Joshua Henkin Perfects the Author Book Group Visit

Here is a great article from the Philadelphia Inquirer about Joshua Henkin's travels, whether by car or by phone, to book groups to talk with them about his acclaimed novel Matrimony. The story speaks to the growth of this trend among authors and how Henkin in particular has made it his mission to reach out to readers of Matrimony via sites like Good Reads and Facebook. I think it's great how Josh has made himself available to book clubs and I love the comments about how the discussion of the book with the author himself has enriched the reading experience for so many people. That's what I love about being in a reading group -- the discussion always adds to my appreciation of a book, making me think of something that I wouldn't have thought of on my own. I'll have to check out the other author mentioned in the piece, Kelly Simmons, and her book Standing Still.

Post a comment about whether or not your group has had an author attend, either by phone or in person, and what that was like and you'll be entered to win a New Year's Book Tote complete with:

• A Book Club Girl mousepad
• Coasters for Your Next Book Group Gathering
• Matrimony by Joshua Henkin
• First Darling of the Morning by Thrity Umrigar
• The Jewel Trader of Pegu by Jeffrey Hantover
• Things I Want My Daughters to Know by Elizabeth Noble
• The Girl with No Shadow by Joanne Harris

Comments

[stacey @ book:thirty]

We wanted to have Jason F. Wright visit when our book club read Christmas Jars last month, but unfortunately he was unable to attend. He did, however, send our group a lovely email, and we were all tickled to hear from him!

[Lisa]

Our book group had Sandra Kring, author of "Thank You For All Things" do a phone interview at our last meeting. While it was great to get live feedback on the questions we had about the book, it was a little uncomfortable talking to a phone that's sitting in the middle of a table. She had told us she didn't want us to send questions in advance but then we ended up having to come with questions on the spot and it felt a little bit like a teacher was calling on me in class! I was glad to have time after we got off the phone to discuss the book without the author, though, since there were things we didn't like about the book and we didn't want to discuss with her. After all, she was nice enough to give us an hour of her time and she was such fun to talk to.

[Julie P.]

My book club is actually one of those groups that was fortunate enough to have Mr. Henkin visit -- in person! We have also had author chats with Mark Childress, Margaret Maron, Laura Zigman, Barbara Delinksy, M.J. Rose, Lisa Daily, Sarah Strohmeyer, Lesley Kagan, Lori Lansens, Monica Pradhan, and Nancy Horan. In February, we will be joined by Michelle Moran. I think author chats are an incredible opportunity! I always feel like I understand the book better after discussing it with the author!

[Heather J.]

We had DL Wilson, author of Unholy Grail, attend our meeting in person. It was a GREAT meeting. Not everyone liked the book but the discussion was fascinating and aided considerably by the author's willingness to answer all our myraid questions.

[Pam]

My book club had a phone chat with Marjorie Leet Ford, author of The Diary of an American Au Pair. We also had an event with a local author, Fariden Goldin, author of Wedding Song: Memoirs of a Jewish Iranian Woman. For my mother/daughter book club, I emailed the author of our book selection and she sent a very gracious email message to the girls. That was Susan Beth Pfeffer and the book was Life As We Knew It.
I really enjoy having a connection with the author when we discuss a book. It really gives the book a whole new dimension.

[Amanda]

So far we haven't had any authors attend or chat with my book club. But my club is pretty young so that is bound to change. I love that authors are making themselves accessible to book clubs and readers. Even if they have a blog or a great website with information improves the reading experience.

[Sherry]

We haven't been visited by an author yet, but an author of one of the books we'll be reading in the next several months has offered to phone in to our book group mtg. We're pretty jazzed about it.

In a similar vein, we recently had an author who sent us an ARC of her book. One member has already read it and posted a capsule review on our blog. We liked this too!

Hi Jen,
My local group has not had an author attend one of our meetings, yet I have experienced an author attending a meeting thru your book clubs on blog talk radio. I treasure these talks with the author for I always gain so much insight into their work by them taking the time to answer our questions. I love that we have this medium in todays reading world as an option for us.
I look forward to Jan.'s chat with Wally Lamb (yet I still need to get a copy of his book...seems as thou everyone is reading it this month!)
Thanks so much for the post and the great giveaway!!!
Darby
darbyscloset at yahoo dot com

[Darby Lohrding]

Whoops, I hit enter before I had submitted my name and email addy...surprise it posted!
Darby
darbyscloset at yahoo dot com

[Kathy]

I don't belong to a book group, I'm sad to say. May I still enter?

