Review and Giveaway: Springtime on Mars by Susan Woodring

When my kids were very small, I would find myself with little snippets of time, perhaps while waiting at the pediatrician’s office, or watching a toddler gymnastics class, or while the kids were napping.  I found I could read short stories in a single sitting, and there was something really satisfying about that, unlike a novel, where it might be days until my next opportunity to sit down with my book, and I would need to go back and reread to figure out where I was. 

Springtime on Mars by Susan Woodring is a short story collection filled with intensely personal domestic situations of quiet desperation.   There are 11 stories, set in the 1950’s until the present day, loosely connected by recurrent themes of science and technology, marriage and relationships, love and loss.  

Charming, deceptively simple, and utterly American, many of these tales depict the country at the brink of change and huge scientific advances. Others show the struggle between faith in God and faith in science.  Ranging from the introduction of the television into our living rooms, to the Kennedy assassination, to the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger, Springtime on Mars holds up a mirror and shows us not only who we were, but who we are. 

In Zenith, 1954, Reverend Joe and his wife Marianne, pregnant with twins, are given a welcoming gift by their congregation: 

“I knew Frank did not hold to the elders’ decision to gift us with a television set, a worthless diversion that not only inspired rampant idleness, but also one that was relatively new- the whole thing could turn out to be nothing more than a Hollywood fad.” 

Woodring breathes life into her characters so quickly- within a few short paragraphs you fully grasp who they are.  In the story Inertia, Lizzie’s mother sends her to the basement for a jar of preserves and some beans.  She’s reluctant to go, and when she gets there, we understand why:  

“The shelves on the far wall held my grandmother’s canning efforts:  tomatoes, okra, peppers, and preserves: strawberry, pear, and rhubarb-strawberry.   There were empty spaces now, as there always were this late in summer, but since my grandmother had passed away last winter, the holes were unsettling.  My mother had promised to keep the garden up, but she’d tended only to her bees…” 

Later, Lizzie’s father attempts to explain her mother’s grief over her grandmother to Lizzie this way: 

“He assured me my mother’s need to tend to them {the bees} would pass, the same as people’s need to watch the skies for news from other worlds.  He taught math at the junior college and this seemed to give him an insight into why people believed what they believed.  It’s all, he said, an irrational desire to control the uncontrollable.  I wanted him to think I had a scientific mind like his, so I nodded and told him I understood, though I didn’t.” 

I was perhaps most touched and completely caught off guard by the story Beautiful, in which a father is staying in a hotel, apart from his family, on an extended business trip.  His wife and daughters come down for a visit, but there are huge walls of silence and misunderstanding.  He realizes his 13 year old didn’t want to make the trip; she seems embarrassed and unsure of how to act around her dad.  He then remembers how it used to be: 

“When she was little, though, she used to cup his face in her hands and draw it very close to her own.  Listen, she would say.  There’s a crisis on planet Gimbel and we have to go there now. “ 

Throughout that story, I was rooting for the dad so much.  I kept thinking,  Do something!  You’re going to lose your family!  The relief I felt when he finally took some action to connect with his kids is hard to describe.  I got so choked up and was surprised at how much it affected me. 

Susan Woodring has a unique voice and a disarming style.  Many short story collections are woefully uneven, but that is not the case here.   I found real moments of charm and humor in every single story.  I enjoyed this book so much and enthusiastically recommend it. 

The author has generously agreed to provide a copy of Springtime on Mars to one lucky commenter.  Please leave a comment here and a winner will be selected on June 6^th, the date of Susan Woodring’s Books on the Brain stop on her blog tour.  On that date I will post a beautiful essay Susan has written on why a short story collection is a great choice for a book club. 

Susan Woodring’s website can be found HERE 

Here are excellent discussion questions for Springtime on Mars: 

Book Club Discussion Questions compiled by Ashley Roberts, March 2008.

1.   Though you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, what were your expectations before reading the book? Did the stories meet these expectations or were you surprised?

2.   Susan Woodring plays with family dynamics. What do these different types of families have in common? How are they different?  

3.  Why do you think “Springtime on Mars” is the book’s namesake? Does this story accurately represent the rest of the stories? 

