Book Club Experience

For this assignment I attended a book club that my mom has been a part of for a couple of years. This meeting was at our local winery, but it’s usually at the organizer’s house. Everyone got drinks to sip on. Participants also brought snacks to share, and one member even bought the charcuterrie pretzel off the winery’s restaurant menu for everyone to share.

It was an interesting experience for me because I was the youngest person there by a longshot, I am twenty-six, and if I had to guess, everyone there was in their late 50s to late 70s. However, a few of the participants I know from my old church, where my mom met the organizer of the book club, or through other mutual friends of my mom, so it wasn’t as if I was uncomfortable with being much younger than everyone else participating. I also had a good experience because my mom’s friend who organized the book club took the time to introduce me to everyone and we chatted for a while, waiting for everyone to arrive.

Unbeknownst to me, there were two different books to be discussed for the meeting, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell, and The Giver of Stars. Both are literary fiction, as are most pick for the club, as I was told. Some participants read both books, some read one, and even one participant that read neither. The organizer of the book club started the discussion, and prompted the initial questions, but everyone else would occasionally ask questions based on what comments people had to say about each title. First, everyone shared what they liked about the first title, and offered summary comments for those who didn’t read the book. We all shared what we liked about the book, from characters to plot points. We shared what surprised us about this book as well. The majority of the questions were open ended and went far beyond yes or no. Mostly it was piggybacking off other people’s comments or people stopping to share personal anecdotes, especially for the first book.

For the second book, everyone pretty much avoided spoilers because they thought I would like it because I was studying to be a librarian and this book was about books. This book sparked a lot of conversation that went a lot deeper than the book. For example, this book was about women not really being able to have reading experiences, so this prompted a long discussion about banned books and censorship. The book takes place in the 1800’s, so we also discussed how even after all this time, people still try to control others. Since everyone in this book was being persecuted, we had a good conversation on how our fear of people different than us can spark hatred. Through this conversation, a new book was picked based on a similar topic

Overall, I feel like everyone actively participated and now one stole the spotlight. It was a very open-minded environment, and not overly structured, which I liked. You could definitely tell that everyone was invested in everyone’s thoughts, it was a great experience, and I may go again.


Comments

  1. olivia l.March 12, 2023 at 1:14 PM

    I'm thrilled to hear you had such a good experience with the book club you attended! When you initially said it was being held at a winery, I was a bit nervous that it would turn into more of a social gathering than a book discussion, but I'm delighted that wasn't the case and the participants were genuinely invested in the books and each other's thoughts. It's also great that you all were comfortable enough with each other to be able to have a deeper discussion about particularly hot topics like censorship and fear turning to hatred. This sounds like a book club I'd love to be a part of, or at least try to emulate if I ever start my own. It's particularly interesting, too, that two books were discussed and also the next title was chosen as a group based on the ideas you talked about. I've never been in a book club where the next pick was made that way, but it really intrigues me! If you don't mind sharing, what is the next book you all picked?

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  2. Erin CataldiMarch 22, 2023 at 6:04 AM

    That sounds like a great experience. Did they say how they selected books? Do they always do two or were they combining two months? Sounds like this group runs like a well oiled machine. Great write up and full points!

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