Dori Carter: Money, Satire and Edith Wharton's Mother

Today's guest blogger is Dori Carter, the author of We Are Rich, an interwoven collection of stories about a fictional California town where the nature of status is turned on its head over the course of six decades. She shares some insight into the book and explains a connection with Edith Wharton's mother. Dori is also the author of the novel Beautiful Wasps Having Sex.


Edith Wharton's mother once gave the young Edith a bit of advice on behaving in society: "Never talk about money, and think about it as little as possible."

Of course, Edith Wharton came from an old-moneyed aristocracy so she could afford to take it for granted. But I've always been fascinated by money and class. Probably because when I was growing up we had neither. I was raised in a middle-class community on the south shore of Long Island. In the 1950s, my father was considered eccentric for driving an old Volvo in a town where status was trading in your Cadillac every year. These were the same people who kept the plastic covers on their living room furniture. Our neighbors weren't well-traveled or well-educated, they were mostly second generation Jews who had moved to the suburbs from Brooklyn or Queens so their children could have back yards and attend good public schools.

The America of my childhood still retained a secure upper class whose members lived virtual worlds away from my hometown. These were the people who ran the banks and corporations and white shoe law firms. They belonged to private clubs and lived in exclusive communities that often didn't allow Jews, much less people of color. These were green, leafy neighborhoods firmly reserved for White Anglo Saxon Protestants --- mostly Episcopalians, who went to eastern prep schools and Ivy League colleges where their fathers and grandfathers had gone before them.

But the 1960s changed all that. Along with the Cultural Revolution came widespread use of the SAT. Admission to the elite colleges was now based on performance and intelligence, not lineage. The Civil Rights Movement, the Women's Movement, and the rise of technology leveled the playing field even further. Within one generation America was becoming a meritocracy where anyone with brains and drive could make it. The children of parents with plastic covers on their furniture seized the opportunity to become America's New Ruling Class. The patrician image could now be purchased, courtesy of tastemakers like Ralph Lauren, ne' Ralph Lifshitz, himself a Jewish child of the Bronx.

We Are Rich is the story of Rancho Esperanza, a fictional California town where Old Money and New Money live in loathing proximity. Written as a collection of interwoven first person short stories, everyone has their say. Characters appear and reappear throughout the book, in revolving narratives and from different points of view.

The book begins in 1943 when Rancho Esperanza was the bastion of good, solid Anglo-Saxon Republican propriety. Over the next six decades, we see how New Money brings about a change in American values. New York Hedge Fund Managers, Hollywood producers and Silicon Valley billionaires take over --- and not everyone is happy about it. One character, a bit of a snob who finds the town besieged by trendy designers of ersatz Tuscan villas says, "They move here because they think it’s beautiful and then they tear down everything of beauty and replace it with their own atrocious taste."

The Old Guard finds itself becoming irrelevant; age and inheritance taxes have taken their toll. They are the last generation of rich white males who once ruled America --- dinosaurs doddering toward extinction. And their children --- the fourth generation of privilege, find themselves with diminished trust funds and diminished ambition to make it on their own. Some mourn this passing, others are oblivious or simply too busy making money to notice. The book ends in 2007 and foreshadows our current boom gone bust.

One critic wrote, "Carter frequently catches and releases the victims of her satirical wit. She skewers new and old money alike, but not without sympathy. We Are Rich is Upstairs, Downstairs meets Roshomon meets Brideshead Revisited..."

Apologies to Edith Wharton's mom.

---Dori Carter

Take Your Book Group to Guernsey

Do you want to visit the island in the English Channel where The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is set?

To novel, which spent more than 30 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, is now available in trade paperback. To celebrate, the Random House Publishing Group is holding a special contest for book clubs. From now through July 31st, you can enter the "Take Your Book Group to Guernsey" Sweepstakes for a chance to win a 4-day/3-night trip to Guernsey (October 2 - October 5, 2009) with up to five members of your book club. If any of you are members of a book discussion group and are interested in entering this contest, click here for details.

If you'd like to read author Annie Barrows' guest blog post on ReadingGroupGuides.com, you can find it here.

Joshua Henkin's Book Club Adventures: The Latest Chapter, April 2009

Novelist and creative writing professor Joshua Henkin regularly shares behind-the-scenes stories with us about his meetings with reading groups to discuss his novel Matrimony. He often shares popular questions that book club members like to ask him, and this month he turns the tables and reveals a question that he likes to ask groups.


April's Condensed Statistics
Number of Book Groups Visited: 6
Number in Person: 1
Number by Phone: 4
Number by Skype: 1
Number of States Represented: 5 (Connecticut, Virginia, Arizona, Florida, Ohio)
Total Number of Participants, not including author: 70
Total Number of Male Participants, not including
author: 3




A Popular Book Group Question Asked by the Author in April: How do you Choose your Book Group Books?

Usually in this space I write about a question I get asked by book group members, but this month I want to talk about a question of mine. Every time I talk to a book group, I start off by asking the members what books the group has read recently and how the group chose them. The answers are as varied as the book groups themselves, but I've noticed certain trends. Some book groups choose the books as much as a year in advance, while others simply do it one month at a time. Some book groups research the matter exhaustively, while others decide more spontaneously, as everyone is about to leave for the night. In some cases it's done by vote, and in other cases the person who's hosting the next time gets to choose (and that way, if people don't like the book, they know whom to blame, though with any luck the host will be console everyone with plenty of good food and wine).

Although there's no one right way to do it, I've found that the book groups that research the matter more thoroughly and choose their books well in advance end up with a more diverse and interesting selection of books. I also think there's something to be said for letting a different person choose each time. That's because democracy, though it has its benefits, tends to be about compromise over passion. If I were in a book group (I'm not: having now talked to 150 book groups about Matrimony, I can safely say that my life is a book group), I would prefer to have read six books I adored and six books I hated than to have read twelve books that I thought were O.K.. The way to bring this about, it seems to me, is to allow one person each time to decide autocratically what gets read. This way, the members of the book group are far more likely to be exposed to books they wouldn't otherwise have read.

I've found that when this happens people are often surprised and they end up liking a book they hadn't expected to, and even if they don't like it, most of them are glad to have read it, not least because a discussion about a book the members don't like can be at least as interesting as, sometimes more interesting than, a discussion about a book the members do like. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with Three Cups of Tea, Eat, Pray, Love and The Memory Keeper's Daughter (I don't know; I haven't read them), but every book club in America is discussing these books. Better, as I've suggested elsewhere, to have a rule that the book club will discuss only those books that at least half of the members have never heard of. That way, people get exposed to much more.

What I would encourage book clubs to do is what I encourage my writing students to do: take risks. Reading, like writing, is about getting outside of your own experience, and what better way to do that than to read a book you were dubious of and to find that it transports you.

