Men and Books: Quieting the Alpha Male

If there are one or two members of your reading group who tend to dominate discussions, contributor Andrew McCullough has a solution...


When I first formed a men's book group, my biggest worry was that no one would have anything to say. Maybe the chosen book would chill the discussion. Or, worse, my handpicked group would develop acute performance anxiety. Either way, my grand experiment would fail and our nascent book club would quickly wither, in the manner of all those committees, study groups and other forced business associations we look to disengage from.

My early fears were realized, and during our first meeting an uncomfortable silence enveloped us from the moment the floor was opened for discussion. That silence lasted for less than two minutes. And that's when I realized that the real challenge was silencing the loudest voices so that others might weigh in.

I had heard about this phenomenon. In its worst form, a single book group member can choke the life out of the group by refusing to yield the floor or accept other opinions. In my discussions with other groups, and in my research online and elsewhere, I heard about a number of solutions to the alpha issue. Some groups conduct quiet interventions with their more outspoken members, others hire temporary facilitators, and others have resorted to more desperate measures (including the apocryphal --- but believable! --- decision to shut the group down and re-form without the alpha). I decided that a more preemptive approach might avoid the unpleasantness arising from each of these solutions.

My initial, misguided approach was to use the power of the keyboard to try to tame our loudest members. After the first few meetings, I was merciless in my follow-up emails: the guys who dominated the discussion were skewered, for any or no reason. While these provocative communiques were fun (especially when others joined in), they ultimately had the reverse effect. Our loudest voices remained loud and seemed to revel in the attention.

My second approach tried the opposite tack. Rather than muzzle some of the guys, I tried to empower the rest by making a small change to our discussion model. We sidelined the customary free-for-all (you know, the one that starts with "So, what did you all think about....?"), and instead we went around the table and took turns reacting to the book. Each guy was given a couple of minutes to share his thoughts, any thoughts. No topic or issue was off limits. The result was amazing. Suddenly, guys who rarely spoke before had plenty to offer the rest of us. And the guys who were used to speaking volumes realized that theirs was only one of many opinions.

Our roundtable approach is not unique; I've heard that other groups do the same. But I think this discussion model successfully mutes the alpha member while drawing out other voices that might have remained quiet. And, with more participants and more lively conversation during our meetings, I now have more targets to aim at in my follow-up emails.

---Andrew McCullough

Book to Discuss: The Geography of Love

From time to time I am going to use this space to write about books I have read that I think would make for great discussions. Some of them may not be published yet since I read advance copies of many titles; but because my best thoughts often come as soon as I close a book, I will write as I finish them and if they are not published yet I will include a notation of when the book will be in stores. Thus keep your "Books to Be Read" list handy so you can make notes.

Last Saturday I spent the entire day either swinging in the hammock or floating in the pool reading The Geography of Love, a memoir by Glenda Burgess, which will be in stores on August 5th. From the first page, I could not stop reading. Her words grabbed me, pulled me in and from there the story consumed me. I love books like this.

It's memoir that is a wonderful love story. We all know that falling in love can be powerful and consuming, but in the throes of passion we often forget how great love also carries risk. Love brings us immense joy but also makes us vulnerable. That's the other side of love.

The story goes like this. In 1988 Glenda, at age 31, fell in love with Ken, a man 13 years her senior. He had lost his first wife to a tragic car accident and his second wife to a murderer. Both of these events brought scars, but somehow the emotion between Glenda and Ken brought alive feelings of both love and laughter --- and great romance.

They married, had two children and a wonderful life for 15 years, until a shadow on Ken's lung changed everything. What happens after this is a very special love story that is more courageous and beautiful than the idyllic one that came before.

It's so well written. Burgess has a way with words that has sentences flowing cinematically. She crystallizes emotion. She makes a reader feel both joy and sadness. Her courage --- and the way that she handled the hand that is dealt her is inspiring. Yes, I did my fair share of crying while reading it. Burgess and I are very close in age thus I could very much relate to where she was as a woman as this story unfolded.

As I closed it I wanted to talk about it. I ended up writing a very long note to the publisher who had shared it with me. I can see groups talking about this one for hours, everything from their own stories of falling in love to coping with grave illness to the risk that love brings --- and is it worth it.

