How to Have a Book Club

Not that there's only one way to have a book club! But here's how my book club does it up.

We - a handful of friends and I - formed our little book club seven years ago (it's hard to believe it's been that long!). Originally, we formed it as an extension of the MOMS Club we were members of, but it wasn't long before we realized that having to adhere to the rules of that organization was holding us back from making our book club what we wanted it to be. Initially we met during the day to discuss the books we read, with our tykes scampering about at our feet. Sounds cute and sweet, doesn't it? It wasn't. I strongly advise anyone wanting to start a book club to hold the discussions sans kids. This is your opportunity to be an adult, among other adults, and to partake of adult conversation, and hopefully adult beverages.



We started out as a group of about a half-dozen stay-home moms, and we've grown to a group of women who include stay-home moms, teachers, a lawyer, a college professor, an actuary, and a number of other careers and identities. The group is ever-changing; there are a handful of us who have been members since the group's inception, and over the years lots of other women have joined and un-joined. There are officially roughly twenty members right now, and a little more than half of that number comprises the core group of members who are diligently active.






I am the unofficial coordinator of the group, which really means nothing more than maintaining a roster and sending out announcements and reminders via email of upcoming reading selections and dates and times of discussions. A couple years ago we started using qlubb.com, which is a really cool way of communicating with any sort of cohesive group you may be involved in.

So here's what we do: we take turns choosing books for the group to read. We read and discuss one book per month, skipping December and instead having a holiday dinner/gift-book exchange that month. Whomever chooses the book hosts the discussion for that book. There is no set order - we don't draw names or assign months, nor do we vote on books. Fortunately, we are an active enough group that members reserve a spot to host way ahead of time, so we usually have books and hosts signed up months in advance.

The discussions are hosted in the evening at the host's home. There is generally lots of food, talk and laughter. We try to use a published discussion guide (which can often be found in the back of the book, on the publisher's website, or on the author's website) to facilitate the discussion of each book, but once in a while we read a book that has no published discussion guide, as in the case of the recently read and discussed The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. My friend Robin writes really excellent discussion questions though.


Sometimes the host might try to keep the theme or setting of the book in mind when preparing the evenings snacks. For instance, the very first book we read as a group was Memoirs of a Geisha, and at the discussion my friend Judy provided these little Japanese ice cream things, which I remember were really yummy. I hosted our discussion of Henrietta Lacks earlier this week, and here is my amusingly weak attempt at creating snacks and desserts that resemble cells, in keeping with the book's theme (go ahead and laugh!):






As I said, we usually use a discussion guide to . . . uh, guide the discussion. But the discussions inevitably digress and meander down different paths and we often talk about our own life experiences and views about different topics. This is what I love so much about my book club - it's very casual and intimate and has provided a means of getting to know and connect with other women. I have made some very dear friends through my book club.


We read all kinds of genres: classics, contemporary fiction, memoirs, nonfiction, mysteries - you name it. In fact, here's a list of all the books we've read thus far, starting seven years ago!

Memoirs of a Geisha*

Good in Bed**

The Christmas Box*

The Five People You Meet in Heaven*

The DaVinci Code

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West**

Cry, the Beloved Country*

The Secret Life of Bees*

The Red Tent*

The Awakening*

A Prayer for Owen Meany*

I Don’t Know How She Does It*

The Kite Runner*

The Stone Diaries**

Life of Pi*

Dress Your Family in Corduroy & Denim*

Frankenstein*

Angry Housewives Eating Bonbons**

The Egg and I*

Summer Breeze

Saturday*

Brideshead Revisited

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan*

East of Eden*

On Hitler’s Mountain**

A Walk in the Woods

The Time Traveler's Wife*

Middlesex*

Pride and Prejudice

The Journeys of Socrates

One Hundred Years of Solitude

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn*

Running With Scissors*

To Kill a Mockingbird*

She’s Come Undone**

The Memory Keeper’s Daughter*

The Namesake*

Midnight’s Children

The Thirteenth Tale*

Plainsong*

Gone With the Wind*

A Thousand Splendid Suns*

Three Cups of Tea

The Glass Castle*

Eat, Pray, Love

The Birth House**

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

The Shadow of the Wind

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings*

A Long Way Gone*

Road Map to Holland**

…And Ladies of the Club

The Gargoyle*

My Name is Asher Lev

Murder on the Orient Express

Saving Fish From Drowning*

The Help*

Embers*

Mudbound*

Twilight*

One Child*

Infidel*

Little Dorrit

The 19th Wife*

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet*

Franny and Zooey

Mommie Dearest*

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo*

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks**

Whooo-eeeee, that's a lotta books! Up next are Olive Kitteridge, followed by When Everything Changed.

In our group, there really isn't any pressure to read every single book chosen. My own personal feeling is: there are too many good books out there to waste your time struggling through a book you really don't enjoy. I usually give a book 50 pages to grab me; if it doesn't, I'm done with it.