---Joshua Henkin

Previous RGG.com Posts by Joshua Henkin:
Book Club Adventures, March 2009
Book Club Adventures, March 2009 Part II
Book Club Adventures, February 2009
Book Club Adventures, February 2009 Part II
Book Club Adventures, January 2009
Book Club Adventures, January 2009 Part II

Lisa See: How Three Book Clubs Helped with SHANGHAI GIRLS

Authors often to talk to book clubs about their work after it has been published. But in Lisa See's case, three groups had an impact during the writing process of her latest novel, Shanghai Girls, which is on sale today. In today's guest blog post, she reveals what insight they had to offer.

Lisa's other novels include Peony in Love and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan.


Publishers, book critics, and writers often take a jaundiced view of book clubs. Publishers talk about the importance of book clubs and how they can help sell a book by spreading word of mouth. Book critics are scornful of the role book clubs play in the success and perceived quality of a book. Writers, for their part, do their best to cultivate book clubs, visiting them in person, by speaker phone, or on Skype, because we know that book club members can be our best readers and advocates. While I've done my fair share of courting and visiting book clubs (I've done an average of two book clubs by phone a week for the last three years), I was helped very much by three specific book clubs during the writing of Shanghai Girls. I don't mean that this was market research or that I was encouraged to write what book clubs said they liked or wanted next. Rather, each encounter changed the way I approached the actual writing --- the characters, the themes and, most important, the emotional heart of the novel.

I did a month-long online book club for Barnes & Noble for my last book. B&N online book clubs are supposed to have a moderator who asks questions and guides the conversation. This time, however, the moderator didn't show up. So there I was with a group of women --- total strangers to me and to each other --- from all across the country, trying to lead a conversation about Peony in Love. Right at that time I was thinking a lot about the Chinese and Western concepts of fate, fortune and destiny and how I might incorporate those ideas into Shanghai Girls. So instead of the women asking me questions, I shifted our conversation away from Peony in Love to these more philosophical ideas. The women not only helped me clarify my own thinking about fate, fortune and destiny --- those three words ended up dividing the three sections of the novel --- but some of their thoughts and words appear in the book as well.

Book clubs always ask what I'm working on next. During the last two years when I was asked this, I told them about Shanghai Girls, which is about two sisters. Always the conversation would turn to the often slippery and problematic relationship between sisters. I had my own ideas about this and had them in my outline for Shanghai Girls, but I began to question my decisions. One day, when I was on the phone with the 12th Street Book Club, I asked, "Is there anything your sister could do that would be unforgivable, and what would you do if that happened?" The women in the book club kept insisting that --- even though they'd had fights with their sisters and maybe hadn't spoken to them in years --- "sisters were for life." That simple sentence stayed with me and convinced me that my instinct was right, even if it meant I had to change my plot. This was the correct choice and one I was working toward myself, but these women acted as my sounding boards, unknowingly helping me to make the right human and artistic choices.

Finally, I was a live auction item for a library fundraiser in Fairfield, California. The winner would fly her book group to Los Angeles, where I would treat the members to a dim sum lunch, take them on a tour of Chinatown and then give them signed copies of my books. I thought, They'll never come. But they did! We had our lunch, and then we began the tour. The women were having a wonderful time, but I became increasingly devastated. As we visited with my family in their various Chinatown enterprises, some of which have been in business for more than 100 years, I realized that all the people and places who had made me who I am --- as a woman and as a writer --- were going to be gone in a few years. I know we all experience this feeling of loss at some point in our lives and that it becomes --- sadly --- more frequent as we get older. But I'm in it right now. That feeling of loss became the emotional heart of Shanghai Girls, and I don't know if I would have found it if not for the Fairfield Book Club's inadvertent help.

So thank you to all the women in book clubs who helped me. I know that Shanghai Girls is a better book because of you.

---Lisa See

Also by Lisa See on RGG.com:
Lisa See's Thank You to Book Clubs
How Book Clubs Have Changed

Holiday Weekend Reading

One of the things I love about summer holiday weekends is deciding what books I'm going to read. Here are two suggestions for Memorial Day reading, one from me (The Elegance of the Hedgehog) and the other from RGG.com contributing editor Shannon McKenna Schmidt (The Wildwater Walking Club). And they both would make excellent discussion picks for your book club. What are you reading this weekend? Share your selections in the comments section.


The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

Recently I visited Word, a bookstore in Brooklyn, New York, where I had a wonderful time browsing. I left with a copy of Muriel Barbery's The Elegance of the Hedgehog from Europa Editions, which publishes English translations of European titles (this one from the French). The author had been at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books last month, and after her panel there was a long of people who wanted their books signed by her.

Set in a Paris apartment building, The Elegance of the Hedgehog is about two unlikely kindred spirits: a concierge who hides her intelligence behind a crass exterior and a 12-year-old girl who has decided to end her life on her next birthday. It has received terrific reviews, as well as word of mouth, and I’m looking forward to checking it out for myself. I also just learned that a new book is due from Muriel this fall, Gourmet Rhapsody, which is a novel translated from the French about the greatest food critic in the world.


The Wildwater Walking Club by Claire Cook

After Noreen Kelly is downsized by both her employer and her boyfriend, she dons a pair of sneakers and hits the pavement. She and her neighbors Tess and Rosie walk and talk, getting fit and sharing secrets. I've been saving The Wildwater Walking Club for Memorial Day Weekend --- the unofficial start of summer and the perfect time to indulge in one of Claire's novels, which are guaranteed fun, smart reads with a little sass thrown in. And what's more, even though I'm staying put at home this weekend I can live vicariously through the Wildwater women, who head out on an excursion that's on my own travel list --- a road trip to a lavender festival.

A discussion guide for The Wildwater Walking Club is available on ClaireCook.com. Book clubs certainly have the talking part down, but if you'd also like to lace up your sneakers and start walking, check out Claire's Walking Club Guide.

Anna Elliott: The Novelist's First Duty

What is a novelist's first duty? Today's guest blogger, Anna Elliott, offers her view on the subject, along with answering a recent question she was asked by a reader and sharing why she believes her grandfather would have been proud of her literary endeavors. Anna is the author of Twilight of Avalon, the first book in a trilogy imaging the life of Queen Isolde of the Arthurian legends.


One of my favorite aspects of having Twilight of Avalon come out has been the wonderful questions I've been asked by readers. And one of my favorite recent questions was: "Isolde is a healer but is, herself, in need of healing from a traumatic past. Do you see a connection?"

My Isolde is the daughter of Modred, the great villain of the cycle of King Arthur tales, and the story of Twilight of Avalon takes place seven years after the catastrophic battle of Camlann, in which both King Arthur and Modred fell. As her story begins, I do think that Isolde is very much in need of healing from a traumatic past, and I certainly believe that need plays a huge part in her passion for being a healer and her skill at the healer's craft. She needs to believe that recovery from trauma is possible, but doesn't yet know how she herself can find the healing she offers others every day. One of the joys of writing Twilight of Avalon and the forthcoming sequels Dark Moon of Avalon and Sunrise of Avalon, has been watching her work towards making true peace with her past and finding lasting internal healing.

