The Book Club

I think it was last August when my wife suggested that I should read more fiction.  Shortly thereafter, I noticed an item in our church bulletin that the church book club would be reading The Forgotten Garden as their September selection. After seeing this, we decided to join the book club; this gave us about two weeks to read the book.  When I retired I decided that I needed to be more adventurous.  This is different than road trip adventures, but may be no less interesting. 

November Selection

Book clubs tend to be composed mainly of females, and sure enough when we arrived I was the only male in the room, joining about nine females. Since then I have wondered if there is more estrogen in a fabric shop or a book club.  After being in a fabric shop with my wife twice in the past month or so, I came to the conclusion that it would be the latter. A book club is a female version of a football huddle.  Later in evening of our first book club meeting my wife suggested that perhaps I would be more comfortable starting a book club that would be oriented to men.  I stated that I am sufficiently comfortable being around a group of women. Is she embarrassed by my attendance?  I think her suggestion was mostly around the fact that the books are likely to be female oriented tales, and she saw these as being out of my genre comfort zone.  But, that is part of the adventure.  Some of the books, I suppose, could well be a reading version of a chick-flick.  I also think I can bring a different perspective to the discussion.  Let me just say that the demographic of this book club is not very diverse.  But for perhaps one or two women in the group, my wife and I are probably the youngest members.  That means the vast majority are 62 years or older, and but for one soul (me), all female.  You can also tell it is a female oriented group in that for each meeting so far one member brings a bottle of red wine and another a bottle of white wine.  I think if it was a male oriented endeavor, the favored drink would be beer.  One other difference is notes.  Some of the attendees take notes, and one women, I think she is a retired school teacher, used color coded her notes to keep track of the characters and events.  That is really getting into the book.

October Read

We have attended two book club meetings so far, one each in September and October.  A few weeks ago I completed reading the selection for the month of November, on which we will meet next week.  In addition to The Forgotten Garden, we read and discussed The Widower's Tale for October, and this month the selection is State of Wonder.  Last month the Adult Librarian for the local library attended and provided an over view of many books, which the group reviewed and voted on for next year's reading list.  I think of the dozen or so books selected, one was non-fiction.  My wife has already read that non-fiction book (she also previously read the current month book), but liked it so much she voted for that selection.

My First Book Club Read (September)

Given that so many of the attendees are retired, my wife and I found it interesting that one of the main complaints was book length.  The September book was about 550 pages, which many found too daunting in length.  Beyond length, some disliked the writing style, and others just could not get into the story line.  Book length was a consideration of some who voted on the reading list for next year.  The October book, The Widower's Tale, was about 400 pages.  They were more pleased with this months read, as it is a lighter 353 pages.  I doubt they would make it through some of my nonfiction books.  For example, last year I read Peter Brown's seminal work on early Christianity entitled Through the Eye of a Needle, which is about 800 pages in print, although I read it on a Kindle and, if I recall, about 30% is footnotes and bibliography.  Earlier this year I read Ron Chernow's biography of US Grant, simply entitled Grant, on Kindle, but which runs just shy of 1,100 pages in print, and it too is probably about 30% footnotes and bibliography.  I have read a great deal about US Grant including his own Personal Memoirs (also completed this year).  Like Chernow, I think Grant did much more as President than for what he is given credit.

I will agree with my spouse that my interests in reading tend to be nonfiction.  Looking at my library check out history, my Kindle, and books at home, I suspect so for this year I have read about 15 non-fiction books and 9 fiction books (which includes the three book club selections).  After reading a hefty work, such as Chernow's or Brown's I tend to move to a less heavy, and shorter, fiction book.  Two of my books this year were about the Teresa Halbach murder trial--particularly about Steven Avery and tangentially his nephew Brandon Dassey.  Both were easy reads, and both books were written after the Netlflix series "Making a Murderer."  A fiction book I read, We Need to Talk about Kevin, was good, but rather disturbing.  A nonfiction book, by a Minnesota author, was a real quick read.
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Church Bulletin Notice of Book Club
selection for November

As I move though a book club selection, I also have been reading a nonfiction book.Therefore, I don't mind a shorter book club selection.  My current nonfiction book,  purchased at the library book sale, is about Thomas Jefferson.  In my mind this book provides significant new light on the man and goes beyond his words to his actual actions.  His actions often countered to his words.  Perhaps there is a future blog post on that issue. I prioritize the book club selections since that has the meeting deadline.

Cover of Ron Chernow's Grant

I guess time will tell if how long I continue with the book club.  I noted to my wife that a former coworker told me that he would let me know when his book club, composed of men, meets, but I have yet to hear from him.  That is a different type of book club, no book is involved and they meet at a local tavern. This book club does, however, provide a nice way to interact with people whom I would not otherwise interact; and, hey, who am I to pass up a glass or two of wine during the discussion?  It is not beer, but it will do.  It is safe to say the book club has me reading books I would not otherwise read, thus part of the adventure. In the coming year, due to the book club, my reading may be reversed with fiction books outnumbering my nonfiction books.

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