I was definitely one of the first but now I’m telling neighborhood friends (and I’m far east side, away from you-know-where, for reference!). I bet you’ll magnetize a lovely magic band.
I love my book club! It's based at the LGBTQ+ senior center I hang out at. Actually, we call it a readers' group. We don't all read the same book -- we meet monthly and everyone brings 2-3 books they've been reading that month. There's usually 20 or so of us and we go around the room and talk about our books -- the good and the bad, the hilarious and the tedious.
One woman reads math textbooks. She's a mathematician manqué and she just likes to see if she can solve the problems. Another guy reads mainly in French and Russian, usually untranslated books we'd otherwise not know about. Some people read escapist bestsellers and some are plodding through the classics they never read. One guy loves queer historical mysteries; the books with a queer angle seem to get the most interest from others. It's the most interestingly motley crew of readers I've come across.
And our delightful organizer, Kate, types up and emails us a brief synopsis of each book/author mentioned. So we don't even have to take notes, we can just listen and talk. And whenever I want to find a good read, I head for Kate's emails to find something juicy. I've grown tired of other book clubs in the past but I've been going to this one monthly for a year and can't wait for the next one.
I rec’d a letter this morning I’d like to share with you:
“ Hi Susie,
“If you don’t already know her, you might be interested in Martha Crawford. She has a blog called What a Shrink Thinks and facilitates discussion groups about a variety of topics hanging out in the subconscious. I did one about dreams. She had us read “The Third Reich of Dreams.”
“She also did a project called The 45 Dreams Project, collecting and analyzing the dreams people were having about the 45th and now 47th president. It was based on “The Third Reich of Dreams,” and she has a lot of interesting thoughts about what is different about our Trump dreams (I had one where he was marrying my mother!) and those smuggled out of Germany. It’s a hopeful thesis.
Wow this is so much fun! My first thought was that I hope that something by Marjane Satrapi is on your list, so I was relieved to see Persepolis listed. I was so very sad when she died.
At the end of last year I read and enjoyed two books by Alice Wong (Year of the Tiger, and Disability Visibility). But - looking at her books I see there is another one that might be fun for a book club - Disability Intimacy.
I might also suggest adding a "young adult" category. I read and enjoyed We Are Okay by Nina LaCour last year. There are probably so many amazing options for a YA category.
Two other suggestions -
- Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking: A Memoir of Food and Longing by Anya von Bremzen - I first heard about this book on an episode of the Kitchen Sisters. For me this book has it all - food, cooking, the world of the Soviets, and recipes.
- The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese. It's a long long long book but somehow I enjoyed reading every single word. I haven't yet read Cutting for Stone, but this book is also supposed to be amazing.
I'm so excited to see what folks suggest too. I've been reading a book that's mostly mediocre so I'm due for a page turner.
I wish I could be there! love the Book Clubs - love Fahrenheit 451 and some other titles you have listed; at the moment, I am reading VOICES FROM THE KITCHEN, Personal Narratives from New York's Immigrant Restaurant Workers,edited by Marc Mayer; published last year by Beacon Press; I discovered this book shortly after it was published from the Beacon Press Publishing Newsletter and I am very glad I did. This is an oral history by 27 immigrant workers who described the resilience, the intelligence and the determination of NYC restaurant workers - love it; and then, a reread of Kerouac's ON THE ROAD and reread of Bel Kaurfman's UP THE DOWN STAIRCASE! I love words
@Reading Off Into The Sunset, you’ll be amused to hear I read this when Elizabeth (my mom) was a high school teacher, and I got up the courage to ask her if high school was REALLY like this. (I was 10 or soemthing). She didn’t use this word, but she laughed and said it was “romanticized” but that all the faculty read it and joked about it. Everyone wished they’d written it first and made a million dollars.
Amit Majmudar's amazing Three Metamorphoses is my current fave. Three wild poetic variations on stories most of us know, vaguely or well: the Koranic version of God, Adam, Satan, and Eve; a whirling mash-up of the stories of Antigone, Jesus before Pilate, and American persecutions in the name of "security"; and the seduction of Shiva by Parvati with help from Kama (Majmudar is a radiologist and a believing Hindu) May I send a copy to you?
This makes me wish I were local so I could attend your library book club! Two books I just read that I adored are Gertrude Stein: an Afterlife, by Francesca Wade, and Partially Devoured: How Night of the Living Dead Saved My Life and Changed the World, by Daniel Kraus.
