When an Author Joins a Discussion

Contributor Heather Johnson's book club recently had a special event --- for the first time, they had an author join their discussion when D. L. Wilson stopped by to talk about his religious thriller, Unholy Grail. Tomorrow we'll hear about the visit from Wilson's perspective.


Author D. L. Wilson contacted my book club with a fantastic offer: free books for everyone and attendance at our meeting. His only request? Our honest opinions of his book. What an amazing opportunity!

I'll admit that I was leery about this. My first concern was the book itself. Unholy Grail is a religious thriller that the publisher compares to The Da Vinci Code. We read Dan Brown's book a while back and that lead to a very heated --- but fun! --- discussion; do we want to read the same type of book again? What if we really didn't like it? How could we possibly tell the author that?! And what if his attendance at our meeting makes everyone clam up? Oh, the stress of being a Book Club Madam!

I shouldn't have worried though ... the meeting was FANTASTIC. David (no "Mr. Wilson" for us!) was very easy to talk to and set everyone at ease from the start. We'd never met with an author and he'd never met with a book group before so this was a new experience all of us. David chose our group after reading several posts on our blog; our varied opinions and lack of consensus were just what he was after. "A book is a work of art, like a painting," he explained, "and you can't expect to please everyone." He asked us to be honest and share both what we liked and didn't like so that he could improve as a writer.

When David dropped off our copies of Unholy Grail last month, he requested that each reader choose her three most favorite and three least favorite things about the book. To make things easy, we started our discussion with the "most favorite" things. Luckily (almost) everyone came up with at least one thing she liked about the book. And David responded to each item in turn, explaining why he chose to do things that way, or what parts he was thought might not turn out so well.

After a quick coffee break we moved on to the "least favorite" things. Again, just about everyone shared something that she didn't like about the book. What I found quite funny was that things I hated about the book were things other people loved. Again David explained the stories behind the writing: how some characters were based on real people, the difficulty of creating fully-developed characters in a thriller novel and much more.

Our meeting lasted about 2 hours, and the discussion never slowed down. There was lots of food, lots of laughs, and lots of info shared. We closed our discussion in the usual way, asking each person to rate the book on a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being the best); ratings ranged from 4 to 8 --- again, no consensus!

Everyone had a great time, including David. At the end of the meeting he surprised us with unedited copies of his upcoming bioterrorism novel for any who were interested. This was an all-around great experience for our club. I strongly encourage you to seek out authors who will participate in your meeting, whether in person or by phone. It can add so much to the dynamic of your group! And I think we'll institute David's 3 favorite/3 least favorite things as a formal part of each meeting --- it really got us thinking.

Have you had an author visit your club before? Or maybe you're leery about trying it? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

---Heather Johnson

Book clubs that are registered with ReadingGroupGuides.com are eligible for special drawings and prizes, including free books for your entire group and opportunities to chat with authors. To register, click here.

Jennifer McMahon: You Tell Me

Guest blogger Jennifer McMahon offers her perspective on discussion guides...and why she looks to reading groups to help her answer questions about her novels. Jennifer's most recent book is Island of Lost Girls, and she is also the author of Promise Not to Tell and the YA novel My Tiki Girl.


I am a waffler. I can stand for a full five minutes in the grocery store trying to figure out which toilet paper to buy --- those little rolls are cheap, but is it a good deal, and what about how often you have to change the roll? I could buy the 36-pack --- but then my cart will be full, and how will I stuff them all under the bathroom sink? And wait, there's this recycled kind --- what do I care about saving 85 cents per square foot when the fate of the earth is in my hands? You get the idea. I hem and I haw and I waver, whether it's toilet paper or the great issues of our day. The trouble is that I've always been good --- too good maybe --- at looking at things from all possible sides, at seeing things from others' point of view. It's been great for my career as a novelist, not so great for dinner parties.

So when it comes to my novels' reading group guides, it's probably no surprise that I hope no one ever asks me most of the questions.

When I'm working on a novel, I've usually got a question, or sometimes a series of questions, in mind. Who is this character? What happened to her? Who did it? Why? With Island of Lost Girls, the big questions were about the nature of forgiveness. So of course, into the reading group guide went "Are there unforgivable acts?"

An interviewer turned that question back around to me recently and I stumbled over my words, giving her a thoroughly confused answer that basically translated into "I have no idea." I write the book thinking that maybe it will be bring me closer to understanding, to forming my own opinion, but what actually happens is that I just come away with more questions.

But then, this really cool thing happens: I get to put some of those questions in the reading group guide. When I'm honored enough to be invited to join a book club that's read one of my books, readers inevitably have found things that I had no idea were there: themes and metaphors, patterns and surprises. And sometimes they use my questions as a springboard. So there I am, glass of wine in hand, listening to these bright, passionate people discussing the questions that baffle and intrigue me, arguing about them even, sharing stories from their own lives that my novel brought to the surface. It doesn't get any better than that.

---Jennifer McMahon

Victoria Lustbader: Inspired by Reading Groups

Today's guest blogger, Victoria Lustbader, talks about why she never considered becoming a member of a reading group...until a recent conversation with book club members about her two novels, Stone Creek and Hidden, helped change her mind.

Although I've been an avid reader all my life, and an avid writer for the last 6 years (!), I have never considered becoming a member of a reading group or book club. I'm not sure why, since many of my friends are devoted members of reading groups, I love talking about books, keep a list of my favorite books to share with friends, and am always asking friends to share their favorites with me. It might be that I'm not a joiner by nature, or that I am away from home so much it would be hard for me to attend consistently. Or maybe it's just that I'm a stubborn cuss and don't want to be told what to read!