Also, the point of a book club, in my opinion anyway, shouldn't be to choose books that everyone will love, but rather to choose books that will be the basis for good discussions. Even a book someone passionately hates can spur a provocative discussion.

Anyway, if you've ever thought about starting a book club, it's not too hard. Just gather together some friends who love to read and who are willing to take turns hosting, and get reading!


* books I actually read
** books I chose and hosted

Discussion Questions for The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Back in March, I read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. I was so impacted by the story that I decided to choose it as a reading selection for my book club. However, as much as I searched, I was unable to find a published discussion guide for the book to facilitate a discussion. So my friends Robin, Angela, and I collaborated and came up with a list of the following discussion questions, which I hope might help anyone else out there looking on the internet for a discussion guide for this book:

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - Discussion Questions

1. The passage in which the initial fated cells were removed from Henrietta Lacks’s body reads as follows (see page 33):

“With Henrietta unconscious on the operating table in the center of the room, her feet in stirrups, the surgeon on duty, Dr. Lawrence Wharton, Jr., sat on a stool between her legs. He peered inside Henrietta, dilated her cervix, and prepared to treat her tumor. But first – though no one had told Henrietta that TeLinde was collecting samples or asked if she wanted to be a donor – Wharton picked up a sharp knife and shaved two dime-sized pieces of tissue from Henrietta’s cervix: one from her tumor, and one from the healthy cervical tissue nearby. Then he placed the samples in a glass dish.”

Bearing in mind that those two tissue samples removed from Henrietta were not removed in an attempt to treat her cancer, but rather purely for purposes of research, was it wrong for the doctor to remove the sample tissue in the first place? Was it wrong for Dr. Gey to collect those samples for the purpose of trying to grow them in controlled conditions? Does the end – i.e., the immeasurable benefit to humankind resulting from those tissue samples – justify the means – i.e., removing tissue from a person without their consent or knowledge?

2. Discuss the process of taking these cancerous cells and growing them in the “auger” or medium that allowed them to continue to multiply. Was it her human cell line?

(Note: As genetic knowledge has increased HeLa is: not really a human cell line at all because it involves a genetic fusion of a papilloma virus and Henrietta’s cervical cells. The hybrid has its own genome and attempts have been made to have the cell line recognized as a species in its own right. Of course this cell line also contaminated other cell lines in labs around the world. In a Feb. 2010 paper, HeLa was found as a contaminant of 106 out of 306 cell lines tested.

3. Did you get the impression that Henrietta was treated any differently than a rich, white woman would have been (assuming the hospital was also collecting cell samples)?

4. How do you feel about knowing that you still do not have total control over your body once you go to see a doctor? If you discovered that tissue routinely removed from your body at some point in the past went on to significantly benefit science and research, would you feel that you should somehow be compensated? What do you think is more important – a person’s personal rights over their own tissue, or contributing to science and research for the benefit of all humankind?

5. Was it a good thing for the members of the Lacks family that the author wrote this book? Was this attempt different from previous attempts to write about the Lacks family and Henrietta in particular?

6. How much impact on the Lacks family members’ long term lives did Henrietta’s early demise have? Do you think that her children’s lives would have turned out significantly different had Henrietta not died so young?

7. Was it hubris, lack of “patient experience,” or frankly, sheer stupidity on the part of the researchers who contacted the family later for blood/DNA samples, to think the family understood what they were doing and why were they doing it?

8. Why has the discovery of the existence of HeLa cells been so difficult for the Lacks family? Discuss the family’s ignorance and their lack of medical knowledge. Why did it take until 2001, 50 years after Henrietta’s death, for a researcher at John Hopkins to show Deborah the cells and tell her these weren’t Henrietta’s regular cells, just trillions of cancerously transformed cells, and that there was never going to be a clone of her mother?

9. Do you think the family is owed money for the sale of the HeLa cells? Do you agree with their feeling that they should be compensated?

10. Do you think that the attitude among some of the Lacks family members that they should be monetarily compensated for Henrietta’s contribution to science is born out of their poverty and/or oppression based on their race? Do you think if the family were financially comfortable, white, and not the subjects of regular discrimination that their feelings of being owed compensation might be different?

11. When the doctor of the patient, Mr. Moore, lied to him about the financial value of his cells, do you think the doctor behaved unethically, and the court should have ruled against him?

12. What did the author hope to accomplish by writing this book? Did she accomplish what she set out to do? To what do you attribute the family’s change of heart regarding the HeLa cells?

13. Was the presence of the author in the book disruptive or appropriate?

14. How realistic was the characterization, especially of Deborah and Zakariyya? Would you want to meet any of them? Did you like them?

