All of the following selections lean toward the lighter side of the yuletide season, except for Upon the Midnight Clear.

Hope your book club finds just what it is looking for in one of the following selections.

My subdivision group chose  Mischief of the Mistletoe.  Enjoy!!

A Wallflower Christmas

Lisa Kleypas

American cad Rafe Bowman goes bride shopping in London and must choose between love and money in Kleypas’s coy Christmas romance. Rafe is wealthy in his own right, but his grossly wealthy father demands he marry the uninteresting Lady Natalie. Rafe, naturally, falls in love with someone else: Natalie’s commoner cousin, Hannah. As his courtship of Natalie progresses, Rafe keeps returning to Hannah, who rejects his courtship because she thinks he is destined to marry her cousin. As Christmas draws closer, Rafe must choose between the woman he is falling in love with and his father’s fortune. Throughout, veteran romancier Kleypas gracefully balances Regency mores, light humor and a dash of Christmas magic, and even if Rafe and Hannah hew too closely to genre archetypes, the book passes muster as a holiday bonbon.

The Mischief of the Mistletoe

Lauren Willig

The delightful latest entry in the Pink Carnation series finds bumbling Turnip Fitzhugh in over his head when he visits sister Sally at boarding school, where a chance encounter with school mistress Arabella Dempsey lures the siblings into a complex web of espionage and derring-do. Guest appearances by Dempsey’s best friend Jane Austen and characters from previous installments of the series round out the laugh-out-loud holiday-themed romance of intrigue. Readers familiar with the series will relish this newest installment and rejoice that Turnip has finally been given his due and a wonderful foil in Arabella. While readers never feel that the espionage aspect would actually put anyone in real danger, it definitely makes for an exciting story.

Upon the Midnight Clear

Sherrilyn Kenyon

Ever think Scrooge had it right before the ghosts ruined his life? Meet Aidan O’Conner.
At one time he was a world-renowned celebrity who gave freely of himself and his money without wanting anything in return…until those around him took without asking. Now Aidan wants nothing of the world–or anyone who’s a part of it.

When a stranger appears at his doorstep, Aidan knows he’s seen her before…in his dreams.

Born on Olympus as a goddess, Leta knows nothing of the human world. But a ruthless enemy has driven her from the world of dreams and into the home of the only man who can help her: Aidan. Her immortal powers are derived from human emotions–and his anger is just the fuel she needs to defend herself…

One cold winter’s night will change their lives forever…

Trapped together in a brutal winter storm, Aidan and Leta must turn to the only power capable of saving them–or destroying them both: trust.

An Autobiography of Santa Claus

Jeff Guinn

Guinn tracks down the origins of nearly all pieces of the Santa Claus legends and pieces them together, beginning with the birth of Nicholas in 280 A.D. He traces a life that lasts over 1700 years and explains how every well-known story of Santa Claus came to be, mixing in science with magic and throwing in actual historical figures to color the piece. (You’ll never believe who some of Santa’s “helpers” actually turn out to be.) He takes the character through the dark ages, through the Victorian era, mixes him in with European and American history and literature and finally brings it all together in the present day.

The book doesn’t have much of a climax, but that’s because it is written as an “autobiography,” not a novel. The stories just stop because they’ve all been told… for now. That’s part of the miracle — the knowledge that Santa Claus will outlast us all and continue bringing his true gift, hope, to children all over the world long after you and I are gone.

The Gift

Cecelia Ahern

Ahern wades into the Christmas fiction fray with a winning tale of magic and redemption. Lou Suffern is a busy man, and his family’s growing weary of constantly taking the backseat to his career. On a whim, he offers Gabe, a homeless man he meets outside his office, a low-level job, and the uncharacteristically kind gesture plays out in a very unexpected way when Lou learns that Gabe has the power to be in two places at once. As the holidays draw nearer, Gabe tries to make Lou realize the importance of his family, but slow-to-change Lou might not come around to Gabe’s way of thinking until it’s too late. Ahern’s an accomplished storyteller, and her writing chops elevate this far above the normal holiday fare. There’s magic, but it’s not campy, and the sentiment is real.