But the real reason I loved the question so much was that for me, it touched not only on the heart of Isolde's story, but on the reason I wrote the Twilight of Avalon trilogy at all. My grandfather spent his last few years in a nursing home, dying of Parkinson's disease. He couldn't walk or stand or even feed himself; for the last two or three years he could barely talk. What he could still do, though, was read --- and read he did, voraciously, day and night, through every one of the stacks and stacks of books my parents and I would bring. And though he would read nearly anything, he loved the romances --- the books with a guaranteed happy ending --- most of all.

One of my favorite quotes on writing is from Donna Tartt, who wrote, "The first duty of the novelist is to entertain. It is a moral duty. People who read your books are sick, sad, traveling, in the hospital waiting room while someone is dying. Books are written by the alone for the alone." And though I write for my own internal reader, first and foremost telling the stories that I myself would most want to read, I do think of my grandpa every day, every time my fingers touch the computer keys. And if I have an external reader looking over my shoulder while I work, it's him --- my grandpa, who as he lay in his bed at the nursing home needed stories of hope, stories to remind him of the human spirit's infinite capacity to triumph over even the most extreme hardship, the most bitter sorrow.

My grandpa died six years ago, now. Years before the Twilight of Avalon trilogy sold, years before I could even tell him about the dream that inspired me to write about Isolde and her journey towards true healing in the first place. Somewhere, somehow, I like to think he knows, though. And I know --- I absolutely know --- how happy he'd be.

---Anna Elliott

Sally Koslow: Discussing Molly Marx...and More

Today's Guest blogger, Sally Koslow, offers some talking points and topics about her latest novel, The Late, Lamented Molly Marx.

I spent a lovely day on the deck in North Carolina while I was on vacation reading an advance copy of The Late, Lamented Molly Marx. I had enjoyed Sally's first book, Little Pink Slips, and felt that in that one she nailed a lot about the magazine business that we both had worked in; I had first met her when she worked at Mademoiselle. Thus I was looking forward to getting into Molly Marx. She had me at the first page, and I found myself sitting in the deck chair reading until the sun was setting. From her perch "somewhere above" Molly watches over her loved ones as they peel away the layers of her life to learn what happened to her and whether her death was an accident or something else. The Late, Lamented Molly Marx is smart, it's brisk, it's clever and when you close it, you definitely want to chat about it.


Five years ago, if you'd predicted that in 2009 I'd be a woman who works wearing sweats, in a den/bedroom, finishing her third novel, I'd have asked what you were smoking. I'd shimmied up the flagpole, happily balancing on the top as the editor-in-chief of McCall's, a magazine you --- or even your great-grandma --- might have read. Then...whoops. I fell, landing far away from the vortex of activity that is a Manhattan office.

In the shattering quiet that was my new life, no longer surrounded by witty colleagues, I asked fundamental questions. Who will I talk to all day? Where's the I.T. guy? Most important, who am I? I'd made plenty of bad decisions in my life, but one I never regretted was becoming an editor, the universe's best job. What now --- and the 30 years after them?

Then, one day, a voice squeaked: "Try to write a novel, Sal." Though I was probably the one woman in the Western world convinced that she most definitely did not have a book in her, I listened to the voice and persuaded a creative writer teacher to let me join his workshop, because I instinctively knew that only if someone barked "it's due Monday," would I put any words on paper. A procrastinator at heart, I do respect deadlines, since my life has been measured out by them for 30 years. The teacher gave me an assignment. I fulfilled it. I rinsed, lathered and repeated...until the manuscript was done.

Writing a book is like giving birth to a baby elephant, the result of a twenty-two month gestation, more or less. My first novel, Little Pink Slips --- about, ahem, an editor who loses her job --- is being followed this month by The Late, Lamented Molly Marx, a story inspired while attending the funeral for a neighbor whom I didn't know well. As eulogies unfolded, I wished I had. When people gathered at the widower's home, I moved on to shock when mourners approached him about dating and his mother whined about what a difficult person her deceased daughter-in-law had been. By evening I was infected by a "you-can't-make-this-stuff-up" feeling and knew I wanted to write about mysterious circumstances cloaking a woman's death.

The Late, Lamented Molly Marx is built on a mystery, but the real mystery isn't how Molly died, but the complex relationships that made up her life. I'm pleased that readers are finding the novel to be amusing; I admire writing where humor and tenderness collide. It also makes me feel terrific that people are telling me Molly has a compelling voice, because when I read myself, it's all about relatable characters and the emotions they stir. I've tried to write the kind of book I like to read.

I've always felt that after you're finished reading a novel, the experience is vastly enhanced by chewing through it with smart people who come at the story from different directions, comparing their reactions. Nothing would delight me more than if The Late, Lamented Molly Marx would be embraced by book clubs. There's a lot to discuss. Molly, for instance, suspects that her husband cheats. Why do women stay with guys like that? Should they have split up? Do you know women who marry men who you think aren't their equal --- or the reverse?

The Late, Lamented Molly Marx explores relationships between sisters, which the anthropologist Margaret Mead has observed is often the most troubled one in the family! Why do you think so many sisters can't get along? And moving from sisters to friends --- another element in the novel --- what qualities do you believe need to be present for women to maintain strong, lasting friendships?

Molly is a young mom. I'm wondering if readers will think that giving birth helps her grow up, and if they consider her a good mother. How does motherhood enrich a woman's life? Make women's lives harder?

Molly's challenge is learning how to let go. In a book club, I'm hoping book club participants will discuss situations in their own lives where they've had to grapple with loss, and share what's helped them.

There's a lot to talk about in The Late, Lamented Molly Marx. I only wish I could be in on the discussions of my novel, my baby elephant. Writing it has made me realize that while some days I miss my old job, mostly, I just miss the shoes and the people who wear them.

Stop by my website, SallyKoslow.com. I'd be happy to visit your book club, either in person or by phone.

---Sally Koslow

Book Club Discovery

Marion Percy, a member of The Cape Goddesses Book Group in Connecticut, came across a novel called The Mountain while browsing in an independent bookstore in upstate New York. She selected it as her book club pick, which led to a road trip, a lively discussion with the author...and a surprise invitation. Today she shares her story of this book club discovery with us.



I'm always in search of books about art and artists. I also love books that teach me something about an area I've visited. When I saw The Mountain, a novel by Raymond J. Steiner, in Merritt Bookstore in Millbrook, New York, where I grew up, I was intrigued right away because the story takes place in nearby Woodstock.

When I read the first few pages, I knew right away this would be my next choice for my book group, The Cape Goddesses. I read The Mountain right away, though, rather than waiting until it was my turn to lead discussion!

The next step when I love a book is to Google the author. It turned out Mr. Steiner was doing a reading at the Woodstock Art Association Museum in a few weeks. I met up with one of my group members, and another member of the ReadingGroupGuides.com online group in which I participate. We made a field trip from Connecticut to hear Mr. Steiner. While there, I also bought copies of The Mountain so he could sign them for my friends. (By the way, one of my group members does not keep her books. She donates her them to her very small local library. Now they will have a signed copy for their collection.)

It was an intimate gathering for the event. We had a lot of time to talk with Mr. Steiner and loved his reading. The location was perfect because we were able to see paintings by many of the local artists mentioned in the book.