4.  In “Birds of Illinois,” what do the birds symbolize? The meat? 

5.  Six of the eleven stories are written in the first person. Do you think these stories would be diminished in any way if we didn’t have the thoughts of the leading characters?  

6.  Woodring plays with different fears in “Inertia.” What fears are present? Are the characters fearful of different things? Does fear appear in other stories? 

7.  Compare Jean and Harold’s relationship in “Morning Again” to Gladys and Andy’s. How would you describe their understanding of their roles in their respective relationships? 

8.  In “Love Falling,” there’s a lot of tension in the house. What is the breaking point for Julie? Why does she ultimately decide to leave? 

9.  Woodring describes the weather with much detail. Why do you think this is, and can you draw any connections between the weather and the temperament of the story?  

10.   What do you think Woodring is implying in her observations of belief systems: religious, political, and extraterrestrial? 

11.   Russia makes a frequent appearance in the stories. What do you think it symbolizes? 

12.   The parent/child relationship is often very strained in the stories. What do you think Woodring is trying show the reader?  

13.  When Shannon urges Jean to take the triangle IQ test in “Morning Again,” she responds, “I’ve raised three children.” What do you think this implies about Jean’s values? Shannon’s? 

14.  All of the characters are unique. Is there one in particular you most empathize with? Why or how?  

 

Review: Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks

Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks is the fictional account of an 18 year old widow with two young boys set against the larger backdrop of the true story of the plague in a remote village in Derbyshire in 1665-1666. 

Anna, a servant to the town minister Michael Mompellion, is alone with her boys after her young husband dies in a mining accident.  The bubonic plague arrives in the village with a tailor from London, who Anna has taken in as a boarder.  In horrifying detail we watch as the disease spreads from Anna’s cottage to her neighbors’ homes and the greater community. 

In the early weeks of the plague, the minister gathers his flock together and has them take the Sunday Oath, in which they will voluntarily seal off their town’s borders to allow the plague to run it’s course without anyone entering or exiting their village. Anna forges an unlikely friendship with the minister’s wife Elinor, together becoming well versed in the use of herbs to comfort and alleviate pain.  She tends to the sick even as she grieves for the dead.  Miraculously she survives the year that claims 1/3^rd of the town’s population.  Her perseverance in the face of death is truly inspiring.

Year of Wonders made me wonder- how much can one person take?  Clearly, as the saying goes, that which does not kill us makes us stronger.  This novel speaks to the indomitable human spirit.  It made me grateful for things like hand sanitizer and antibiotics.  It made me appreciate the blessings of hot running water and flush toilets.  It made me worry more than I already do about asian bird flu, mad cow disease and deadly SARS.  But for all the horrifying and grim detail of this book, it is absolutely wonderful and one I cannot recommend highly enough. Geraldine Brooks has done an exceptional job of blending historical fact with fiction.  She is a magnificent storyteller.   

Ms. Brooks is the Pulitzer Prize winning author of March, about the absent father in Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women.  Her most recent novel, People of the Book, was released in January.  You can find her website HERE.

I look forward to discussing this book at my book club meeting in June, and also with the online book group at The Inside Cover.  If you’d like to participate in that discussion- run out and get a copy of Year of Wonders and be ready to talk about it on May 31^st.

You can find another review of Year of Wonders at Devourer of Books. 

Guest Post: In Praise of Book Clubs, Vol. 6

Heather, from Age 30 - A Year of Books, talks about her Storie delle Sorelle book club in this 6th volume of In Praise of Book Clubs.

When I started my book club back in May of 2005, I had a grand plan in mind: I would gather a group of friends on a bi-weekly basis and together we would delve into the most intriguing books we could find. Everyone would love every book and raise lots of meaningful points during the discussions. 

Well, as we all know, reality does not ever follow our grand plans. In reality, I have a dedicated group of friends who regularly attend meetings. We call ourselves Storie delle Sorelle, Italian for Stories of the Sisters. Rather than bi-weekly (was I crazy?!) we meet about once a month. Everyone does not love every book, but get this…that makes the meetings even better! 