Most of us --- probably all of us --- have suffered the illness and loss of someone we love. Some of us have handled it better than others. Reading this you will read a roadmap of how one woman had her love steer the course through everything that came in her path. She navigated a tough course courageously. There are lessons to be learned here on caregiving love well, as much as there are stories on how to honor someone heroically when they are facing their biggest challenge.

I loved it. I would love to talk about it.

Make a note to drop me an email or post a comment here after you read it. I am very curious as to what you will say about it.


---Carol Fitzgerald

Chris Bohjalian: Role Reversal

Novelist Chris Bohjalian reminisces about how roles were reversed when he spoke with a book club recently about his new novel, Skeletons at the Feast, which was published in May. Chris is the author of 11 novels, including such book group favorites as Midwives and The Double Bind.


The other day a book group I had joined via speakerphone shared with me what they thought was terrific news. They e-mailed me that while they had only awarded my 2004 novel, Before You Know Kindness, a 5.6 rating on their personal 10-point scale, I had received a 9.6 for telephone presence and responsiveness. I was a mediocre novelist, in other words, but one heck of a good interview.

This sort of candor is rare for most of the world, but not in the living rooms, libraries and back porches where reading groups assemble. One of the great gifts of the private book club is the refreshing frankness the members invariably bring to the table. Sure, sometimes the bluntness is fueled by a good riesling or merlot --- or with one notable book group I joined via speakerphone, especially potent margaritas --- but more times than not a book group's outspokenness is the result of something increasingly rare in the digital age: a passion for fiction and a deep respect for the novel.

That's one of the reasons why I always fit reading groups into my schedule --- usually three or four every week. Sometimes I learn something new about my writing --- what has worked in a novel or what didn't --- and other times I discover a book by another author that I want to read. Usually, however, I am doing the lion's share of the speaking.

Recently I joined a book group that had read my new novel, Skeletons at the Feast. The book is a departure for me, in that it is not set in present day New England. It's a love story --- a love triangle, really --- set in the last six months of World War II in Poland and Germany. It was inspired by an actual diary left behind by the German great-grandmother of a girl in my daughter's kindergarten class.

Usually my conversations with book groups focus upon my research for a novel or why I chose a particular subject --- what, in essence, triggered the story. Moreover, they are usually pretty giddy affairs, especially when I regale them with my most embarrassing experiences while on book tours (it's a long list).

Not that night. Skeletons at the Feast is set in what might have been the most brutal six months in human history, and in the novel I did not shy away from chronicling some of the most savage moments I came across in my exploration of the period. But I also included those instances of monumental beauty and kindness and grace that marked so many of the tales people shared
with me. That evening when I opened the conversation up for questions, instead I got stories: their stories. Some of the readers had lost family members in the Holocaust, while others had relatives who been among the hundreds of thousands of refugees who had fled the Russian army in 1945.

Readers in book groups sometimes find connections between the text and their lives that are tenuous at best. But not that group. Not that night. That evening I found myself listening far more than I was speaking, and I was moved in ways I hadn't experienced ever before in a speakerphone chat.

The readers in this group weren't the sort who would volunteer a score for my performance as either a writer or a speaker. But if they had offered up a grade as a listener, I would have earned a perfect 10. And the experience was just one more example of why I savor my evenings with reading groups.

---Chris Bohjalian

When Not to Keep Reading

Contributor Esther Bushell offers some food for thought in this post about whether or not you should keep reading a book if it just isn't grabbing you, along with some of the titles on her summer reading list.


Reading is contingent on weather, biorhythms, setting, and any other variable that can interpose itself in our lives. For that reason, I can start a book, not get into it, and then put it down. Very often, when I do pick it up again, I have no problems and I go right through it. Many people talk about reading issues with me, and I think where we are, emotionally and physically, can determine what we read. Sometimes we just have to fall back on pick up/put down kinds of reading: periodicals, short stories, and the like. Other times, we can get into a tome and not even put it down.

Years ago, I read an end-piece essay in the New York Times Sunday book section called "DIVORCE THAT BOOK," and it's been my reading mantra ever since! If the first 50 pages of a book don't grab me, I put it down with a bookmark in it; that's my signal to pick it up again and try it another time. Now my friends and I can talk about the books we've divorced; life is too short to stay with a book that's not satisfying.