15. What life lessons can be learned from this account?

16. Do you think the bad things that happened to the family were based on their race, particularly in regards to Elsie (Henrietta’s daughter who was institutionalized) and Henrietta’s hospital care? Was it forgivable based on the time period or should amends be made?

17. How does the setting figure into the book? Is the setting a character? Does it come to life? Did you feel you were experiencing the time and place in which the book was set? How did you feel at the end when Clover was gone? Do you think this was an allegory for Henrietta’s family’s travails?

18. How realistic is it for Courtney Speed, the grocery store owner in Turner Station, to start a museum?

19. Discuss the medical breakthroughs from HeLa cells. Have your attitudes or ideas towards medical research changed in any way due to reading this book?

20. Ownership of genetic material is still a vexed issue. Many human genes have been patented and a battle is currently being fought through the U.S. courts between doctors and a biotech company owning the patents for genes used in breast-cancer research screening. What are your thoughts about research and patents in this now “profit making” industry?

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson

This, the final installment of the Millenium Trilogy, picks up exactly where The Girl Who Played With Fire left off, with our unlikely heroine, Lisbeth Salander, critically injured. Whereas I could hardly put the first two books in this series down, this one took me close to a month to read - partly because I'm still trying to figure out how to read productively on my iPad, and partly because this book is quite a bit less action-packed than its two predecessors. It was a bit of a disappointment to have most of this installment play out with Lisbeth confined to a hospital room; she's much more fun when she's out kicking bad guys' asses. This book contains a lot of background on the players in the story, as well as strategic planning on the parts of both the good guys and the bad guys, and the action doesn't really pick up until nearer to the end. It's worth reading to wrap up the trilogy, but I didn't find it as compelling as the first two. Still, Lisbeth Salander is definitely one of the most memorable characters in contemporary fiction, and I am looking forward to movie versions of these books.

eReader Reviews: Amazon Kindle

I love my Kindle ... with big red sparkly hearts kind of love!

I got it for Christmas last year.  Hubby asked what I wanted, then promptly told me it was too confusing and to order it for myself.  So I did.  I was downloading books for it before I even officially opened it as a Christmas gift ... because I was that darn excited!

and I have yet to be disappointed

I will add that my decision to buy an eReader reader was met with opposition.  Other book loving friends gave me tons of reasons why I shouldn't give in and give up the smell and feel of a brand new novel in my hands.  To be honest, I do love having a new book in my hands ... and also to be honest, I read through a book in a matter of days and then it's off to find another book to read.  I don't have the kind of time I like to invest in a visit to the bookstore to do this more than once or twice a month.  But with my Kindle?  it's all at my fingertips.

In some sense I did feel I was betraying my book lover status.  I enjoy having a book in my hands, turning the pages, noticing the imperfections in printing, and when I'm done, judging the intensity of the story by how curled the front cover is.  But the selling point for an eReader was this - I own thousands of dollars in books.  I have a closet full of books I have read, traded, enjoyed and reread.  If my house were to catch fire tomorrow, all of those books would be gone.  The books on my Kindle, however, would be a download away, I've already paid for them and they are saved for me out in "cyber-ville".  Yes, I might have to buy a new Kindle, but because I carry it in my purse everywhere I go, it is doubtful.

What I like about my Kindle: The books download quickly.  I have only found two titles that I have actively searched for (since November 2009) that have NOT been available.  I have taken my Kindle to afternoon soccer games and read with no glare issues.  and the charge lasts and lasts and L A S T S ...  I just took it with me on our 3 week vacation and only charged it once - the night before we left - because if it was gonna die, I didn't want to lose it on my 5 hour flight home!

The pricing of books is reasonable and I often compare prices.  I am not an eReader snob, I like to buy the occasional "flip the pages" books too!  There are tons of free books available as well.  Many are offered free everywhere, but some are new releases or lesser known authors trying to be read.  It has opened my eyes to genres I never would have come near otherwise.

I can access the internet on it, but it is very slow in loading some pages.  I can facebook on it, play some games, but ultimately I prefer to use it for reading.  Those are just bonus features for me.

The only complaint my 10 year old daughter has with it (because she is the one constantly borrowing it) is that there is no backlight.  Personally, the backlighting on my phone gives me a headache if I have to read from it for too long, so the absence is a pleasure for me, but I can see the need for those who don't use a reading lamp at night.

I do have to add, because I'm weird like that, Target has begun selling the Kindle in their stores ... and anyone that knows the slightest bit about me, knows I absolutely love Target too!  It was meant to be ;)

eReader Reviews: Nook

This is a review of the Nook, Barnes & Noble's eReader, by my friend, Caryl:

I am in love with an electronic device. Sad, but true. My Nook has been my constant companion since my classroom parents gave it to me at the end of the school year. The only issue I have with the Nook is that I cannot understand why the manufacturer did not put a backlight feature on the screen to allow the Nook to be read in the dark. This is the most glaring omission I have found. Additionally, it was rather expensive and did not come with a cover, which is absolutely necessary to protect the Nook from damage.

