idea of a book group with skepticism. I just didn't get it. The number of books on my "To Be Read" list already far exceeded my actuarial life expectancies; why would I want someone else adding to that list? (Never mind that many of my all-time favorite books were originally required reading in college.) Mostly, though, my reluctance was the shyness of a bookish person. Reading is an intensely private act; that's what I love about it. If I could have two superpowers, they would be the ability to time travel and to be invisible, to go anywhere in the world, at any point in history, and just observe, unseen. Reading allows me the pleasures of a voyeur. Why would I want to take off my cloak of invisibility?

After my first book, The Madonnas of Leningrad, came out, my agent set up an email address for readers to get in touch with me, and he encouraged me to accept invitations to visit book groups when they met to discuss my novel. "Oh, I can't really see myself doing that," I demurred. "Yes, you can," he said firmly. "It's fun," other authors said. "And the food is amazing," they added. "They'll treat you like a queen." I'll admit, I was curious. What would it be like to sit down and talk with readers of my novel? What if they didn't like it? I was a little nervous and self-conscious, the way I get when I'm invited to a party with strangers, but I'm not immune to the fantasy of being queen for a day. Or the lure of a slice of cake. So I put on my nice clothes and went to my first book group evening.

What I hadn't anticipated is that these women would teach me things about my own book. They assumed I was the expert, and so they phrased their insights as questions. One reader noted that the main character's name, Marina, is a Russian variation of Mary --- the Madonna --- and Anya, the elderly room attendant, was Ann, the name of the Virgin Mary's mother. Was this what you intended? she asked. (I couldn't cover my surprise: the Virgin Mary's mother was named Ann?!) Another woman pointed out how the dark silhouette of an eagle seen flying overhead echoes an earlier scene when Nazi planes are strafing the city of Leningrad. Wow. The truth is that for all my carefully worked out symbolism and themes, much of what happens in the creative process happens at the level of the unconscious, and if a writer is lucky, the book is smarter than she is.

But better than what I learned about my book was what I learned about my fellow readers. They opened up their circle to include me, and they shared their lives: their journeys with parents or spouses who had dementia, their travels to Russia, their families' histories in war-ravaged countries, their relationships with grown children, their love of art. They let me know how my book had touched them, how they had cried when they read the part with the chocolate bar or the scene with the women in the baths. And if that were not enough, they fed me cookies and pasta salads and wine. Who could ask for anything more?

I have since visited, in person or by phone, with lots of book groups across the country. A few weeks ago, I attended the First Course Book Group that's held at Books & Books, my favorite store here in Miami, where I live. While we munched on roasted corn salad and guacamole and hummus, one member of the group told us that her mother, who emigrated from Cuba, has the same abhorrence of wasting food that Marina does. There were nods of recognition around the table and more stories. We talked about Marina's failing memory and our own occasional memory lapses. We talked about Marina's marriage and our own marriages, and about home schooling and moving to a new city and learning Dutch. One woman had an extra ticket to the opera. Did anyone want to be her "date"?

I now know what I've been missing out on, not having a book group to call my own. These women I've met have read wonderful books that are still on my "To Be Read" list. They've cultivated friendships that have supported them through hard times and helped them celebrate their joys. And they eat a lot better than I do. It's more than worth shedding that cloak of invisibility.

---Debra Dean
debra@literarydelights.com

The Appeal of Young Adult Literature to the Not So Young

In this post, Jennifer Hart reminisces about the books she read when she was young, from Judy Blume's Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret to Maud Hart Lovelace's Betsy Ray series --- and why the allure of YA literature is still just as great and perfect for book club discussions.


The release of Reading Group Choices' most discussible books of 2007 last week got me to thinking. Among the top eleven choices (there was a tie), voted on by book group leaders representing more than 50,000 book group members, was a young adult book --- The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.

While some may be surprised at the inclusion of a book for children on a list voted on by adults, one look at the description --- the story of a young foster child in WWII Germany who steals books because she cannot afford them, and who shares them with a Jewish man hidden in her basement --- and you can imagine the wonderful discussion that would ensue after reading it.

