So . . . are you a member of a book group?
Are you in a ward group? A neighborhood group? Are you a member of a book group that has been meeting for years and years (even before Oprah made it cool)? Are you in a new book group that’s still figuring itself out?
What kinds of books do you read? What kinds of books do you wish you would read? What has been your favorite read, the most perfect book club book your group has picked in all your years of book clubbing?
If you’re in a church book group, how do you negotiate book group choices (meaning: how do you reconcile the need to avoid offending the most sensitive of your members without completely abandoning the first rule of good fiction: only conflict is interesting)? Have you ever had a book you picked and absolutely loved ripped to shreds—or simply yawned over—by members of your group, and gone home feeling like someone had publicly criticized your firstborn child?
I ask all these questions for two reasons. One, I love book groups. I’ve organized three different book groups over the years, and I’m convinced that nothing beats a book group for getting people together, getting people talking, and—most importantly, to me—getting people reading. We all know women who are so dutiful about their homemaking responsibilities that they can’t imagine taking time off to indulge in something as blatantly escapist as reading fiction . . . unless it’s an assignment. So when I say, “C’mon! Join the book group! You’ll like it!” they’re able assuage just enough guilt to allow themselves to take a long hot bath and read a book, because they’ve made a commitment, you see, and they don’t want to let the book group down. And when a husband gets irritated because his wife is so lost in a book that she disappears inside its pages for a night, she can turn to him and say, “I’m sorry, hon, but I’ve got to finish this book. It’s for book group!”
I’ve had women new to book groups tell me they haven’t read a novel for ten years or more. Not because they don’t like to read—they used to like to read, at least they think they did—but because they felt so guilty about reading novels that they let the desire fall away. For a few of these women, joining a book group and starting up reading again has been a very powerful, life changing event.
So I think book clubs are wonderful. Important, even.
The other reason I’m bringing up the topic of book groups is blatantly self-promotional: I have a novel coming out in February, and I want book groups to read it. Whenever friends ask what “kind” of a book I wrote, the best way for me to describe it is by calling it a book club book. “Literary fiction” sounds kind of frou frou and off-putting, and the book’s not a romance, or historical fiction, or a mystery or true crime or fantasy or sci fi. Basically, it’s a book about a Mormon family that struggles to stay together in the midst of lots of real-life turmoil. But that’s not very succinct, so it’s easier to call it a book club book, and most people know exactly what that means. It’s the kind of book that (I’m hoping) will get people talking, and that LDS women, in particular, will find something in the novel that resonates. That they’ll want to discuss with their friends.
My problem is this, though: LDS book groups don’t read a lot of LDS fiction. At least not the ones I’ve been a part of. I’m not necessarily talking about the official “Relief Society Book Clubs” that read mostly inspirational nonfiction and might throw in The Work and the Glory to satisfy the fiction lovers (i.e. the women who insist on reading in the bathtub.) I’m talking about the book groups that are made up of women who happen to be LDS and know each other from church, but operate outside the designation of “official” ward book group and are free to be a little more adventurous in their selections. My book club, for example, is 95% LDS, and we recently read The Kite Runner and The Glass Castle, and next week we’re getting ready to discuss The Red Tent (yes, it’s a little racy . . . but we can handle it. I think. Book group should be interesting this month!)
But in all the years I’ve been involved in book clubs that have LDS members, I’ve never had someone suggest an LDS novel. Nary a one. And we’ve already talked on this blog about some of the problems readers have trusting LDS fiction (see here and here)—but I’ve got to believe there are LDS readers who would welcome a novel that fits the book club bill, but that also represents our particular Mormon world view. I have these secret visions (you know, like Oprah tells us: if you think about it hard enough it will come true ☺) that somehow, some way, all these Mormon women will find out about my book and tell their book club about it, and then those ladies will tell other ladies about it, and so on and so on and so on until hallelujah! I’ve become the Mormon Sue Monk Kidd! (You know, The Secret Life of Bees phenom. What book group hasn’t read The Secret Life of Bees?)
Even if my big, grand dreams don’t come to pass, though, it’s still thrilling for me to think that one or two or three book groups might take my book and read it, then spend a night eating artichoke dip and drinking Diet Coke (or for the ones who didn’t like The Red Tent, Cherry 7-Up), and talking about it. So [blatant self-promotion alert!] if you’re in a book group and need to make a suggestion in the next few months, consider checking out my novel. It’s called Bound on Earth, and it’s being published by Parables, and it’s due to be released in February. (If it’s not available in Deseret Book or Seagull—and we’ll see! I’m remaining hopeful!—you can order it directly from Amazon, or on Parables’ website). You can read about it on my website, www.angelahallstrom.com. And if you live in Utah, I will be available to come to book group meetings and discuss the novel, if you’re interested.
