Book Club

I love my book club. For years I tried to find a good one, but every time I joined a new one I would once again be disappointed. Each time I quickly discovered that “book club” was mom code for “get out of the house and hang out with people.” Which is great except, I didn’t know those people well enough to want to talk about their kids for 30 minutes, I wanted to talk about the book! We rarely even got around it, which is just not cool.

So time and time again, I realized that every book club made up of 20 and 30-somethings was not for me. Believe me, I have nothing against sitting around and drinking wine or coffee and chatting. It’s just I’d just rather do that with my friends than with a group of people I don’t know well.

In 2009 a woman I'd met in the United We Read program I used to participate in invited me to her book club. I've been a member ever since. During my first meeting they showed me a list of books they’d read and rated over the past decade and the vast majority were ones that I either loved or had on my TBR list.

I’m the youngest member in the group by about 30 years and it’s perfect. It’s a small group, but one that’s very committed to reading the book and showing up for the meetings. If someone can't make it we normally move the meeting around. They are almost all retired and have wonderful stories about places they've traveled to and things they've experienced. Our difference in age and personalities allows for a diverse reaction to books and great discussions. Each year we try to read at least one mystery, nonfiction and classic in addition to various fiction.

Tell me about your book clubs? What do you love about them or what would you change?

A Lesson Before Dying

A Lesson Before Dying
by Ernest J. Gaines
★★★

Set in 1940s Louisiana, a young black man, Jefferson, is wrongly convicted of committing a robbery and murder and is sentenced to death. Jefferson’s godmother convinces a local teacher, Grant Wiggins, to visit Jefferson before he is executed to help teach him to value himself.

I just couldn’t get into this one. None of the characters are likeable, especially Grant. He seemed so bitter and angry and had no desire to help anyone around him. I wanted to know what Jefferson was going through and what he thought about the whole situation, but we don’t get a glimpse into his mind until the book is almost over. It felt like Tuesdays with Morrie with racism on death row.

I never felt like we were given an empathetic character to connect with. I found some of the minor characters, like Jefferson’s godmother and the prison guard, etc. more interesting that the main players. I would have liked to know what they were thinking.

The book gives readers an important look at how flawed the justice system was in the 1940s. It can’t possibly be considered a jury of one’s peers when your own race is nowhere to be seen in the group. But the story lacked heart and because of that I don’t think it will have a lasting impact.

United We Read

For the past five years I’ve been part of a wonderful committee in a smallish community in Indiana. It’s called United We Read (formerly One Book, One Town) and its goal is to choose one book for the whole county to read and then schedule programming that coordinates with the topics or themes in that book.

The committee is made up of a variety of members of the community, one was the town council president, others were teachers or librarians, etc. I was originally invited to join the panel because I was a reporter at a local daily newspaper. I’ve since moved on to a different job, but for some reason they keep asking me back and I love it! It’s like a book club on steroids.

We meet in the middle of March each year and get the list of books (about 15-20). Then we meet again in April and May to discuss the books and narrow the list. Then we hold our final meeting in June when we decide on the book. It can be fiction/nonfiction, long/short; it doesn’t matter as long as it can appeal to a wide audience.

Past year’s selections have been The Heretic's Daughter (Kent), The Nine (Toobin), Montana 1948 (Watson) and The Soloist (Lopez). Each time we try to find a book that offers up some fascinating issues to discuss, isn’t too “literary” (aka boring for people who don’t read too much), isn’t so popular that everyone has already read it, etc. One of the most important things to achieve is to find a book that is easy to schedule programming around. For example, when The Soloist was chosen, the library scheduled classical concerts, a viewing of the film based on the book and a discussion (with experts) on how mental illness is affected by music.

Cities all over the country offer similar programs, including Chicago, Atlanta, Kansas City and New Orleans. How wonderful is that! Not only is it encouraging literacy, it’s also making it a communal thing. It’s bringing people together to discuss books and dig deep into the issues they bring up.

This has been one of the most satisfying book-related things I’ve had the pleasure of being involved in. No, my favorite book doesn’t always get picked. Yes, sometimes people fiercely disagree on whether a book is good or not, but that’s the joy of having 10 or so people from very different walks of life reading the same book. It’s a lot of work to read all of the books as quickly as possible, but in the end it’s worth it.

So I’m curious, do any of your towns offer something like this?

Also, what books would you recommend for this program? Are there any books that immediately come to mind as being appropriate for male/female/young/old readers?