I was heartened to see the book on the list because I love young adult books, and always have, since, well, I was a young adult. There are books that I read when I was 12 that I re-read to this day. The ones I return to the most are the Betsy-Tacy books, a series about Betsy Ray, a young girl growing up in early 1900s Minneapolis who dreams of becoming a writer. Not only did I love Maud Hart Lovelace's semi-autobiographical books as a child, but I turn to them several times a year --- for me they are the book version of comfort food, and the Ray family feels as close to me as my own. And when I meet someone who knows the Betsy-Tacy books (we're a small but passionate group), I immediately feel a deep connection with them. I feel similarly, if not quite as passionately, about books by Beverly Cleary, Ellen Conford and Paula Danziger. And it's not just the classic YA books that I love. I devoured all of the titles in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series, as well as Louise Rennison's Georgia Nicolson series.

A book group made up of 5th graders recently wrote about their discussion of Judy Blume's classic girl coming-of-age novel, Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, on Book Club Girl. Reading about their reaction to the book brought me back to my first time reading it --- I remember exactly where I sat when I read it, its effect on me was so great. And judging from the comments their post received, many others felt the same way and loved hearing a new generation's response to the book.

For those of us longing to return to the literature of our youth, or to discover the best of today's YA books, Nancy Pearl's Book Crush: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Interest is a wonderful collection of her favorite books for children, including middle grade and young adult. She recently ran a contest where readers wrote about their first "book crush." Reading the winning essay about Beverly Cleary's Fifteen perfectly summed up how I felt about these books when I was young and how I feel about them now. These are the books that helped me to grow up, and now they are the books that comfort and sustain me in my "grown up" life.

Why not consider reading a YA book for book group? Imagine comparing your reaction to a book when you were 12 to your reaction now and discussing what a book meant to you back then and how it influenced the adult you've become. Over wine. Now that's something my 12-year-old self would appreciate.

---Jennifer Hart
BookClubGirl.com

Approaching Authors, Dead and Otherwise

In his debut novel, Finn, Jon Clinch imagines the life of Huckleberry Finn's father. Here he talks about drawing on one of Mark Twain's most beloved works, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, for the seeds of the story, the risk he took in writing the novel --- and how books spark a conversation between reader and writer.


Every book is a conversation. Consider how a truly affecting novel can change your world; and by contrast, consider how the shifting points of view that you bring to a novel during multiple readings over the years can change the things that that very book seems to be about.

But the conversation between the writer and the reader can have other dimensions as well. Dimensions that go beyond the page, and beyond the head and heart of any one reader --- or any one writer, for that matter. Even if that writer is, well, no longer among the living.

I've been lucky enough to be a party to many of these kinds of conversations, during the creation and publication and reception of my novel, Finn. To begin with, I wanted to engage the spirit of Mark Twain in a conversation about his greatest work: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I wanted to dig underneath that book, to connect dots that had previously escaped notice, to ask questions that nobody had asked before: How did Finn wind up dead in that floating house, surrounded by that roomful of extraordinary objects? How did he become the strange, sad monster --- child abuser, bigot, and alcoholic --- that Mark Twain gave to us? And above all else, what kind of woman would have borne a child to him, becoming in the process that entirely unseen figure, Huckleberry Finn's mother?

I entered into this conversation with a certain amount of trepidation. After all, Huckleberry Finn is in many ways the centerpiece and fountainhead of all American literature. To dare re-imagine its underpinnings was to risk imposing my reading of the book upon the understanding of other readers. That meant potential rejection as a revisionist or a pretender, certainly not what I intended for myself in response to what I planned as above all a respectful piece of work. I also risked direct comparisons to Mark Twain himself, a fate that no writer wants to invoke.

On the other hand, the positive potential was huge. If I did my work carefully and well, I could create a book that not only reflected its source material honorably but stood alone as a unique reading experience --- as a new conversation between myself and modern readers. Think what Geraldine Brooks' March did with Little Women, and what John Gardner's Grendel did with Beowulf.

So I risked it.