Our most controversial book was What Our Mother’s Didn’t Tell Us: Why Happiness Eludes the Modern Woman by Danielle Crittenden. The point of the book is that the feminist movement actually hurt women in a variety of ways. Boy, did this cause some discussion! Some of the ladies completely agreed with the author’s points while others thought she was loony. One discussion centered on the age-old debate of the working mom vs. the stay-at-home mom — what a touchy subject! Our meeting was intense and needed very little direction from me as the leader. 

One good tip — if your club plans to discuss a “heavy” book, have your meeting in a fun environment. We discussed this book at our annual pool party — it’s hard to get too tense while wearing a bathing suit and drinking lemonade! 

One of our best meetings was for Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden. In what seemed like a miracle for our club, everyone really loved this book. For our meeting we dressed in Japanese garb and had Asian food. We even had a special guest bring family heirlooms from WWII occupied Japan and an antique samurai sword. Because we all loved the book, our discussion was rather brief. When it seemed there was no more to say, I brought up the controversy and lawsuits that followed the novel’s publication … then we had a great deal to discuss. That new knowledge made us re-examine the novel with a more critical eye. 

Another great discussion came from Marion Zimmer Bradley’s The Mists of Avalon. This book is one of my all-time favorites, but with more than 800 pages it was a stretch for my group. To accommodate busy schedules and slower readers we decided to split the book into two meetings. Not everyone liked this book, but everyone got something out of it. Some said they appreciated the strong female characters. One member said reading about the rival kingdoms of King Arthur’s day helped her understand the rivalry and wars between the small kingdoms in the Old Testament. A few were just proud that they had completed such a long and intense book. 

My book club is nothing like what I imagined in my grand plan … in reality it’s a wonderfully eclectic, sometimes stressful but always enjoyable band of “sisters.” Our taste in books varies wildly — as does our reading speed — and we try to accommodate everyone. We found what works for us and our excellent meetings are the evidence. It’s not what I would have imagined, but reality can be better than fiction!

originally published at readinggroupguides.com on March 25th

Blogger Bio:  Heather Johnson and her husband, Chris, will celebrate their 10 year wedding anniversary this year.  They live near Baltimore, Maryland with their one fantastic son, James (age 6) and their big dog, Jasmine (age 9).  Heather founded the Storie delle Sorelle book club in 2005 and started blogging about it - and her other reading adventures - just last year.

***Would you like to share about your book club here at Books on the Brain?  If so, leave a comment and I will get in touch with you about a guest post!

For previous volumes of In Praise of Book Clubs, click HERE

For more info on starting your own book club, click HERE

For fun ways to make your book club better, click HERE

For a chance to win a copy of Matrimony by Joshua Henkin, click HERE by May 15th.  Josh would be happy to do an author chat with your book club!

For a chance to win a copy of The Next Thing On My List by Jill Smolinski, click HERE by May 15. You can contact Jill at her website about setting up an author chat. 

The Sunday Salon: Happy Mother’s Day!

Happy Mother’s Day!  Mine is a double whammy-it is both Mother’s Day and my birthday, which is a little like having your birthday on Christmas-you get a lot of 2 for 1 presents.  But I’m not complaining-  next to the lilacs my mother brought over for me I see a vase filled with tissue paper flowers my 3^rd grader made in school, a hand painted mug she made in Brownies, and assorted gifts wrapped in bright green paper.  Once everyone wakes up we’ll have cake and ice cream for breakfast, a sweet birthday tradition at our house.  We will be celebrating later with extended family at The Chart House for brunch. 

It was a good week for reading.  I finished Matrimony and worried that my review might upset the author, who I’ve been emailing with since his guest post.  It’s a really good book, but there were things that bothered me, and I almost didn’t post the review at all for fear he might be offended by some of my comments.  To my relief he was fine and did not take offense.  I’d never been in a situation like that before and it made me think about reviews; why we do them, how important it is to be honest and what we should be concerned about when we’re writing them.  Matrimony will be discussed on May 22^nd at Every Day I Write the Book and at the end of June at Planet Books.  