I like the rules you proposed for yours... I'm a truant from several book clubs that I'm nominally in but the one I've been most regular about is an anti-AI reading group. We recently finished Disabling Intelligences by Rua Williams and it was pretty powerful.
I just finished Erik Larson: The Demon of Unrest because Benjamin Ruffin figures prominently in the narrative. It was a compelling read, at least for me, and timely. But I was focused primarily on Ruffin and his role as a fire-eater.
Oh, this is new to me; I want to read it too. What a tip, thank you.
Listen, in your librarian days, have you supervised or observed a branch book club? Got any advice for me? One thing the library warned me about is that obviously, there’s not enough copies to share of popular titles— and we can’t act like everyone can buy one, that’s NOT the library spirit. I had some other ideas about things I could share, gratis, by email: excerpts of the book, author interviews, the best reviews and controversies surrounding the title.
Book clubs are tricky things because everyone wants the same book at the same time. Typically, I left the book club business to the book club. My role was to find enough copies of the book to satisfy the need. In Minnesota, given a few days, that’s not hard, presuming the book is common enough that many public libraries own it. Then, because we have a fantastic ability to inter library loan books statewide, often obtaining multiple copies of the same title within a few days, we were able to fill the need. Where that fell apart was if the book was obscure or very current and very popular, in which case the most expedient thing was for book club members to buy their own copy - which many book club members prefer to do in any case. Book clubs typically attract people who buy books in any case. When I could find an ebook available with 100 simultaneous users lending model, I would add that. Those are not the norm.
For the record, I have never understood the desire for licensing in the way it is currently managed by the publishing industry. Why only one reader at a time? If I buy a license with 26 circulations, why not just allow them to go out all at once? Guess what? I’ll be back in a few days to buy another one. Otherwise, I’m pretty much free to just let people go on the wait list and wait until the term expires before re-licensing. I’ve always thought the publishers believe the library purchasing capacity is elastic. It is not. Libraries do not just magically create new money for materials purchases. The amount of effort that goes into the legal work behind the creation of the various lending models, the staff time required to create, maintain, and manage all that could be eliminated if everything was simply the one copy one user model. I digress.
Because many of the titles you suggest are maybe not in your local library e-book collections, it might mean your readers will need to see about obtaining copies in print. I don’t know how the inter library lending of materials works in California, but it would be worth presenting your list to one of your library staff and asking how hard (or easy) it might be for people to obtain a copy.
As for your readers, they should be prepared to obtain their copy a couple of weeks in advance (I’m positive you have already intuited this.) What I can say from experience is that a surprisingly high percentage of them will come to the library to find it just days, or even 1 day,, before the group is to meet. They will need to allow more time, especially if it has to come by inter library loan, as for most people it most assuredly will.
What absolute fun! I bet the Strangers discussions will be fascinating.
I have had one book club that ran for maybe a year—I thought that was a success, as it was on zoom; we were all over the country. (One member tuned in from Germany a couple of times!) It was a Cure bookclub, which happened after I noted on fb how many Cure songs were inspired by (or in some cases, lifted from) various novels and poems. We started by reading the novel Charlotte Sometimes, which inspired their song with that title. We read Lol Tolhurst’s book on goth (it was surprisingly good), a couple of books about the history of college radio and alternative music, and Viv Albertine’s memoir. Eventually, I got tired of trying to make people’s schedules work and facilitating. However, it was really fun while it lasted.
I love that a band was your inspiration to pick the titles. Yeah, scheduling is a BITCH. Thank god it’s a set library time, and it’s either be there or be square.
I. Am. In.
Fuck yeah.
oh goodie. Strangers! What could be more juicy fun? I bet you will be the first to register
I was definitely one of the first but now I’m telling neighborhood friends (and I’m far east side, away from you-know-where, for reference!). I bet you’ll magnetize a lovely magic band.
I love my book club! It's based at the LGBTQ+ senior center I hang out at. Actually, we call it a readers' group. We don't all read the same book -- we meet monthly and everyone brings 2-3 books they've been reading that month. There's usually 20 or so of us and we go around the room and talk about our books -- the good and the bad, the hilarious and the tedious.
One woman reads math textbooks. She's a mathematician manqué and she just likes to see if she can solve the problems. Another guy reads mainly in French and Russian, usually untranslated books we'd otherwise not know about. Some people read escapist bestsellers and some are plodding through the classics they never read. One guy loves queer historical mysteries; the books with a queer angle seem to get the most interest from others. It's the most interestingly motley crew of readers I've come across.