On publication, I was thrilled to watch as the community of Twain scholars received Finn with open arms and open minds. (My brutal incarnation of Finn himself made sense to them, and my bi-racial Huck did, too. I was even fortunate enough to speak at the Mark Twain House & Museum in Connecticut on two different occasions, a thrill that I had not dared anticipate.) But above all, in the intervening months I've had the great delight of speaking with non-Twainians in book group after book group by telephone, exploring the fascinating ways in which readers all around the country are responding both to my book and to its re-imagining of the original.

A couple of interesting observations: Readers in a book club down south told me that they'd read Huckleberry Finn one month and then Finn the next, and they'd agreed that when they got to my novel they felt as if they were hearing the real story as it actually happened. Another group, which hadn't warmed up by reading Huck (you certainly don't need to; not by any means), reported that although they knew from the beginning that Finn would come to a bad end, they found themselves rooting for him page after page. In spite of the fate ordained for him by his original story, and in spite of his many profound character flaws, they found him a character who showed hope of finding redemption.

You can hardly imagine how rewarding it is to hear things like that. And to field the hard questions, too. Because either way, it's a case of continuing the conversation that began inside the book --- and moving it into the real world, where lasting connections get made between people.

Readers have questions that are explicitly beyond the page, too. Questions about the writing life, for example, which I'm always happy to field. What my day is like, how the publishing process works, and so on. Questions about dealing with controversy around books like Finn and Huck. Questions as basic as how I physically get words on a page (with a Mac laptop, thank you), and as complex as where my ideas come from (God only knows).

Regardless, I had no idea that the act of writing a novel could turn into such a busy two-way street. But I sure am glad that it did.

--- Jon Clinch, author of Finn

Regroup Your Book Group

Last week at the Public Library Association Conference in Minneapolis, I had the pleasure of lunching with ReadingGroupGuides.com blog contributor Nora Rawlinson and librarian extraordinaire Nancy Pearl. Here Nora shares some of Nancy's tips for book clubs, including how to get the conversation flowing and the question one should never ask. --- Carol Fitzgerald


Wouldn't you love to get tips from someone who used to advise dysfunctional book groups? I've just had that experience, via streaming video from Cuyahoga County (OH) Public Library's web site. The session is conducted by Nancy Pearl, who is what is perhaps an oxymoron: a "famous librarian." If you've seen, or even own the "librarian action figure," it's based on the real life Nancy. (Admit it, you're a book nerd, you've got one of these and if you don't you WANT one, so click here.)

Nancy has a true passion for books, which is proven by the titles of her own books --- Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment and Reason, More Book Lust and Book Crush: For Kids and Teens.

On the video, Nancy warns that it is never a good idea to lead off a book discussion with "So, what did you think of the book?" That always leads to a discussion of why people loved or hated the book, which is rarely illuminating. Instead, Nancy suggests leading with "What does the title mean?" For instance, "What's the lesson in A Lesson Before Dying and who learned it?" She swears this always works, even with a title that seems perfectly obvious.

We all know how easily book discussions can lead to the personal. Nancy suggests getting back on track by asking, "What would the author think about that?"

She also has an interesting way of controlling conversation-dominators.

The video is just an hour and filled with useful ways to deal with common book club issues. To watch it, click here and scroll down to "Regroup Your Book Group: Techniques for Energizing Your Book Discussion Group."

Decisions, Decisions

Last month Jennifer Hart shared how her book club makes reading selections --- several titles are presented monthly by the current hostess and voted on in two rounds, which she likened to the presidential primary and general election. Shannon McKenna Schmidt's book club uses a very different method. Here is their story.

In contrast to the democratic process that Jennifer Hart's book clubs uses to choose discussion titles, my group's method could be considered an ever-changing monarchy with each member having a chance to reign for a month. (That person is also responsible for arranging the date of the meeting and selecting a restaurant.)

The member whose turn it is has sole discretion to select a book. It's a fun way to do it, as each time it's a complete surprise. It's like opening a gift --- sometimes you love what's inside, sometimes you don't, and sometimes that item you never would have picked out for yourself turns out to be a favorite possession. Also, choices are diverse and reflect members' personalities and range of interests. Our two most recent picks, for example, were the classic The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells (a pioneer in the sci-fi genre) and Kate Jacobs' contemporary novel The Friday Night Knitting Club.