Speaking of planets, I received an amazing little collection of short stories from Blog Stop Book Tours called Springtime on Mars by Susan Woodring.  These stories are pitch-perfect and I absolutely loved them; I laughed, I cried, I emailed the author and gushed like a schoolgirl!  The author is doing a virtual book tour and will be stopping by on June 6th.  She is also planning a guest post for Books on the Brain about why a short story collection is a great pick for a book club.  I can’t wait to read her thoughts on that.  My copy doesn’t have discussion questions for reading groups, but later versions do. 

My mailman is going to be busy the next couple of weeks, loaded down with the books I’ve acquired all over the internet.  I’m waiting on a bunch of ARCs and free books from various places:  Songs for the Missing by Stewart O’Nan from B&N’s First Look program, The Wishing Year by Noelle Oxenhandler from Library Thing’s Early Reviewer Program, Comfort Food by Kate Jacobs from the publisher, The Safety of Secrets by DeLaune Michel and The Space Between Before and After by Jean Reynolds Page from Avon A-the contemporary Women’s Fiction division of Harper Collins, Love and Biology at the Center of the Universe by Jennie Shortridge (I LOVED her book, Eating Heaven), and Netochka Nezvanova from Penguin Classics.  I think there are a couple more but I’ve started losing track.  I’d put all the links in, but it’s my birthday and I just don’t feel like tracking them all down!  

My book club is reading Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks for our June 8^th meeting, and it is also the May choice for the online book club at The Inside Cover.  Year of Wonders is about the decimation of a British village by the bubonic plague in a single year 1665-1666.  I haven’t started it yet, but I’m going to tonight.  If you’ve read the book and want to join in to the online discussion, be sure to head over to The Inside Cover for details. 

Don’t forget about my giveaways:  The Next Thing on My List by Jill Smolinski and Matrimony by Joshua Henkin.  Leave a comment on the above posts by Thursday, May 15^th for a chance to win a copy.

Have a great Sunday, and Big Hugs to all you moms on Mother’s Day!  

Guest Post: In Praise of Book Clubs, Vol. 5

Julie, a voracious reader who writes the pretty, pink Booking Mama blog, tells us what’s special about her book club in the following essay entitled “What My Book Club Means to Me.” 

About six and half years ago, my husband and I chose to move to Central PA so I could be a stay-at-home mom. We had lived in the DC area for 10 years, but we wanted a less expensive and more stable place to bring up our family. When we made this decision, I didn’t take into account the drastic change it would be for me. I was no longer working and I was staying home full-time with a very active (and very demanding) 2 year old. I had no close friends or anyone even to talk to for that matter! 

Fortunately, I found a wonderful preschool that my daughter could attend two mornings a week (what a lifesaver!) I also was incredibly lucky to meet other stay-at-home moms with whom I had a lot in common. I’ve always been an avid reader, and I decided that I wanted to share my love of books with others. I asked a few of my friends to join me once a month for a book discussion, and the Preschool Moms Book Club was formed! 

Through the years our membership has gone up and down, but I can proudly say that we’ve read and discussed almost 70 books. Each of our members take turns choosing the book, hosting the meeting and leading the discussion. We’ve read all types of books, and now we’ve even added the occasional author chats to our monthly meetings. 

I can’t express how much my book club means to me. Each month I look forward to a girls’ night out with some dessert, wine and terrific conversation. We’ve been through a lot together these past few years, including many new babies; but I hope our book club keeps on going for many more years in the future. I feel so blessed to have a wonderful circle of friends with whom I can talk about anything. 

Blogger Bio:  Julie has been married to her husband Matt for almost 15 years. They have 2 children, an 8 year old daughter and a 3 year old son. She started her popular book blog Booking Mama in January 2008.

***Would you like to share about your book club here at Books on the Brain?  If so, leave a comment and I will get in touch with you about a guest post!

For previous volumes of In Praise of Book Clubs, click HERE

For more info on starting your own book club, click HERE

For fun ways to make your book club better, click HERE

For a chance to win a copy of Matrimony by Joshua Henkin, click HERE by May 15th.  Josh would be happy to do an author chat with your book club!

For a chance to win a copy of The Next Thing On My List by Jill Smolinski, click HERE by May 15. You can contact Jill at her website about setting up an author chat. 