Another issue that applies to me --- and that I hear about often, is beginning a book that can't meet the standards of the book you've just finished. That was a definite pattern of mine until I recognized the problem --- and then came up with a solution. When I finished The Human Stain, I couldn't get into anything else; everything seemed silly and superficial after Philip Roth's masterpiece. The solution: read some periodicals or short stories --- even catalogues --- and let the masterpiece be absorbed so that it really sinks in. Once it's settled in and is a part of you, you can take on another really great book. Try it --- it works!

My husband and I were away for most of May and the worst happened --- I ran out of my books! By the time I got home at the end of the month, I was so hungry for literary fiction that I've been on a real reading tear. The following are the books I've read thus far this month:

The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich
An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination: A Memoir by Elizabeth McCracken (coming in September)
A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines
Netherland by Joseph O'Neill
The Story of a Marriage by Andrew Sean Greer

Now I'm going to the galley of A Mercy, Toni Morrison's new novel scheduled for a November publication, and then to The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski. I'll keep you posted. Happy summer --- and satisfying reading!!

---Esther Bushell

Catherine O'Flynn: Reading Groups I Have Known

Today's guest blogger is Catherine O'Flynn, the author of What Was Lost, the story of a young girl's disappearance in Birmingham, England, and how the unsolved mystery still reverberates two decades later. Catherine talks about how she was almost a member of a reading group and reveals the 10 things she has learned from speaking with book clubs about her debut novel. Click here to watch a video of Catherine discussing What Was Lost.


I think it's safe to say that I've enjoyed more success with reading groups as a writer than as a reader. That shouldn't be interpreted as a boast; my single experience as a reading group member was, like many of my experiences, short lived and baffling. I was living in Spain at the time and saw a poster in the local library for an English-speaking book group. The group was well-established and met in the same bar on the same day each month. I went along to a meeting and met the six or so women that made up the group and who were as pleasant and welcoming as you might hope.

I went away and diligently read the first 500 pages of Don Quixote as instructed. I returned the next month, but no one else showed up. A month later it was still just me, the equally puzzled bar-owner and a tired-looking leg of jamon. Despite the fact that we lived in a small town I never saw any of the women again. The only possible conclusion is that I was such an appalling prospect as a reading group member that they not only disbanded the group but also all relocated to another part of the world, possibly changing their identities along the way. I never could bring myself to finish Don Quixote.

The beauty of being a writer, of course, is that I only ever attend one meeting of each book group, and so if I am continuing to wreak this devastating havoc on literary clubs, I at least don't know about it. Since What Was Lost came out in the UK last year I've spoken to many reading groups --- lots in libraries, some in shops, a few in peoples' homes, one in a medieval guild hall, and one, inevitably given the book's setting, in a disused unit in a shopping mall.

Here are ten things I've learned about reading groups:

1. There is always food and drink. This feels vaguely transgressive given that the meetings are often in libraries or shops where eating and drinking are otherwise prohibited.


2. The food may range from delicious home made soup and cakes to a few stale biscuits but somewhere, at some point, the Doritos will always emerge.


3. I've yet to find a reading group that hasn't read The Kite Runner. I'm investigating a link between Khaled Hosseini and Doritos.


4. There is always one member of the reading group who hasn't finished the book. The rest of the group will spend the whole session carefully avoiding giving the ending away.


5. The ending is always given away.


6. Although it varies from group to group, in general, women book group members outnumber men by a ratio of roughly 10 to 1; retired members outnumber working members 2 to 1.


7. Despite this, the average 60-year-old female reading group member has no difficulty in empathizing with the character of a little girl detective, or a young male security guard, or a bored music store manager, or indeed it seems with anyone at any point in time.


8. It seems then that preconceptions about target markets and genre preferences are not terribly useful.


9. It's almost as if readers are not faceless constituents of a demographic but individuals with imaginations.


10. I suspect some don't even like Doritos.

---Catherine O'Flynn

The Art of Racing in the Rain

I picked up The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein back in March. I read it quickly, and I've been savoring it since then. When I closed it I immediately thought --- this is the perfect book club discussion book. Here, in her own inimitable style, blog contributor Debra Linn shares why this book will work for groups. Reader response to it has been amazing. For the record, everyone to whom I have given or told about this book has told at least six more people about it --- and in many cases bought multiple copies. Read on and see why people are falling in love with Racing and with the novel's canine narrator, Enzo...