Self-promotion aside, even if you don’t want to read my book—and if that’s the case, I’m sure I’d still really really like you and think you have lots of excellent qualities—I do want to hear about your experience in book groups. What has your book group meant to you? What have you learned from it? What has worked and hasn’t worked? I’d love to hear your stories.
I organized a book club last summer for the Air Force ROTC wives’ club here at BYU. Nobody came. So a neighbor and I turned it into a neighborhood thing (on-campus married housing, so we’re 95% LDS–but nobody non-LDS ever comes).
We read lots of classic fiction (think stuff on a school required reading list). Some more modern fiction. Our choices have been mostly limited to the book club sets available at the library because none of us have discretionary funds for books. Luckily the Provo City Library has lots of book club sets.
I tried reading The Red Tent–and didn’t think it would go over well, because for having a very young book club (we’re all under 30, most under 25) we’re very, VERY conservative. I didn’t even finish it, because it just didn’t jive.
We’ve had LDS fiction suggested–we’ve even read some in the few months we’ve been together. Come to think of it, in my mom’s book club that she organized for years they often read LDS fiction, or non-fiction, even though it wasn’t a ward activity.
In our ward, if the RS wants a Book Group, the bishop has to approve everything. It’s so much easier to operate under the radar.
My favorite book club read so far: Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. Holy cow, it was incredible. Several people didn’t finish it, because it put them off, but I fell in love and want to read it now in the original French.
My book group has never read The Secret Life of Bees. It’s still a pretty good book! We’ve been meeting for seven years, and we’re kind of an insane group of women. We’re a classic literature group — we’ve read behemoths like Moby Dick, Crime and Punishment, and Don Quixote, popular classics like Austen, Dickens and Bronte, as well as a few 20th century classics, like Stegner and Welty. The only Mormon fiction we’ve waded into is Virginia Sorenson and Quanita Brooks, two clearly non-mainstream Mormon writers.
Once a year we have a couples dinner and do a more contemporary and political/historical book. We’ve done Endurance, The World is Flat, Left to Tell, the Speed of Trust, things like that usually.
I could go on and on about how much I love my book club. The women I read with have become my sisters. It’s been the best thing for my middle-aged, kid-melted mind. Thanks for giving me a reason to smile and gush about the smart women I get to be around once a month (of which I’m clearly not one).
First off, congratulations! That is so exciting.
As for Book Groups, here are my experiences:
I joined my very first book group while I was living in Provo. It was actually kind of exclusive –not because they chose to be, but because they took it so seriously. They had been meeting together since 1985 and there were several women from several wards which met together. Organization? Oh, yes! And they read such amazing things. What I loved, loved, loved was the desire to read good books that made us think. Church books? Occasionally. Fiction? Mostly. We read fantasy, romance, historical fiction –everything and anything. The best part? I was 26 years old, and the youngest member by 12 or more years. I looked forward each month to discussing these books with women who had lived –women who had see it all and weren’t afraid to delve into deep conversations, or read things that might be controversial.
After moving to California last year, the first thing I asked my new RS sisters was “Is there a book group?” If not, I was going to start one. I was so happy to find another established book group that spanned not only wards, but cities. It is another semi-exclusive group (which, again, we’re not –we’re just serious about it) that likes to read the same types of literature as my Provo book group. It’s been a great year! In fact, I’m leading the discussion at my book group tonight on “Eat Cake” by Jeanne Ray. Of course, we’re serving cake.
As a side note, I understood that years ago, one member decided we should only read non-fiction books. She was outvoted, though. As I understood it, most of the women, who are all mothers (interesting it turned out that way), wanted to read books that allowed escape from the daily grind. I agree. I see nothing wrong with reading non-fiction, but having a reason to read something that will allow me to enter a different and exciting world for a time is a pleasure I will not give up. I need my fiction!
My only bad habit? Buying all of the books instead of going to the library. I’m a book addict.