Review: Matrimony by Joshua Henkin

Matrimony by Joshua Henkin is a calm, quiet novel without a lot of flash or fuss.  It’s strength lies in the writing. 

**WARNING!  SPOILERS AHEAD!  PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK!!

What is this book about?  Well.. hmmm.  Matrimony is about marriage, sort of.  It’s more about friendship, college life, and writers. 

Two guys- Julian, who is rich, and Carter, at Graymont College thanks to a scholarship- are the most talented students in a writing workshop and soon become best friends, although money is always an issue between them.  Carter has a bit of a chip on his shoulder and seems to resent Julian for his family’s wealth.   But they remain friends and move through their college years together, each finding love (first Carter with Pilar, then Julian with “Mia from Montreal” who the friends first discovered in the school’s facebook). 

The story centers on Mia and Julian, who are serious from the start.  In their senior year, Mia’s mom is diagnosed with cancer.  She asks Julian to marry her so that her mother can attend the wedding before she dies.  I really wanted to attend the wedding too, but the reader doesn’t get to be there.  It is skipped right over, which I found odd considering the title, Matrimony!  We do hear a little bit about it later in the book, thankfully.  Carter and Pilar get married too, but the reader finds out after the fact and the wedding is not written about. 

One thing this author does very, very well is write about grief.  The scenes with Mia and her mom are poignant, touching, and raw but not melodramatic.  We feel Mia’s suffering acutely. 

The novel picks up three years after the wedding in Ann Arbor, where Mia is in grad school to become a psychotherapist.  Julian is teaching and working on his novel (and will be for years) and feels he doesn’t quite fit in with Mia and her friends, all students.  On the occasion of his graduation from law school, Julian visits his old friend Carter in California, where he learns he and Pilar have separated.  A long buried secret is revealed which threatens their friendship and Julian’s marriage.

I felt like this secret needed to be discussed, but Mia and Julian shut down and many things are left unsaid, which I suppose happens a lot in long term relationships.  But I wanted there to be more emotion, more talking-yelling-negotiation-FEELING than what was there.  I also felt that in a real marriage, this sort of 9 year old secret, after years of a seemingly good marriage, could have been forgiven.  Marriage is about compromise, isn’t it?  But Mia and Julian separate with almost no discussion about it, and when Julian returns 18 months later, there is very little discussion about that either. 

Matrimony is well written, honest and appealing.  We follow Mia and Julian through nearly two decades.  We watch them grow and mature, and witness their love, laughter, families, friendships, sadness, grief and anger, in other words- their marriage.  So I guess Matrimony IS about marriage after all. 

Joshua Henkin frequently makes himself available for author chats with book clubs.  His website can be found HERE

For a chance to win a copy of Matrimony, see author Josh Henkin’s guest post HERE and leave a comment by May 15th.

Matrimony was also reviewed at Booking Mama.

 

Guest Post: In Praise of Book Clubs, Vol. 4

The 4th installment of this series is from the fabulous, big-hearted Trish at Hey, Lady! Whatcha Readin’?  Trish became one of my first online friends after starting this blog.  She is a passionate, caring person who is currently organizing love and support in the form of a care package for a fellow blogger undergoing cancer treatment.  Here she talks about her book club journey!

I don’t remember the first book I read, nor do I remember when reading became an obsession. However, I do remember the first time that I wanted to be in a book club so badly I could taste it. 

I was 22. I was working at a restaurant as a server when one of my tables got sat (that’s not bad English, it’s restaurant lingo) with four ladies. I noticed right away that they all had a copy of Reading Lolita in Tehran as well as a copy of Lolita. I’m sure that I brought up something about reading because I spent almost 10 minutes talking to them about books. They recommended books to me and I recommended books to them. We’d read many of the same books and had similar feelings about those books. My heart was beating with the excitement of a first kiss. It was as if I’d found THE ONE (name that movie). THIS was the book club for me! The ladies were nice! We liked the same books! I was sure I must have something meaningful to contribute!

I learned they met once a month and usually went out to dinner. Being somewhat of a food snob, this sealed the deal for me: combine two loves in my life, books and food, and how could this not be a happily ever after?