[Rebecca]

My book club has NOT had an author participate, but we would love that. How easy is it to set up and can you offer any tips for making contact? I'd love to be entered in the drawing. Thanks!

[Michelle B]

My book group has had three authors participate in our 11 year history - Donna Wolfolk-Cross (Pope Joan), Karla Kuban (Marchlands), and Timothy Schaffert (The Singing and Dancing Daughters of God). All were good discussions - Donna Wolfolk-Cross spoke the best (she is a teacher). It was a bit awkward to 'talk' to a phone and while I asked everyone to come to the group with a question, only a few did. It was helpful to have the question for the author, "What have other book groups asked?" when there was a lull.

While we enjoyed the discussions, there wasn't enough time for the group to discuss the book after the phone call and so we never really knew how one another felt about the book - I guess we were too polite to be frank with the author - tough to be negative when you have the author in your midst!

Another negative - when an author or publisher offers a discussion with the author, they usually want to schedule in the next two months. Given how our group chooses books and hostesses (everyone takes one month of the year, and the hostess chooses the book to read), this is usually very difficult to work into our schedule.

[Robin]

I'm not part of a regular book club. But I've participated on some online (including Mothertalk with Josh Henkin). I do like when authors participate - it gives makes the reading of their book more personal I think.

[Frances]

We have not even thought about an author visit, but maybe now is the time. I think I could find everything I need to know right here on this site.

[Joshua Henkin]

Thanks for everyone's comments. They're all really interesting. And if any of you would like to discuss MATRIMONY and have me participate in the book group discussion, you can email me at Jhenkin [at] SLC [dot] edu, and we can set something up.

Josh

[mari partyka]

We had our first author interview with Sandra Kring in November and have two more scheduled for early 2009. We do not get many authors traveling through Omaha, it's wonderful that authors will meet via telephone.

We are looking to schedule more in 2009!

[Lauren]

We were visited via phone by Chris Bojalian, author of The Double Bind. We had a very good conversation with him about the plot and characters of the book, and he even answered some personal questions about what it is like to be a famous author. It was a very neat experience!

[Susan]

Our group has been doing phone chats for awhile it enriches the experience of the book to delve deeper and get a better prospective from the author. Actually before you mention Joshua Henkin Chris Bojalian is anothe author who praised book clubs. There was a article about him or he wrote what book clubs meant to him. He was one of the first writers to do speaker phone I believe. We have had Chris speak but I think we
we were star struck I was so nervous what to say. I have been doing speakerphones before it became popular I would search and google the author's name and/ title and leave a email on the author's website, which I still do.
I will tell you a incident a few years ago. Bookreporter.com had a contest which are book club won. We won 12 copies of a certain book( I would rather not say what author this was.) and a author chat. We did receive the books. I set up the date. The date of the book club came. The author never called. You want to talk about embarrassing. That was awful and she never apologized. Luckily that has not happened since. Book chats are great especially when you love the book.
Our group is planning on having Ellen Baker that we won a chat that had to be postponed at another date for Keeping The House.
She was so great even though I had to reset the date she sent our group cookies. The same cookies that was set in the book.
We will be talking to her soon.

[Susan]

Our group has been doing phone chats for awhile it enriches the experience of the book to delve deeper and get a better prospective from the author. Actually before you mention Joshua Henkin Chris Bojalian is anothe author who praised book clubs. There was a article about him or he wrote what book clubs meant to him. He was one of the first writers to do speaker phone I believe. We have had Chris speak but I think we
we were star struck I was so nervous what to say. I have been doing speakerphones before it became popular I would search and google the author's name and/ title and leave a email on the author's website, which I still do.
I will tell you a incident a few years ago. Bookreporter.com had a contest which are book club won. We won 12 copies of a certain book( I would rather not say what author this was.) and a author chat. We did receive the books. I set up the date. The date of the book club came. The author never called. You want to talk about embarrassing. That was awful and she never apologized. Luckily that has not happened since. Book chats are great especially when you love the book.
Our group is planning on having Ellen Baker that we won a chat that had to be postponed at another date for Keeping The House.
She was so great even though I had to reset the date she sent our group cookies. The same cookies that was set in the book.
We will be talking to her soon.

[Dawn - She Is Too Fond Of Books]

Our book group has attended author readings together, but is hesitant to have an author chat, either by phone or in person.

I'm going to flesh out the reasons at our next meeting. I personally love interacting with authors, whether it's at a reading (informal hello and quick question), one of your Authors on Air interviews, or email correspondence.

Josh has done a great job interacting with his readers. I think it has benefited not only him, but other authors, as readers see how accessible/approachable authors can be!