Here are some of my favorites from over the last few years:
“These Is My Words” by Nancy E. Turner
“Girl in Hyacinth Blue” by Susan Vreeland
“Icy Sparks” by Gwyn Hyman Rubio
“The Crystal Cave” by Mary Stewart
“Princess Academy” by Shannon Hale
“Two Old Women” by Velma Wallis
“The Memory Keeper’s Daughter” by Kim Edwards
What I wish we would read (well, I’ve read them, but I’d just like to discuss them):
“Villette” by Charlotte Bronte
“Mansfield Park” by Jane Austen
P.S. Sorry for all the quotes. I’m not good at html, so italics were out…
I’ve been lurking at Segullah for a while but this post required a response because it is something I am grappling with right now. I had a previous book club that I loved. It was not an official church group, though everyone in the group was from our ward. We read good books and had good discussions. I loved getting together with the women each month. We typically had a good turn out. When we moved, I missed having other people to talk about what I was reading with. I have been put in charge of an “official” Enrichment book group in my new ward. So far, there have never been more than 3 other people at the meetings and that only happened once, a typical turn out is me and one other person. Since I am the only one who seems terribly devoted to the group and since I’m in charge of our book group world, I have picked the books. We read “Gilead”, which I loved and “Life of Pi”, which I also enjoyed. The other member who at least reads the books and mostly comes didn’t like “Gilead” because it was too slow so she didn’t finish it. She didn’t like “Life of Pi” because it was gross - I would submit that she missed the point of that story. So, to cater to the apparent desires of some of my book-groupies, we also read “Stargirl” which is juvenille fiction and “Twilight” which is also juvenille fiction, and which just about every Utah woman I know is all-a-twitter over. I think there is great juvenille fiction out there and it is fine to read that on occasion but as a grown woman, I want to read grown-up literature. I imagine that if I picked all LDS literature and all juvenille literature that I would have much better attendance at my meetings and that they would all gush about how much they liked the books (They all loved “Stargirl” and they all loved “Twilight”). My problem is that I can hardly stand to read some of those (my sisters call me a book snob). So, I need to decide if I just submit myself to the will of the book group and suffer through one read once a month for their sake or if I try to help them discover the wonders of really fine literature for adults. I think it is mainly a clash of needs and desires between what I am wishing for and what they are happy with. It has been a frustrating experience for me all around but the Relief Society president wants me to keep trying - she says that people are reading the books even if they aren’t coming to the meetings and that the group enhances our ward’s Relief Society literacy efforts. Perhaps we’ll read “Bound on Earth” when it is available and have Angela visit our group, that might get a few more ladies to actually attend. And I’m sure I would like HER LDS fiction! p.s. Like Cheryl, I always buy the books too - some women have closets full of clothes and shoes, I have shelves full of books. I recently vowed that I wouldn’t buy another book or check any out at the library until I have actually read all of the books on my shelves but, I accidentally went to Barnes & Noble AND the library yesterday!
D-
Man, that’s got to be frustrating. Depending on how much time you have, I suggest you keep doing what the RS president asked you to do, but then start your own book group with other women in your community. Who says it has to be LDS?
It’s so fun to hear everyone’s experiences. D, I hear you–of the three book clubs I’ve been involved in, there have been varying levels of dedication and interest in reading literary novels. And Gilead. Gilead!! I love that book so much. I’ve suggested it twice to my book club here, and it’s been passed over both times because people are afraid it’s too slow. Sigh. But those of us who love it surely love it, don’t we. And we also read Twilight, and it was one of the most popular book club nights in the neighborhood so far. People were bonkers for it. I liked it just fine–still haven’t read the next two books in the series, though (which some women I know simply can’t believe!). But there were women who don’t read much at all who really got into Twilight and even bought the rest of the books in the series, so that made me happy. (It’s the high school English teacher in me . . . “If you’re not reading, I don’t care if you’re not reading great lit-ra-cha, just read something!”)
You know what would be fun, maybe? Having a Segullah book club. We could have a book maybe every quarter and discuss it here on the blog. I’m throwing this out as a possibility without discussing it with anyone in charge (I’ll have to email somebody in charge right now!), but it might be fun, no?
Ah, the Red Tent. We had 2 women practically revolt from our book group when we read that book. The following month’s pick? Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice. Nice and safe.
Oh,and I LOVE Gilead. What a beautiful book.
It’s funny how book groups all read the same things. I think my book club has read half the books mentioned here.
My book group started out in the ward, but women have stayed in it when they’ve moved not too far away. It was never ward affiliated, so never under the RS.