I don't like dogs.

You don't like auto racing.

So, let's choose a book narrated by a dog about a race car driver for our book club.

Seriously.

No, this isn't part of my belief that you don't have to like the book for it to be a good book-club book. This is The Art of Racing in the Rain. Attention and praise have been heaped on Garth Stein's new novel --- can you say Starbucks' Summer Pick? --- and rightly so. And much of the heaping has been about the dog, that adorable dog on the book cover, that adorable dog in the quite fabulous trailer for the book (yes, a trailer --- that's what happens when the author is also a documentary filmmaker).

Then, the auto racing part is right there in the title. Can't miss it. Heck, the dog is even named Enzo after Enzo Ferrari, the most famous of all auto racing names.

Dogs and auto racing. Just picture yourself pitching this book at your group's next meeting. Tough sell.

But The Art of Racing in the Rain isn't about dogs or auto racing. It's about the people. The best books always are. These people have a dog and auto racing in their lives. Just like the people in Bel Canto have opera and kidnapping in their lives. You don't need to know anything about either to embrace the characters and learn about all of them. That's the beauty of fiction and the joy of book clubbing.

Still, dogs and auto racing are inextricably linked with what makes The Art of Racing in the Rain a good book. That's the beauty of good fiction.

Making a dog the narrator is inspired --- and remember, I don't dig dogs. As Enzo points out right at the beginning, he can't talk and doesn't have opposable thumbs. These limitations force the reader to become more involved with the story, to see situations from a knee-high view of the world and trust people's faces more than their words, as Enzo does. Enzo also gets to witness situations other characters aren't privy to. So, he ends up with both a detached and omniscient voice (please insert your own omniscient-voice-means-godlike-and-god-is-dog-spelled-backward train of thought here).

Auto racing doesn't drive the story (by law, I had to use the verb "drive" in this sentence), but it is also more than just metaphor. Auto racing is visual and auto racing is character development. The main character's struggles and skills --- particularly his ability to drive well in the rain --- create the framework of Denny's character, but his interactions with his wife, daughter and, of course, dog define him. And to understand all the symbolism of the ability to drive in the rain, just picture your own hands gripping the wheel during a summer rainstorm on a city street. After all, "hands are the window to a man's soul," as Enzo says.

And books a window into book clubs. I still don't like dogs, and you don't like auto racing. That's why we should read The Art of Racing in the Rain, which really is about neither but entirely about discussing and learning --- and perfect for your book club. What it IS, is one great book club discussion book.

---Debra Linn

Book Clubs and Cookbooks

Looking for a way to spice up your summer book club gatherings? Jamie Layton offers an appetizing alternative to the usual discussion fare...


Every year, for whatever reason, the combination of summer heat and beach chair reading sends me straight to the food writing shelves. By the end of a typical summer I've added several new titles to my collection in addition to a stack of cooking magazines accumulated in the bottom of my beach bag. I can't decide if cooking vicariously through others is what appeals to me, or if the fresh ingredients of summer inspire me to at least think about trying my hand a bit more in the kitchen or if I just prefer to read about other people slaving away in hot kitchens while I toil away by the pool.

What I do know is that books like Michael Ruhlman's The Making of a Chef, The Soul of a Chef and The Reach of a Chef, Ruth Reichl's essays, Kathleen Flinn's memoir The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry and Dave Shalleck's Mediterranean Summer, authors like Michael Pollan and Barbara Kingsolver who render advice on how to eat better for you and the planet...these are all summertime brain candy for me, and I've found the genre to be a good seasonal match for my book group as well!

A dilemma facing many book group participants is hit full on as summer nears and they start gazing at the pile of titles they've been saving up for their personal "summer reading list." Add to it three months of book club selections and many are left feeling as if their summer will be all work and no play. While I am the first to admit that for a true reader very few books can ever truly be considered "work," I'm pretty sure y'all know what I'm getting at: you're in the middle of a great book. and suddenly you realize that you have to read your book group pick by next Monday!