A point Jennifer makes in her post --- and one with which I completely agree --- is that in clubs where all members nominate titles each time, someone's choices are likely to be overlooked. What I like about my club's selection method is that everyone has their chance to be queen (or king, for our one guy). And I've definitely read books I might never have picked up on my own --- such as Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes and Jody Shields' The Fig Eater --- which for me is one of the reasons to be in a reading group. This selection process also allows members to get creative --- one chose a sampling of short stories by John Cheever, Flannery O'Connor and other scribes, photocopied them and mailed them to us. Another time we skipped reading a book and instead saw a Shakespeare performance, taking in the Bard's Richard II under the stars at the open-air Delacorte Theater in Central Park.

When it comes to making my picks, I've found books by browsing sites like ReadingGroupGuides.com (Tulip Fever) and BookClubGirl.com (Eat, Pray, Love), taking recommendations from friends and co-workers (She's Come Undone), and perusing my shelves for books I've been wanting to read and simply haven't yet made the time (I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, The Blind Assassin and One Hundred Years of Solitude, before it was an Oprah pick). In fact, I'd better start thinking about what gem I'm going to select next. I'll be the reigning book club queen in May.

---Shannon McKenna Schmidt

Bliss at the Cheesecake Factory, Part II: The Book Group's Perspective

Yesterday Amanda Eyre Ward reminisced about meeting The Bookies, a book club in Springboro, Ohio, near Dayton. She first made their acquaintance during a telephone chat several years ago for her debut novel, Sleep Toward Heaven, and recently met up with them in person as she toured promoting her most recent book, Forgive Me. Now Bookies member Jane Schreier Jones shares her perspective about their blissfully bookish encounter.


Okay, I admit, we are mighty proud of our little book club. The same six women --- Barb, Joan, Ann, Joanne, Kate and myself --- have gotten together once a month in Springboro, Ohio, since 1991, way before Oprah launched her book club. When I would mention I was in a book club, people didn't know what it was. One lady asked me, "What? You shop together for books?" That's what an odd concept it was back then.

Over the past 17 years, using various ways of selection, we have read marvelous books (A Prayer for Owen Meany, The Namesake, Swimming to Antarctica), disappointing books (The Memory Keeper's Daughter) and even some disgusting books (Paris Trout). We have read nearly 200 books as a group --- and said goodbye to even more bottles of wine. But through the thousands of pages, we have talked and laughed and shared and had babies, saw kids go away to college, suffered through funerals, kept the same husbands, and through it all, feel blessed with our book club, one of our great joys.

Joanne is the one who brought the delicious idea of us talking to an author, made possible with arrangements with a publisher and a trusty speakerphone. "What?!? We can actually talk to Amanda Eyre Ward?" We were thrilled with the idea, and made Amanda's Sleep Toward Heaven our pick of April 2004. We fretted about the possibility that we would not like her book ("What in the world do we do then?"), but happily, we easily fell in love with this moving and thought-provoking novel. When the big night came, we were extremely nervous about our blind date, but Amanda zapped worries away in 30 seconds. We had 101 questions about the book so conversation bubbled around the round table we sat at, staring at the speakerphone. We were actually talking to the author! "How cool is this!" we kept saying.

We ended the phone conversation with an invitation to Amanda: "If you ever ever ever do a book signing in Dayton, we'd love to take you to dinner!" (And we took a photo of ourselves with the speakerphone to mark the evening.)

Fast forward to February 28, 2008, when that scene actually played itself out. Amanda did indeed come to Books & Company in Dayton and said "Yes!" to our dinner invitation. Following her book signing, we walked across the street to the Cheesecake Factory and, over platters of appetizers and tall glasses of margaritas, we got to know Amanda even more. Of course, we had questions about the two extraordinary novels she's written since our first chat, How to Be Lost and Forgive Me. We asked many details and she wanted to know about our lives, so words tumbled over each other and talk flowed non-stop. We were "Amanda groupies" before that night, thinking she was terribly bright and so gifted with the pen --- but during the dinner, we felt she became a friend. We talked about life and friendship and motherhood and funny occurrences and books books books -- isn't that what friends do? Bliss indeed!