We’ve got a rule against self-help books and LDS books. I wasn’t around when the book club started, but I’ve heard the “no LDS books” rule was to make it so we didn’t have to read an unending string of corny LDS romances. But you can’t just ban LDS romance, so all LDS books got banned.
Angela–congrats on a book. I’m interested in your discussion about women “justifying” their reading with a book club. I ran into that when I studied turn of the century (last century, that is) mission societies. Women felt totally guilty for being involved in a club (political, social, etc.), but it was okay to be in a missionary club since it was religious. I wonder if the same feeling is running through this.
My husband has raised his eyes a few times when he has come home from along hard day at work and I’m reading.
I’ve been in two book groups. The first was when my children were young and I would have at least one day a month when I would read an entire book in one day, at the expense of nearly everything else. I remember when there were people who weren’t regular attendees because they said they had no time to read and I wondered, “How could one not find time to read at least one book?”
Oh how naive I was. I’m now in another book group and I maybe attend 2 or 3 times a year, and then mostly because it’s a book I’ve already read. It’s very sad.
In both groups we’ve read LDS authors–Orson Scott Card, Anne Perry, Tom Plummer etc., but not what you would call LDS fiction. We are, however, slated to read Paradise Vue by Kathryn H. Kidd this year, I believe. Why is the humor so much easier to swallow?
p.s. I really loved The Red Tent. But I think we lost at least one member over that as well.
My calling is actually being in charge of the ward book club. My first choice of book was the Chronicles of Narnia– it staved off choosing another book for a whole 7 months! We are finishing with the last book this month, and I am starting to get worried about choosing new books every month. I’m in a BYU married student ward, and I know there are a lot of women who would enjoy the same type of books I enjoy (I’m all about postmodern literature), but there are so many ultra conservative women that I am afraid to choose anything other than things like the Chronicles of Narnia.
Anyway, next month we are going to read The Alchemist, but after that, I don’t know what we’re going to do! I would like to find a more literary minded group to be a part of though, aside from my ward book club– something where I don’t have to choose the book every month!
Okay, you guys have to tell me because I’m behind in the times and haven’t read The Red Tent. I’ve read the reviews, but…why did it cause such dissent? I’m so curious now!
A friend and I started a book group about 12 years ago (pre-Oprah,right?). We tend to have between 10-12 members, 5 of us have been there since the start, the others have come and gone, sometimes people seem to like the idea of a book group, it’s the reading that gets them. So they drop out. Right now I feel like we have a good group. We are mostly LDS, 2 aren’t. We take turns choosing books. Who ever chooses the book gets to choose where we go to dinner that month. Some of us are “book snobs” and others are light readers. There are no rules, so we get a pretty good variety, fiction, non-fiction, 1 or 2 LDS books a year.
There are definetly times when I feel like D. and would like to be in a more “serious” book group. Most of the time I think we have a pretty good balance.
I know that we all don’t always enjoy the the book, but we are all open to the idea of trying something we might not have chosen on our own. I for one have read things I am sure I wouldn’t have if not for book group. Our group is comfortable enough after all this time that we can be honest with each other and (mostly) not be offended if someone else didn’t like our book.
So far, my favorite bookclub reads have been:
Stegner’s “Angle of Repose,” McCullough’s “John Adams,” and Short Story night. But, I’m a recent bookgroup convert.
Tomorrow night we are meeting to discuss Barack Obama’s “Audacity of Hope.” We have a good mix of books. At the beginning of the year, everyone turns in suggestions and then we vote on them. Our group is made up of LDS women but is not LDS sanctioned. I love it.
Congrats on your book!
Kylie, I agree that the evils of “fiction reading” seem oh so 19th century Mormon . . . but I ran into it even when I organized a book group in my non-Mormon Minnesota neighborhood. It’s not that fiction is bad, necessarily–just that anything seen as entertaining rather than constructive is difficult for some women to justify spending their time on. (And of course I would argue that fiction reading is very constructive).
I’m sure we’ve all heard somebody say this: “If I’m going to spend my time reading, I’m going to use it reading parenting books (or the newspaper, etc. etc.)”. Notice I left the scriptures out of that quote (even though it’s a very common statement among LDS women) because I don’t want to give the impression that reading our scriptures isn’t the most important reading activity we can engage in. It is! But I don’t think reading scriptures and reading other things have to necessarily be lumped into the same category, so that one excludes the other. I also love this quote by Brigham Young:
“‘Shall I sit down and read the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and the Book of Covenants all the time?’ says one. Yes, if you please, and when you have done, you may be nothing but a sectarian after all. It is your duty to study, to know everything upon the face of the earth, in addition to reading those books…. We should not only study good, and its effect upon our race, but also evil, and its consequences.”