Here's an idea which allows plenty of time for personal reading while still enjoying summer with the club. One summer, our June selection was a shorter read that didn't take anybody much time. Then in July, instead of having an "official" book for the month, we held a cookbook discussion. Everyone brought both their favorite cookbook and a dish from the same. We had a wonderful spread, plenty of time to eat, drink, socialize (our meetings are typically very book oriented) and when we did gather as a group, each member got a chance to tell the reason behind why they brought the cookbook they did. We heard some beautiful stories and found some new "must haves" for our own kitchen shelves!

Our book for August was also relatively short so, in essence, people had about six weeks off during the summer to read whatever they wanted; it was a refreshing break for all. While cookbooks worked great for us, you could also have everyone bring whatever else they've been reading lately or their favorite travel book. Most any genre works as long as your members understand that you're asking them to bring something they've already read. Otherwise, no break!

Any reader can get burned out, and if a book club member is left feeling like they don't have enough time for reading on their own you run the risk of losing that member. Everybody needs a vacation, and giving your club one without losing the continuity of a monthly meeting is a perfect way to keep your members interested, inspired and invigorated. (And to give credit where credit is due, I did get the original "cookbook meeting" idea from the WADWCC Book & Movie Club at Duck Woods Country Club.)

Now if you'll excuse me, I have three back issues of Cooking Light, The Omnivore's Dilemma and Eat, Pray, Love waiting for me back at the beach. Bon Appetit! (And happy reading!)

---Jamie Layton

Meg Waite Clayton: The Wednesday Sisters Book Club

Today, guest blogger Meg Waite Clayton recalls some of her experiences as both an author and a book club member --- and why her reading group shares a name with her new novel, The Wednesday Sisters, which was published yesterday. Meg is also the author of The Language of Light.

True confession: well into my neighborhood book group discussion of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao two months ago, I looked down to see the shoes I was wearing didn't match. Hey, they were both black! One mesh slide and one winter-suede moc. I glanced at the faces around me: all far too intent on Diaz's book to smirk at my feet.

That's one thing that amazes me again and again about book groups: the odd mixture of critical reading among uncritical friends embracing each other --- unmatched shoes and all --- as surely as we embrace our favorite books.

To be honest, my first visit to a book club as an author was a bit intimidating. When the members introduced themselves, the phrase most frequently repeated was "English PhD." By the time we'd completed the circle, I felt a bit like A.A. Milne's Piglet: "Oh, d...d...d...dear, Pooh."

Like Brett in my new novel, The Wednesday Sisters, I was a math-science girl in the days when that was about the geekiest thing one could be --- well before geek came to mean "really successful technology whizz." English? That was the one class I didn't AP in. In college, I took the required first term Great Books, then escaped into Shakespeare; the only non-required English course I took was on Tolkien: serious literature, yes, but we're talking (literally!) orcs and elves, in a largely geek-like-me-filled class that I personally took pass-fail.

I've always been a reader, though. I loved The Grapes of Wrath in high school (not that I admitted that then). And my best writer-pal, novelist Brenda Rickman Vantrease, is an English PhD. As was, perhaps, Mrs. Thompson, the eighth grade teacher who first encouraged me to submit a poem to magazines.

(I still have that poem, with its bright red A+ and her request for a copy for herself; I am a sap for praise.)

Well, I settled into that PhD-book-club visit for what turned out to be a mercifully gentle discussion of my little offering. And when the great conversation, the good wine, and the tasty desserts came to an end, I took away an amazing gift: a better understanding of myself as a writer, and of myself as a self.

Not long after that gathering, I was invited to join my wonderful Oscar Wao-reading group, then just forming. Intimidating? Let's just say I may be the only one of us who isn't a red school graduate --- crimson or cardinal, which has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with smart. But this darned iceberg I've crashed upon is (I'm really sorry to break this to you, because I know you think this honor is your own) the best book group in the world.

Really, admit it: how many of you belong to a group in which not a single member would give you grief about unmatched shoes?

We're the Wednesday Sisters, a name borrowed from my yet-to-be-sold-at-the-time novel years after our group first formed, when we wanted to register at a local bookstore. And yes, we were as awkward as any new group that first Wednesday, sharing little more than a neighborhood and a love of books. But that murky old ice shattered to pieces by our third selection --- The Amateur Marriage --- and we laughed and laughed over tales of our relationships.