Wishin’ and Hopin’

Wally Lamb

With his latest story, WISHIN′ AND HOPIN′, Wally Lamb takes a turn toward the lighthearted and laugh-provoking. In a vein similar to Jean Shepherd′s A Christmas Story and David Sedaris′s The Santaland Diaries, Lamb′s holiday tale focuses on a feisty parochial school fifth grader named Felix Funicello–a distant cousin of the iconic Annette! Both poignant and hilarious, WISHIN′ AND HOPIN′ transports us back to October, November, and December of 1964, when LBJ and Lady Bird were in the White House, Meet the Beatles was on everyone′s turntables, and Christmas meant mistletoe, mangers, and midnight mass. Then it propels us from the past to the present so that we might measure what we′ve gained and what we′ve lost.

The Stupidest Angel

Christopher Moore

Hilarity abounds in Moore’s latest satirical gem. Sleepy Pine Cove, Calif., is abuzz with Christmas spirit, but Lena Marquez is fed up with her despicable ex-husband, Dale Pearson. On his way home from playing Santa Claus at the local lodge, Dale spies sneaky Lena uprooting his Monterey pines; he pulls a gun on her, she lashes out with a shovel and—oops!—kills him. Seven-year-old Josh Barker, thinking he’s just seen the murder of Santa, prays for a miracle to save Christmas. To Lena’s rescue comes Tucker Case, a slimy, reformed Casanova and DEA pilot, who gives her an alibi and sweeps her off her feet. The marijuana-cultivating town constable, Theo Crowe, suspects foul play, but Tucker intervenes with a blackmail scheme to keep the crime buried. Meanwhile, there’s a new arrival in town: the glowingly blond Archangel Raziel (last seen in Lamb) has come “dirtside” on a “miracle mission” involving Josh’s wish and reviving the town’s dearly departed. Pine Cove’s biggest challenge surfaces as comically reanimated zombies begin to rise and feast on the living, and a huge El Niño–induced storm swirls. This little slice of perverse Christmas cheer is enough to make even the most cynical Scrooge guffaw.

Christmas Jars

Jason F. Wright

In a plot reminiscent of Penelope Stokes’s The Blue Bottle Club and Angela Hunt’s The Note, a journalist happens upon a human interest story that winds up teaching her lessons about love and forgiveness and renewing her own faith in human kindness. On Christmas Eve, twenty-something Hope Jensen is quietly grieving the recent loss of her adoptive mother when her apartment is robbed. The one bright spot in the midst of Hope’s despair is a small jar full of money someone has anonymously left on her doorstep. Eager to learn the source of this unexpected generosity, Hope uses her newswoman instincts to find other recipients of “Christmas jars,” digging until her search leads her to the family who first began the tradition of saving a year’s worth of spare change to give to someone in need at the holiday. Wright commits some rookie mistakes in style and pacing; the novel veers heavily toward melodrama at some junctures, and he tends to show us and tell us about his characters. Still, the heart of this novella is its transformative message about the power of giving, a compelling theme that calls to mind books like Pay It Forward and The Kingdom Assignment.

Letters from Father Christmas

J.R.R. Tolkien

Every December an envelope bearing a stamp from the North Pole would arrive for J.R.R. Tolkien’s children. Inside would be a letter in a strange, spidery handwriting and a beautiful colored drawing or painting. The letters were from Father Christmas.
They told wonderful tales of life at the North Pole: how the reindeer got loose and scattered presents all over the place; how the accident-prone North Polar Bear climbed the North Pole and fell through the roof of Father Christmas’s house into the dining room; how he broke the Moon into four pieces and made the Man in it fall into the back garden; how there were wars with the troublesome horde of goblins who lived in the caves beneath the house, and many more.

No reader, young or old, can fail to be charmed by Tolkien’s inventiveness in this classic holiday treat.

Blue Christmas

Mary Kay Andrews

Weezie Foley is bent on winning Savannah’s downtown window-decorating contest, but as soon as she picks up the hot-glue gun, strange things start happening. Her boyfriend, Daniel, is grumpier than usual; Weezie’s dog, Jethro, goes missing and is anonymously returned; a platter of bacon-wrapped shrimp is stolen from Weezie’s refrigerator; and a woman is found sleeping in Weezie’s shop window. Andrews nails idiosyncratic Southern charm and teases out a touching denouement.