When it was time for our group's discussion of the book, Mr. Steiner joined us by phone for an hour. All you booklovers know how wonderful author participation is! It was his first phone-in discussion. He talked a lot about art in general and his background, which includes being an art critic and editor of the journal Art Times. During our conversation we got to know his characters more intimately --- particularly Jake Forscher, the main character, who in the book leads the reader through the history of the Woodstock Artists' Colony --- and talked about how art makes us feel; even a little about painting technique. And he invited us to come visit him!

One of our guests that night was a local librarian, and she brought along books by and about artists who were important in the development of the Woodstock art colony described in the book. This also strengthened the personal connection to the story.

Now, we have another field trip to look forward to when we visit Mr. Steiner.

---Marion Percy

Book Clubs in the News

This round-up of news stories illustrates the diversity of book clubs, from one focused on improving its members lives by addressing their medical needs to another centered on an appetizing combination --- reading and cooking.


AZCentral.com: Facilitator Enjoys Helping Others Share Joy of Books
Arizona book club facilitator Phyllis Payne, who leads 10 book clubs in northeast Phoenix, Scottsdale, and Tempe, shares some advice.

Connecticut Post: Page Turners: The Overtones are Not What You Might Expect
Meet the Overtones, a vibrant book club in New Milford, Connecticut, who offer up some tips and suggestions (such as putting discussion questions on pieces of paper in a bowl and passing it around for members to each select one).

Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Market Street Book Club Combines Eating and Reading for a Different Kind of Discussion Group
Members of a Fort Worth, Texas, group have the best of both worlds with a combination cooking class and book club.

Globe and Mail: Sick? Read All About It
The members of a book club in Kingston, Ontario, came together to find answers when their doctors couldn't help them. After more than a decade, this inspiring group is still going strong. As one member said, "We don't just read the books --- we live the books."

OSU's The Lantern: Book Club Helps Adults with Disabilities Discover Classics
In Columbus, Ohio, the Next Chapter Book Club, adults with intellectual disabilities read classic works...and along with improving reading and comprehension skills build a connection to the community.

The Sun Chronicle: Author Ann Hood Visits Local Book Group
Attelboro, Massachusetts newspaper columnist Kathy Hickman recalls a visit Ann Hood, author of the novel The Knitting Circle, paid to her book club.

Click here to read RGG.com contributor Debra Linn's post about how books like The Knitting Circle can inspire reading groups to take up a cause and make a difference, and click here to read Ann's response.

Meg Waite Clayton: Readers' Worlds

Have you ever seen yourself reflected in a character in a novel? Meg Waite Clayton shares how some of the book club members she has met with to talk about The Wednesday Sisters (now available in paperback) have closely identified with the women in the story--- and why one in particular stands out.

Meg is also the author of The Language of Light. Click here to read her previous guest blog post.


Twenty years into a wonderful marriage and two months after The Wednesday Sisters was published, I accepted my first blind date. I agreed to spend an evening with a book group I like to call my LiteraryMatch.com gang; like on internet dating sites, these readers had never met before, but had arranged online to share a glass of wine together at an agreed-upon public wine bar --- with the goal of forging a literary relationship rather than a romantic one.

I'll confess to being leery of joining them: Was gathering with absolute strangers any way to forge long-term relationships? But this random group of readers who had no connection other than what my dad likes to call "geography suitability" and a love of reading --- okay, and a taste for wine, too --- was one of the most delightful groups I've chatted with.

When I stopped to think about it on the way home afterwards, I realized these readers weren't much different from my own book group, or than the characters in The Wednesday Sisters, for that matter. In my novel, the mere happenstance of someone reading a book in a park is the beginning of a five-woman friendship that lasts a lifetime, as they come to know each other first over discussions of the books they read, and later over sharing their own writing with each other. And my own book group initially shared only the same neighborhood my fictional characters do, although after almost five year years of gathering over books like Possession and Three Junes and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, we're all good friends, in no small part because of the books we've discussed.

My experience visiting book clubs --- in person, by phone, and on the internet --- suggests friendships built over books is as common as...well, as internet dating now is. Several of the groups I've chatted with have been newly-formed groups inspired to gather after reading the story of Frankie, Kath, Linda, Ally and Brett, my fictional Wednesday Sisters. But most have been meeting together for years --- often twenty or thirty or more.

I've joined friends who've raised children together like the Wednesday Sisters do, and found careers, and buried husbands and friends. I've spent lovely evenings with readers who've introduced themselves by saying, "I'm Linda, although my name is Mary or Sarah or Beth; Linda's story is mine." Or, "I felt just like Frankie did when I first moved here." "I was like Brett --- I loved science when girls weren't supposed to." "I know how Ally felt; I struggled with that, too, but it just wasn't something you talked about." One of the things I love about book group visits is that the talk is of all our stories, not just the stories of the characters in my book.

Perhaps the most moving story I've heard at a book group was from a self-described Kath. Kath is a character who has a misbehaving husband, and she's the one character most of my readers want to shake to her senses. This reader, though, said, "Thank you. I've never seen my story described before. It's an awful thing to think you're the only one who did what Kath did." She shared her personal story that evening with friends she'd been meeting with for thirty years --- a story that, despite that long friendship, she'd never shared. She walked me to my car afterwards, too, just to say thanks again. And I told her I know how she feels: Kath's story isn't mine, but there's more of Kath in me than I generally like to admit, and it's comforting to know that I, too, am not alone.

Ursula Le Guin says that readers "are making the world with you. You give them the material, but it's the readers who build the world in their own minds." My book group chats are always a reminder of the truth of this, and an affirmation of how many really amazing and thoughtful minds there are out there, building remarkable worlds.

---Meg Waite Clayton

Cathy Holton: Being a Novelist and a Book Club Member

Author Cathy Holton knows all about book clubs --- she has been a member of one for 20 years. Today she shares with us what she enjoys about being in a reading group, how she came up with the idea for her novel Beach Trip, and what she anticipates her reading group might say about the story when they discuss it. Cathy is also the author of Revenge of the Kudzu Debutantes and The Secret Lives of the Kudzu Debutantes.


I've been in the same book club for twenty years. We've grown old together, or perhaps I should say we've ripened into lovely mature women together. We've raised children, lost or gained husbands, started new careers, overcome illness, tragedy and the occasional run of bad luck. But through it all, we've kept reading. Reading and dissecting and talking about what we've read and, thereby, learning.

Because that's the lovely thing about book clubs. We bring our own life experiences to our interpretation of characters and themes, and those interpretations are as varied as the members themselves. Women are fascinated by relationships; we love to peek behind the facades, to catch glimpses of why a character behaves as she does, to understand what motivates her to make the decisions she makes. The more complex and layered the story, the more lively the book club discussions tend to be.

When I first got the idea for Beach Trip, I was out to dinner with some friends. We're a small group and we meet once a month to drink martinis and talk about our significant others. Our children. Our jobs. Socio-economic trends in Europe. (Just kidding.) One of the women was getting ready to go on an annual beach trip with her college roommates. We were exclaiming jealously that we wished we were going, when she looked up and said rather pensively, "It's kind of an odd group. We wouldn't even be friends if we hadn't met in college."