But since I've now written two novels that I believe are terrific choices for book clubs, Hidden and Stone Creek, I've been paying a little more attention to the existence of reading groups and what they're reading. You'd have to be living in a cave not to have noticed the incredible proliferation of reading groups over these past years. And I think it's one of the most exciting and wonderful phenomena to hit the book world since the printing press! As I've lately had reason to troll through book club sites and see their recommendations of what's worth reading, I realize too that I'm missing out on what are likely many fabulous books that I had not heard of before and would not have found on my own. So, I am now --- avidly, I might add! --- looking for a group in my hometown I might join that will forgive my occasional absence.

My desire to do that was truly hammered home last week when I did a live interview on the terrific book-dedicated website --- Bookclubgirl.com --- with its founder and host, Jennifer Hart, and a number of readers, themselves members of reading groups, and bonded together around books by their participation in this website. It was the best 30 minutes of give and take, and talking about my new book, Stone Creek, that I could ever imagine. (If you're interested in hearing it, click here.) I realized that I was missing out on more than finding good books to read. I've been missing out on the pleasure and exhilaration of being in the company of fellow book lovers, and sharing stimulating, intelligent conversation about words and ideas and emotions.

Reading is first of course an intensely personal experience --- just you and the writer and the images and feelings his or her words create in you. But a good reading experience becomes something beyond personal; it expands into the realm of the social and cultural when you appreciate that the thousands, perhaps millions, of other people out there reading the same book as you are having the same experience, and likely many of the same feelings as you as well.

Reading groups are the perfect vehicle for merging the personal and social aspects of reading. Discussions about books can't help but enrich the personal experience by allowing us to appreciate its true universality, and opening us up to our in-common experiences and feelings. Which is surely what all writers hope to do with their words --- expose and illuminate our common humanity.

---Victoria Lustbader

Jessica Anya Blau: The Questions I Am Most Often Asked by Reading Groups

Sometimes an intriguing title is enough to get readers buzzing about a book. Such is the case with Jessica Anya Blau's debut novel, The Summer of Naked Swim Parties, which is the story of a 14-year-girl, her unconventional family, and the memorable summer of 1976. Here Jessica talks about her inspiration for the novel and some of the questions she's often asked by reading group members.


I'm often asked how I came up with the title of my book The Summer of Naked Swim Parties. The answer is that I picked it off the top of my head before I wrote the book but when I knew essentially what I wanted to write. I didn't think the title would cause such a stir. But it did. And I'm happy for that. When you write a book, it's nice to have things stirring up around it.

The Summer of Naked Swim Parties is about a family in Santa Barbara, California, in 1976. The 14-year-old daughter, Jamie (who is loosely based on me), is trying to figure things out about life, love, friendships, and families. Her 16-year-old sister, Renee (who is not loosely based but rather exactly based on my sister), finds the family deeply embarrassing and wishes she lived with a different family and that she wasn't even related to her own family. And the parents are busy with their own lives --- smoking pot, hosting aura readings and throwing naked swim parties where the grownups drink, eat, dance and even jump on the trampoline naked, while the kids hover on the steps of the pool, fully suited. The mother in The Summer of Naked Swim Parties, Betty, also cooks for her family while she is naked. Or, mostly naked in her cut-off shorts and apron.

Because the story is loosely based on my experiences growing up, most people ask me if this or that moment in the book was true and really happened that way. And the question I am most often asked is this: Did your mother really cook naked? And: What about grease splatters?!

When I wrote the scene in the book where the mother is cooking naked, I never thought about the fact that it would be surprising or odd. I just wrote it the way I saw it, as if there were a movie running in my head and I was simply jotting down what I was viewing. My first realization of the strangeness of cooking naked came when my editor, Kate Nintzel, said, "You have to put shorts on her. No one would believe that she ever cooked naked." So I put a pair of cut-off denim shorts on the mother. It went with the character --- my mother often wore cut-off shorts, and I remember a summer when she wore them for weeks as she painted the house.

The truth is my mother did not cook naked. BUT, and this is a big but (and not a big butt!), one of her friends who often hosted naked swim parties did cook naked. And she was often at the grill making pancakes, flipping things over with a spatula, her very large breasts resting on either side of her apron bib.

When I was writing the book, I stole things from other families and put them into this fictional family. The mother I created for the book was in some ways like my mother, and in some ways like my mother's friends (but not at all like my friends' mothers --- they all had very "straight" moms, the kind of mothers that my sister always wished she had!).

My mother did swim naked and still, today, she doesn't own a swimsuit. I never told my mother that people often ask me the question about cooking naked, so I didn't realize it was something that stood out to her until the Baltimore Sun interviewed me and then called my mother to get her perspective on things. The first thing she told the reporter, before she was even asked a question, was this: "Let me set something straight here. I did not cook naked."

In regards to some of the other stuff Betty does in the book, well, I'll put it this way: my real mother knows what color her aura is.

---Jessica Anya Blau

Air Traffic Control

Contributor Jamie Layton weighs in on a certain book club behavior that can affect the entire group...and what to do about it.


Put more than one woman in a room and somebody's gonna cut somebody off.

Our reading group, like many that I read about here on the ReadingGroupGuides.com blog, has been together for awhile. Long enough so we all feel pretty comfortable with each other, have no trouble expressing our opinions and making sure our voices get heard. In fact, sometimes we're down right too comfortable with each other. I'm talking about the biggest turn-OFF for a club, the bad habit that will send a potential new member packing after just one meeting, the rudest , baddest behavior which we've ALL been guilty of... conversation interruptus.