Not that our spouses are anything to laugh at!

Or maybe they are. But then we ourselves are something to laugh at, too, which is all part of the fun, and part of the learning experience that goes on when the Wednesday Sisters meet.

We're more than just a book group, too, it turns out. Whether it's attending Leslie's readings for her wonderful The Man Behind the Microchip, or applauding Rayme's success in short story competitions, Adrienne's photography, Camilla's acceptance to her fashion program or Diana's to genetic counseling graduate school, we cheer each other on. The group is even hosting a launch party for me tomorrow: The Wednesday Sisters celebrating the The Wednesday Sisters, which Ballantine Books published yesterday.

So which is the first book group to discuss The Wednesday Sisters? The Wednesday Sisters, of course!

I do love chatting with book clubs, and I'd love to chat with yours. I'm working on the matched-shoe thing, but if you are anything like the Wednesday Sisters --- the real-life book group or the fictional sisters who connect over books and bond over writing --- I know you'll laugh with me rather than at me if mine don't match.

---Meg Waite Clayton

Masha Hamilton: The Camel Bookmobile

Today's guest blogger is Masha Hamilton, the author of Staircase of a Thousand Steps, The Distance Between Us and, most recently, The Camel Bookmobile, which centers on a traveling library that delivers books in a remote section of Africa. Fact and fiction merge in the story, and Masha talks about the real-life inspiration for the novel and how book groups in the U.S. have given people in Kenya the gift of the written word. If you'd like to help or see what others have done, visit the Camel Book Drive site.


Although I've had a variety of uplifting book group experiences with all three novels, The Camel Bookmobile has led to incredible interactions, ones I will never forget. It's reinforced my belief that book groups are often havens for their members, safe settings for intellectual and emotional exploration of the most intimate kind.

The Camel Bookmobile is inspired by real life. Four days a week, a camel bookmobile sweeps through the bush in northeastern Kenya in scalding temperatures to bring books to a region with absolutely no infrastructure --- no roads, no electricity, no corner shops, no villages. But while Kenyan librarians began the real-life bookmobile, the novel's characters include a librarian from Brooklyn, NY, who travels to Africa to help the project get off the ground. Through a weaving together of multiple viewpoints, the story explores the pitfalls of bringing modernity to a traditional society, as well as the ambiguous role of Americans overseas, where they often exhibit the most generous of spirits but a surprising lack of knowledge about (and sometimes, interest in) local cultures. The character of the American librarian, Fiona, sprang, in part, from what I observed during trip to Afghanistan in 2004.

Because I have spent many years as a journalist, I was afraid reporting tendencies would kick in and interfere with a novelist's need to allow the characters to resonate and be changed. So I didn't travel to Kenya to see the real camel library until the novel had already sold to HarperCollins and was in the final editing stages. Once there, many things moved me, but perhaps nothing more than the faces of youngsters when the camels arrived with their load of books. At the time, 2006, the region was enduring its third year of drought and famine on top of chronic poverty. The response to the camel library, even at such a difficult period of want, said much about the transformative power of stories. I saw first-hand how books connect us as humans, even when we live in vastly different circumstances. I saw, too, what heroes and heroines the Kenyan librarians are, and dedicated my novel to them.

I also saw the camel library badly needed more books, as well as contributions for more camels, tents to provide shade, and additional book boxes. After The Camel Bookmobile was published, book groups quickly offered to help. I heard from many groups who wanted me to speak (in person or by speakerphone) not only about some of the touchier themes of the novel, but also about that region of Kenya and how they might contribute.

The Desert Chicks book club in Arizona held a dessert and wine party and raised nearly $1,000 to send books to the library. Members of Kathy Patrick's Texas-based Pulpwood Queens Book Club, who meet in a beauty salon to discuss books amid hair dryers and curling irons, also contributed to the real camel library. The camel bookmobile volumes are either in English, Kenya's official language, or Swahili, the language of the marketplace, but recently, a book group in Australia read the novel and then got in touch to suggest raising money so local writers could collect traditional stories, write them in Somali, and get them simply published --- a wonderful way to ease the transition to the future by respecting the past.