I love the fact that my Nook is so user friendly. A monkey could figure out how to use it. I really like how easy it is to download books. I hate when I find out about a good book and I am all gung ho to read it and the store is out. Then I have to order it and wait. I am not good at waiting. With my Nook, I just download it and in about 15 seconds, voila, I have my book. The prices are very reasonable too! At first, I was very concerned that I would not like reading electronically. I do not like reading on the computer and always print out the documents I need to read. For, example, if I am proof-reading my report card comments, it is difficult for me to be accurate without having the actual paper copy to read. I feared that reading on the Nook would be a similar problem for me. I almost did not open it so I could return it, even though I had been dying to have one for a while. My husband talked me into giving it a try. It feels just like reading a book. I love that I can adjust the font size for my old eyes too!

The only thing that really upsets me about having a Nook is that now my husband feels there is no longer a reason for me to have an iPad. Rats!

Thanks, Caryl!

eReader Reviews: Apple iPad

Yes, I recently splurged on an iPad, being the Gadget Girl I seem to have become. I've been very ambivalent about the whole eReader movement, to be honest. I love books - actual paper books. I love the feel of them, I love the smell of them, I love the weight of them in my hands, I love being able to dog-ear pages and underline passages that strike me. I love having bookshelves in my house stuffed with books, and I love to pass along books I've read and enjoyed. eReaders obviously aren't capable of most of those features.

Still, there's an attraction to being able to download a book you want in seconds rather than having to wait for it to ship from Amazon or driving to the bookstore and hoping they have it in stock (although, really, I adore hanging out in a bookstore; it's heaven to me). It's also cool that you can store a pretty sizable library on this device that fits in a decent-size purse.

Even so, I had no interest in getting an eReader for myself until Apple unveiled the iPad recently. I'm completely sold on Apple products. I have an iPhone, which I adore, and we made the switch from PCs to both an Apple desktop and an Apple laptop about a year ago, and I'll never willingly go back to a PC.

An iPad isn't cheap, though. Even the most bare-bones model (with the least memory and with WiFi but no 3G) is a couple hundred dollars more than a Kindle or Nook. I hemmed and hawed about it for a while, knowing that if I was going to take the plunge, I wanted one with the works. And although I absolutely could not justify the expense of what amounts to a toy, I also couldn't get it out of my head. So I bought one. I got the one with 32GB of memory plus WiFi and 3G, and I'll just say that it cost a pretty penny. Also, at least when I made the decision to buy it (about a month ago), iPads with WiFi + 3G were not available in the Apple stores, so I had to order mine from the Apple site and wait almost two weeks to receive it. (I like to think that Apple spent that two weeks lovingly building an iPad specially for me. Although I'm sure that's not actually the case.)

So now that I've had it for a couple of weeks, what's my take on it? I love it. But I have to say that I don't love it for the eReader aspect. I am still getting used to reading a book in an electronic format, and in all honesty, I can't see this ever completely replacing actual paper books for me. It's convenient: yes, I can download a book I want and have it in my hot little hands lickety split. That's cool. I can build an entire library and carry it around in my purse. I can read without turning a light on because the screen is lit. Also, you can download iBooks, which is Apple's eReader app, but you can also download the Kindle (Amazon) app and the Barnes & Noble eReader app, which is a smart thing to do because: (a) not all books are available on iBooks, and (b) you can shop among the different apps to get the best price on an e-book. Not all of the eReader apps operate exactly the same, however. For instance, in the iBooks app, you glide your finger over the screen to turn a page, and the page actually turns, just like a real book. In the Kindle app, the pages just slide from one to the next. Which is fine - it's really a matter of aesthetics and special effects I guess. iBooks is a full color app, so if you have a book with pictures, the pictures will appear in full color. I'm not sure if the other apps are full color or not.

What I don't love about the iPad as an eReader:

• Because the iPad is really so much more than just an eReader, I find myself often distracted by all the other apps at my fingertips. In other words, I may sit down to read The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest on it, but I often find myself closing the book to play Words With Friends, or to check my email, because it's right there.
• Reading on the iPad in bright sunlight is next to impossible. Plus there's glare on the screen.

All in all, I love my iPad, but not so much for the eReader functionality, although I know it was developed to compete with other eReaders. Like I said, though, it's so much more than an eReader. Although it's not a full-fledged computer, it's close. I can check my email, go on the internet, chat on Facebook, post to my blog, play games, watch videos, TV shows and Podcasts, store thousands of photos, creating a very portable photo album, and so much more.

I still can't say that the cost is justifiable, although I guess it just depends on what your means are. But sometimes it's okay to just get a new toy, even if you can't justify it, right?

Coming soon: reviews of Kindle and Nook. Check back!