I've been trying to crack down on this at our discussions. I always have a pen in hand so I can jot down tangents, conversation ideas and what-not. For awhile I tried to enforce a rule that if someone was talking, and somebody tried to interject something, I would point the pen at the person who already "had the floor" to remind the interjector that A) someone was already talking, B) I understood they wanted to get a word in edgewise and C) would be sure to give them the next opening. This made me feel a little school marmish, but I think it slowly got the point across and eventually people started remembering on their own.

We once had a regular member who was a very young stay-at-home mother, quite shy, who came to the group with an older, more extroverted, friend. I always worried she was leaving discussions unhappy as she was so quiet you would've thought she had a daily allotment for words that had already been used up. I also was concerned that she was getting lost among our many, stronger personalities. Finally, after a discussion particularly dominated by one or two voices, I thought of a solution I use to this day. It won't necessarily bring an introvert out of their shell, but it allows me to relax and know that everyone's voice had an opportunity to be heard.

At the beginning of each month's discussion, we go around the entire circle and each member has 3 -5 minutes to introduce themselves (if necessary) and take the spotlight. I encourage them to tell us what they thought of the book; did they love it? Hate it? What characters did they really like? What issues did the book bring up for them? During this time, NO ONE is allowed to interrupt and while in the excitement of discussion some of us forget about this rule, I am quick to remind them that everyone will get their chance and I am taking notes for topics we'll come back to. Once we've gone full circle the floor is open and we move on into the discussion.

I really feel this method has been embraced by our group. It seems that when everyone has had this time to use as their own personal forum, it cuts back on the competition for airspace later. We're not perfect by any means, and I still have to rein things in during a heated discussion where all of a sudden four voices are overlapping, but I do think we've become a kinder, gentler book group. And that's all good.

We're getting ready to discuss Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I marked a few passages to bring up either for discussion or my own use later, and I found these comments to be particularly meaningful --- "No matter how creatively I try to look at my habit of interrupting, I can't find another way to see it than this: 'I believe that what I am saying is more important than what you are saying.' And I can't find another way to see that than: 'I believe that I am more important than you.'"

I'm going to try very hard to remind myself of those words at the beginning of any conversation I find myself in this week. And I'm definitely going to bring it up at our next book group.

---Jamie Layton

Reads for Summer...and Other Times of the Year

Bookseller and ReadingGroupGuides.com contributor Debra Linn offers some reading suggestions for the summer and beyond...


Some books are perfect no matter when you read them. And some books are perfect for summer. Just like watermelon --- tasty all year 'round but sweeter and juicier in those months without R's. So, here are my summer recommendations in two categories --- Great Books Out This Summer and Great Summer Books Out This Summer --- and no, we won't snitch if you read one of these out of season.

Great Books Out This Summer

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows(Dial Press, $22, on sale date: July 29)
A wonderful read told through letters from several people. This should/could/will be the beloved new book of summer that will have a long shelf life (shelf life --- oh, beware a bookshop pun). Each character is clearly drawn with a distinct voice --- including several male characters --- and untold stories of history are slipped in throughout: Who knew Britain had Channel Islands and that they were occupied by the Nazis for five years? You'll fall in love with a minimum of four characters.

Requiem, Mass. by John Dufresne (W.W. Norton, $24.95)
This is not just home cooking on my part, even though John Dufresne is one of South Florida's literary lights. He earns that status with the brilliant way he once again combines the tragic and the absurd into the hilariously insightful. In this one, Johnny and his little sister Audrey are dealing with a mom who thinks her kids have been replaced by aliens and a dad living a secret life (or lives) somewhere down south.

Matters of Faith by Kristy Kiernan (Berkley Publishing Group, $14, on sale date: August 5)
Kristy Kiernan's first book, Catching Genius, was one of those word-of-mouth little debut novels that took on a life of its own. And you'll understand instantly why book clubbers gravitate to Kristy when you read her Reading Group Guides blog entry, Kristy Kiernan: From Guest to Book Club Member. Now, Kristy brings us the story of Marshall and his family. After growing up with no religion and then adopting Judaism as a pre-teen, Marshall finds a profound devotion to a new religion in college when he meets his first girlfriend, who trusts in prayer over medicine. And this leads to a troubling situation with Marshall’s younger sister and her extreme food allergies.

America America by Ethan Canin (Random House, $27)
Ethan Canin applies his fluid, beautiful and beautifully accessible writing to this story of Corey Sitter in 1970s. From a working class family, Corey works his way up the social and political ladder through the generosity of a local, connected family. This is the America of loyalty, politics and greatness. And this is the America of sex, vanity and redemption. All the big stuff. And so prescient right on the eve of such a crucial election. You'll see parallels --- mostly unintentional by Ethan Canin --- throughout, giving the book those "ah-ha" moments along with the "ahh" moments.

The God of War by Marisa Silver (Simon & Schuster)
Twelve-year-old Ares Ramirez lives with his mom and his mentally handicapped younger brother. His mom chooses to do nothing about his brother's illness, unintentionally leaving Ares to struggle with the responsibility. The writing will draw you in immediately.

What Was Lost by Catherine O'Flynn (Holt Rinehart and Winston, $14)
In the 1980s, young Kate Meaney fashions herself a junior detective with her toy monkey at a shopping mall. (Yes, a toy monkey is a character.) Kate disappears, but then 20 years later a little girl appears at the mall who could have a connection to the mall's unsettling history.