I didn’t say it! It was Brigham!
And Cheryl, here’s the skinny on The Red Tent: It’s a fictionalized version of the story of Dinah, the daughter of Jacob and Leah in the Old Testament. It’s very, well, frank about the discussion of human sexuality. Not titillating, though (I didn’t think). Just earthy and frank. It didn’t bother me, but I can see how it would bother some.
And Carrie, I’m glad you liked Stegner’s Angle of Repose. I suggested Stegner’s Crossing to Safety for our book group a few months ago . . . and it BOMBED! I was disappointed, because I love that book. But most people thought it was too slow. That’s why book group is great, though–you get to read a lot of different stuff.
I’ve been in many book groups. It seems that over time, I suppose it had something to do with women getting jobs, they just kind of faded away. The most successful ones always included lunch. The one that was most well attended didn’t require that members of the group all read the same book. It was mainly a lunch group with a book review to justify the guilty pleasure.
My present group is the official Relief Society group. We don’t have very many who come. Maybe three or four. The leader has a difficult time choosing or helping the group choose something of interest. We haven’t read any of those books mentioned. I have read the Life of Pie, but I did that on my own. I doubt if they have ever heard of it. The problem is the interests are so varied. We have ended up reading Little Women. I was the only one who finished. Talk about a slow book. They read Twilight. I forgot to go. We read To Kill A Mocking Bird some didn’t like that it was too heavy, go figure. It is difficult to find contemporary literature that won’t embarrass someone. So we read 1776 and the current book is John Adams.
I like fiction because it is so enriching. I like history also. But as someone said history has the facts but fiction tells the truth.
I appreciate the lists of books that y’all find interesting. That might give some ideas for our group. Thanks.
Oh, I love, love, love Wallace Stegner! That’s all.
How can Crossing to Safety BOMB
? It’s one of my favorite books ever, and has always gone over well in book groups. I’ve suggested it twice 
I know, I know–I’d suggested Crossing to Safety in another group years ago, and people loved it. But a lot of the members of this book club have never been in a book club before, and haven’t read a lot of literary fiction–so it’s tough to have a book that isn’t super plot heavy go over well. You know what they loved, though? “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan,” a recent novel about China–well written book, and you learn a ton about the culture, and the story’s good, and it engenders good discussions. It was a big hit.
I just started participating in a book group here during the last few months. I think it originally started as a group of women in student housing here, but it’s sort of morphed into an unoffical ward thing (most of the people who come are LDS). The way it works is that one person hosts it at their house and provides treats, then she chooses the book for the next time. That way we get a good variety of things (fiction, nonfiction, “classics”, etc). Recently we’ve read “The Professor’s House” by Willa Cather, “The Hiding Place” (Corrie Ten Boom), “To Kill a Mockingbird”, “The Magic of Ordinary Days”, and “Persepolis”. I actually picked Persepolis and I was scared to death because I was still new to the group and didn’t know what people would think. Surprisingly everyone loved it and we had a great discussion about religion and history and politics. For next time we are reading “Emma” by Jane Austen, which I actually appreciate because I rarely read classics anymore.
I find the idea of having to “justify” reading interesting. I’m a self-described reading addict and usually read 5-10 books a month, fiction and nonfiction. Generally I sit on my couch and read while my kids play or watch videos. I don’t want to offend anyone, but I’ve honestly been curious about what other women do with their time. I don’t like to clean when my kids are awake (they’re still pretty little), but I usually get it done on Saturdays. Honestly though, I don’t know why other people don’t have time to read. That’s pretty much all I do with myself (when I’m not on the internet). Maybe I should play with my kids more…
Love Stegner, too. It’s been awhile. I need to reread.
My worst book club bomb? Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
My biggest book club suprise? I thought the woman who chose Maeve Binchy’s The Copper Beach picked it off the book cart while checking out at the local grocery store. She did not and I enjoyed the read.
As for The Red Tent, those I know who didn’t like it didn’t appreciate the pagan aspect or the feminism, which some found extreme.