After being totally jealous of the four ladies and wishing with all my heart that I was in their group, I approached the group as they were leaving the restaurant and got the attention of the lady I’d talked to the most. ”If you ever have an opening in your book club, I’d love to join. Here’s my email address.” I handed her a card from the restaurant that had my email written on the back.

My co-workers thought I was crazy, but this was almost like approaching that cute boy you’ve been admiring from a distance who you know you’ll never see again. What does it hurt to say, “Here’s my number, give me a call sometime.” Maybe he’ll call, maybe he won’t, but at least you’ll never have any regrets.

The lady never called and I was left book club-less. Not to be deterred, I started my own book club. We met a few times but it fizzled quickly. The people I’d asked to join were avid readers, but discussing books with other book lovers wasn’t quite as easy as I anticipated.

Fortunately, I’ve found a few women that I work with who are avid readers. We’re bumbling through the first stages of a book club like a first boyfriend; it’s clumsy, awkward and guiltily fun. We’re starting to get into a groove that works for us, especially now that we’ve realized wine makes our discussions a little livelier. I have my fingers crossed that I’ve finally hit pay dirt on the book club. If not, there are plenty of other readers in the sea. 

Blogger Bio:  Trish lives in California and is getting married in June. She can’t wait to have more free time to read, and plans on instilling a love of reading in her (future) children.  Trish has been blogging at Hey, Lady! since October 2007.

***Would you like to share about your book club here at Books on the Brain?  If so, leave a comment and I will get in touch with you about a guest post!

For other volumes of In Praise of Book Clubs, click HERE

For more info on starting your own book club, click HERE

For fun ways to make your book club better, click HERE

For a chance to win a copy of Matrimony by Joshua Henkin, click HERE by May 15th.  Josh would be happy to do an author chat with your book club!

For a chance to win a copy of The Next Thing On My List by Jill Smolinski, click HERE by May 15. You can contact Jill at her website about setting up an author chat. 

We’ll Return to Book Discussion After This Message..

This is so stinkin’ cute!  ALMOST as cute as THIS!

Guest Post: In Praise of Book Clubs, Volume 3

    

 

 

In this 3rd installment of my series, In Praise of Book Clubs, Gayle from the awesome blog Every Day I Write The Book talks about the book clubs she’s been in, and why she started her own online.

I’ve been in a bunch of book clubs in my life, some more successful than others. I think back very fondly on two of them. They were each made up of 4 women (different groups of women), and we met about every 5-6 weeks at a restaurant for dinner. We’d spend about half the time just catching up, and the other half “talking about the book.” I liked the book clubs as much for the companionship as the book discussions, which were substantive and thorough. It was rare that one of us didn’t finish the book, and the process for choosing the next book was informal and without rancor.

The first book club, which survived a wedding and the birth of at least three kids, fell apart when it was just too difficult for us to find times that worked. The other three women are married to male friends of mine from college, and after a while we just sort of dissolved. No drama, no final meeting… we just faded away as a book club, though we are all still friends.

The second book club, made up of three girlfriends, also faded away sometime after I had my twin girls. We briefly revived it a year or two later, adding some new faces, but it didn’t work - at least for me. I didn’t really like the books we chose to read, and I wasn’t comfortable enough with the group to veto the picks and insert my own in their place. After this last book club incarnation, I realized why I couldn’t be in a traditional book club anymore: I need to pick the books, and I need to read them on my own time.

That may sound self-centered and a little spoiled. I agree, it is! That’s who I am, and I have come to accept it. I am a Book Tyrant.

But at least I have done something constructive with my autocratic tendencies. Almost two years ago, I launched a book blog, Everyday I Write The Book, in which I review the books I read and link to reviews of other books that look interesting to me, even if I will never get around to reading them. I love that the blog is mine, that it only features books that *I* choose. And I am continually amazed and grateful that other people like to read my blog. No one’s forcing them to subscribe or comment, right? (Well, maybe some of my readers feel obligated to stick around because they’re related to me.)