Great Summer Books Out This Summer

Legally Dead by Edna Buchanan (Simon & Schuster, $25, on sale date: August 12)
Miami's grand dame of crime writing --- and there are more than a few crime writers in Miami --- launches a news series, this one featuring former U.S. Marshal Michael Venturi, who quits the Witness Protection Program to become a one-man freelance identity wizard. It's page-turning suspense with plenty to talk about. Sounds like summer.

How to Be Single by Liz Tuccillo (Atria Books, $24.95)
Written by the executive story editor for Sex and the City, this novel is what Carrie Bradshaw would write if she were writing Eat, Pray, Love. It's chick lit, but good chick lit.

The Heartbreak Pill by Anjanette Delgado (Atria Books, $14)
A smart and sassy summer read from a smart and sassy debut author --- with a little science thrown in. For those who say there's a pill to cure everything, we bring you Erika Luna, a thirty-something scientist whose husband has left her but her formulas have not. She decides to cure heartbreak by whipping up a pill and testing it on herself. Consider this your summer science fair project.

---Debra Linn

Books and Book Friends

Do you have a particular person (or more than one perhaps) with whom you love to discuss what you're reading and swap book ideas? ReadingGroupGuides.com contributor Esther Bushell tells us about one of her favorite book friends.


Not only do I have favorite books, but I also have favorite book friends. Patty Rudiger and I met more than 30 years ago when we started to play tennis together; I was also dazzled by her daughter, Hollis, a little perky, precocious child who had more confidence and poise than any other child I knew. Patty and I discovered that we both loved to read, and we always recommended books to each other. One of our earliest shared loves was Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns. If you've never read it, drop everything and read it. I've already looked it up for you, and it's still in print, as it should be!

Patty loved Pat Conroy and introduced me to him; I loved books that were a bit darker and I also read more of the classics, so we always had AHA! reading experiences to share with each other. Patty lives in Florida now, but when she comes back to Old Greenwich in the summer, we walk at the beach together every Monday morning. Admittedly, we gossip, exchange recipes, talk about our changing bodies, our families and current events, but quite unconsciously, we begin our walks discussing books and end our walks discussing books. I raved about Evidence of Things Unseen by Marianne Wiggins, and now that's on Patty's favorite/gift giving list. Last summer, Patty raved about Ivan Doig, and as a result, all of my book groups discussed The Whistling Season.

Hollis went to Middlebury and then became an MLS; she eventually became involved in and taught at the Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC), part of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. You can have no idea how proud I felt to hear Hollis on NPR, Sunday edition, a couple of years ago. She comes by her love of reading and books --- and all things literary --- very honestly and certainly genetically.

Bottom line: books enrich our lives, but more importantly, so do our book friends.

---Esther Bushell

Beth Gutcheon: Reading Alone and Together

Today, guest blogger Beth Gutcheon ruminates on why reading is even better as a shared pastime. Beth's most recent novel, Good-Bye and Amen, is on sale today. She is also the author of Leeway Cottage, More Than You Know, Five Fortunes, Saying Grace, Domestic Pleasures, Still Missing, and The New Girls.


When I was growing up, my friend Mary McClintock and I were addicted to Oz books. We lived in a town that valued sports and fresh air much more highly than "having your nose in a book," so we had to find places to hide. Our best place was a closet I shared with my sister. It had built-in shoe niches you could climb like a ladder, and then shelves above, nice and roomy. We used to scramble up to the top with The Patchwork Girl of Oz, and The Emerald City of Oz, and a supply of Triscuits and read all day. Periodically the adults would thunder by below, looking for us, to try to make us go out and play Kick the Can or something horrible. But they never found us, and the only real problem was that it got hot up there because we were so close to the light bulb.

For my whole life, reading has been a deeply private pleasure that is even better shared. Mary and I inhabited Oz to the point that we made up our own episodes whenever we were together. We looked like normal eight-year-olds going about our business, but in reality I was in possession of a blue pearl that could make me invisible and Mary had a pink pearl that enabled her to fly --- and we were usually on a dangerous quest through the caverns of the Gnome King. We thought the Gnome King was compulsively funny, with his little stick legs and his body like a basketball and his terrible temper that made him both frightening and ridiculous.

We went on to dog books and horse books and then a Jalna book binge. Does anyone even remember the Jalna books? Then, college was a feast of reading books that your friends were also reading. The excitement of those sophomoric discussions of, I don't know, Hannah Arendt, at breakfast was very great. It took me the longest time to realize that the unfamiliar feeling of lack, or loneliness, that puzzled me in my early married life was this: For the first time in my life, no one was reading the same books I was.

My whole life changed when my friend Marcia invited me to join her quilting group. This was the '70s, when all the husbands were scared rigid when their wives went out together without the men along. Absolutely convinced that we were going to burn our underwear and refuse to cook any more and run off to join Amazon communes. "Quilting group" sounded unthreatening, but really what it was, was a book group. We all brought hand-sewing and there was some random conversation about quilt patterns or how to do trapunto, which I knew a lot about in those days, but the real point was that we met, we sewed quietly, and someone read Pride and Prejudice aloud. It was heaven. It was like an enlarged version of reading Oz books in the closet with Mary, except by then we knew a lot more and the cookies were better.

The good that book groups do is immeasurable, I believe. Getting readers into bookstores is good for readers and writers. Reading in groups is good because in groups we support each other in what we knew as children, that reading helps us get through the days with a greater understanding and sense of wonder at the lives that other people lead. It makes our worlds bigger. Reading, and talking about what we are reading, gives us a keener sense that what is going on in the minds of each one of us is important and has wide-ranging effects on the world.

We still live in a world where someone thinks you aren't doing anything when you have your nose in a book. Reading groups give cover to those of us who know we are doing something when we're reading. And reading groups give us deadlines, which are very good because they help us give ourselves permission to read when some internal scold says we should be saving the world. Reading helps us save the world, because it widens our experience far beyond what one human being can learn firsthand.