How surprised the subdivision book club was to learn that  Almost Astronauts, 13 Women Who Dared to Dream, was recommended  solely for 9-12 year olds.

Two or three times a year, we like to break up our steady diet of  fiction with a factual volume or two and don’t even mind learning a little something in the process.  That’s how Almost Astronauts and Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her made the 2011 reading list.

Growing up in the 60s, I was not aware that  qualified women had been denied the opportunity to participate in America’s Mercury space program.

During the late 50s and early 60s, “women weren’t allowed to rent a car or take out a  bank loan without a man’s signature; they could not play on a professional sports team at all. They couldn’t report the news on television or run in a city marathon or serve as police officers. They weren’t allowed to fly jets, either.” (page 5)

Let’s look at  the women featured in the situation comedies of that era: the zany red head, Lucille Ball;  Dick Van Dyke‘s beautiful, yet ditzy, stay-at-home wife, Laura; Margaret Anderson, a paragon of solid reason and patience on Father Knows Best; and  the ever present pearls of June Cleaver, mother of  the ‘Beav“.  No matter what the weekly plot line, the man of the family was almost always called upon to save the day even though the wife/mother was present in the household and capable of handling the matter herself.

With role models such as these on the boob tube, it’s not surprising that media bias and influential politicians were able to keep these women out of the space program.

In Tanya Lee Stone‘s 130 pages, the reader finds a vivid description of the testing and training set up by Dr. Randy Lovelace, the doctor responsible for overseeing testing for Mercury astronauts.  Led by Pilot Jerrie Cobb, the first to pass all the tests, the group equaled or surpassed their male counterparts with much less complaint.

As one reviewer pointed out, the only purpose of the privately-funded project was to develop medical standards for women in space.  They were “never trained for space, never worked for NASA nor were they ever classified as ‘top secret’”.

If that is a true statement, then please explain why the entire program was stonewalled by President Lyndon B. Johnson‘s terse note: “Let’s stop this now!”   Was it just jealousy that prompted Jackie Cochran‘s lack of support for her fellow fliers? Cochran had run the WWII WASP Program, the first women in history trained to fly American military aircraft.

Read Almost Astronauts and you will be intrigued by the historical and scientific details, outraged at the attitudes of powerful people and inspired by the women who paved the road for others.

Discussion Questions:

1.  Tom Wolfe wrote, “The world was divided into those that had it and those who did not.  This quality, this it, was never named . . . The idea was to prove . . . that you were one of the elected and anointed ones who had the right stuff.”  What do you think  ‘it’ was?  Could women as well as men have ‘it’?

2.  Compare/contrast the roles of women during WWII with that of the 1960s.  In which time period would you have been most comfortable?  Why?

3.  Discuss the motives of Randolph Lovelace, chairman of NASA’s Life Sciences Committee, Look magazine and Brigadier General Donald Flickinger behind their campaign to include women in the space program.

4.  Discuss why project WISE (Women In Space Earliest) stalled.

5.  The U.S. and Russia were neck and neck in the race to land a man on the moon.  Why did the U.S. never enter the race with the Russians to send a woman into space?

6.  The possibility of women in the space program prompted the media to ask:

What is a woman capable of?          What is a woman’s place?

How were those two questions answered in the 1960s?  How would they be answered today?

7.  Discuss the part that politics played in the space race taking into consideration the of intentions of JFK and LBJ.

8.  In  lieu of the fact that, “women are less susceptible to monotony, loneliness, heat, cold,  pain and noise than the opposite sex,” would you classify the female of the human species as stronger than the male?

9.  Was Jackie Cochran a traitor?  Why or why not?

10.  John Glenn said, “I think this gets back to the way our social order is organized.  The men go off and fight the wars and fly the airplanes and come back and help design and build and test them.  The fact that women are not in this field is a fact of our social order.”  What does John  Glenn mean by the term, ‘social order’? Would you consider his statement just another excuse to restrict women from the men only astronaut club?

11.  What part did NOW and the Civil Rights movement play in changing the social order?

To ease the doldrums left by the ice and snow blanketing the Midwest, the subdivision book club chose When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris. Described as a youthful Woody Allen, Sedaris has crafted five previous books, many of which have hit the New York Times best seller list.

