I’m Starting a Library Book Club - What Could Go Wrong?

Hot Topics Or Go Home

I asked my local library— a small city with 10 branches— if I could volunteer some hours this summer.

Other people go to Paris— I want to work at the library, just like Mom.

1977, my mom was the city librarian of Paso Roble, CA, a round Carnegie Library made of red brick! She fought the good fight to keep “Our Bodies Ourselves” on the shelves.

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The librarians suggested I might volunteer for two projects. One, they’ll have me pull online reader requests, which then get shipped to the patron’s home branch.

It will be fascinating to see what everyone in town is reading and curious about, eh?

Second, Would I like to lead a monthly book club?

Oh, yes I would. I want a readers’ room of books you can’t put down. Hot topics. The zeitgeist.

Naomi Kanakia wrote a great piece about the peril of the dreary book club. I don’t quite subscribe to her rules (we will have fiction!) but I respect her hard stops.

Could I make rules for my branch readers? Who wants to obey or rebel?

• I’m the book club leader, therefore I get to pick all the books. See how easy that was? There will be variety, the spice of reading life.

• No reciting the plot.

• Any gossip, behind-the-scenes knowledge, conspiracy theories on titles — welcome.

• I actually don’t care if you “read the whole thing,” but you better be ready to hold your own.

• We can’t drink, imbibe, or spread crumbs at the library. Shame. We could continue later at the park down the street? Maybe “potluck picnics” after, when the weather is nice.

• “What did you learn from this book?” —Absolutely NOT. This is not an after-school special. People who come to library afternoon book clubs are grown-ups.

I will start reading aloud a passage from the book at the stroke of 1pm. Then we’ll segue to saying hello and I’ll throw out an opening question to consider. It’ll be a good one.

My local branch is also a Carnegie library, which was almost bulldozed, but our mayor Mike Rotkin, who died last year, led a great campaign to save it. The fireplace is named after him!

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“Hot Topic” Book Club Ideas I’m Kicking Around

I want variety. I want lively times. The book has to be a pageturner and impossible to have only one opinion about! I’d welcome your suggestions, too.

FICTION/FANTASY

Yesteryear - Caro Claire Burke

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MEMOIR

Strangers - Belle Burden

Both Yesteryear and Strangers are the tear-away bestsellers of the year thus far. And the debate is fierce. Why do New Yorkers get to have all the fun? We shall set our hair on fire in Santa Cruz.

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ROMANCE/EROS

“M/M Fiction” - The Rachel Reid Explosion and Long Tail of Getting Pucked

Can I say “pucked” on a library flyer?

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S/F

11-22-63 - Stephen King

Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury

(Did you know F-451 is back on EVERY bestseller list right now?)

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HEALTH

Into the Wood Chipper - A Whistleblower’s account of how the Trump admin shredded USAID - Nicolas Enrich

This is also known at “The Ebola Book.” We can consider this as either Health/Politics, or Horror genre. Either way.

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FOOD

“Le Cookbook Special” - In the fall, before the holidays, I want to chow down on all the most cherished, “I don’t want to return this” cookbooks we borrowed this year— what we’re making, harvesting, drinking. I’ll find out, and reveal, what are the most “checked-out” foodie books in the system.

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BIOGRAPHY

Emerson Circle: The Concord Radicals Who Reinvented the World - Bruce Nichols

I feel a bit guilty to not choose a West Coast version of this notion, (what would you suggest?) but the fact is I am fascinated by the Massachusetts bohemians who so profoundly created an American philosophy and way of life. Yes, a bestseller right now.

Raymond Carver’s What We Talk About When We Talk About Love - Brian Evenson

This title will be my exception to the “everyone’s talking about it” rule — I doubt anyone in Santa Cruz besides my family has read (or better yet, listened) to Evenson’s memoir/biography of Carver, but they OUGHT TO. Whew. I want to change a few lives. Here’s my previous review.

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HISTORICAL FICTION

Malinche - Laura Esquivel

Luminous Bodies: A Novel of Marie Curie - Devon Jirsild

I haven’t read either of these, but they are entering the bestseller realm of historically significant female figures whose lives are recreated in a 1st-person diary, to draw our sympathy and further detail. They are typically drawn as proto-feminists, which may be apt, or it may be cloying, who knows.

Believe it or not, this trend actually started with the American Doll bio-novelettes!

I haven’t read either of these yet, but the authors are strong candidates. Any opinions from you?

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COMIX

Persepolis - Marjane Satrapi

Marjane’s recent and somewhat mysterious death has everyone in tears, and her title has jumped back to the bestseller lists. The fact that it’s set in Iran reveals even more today than the day it was composed.

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HUMOR

The Land and Its People - David Sedaris

I’m torn about this. Sedaris is on the top 10, and he’s also beloved in my college town— sells out the Civic Auditorium every time. But I might want to pick another deeply queer satire! I haven’t read it yet, so I need to do more research. Do you think it’s one of his best?

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POLITICS

Regime Change - Maggie Haberman

Hoo boy, this will be fun. A great “hate-read” if there ever was one, an author many despise, but it’s great to read it at the library and then begin the ruckus!

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HISTORY

Black AF History - Michael Harriot

Harriot is one of my favorite Twitter/blog reads, his erudition and wit are delicious, and man, is he a history nerd. At my high school, a hundred years ago, we fought the admin to create and take “Black US History” and “Women’s US History” instead of regular US History curriculum. Which means, yes, I am sadly deficient in my understanding of John Adams (which I remedied later watching PBS) but man, did I love our alt-history classes.

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PSYCHOLOGY

The Third Reich of Dreams: the Nightmares of a Nation - Charlotte Beradt, editor.¹

Few will have heard of this buried German classic — it is literally a record of dreams Germans were having during the rise and unfolding of the 3rd Reich. Yes, let your mind explode. I thought for this session, I’d ask everyone to bring in a dream they’ve had lately which included scenes/characters from contemporary world/American politics. And then maybe we’ll act them out, Jungian style!

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Are any of you in reading groups this summer, highly formal or barely functioning? What have been the best moments? Worst ones, too, of course.

My most outrageous book group night, was when a local readers club of policewomen, sheriffs, and other first responders — all gals — said they wanted me to come talk to them about Santa Cruz Noir. They also commanded, yes, commanded, that my partner Jon appear, who had a story in the pages about a Westside Surfer who went over the edge.

Well, when we arrived, the women surrounded Jon and demanded to know who his fictional n’er do well antihero was!

“I arrested that bastard!” “I married him!” “Is he in jail for good?” “I oughta nail his dick to the wall.”

Jon tried to explain it was a composite character — SURE JAN — but they wouldn’t stop hounding him.

He took it as a real compliment that he got the meth, violence, and toxic blow-out atmosphere nailed. We all know a guy like that around here, and when we’re not laughing about it, it’s a heartbreaker.

To edit a book of murder stories, where the cops and the medics are often part of the scene, and have every detail click, that was work well put in.

Okay, now I wanna hear what you’re reading!

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In Case You Missed It

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1. I reviewed the title here, bottom half of post.