It seemed like a strange thing to say, but later, thinking about it, I knew exactly what she meant. I feel the same way about my book club. We are a diverse group and, in the early years, were quite combative with one another. But over the course of twenty years of meeting to discuss literature, of sharing our lives and our experiences, this ritual has somehow transcended our differences and made us a cohesive group. A diverse group, yes, and yet friends in spite of our diversity.

I knew when I began Beach Trip that it would be the story of four remarkable, but very different, young women whose lives over the twenty three years following graduation would follow very disparate paths. I was curious to know whether the intensity of four years of shared experiences would be enough to sustain a twenty three-year friendship. And I was curious, too, to see how the lives they had led, the choices they had made, had changed them.

I knew the novel would have an element of dark humor, and I knew there would be a surprising revelation at the end, something that threatened the tenuous bond the women had shared over twenty seven years, and yet helped to explain that bond, too. And I imagined that the four women, so different, would illicit different responses in different readers. This is something I knew my book club would appreciate.

I anticipate a lively discussion of Beach Trip in The Ladies of the Night Book Club.

---Cathy Holton

Janelle Brown: Fact Versus Fiction

A popular question readers like to ask authors is whether their novels are based on their own lives. When Janelle Brown met with her mother's book club to discuss her debut novel All We Ever Wanted Was Everything, the question took on new meaning...


"Is it autobiographical?" This is the question that pretty much every author gets asked about their first novel --- unless it's, say, a historical novel set in medieval times, or is the story of an axe murderer, or has a dead teenager as its narrator. Considering what my own life story looks like on paper --- I'm a Silicon Valley native and a former feminist magazine editor --- I knew to expect this question when people began to read my novel about a dysfunctional Silicon Valley family, whose oldest daughter is a feminist magazine editor.

"It's not about us, is it?" was the first (only slightly hysterical) question out of my mother's mouth when I told her about the subject of my book. I don't think she was truly reassured until she read the book itself, and realized that the fictional Miller family bore no resemblance whatsoever to our own. After all, in my novel, the mother, Janice Miller, is dumped by her husband Paul on the day that his company goes public, and eventually develops a nasty methamphetamine habit. (My family: divorce- and drug-free). The oldest daughter, Margaret, is $100,000 in credit card debt thanks to her defunct magazine. (I, thankfully, am not). The youngest daughter, Lizzie, first becomes the school slut in a bid for popularity, and then becomes a born-again Christian to repent. (My angelic sister will attest that she was neither.)

Similarly, the town where I set the story is fictional --- the only Santa Rita in the San Francisco Bay Area is actually a county jail. "Santa Rita" is, however, a satirized amalgamation of the towns around Silicon Valley that I knew so well, after living in the Bay Area all my life. And anyone who has lived in the Bay Area over the last decade will recognize the world that I depicted --- a world where $3 million dollar ranch homes are called "tear-downs" and where five-car garages and wine cellars are considered necessities.

And so it shouldn't have been surprising when I began to do press in the Bay Area, and one of the questions that I frequently heard was "Are any of these characters based on real people? Do you think your novel is going to upset people in your home town?"

It was a question that had never crossed my mind. I'd spent almost four years inventing a place and a family, filling their lives in with imaginary details and wild plot twists; and even though I intended the book to be an indictment of the ridiculously inflated "American Dream" lifestyle that had emerged out of our country's super-rich enclaves, I'd never intended it to be an indictment of anyone specific.

It wasn't until the novel came out, and I was invited to discuss it at my mother's book club, that I began to worry that it could be seen as anything but fiction.

My mother has a very active book club, filled with many old friends that I knew from growing up. The book club met in the ladies lounge of my mother's golf club (no resemblance to the one in my book). I was greeted with hugs and kisses, some from women that I'd known for thirty five years. They'd all purchased my novel from the local book store, Keplers --- where my novel had quickly become a bestseller --- and as the meeting started, the club members all turned and stared at me.

It seemed, suddenly, very quiet. I realized that everyone was waiting for me to speak. My mother smiled, encouragingly, as she passed a plate of brie and strawberries. "Maybe you just want to ask me some questions?" I ventured.

An old family friend, whose children I used to babysit, raised her hand. "So," she began. "Is this book based on anyone we know?"

My stomach lurched unhappily. A dozen pairs of eyes looked at me. But they were smiling, eager. That's when I realized that they actually wanted this book to be nonfiction. They wanted the thrill of guessing which of their friends was the one with the bulimic doctor, or the philandering husband, or the drug-dealing poolboy. If I told them that any of this was true, it would provide them with years of gossip to come. It would make my novel a much more scintillating read! Suddenly, I hated to disappoint.

Instead, I turned to the woman who had asked the question. "Well, you can find yourself on page 62," I said.

The room laughed; the ice broke; and I was never asked this question in my home town again. Still, I'm sure they'll always wonder.

My next book will be about a couple in L.A. whose marriage falls apart as their home goes into foreclosure. Yes, I'm married, and I live in LA. But I swear, this one isn't autobiographical either.

---Janelle Brown

Donigan Merritt: Impressions from the Buenos Aires Book Fair

Today's guest blogger, Donigan Merritt, reports on his experiences attending the Buenos Aires Book Fair. His travels have taken him from his roots in Arkansas to Africa and Europe, and he currently resides in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with his wife, a diplomat. Donigan is the author of seven novels, including The Common Bond and Possessed by Shadows. Here he offers his impressions of the largest book event in Latin America, both as an author and a booklover.


I have been a writer for more than forty years and the author of seven, soon to be eight, published novels. The 35th Feria Internacional del Libro de Buenos Aires (the Buenos Aires Book Fair, the largest book event in all of Latin America) is the first book fair I have ever attended. Not from lack of interest, but from lack of access. In this case, I am living through pure happenstance just two blocks from the massive venue where the book fair takes place in the Palermo suburb of Buenos Aires.

Apparently one of the attractions of a book fair is the literary stars who appear and perform. Our stars were Annie Proulx and Junot Díaz. They drew the crowds. But what interested me were the opening acts, those writers who have not won enough prizes or made enough money or had movies made from their work, who spoke and read from what were essentially cubbyhole spaces squeezed in among the placards and displays within the stands of publishing companies or at the stands maintained by the embassies from their home countries, who were not offered a quiet and comfortable hall, who struggled to be heard amid ambling and noisy curious crowds of passerbys, peeking in to see if anything interesting might be going on there. Writers like me.

I had two readings at the fair, once from my current novel, The Common Bond, and then from the preceding novel, Possessed by Shadows. Those readings took place at the stand of the American Embassy, which had made a concerted and valiant effort to locate and promote the works of American writers living in Buenos Aires; more of them than you might imagine, more than I would have guessed. The audiences were small, although frequently filling the available space; fewer than twenty-five for each reading and Q&A. This was typical for the readings by other authors I attended.

