Book Club Experience

I attended our library’s book club on February 23. This book club is made up of all women who seem to have been coming to this club for quite a while as they often referred to other books and talked with each other as if they have been friends for a long time. It is interesting to note that our library has hired someone to facilitate the book club. I wonder how many other libraries have to look elsewhere for their facilitators? It just seems odd to me with an entire building of librarians and no one can run a book club once a month. This was new information to me. I have had some contact with the facilitator who brings back the books from the book club to the Reference desk every month but I didn’t know until this project that she was paid to run the club. I assumed it was a patron who offered to run it.

When I first walked in, some of the members knew who I was from seeing me around the library but others welcomed me as a new attendee. I informed them that I hadn’t read the book and that I was observing for library school. They were very interested and thought it was pretty cool that I was studying to be a librarian. Even though I hadn’t read the book and was only observing, they treated me very kindly and kept trying to pull me into their conversation; it was a nice experience. I thought I would very much like to attend this group if I actually had time to read for pleasure! Maybe some day.

Due to the library renovating the basement, the book club met in a temporary meeting space which will eventually be a full-fledged meeting room once renovation is complete. So it wasn’t the greatest meeting space with its temporary walls put up by the renovation workers. But the ladies were game for it and actually thought it was a nice change of pace. They asked me about the renovation and how things would work for them once it’s all done. Anyway, our custodial staff brought in tables and chairs for them and there was a little snack cart when I got there. I am assuming the library provided the snacks as the facilitator was not there that day and had appointed a fill-in leader for that night. She actually realized she was the leader after I had gotten there and waiting for the club to start (she received an email from the facilitator) so the snacks must have come from the person in Circulation that arranges the book club and oversees it each month. The snacks included coffee, Chex Mix and cookies. I assume it is always there because everyone just naturally went to the cart, got their snacks and sat down.

The book they were discussing was Surviving the Angel of Death: the true story of a Mengele twin in Auschwitz by Eva Mozes Kor and Lisa Rojany Buccieri. It seemed as though all members had read the book. All of the women shared pretty equally except for one member who barely spoke at all; maybe she didn’t read the book that month. The ladies were all of the same generation and most had grown up in the same city of Elkhart so they all related information they had about the area during WWII, the setting of the book. It was interesting to hear how they were, or in most cases were not, affected by what was happening in Europe here in Elkhart. The book also lead to the members talking about civil rights and what they experienced locally. They relayed that there was a right and a wrong side of the tracks and how some places blacks felt they needed to hurry through or completely avoid after sundown. I had lead a book club many years ago at Barnes & Noble and I have to say, this book club I attended was so much more interesting and informative, mostly because of the members who attended. It was meaty and juicy and I learned things from these ladies. The books they usually read are non-fiction but they have also read fiction that deals with historic events. It seems like they read books that touch them personally.

The main person asking the questions was the leader but it didn’t really feel like she was asking, it felt more like a discussion between women. The leader was also one of the ones who spoke a lot, sometimes talking over another member. Also, one of the members brought her college-aged daughter, who tried very hard to contribute but it seemed a bit like she was trying to scholarize the happenings at Auschwitz and the history that these women were sharing. I wished she would have just listened and learned first-hand about how it was from the 40s to the 60s but it seemed she had an agenda. The questions that were asked were all open-ended and not all pertained to the book as the discussion branched out, which was ok because this book opened up many sub-discussions.

This book group did a really good job relating to each other and supporting each other’s opinions even when there was a disagreement. It was enjoyable for me to meet these ladies and they actively asked me back whenever I could.