One reviewers attested that Naked and Me Talk Pretty One Day produced  laughter so hard that tears streamed down his cheeks.  He remembered biting his tongue because, ‘laughing hysterically out loud for no apparent reason on the subway in New York tends to make people nervous!’

Such is not the case with the twenty-two first-person essays in Engulfed.   Just ‘not interesting, rambling, missing a beat, cobbled together from disconnected anecdotes’ are a few of the reader’s comments.

“Keeping Up,” the second essay in Engulfed, begins with an American couple bickering outside the writer’s office window in Paris. Evidently the wife had made outrageous claims about her ability to understand the French language.  But when native speakers use slang or ask unexpected questions, she finds herself at a loss and her husband becomes derisive.

Sedaris goes on to speculate that a geographical argument might be at the root of their discord.  Claiming to know his way around from a previous visit, the husband, Phillip, refuses to pull out the map and look like a tourist.

From their disagreement Sedaris jumps to those between himself and his long-time boyfriend, Hugh Hamrick.  Evidently Hugh’s long legs and uncanny capability of blending in with the locals often leaves his traveling companion (Sedaris) eating dust. (The author claims that Hugh deviously calls ahead to ascertain what style and color of coat is most popular in their host country.)

Next, we hear of the painters most extraordinary sense of direction.  After glancing at a map just once, Hugh can locate their hotel without a wrong turn.  An hour later, Hugh will be standing in the lobby directing strangers to their destinations.  To further emphasize his point, Sedaris remembers that Hugh was suggesting shortcuts to gondoliers before their Venice trip had ended.

In desperation to view a real Australian dingo, Sedaris attempts to follow Hugh through the twists and turns of the Taronga Zoo in Australia.  “Why they look just like dogs.  Are you sure we’re in the right place?” Sedaris asks an embarrassed Japanese woman, because Hugh has, once again, disappeared into the crowd.

This stream-of-consciousness essay ends with the author’s farewell speech to Hugh.  Attempting to make a clean start, Sedaris vows to rid himself of all mementos:  photos and birthday gifts ranging from a tan belt to the mechanical pig covered in real pig skin, a professional microscope, on to the 17th century painting of a Dutch peasant changing a diaper.

But when the author pictures himself leaving in a van, he remembers that he doesn’t drive.  Renting another apartment is out of a question because he can’t talk to a real estate agent.  Dealing with sums of money over $60 causes him to sweat.  Five minutes in a bank and his shirt is soaked through.  Ten minutes later and he’s stuck to his seat.

Even at the age of 50, the author claims to be afraid of everybody and everything.  He doesn’t know how to turn up the heat, send an e-mail, retrieve messages from the answering machine or do anything creative with a chicken for dinner.

At the end of eight pages, the author concludes that he’s so pathetic that Hugh has every right to run from him.  After 30 minutes of pure rage, the self-deprecating author is  happy to see his partner again!

Cute – certainly, Quirky-undoubtedly, Funny-not in my book.  While some of the writer’s anecdotes might produce a quiet smile, no evidence could be found of belly laugh material.

Pushing subject matter aside, Sedaris is regarded by his fans as a gifted writer. His strengths can be found in the ability to find a story in even the most mundane and recount it with a certain witty style and simplicity.  Even if the stories aren’t truly auto-biographical Sedaris certainly relies on keen observation and a particularly effective way of relating stories and thoughts.

The Christmas Sweater by Glenn Beck, Kevin Balfe, and Jason F. Wright is sort of a  ‘cross between IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE and A CHRISTMAS STORY‘ without the lasting effect of either .

At first the reader feels a certain degree of sympathy and hopeful anticipation for 12-year-old Eddie.  Even with his  father’s death and the sale of their once-prosperous bakery,  the young lad still thinks this Christmas will be the best ever and hopes for a much-desired red, Huffy bike.

Unfortunately, Eddie unwraps “a stupid, handmade, ugly sweater,” and reacts accordingly.  Begrudgingly, Eddie agrees to spend Christmas  Day with his grandparents but refuses to spend the night even though his mother is too tired to drive back home.  You guessed it, a tragic accident takes the mother’s life and the boy spends the rest of the book  living with his grandparents.