So I salute you, and thank you for the important work you are doing for readers and books --- and for helping to save the planet from those Mrs. Grundys who want to know why we have our noses in books and think we should go out and play Kick the Can.

---Beth Gutcheon

If At First You Don't Succeed....

It's not always easy to find a book club to join --- or even to start your own. Guest blogger Trish Collins of Santa Rosa, California, shares the ups and downs of her search to find a reading group to call her own.


I have wanted to be in a book club ever since I figured out that while I love reading, discussing books and connecting with people over books is part of what makes reading so great. Unfortunately for me, I didn't know any other avid reader who wanted to start a book club.

But I kept my ears perked and one night when I was working my evening job at a restaurant I got a table of four ladies, all of whom had two books: Reading Lolita in Tehran and Lolita. When I went over to take their drink order, I casually asked about the books. They told me they were a book club that picked a book and met monthly at a different restaurant.

Brilliant! Combine eating out (which I love) with discussing books (which I love)...how could these ladies not see it as fate that I be in their club?

We volleyed book titles and authors back and forth, having read many of the same books and having the same feelings on those books. Bringing them their food, I was practically giddy to be able to talk to other people who loved books like I did. As their meal came to an end and they hadn't yet invited me into their club, I decided that it was up to me to "make the first move." As the ladies were leaving, I walked up to the most talkative one and handed her a card from the restaurant that had my email address scribbled on the back.

"If you ever have an opening in your book club, I'd love to join."

I'm sure I was blushing...I blush at everything. But hours turned into days and days into weeks, and it didn't take long before I realized they must not have an opening.

But that was okay. Because I was excited about a book club, and I would start one of my own! I talked to the only friend I had who was an avid reader. She agreed to be in my book club and even suggested a neighbor of hers. We met twice but it was awkward, the three of us trying to connect over books but not seeming to.

Not to be deterred, I casually mentioned to a co-worker about wanting to start a book club a while later at a new restaurant job, and she actually wanted to join. And other people wanted to join. THAT book club didn't last more than two meetings, though. It fizzled out quicker than I could blink.

Finally, I was at my current job, and looking through a newsletter I saw an advertisement asking if anyone wanted to be in a book club. Suh-weet! I could be in a book club and wouldn't have to organize it myself. After not hearing from the organizer for a while, I emailed her and she explained that life had gotten in the way and wouldn't be able to pull this together. I volunteered to make this happen, and once again enthusiasm in the beginning did not last. At a first meeting to meet each other and discuss what books we read, there was only me, a friend in my department who loves to read, and one of the ladies from the list of more than ten that I had been given. When my friend and I left the meeting, we were dejected because the other woman's taste in books would not be conducive to what we wanted in a book club. She liked John Grisham and lighter fare, and while my friend and I have both enjoyed those kinds of books, it's not what we wanted to read for a book club.

My friend and I decided we would start our OWN book club. Just the two of us. We picked We Need to Talk About Kevin, and boy did that give us something to talk about! As we started mentioning our newly formed book club to co-workers, people wanted to join. We decided on a date and time and told people to bring books they'd like to read.

Boy, was I surprised when it worked. Our first meeting seemed to go off without a hitch. It wasn't perfect, but we all have similar interests in books and can all commit to a book club. After all my failed attempts, I had wondered if this day would ever come. But it's finally here. I have a book club in the fledgling stage that looks promising. And even if it doesn't, the sixth time is the charm, right?

How many book clubs have you been a part of over the years?

--- Trish Collins

Diana Loevy: Two or Three Things I Know about Book Clubs

Today's guest blogger is someone who knows all about book clubs: Diana Loevy, the author of The Book Club Companion. Diana leads book discussions for the Connecticut Humanities Council and for private clubs and can be reached through her website: Dianaloevy.com. Here she shares some thoughts on what the summer season means for reading groups.


I hope your club is meeting this summer. My clubs are and attendance is almost perfect. In summer, the conversations are more vibrant and the moods are superb. People I know who are prone to sweater sets are currently rocking Bardot pants and Capris of mind-blowing shades of fuchsia and canary yellow. And making their first appearances are newly purchased summer bags that are not only on sale, they have been marked down like a million times. They are of nautical themes. Our bracelets from many lands jangle in the midsummer air.

We even wear shorts when we damn well feel like it.

We choose light beach reads, genre-benders and thrillers (that means you Nora Roberts, David Wroblewski and Lee Child), or classics. I cannot wait to discuss Death Comes for the Archbishop at the beach next month. It's from that hot, hot author Willa Cather. Under jaunty, striped umbrellas, we precariously balance our Starbucks, thermoses, books, pads and writing implements on creaky beach chairs brought from home. The seagulls inevitably swoop in but we are quick, channeling the spirit of Tippi Hedren. Then Karen strikes a warrior pose, which totally freaks out birds and people alike and the gulls fly away down the beach to torment some other club.

Sadly, I have noticed that summer can be the end of days for book clubs at risk. You feel on the cusp of disbanding throughout the year, certainly, but one exquisite July day you run into Posey or Jane at the post office and all eyes are cast down. No one wants to acknowledge that the club...just didn't make it.

Don't be gloomy, it happens. We move on. Take heart:

We are never afraid to say things like: "I read this book in the original French."

We reserve eye rolling for only the most egregious cases.

We use our iphones for instant club research --- and to impress, but of course.

We are never shy about describing our innermost feelings: "As introspective as I am, I could not stomach the themes in this book."