I was particularly impressed with Michael Casey's book (and not alone, since it just got a favorable review in The New York Times) --- Che's Afterlife: The Legacy of an Image, published by Random House this year. Mr. Casey has not written just another biography of the infamous Che Guevara, but instead, quite imaginatively, describes a worldwide search for the impact, the iconographic power, of the "image" of Che. His reading drew an overflow crowd (meaning more than twenty people), as well as a giggling covey of Argentine teenage school girls who waited at the edges of the stand for Mr. Casey to finish and come out so they could swarm around him while their friends took photographs. (It is possible the young ladies took the fortunately young and handsome Mr. Casey, with his rollicking Australian accent, to be a movie star.)

While I was not accorded rock star status, my audiences were, to my pleasant surprise, engrossed in my readings; it was kind of stunning, actually. I think the exotic settings interested the Argentines in particular. The Common Bond is principally set in Hawaii, and I read Chapter Two, which is mostly narrative, graphically describing the protagonist's return to the island that had been his home during the first half of his life. Illustrative of how closely some in the audience were listening, one person asked me what "laupahoehoe" is, an Hawaiian word used in the opening paragraph. (It is the geological term for flat, undulating, lava, as opposed to a'a, which is the sharp, spiky type.)

I was also asked a number of times if I had been to all the places described in my books (yes), and, that most dreaded of all questions authors are asked, did I write about my own life experiences (a qualified no). Most writers, I believe, do not want readers to suppose that their novels are more or less diaries from real life. On the other hand, I, for one, find it impossible to write about things I do not know, or can at the very least have the ability to imagine, as thoroughly as if I were in full possession of an actual experience.

It was heartening for an author to be surrounded by thousands and thousands of readers, of book lovers, especially at a time when many of us are discussing the critical health of the book, not to mention of readers, as well. Some of us wonder among ourselves were it not for the almost genetically ingrained desire within children to read stories and fantasize other lives and other worlds, who then grow up to form readers clubs to honor literature and reading, we might as well be writing with our fingers on the surface of the sea.

---Donigan Merritt

Lynne Griffin: Sharing the Love of Reading

In honor of Mother's Day this Sunday, Lynne Griffin, the author of Life Without Summer, writes about how she's shared her love of reading with her daughter over the years. She also recalls how their mutual passion for books came full circle during the writing process of Life Without Summer.

Click here to read Lynne's previous guest blog post.


From the time she was able to sit her little body upright, my daughter held tight to a book. I can still picture her in that baby carrier pretending to read her first board book, Teddy's Garden. As a family educator, I'd been telling parents for years that a love of reading can and should be nurtured. While I still believe this to be true, for my daughter, the passion for books is as innate as the color of her eyes.

In the beginning, I'd capitalize on her interest in books by placing her in a stroller at naptime, thinking whether she slept or didn't, I'd be able to buy some bookstore or library time. I could poke around collecting titles for my to-be-read list. Invariably she'd resist sleep, instead intent on "reading" her own book --- turning the pages delicately, always with the care of a librarian --- giving me all the time I needed to make my selections.

In her early childhood, late in the afternoon, I'd act as if my number one priority were good role modeling, when in fact I was merely in need of a break from the rigors of parenting a little one. I'd tell her it was time to collect a stack of books and meet me on the living room couch for some quiet time. In minutes, she'd be as engrossed in her picture or chapter books as I was in the latest hardcover novel I'd purchased.

Until she was a self-sufficient reader, my husband and I would read countless books to her; always before bed, on long car rides, or during dinners that involved foods she didn't care for. Reading provided an almost magical distraction. We became fans of library visits, books on tape, and book swaps with family and friends.

Like every good parent, I couldn't wait for the day when she would display her talent for independent reading. Though as she gained skill --- always holed up in her room, or parked under a tree, even walking through the house lost in a book --- I feared I was losing something. Lovingly crafted, ours was a relationship made closer because hard working authors carefully chose the words placed on those pages. I wasn't ready to relinquish our special bond made possible through reading together.

So long before mother-daughter book clubs became fashionable, my girl and I formed a partnership around the written word. She loved my suggestion to read a selected book and then set aside time to discuss it. With little effort, she or I would pick one. Typically she'd choose fantasy or something historical, while I would deftly pick a title that might give us the opportunity to talk about pre-teen and teenage issues; those prickly subjects best explored through the lens of a character's experience. We'd set a date for our discussion, read the book separately during a window of time, and then on the scheduled day, we'd venture off to a restaurant to talk about our selection over tea and dessert. We always set aside a long stretch, believing each book deserved a leisurely discussion.

The Phantom Tollbooth, Chasing Redbird, The Witch of Blackbird Pond and Tuck Everlasting paved the way to The Summer of My German Soldier, Amy and Isabelle, Peace Like a River and The History of Love.

All these years later, I can honestly say that my daughter and I literally grew up together reading. She's twenty now and a college student, still reading, frequently recommending books to me. I am the published author of a parenting title and, this Mother's Day, a debut novelist. I did not know when I began nurturing my daughter's love of reading, a girl who clearly would have loved it all on her own, that I would receive an unexpected gift. My daughter has become one of my most trusted readers. Reading early drafts of Life Without Summer, she offered insight beyond her years, no doubt a by-product of her voracious reading habits. "Ian needs friends, Mom," she said. "I think you should show Celia's softer side earlier in the novel. You want readers to like her before they find out about her hidden past." Of course, I believe my star reader was spot on with her editorial suggestions.

This Mother's Day I urge you to give your child a gift. Buy books. Read often. Read together. In my experience, you'll receive so much more than you ever give.

---Lynne Griffin

Booking Mama: The Benefits of a Mother-Daughter Book Club

With Mother's Day coming up this weekend, we asked Julie Peterson, founder of the Booking Mama blog, to tell us about the mother-daughter book club she started. Along with sharing what both she and her daughter have gained from discussing books together, Julie shares some reading suggestions for those who might be thinking about doing something similar.

Check back tomorrow for a guest post by author Lynne Griffin, who writes about how she's shared her love of reading with her daughter from childhood to adulthood.


With Mother's Day approaching, I've been reflecting on how fortunate I am to be a mother. I have two wonderful children, a daughter who is almost 10 and a son who is almost 5. Like many mothers, reading books to my kids has always been a priority for me; and I'm just so happy that they both appreciate the magic and wonder of stories.

I was a little bit worried when my daughter was younger. She was a very active child and wouldn't sit through even the shortest picture book. As a book lover and first time mother, I was devastated! I continued to start book after book with the hopes that eventually she would sit long enough to finish the story. Luckily, we both stuck with it. By age seven she developed a love of reading. She is now reading about five books per week; and I even have to tell her to stop reading when it's dinner time or time to go to bed.

When my daughter was seven and starting to love reading, I thought it would be fun to start a Mother-Daughter book club. My first attempt was a complete failure --- no one was interested! A little over a year ago, I tried again and was thrilled to find three other mothers, and their daughters, who were willing to join us to discuss Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachan. The first meeting was a huge success.

Our group has now been meeting for more than a year and is still going strong. We have just finished our eleventh book and now have ten sets of mothers and daughters in our club. I love discussing these books with my daughter; and I'm definitely getting to know her better by learning her impressions of them.

