Book Club Experience

I decided to try my library’s ‘Books on Tap Book Club’.  This was my first experience with any type of ‘outside’ book club that wasn’t with people I already knew or was comfortable with.  I must say that I really enjoyed myself. The group was very friendly and open and welcomed me right away. I did introduce myself and let them know I was attending as a MLIS student and I would be listening, observing, and taking notes so they didn’t think it was odd when I pulled out my notebook and pencil.  (At one point another patron not part of the club mentioned that I was ‘really prepared’ because she saw me taking notes diligently.) However, I did ask if I could chime in on the topic since it was one that greatly interested me and they later encouraged me to join in on the conversations.

‘Books on Tap’ is a monthly club held at Bru Burger every 2nd Tuesday from 6:30-8 pm.  Appetizers are provided, but anything else is paid for by the individual members. This club is category based so every month a different genre is discussed (February - romance or romantic thriller; April - comedy; May - military history).  One very unique aspect I found about this club is that there is no assigned book. The members chose what they want to read as long as it pertains to the genre of that month. (Two of the members did tell me that is not strictly adhered to all the time but nobody seems to mind.)  In the instance where a book is read by more than one member (as in this time) then they just compliment each other and fill in what the other left out. With this being National Women’s Month the topic for this discussion was any woman from history. The other unique aspect I found was that anyone could join even if they hadn't read a book.  I really liked this concept and it made me feel even more comfortable joining the club.

As the group got started, two women were leaving the restaurant and stopped when they saw the books on the table.  They became very interested and asked details about the club. Lauren, the librarian and facilitator, answered and gave more details.  She was interrupted a few times by another group member who wanted to answer the ladies’ questions. Both genuinely seemed interested and got all the details for the next meeting.  Some of the books that were to be discussed at this meeting were already read by them.

The group consisted of eight women (including Lauren, but not me) and one man.  Except for Lauren and myself, all the attendees would be considered from the Baby Boomer generation as many talked about the times of their parents and grandparents when discussing the novels.  I later found out that one more man attended previous meetings but no longer could because of timing conflicts with work. The ladies missed the other gentleman and his take on the novels that had been discussed while he was an attendee.  One by one they went around the table discussing the book they read (like a book report format); if they brought the book it was usually passed around.  The majority of the attendees had completed their book, a few were in the process. Questions were asked throughout and many led to tangent discussions - some on topic, some off topic - at which point Lauren had to bring the group back on topic.  Many of the questions were very in depth and there was a sense that the attendees wanted to learn more about the woman in question. It was mentioned by several that this month’s topic led to the liveliest group discussions thus far. After the first few books were discussed, Lauren mentioned recurring themes - gender issues, then and now (how these and other women were treated by men) and women empowerment and how it evolved over the years. This led to several discussions on the Suffragettes Movement and how long it took from its start to the 19th Amendment, how these attendees grew up and compared it to their mothers and grandmothers and today’s generation of women, and somehow on the McCarthy Era.  The sole gentleman in the group was praised by many of the other women because they considered him a ‘feminist’ from his previous comments from previous book discussions. He did ask two very relevant questions in between the various book discussions: (1) Do you go into reading a book written by women about women with skepticism? and (2) What do you do after reading/hearing about these important women?  Both questions were answered by the two women sitting on either side of him (one being Lauren). The responses to the first question was that she was always skeptical about every author she read, be it man or women; however, the other answered that she was not skeptical, but she had to ‘trust and verify’ what she read.  The responses to the second questions was that she would tell anyone she could about the books so they could read it as well and the other said that she saw herself in these strong and independent women.

The books that were discussed in this month’s club meeting were:

• Hedy’s Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, The Most Beautiful Woman in the World by Richard Rhodes
• The Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict (coincidently also about Hedy Lamarr and read by another club member)
• Fly Girls: How Five Daring Women Defied all Odds and Made Aviation History by Keith O’Brien
• Lady Clementine by Marie Benedict (Churchill’s wife)
• Varina by Charles Frazier (Jefferson Davis’s second wife)
• Head Strong: 52 Women Who Changed Science - and the World by Rachel Swaby
• Diamond Doris: The True Story of the World's Most Notorious Jewel Thief by Doris Payne
• A book about Queen Elizabeth I of England
• A book about Eleanor Roosevelt

As these books were being discussed, one attendee mentioned she started to read about Julie Andrews but found the book too dry and had to stop.  The attendee who read Lady Clementine said it was a good story but she didn't like her as a person.  She then read Varina which was sad because it showed how not only Blacks were subjugated as slaves but women as well with trying to keep them calm with laudanum or putting them in asylums.  In Head Strong ‘the women were fascinating, but not the book’, so it was suggested maybe the audio version would be better.  Diamond Doris, although an autobiography, ‘was an easy and fast read, like fiction’.  This book had lots of feedback as the group got to know more about her. Out of all the women discussed, she’s the only one still alive with an upcoming Hollywood movie release.

The overall atmosphere of the evening was very warm and friendly.  At the end, all the members asked me to return next month. The group members knew each other very well and some for several years which made it easy for all of them to actively participate.  No one really took over the discussion; there was some over talk and off topic discussions which Lauren had to bring back, but no one took offense the few times she had to. It was nice to be at a club meeting that started and ended on time.  I really enjoyed myself, the topic, the ambience, and the club members.