Our moods will not affect our hosting duties and entertaining styles and we will be the first to ask if you need anything, anything at all.

When on the town, we will reject under-ripe tomatoes en masse.

We will review our notes right before the club, written in our own hand on our favorite index or personal note cards.

We cite page numbers and read passages, but only at the perfect length, as we know there is zero-tolerance for tedium.

We are currently reading and relishing The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby, Girls of Tender Age: A Memoir by Mary-Ann Tirone Smith and Netherland by Joseph O'Neill.

We appreciate each other like never before.

--- Diana Loevy

If I Only Listened to My Mom I Would Have Read Penny Vincenzi Sooner!

A few months ago my mom told me about a trilogy of books that she and her friends were reading that they could not stop talking about. She went on and on about the books, talking about the sweeping stories with endless details and the writer who wove intricate plots that twisted and turned. She told me that a number of people were reading them --- and they ALL loved them. They were not new books but rather had been published a while ago. Since on Bookreporter.com and ReadingGroupGuides.com we typically review and talk about recently published books --- I confess that I half listened and took no notes.

It's a bad move to half-listen to your mother!

So in June I picked up two books by Penny Vincenzi --- Sheer Abandon and An Absolute Scandal after reading about them on ReadingGroupGuides.com and loved them. I told my mom how much I liked them with their complex plots and how Vincenzi left the different storylines hanging and then wove them together. She said...THAT is the author I was telling you about --- who wrote the trilogy we all loved so much. So I opened An Absolute Scandal and asked her if Something Dangerous, No Angel and Into Temptation, know as the Lytton Family Trilogy, were the books she had been talking about. She said YES.

I handed her my copy of Sheer Abandon, which I had finished, and promised her a copy of An Absolute Scandal, which was the least I could do after not following her advice.

After I finished the books I went through the discussion questions to see what they prompted me to think about. I like doing this even if I am not going to be discussing a book since often the questions will get me thinking about details I missed. I looked at the last question on the discussion guide for An Absolute Scandal and wanted to talk about it. "What themes of attraction, power, and fate are woven into this and previous novels by Penny Vincenzi? In what ways does her storytelling turn real-life scenarios into thrilling out-of-this world escapades?" The latter question was one I was pondering.

Maybe my mom and I can have our own private mother-daughter book club once she finishes the books!

Vincenzi is a real star --- one not to be missed. An Absolute Scandal is our Beach Bag title on Bookreporter.com this week (July 11th through July 17th) so if you are interested in winning this book --- and a beach bag themed around it --- you can click here to enter.

By the way, while I had heard of Lloyd's of London, I was not aware of the scandal, which was a big story in the '90s. Vincenzi captured not only the horrific details of this event but also the sweeping and devastating effects on those who had been affected by it. Brilliant reading.

Mary Kay Andrews: Summer Reading

Today Mary Kay Andrews shares her dual perspective as both an author and a book club member. Her novels include Savannah Blues, Savannah Breeze and, most recently, Deep Dish, which chef Paula Deen deemed "one delicious read."


My book club here in Atlanta takes an informal hiatus in the summer --- so many of us are off on vacations, traveling for business, or just plain busy --- that we substitute an occasional lunch or informal meeting for drinks for our regularly scheduled meetings.

But my Ohio book club --- The Goddesses --- keep right on reading and meeting. Like lots of book clubs I've visited over the years, the Goddesses know how to keep things fun --- even when the reading is heavy. For instance, in June, they read Sue Miller's The Senator's Wife. In the spirit of this campaign year, the Goddesses are doing a lot of political reading. The hostess for this month's meeting sent out e-vites cheekily worded as though they were coming from Republican presidential candidate John McCain's wife, Cindy. Get it --- The Senator's Wife? Members were asked to come to the meeting dressed as their favorite Senator's wife. By all reports, the meeting was a big hit.

One of my own readers emailed me that her book club was reading Savannah Breeze for their summer meeting, and that she'd managed to scrounge up lots of Mary Kay cosmetic samples to give away in goodie bags to members --- so they'd remember the author...Mary Kay Andrews. (Absolutely no relation to the cosmetic queen.)

Years ago, when Savannah Blues first came out, I was invited to join a book club discussion. Because my protagonist, Weezie Foley, is an antique dealer, all the members were asked to bring their own vintage treasure along with a story of how it was acquired, so we could stage our own mini Antiques Road Show. All the food for the party was blue --- including frozen blue margaritas which the hostess ruefully dubbed "Tidy-Bowl-Ritas" because of their unfortunate resemblance to a popular household cleaner, blue corn chips and blueberry muffins. All the cold drinks for the meeting were iced down in an inexpensive inflatable child's wading pool. I still want to steal that idea for a party.

The Ohio Goddesses seem to compete with each other for fun themed meetings. I remember the summer we read The Secret Life of Bees, everybody met at an apiary (a bee farm) to learn about bee-keeping and to sample honey-sweetened goodies. When we read Seabiscuit, the hostess for that month's meeting rented a van and transported all the members to a nearby horse-racing track. Members ate a sack lunch that the hostess prepared in advance, and everybody was given $2 to place their own bets. I hate that I missed that meeting!

The first time I hosted the Goddesses, my choice was Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote. My friend Barb actually provided the location and refreshments since I live in Atlanta. But I came up with the table centerpiece --- several Tiffany blue gift boxes and a Breakfast at Tiffany's trivia quiz. The winner was awarded a $50 Tiffany's gift certificate, which came in its own trademark blue box with white ribbons.

How about your book club? Do you take the summer off? Meet at beach houses or mountain cottages? Do you switch to lighter beach books, or do you tackle more serious fare over the summer?