A well-worn neighbor,  supposedly only Eddie can see, tries to help the youngster work through some of his anger and guilt.  But nothing really changes the young man’s surly outlook on life until he courageously steps into the gathering storm in the cornfield.   The other side of the hill is filled with colorful flowers,  wonderful sounds and Eddie shouts, “I am Happy!”

Reviewers characterized The Christmas Sweater as ‘hackneyed and flat-out unoriginal’.  A fast read, Beck’s story is not  autobiographical, as one might think.  However, the radio and television host, manages to sneak in some of his  own personal philosophy and political views.  The epilogue or afterword, The Way It Begins sounded more like a sermon than the winding up of a warm-hearted, fictional tale appropriate for the Christmas season.

Fans of Glenn Beck will probably enjoy this book, our book club much preferred A Redbird Christmas by Fannie Flagg.

Discussion Questions follow:
1. Glenn Beck defines his core values as: personal responsibility, private charity, the right to life, freedom of religion, limited government and the family as the cornerstone of society.
How did the author’s upbringing, as portrayed in The Christmas Sweater, form these values?
2. The magic of Christmas means something different to the various characters in the novel. How did the youngster, Eddie, view Christmas? His Father? Mother? Grandfather?
3. Since his father had been dead for 3 years, Eddie’s only male role model was his grandfather. Did the grandfather’s vivid imagination along with his lying and cheating help or hinder the young boy’s development?
4. Was Eddie’s Mother a Grinch about other things than snow? What?
5. Did you find the mother’s death a believable part of the story? Did the author give the reader any hints to the contrary? If so, what?
6. In Eddie’s eyes, the Ashtons were the perfect family. What aspects of their family life is he overlooking or failing to see?
7. The character, Russell, had all the dirt of every farm on earth on him yet he felt clean and peaceful. Who is he?
8. Can you draw parallels between Eddie’s situation and that of the horse at the Johnson’s abandoned farm? Explain.
9. How would the plot of The Christmas Sweater have differed if Eddie had received the red, Huffy bike instead of the dreaded sweater?
10. In your opinion, was the dream sequence an effective literary device or just a gimmick used by the author(s) to accomplish their purpose? In your reading experience, what other devices have authors used to bring about a similar transformation in their characters?
11. Voice your feelings about the section titled, The Way it Begins.

First on the list was A Christmas Beginning by Anne Perry.  If you’re looking for a story full of mistletoe and holly along with yule logs and a cup of good cheer, then my advice is look elsewhere.

For the last five years, Ms. Perry has extracted a minor character from one of her regular series and placed him center stage in a story where the central theme overrides the mystery. In A Christmas Beginning, Superintendent Runcorn, the  William Monk series, enters the limelight.

After a particularly brutal case,  Runcorn of the London Metropolitan Police travels to the Isle of Anglesey off the north coast of Wales.

Rising from humble beginnings, this plain man, devoid of  family or friends with which to spend the holiday season, walks the cold, windswept landscapes seeking solace.

Imagine the reaction of the peaceful, upper-class island society, when Runcorn finds the body of a beautiful young woman, Olivia Costain, the vicar’s unmarried sister.

Totally inexperienced, the local constable and the Chief Constable of the County must acknowledge the superiority of Runcorn in this homicide case and ask for his assistance.

Coincidentally, the appearance of Melisande Ewart from a previous case, highlights the restrictions of Victorian society and the futility of a relationship between a lowly policeman and a lady ‘born and bred.’

Discussion Questions for A Christmas Beginning follow:

1.  Given that Superintendent Runcorn needs a vacation after a particularly ugly case, why does Ms. Perry send her hero to the isolated island of Anglesey in mid-December?

2.  Explain Perry’s theme (main idea) in A Christmas Beginning and speculate as to why she chose Runcorn as her main character.

3.  Do you agree/disagree with Melisande Ewart’s comment that she and Olivia Costain had much in common?  How were they similar?  Different?

4.  Why is it so important for the villagers to believe that Olivia Costain’s murder was either an accident or committed by a raving mad man?  How does Runcorn use his expertise to prove otherwise?