I am constantly amazed by the benefits of our Mother-Daughter book club --- so many of these girls have really matured in the past 14 months. A few weren't big readers or enthusiastic about books and that has definitely changed. The last book we read, The Lightning Thief by Rick Rioran, was over 375 pages. (Keep in mind that these girls are eight and nine years old!) In addition, despite some initial shyness, they are all eager to discuss the book and share their opinions. In fact, after just a few meetings, some of the girls wanted to lead the discussion on their own instead of depending on the moms; and they've even been known to ask us to leave the room while they talk amongst themselves! I am especially impressed that a few of the girls, including my daughter, come to each meeting with their own set of questions printed on index cards.

Below is a list of books we've read so far. I'm sure you'll recognize some terrific books that you remember from your childhood. While I do enjoy reading the new books, I love getting to re-read my old favorites.

Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan

Anne Frank: Life in Hiding by Johanna Hurwitz

Sounder by William H. Armstrong

Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren

Meet Kit: An American Girl 1934 by Valerie Tripp

The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary

Bed-Knob and Broomstick by Mary Norton

The Tiger Rising by Kate DiCamillo

From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg

The Doll People by Ann M. Martin and Laura Godwin

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

We've read some great books, but I am always on the lookout for new book suggestions. Even though the girls are reading middle grade books at this time, I'm already noting some terrific Young Adult books for the years ahead. I'd love to hear your suggestions!

I highly recommend starting a book club with your daughter or son. I think you'll be surprised by the rewards for both you and your child. It will encourage a love of reading in your child, and it just might give them the added benefit of more self-confidence.

In addition, I really appreciate that these books have facilitated the discussion of difficult topics, including racial discrimination, the Holocaust and the Great Depression. I'd have to say the best thing about belonging to a Mother-Daughter book club is that I really feel as if I've gotten to know my daughter better. And I'm hoping that we can continue to openly communicate through this book club and the books we read together.

---Julie Peterson
bookingmama.blogspot.com

Brian O'Dea: Writing as a Life Saving Device

In the memoir High, Brian O'Dea candidly recalls his years as an international drug smuggler in the 1980s --- and how, after he had quit the business and was working with recovering addicts, his past caught up with him. In today's guest blog post, he shares how writing saved his life. If your group would like to speak with Brian, details on how to contact him --- including via Skype --- are available here.

What nonfiction books is your group reading this year? Email shannon@bookreporter.com if you'd like to share your selections. We'll feature a nonfiction reading round-up in a future RGG.com blog post.


In 1990, I was working as a counselor for recovering addicts in Santa Barbara when the Feds came knocking on my door. I had long since quit the business, but they had finally caught up to me for my years of smuggling drugs. I was sentenced to ten years at Terminal Island Federal Penitentiary in Los Angeles Harbor.

When I walked into Terminal Island, everything I feared about prison seethed before me. I was led into a "movement-stopped" yard, alone, cuffed, confronted by a line of guards stretching diagonally across the yard preventing any inmate from passing. This always happens when a chain of prisoners arrive from various lockups. It is to prevent someone who is already in prison from attacking an enemy who may be about to check in. In the "check-in process" they establish if you need to be in protective custody, in the event there is some one or group on the yard who may have a problem with you.

As I was a self-surrender, I showed up on my own, being driven there by friends; but no less precautions happen for a single, newly-arriving prisoner. As I looked over, beyond the line of guards, I saw every type of curious prisoner, muscles, tattoos, hostile looks, laughs and pointing, taunts, cries of "Hey fish." My enemy mind was going a mile a minute, all trajectories leading toward my personal demise, or destruction. So, I had to get out of it, my head that is. On the way to my bunk, I saw a broken pencil and a sheet of paper on a book-free tumble-down book case. It occurred to me that if I was to write down everything I heard and felt, then I would give shape to these ghosts that I was projecting (for that is what fear is, ghosts), and with some shape, they become manageable. I wasn't planning on writing anything but words to save my life/mind.

As I wrote down what I heard happening around me, I thought it might be an interesting process to write the stories of the major, delineating, course-committing events in my life, in a chronological manner, so that I could sniff the tracks which led me to such an address. It can be a useful exercise, I have determined, to smell/see/know from whence I come, and if I don't like where I am, I can realign the pieces going forward. You know what "they" say, if I want different results in my life, then I need to do things differently.

It helps to have a renewed and fresh comprehension of the path traveled, so that I can self-correct. The trouble with a lot of guys in prison, their perfectionism has made them inert. If only they could truly inhabit the understanding that a plane which travels from here to L.A. is off course almost all the time, but in a constant state of self-correction, because it examines the track where it really is, and the track where it wishes to be, and makes the desired changes. It is almost always on one side of the desired line or another but constantly seeking the line. Only when we examine our movement in a similar fashion can we stay closer to our true course, allowing for a reasonable deviation from the path.

Writing is a life-saving device. Nothing is more informative of me to me than that. Perhaps that is why I sometimes avoid it like the plague...sometimes I just don't want to know.

---Brian O'Dea

C.W. Gortner: The Reason I Write

Today, C.W. Gortner talks about how books can change both readers and writers. He holds an MFA in Writing with an emphasis in Renaissance Studies and is the author of The Last Queen (now available in paperback), in which he imagines the life of Juana of Castile, the last queen of Spanish blood to inherit her country's throne. He enjoys interacting with his readers and is always available for book club chats. You can visit him at CWGortner.com.

Click here to read Gortner's previous RGG.com guest post and here to visit his blog about historical fiction and the writing life.


As a reader, meeting an author whose work I admire is always a thrill. I'd not had the good fortune of meeting many historical fiction writers I admired until my novel The Last Queen was published and I began to attend conferences like the fantastic Book Group Expo in San Jose. I recall that when I first met a writer I had idolized for years I actually felt as though I might faint. I stammered and handed her a doubtlessly sweaty palm to shake. "I just love your books," I mumbled awkwardly and she let out a hearty laugh. She was so gracious and friendly that we ended talking for an hour and exchanged phone numbers. We have since become good friends.

Through that interaction, I realized that most writers, in fact, are like me: we love hearing from readers and enjoy interacting with them. We spend years alone at our desks, hearing the voices that people our work, and getting out there and hearing the voices of the people who read that work is very important to us. We like to discover how our books have resonated or not resonated with a particular reader, what themes or storylines they found of personal interest. In the ten months since The Last Queen was published in hardcover, I have had many fantastic and enlightening encounters with readers from many different places. I've had e-mail from readers in the UK, Malaysia, Spain and South Africa, as well as attended several local book groups in San Francisco, California. Though separated by distance, all of these readers share a common passion for history and for the story of Juana of Castile, known as Juana la Loca. And through each exchange I discover something not only about how readers experience the novel but also about those parts of me as a writer that influence my craft but often remain hidden.