---Mary Kay Andrews

Patti Callahan Henry: What Book Clubs Offer Authors

Today's guest blogger is Patti Callahan Henry, who offers an author's perspective on book club gatherings --- and how a novel can speak to each reader in a different way. Patti is the author of Between the Tides, When Light Breaks, Where the River Runs, Losing the Moon and, most recently, The Art of Keeping Secrets.


There is a mysterious magic in writing, in the final work of the art and craft in forming a story. Book clubs are essential in this magic --- the magic of a book speaking about something more than the author had originally intended.

Talking to book clubs offers alchemy to the book I wrote, the book I thought I knew frontward and backward (I mean, I wrote it after all --- and rewrote it, and rewrote it, etc....). Then I sit with a group and they ask me a question, or offer a comment and I am stunned --- I didn't see that about the story; I missed that theme completely. And then I am humbled, once again, by the process and art of writing.

For a group to get together and commit to meeting at a regular time is a small miracle in today's hectic world of to-do lists and driven success. This time is meant as a separate space in time to talk about books, stories, and personal lives --- how each affects the other. How beautiful and sacred.

I spoke to a book club on the phone last year and a woman told me that she had lost her father and then found out things about him that she never knew. In a sweet, broken voice she then told me that my novel Between the Tides helped her to understand that he was a separate man with his own struggles and heroic deeds, not just the man she had formed in her mind.

Now maybe somewhere in the back of my mind I knew this was a "message" in my novel, but really I had been writing about my own themes (how untold secrets influence lives), and this woman had taken, through the combination of word and story, a completely different message to her heart.

This, right here, is magic.

Book clubs are magic in that beautiful way.

---Patti Callahan Henry

What Works/What Doesn't Work

Last week Pam Cox shared selections read by her nonfiction book club and talked about how she formed a spin-off group for fiction titles. Today she has a tip for making sure your book club stays up to par --- by regularly having members offer their thoughts on what works and what doesn't. Here is how the members of the "Ladies of Pleasure, Reading" book club do it.


Which came first: your friendships with your fellow book club members or your book club? Either way, these relationships are somewhat unique. They are built and nurtured around reading and sharing with everyone how a book has affected us --- sometimes against the majority opinion!

When I founded our group in 2000, we were a mix of women who were close friends, some casual friends, some yet-to-be-discovered friends. Since then we have "lost" only four members and "found" four new members --- we total 10 on a regular basis. As with any group who loves and respects each other, it can be very daunting to broach a subject that will possibly be taken negatively by some people. Feeling responsible to a fault, I want everyone to have a terrific time at our meetings, go home having learned something profound, tell everyone they know that our group tops any other in the universe, and having enjoyed the most luscious refreshments available.

As others with the Responsibility Gene can attest, this makes it really hard for me to say things like, "__, please stop talking so someone else can get a word in!" Or, "We are so far off track that I've forgotten which book we read! Please steer us back!" Or, "___ and ___ , maybe you can have lunch tomorrow and stop talking aside while we're discussing the book!" Or, "Late again?" You get the picture. I assumed if it's hard for me to speak up to people near and dear to me, it probably is hard for someone else. Likewise, I would often re-play a meeting as I fell asleep and wonder why I didn't tell __ how much I loved her interpretation of a passage, or thank ___ for changing my whole outlook on a book, or acknowledge ___ for bravely telling us all why she's the only one who loved/hated that book. I felt like there was an opportunity for us to communicate, aside from our book discussions, and build stronger friendships and a stronger group at the same time.

I resisted pointing the conversation in any one direction --- the question "what's wrong?" doesn't leave much room for improvement. So, I started the practice of, every six months, going around the room and asking, "What works about our book club?" Then, "What doesn't work about our book club?" Members are told in the reminder e-mail (sent the week before the meeting) that we're going to update our What Works/Doesn't Work list and they can come up with as many or as few items as they want. It takes only about 10 minutes, and everyone is heard in the context of improving our get-togethers for all of us. I write these suggestions down and then type them up to hand out at our next meeting. When an issue pops up that the group has agreed doesn't work, someone will remind us that we're "not working" for everyone. Gratitude and appreciation also shows up when we see what works for us that we may have been taking for granted.

Here are a few examples from our latest Works/Doesn't Work conversation:

WORKS
- New ideas and new people (We just welcomed three new members.)
- Being "held to task" to read new things we would not otherwise have read (the main joy of a book club!)
- Length of time between meetings (4-6 weeks)
- In-depth discussions of our books (We were skimming or focusing too much on one aspect of the books.)
- How we pick our next book (We rotate who chooses the book each month --- rotation is alphabetical by last name --- which ensures that everyone gets a say.)
- Meeting on Sunday evenings (see below)

DOESN'T WORK
- Not staying on track (We get frequent, friendly reminders when we wander off.)
- Books that are too long and take too much time to read (This was a surprise to some of us --- we're more aware now of peoples' other commitments and the time of year when choosing what book to read.)
- Fixing a pot-luck meal every time (We had gotten to be a dinner club that happened to read books --- not what we wanted. We have occasional meals now.)
- Meeting on Sunday evenings (I never said we solved everything! Now we vary meeting days more.)

I have asked our members over the years how What Works/Doesn't Work works for them and, without exception, It Works!

---Pam Cox

Elizabeth Brundage: It's Not Always About the Book

Today guest blogger Elizabeth Brundage, author of the novels The Doctor's Wife and Somebody Else's Daughter (which is on sale today), shares some observations about book groups --- the different perspectives members bring to a conversation, what she finds most satisfying as a writer and why it's important to discuss the written word.