5.  Is Perry making a statement about the class system prevalent in the Victorian era when Chief Constable Alan Faraday takes credit for solving the case?

6.  Discuss Runcorn’s conclusion that, “Love was a gift, a grace.”  Does Perry give us any examples of that type of love in the novel?  Where?  Who?

7.  Which, if any of Perry’s female characters measure up to the model of Victorian womanhood as described below?

(Society dictated that a gentlewoman in the Victorian era(June 1837-January 1901) must be innocent, virtuous, biddable, dutiful and ignorant of intellectual opinion.)

8.  What compels an individual to kill another?  Under what circumstances would you be compelled to commit murder?

9.  How does A Christmas Beginning fit into the genre of a cozy mystery?

(G-rated, light-hearted, crime is off-stage, quick and merciful, sleuth is usually an educated woman, small village where characters enjoy gossiping about each other)

10.  Will Melisande and Runcorn be allowed to marry?

Our second selection for the holiday season, A Christmas Sweater by Glenn Beck will be discussed next.

Never accustomed to frills or luxuries,  her thinning gray hair was scraped back in a meager bun.  In the early 20th century,  her married life began in a rural, two-storied, red-shingle house devoid of electricity or indoor plumbing.

Raising three children during the Depression era, sometimes with an absentee husband who traveled from Illinois to Colorado in search of carpentry work, could not have been easy.

Amazingly enough she was never called Grandmother or Grandma, but answered to Mom from children and grandchildren alike.  Her counterpart, my Grandfather, was Grandnan.   Sorry to say, I don’t remember how those names came to be.

Which brings us to the frequently-asked question of every new grandparent, “What do you want to be called?”

Believe it or not, several websites and at least three books have been devoted to that very question.

An example from namenerds.com :  two little girls named  their grandfather Alvin because he had puffy cheeks like the singing chipmunk. The grandmother became butter-butt after  a margarine wrapper stuck to her butt when she backed into a trash basket.

A long list of possible nicknames can be found at thenewparentsguide.com.  Many are of foreign origin such as: Abuela (Spanish), Baba (Serbian), Bube (buh-bee, Yiddish) for Grandmother and Didi (Croatian), Dziadzia (Polish),  and Gammlefar (Norwegian) for Grandfather.

At grandparents.com read how seven grandchildren massacred Curly Grandma in the following ways:  Turdy Drama, CrrGrr, DumDum, and Telly Dama through their toddler years.

The New Grandparents Name Book has more than 700 names and name combinations from which to choose.

For  a sampling of grandparent names along with some touching stories about grandparents and grandchildren, You Can Call Me Hoppa! is just the ticket.

Along with  1000 or more  possible names, The Big Book of Grandparents’ Names has included a section with other languages so you can look up your heritage (Irish, Italian, Serbian, Chinese, even Eskimo).  Additional features includes  proverbs, quotes and the sign language for Grandmother and Grandfather.

I seldom wear a dress and never an apron besides spending considerable sums of money to hide those graying hairs, so I’m hoping for a less generic name than grandma, but the final choice is yet to be made.

What do your darling grandchildren call you?

Having a few doubts about the role in general, maybe a couple of  fears or just general trepidation in all areas?

Don’t feel like you’re alone.  It’s an unexplored jungle full of unexpected jogs and twists.  Given that I’ve worked with teens and children for almost 30 years, it should be a cinch.  If so, I’m not feeling it yet!

What exactly is  a grandparent?

Will he/she like me?

What will I do if  asked to babysit?

About a month before the ‘blessed event’ the prospective parents gifted me with the following:   The Little Big Book for Grandmothers.

This darling little book can’t change a diaper for you, but the 6 1/2 inch square, 350-page volume, is crammed with the following:

*18 fairy tales like The Little Mermaid, Thumbelina, Snow White and Rose Red, The Fisherman and His Wife, and Rapunzel

*19 poems by e.e. cummings, Robert Frost, Ogden Nash, Shel Silverstein

*13 nursery rhymes including Goosey, Goosey, Gander, and Old Mother Hubbard

*15 songs such as:  Polly Wolly Doodle, Billy Boy, Little Red Caboose and Farmer in the Dell

*26 finger plays and action  games including Here is the Church, Freeze Tag, Hide and Seek, Ring around the Rosey .