I also meant to say that while I read and enjoy a lot of LDS fiction, I didn’t choose it for my book club pick because it’s hard for people to get here. Most of us don’t have the budget to buy books so we try and find stuff available at the library. If there’s only a few copies, or none (like many LDS books), then we don’t choose it. My friend is planning on doing “Well Behaved Women Seldom Make History” next time. I’ve read it and think it’s a great book club book.
Man, I want a book club. We had one in our ward, but here are the books we read:
Miracle of Forgiveness
Harry Potter
Aragon
Believing Christ
Here are the times I did not go:
Miracle of Forgiveness
Harry Potter
Aragon
Believing Christ.
I would have killed for some Stegner. Or anything else.
I started a book club with some sisters from my ward a little less than a year ago. We have been careful not to make it “official”, but we have tried to be inclusive and invite anyone who might be interested.
The thing I love about my book club is that it gets me together with other wonderful sisters from my ward and gives us something that we can all talk and share about. We are all at different stages and situations in our lives, but the book gives us something that we all have in common and opens the door for us to share some of ourselves in a way that just wouldn’t happen in the normal course of social interaction. I think that, in the absence of anything else to talk about, there is a huge (understandable) tendency for women who are mothers to fall into conversation about their kids, not realising how alienating it is for those of us who don’t have any. Book club has given me a structure to build relationships with these women on common ground.
We each take a turn hosting the book club, and the host gets to choose the book. Usually the host will present three choices to the group and we will vote, but some hosts have felt quite strongly about reading a particular book, and that’s worked fine, too.
The books we have read so far:
“The Hiding Place” by Corrie Ten Boom — I think this was the most successful book (maybe I’m just saying that because it was my choice!). It was great because everyone loved it and it also generated a lot of discussion. We got into some really great, meaty topics.
“Twilight” by Stephenie Meyer — proof to me that just because a book is enjoyable doesn’t mean it is a good book club book. Everyone seemed to like the book (some quite fanatically), but conversation dried up after about 40 minutes. Just not much there to discuss.
“Goodbye, I Love You” by Carol Lynn Pearson — this was another success. Great discussion, and I think some of the women even had their minds broadened a bit. Not everyone agreed with each other about their perspectives, but I think that makes for good discussion.
“The Picture of Dorian Grey” by Oscar Wilde — this was a good one, although several didn’t finish the book. I think it was a difficult one for many of the women to really get their teeth into (most aren’t serious readers) but it still generated good discussions.
“Mere Christianity” by C. S. Lewis — I regrettably missed this one.
“Rebecca” by Daphne du Maurier — I was surprised that this one didn’t generate a meatier discussion. It’s a wonderful book, and an evocative one for women, but in thinking about it after our meeting, I’ve decided that the issues it touches on, mainly those dealing with maturity and spousal relationships, are ones that the women in my group aren’t prepared to be open about.
Our next book will be “Three Men in a Boat” by Jerome K. Jerome.
I have loved reading the suggestions and thoughts of other women above and will definitely be suggesting some of them in the future (and of course, “Bound on Earth”!).
Great comments! I have been part of a book club for the first time in my life here at grad school. We are all LDS, but it’s not an RS-sponsored deal. I’ve missed a lot of the books, because I’m too busy reading cultural studies theory, but the ones I’ve attended?
**The Chosen
**Pride and Prejudice (this seems to be a fave)
**Instead of reading the same Maeve Binchy book, we all read different Maeve Binchy books and discussed broader themes in her books. I liked that idea.
**In A Dry Land (I didn’t read this one, as it was the same months as comps, but I thoroughly enjoyed the discussion that night!)
This month is my choice, so I chose Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell. She’s my favorite author (I’m a non-fiction junkie).
I graduate in May and will move, and plan to start a book group in my new domicile. I’ve really enjoyed the one here.
A few years ago, our ward did an enrichment night focused on literacy. (This was before the Enrichment night changed to how it is now.) They asked several people in the ward to come and spend about two or three minutes discussing one of their favorite books. The enrichment leader knew that I love to read, so she included me in her request. Although she’d said it didn’t have to be a religious book, I knew I couldn’t recommend just ANY novel to a group of Relief Society sisters. I ended up talking about The Poisonwood Bible and holy cow did I feel out of place with that discussion. I left feeling a little bit isolated by my reading habits but also feeling a little bit sad, too, for the women who would deny themselves so many reading experiences out of the worry of swearing or controversy or a few naughty bits.