A book group is a writer's best friend. I have met with book groups across the country, both in person and by telephone, and I am always impressed by the intelligence and knowledge of the participants. Some groups focus entirely on story, the intricacies of plot, while others are more interested in the characters, the choices they make, good and bad. Other groups like to hunker down and hash out the big issues.

I think the book group phenomenon has been great for people because, unlike the assigned reading we all had in high school, where many of us relied on the blessed enlightenment of Spark Notes, we are not going to be tested on our thoughts and impressions, and many of us come to realize that we're a whole lot smarter when it comes to this stuff than we thought. So, as it turns out, reading is much more entertaining than it was back in tenth grade, when many of us were sweating our way through Pride and Prejudice. And the truth is, reading should be fun --- it should be absolutely thrilling. I always say boring doesn't make it "literary." Consider the Russian novels, the first great psychological thrillers, with characters so richly complex --- characters like Raskolnikov in Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment --- readers become so disturbed they can't resist turning pages. So often I've heard readers exclaim, "Wow, that really was a great book --- I hated it in high school!" In this regard, reading groups present a wonderful opportunity to reread the greatest books ever written by writers who are all but forgotten.

For a writer, there is nothing more satisfying than meeting one's readers, hearing their ideas about the work, their complaints and observations. Book groups are a forum for all kinds of discussion and discourse, and books are often just springboards for larger conversations about our culture and our lives. In my own work, I attempt to examine a variety of social problems and it has been fascinating to hear what people have to say about some of these issues.

My first novel, The Doctor's Wife, explored the conflict surrounding Reproductive Rights --- it was so interesting to hear what readers felt and thought about the "issue" in relation to their own lives, their own personal stories. I was surprised by how severely some of the readers judged my characters. It occurred to me that it is part of why people read --- the opportunity to watch a character confront a problem and figure out how to solve it, for better or worse.

Book groups provide readers with an opportunity to voice their opinions about subjects that affect us all. It is so good for people to talk! It is wonderful to gather together to discuss the written word --- along with a little good food and wine. What I've learned as a writer is that it's not always about the book. The book --- any book --- is a good excuse to get down to the nitty gritty about who we are, how we feel, and what we want and need as human beings. It's an important aspect of cultural progress. And a little good wine doesn't hurt, either.

---Elizabeth Brundage

Am I a Bad Mother?

I got a note from a loyal reader a few weeks ago asking this question that really made me laugh.

"Do you think God forgives reader-mothers who give their kids a quick and easy pasta or sandwich because we MUST FINISH a book and don't want to cook?"

For all of you looking for absolution from overlooking dinner for your reading addiction, I hereby do absolve you. I know there are many time that I not only have rushed dinner, but also have slept through the morning alarm after staying up way way too late at night reading a book.

And for all of you who are skipping a four-food group dinner the night before your book club meeting to get the book read. You are doubly absolved.

Sooooo...back to reading for all of you! Flip those pages.


---Carol Fitzgerald

Too Many Great Books to Read?

If your book club has too many great page-turners to read, Pam Cox has an idea. When her nonfiction book club in Harrisonburg, Virginia, wanted to start reading fiction, she solved the issue by creating a spin-off book club. Several ambitious members even belong to both. Here Pam shares some of their nonfiction reading selections.


Has your book club ever had so many great books on the table that it takes way too long to choose The One for next month's meeting? Is someone always disappointed at the prospect of reading solo an intriguing book that begs for discussion? Well, that "someone" was me.

In 1999, I got some friends (and friends-in-waiting) together for a book club to discuss Gary Zukav's Seat of the Soul. After reading Chapter 1, I felt like I should not go there alone. The group consisted of three women and one man, and we took it slowly and spent about four months on that book --- reading sections for discussion instead of the whole book at one sitting. It was so rewarding that we decided to choose another book of that genre when we finished Seat. Next was The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz, and we had a roomful of people --- men and women --- and it was another great success!

Around that time, The Red Tent came into our sights and some of us wanted to read that AND Dr. Phil's Life Strategies. Not being willing or able to say "no" to a good book, we created a second book club for (mainly) fiction or pleasure reading: Ladies of Pleasure, Reading. (It so happened that the men did not want to go into fiction.)

Nine years and 84 books later, we have both our nonfiction club "Veritas" and our (mainly) fiction club "Ladies of Pleasure, Reading" going strong! Our fiction club has 10 members, six of whom are original founding members, and our nonfiction club has nine members, six of whom have been there since the beginning. Veritas has members who weave in and out depending on their level of interest in the topic we've chosen. We go slowly with most books, seldom reading an entire book every month. Some of the books we've studied are Life Strategies by Dr. Phil and the accompanying workbook, several of the Enneagram personality types books by Helen Palmer and David Daniels (we studied Enneagramology for more than two years and grew to 15 members during that time), Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now, Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat, Malcolm Gladwell's Blink, and some quicker reads like Tao of Pooh and Einstein's Dreams mixed in.

For another discussion, we split the group in half with some reading Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma and the rest reading Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. The discussion took place over a meal made exclusively from local food --- in November! A very mind-expanding choice was the film What the Bleep Do We Know? paired with the online study guide --- quantum physics made entertaining and accessible. Most recently we completed a four-month course on global warming from a publication of the Eco-Alliance, and we had four new members for that discussion.

Many of the Pleasure Ladies also regularly participate in Veritas, and the membership ---men and women --- fluctuates with the topic. It's twice the opportunity to explore books we may not have read at all with groups that are thriving!

Why not take a poll in your group to see how many members would be interested in doubling their pleasure?

---Pam Cox