Every other month or so, I hold an online book club on the blog. So far, publishers have generously sent review copies to anyone who wanted to participate, and we’ve read some excellent books, with one more underway as I write this. The discussions have been active. I love that people can read and comment on their own schedule, and that no one feels pressure to join or finish by a particular date. Hearing new perspectives from people I don’t know is also very rewarding. Finally, I’ve been fortunate to have gotten the authors of the books to answer questions - something I never anticipated when I launched the blog. I even correspond with some of the authors I’ve featured on the blog, and they recognize me when I come to their readings. Best of all, I pick the books! All of them!

Yes, I am a Book Tyrant, but I seem to have found a venue and a readership that doesn’t mind. For those, I am very thankful.

Gayle Weiswasser

Blogger Bio: Gayle lives with her husband and two daughters in Washington, DC. She reads whenever she can find time, and started her blog in July 2006.

***Would you like to share about your book club here at Books on the Brain?  If so, leave a comment and I will get in touch with you about a guest post!

For other volumes of In Praise of Book Clubs, click HERE

For more info on starting your own book club, click HERE

For fun ways to make your book club better, click HERE

To win a copy of Matrimony by Joshua Henkin, click HERE by May 15th.  Josh would be happy to do an author chat with your book club!

To win a copy of The Next Thing On My List by Jill Smolinski, click HERE by May 15. You can contact Jill at her website about setting up an author chat.

Guest Post: In Praise of Book Clubs, Volume 2

 Tara from the lovely blog Books and Cooks writes about her book club and what makes it special.

April 5, 2001. I remember it well. This was the first official meeting of  my bookclub. The book discussed was The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende and we all wondered if the girl’s hair was really green or if it was meant to represent something else. We sat around the living room, somewhat awkwardly, and finally someone said, ‘maybe we should go around and say whether or not we liked the book.’ Thus began our journey together that continues today. We still go around the circle but it’s less of a yes or no question and more of a platform to speak your mind, uninterrupted.

Our bookclub is about the books, but those books are also the medium that brings together a diverse group of women who might not otherwise have much in common. Now in our eighth year together, we have experienced much of life together. Breakups and marriages. Pregnancy, birth, as well as infertility and miscarriage. Job changes, house changes and now divorce. It could in fact be a book in itself. But through it all, we meet once a month (except for December and January) to discuss a book and our lives. In this way we have come to know and respect one another, to be able to predict how each other will respond to the books discussed, and to eat fantastic desserts.

There are things about my bookclub that I find challenging. No one else reads as much as I do, so many of the books chosen I’ve already read. Often books are chosen that don’t seem terribly ‘discussion worthy’. Sometimes I wish our books were more literary or our discussions more serious. But, it is obvious to me that our club is more than a sum of it’s parts, that the fact that we are discussing is sometimes more important than what we are discussing.

Our bookclub has evolved over the years. We are now six, including 4 original members. Over the years, we’ve had guests who are usually friends of members. We have found it humorous that people think we’re intimidating because we actually read and discuss books. We have loads of traditions, from how we select books, to how we discuss them. One of the best things we’ve done is start a journal. Occasionally we read aloud from past meetings and literally cry from laughter at the various quotes people have jotted down. I personally have stated “This might be the worst book we’ve ever read” several times. We celebrated our five year anniversary by going to a fancy steak restaurant and answered 5 questions that I came up with including favorite and least favorite books. Some of our best discussions have resulted from books that people greatly disliked, some of our worst from books that we all adored. We just hope to keep on having discussions for many years to come.

Blogger Bio:  Tara met her husband D in 1997 when they were both living the post-college single life in Chicago.  They moved to the Twin Cities, married in 2000, and have a six year old daughter.  Tara began writing her blog Books and Cooks in December 2006 after discovering the vast book blogging community.  When she’s not reading or in the kitchen, Tara works part-time as a pharmacist.

***Would you like to share about your book club here at Books on the Brain?  If so, leave a comment and I will get in touch with you about a guest post!

For previous volumes of In Praise of Book Clubs, click HERE

For more info on starting your own book club, click HERE

For fun ways to make your book club better, click HERE

To win a copy of Matrimony by Joshua Henkin, click HERE by May 15th.  Josh would be happy to do an author chat with your book club!

To win a copy of The Next Thing On My List by Jill Smolinski, click HERE by May 15. You can contact Jill at her website about setting up an author chat.