BookMuse Book Group Tips

People in groups without professional leaders often complain to me that they spend the last half hour of each meeting trying to decide what to read next (notice the feature heading on BookMuse's home page). You'll save a lot of time if you choose your books several months in advance. Some groups have a meeting once a year just to choose books for the coming year. Others choose six months worth of books at a time. Don't worry that you won't be reading the "hot" book if you plan so far ahead. Often the "hot" books aren't worth discussing anyway, and if they are, they'll be there when you next choose books. They'll probably be in softcover by then!

Try choosing your reading group books with a theme in mind. If you choose books several months at a time, you can think about ways to tie your books together. Discussions then include comparisons among all the books you've all read, and are often more satisfying.

One year my book groups read all banned books (that was fun!), and once we read female/male, non U.S. pairs. But the favorite by far (I've done this three different years) has been consecutive month pairings of a classic novel and a related modern novel, such as Great Expectations and Jack Maggs by Peter Carey, and Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys. The downside of this last theme is that it involves a lot of research by the book choosers. We'll be adding book lists to the resources section soon, so check back. For now, why not choose books from the prize lists for your theme? Sometimes I stretch the theme a bit: this year my groups are reading ''Winners: books that have won literary prizes--or should have.''

Most book groups meet at people's homes or in public places like bookstores and libraries. If you meet in people's homes, I suggest scheduling the place of your meetings well in advance. Someone always calls and cancels at the last minute, but at least most of the time people will stick to the schedule. I type up a schedule for the whole session, which runs from September through June and mail it out in August or pass it out at the September meeting. It includes the book names, authors, meeting dates, times and places. And make lots of copies, since people always lose them during the year! (This brings up another good idea, which is to take the summer months off. Then readers return refreshed and invigorated in the fall.)

If your group doesn't have a professional facilitator, chances are that someone in your group volunteers to prepare the book for your meeting (often it's the person who chooses the book). How should you prepare for the meeting? Here are a few ideas:

• Your library probably has access to Gale databases called Contemporary Authors and Contemporary Literary Criticism, both fabulous resources.
• Book reviews (New York Times is perhaps the best) generally include interesting author and background information, as well as ways of thinking about books within a context of others.
• Many authors have their own web sites with biographical information, interviews, editorial comments on their books and more.
• For older books, you can find books of criticism on the authors and their work. There are dozens of books, for instance, on Toni Morrison (and on our feature, The Bluest Eye).
• Better yet (and less time consuming) pick books that we feature here on the site and work with our Muse Notes.

Where do you find the names of books to consider reading?

• Whenever a fellow reader whose taste you trust recommends a book, jot it down. Word of mouth is THE best recommendation.
• The same goes for people you know in other book groups. Ask which books they've read that have been successful for discussion.
• Skim the Sunday New York Times Book Review (or your local paper's reviews), or assign one person in your group to do this. After a while you'll figure out how to read between the lines of the book reviews and discern which books your group would enjoy the most.
• Publishers' web sites often review books, though the recommendations are not always reliable. If you like Oprah's choices, pick those. Perhaps you want to read prize winners.
• Of course, we think you should save yourself a lot of trouble by coming to BookMuse for your reading ideas.

Choosing books for parent/child discussions:

In many parent/child book discussion groups, adults assume the responsibility of choosing books. Parents often want children to read classics, serious books, or books that will spark the kinds of discussions they think should take place. These agendas, while imbued with good intentions, can bring lackluster results. If your book group is suffering from awkward silences, monosyllabic responses, or a lack of excitement about the next meeting, you might have overlooked the vital elements of relevancy and fun.

Does this mean you have to forsake all dreams of "good" literature and discuss the latest popular book, even if the writing is horrible and the plot soporific? We think not. But it may mean it is time to bring the children more into the book selection process. You can start by allowing them to choose the genre or time period of a book, or letting them vote on what book to read next from a list created by the parents. Consider reversing the roles, and let the kids present a list from which the adults make the final selection. Increasing the kids' participation in selecting books should go a long way toward reviving their joy in discussion.

