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Starting a Book Club

Q. We'd like to start a mother-daughter book club in our college town.  Can you help us identify books?  Do you have any tips for running a successful club?

A. Book clubs have waxed and waned in popularity throughout our history.  Some of the 19th century book clubs, such as the fictitious one in "...And Ladies of the Club," by Helen Hooven Santmyer, evolved into the local public library.  And it is your local public library that can help you in your efforts to start a book club today.

An article published in Book Links, a magazine designed for adults interested in connecting children with high-quality books, included the following definition of a book club, or book discussion group: "A forum where readers can come together and talk about books and the reading experience. These groups can be organized in a variety of ways. There are adult groups, student-led groups, mother-daughter groups, father-son groups, and parent-child groups, to name just a few." The author, Anna Healy, formerly at the Skokie Public Library, provided some guidelines for establishing a discussion group.  The article is online at http://www.ala.org/ala/booklinksbucket/bookdiscussion.htm

Many libraries have guides to recommended reading, and an increasing number support the work of book clubs by circulating multiple copies of a title, sometimes with a book discussion guide, to the book discussion leader.

Although most book groups have a rotating selection of books, some cities, schools, churches, organizations, and even conferences have used the "One Book" model as a start for discussing books. Extensive resources for such programming are available from the Library of Congress Center for the Book (http://www.loc.gov/loc/cfbook/one-book.html) and the American Library Association Public Programs Office(http://publicprograms.ala.org/orc/discussionprograms/bookdiscussion/onebook.html).

Other established groups to help you include:

• Association of Book Group Readers and Leaders (AGBRL) also known as the Association of Professional Book Club Facilitators, P.O. Box 885, Highland Park, IL 60035. Rachel Jacobsohn, Founder/Director (E-mail: rachelj@interaccess.com) ABGRL is a cooperative information clearinghouse for avid readers, individuals and those in book groups.
• Great Books Foundation [http://www.greatbooks.org/ Great Books Foundation]
• Library of Congress Center for the Book [http://www.loc.gov/loc/cfbook/ Library of Congress Center for the Book]

Some books you can seek out through your local library are:

• The Book Club Connection: Literacy, Learning and Classroom Talk, by Susan I. McMahon and Taffy Raphael. New York: Teachers College Press, 1997.
• The Book Group Book: a Thoughtful Guide to Forming and Enjoying a Stimulating Book Discussion Group, edited by Ellen Slezak (with a foreword by Margaret Atwood). 3rd ed. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2000. 
• The Complete Idiot's Guide to Starting a Reading Group, by Patrick Sauer Indianaplis, IN: Alpha Books, 2000.
• Good Books Lately: the One-stop Resource for Book Groups and Other Greedy Readers / Ellen Moore and Kira Stevens. New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 2004.
• The Mother-Daughter Book Club, by Shireen Dodson. New York: HarperCollins, 1997.
• The New York Public Library Guide To Reading Groups, by Rollene Saal. New York: Crown Publishers, 1995.
• The Reading Group Book: The Complete Guide to Starting and Sustaining a Reading Group, by David Laskin, Holly Hughes. New York: Plume, 1995.
• The Reading Group Handbook: Everything You Need to Know to Start Your Own Book Club, by Rachel W. Jacobsohn. New York: Hyperion, 1998.
• Reading Group Journal: Notes in the Margin, by Martha Burns, Alice Dillon. New York: Abbeville Press, 1999.
• Reading Raps: a Book Club Guide for Librarians, Kids, and Families, by Rita Soltan. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006.
• Talking About Books: A Step-By-Step Guide for Participating in a Book Discussion Group, by Marcia Fineman. Rockville, MD: Talking About Books, 1997.  
• Teen Book Discussion Groups @ the library, by Constance B. Dickerson. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, 2004.

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