Words from another Book Group

I stumbled across this interview with another California group of women who have been together as long as we have. I thought their method of leading discussions was interesting. What do you think? They sound like a fun group of gals.

The "Drinking With Adrian" book club of Cupertino, California consists of 12 spirited women "in the prime of their lives." The group's spokesperson, Alayne Stieglitz, shares their many distinctive qualities, such as their unique method of conducting meetings involving a deck of cards, their love of French cheese, and the yearly trips they take together.

Q: Does your group have a name and/or a theme? How long has your group been in existence?A: Our official name is "Drinking With Adrian" but two newspaper articles have been written about us and have used the name "The Cupertino Book Club." We have been meeting since 1996.

Q: How many members do you have? How many men, how many women? What age are most of your members?
A: We have 12 members who are all female in, let's say, the prime of our lives.

Q: How often do you meet? Where do you meet?
A: We meet once a month taking turns hosting at our homes. Once a year we take a Book Club Trip.

Q: Do you eat at your meetings? What do you eat? Who brings the food?
A: There's always Brie and wine involved! The person hosting provides the goodies. Sometimes, like the time we read Reading Lolita in Tehran, our hostess --- who is married to an Iranian man and has lived in Iran --- prepared us wonderful Iranian food.

Q: Who leads the discussion? Do you use reading group guides?
A: We have developed a system that's different from most book clubs. We do not use a guide. Everyone chooses a playing card at random, and the person with the highest card gets to speak first, and so on. The person speaking gives her impression of the book and can make any comments she wishes about the content, writing, characters, plot, personal experiences, or anything else she wants to say concerning the book. Then the next person talks. We are not allowed to comment or interrupt until everyone has spoken. Afterwards, we open up the discussion for comments and questions and responses.Once we have finished all discussion, we rate the book. The highest we can give a book is 4 stars, the lowest is 0 stars, and we can also give half stars. We have a record keeper who jots down main comments on 3x5 cards and also notes our individual ratings and an average score.

Q: What kind of books do you read?
A: We read all genres from fantasy to biography. Over the past nine years we have read everything from Perfume (some gave it 4 stars while others gave it 0 stars) to Kindred (almost everyone gave it 4 stars), from Radiance (only one of us finished it) to Audrey Hepburn's Neck (everyone loved it).

Q: How do you choose your books? Do you choose one new book at each meeting, or do you choose the books for a number of meetings ahead of time?
A: Up until three years ago we read books on somebody's recommendation. Sometimes it was something she had read, sometimes from a print or TV review, sometimes from another book club. Now, at the beginning of the year, we each choose one book and that is our list for the year. There are 12 of us so it works out well.

Q: What were some of the best discussions or favorite books the group read?
A: The best discussions are about the books we don't all agree on. There have been several that have split our opinions, and they include Being Good, Perfume, Wuthering Heights, A Confederacy of Dunces, The Shipping News, and The Notebook. If we all love it or all hate it, the discussions are not as lively and interesting.

Q: How do you keep things fun?
A: Once a year we go on a book club trip. It started with Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil --- after we read it we felt we had to visit Savannah. We organized a trip and stayed in the Hamilton House Bed and Breakfast that was featured and owned by a character in the novel. She met us there the first evening and spoke to us about the book, the other people in it, and also about the filming of the movie. We have since been to Santa Fe, Key West, Oklahoma and San Antonio. Our 2006 trip will be to Nashville.After Savannah, we tried to wait for another book to come along set in a place we would like to visit, but nothing that we read fit the bill. So we decided to choose a city we've always wanted to go to and find an author from that city who wrote about it. This method has been a great success. We have met with three authors so far, and they have been happy to talk with us about their books and towns.

Q: What advice would you give to other reading groups?
A: Don't take it too seriously. Everyone has their own opinions. Respect that and don't interrupt. Always have Brie.

Q: Do you have any horror stories, amusing anecdotes, or other special tales to tell?
A: Most of our horror stories were taken care of by instituting the "everyone gets a turn to speak first" and "no interrupting" rules. Once two new members showed up with forms they wanted us to fill out while we were reading the book. Paleeeese! Homework? Needless to say, the forms and those members didn't last long.Our most amusing anecdotes happen on our trips as I, the designated driver and photographer, can attest to. For example, there were the transvestites in Key West who had a book club too, and we chatted with them about books after their show. When we were in El Reno, a small town in Oklahoma, we were treated like celebrities. We stayed on the ranch of one our members' aunts, and when we went into town for the "Largest Hamburger in the Country" festival, everyone knew who we were and welcomed us with cries of, "You're the book club gals from California! Happy to meet you!" We were even interviewed for the local paper. I'm not sure if it would count as amusing or horrific, but we also had "lamb fries" on that trip.

Q: Is there anything else unique or noteworthy about your group that you would like to share?A: We haven't heard of a traveling book club besides ours.