The All-True Confessions of a Serious Book Group-aholic - Guest Post from The Wednesday Sisters Author Meg Waite Clayton

The Wednesday Sisters by Meg Waite Clayton made a splash when it was published in hardcover last year and I remember quickly grabbing it to devour. I just loved it. And now that it's in paperback, it's climbing up the bestseller lists and is the current Target Bookmarked Book Club Pick for the summer as well as a Borders book club selection. Below Meg talks about how book clubs turned someone not that prone to joining group activities (I can relate) into someone who now seeks this type of companionship out wherever she goes! Meg is available to call in to reading groups, and has a wonderful section on her website with resources for book clubs. You can read what book groups are saying about the Wednesday Sisters and you can contact her to join your group by phone. I also have a book for giveaway! Simply tell us in the comments why you love your book club. I'll pick one person from all entries received by midnight Wednesday July 29th (US and Canada only please).

Growing up, I wasn’t much of a joiner. Yes, I joined Brownies, but only because my mom led the troupe. In middle school, I joined the Snowflake Ski Club with my friend Sheryl Cohen, but before the second group lesson had ended, we’d set off on our own. Join a sorority in college? I only have brothers; I couldn’t imagine living only with girls. Nor did my stint in a law school study group last beyond a meeting or two. I studied on my own. I ran alone. Yes, there was a church youth group in high school, but to be honest that was more about the boys than the religion. So how is it that I now find myself a member of not just one, but rather three, in-person book groups, and visiting scores of other groups in person and by phone for author chats?

The first literary groups I joined were writing groups, not reading ones. I left one behind in Baltimore when I moved to Nashville, where I happily leapt in again with both keyboarding hands. The final version of the Nashville Four—four writers who came together with only a single travel piece published among us—now counts seven books published or being written under contract, as well as numerous stories, essays, articles and poems in print. Let’s just say that group worked together pretty well.

Perhaps having to leave them behind is what sent me looking for literary companionship when we once again moved, this time to Palo Alto, California. I knew I would still turn to the Nashville Four for writing critique (we now operate by long-distance), but how else to find literary friends? My solution was the fiction book group at my local independent bookstore, Kepler’s—which turns out to be an amazing and diverse collection of readers that I was sure was a rare, rare thing.

Then a neighborhood group formed, and how could I resist? And Books Inc., another local independent, started a group in their gorgeous new store… Two new groups as wonderful as the Kepler’s fiction group. Three rare, rare groups?

Somewhere along the way, I started publishing novels myself, and visiting book groups as an author. One of the first groups I visited, for my first novel, turned out to be a roomful of English PhDs—enough to make this History and Psychology major lawyer who took no English courses beyond the required Freshman Great Books class shiver in her cliché boots. But the discussion was absolutely fabulous, and if anyone didn’t love the book, they gave no hint. A fourth rare, rare group?

Since then, I’ve had the opportunity to spend an hour or an evening visiting groups all over the country in person or by telephone, to discuss the novels I’ve written, most recently The Wednesday Sisters. The groups vary in every way imaginable. Big or intimate. In person or online. Groups nearly as old as I am, and ones that have just formed. One group, which I like to call "my first blind date," was a collection of readers that had connected online and were meeting together in person for the first time, to discuss The Wednesday Sisters. I was sure they would be bizarre and dysfunctional, and I hesitated to go, but … A—were they the fourty-third group I’d visited?—rare, rare group.

Despite their diversity, all the groups I’ve visited share in common intelligent conversation, laughter, and an openness to sharing personal stories and examining everything life blows our way. It never ceases to amaze me how very many well-read and thoughtful people there are in this world in which, I’m told, fewer and fewer people read at all. Rare, rare groups in Kansas and Minnesota, Texas, New Jersey, Florida and, yesterday, Chatanooga, Tennessee.

There is one serious difference between the groups I visit and the ones to which I belong: in my own groups, there is literally never a book that someone doesn’t criticize. Funny that, I always think: No one hates The Wednesday Sisters? Or everyone is too nice to tell an author to her face what they really think about the book. Which is why I always limit my book group visits to an hour, so the very nice members have time to share what they really think about the book.

These days, not a week goes by when I don’t spend time with a book group. Some weeks, not a day goes by. Perhaps I need to consider a twelve-step program? My name is Meg Waite Clayton and I’m a book group addict. There it is. But in a life in which there are so many demands on our time, where some things that aren’t scheduled simply don’t get done, it’s nice to have a little friendship and a few wonderful books built into the routine, an excuse to drop everything once a month to visit with friends over something we all love.

Comments

[Melissa C]

I love my book club because it gives me a chance to read books that I wouldn't normally have picked up for myself. It makes me stretch myself and gives me knew ideas to think about that I might have passed right by on my own. I might not always love the books or agree with the discussion, but it takes me outside of my own interests for a moment.

[Sandra Furlotte]

I love my bookclub. For the first time I can have endless conversations with people who really love books. No more watching people's eyes glaze over as I talk about my latest read.

[Dr. Blondie]

I have been in a book club for over seven years. My favorite part about the group is that I am forced to read and discuss books that I would never choose on my own. I always leave our discussions, no matter how much I disliked a book, appreciating the book and the author more than I would have.

[Amanda]

I love my book club because here in NYC, it's sometimes hard to get everyone to meet up together. I live in Upper West Side, a few live way out in Brooklyn, a few in Queens, and fortunately no one in New Jersey. So at least once a month the book club allows us to get together, get brunch some Saturday or Sunday, drink bottomless mimosas, and just gab about books and what-not. Love it.

[Sheila DeChantal]

I loved this book! I read it about a couple months ago and my book club is reading it now. What a great group of women friends!

I am hosting a "Dress as Your Favorite Fiction Character" Party at my home in October and the idea came from this book.

[Kelly]

Sounds good! I am going to have had this to my list, my every growing, list.

[Ti]

My book group is entering its 13th year! I cannot believe it. The part that I enjoy best is that there is always something that can be learned from a book...no matter how well we liked it or disliked it. There is always something to take away from the meeting.

[Cathy]

I left my first book group (that I started!) after the first year. There were 2 women that, if they didn't like the book, felt there could & would be no discussion. Not even to tell us why they didn't like it. Not what my idea of a book group is at all.

Soon after 3 others who enjoy reading diverse subjects decided to get together to discuss The Time Traveler's Wife. We clicked. We all have busy lives (& don't necessarily live close), so we only get together in person 4 times a year; maybe to discuss a book, go to an author lecture, or have an author call & chat with us. That doesn't mean we're not discussing books via email. This format works well for us.

[Jemima]

I love book clubs because it is a sure fire way for me to meet people who I have something in common with. I have moved a lot in my life and I don't like to waste time getting to know people when I am new in town. While I always meet other Mothers at schools and playgroups, I can't stand the early days being full of talk about the kids. I want real discussion and I always get it at book clubs. (Right now I am in two in-person, one online, and also helping to run one for little girls)

[Hena]

I'm putting this book on my Book Club's list, can't wait to read it. I find it such a stress relief to read a good book, and really enjoy the getting together once a month to talk about what we're reading. I write about the books I read on my blog:
www.henasgoodbooks.com