WHY I LOVE BOOK CLUBS by Gloria Alden

Some of the members of Red Read Robin book club.

I belong to two book clubs. The first one I joined in the fall of 2006, a new and started by Carol Baker, the local librarian. We met in a café which sold lunches and antiques and crafts. I think the first book picked was To Kill a Mockingbird, but I didn’t keep a record then.

Eventually, Carol couldn’t lead us because government funding for the library was cut back. She still had another book club at the library. We met there every third Thursday for several years until The Brew Basket went out of business. Then we went to several other restaurants for a while and finally ended up at Roby Lee’s a larger restaurant where we had more room and where we still meet at 11:00 a.m. the Third Thursday of each month except when one of our members has us meeting at her cottage on Lake Erie in July.

In December we meet at my house and each of our members brings two or three books for us to pick from for the following year for January to November. The extra books are added to a list for anyone to read after they’ve read that month’s book. We have a pot luck meal at my house, too.

When we meet at Roby Lee’s we discuss the book of the month and then some of us stay for lunch, some order take-out, or some like me order the meal for takeout, but stay there to eat from the salad bar which is really good and includes soup, dessert, and delicious small slices of white pizza. Carol Baker is retired now and has joined us again. The waitresses who take care of us always bring coffee or tea and fresh baked bread with butter to nibble on while we’re discussing the book or talking about what has gone on in our lives since the last time we met.

The other book club I joined was the Red Read Robin. It started in February 2008.. It’s a larger book club with over half of the members related to each other and at least half of them go to the same Mass I go to, and we sit together. With that one it is held in a member’s home where she prepares the meal, or if the member for some reason can’t or doesn’t want to have it in their home, they pick a restaurant for us to meet in and usually bring some little gift to give us. One of my best friends has a small house and a husband with a disability so she always chooses a restaurant. The hostess of the month always serves wine with the meal, too. We just celebrated our tenth year this past month.  

The first book that was chosen for that book club was also To Kill a Mockingbird. Only three members have dropped out not because they didn’t like us, but because they were too busy like Erin, who is a teacher and just had her second child an adorable baby girl and a son who is now in kindergarten. Her husband is also a teacher and both of them have lots of papers to grade. Another member moved back to her hometown in PA, and only comes once in a while because of the distance to drive at night. Two of our members live fifty miles away so don’t come quite as often, and when it’s their turn to have the book club they have it on a Saturday afternoon so no one has to drive the distance after dark

My love of belonging to book clubs has so many positive aspects. First, it’s interesting to hear everyone’s opinions of a book you’ve just read. Some really liked it. Some had a few complaints and then there’s one member who often hates the book which is kind of upsetting for the hostess of the book club that night who picked the book.

Second, it’s fun to be with fellow book lovers, who have become my friends over the years I’ve belonged.

Third, I’m introduced to books I might never have heard of or particularly wanted to read. I’m a big mystery fan and read more mysteries than anything else, but it’s good for everyone to read other books, too. There have only been a few over the years that I didn’t like, but that is because the person who picked the book didn’t bother to read it first. I often pick a good mystery, or a book I’d read in the other book club and enjoyed.

 

The two books I’ve read this month are The House Without a Key a Charlie Chan Mystery by Earl Derr Biggers.

He was born in Warren, Ohio, the capital of the county I live in. All the libraries in the county are featuring this book this month. He was born in 1884, and died in 1933 of a heart attack at the age of 48. He was a playwright and novelist, His greatest success was with his series of Charlie Chan detective novels. The popularity of Charlie Chan extended even to China, where audiences in Shanghai appreciated the Hollywood films made by his Charlie Chan mysteries. This is the first one of the series I read and enjoyed it enough to want to read more. He was posthumously inducted into the Warren City Schools Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame. This book was chosen by one of the members of my Red Read Robin book club.

Earl Derr Bigger

The other one is When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi . It’s a memoir he started writing when he was diagnosed with a life threatening cancer. He writes about his childhood, about going to college to become a doctor and changing his mind on what kind of doctor he wanted to become. It covers his years as a student and an intern.

He eventually became a neurosurgeon at Stanford and operated on brains. He was married to Lucy and he is facing his own death shortly after becoming a father, but still he continues with his job as long as possible. He died in March of 2015 while still working on this book surrounded by his large loving family, including his wife and their daughter.  His wife wrote the epilogue to the book. He was a beautiful, caring man who gave his all to his patients.

Paul with his wife Lucy

Paul with his daughter shortly before he died.

Two comments on the book “Rattling, heartbreaking, and ultimately beautiful, the too young Dr. Kalanithi’s memoir is proof that the dying are the ones who have the most to teach us about life.” Atul Gawande

“Thanks to When Breath Becomes Air, those of us who never met Paul Kalanithi will both mourn his death and benefit from his life. This is one of a handful of books I consider to be a universal donor – I would recommend it to anyone, everyone.”  Ann Patchett

I agree with these two comments.

Do you belong to a book club?

If not would you like to belong to one?

Are you interested in reading either one of these two books?