*More than 30 activities from embroidery and making a family quilt, to   holiday crafts for Valentine’s Day, Thanksgiving, July 4th, Christmas and Easter.

*More than 30 recipes from Ice Cream Sundaes and Strawberry Shortcake to Pecan Pie and a variety of cookies

As you can see editors Lena Tabori and Alice Wong have included everything that a grandmother could possibly need.  A complete list of other little big books can be found here.

Seek out a book club either at your local library, church or even online.

Library book clubs are attractive, because a paid staff  member selects the reading material, reserves copies of the book and leads the discussion.  No effort is required on your part except reading the book.

Finding/Starting a Book Club

But if you’d prefer a smaller, friendlier group, start your own book club.  Fewer members mean more control not only of book selection but also discussion time.

Contact neighbors, either apartment or subdivision, plus compatible friends and social acquaintances.  People who live in close proximity have an easier time getting together on a monthly basis.  Nobody likes to drive a long distance after working all day.

How to Create a Book Club

To alert neighbors that a subdivision book club was forming, we hit the streets, talking to people and handing out fliers.  Amazingly enough we gathered several interested readers who have been meeting  for almost three years in each other’s homes.

From the beginning, we designated  ourselves a ‘no frills’ group.  We meet to share our observations, drink bottled water with sometimes a light snack afterwards.  Of course, making sure your house is presentable requires a little effort, but two hours of adult conversation is well worth the grunt work.

How to Choose the Book

Choosing each month’s book eats up valuable time that could be better spent chatting.  Plan ahead to avoid the inevitable question, “What are we reading next?”

Finding Discussion Questions

The monthly newsletter from www.goodreads.com overflows with book suggestions.  This site also enables you to rate and keep track of your reading history as well as check out what your friends and their friends are reading.

For a  list of the  best 100 books of the decade as designated by The Times on Line, click here.  The 2009 The BBC Book Dare also recommends 100 titles for your reading pleasure.

A yearly list of books makes it easier for members to find the designated selection.  Again, library personnel can be a valuable asset. Using  inter-library loan, they find enough copies of the agreed-upon title and alert you when it’s available for check out.  Most libraries now extend borrowing time up to one month instead of the traditional two weeks.  Just ask!

For convenience, larger library systems  put together and circulate book club kits.  These canvas totes usually include copies of the book, background information about the author, a synopsis of the book and suggested discussion questions plus a handy check out list for members to sign.

Our town’s library is quite small, so we usually select two titles each month. Selections are e-mailed to the staff and within a week or so, each member receives a circulation notice that their copy has arrived.

When it comes to finding discussion questions there are several sites from which to choose.  A few examples are: www.readinggroupguides.com, www.litlovers.com, www.bookbrowse.com and www.barnesandnoble.com. (The Barnes and Noble site has a special book club section with lots of helpful information.)

Should all of these avenues dead end, write the questions yourself.  If you find a certain passage of the novel puzzling, interesting, or worthy of comment, others will too.  Jot down page numbers as you read.

When you have finished reading, check back through your notations and formulate questions.  What may seem difficult at first try, gets easier with a little practice.

Start simple:  What did you think the author was trying to say on page 37?  What did you like/dislike about the main character? Would you read another book by this author?

If  you or your group has questions, please feel free to ask.  Happy to help!!

Loving Frank by Nancy Horan not only sparked a great, in-depth discussion, but led club members to read other works about famed architect, Frank Lloyd Wright such as Death in a Prairie House: Frank Lloyd Wright and the Taliesin Murders by William R. Drennan.

The widely-read post Wives and Lovers can be found here.  This selection complete with discussion questions has received over 1,000 hits in the past year.

These is my Words, written entirely in diary form by Nancy Turner, has also found favor with club members.  The post Pioneer Woman can be found here.

Told entirely in  letter format by Mary Ann Shaffer, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society sparked a great deal of interest and a lively discussion.

One book club member wished that the fictional characters would indeed inhabit the aforementioned island, because she would love to visit with them to learn more about their war-time experience.  Click here for The Next Step – Discussing the Book.