I remember in particular one local book group I attended. The lady who invited me had heard me speak at a bookstore and selected The Last Queen for her group. When I got to her house on the scheduled evening, I was stunned to find she had set her table with Spanish wines and foods, and Spanish music played in the background. As the other group members trickled in, she shared with me that she herself was part Spanish and she had felt a special bond with my background. I had by this time gotten over the worst of my nerves about meeting strangers in a book group, but as the eleven smiling women of this particular group settled down around me, I realized all of a sudden that this was the first all-women group I had spoken to. Anxiety surged in me. Here I was, a man, who had written a book about a woman who is betrayed in her point-of-view. What if I had made some until-now undetected error? What if somebody here pointed out that I was not a woman, so how could I recreate the psyche of one?

Then one of the women said quietly, "I could not put your book down. Years ago, a lover betrayed me and I felt so mad, it was like I was actually going mad. No one around me understood. When I read your book, I connected with Juana. I thought, she would have understood. It was cathartic."

I gave her a grateful smile. I thought, emotions don't have a gender. Whether you're a man or a woman, betrayal hurts. I had forgotten that. The other women started to share, as well, and the hour and half we spent together flew by, the discussion lively and enthusiastic. I was astonished by how much they'd discovered in my work, their different interpretations of it. Some of it was what I'd intended while writing the book but a lot of it wasn't. In the end, I was profoundly grateful for the experience, knowing it would forever inform the ways I looked at my writing and the ways readers approach reading.

I've spoken to several groups since then, some in person and some via phone chat. Invariably, whether it's twelve readers or five or three, I always learn something about my work, about how it's experienced by someone other than me; where I've succeeded and where I have not. Not once have I ever put down the phone or closed the door without feeling that deep passion and joy for books that all of us as readers bring to the world.

Readers are the reason I write. I will spend years on a book, reveling in my secret world, but in the end I need it to be read. The true reward for me is when I hear one reader say: "I just loved your book."

---C.W. Gortner

Win a Copy of THE HOUSEHOLD GUIDE TO DYING for Your Reading Group

Here at ReadingGroupGuides.com we're celebrating the release of The Household Guide to Dying by Debra Adelaide with a special contest. 85 readers will have the opportunity to each win one advance copy of The Household Guide to Dying, which is now available in stores, for their group. Click here for details and to enter the contest, which is open until next Monday, May 11.

The Household Guide to Dying is a freshly insightful, hopeful and dramatic novel full of heart and life --- told from the perspective of a household advice columnist, wife and mother who is determined to finish a lifetime's worth of tasks even though she doesn't have a lifetime left to live. Novelist Wally Lamb praised the book, saying, "I think you'll love this life-affirming novel. I did."

Author Visits to Book Clubs

Writers Plot: A Blooming Good Blog has a great post by guest blogger and writer Beth Groundwater about her book club's experiences having a local author join their discussion --- and why they were nervous about it. She also offers tips for making a visit by a scribe whose book you're talking about less intimidating.

Beth is the author of two books in the Claire Hanover gift basket designer mystery series: A Real Basket Case and To Hell in a Handbasket. You can visit her website here.

DEBORAH JOHNSON: Transcending Race

Today's guest blogger, Deborah Johnson, shares some insight into her novel The Air Between Us. In Revere, Mississippi, in the 1960s, blacks and whites rarely mix. Or so everyone believes. But when an unexpected incident occurs, the connections between townspeople of both races are revealed to be deeper than anyone expects --- making Revere's struggle with integration that much more complicated.


I've always been fascinated by the idea of a parallel universe; that somehow there's something right beside me that's so different from me that we cannot connect. I've never really believed this, and I think that's why I write the characters I write. Black or white, they have a lot in common. You look at one, you see parts of the other and there's always some little thing binding them together. Even if it's a secret little something --- it's always there.

In one of the earliest pre-pub pieces on The Air Between Us, the reviewer wrote that you couldn't tell if I was black or white by the way I had written my characters. He thought I was even-handed with them, that I could empathize with each of them, no matter which race they were. I loved that. I think this comes from having integrated every (or almost every) school I ever attended. If you're a talker like I am, and if you're in a situation like I was in, you've got to learn to find something in common with everybody else in that same situation and you've got to learn to do this real quick. I discovered, early on, that I had a lot to say to Irish Catholics and that they had a lot to say to me. I was still black and they were still white --- but, hey, we had Sister Mary Jean in common.

Reading group members often ask me about my characters. They want to know if Melba Louise Obrenski is black or if she's white (Melba alone knows this and she's not telling). They want to know more about white Ned Hampton and his singing in the choir of the black Missionary Union Baptist Church. They want to know what parts of the book are real and what parts aren't. They want to know if I based Reese Jackson's life on my father's life.

Certainly Reese and Daddy have a lot in common: they're both surgeons, they both became accomplished and successful in a time and in a place when it was extremely difficult, if not impossible, for a black man to accomplish much of anything. To do this, both daddy and Reese had to be smart, cunning and determined. They had to be devoted healers but not saints --- at least not in the way that we generally think of sainthood. And they were all these things --- but that's not all they were.

Both of them have a lot in common with Cooper Connelly, the white doctor in The Air Between Us, who is himself another son of the South. My father's family was so poor that he was born on a dirt floor --- but so was Cooper Connelly. My father had a mother who worked all the time because she had to, who was never home, and so did Reese Jackson. Deanie Jackson is the composite of a lot of women, black and white, who I knew in the 1960s but, then, so is Evelyne Elizabeth Connelly. The town of Revere? Well, that's in Mississippi and maybe only in Mississippi.

When I was growing up, during the Civil Rights era, Mississippi was considered a very scary place. Who would want to go there, much less live there? Folks were escaping from all sides. From everything I read, I thought the whole state was filled with people drawling in either black or white dialect. Before I got here, I thought I wouldn't understand a word that anybody was throwing at me. Instead, I understood everything that was said.

Some of the greatest experiences I've had with this novel have come at book club meetings or library signings when someone has come up to me and said, "Hey, it was like that. I knew a white person like Cooper Connelly. I knew a black person like Reese Jackson. This doesn't negate all the bad things that happened, but --- hey, things like this were happening, too." And it doesn't matter if the person saying this to me is black or white. It makes me happy because that's what surprised me about Revere, Mississippi, and continues to surprise me about life itself --- the basic commonality of experience, the fact that there are no parallel universes in it.

---Deborah Johnson

Today is Buy Indie Day

Today has been designated Buy Indie Day, an idea conceived by author Joseph Finder to show support for local indie bookstores.

The need to support the small businesses we love really hit home for me when I went to shop online at one of my favorite retailers, Illuminations, and saw an announcement that they had gone out of business. You can read my piece about this on the Bookreporter.com blog, or on the Huffington Post website.

As a bibliophile, I also thought about the bookstores that I love. How would I feel if they were not around? Today, readers are banding together for Buy Indie Day and are encouraged to make a purchase at an independent bookstore. Yes times are tough all around, but maybe you can treat yourself to a book or purchase one as a gift (perhaps something for mom for Mother's Day) --- or pick up your next book club read. It would be great to support this effort. If you can't by stop in person, place an order online or over the phone. Visit IndieBound.org to find the independent bookstore nearest you.