I’m was so excited when Elisabeth emailed me and told me she’d be happy to answer these questions. I think I’m telling my husband we have to move so I can be in Elisabeth’s book club. This may require some plotting…

Also, I CANNOT get enough of these interviews. I’m addicted. So if you’d like your book club to be featured, just email me at trish(at)heylady(dot)net.

How long has your book club been in existence?

We have been in existence for 14 years.

Does your book club have a name?

Our name is The Lit Chicks. (I love this name. Can I borrow it?)

How many people are in your book club?

We currently have 9 members but have had as many as 13.

Is your book club open to new members? How do new members end up in your book club?

We are open to new members, although we like the group as is.  New members are brought in by current members who know the person who would like to join.

When do you meet? Is it a set day every month, or do you work it out so it’s on a different day but convenient for everyone?

We try to meet on the third Wednesday of every month.  We are flexible though, so if that day does not work for us, we will switch.

What kind of books do you read?

We mainly read fiction, but always read one classic a year.  We also occasionally dabble in non fiction.

How do you choose books?

Books are chosen once a year at our January or February meeting.  We bring suggestions to the meeting, and also choose books from our annual holiday book grab bag.( Every December when we go out to a restaurant for our meeting, every member brings a gift wrapped paperback book.  The books go in the center of the table and everyone picks.)   The books we want to read,  has to be agreed upon by all and not read by anyone.

Which book generated the best discussion?

The books that garner the best discussions are usually the ones where we are divided on whether we liked or disliked the book.  We have a lot of good discussions but one of our best ones was The Thirteenth Tale.  Our most recent book that generated a good discussion was The Year of the Fog.

Do you invite authors to join your discussion when you discuss their book? How do you handle having the author in on your discussion if some or all of the members didn’t absolutely love the book?

Never had an author come to a meeting, although we do have a member who has published.

Do you have one person who moderates the discussion?

We are a very informal group and have no one person who leads us, although technically I am our “leader”, since I started the group.

Have you ever had a professional moderator moderate one of your meetings?

Nope, never hired anyone.

How long does the discussion last?

The length of the discussion varies.  Books where we are divided tend to be longer.  We also digress from our talks and then return later to revisit.

Do you eat food at your book club meeting?

There is always food and drink.  Very important!!!

How do you decide where the meeting will be held?

Every member hosts for one meeting.  We always go out for our holiday meeting in December.  We have just recently downsized to nine, we have one open month and we will be meeting at Panera’s.  Next year, we will have to decide what to do about that extra third month.

Is there anything else about your book club you’d like to share?

We are not only a book group but friends.  We do movie nights where we have read the book and then we meet on a Friday to watch the movie.  This is in addition to our regular meetings.  Best of all though is we love to go away on trips.  We try and go in the fall and the spring.  Our fall trip this year is  to to Saratoga, New York.  Our last trip was to Mystic, Connecticut.  We have a blast!!!  We laugh and laugh and talk about everything from soup to nuts, shop, play games and of course eat out!

Since I love Elisabeth’s book club name, I’m wondering if your book club has a name? Mine doesn’t, and I’d love to hear yours and/or cool names for book clubs! For a while our book club was called Gin and Phonics, but I just didn’t *love* it.

Leslie, my friend from high school
Ti from Book Chatter and her Valencia Library Book Group
Michelle
Kelly from Yannabe and her OPRA Book Club
Heather from A Lifetime of Books and her book club Storie delle Sorrelle
Helen from Helen’s Book Blog and her TWO book clubs

Psst! There’s a giveaway at the end of this post!

Today I’m interviewing Helen Murdoch. She was a teacher for 14 years and is now the librarian. Be sure to check out Helen’s blog, Helen’s Book Blog! She’s in two book clubs and has been kind enough to answer the questions for both book clubs! Woohoo!

Well let’s do some snooping, shall we?

(The A and B answers are for her two different book clubs, respectively.)

How long has your book club been in existence?

A: A friend and I formed our book club in July 1991, after our 26th Birthday party had wound down for the evening.
B: My second book group just formed a year ago when my daughter’s friend’s mom got a group of us moms together.

Does your book club have a name?

A: We don’t have a name. We’ve joked about naming ourselves, but just get silly when we try and nothing has stuck so far.
B: No name; the idea hasn’t even come up

How many people are in your book club?