I’ve since met a few people in my ward who have similar reading tastes and it is good to not feel so isolated. I did belong to a (now-defunct) book club that I enjoyed. We were all LDS but not associated with just one ward. I think one of the secrets is having good food! It always seemed like the conversation was better when the food was really, really good. Some of our succesful books:
Alias Grace (Atwood)
The Poisonwood Bible (Kingsolver)
Emma (uggg…I dislike that book! But the discussion went well)
The Jane Austen Book Club
Congratulations on your book!!!
D-
You might send out a signup/email list for people who want to come. Ask them to send in all their book recommendations. Compile the list and have a book voting night. People don’t want to come to a bookgroup where they have no say in what is read and everything is chosen by one person. They have to own it too. You might get more participation.
I’ve been in a wonderful book club for three years. We don’t read LDS fiction because, by and large, it’s very poorly written. Time to read is precious, nobody wants to waste it on drivel. Not that all LDS fiction is drivel, but that’s been our past experience and the reputation endures.
Our book club did Crossing to Safety and we all really disliked it. It was well written, but the characters were all so pretentious and unlikeable. My least favorite Wallace Stegner book by far.
The most controversial book was that Dr. Laura book about husbands. There was fighting, that’s all I’ll say.
That was not a typical book for us, just fyi. We sort of read it as a joke, after a series of thick classics, but it caused quite a stir.
Thanks for this discussion! I just moved to a new ward and was called as enrichment counsellor straight away. The book club in the neighbouring ward is really successful and I was thrilled when they agreed to a new book club ’cause I’m really missing the one I left behind (with mums from school - all non LDS except me).
The only thing is, none of them have been in a book group before and although they’re keen, they’re apprehensive about suggesting books.
I agree with someone above - the whole group needs to feel ownership. And also I’m not a big reader outside the book group and I think it’s gonna be difficult for me to find books without sex and swearing! Being new to the ward - I don’t want to offend!
The first book was suggested by someone who had been to a book group before - The Island by Victoria Hislop and its fantastic - about a leper colony in Greece. We’re meeting at a greek ladies house and she’s gonna do greek nibbles.
I’ve made a note of 8 books from this discussion, which are all available at our library, so I’m thrilled to have some suggestions to fall back on!
Thanks for all your advice!
I am a member of two book clubs. One I started 12 years ago with neighbors and interested friends, mostly from my ward. The hostess chooses the book for the members to read and it is always a huge responsibility. We’ve had the rules that you have to have read it and it should be wholesome. Ninety-five percent of the books we’ve read over the years have been non-fiction novels of varying lengths and ability. We sometimes read juvenile fiction to keep tabs with what the kids are reading. I like when we read an LDS book once in awhile. We’ve read Fire of the Covenant by Lund and House of Glory - Finding personal meaning in the Temple by S. Michael Wilcox. Both had very uplifting, meaningful discussions. I recently went to a book group, where the author was present, in which we discussed her recently published book, Mothering With Spiritual Power. I’ve since thought it would be a fun book group to read that book and have each member write her own chapter to share. We just started a book group in our new ward. After our first discussion, we all presented a list of books and voted on which ones to read, how often to meet, and the rotation schedule of where to meet. It’s very inclusive and the sisters seem to be thirsting for friendship and brain stimulus. I’ve loved attending all the groups and getting perspective and insight from the varied experiences of all the readers! One of my favorite of all-time books was Sotah (to read and discuss)and a Newberry novel about Nathaniel Bowditch, Carry on, Mr. Boditch. We are currently reading The Long Road in one group. Thanks for all the book suggestions, I get to choose this month.
I have organized a few book groups… and I am kind of a book group fanatic. It bothers me when we discuss the book for only 5 minutes… and then talk about our kids, hubbies, etc. For the rest of the time. I love to discuss and dig deep into a book. I have found that if you form a book group with people who are friends - but not best friends- it works better- because you aren’t constantly talking about memories and intimate details of each others lives. I am still searching.
I’m in two or maybe three book clubs. I hate how half the books we read aren’t fiction. Though I suppose discussion is easier if we’re discussing Emotional Intelligence or 25 rules the award winning teacher uses in his classroom.
I’m glad a book club made me read Angle of Repose, which I loved. Because I’d already read Crossing to Safety, which I hated, and I wasn’t going to give Stegner another chance.
Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason was the best book I found through my RS book club.