Interested in adding a spark to your 2024 reading experience? Read on to learn how our beloved Book Whisperer, aka Dorothy Minor, is mixing things up with her book club.
As a book club leader, I not only look for engaging books for my book club, books that will generate a lively discussion, but I also seek other activities to enhance our meetings and challenge us as readers, people, and friends.
Whenever possible, I look for books by authors who are eager to meet with book clubs on Zoom or in person if they are in the area near us. We have been fortunate to meet with a variety of personable authors who are generous with their time. When we read The Glorious Guinness Girls, Emily Hourican graciously met with us on Zoom from Dublin, Ireland! We enjoyed a dynamic conversation with her. Other generous authors have included Kate Quinn, Susan Meissner, Jessica Keener, Ellen Marie Wiseman, and Nan Rossiter. Although I have not named all of our famous visitors, it is easy to see that we have been most fortunate.
In-person, Julia Bryan Thomas, Will Thomas, and Ginny Myers Sain have all been kind enough to meet with our book club. We have several other local authors lined up for visits in 2024.
One of our members speaks Mandarin, so when Yangsze Choo met with us on Zoom, Diana spoke first to her in Mandarin. That was a treat for Choo and for the rest of us.
One of our favorite meetings occurred with an author on Zoom and later in person when she visited Oklahoma on a book tour. Caren Simpson McVicker met with us on Zoom when we first read advance copies of Henderson House, her debut novel. When Caren visited OK to promote her book, she came to the book club in person for another even more delightful visit.
Each December at our last meeting, I give members a bingo challenge of reading. Whether they accept the challenge is up to individuals, but it is fun to discuss. I also found a short article on why one should set reading goals and gave copies to the members. When I discover interesting, free Zoom meetings with authors or programs about books or other topics of interest, I share that information with members. Sometimes I share silly things like fall bookmarks that we all colored. Silly fun, but also useful!
During the pandemic, the Circle of Readers began twice-a-month Zoom meetings. We were home anyway, and the meetings allowed us to stay connected. The first meeting of the month is for a discussion of a book we’ve all read. In the middle of the month, we share other books we’ve read. I keep a list and send out the list to everyone after the meeting. When we resumed in-person meetings, we decided to continue the twice-a-month schedule because we enjoy talking about books, reading books, and sharing books, not to mention we enjoy one another’s company.
January 2024, we will embark on a new adventure in addition to our regular schedule. I read about the Fellowship of the Traveling Book, and I decided it would be fun to offer such an opportunity to the Circle of Readers. The concept is simple: one person reads and annotates a book and passes it to another person to read and annotate and keeps passing it along to other members of the book club. That is, each book club member who wishes to participate does so. It is not a requirement. I am hopeful that most of the members will see The Fellowship of the Traveling Book as fun and that they will participate.
The first order of business was to choose a book. I looked through my bookcases and selected six for me to consider. I skimmed those I had not read and re-read passages of those I had read previously. Finally, I began reading a hardback copy of All the Lonely People by Mike Gayle, a book I had on hand and had not read. I thought the hardback copy would be good for passing around to a number of people. I crocheted a strap to slip over the book’s front cover and then crocheted a pocket out of matching yarn and attached it to the strap. In the pocket, I put a bookmark and PostIt flags; I attached a pen to the strap. Now, each reader has the tools for annotating the text at hand.
As I read, I added comments, underlining, and flags to the text. I also made a few corrections in grammar! As a retired English professor, I could not resist that temptation.
All the Lonely People by Mike Gayle is delightful—insightful, heartbreaking, and uplifting all at the same time. I have posted a review of the book, so I am eschewing that here. Fingers crossed that at least some of the members of the Circle of Readers will take on the challenge of reading and annotating All the Lonely People. When the book has made its way through the book club, we will have a discussion of the story.
We look forward with much interest to the results of your experiment, Dorothy!
A little about Dorothy:
“I am an avid reader and also enjoy Indie and foreign movies. I retired from teaching English at Tulsa Community College after teaching as an adjunct first and then twenty-four years as a full-time faculty member. I was also involved in faculty development, planning and facilitating workshops for colleagues. I like technology and using technology to enhance learning. As an adjunct, I started a book club on campus, and it is still going strong thirty-one years later! I also belong to two other book clubs.I’ve included a picture from a Chautauqua Tea at TCC, complete with hat and brooch! I enjoy collecting vintage rhinestone brooches.”
Dorothy’s book club, Circle of Readers:
“We meet twice monthly. The first of the month, we all read a book and discuss it; the second time we meet, we discuss other books we’ve read. We enjoy inviting authors to join us! We have 20 members, and we are located in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. We enjoy reading fiction, historical fiction, memoir, nonfiction, YA.”
Be sure to visit Dorothy’s website, Parkdalear’s Blog, and watch for her reviews of our NovelNetwork authors featured there, and shared right here at NovelNetwork.com.