A: There are 8 of us: 1 public librarian; 1 high school librarian (me); a retired teacher; a caterer; 1 junior high teacher; 1 high school teacher; 1 University professor; a high school library assistant.
B: There are 12 to 14 of us, all moms with kids at the same elementary school though about 7 show up each month. We have a varied list of jobs from teachers to stay at home moms to members of the military.

Is your book club open to new members? How do new members end up in your book club?

A: We are kinda’ open to new members. We have 8 of us, which seems like a nice number; no one gets left out of the discussion. So, when someone moves away we tend to bring in someone new. If someone has an idea for a new member we bring it up to the group and let them know about the person to see if everyone seems open to her. Yes, I said her. We started out as a co-ed group but the men kept moving away so now we’re all women and we really like it that way!
B: We haven’t added any new members since we started.

When do you meet? Is it a set day every month, or do you work it out so it’s on a different day but convenient for everyone?

A: We meet on the third Thursday of each month, September through June. Most of us are in education so we don’t meet during the summer since we tend to travel (lucky us!).
B: We meet every 6 weeks on a Wednesday and have the year planned out ahead of time so we all know when the night is approaching. We meet at the same house each time as well.

What kind of books do you read?

A: We tend to read contemporary fiction, but sometimes do stray from that.
B: We read non-fiction (a nice complement to my other book group).

How do you choose books?

A: Each month we meet at a different person’s house. Actually, we’re pretty regimented about that: we rotate in alphabetical order by first name so we can remember who comes next. The person who hosts provides dinner of pizza and salad and has a stack of books for us to choose from. We read the book descriptions aloud and sometimes even passages from the books. Then we do an informal vote to choose which one we’ll read.
B: Anyone can bring a book that they want us to read and we do a little “book talk” of our book. After an informal vote we’re good to go with one and sometimes two books for the next meeting

Which book generated the best discussion?

A: Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi; Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver (we even reread it years later); and the Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
B: Three books have generated the most intense discussions: Along Way Home: memoirs of a boy soldier by Ishmael Beah (outrage, sadness, heartbreak, triumph, etc); Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (because we had such mixed emotions and reactions to it); and Loving Frank by Nancy Horan.

Do you invite authors to join your discussion when you discuss their book? How do you handle having the author in on your discussion if some or all of the members didn’t absolutely love the book?

A: We’ve only invited one author to a discussion, Val Hobbs, and that’s because she is local. I also work with her husband so know her a little. We had read The Gift and most of us liked it so it was a comfortable situation.
B: We haven’t had any authors invited.

Do you have one person who moderates the discussion?

A: Honestly, we’ve all been together for so long that we do a lot of “life” talking in addition to the book. No one person moderates; we all just jump in to talk about the book. Sometimes some of us haven’t read the book or haven’t finished it so that can limit the discussion as well.
B: We have one or two members that are more outspoken and they tend to determine the discussion just by their presence. We did start out with the person who chose the book bringing in questions to guide the discussion, but after a couple months realized we didn’t really need that.

Have you ever had a professional moderator moderate one of your meetings?

A and B: No

How long does the discussion last?

A and B: We meet from 6:30 to 8:00 or so. Honestly, the book usually isn’t the only topic of conversation

Do you eat food at your book club meeting?

A: Pizza and salad. Except when we’re at the caterer’s house when we get yummy left overs.
B: Usually just snacky foods like fruit, cheese and crackers. Sometimes something more substantial like sandwiches

How do you decide where the meeting will be held?

A and B: Oops, I kinda’ already answered that above…

Is there anything else about your book club you’d like to share?

I love going to my book group meetings, even if I haven’t enjoyed the book. Getting together with other women who love books and are fun to be with is a wonderful break from the regular routine of life. It is great to have a group (or 2) of women who catch up with one another on a regular basis. My mom is in a women’s group that has met every 2 weeks for 35 years so I have been the beneficiary of that inner-circle. It is great for a group to last so long that we see each other’s children grow up and we can support each other through triumphs and difficult times.

——

Thanks for answering all my questions, Helen! Your clubs sound like a lot of fun, and I know there’ll be a lot of jealous foks out there who can’t be in your book clubs!

If you would like to talk about your book club, send me an email at trish(at)heylady(dot)net. No blog necessary! You just have to be in a book club.