We were dismayed to hear Amanda is not surrounded in her hometown by out-of-control readers like us. There's only one solution: she must move to Springboro, Ohio. She would make an ideal seventh member.

---Jane Schreier Jones

Bliss at the Cheesecake Factory, Part I: The Author's Perspective

Amanda Eyre Ward is the author of three novels, the most recent of which is Forgive Me. Here Amanda reminisces about being a recently-published writer and making a special connection with a book club. The Bookies in Springboro, Ohio, a town outside Dayton, were among Amanda's first fans, and they recently had the chance to meet the author in person. Tomorrow Bookies member Jane Schreier Jones will share her side of the "blissful" story.


I wrote my first novel, Sleep Toward Heaven, alone in my pajamas, laughing and drinking coffee and hoping --- but not quite believing --- that someone besides my mother and sisters would read the book. (In truth, I don't even think my mother and sisters finished the early drafts I sent them, unless I promised they had cameo appearances.) Then there was a time when my writing friends had read it, and then an agent (my agent --- a phrase I could not stop repeating, even to myself), and then many editors who didn't buy it and one who did.

I was headlong into writing How to Be Lost when Sleep Toward Heaven was published. I remember a dreamy reading at BookPeople, the wonderful store in Austin, Texas, where I live. My editor and my aunt flew in, and I read from the book, and then we had drinks at the Stephen F. Austin hotel downtown, overlooking the capitol, and I lay in bed that night and thought, I will never be happier than this.

But then more people read the book, which is something I knew might happen, but never planned for. My mother-in-law, my grandmother's priest, high school boyfriends, Sandra Bullock. I began to get e-mails from people who were not related to me, but who had read my novel. I was terrified.

A few readers asked me questions about my work. Unaccustomed to being an authority on anything (I had been fired from numerous jobs, couldn't cook, and my wardrobe needed, as my fashionable sister put it, more basics), I reveled in answering questions about my writing process. Amazingly, as soon as I published, my start-and-stop methods of writing were considered a coherent process, not just something weird I did when I pretended to stay home sick from work.

One day, I got an e-mail from a book club in Ohio. They asked me to call in and talk about Sleep Toward Heaven with them. Still sort of stunned that anyone in Ohio (where I had no relatives or high school boyfriends) had come upon my book, I agreed. We had a spirited discussion, and I was left wishing I had a book club like The Bookies (as they called themselves) of my own. Joanne, who had first contacted me, told me that if I ever came to Ohio, they'd take me out to dinner.

Over the years, I moved to Maine and Massachusetts, where I visited a book club and then, after a few glasses of wine, asked to join. I published How to Be Lost and Forgive Me. And when planning my paperback tour, I asked my publicist if I could visit Dayton, and meet The Bookies in person. (I had e-mailed Joanne for the first time in four years, telling her I might be in town, and asking her if the dinner invitation was still on. She responded right away: OF COURSE!) Joseph Beth Booksellers in Cincinnati and Books & Company in Dayton agreed to host me, and the next thing I knew I was eating 4-way chili at Skyline, nervous and thrilled to meet some of my first fans.

We made plans to meet after the reading at The Cheesecake Factory. I spotted The Bookies as soon as I walked behind the podium to read from Forgive Me. There were many strange faces, but one lovely brunette caught my eye and winked. She was sitting with a group of grinning women; somehow I knew that they were The Bookies. It was like seeing old friends.

Dinner could have gone on forever. We ordered platters of appetizers and bright-colored cocktails. We talked about kids and books and writing. We jotted down names of novels we needed to read. We were still calling out jokes and laughing as we bundled in our coats to head back into the snowy Ohio night. In my hotel room, I picked up a pen and wrote and wrote, feeling honored that book clubs like The Bookies were waiting so hungrily for a great novel.

One of The Bookies, Jane, admitted late in the evening that she was working on a novel herself. In her confession, I remembered what it was like to write a book in my pajamas. So many nights, I wondered if anyone would want to read my work. I told Jane to keep faith. When she publishes her novel and has her first reading, I'll be in the front row, ready to hear what she has to tell me.

---Amanda Eyre Ward, author of Forgive Me, Sleep Toward Heaven, and How to Be Lost