And our delightful organizer, Kate, types up and emails us a brief synopsis of each book/author mentioned. So we don't even have to take notes, we can just listen and talk. And whenever I want to find a good read, I head for Kate's emails to find something juicy. I've grown tired of other book clubs in the past but I've been going to this one monthly for a year and can't wait for the next one.
You have LUCKED out, what a great group.
I rec’d a letter this morning I’d like to share with you:
“ Hi Susie,
“If you don’t already know her, you might be interested in Martha Crawford. She has a blog called What a Shrink Thinks and facilitates discussion groups about a variety of topics hanging out in the subconscious. I did one about dreams. She had us read “The Third Reich of Dreams.”
“She also did a project called The 45 Dreams Project, collecting and analyzing the dreams people were having about the 45th and now 47th president. It was based on “The Third Reich of Dreams,” and she has a lot of interesting thoughts about what is different about our Trump dreams (I had one where he was marrying my mother!) and those smuggled out of Germany. It’s a hopeful thesis.
“https://45dreamsproject.com/
“All my best, R.”
Wow this is so much fun! My first thought was that I hope that something by Marjane Satrapi is on your list, so I was relieved to see Persepolis listed. I was so very sad when she died.
At the end of last year I read and enjoyed two books by Alice Wong (Year of the Tiger, and Disability Visibility). But - looking at her books I see there is another one that might be fun for a book club - Disability Intimacy.
I might also suggest adding a "young adult" category. I read and enjoyed We Are Okay by Nina LaCour last year. There are probably so many amazing options for a YA category.
Two other suggestions -
- Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking: A Memoir of Food and Longing by Anya von Bremzen - I first heard about this book on an episode of the Kitchen Sisters. For me this book has it all - food, cooking, the world of the Soviets, and recipes.
- The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese. It's a long long long book but somehow I enjoyed reading every single word. I haven't yet read Cutting for Stone, but this book is also supposed to be amazing.
I'm so excited to see what folks suggest too. I've been reading a book that's mostly mediocre so I'm due for a page turner.
The ART of Soviet COoking? I’m dying laughing. Of course I just checked it out, it was on Hoopla (the library ebook site). Such a great cover, too.
Yes, I hope some people come to the marjane session who know her whole career, I’d like to learn more.
I will pass on your Y/A suggestions to the colleague who does that group! And yeah, the Alice Wong, checking that out, too.
I wish I could be there! love the Book Clubs - love Fahrenheit 451 and some other titles you have listed; at the moment, I am reading VOICES FROM THE KITCHEN, Personal Narratives from New York's Immigrant Restaurant Workers,edited by Marc Mayer; published last year by Beacon Press; I discovered this book shortly after it was published from the Beacon Press Publishing Newsletter and I am very glad I did. This is an oral history by 27 immigrant workers who described the resilience, the intelligence and the determination of NYC restaurant workers - love it; and then, a reread of Kerouac's ON THE ROAD and reread of Bel Kaurfman's UP THE DOWN STAIRCASE! I love words
Oh wow, “Up the Down Staircase” I remember that in the sixties, I kinda snuck reading it because it was known to be RACY
@Reading Off Into The Sunset, you’ll be amused to hear I read this when Elizabeth (my mom) was a high school teacher, and I got up the courage to ask her if high school was REALLY like this. (I was 10 or soemthing). She didn’t use this word, but she laughed and said it was “romanticized” but that all the faculty read it and joked about it. Everyone wished they’d written it first and made a million dollars.
Kaufman was Sholem Aleichem’s granddaughter: they knew stories.
Also, loved the racy books of the sixties: VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, IN COLD BLOOD were my very favorite 📕 books
Wow, what a SCOOP. I had no idea.
I can hear her cackle!
Amit Majmudar's amazing Three Metamorphoses is my current fave. Three wild poetic variations on stories most of us know, vaguely or well: the Koranic version of God, Adam, Satan, and Eve; a whirling mash-up of the stories of Antigone, Jesus before Pilate, and American persecutions in the name of "security"; and the seduction of Shiva by Parvati with help from Kama (Majmudar is a radiologist and a believing Hindu) May I send a copy to you?
I would love that!
This makes me wish I were local so I could attend your library book club! Two books I just read that I adored are Gertrude Stein: an Afterlife, by Francesca Wade, and Partially Devoured: How Night of the Living Dead Saved My Life and Changed the World, by Daniel Kraus.