——

Previous interviews:

Leslie, my friend from high school
Ti from Book Chatter and her Valencia Library Book Group
Michelle
Kelly from Yannabe and her OPRA Book Club
Heather from A Lifetime of Books and her book club Storie delle Sorrelle

——

I’ve got four copies of the Reading Group Choices 2010 booklet. It’s got great suggestions for book club picks, and I loved going through it and writing down books I wanted to read, whether or not I end up suggesting them to my book club!

To enter, leave a comment that has to do with something Helen said in her interview. The contest is open until Saturday, July 31st at 11:59pm PT. I’ll pick a winner on Sunday, August 1st. Good luck! One entry per person. Open internationally.

*waves*

Hi! Remember this feature? Yeah, I’d forgotten about it too until I was digging around in a drafts folder. Whoops! Good thing I found this, because I’d forgotten all about this super cool button. Woot!

Hey, if you have a book club and would like to answer these questions below, send me an email at trish at heylady dot net. If you don’t have a blog, that would be even BETTER.

Today’s book club interview is with my friend Leslie, who I’ve known since high school. Unfortunately, we don’t live very close anymore, but Facebook has kept us in contact and she graciously agreed to answer my questions about her book club!

How long has your book club been in existence?

5 years and I have been a member for 4 years.

Does your book club have a name?

No name.

How many people are in your book club?

6

Is your book club open to new members? How do new members end up in your book club?

It is always open to new members and new members are often friends of the ladies on the book club who are interested in joining our group

When do you meet? Is it a set day every month, or do you work it out so it’s on a different day but convenient for everyone?

We try to meet once a month and often meet on Thursday nights over dinner and drinks or on Sat or Sunday’s around 11am for brunch!

What kind of books do you read?

We have read all sorts of books from bestsellers to the classics

How do you choose books?

We rotate among us whose turn it is to pick. When a new member comes we add them into our rotational list.

Which book generated the best discussion?

Good question, it is hard to pick just one, I would have to say The Red Tent, The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns, and One Hundred Years of Solitude.

Do you invite authors to join your discussion when you discuss their book? How do you handle having the author in on your discussion if some or all of the members didn’t absolutely love the book?

We have never invited an author or even thought about it.

Do you have one person who moderates the discussion?

No we all just talk about what we liked and didn’t like, etc. We are a very informal book club.

Have you ever had a professional moderator moderate one of your meetings?

No.

How long does the discussion last?

We don’t talk about the book too long, maybe 1/2 hour and then talk girl talk the rest of the time. Again, we are an informal book club.

Do you eat food at your book club meeting?

Yes! We always meet over food and drinks!

How do you decide where the meeting will be held?

We rotate locations based on where we all live so we rotate among Sacramento, Roseville, and El Dorado Hills.

Is there anything else about your book club you’d like to share?

I mentioned our book club is informal and we love it that way. We all enjoy reading and I think this group gives us that and gives us our need for girl talk too!

Previous interviews:
Ti from Book Chatter and her Valencia Library Book Group
Michelle
Kelly from Yannabe and her OPRA Book Club
Heather from A Lifetime of Books and her book club Storie delle Sorrelle

Isn’t that the cutest button EVAR? Ann-Kat from Today, I Read created this button for me. She could do one for you if you wanted…time permitting. The turnaround time was FAST! Less than two weeks! And this even though I was like, Um, can you make me a button, even though I don’t know what it should look like or what the title of my series should be?

So I decided to change the name of my series from Interviews With Book Clubs (dull and insipid) to Literary Society Sleuth (fresh and fun). And if you think I came up with that little gem all on my own, well then you probably didn’t see the flurry of IM’ing I did with Michelle from Galleysmith about a week ago. She’s a great person to brainstorm with!

*crickets*

Anywhoozie, on to the task at hand!

Today I’m interviewing Kelly from YAnnabe. I know I say it each time, but this is the best book club interview!!! She talks about throwing food during a book club meeting, pokes fun at me, and generally kept me riveted. I’m sure after reading this interview, you’ll be jealous of her too.

Psst! If you’d like to be interviewed for my Literary Society Sleuth series, send me an email at trish at heylady(dot)net. You don’t have to have a blog to get interviewed!

How long has your book club been in existence? A little over 5 years ago, I had an essay published in a book called MoveOn’s 50 Ways to Love Your Country: How to Find Your Political Voice and Become a Catalyst for Change. So when I got my hands on the finished book, I read it cover to cover. (After checking to make sure that holy crap, yes, my name was actually printed in a real live book!)

