Joyce Hinnefeld: Garnering Book Club Insight

Today guest blogger Joyce Hinnefeld shares some of the questions she'd like to ask reading groups about her debut novel, In Hovering Flight, which was published this month. It's the story of the struggles and triumphs of Addie Sturmer Kavanagh, a famous bird artist and environmental activist, and her family --- her husband, Tom, an ornithologist and musician, and their poet daughter, Scarlet, who slowly comes to terms with her mother's complicated past.


I love the whole phenomenon of the reading group, which has transformed reading for so many people, particularly women. Suddenly reading isn't an isolated or a purely academic act (something you do to perform well, to write a decent paper or do well on a test); it's a communal endeavor, a reason to come together with others and share reactions and food --- and wine! I love how many groups also seem to make sure there's plenty of wine!

I think of a student at Moravian College in Bethlehem, PA, where I teach, who did an independent study with me a couple years ago. We read and talked about Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie, Richard Wright's Native Son, Dorothy Allison's Bastard Out of Carolina, and Benjamin Kunkel's Indecision, among other things. Krys, the student, had smart, interesting things to say about all these books, but the one that got her most excited was Bastard Out of Carolina --- because her younger cousin was reading it too. There was someone --- besides me --- to talk to about it! Krys just loved that, and she spoke, too, about how some of her best reading experiences had happened in classes, when she and her fellow students had talked and argued and laughed. That was an instructive reminder for me as a teacher, just to get out of the way and let my students talk.

I have all kinds of questions I'd like to ask the members of groups who read In Hovering Flight. For instance: How irritating is Addie, to you? Some readers have told me that Addie really bothers them, but I continue to like and admire Addie so much, despite her self-righteous tendencies. I wonder sometimes if the people who find her so irritating are reminded of a self-righteous someone in their own lives --- if Addie just really pushes those particular buttons.

A lot of my questions for book group members would probably revolve around Addie. Can you imagine being as passionate and driven about anything as Addie is about habitat loss for birds? For the mothers in the group: How many times have you said, to yourself at least, that you really dislike motherhood? And to any and all readers: How many rounds of chemotherapy do you think you'd say yes to? As many as were offered, no matter what you felt about what those rounds of therapy had done to you? Have you had friends like Addie's friends Cora and Lou? I'd particularly like to hear about friends like Lou --- the kind who constantly exasperate you, but whom you also miss the minute they leave the room. I have questions about Tom and Scarlet too, of course. Here's one, connected with Scarlet: Have you ever had the fantasy of reconnecting with one of your earliest loves?

But I'll stop, for now. I love the idea of hearing what readers might say about these things --- but mostly I love the idea of hearing all the questions (and answers) I haven't even thought of yet.

I'd love to hear from you! You can find me online at InHoveringFlight.com.

---Joyce Hinnefeld