I wish you could! You could always crash it . . . I’ll post the times here when I find out what’s up.
Both your recent reads sound fascinating, I’m going to look them up.
I like the rules you proposed for yours... I'm a truant from several book clubs that I'm nominally in but the one I've been most regular about is an anti-AI reading group. We recently finished Disabling Intelligences by Rua Williams and it was pretty powerful.
Interesting! I”d like to check out your whole reading list
Here's what we have read so far / are reading now:
The AI Con, by Emily Bender and Alex Hannah
Resisting AI - An Anti-fascist Approach to Artificial Intelligence, by Dan McQuillan
Why We Fear AI: On the Interpretation of Nightmares, by Hagen Blix and Ingeborg Glimmer
Disabling Intelligences: Legacies of Eugenics and How We are Wrong about AI, by Rua Williams
Techno-Negative: A Long History of Refusing the Machine, by Thomas Dekeyser
Very cool project. I just finished The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz, a very on the nose treatment of Sherlock Holmes and Watson.
Oh that sounds like a great project, yum. Adding it to my “pull list”
I just finished Erik Larson: The Demon of Unrest because Benjamin Ruffin figures prominently in the narrative. It was a compelling read, at least for me, and timely. But I was focused primarily on Ruffin and his role as a fire-eater.
Oh, this is new to me; I want to read it too. What a tip, thank you.
Listen, in your librarian days, have you supervised or observed a branch book club? Got any advice for me? One thing the library warned me about is that obviously, there’s not enough copies to share of popular titles— and we can’t act like everyone can buy one, that’s NOT the library spirit. I had some other ideas about things I could share, gratis, by email: excerpts of the book, author interviews, the best reviews and controversies surrounding the title.
Book clubs are tricky things because everyone wants the same book at the same time. Typically, I left the book club business to the book club. My role was to find enough copies of the book to satisfy the need. In Minnesota, given a few days, that’s not hard, presuming the book is common enough that many public libraries own it. Then, because we have a fantastic ability to inter library loan books statewide, often obtaining multiple copies of the same title within a few days, we were able to fill the need. Where that fell apart was if the book was obscure or very current and very popular, in which case the most expedient thing was for book club members to buy their own copy - which many book club members prefer to do in any case. Book clubs typically attract people who buy books in any case. When I could find an ebook available with 100 simultaneous users lending model, I would add that. Those are not the norm.
For the record, I have never understood the desire for licensing in the way it is currently managed by the publishing industry. Why only one reader at a time? If I buy a license with 26 circulations, why not just allow them to go out all at once? Guess what? I’ll be back in a few days to buy another one. Otherwise, I’m pretty much free to just let people go on the wait list and wait until the term expires before re-licensing. I’ve always thought the publishers believe the library purchasing capacity is elastic. It is not. Libraries do not just magically create new money for materials purchases. The amount of effort that goes into the legal work behind the creation of the various lending models, the staff time required to create, maintain, and manage all that could be eliminated if everything was simply the one copy one user model. I digress.
Because many of the titles you suggest are maybe not in your local library e-book collections, it might mean your readers will need to see about obtaining copies in print. I don’t know how the inter library lending of materials works in California, but it would be worth presenting your list to one of your library staff and asking how hard (or easy) it might be for people to obtain a copy.
As for your readers, they should be prepared to obtain their copy a couple of weeks in advance (I’m positive you have already intuited this.) What I can say from experience is that a surprisingly high percentage of them will come to the library to find it just days, or even 1 day,, before the group is to meet. They will need to allow more time, especially if it has to come by inter library loan, as for most people it most assuredly will.
I wish I could be part of your group!
What absolute fun! I bet the Strangers discussions will be fascinating.
I have had one book club that ran for maybe a year—I thought that was a success, as it was on zoom; we were all over the country. (One member tuned in from Germany a couple of times!) It was a Cure bookclub, which happened after I noted on fb how many Cure songs were inspired by (or in some cases, lifted from) various novels and poems. We started by reading the novel Charlotte Sometimes, which inspired their song with that title. We read Lol Tolhurst’s book on goth (it was surprisingly good), a couple of books about the history of college radio and alternative music, and Viv Albertine’s memoir. Eventually, I got tired of trying to make people’s schedules work and facilitating. However, it was really fun while it lasted.
I love that a band was your inspiration to pick the titles. Yeah, scheduling is a BITCH. Thank god it’s a set library time, and it’s either be there or be square.
OH NO. Let me go see if I can find it. I want to know all about it. Hang on.