Not only have these far-flung book lovers shown an eagerness to reach out to a remote region of Africa, they've also shown great sensitivity about wanting to provide the kinds of books that would be most useful to these semi-nomadic, fledgling readers living in a world very different from our own. Book groups are powerful. I'm thrilled that because of them, The Camel Bookmobile has played a small role in what may be the finest goal of literature --- bringing people together around a library's worth of good stories that not only entertain, but also increase understanding and broaden human connection.

---Masha Hamilton

Book and Movie Pairings

What happens when a movie isn't as discussion-worthy as the book it's based on? Contributor Heather Johnson's group recently found out...


My book club met this past weekend to discuss The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. Usually I'd have lots of questions prepared and our discussion would last for hours...but not this time. Instead we opted for a very brief discussion of the book leaving us with lots of time to watch the movie.

When I say brief discussion, I really do mean brief discussion. We agreed that the book was excellent --- well written story, realistic characters --- talked about our favorite passages, mentioned the current situation in Afghanistan and we were done. It took maybe 20 minutes.

As soon as we started the movie we realized there was a problem --- subtitles! I don't know about you, but watching a subtitled movie requires my undivided attention. When you take twelve women who don't see each other often and put them in a room together you can't expect them to be quiet, now can you?! The movie seemed to have a secondary soundtrack that went something like this: "Turn it up --- I can't hear anything!" "That's because you're supposed to be reading the subtitles." "Now it's too loud, turn it down a bit." "What are they talking about?" "Can someone get the cat off the couch?!" "Did you catch what he just said?" "Who's that guy again?" "I need a blanket." "Are you crazy, it's so hot in here!" "Wait, are they in Afghanistan or Pakistan now?" and so on, with an undercurrent of whispered conversations completely unrelated to the movie or the book. And yes, I'll admit that I was one of the guilty parties.

We did watch the movie, really. Unfortunately some of the most powerful scenes in the book were left out completely (example? the part with Sorhab and the bathtub --- enough said) and many supporting characters (like the General) were very underdeveloped. This makes sense from a movie standpoint, but it was just no comparison to the book. ~Sigh. ~

This isn't the first time we've paired a book and a movie. Way back in the beginning of our club we read and watched East of Eden. Boy, was THAT a disappointment; the movie focused on only a small portion of the book, leaving out much of what made the book so amazing.

I guess it's normal to have a not-so-focused book club meeting once in a while. On the bright side, our hostess (my sister) made delicious beef/chicken/veggie kabobs and we enjoyed getting together. And everyone is looking forward to our July meeting because we'll be having D.L. Wilson, the author of Unholy Grail, join us for the very first time --- I can't wait!

Here's my question: Are there any successful book and movie pairings out there?! My club certainly hasn't found them, but maybe yours has. Please enlighten me!

---Heather Johnson

Book Clubs On Air --- Bringing Authors and Readers Together in Conversation

Today Jennifer Hart updates us on an initiative she started several months ago, an online radio show that brings book clubs together with authors...


Those of you who have read some of my earlier posts will know I've embarked on a new book group venture --- the book club call-in online radio show on the site Blog Talk Radio. Now that I'm a few shows in, I'm continually amazed by the response to the shows.

The first three shows were held with Jamie Saul, author of Light of Day; Katrina Kittle, author of The Kindness of Strangers; and Thrity Umrigar, author of The Space Between Us. From Jamie we learned about how he built the story and some of the original titles for his novel. Katrina shared her inspiration for her story as well as a key reason for the structure of the novel. And Thrity talked about growing up in India and how that has influenced her as a writer as well as how it inspired The Space Between Us.

The way it works is this --- the author is on the phone, a book group is on the phone and I'm on the phone and manning a switchboard on my computer. People around the world can listen to the show live on their computers, and anyone can call in with a question or comment. On each show the authors have been asked such insightful questions and provided such interesting answers that both they and our listeners have desired the conversation to go on much longer. And I love that anyone who tunes in live is able to call in and participate (see my next show here with the call-in number).