The holiday season brings with it a chance to relive Christmases past and present.  Books read and discussed for our December meeting  include The Christmas Train by David Baldacci, The Christmas Box by Richard Paul Evans and Red Bird Christmas by Fannie Flagg. Of the three mentioned, Red Bird Christmas rated as number one.

The post, It’s Unanimous, proclaimed our love for Mma Precious Ramotswe, the main character of the The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency.

More information about its prolific author, Alexander McCall Smith, can be found here.

What are some of your favorites?

While this makes for a pleasurable reading experience, one misses out on the vast range of fiction and nonfiction available at your local book store or neighborhood library.

That’s the beauty of a book club – members are forced to read outside of  their comfort zones.

Left to my own devices, I would never have picked up Mornings on Horseback by David McCullough.

McCullough’s biography of  Teddy Roosevelt’s remarkably innocent childhood depicts a pathetically weak, asthmatic boy clamoring for his parents’ attention. It was through the demanding love of Roosevelt’s unusually demonstrative father that Teddy grew into his tough adult self.

While this book was a favorite of both Laure and Dixie, I returned it to the local library partially read.

Discussion questions can be found here.

Anyone who has enjoyed the The Inspector Lynley Mysteries on PBS, would likewise appreciate  the printed version of works by Elizabeth George.

In her debut novel, A Great Deliverance,  the novelist lays the groundwork for the up-and-down working relationship of  smooth, attractive and utterly upper-class, Inspector Thomas Lynley, the eighth earl of Asherton, and  ”stubby, sturdy” detective-sergeant Barbara Havers,  who’s painfully conscious of her plain appearance and lower-class.

The mismatched team must weigh the general conviction of the villagers that this  silent, obese adolescent Roberta Teys could not have possibly wielded the bloody axe that killed her church-going father with the mounting evidence to the contrary.

Not your typical book club fare, but the skeletons in every closet made for a great discussion.

Questions are as follows:

1. Does the opening sentence, “It was a solecism of the very worst kind,” apply to Father  Hart only or to the entire novel?  Explain. (Solecism – grammatical mistake or absurdity)

2. Given that Barbara Havers and Thomas Lynley come from vastly different backgrounds can they, in your opinion, work together successfully?

3. Is Havers accurate in her assessment of her own abilities as a detective?  Do others at Scotland Yard share the same opinion?  Webberly?  Lynley?

4. Discuss the purpose of the two shrines in the novel.  Would you consider them productive or counterproductive?

5. We know why William Teys wanted to marry Olivia O’dell, but what did Olivia have to gain from their marriage?

6. Not judging by appearances is a recurrent theme in ‘A Great Deliverance’.  Discuss who is judging, who is being judged and the result of that judgment.

7.  Webberly told Havers, “There’s a lot you can learn from working with Lynley.”  What could she learn?  What did she learn?  What was she afraid to learn?  Does she really hate Lynley?

8. “People would do anything for the ones they love most.”  How does this statement explain Roberta’s behavior and/or her motive for killing her father?

9. Was Barbara Havers at fault for her hard-nosed treatment of Nell Graham a.k.a. Gillian Teys?

10. After entering her parent’s home and seeing Tony’s shrine, Havers realized that she had been, “incubating a chimera and what a bloody waste it’s been.”  Explain.

(Chimera – In medicine:  a person composed of two genetically distinct types of cells; In Greek mythology:  fire-breathing monster with the head of a lion, the body of a goat and the tail of a serpent.)

11. Did you agree with Father Hart’s decision not to betray what he had heard in the confessional?  Why/Why not?

12. In your experience, was the picture of religion that Elizabeth George portrayed in ‘A Great Deliverance’ an accurate one?  Did the author have an ulterior motive?

13. Discuss the emphasis the author places on setting/scenery in the novel.   (p. 55 – the right streets of Acton, p. 56 – the wrong streets of Acton, Scrapbook of travel sites, p. 108-109 – Yorkshire countryside)

14. Give examples of the author’s use of humor to lighten the subject matter of the novel.

15. Given the book’s title, ‘A Great Deliverance,’ did you believe the murderer’s confession early on in the text?  What other characters had sufficient motive to kill William Teys?

What unlikely books has your club enjoyed?