WEEK NINE BOOK CLUB EXPERIENCE

A small herd of bison stampede off a cliff. Among the carcasses is the body of a Native American man killed by an arrow shot. Enter P.I. Sean Stranahan and his ex, Sheriff Martha Ettinger, trying to find out whodunit without driving each other over the edge in this Montana-flavored mystery.

(oprah.com)

Greenwood Public Library

Mystery Book Club

            I attended the Mystery Book Club. They meet on the first Monday of every month from 1pm to 2 pm. The consensus of the group enjoyed mystery books, so that was why they chose and discussed this genre. This coincided with the group’s name ‘The Mystery Book Club’ and the choice of books which answers, ‘What kind of books should we read?’ (litlover.com).

           It was held at the Greenwood Public Library in one of their large meeting rooms. The group had a membership of around twenty people. That day there were sixteen women and one man in attendance. The group consisted of retired individuals, quite a few retired teachers, library staff, nurses and professionals. They were very warm and friendly to me. I told them I was there to observe their book club for my class. They asked me to join their monthly group which I ended up doing for next month. I could not say no.

            I have not been involved in a book club since I was a child (Great Books) and my mom frequently participated in several book clubs, but they were just casual women getting together. I was very impressed; this was a very organized group. They had a designated leader and a secretary. The secretary had everyone’s names, addresses, phone numbers, birthdays and email addresses. This was a way to help 'keep memories and record the group’s activity with a club journal' (litlovers.com).

            Before the discussion began, the women would just talk socially to each other. It appeared they have been together for quite a while. They recognized individuals’ birthdays for the month and one of the women talked about the health condition of one of their missing members. 

            The past president, a retired English school teacher, greeted me at the beginning and offered me a brownie. Before the discussion, I directed most of my questions to her about the group. Even though she was the past president, she still seemed to be in charge and led the discussion.  The book chosen for that session was Buffalo Jump Blues by Keith McCafferty. (I sped read the book in two days because I thought it would make my experience better and I would know what they were talking about). 

         The leader was very well organized. She was great at facilitating the discussion which supports  ‘having someone in charge of leading the group’s discussion in a diplomatic way that will benefit all group members’ (litlovers.com). She had a list of fifteen questions and gave everyone one at the beginning of the discussion to respond to in turn and then anyone else in the group added comments to each question. This went along with one of the tips for facilitating a book discussion to ‘choose one question at a time and toss it out to the group’(litlovers.com).

          Most of the people participated, even those who had not read the book, because of the subject matter (Bison being killed in Montana and politics). The questions were very thoughtful and led the way for more than a yes or no answer such as the conflict between ranchers and Native Americans, your favorite character and why, new information you learned from this book, any sympathy for the ‘bad guys’, and satisfied with the ending.

            No one person monopolized the group. But, to help spur on the discussion, the leader added background information about the author’s life. She read comments from an interview with him about why he became a writer and why he enjoyed contemporary Western settings and what comes next for him. She also read from his personal blog. I think this just made the novel they were discussing more relevant about why he chose the location (Montana) and the (Bison) his political statement for people to be aware of the plight of these animals while crafting a murder.

            At the end of the discussion, they handed out the book for the next month’s meeting. One of the ladies gave me a copy of another book she had already read and told me to pass it on. I also got the names of other books that were mentioned that people enjoyed. This was a delightful afternoon. Everyone was very gracious and helpful. No heated discussions, just more of an atmosphere of people getting together as friends to voice their opinions and have a pleasant time, like a monthly get together.

Personal comment: According to Goldstein, “This rise of the book clubs' influence has brought a new era in publishing, marked by a profound change in the way readers interact with professionals in the book industry." This can be seen with the emergence of book clubs like Oprah Winfrey who has brought the reading group to national attention (2005). It was interesting when I searched for a picture of this book it was one of the ’60 must-read books of the summer.’ So, I am sure one of the ladies recommended it, because of Oprah’s list (oprah.com)

If you are an animal lover, I would not read the book. It describes in detail: driving the bison herd off the cliff to their sudden death. The only reason I continued to read it was to participate in the book discussion.

Works Cited

Goldstein, Bill. “Reads well With Others,” Publishers Weekly, 23 May 2005, pp. 30-34.

Litlovers.com. “Starting a Book Club.” American Library Association,www.ilovelibraries.org/booklovers/bookclub/org, 2009-2015. Accessed 6 March 2019.

McCafferty, Keith. (n.d.). Buffalo Jump Blues. Retrieved from http://www.oprah.com/book/buffalo-jump-blues#ixzz5hQH7Pkml