One of the essays was about how to have a political book club. I’d always wanted to read books like that and learn more about important issues in the community, but when I was ready for my next book, I never seemed to choose them from the bookshelf. The idea of a book club was a perfect solution to that problem, so I emailed a few friends and got the ball rolling.

Also, it was a terribly convenient excuse to toot my own horn about my 15 minutes of fame.

Does your book club have a name? Yep, we voted on it and everything. OPRA’s Book Club, or if you prefer: Our Politically Ravenous Austinite Book Club. But please don’t tell Oprah, because we really aren’t up for a lawsuit.

How many people are in your book club? 16 right now, although people drop in and out as their schedules require, and we usually have 8-10 members at each meeting.

Is your book club open to new members? How do new members end up in your book club? Yes, new members are always welcome. Current members spread the word to friends and invite them to join us.

We also have a 60-question test to weed out anybody of the opposite political persuasion. And everyone has to sign a contract that gives their firstborn to the Green Party.

Seriously though, while most of our group considers themselves progressive, not everyone is in the same place on the political spectrum. So we try to keep it civil and mature and fact-based in our discussions. No calling anyone poopyheads.

When do you meet? Is it a set day every month, or do you work it out so it’s on a different day but convenient for everyone? We meet every 6 weeks so it’s easier for everyone to commit to reading a book without having to give up their other reading. Our regular meeting day has changed over the years as members’ schedules have changed and some of us have had kids, but it’s currently Sunday evening.

What kind of books do you read? Political, but we use the term very loosely. We read fiction (like The God of Small Things and 1984) and a wide range of nonfiction (from The Tipping Point to Fast Food Nation to Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic).

How do you choose books? We have a list of potential books that anyone can add to. (By the way, we recently switched to using a Goodreads group, which makes this super easy!)

Then I use a random generator to select 3 titles, which we then vote on via a SurveyMonkey poll. We recently decided that we’d like to officially switch between fiction and nonfiction every time, so we’ll have to refine the process a bit for that, possibly by keeping a separate fiction and nonfiction “to read” list on Goodreads.

Which book generated the best discussion? Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic, hands down. It was the biggest meeting we’ve ever had — close to 20 people showed up. That book rocked my world, and I know a lot of the other members feel the same way. I’m so glad I read it, and I never would have without a book club to nudge me in the right direction.

Do you invite authors to join your discussion when you discuss their book? How do you handle having the author in on your discussion if some or all of the members didn’t absolutely love the book? We’ve never done that. But we did choose a book once (Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism) because we knew the author, Nobel Peace prize winner Muhammad Yunus, was going to be speaking at a local bookstore in the next month. So then we went to hear him speak. I couldn’t attend because I had a newborn at home, but everyone who made it to that meeting said it was incredibly inspirational.

Do you have one person who moderates the discussion? No, we all jump in with whatever we want to say. We have a couple of chatty members who always seem to save us from any major lulls. (Are you that person in book club meetings, Trish? (My response is at the * below)

Have you ever had a professional moderator moderate one of your meetings? No.

How long does the discussion last? Typically 1.5 to 2 hours, although some discussions of amazing books have gone longer, like with Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic.

Do you eat food at your book club meeting? What would a book club meeting without food be?! Boring, that’s what. Also, it’s fun to throw food at someone if you disagree with what they’re saying.

Lately, we’ve taken to meeting at local coffee shops with tasty treats. But if we meet at someone’s house, we randomly pick someone to bring the snacks, someone else to bring soda, and another person to bring beer. This, by the way, is an excellent tactic for making sure people feel obligated to read the book and show up to the meeting! And we got that idea after reading Influencer: The Power to Change Anything.

Our next meeting is going to be a potluck dinner. Yum!

How do you decide where the meeting will be held? Someone usually throws out a suggestion via email, and other people chime in.

Is there anything else about your book club you’d like to share? If you’ve never been in a book club before, give it a try! It’s a fun way to add a social component to a very isolating hobby. And it’s always so interesting to learn what different things other people have noticed from the same book. Happy book clubbing!

**No! Not really. Sometimes? Okay fine, this is me.

If you want to read more interviews with book club, check these out:

3) Heather’s book club. She gives great info on how to moderate a book club!

2) Michelle’s book club. Oh, what I would give to be in her book club!

1) Ti’s book club. A seriously must-read for the story about inviting an author to participate when they discussed this author’s book.