Parent/child discussions, continued:

Last month I wrote about the need to give children in your group more say in the book selection process. With this privilege should come the responsibility of doing the background work necessary to recommend books. Whether this involves reading reviews on Amazon, consulting award lists, reading the book ahead of time, or using web sites such as BookMuse, the selectors should present their reasons as to why they think the book will facilitate an interesting discussion. The process of selection can be a sobering experience. It can force the individual to think beyond the superficial "because I heard it was good" to giving serious thought as to what kind of books actually make for good discussions.

Recommending a book for a group gives an individual a chance to push a personal favorite. This can be exciting, but it also carries some risk. It means being tough enough to withstand criticism for your selection. What happens when the book a child recommends is not well received by the majority of the book club? Can the child separate criticism of the book from criticism of him/herself? Will the other participants be reluctant to voice their real opinions about a book if they are worried that the selector's feelings will be hurt? These are important questions to consider before they affect your discussions.

Here are a few books that I regularly use in my job as a book group facilitator. Most are pricey, but well worth the investment, when reading is your obsession.

• My favorite reference book is Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia. Forget when the Spanish American War was? Your book keeps referring to Ovid and you lost your Latin in 8th grade? Want a plot summary of Twelfth Night before you see the play? This book has almost everything.
• The Bloomsbury Guide to Women's Literature, ed. Claire Buck, is just what it says it is.
• Books of the Century: A Hundred Years of Authors, Ideas and Literature from The New York Times. This is less of a reference book than an enlightening look at what intelligent critics thought of books at the time they were published.
• Who's Who in the Bible by Peter Calvocoressi. This beautifully illustrated, accessible book is for those of us who need help with all those Biblical names we come upon in our reading. You might be surprised at how many contemporary authors draw their characters' names from the Bible--and want you to know what they mean.

A couple of times I've mentioned my preference for themes in book groups. Here's one of my book lists that was particularly successful, with an introductory explanation:

Modern novels often draw on older stories for their inspiration. Thus, I have my book groups read combinations of great new and older books and explore the connections between them. I have listed the older book first, then the modern novel.

• Great Expectations, Charles Dickens; Jack Maggs, Peter Carey
• Hamlet, William Shakespeare; The Black Prince, Iris Murdoch
• Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf; The Hours, Michael Cunningham
• Anecdotes of Destiny (incl. Babbette's Feast), Isak Dinesen; Chocolat, Joanne Harris
• Eugene Onegin, Alexander Pushkin Golden Gate, Vikram Seth.

Perhaps the most common question I get from people in floundering book groups is, "how do we handle the person in our group who talks ALL THE TIME?" This is a tough situation since it involves people's feelings and personalities. If you have this problem, you probably don't have a paid leader whose job it is to control that person and who doesn't mind being blunt to save the group. You probably have rotating volunteer members who are in charge of preparing for each meeting and don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. Try these strategies to interrupt and distract the constant talker: "Let's get back to the book," or "So-and-so has been wanting to say something for a while," or "Let's ask someone else what they think about that point you just made." These have all worked for me in varying degrees, and the talker may even catch on after a few such interruptions. Good luck.

Literary critic Harold Bloom, in his book The Western Canon, says that every enduring piece of literature draws on literature that has come before it, yet stands on its own as somehow beautiful, strange and original. Here’s another (see also the March 2002 newsletter) book group reading list that pairs older books with newer ones that in some way draw on the older book for theme, character, place or other inspiration.

• Great Short Works of Edgar Allen Poe; Lolita,Vladimir Nabokov
• A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens; Mr. Ives’ Christmas, Oscar Hijuelos
• Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte; Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys
• Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad; Remembering Babylon, David Malouf
• Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston; Beloved, Toni Morrison