What's even better? Due to the eternal nature of the web, the conversation lives on and can be downloaded at any time. Indeed each show has now been listened to by hundreds of people --- well more than those who were able to take part in the live call. What a great resource for a group that has picked a book and can't get the author on the phone the night of their meeting --- they can simply play the show during their meeting and then hold their regular discussion.

Bookstores and libraries can host book group events and play the shows, and also include links to each conversation on their websites where they host book club resources. And authors can have them on their sites too, to offer to their readers and fans. Click on the widget below to listen to our conversation with Thrity Umrigar!



In the coming months of 2008 I'll be talking to seven more authors, including Laurie Viera Rigler, author of Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict (June 25th, set a reminder here); Victoria Lustbader, author of Stone Creek; Debra Dean, author of The Madonnas of Leningrad; and Ann Patchett, author of Run. Check back on my blog, BookClubGirl.com, for monthly updates of who's to come and to listen to past shows.

I hope to hear from some of you during an upcoming show!

---Jennifer Hart

We're Back...With a Question for You to Ponder!

For all of you who have become faithful readers of this blog, my apologies for the absence of posts last week and yesterday. Between recovering from a six-day trip to LA for Book Expo America and trying to fight the horrific cold/bronchial/laryngitis thing that I picked up somewhere during the past two weeks, the last eight days became more about getting through than being creative. I realize that I actually say the words in my head --- and I think I even verbalize them in my throat --- when I write. Thus last week every time I went to write a column I started coughing. While this sounds like a "the dog ate my homework excuse," trust that it was very real! Many of our contributors were at Book Expo with me last week and while they were healthy, they were in frantic stages of catch-up and thus they were absent as well. Luckily this conference only happens once a year so I hope there will be no further lapses like this!

That said...as summer approaches and our contributors are juggling summer travel/extra duties/beach reading time we are looking for some new voices for this blog. If you would like to contribute, we would love to hear from you. Drop Shannon McKenna Schmidt a note at shannon@bookreporter.com and share some of your background and your idea for a post. We like to mix it up --- and then theme certain weeks --- so the more we know about you and your topic the better.

In spite of my absence online, last Tuesday I was most present when I moderated (actually croaked my way through with a very raspy voice) a panel for a group of New York City public librarians. The panel and I not only shared ideas, but we also picked up some very interesting ones from the librarians in attendance. My co-panelists and I were recreating a part of panel that we had done at the American Library Association's Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia. In attendance were Elizabeth Noble, the author of Things I Want My Daughters to Know, and Victoria Lustbader, the author of Stone Creek, and they were joined by Jennifer Hart from HarperCollins, who blogs for us and also has a very successful blog of her own called BookClubGirl.com.

One idea that came across during the panel was brought up by Elizabeth. She talked about the concept that she has found that people read for one of three reasons --- to learn, to think or to feel --- and those reasons influence what readers bring to the table when they are participating in book club discussions. It was one of those comments that brings all other conversation to a halt as the panelists and I immediately started exploring this. Someone who reads to learn will often suggest nonfiction titles and will want to discuss these books in a manner of trying to figure what they have gotten from the book. Someone who likes to think will suggest books that may be "clever" like classics or those where the topics are deep and you need to wrap yourself around them. Those who want to feel want books that have an emotional edge to them.

As soon as she said this I watched the room and saw everyone trying to chart their own reading habits. I, like Elizabeth, like to feel when I read. Anything that inspires emotion grabs me every single time. Yes, I like to think and to learn, but the way to really grab me is by making me feel. This topic inspired our poll question this month so jump over to the poll here and let us know which kind of reader you are. And then keep this in mind the next time your group meets. It will give you a better handle on why certain group members choose certain titles. Also, if you easily identify your favorite reading style, go on to ponder what is second for you. I still am noodling this for myself.

I love learning via fiction. I remember a line that Jacqueline Winspear mentioned years ago on a panel. She never liked reading history for fact, but tell her that a character had black teeth and she was completely riveted to the page. I think I like to learn my facts through story like this. Whether I am charting a course learning about a foreign place or a culture or an idea, wrap fiction around it and I am there. And I do love nonfiction that reads like a novel. Shadow Divers is a book that was like this for me. And MANY readers have said the same thing about The Devil in the White City. I guess for me it all comes down to the storytelling being what draws me in.

Would love to know what works for you!