Book Discussions

My Current Book Discussion Group 

In November, I started my first position as an Assistant Librarian at a branch. My branch has a monthly book discussion with about 12-14 ladies who have been dedicated participants for years. My first discussion that I led was in January and I just had my second discussion today. The first discussion, not knowing what to expect, went very well. I started the discussion by asking them what they thought of the book and several thought it was alright but they were not overly impressed. Then I read a quick author bio to get the group started. For not thinking the book was fantastic they had lots to discuss. The book discussed was "The Funeral Dress" by Susan Greg Gilmore, which has good topics such as poverty, family, community, and friendship. During the discussion the ladies mostly led the discussion themselves. The few discussion questions included in the back of the book were not very good for the group, they did not respond well to them. They mostly carried the discussion along. Yes, a few times it got quiet for a moment but then another lady would add something new to the discussion. The discussion easily lasted over an hour and 30 minutes and there were 14 ladies in attendance.

Today, in our book discussion we discussed "Major Pettigrew's Last Stand" by Helen Simonson. The group was dwindled to 7 ladies due to the snow that had been steadily coming down all night and day. This time I chose to start the discussion with the author bio then I asked them how they liked the book. Everyone enjoyed the book, they all loved the characters and felt the book was just charming. The main thing discussed was the characters. For the most part I just listened to their comments, they brought up most of the issues such as how senior citizens are perceived. They discussed how people judge others upon first meeting. We talked about how the characters grew and became more accepting through out he novel, which all these things were in the discussion questions included in the book discussion kit. So this group really doesn't  need much facilitating as far a having prepared questions. They are seasoned book discussion participants. Several of the participants attend several other book groups as well.

Overall, I noticed that there are a few participants in this group that lead the discussion beside myself as the discussion leader. These individuals are just more vocal in their opinions, where as the others wait till they are further along in the discussion before they speak up. In the January discussion I found that towards the end they wanted to break off into separate discussions and I had to rein them back into the group. With the small group today they were easier to handle and I did not have this problem. Based on this I think that the best size group is under 10, When the group is more than that there are too many to have a good discussion. The larger group tends to try to talk over each other and not everyone participates. In the smaller group everyone commented and had something to say and no one talked over the other. The other thing that I am not sure if it makes a difference is this group does not have any refreshments and it is an option but they chose to have it this way. Maybe they are just that hardcore, that snacks would get in the way. Not sure....

Observing a Cozy Mystery Book Discussion

As a new librarian, I thought attending another book discussion would be beneficial so I decided to attend one of my former supervisor's book discussion at a nearby branch. I did not read the book, I merely went to observe how their discussion was led. The group I observed reads mysteries and the particular book they discussed was their first cozy mystery, "A Murder at Honeycomb Hall" by Hannah Dennison. The discussion was made up of 15 people total and of them 4 were men which was surprising. The group leader started by commenting about the tea cups and glass plates used, he specifically choose to use nice glassware in honor of the book which was an English setting similar to Downton Abbey. The group leader passed out handouts with the author bio, characters, bibliography and English terms used.

After a few moments they began by going around the room allowing each person to share their thoughts about the book. Down the line almost everyone disliked the book. One lady commented she felt the descriptions of the architecture was nice but a little too much. One person disliked how much romance was in the novel. Mostly everyone commented about the lack of murder til later in the story which was on page 188. The last three people in the group were the only ones to like the novel, and they all expressed that they often read cozy mysteries and other genres in between more serious books.

The discussion leader then had some questions to pose to the group and they were a little quiet at first. After a few questions the group was more responsive and started discussion things without prompting. Several group members started comparing the book to Downton Abbey and they went off topic. Then the leader read the description of the next novel. A few members discussed other books they were reading with the group. The discussion was over in about 50 minutes.

This experience, I felt was very helpful for my own book discussion group. Several things I felt I may adapt to my group such as the handouts, which were a nice touch that helped with the discussion, and I enjoyed the fact that everyone had a chance to comment in the beginning. Even though this group was large there was not a problem with talking over each other or side conversations going on. I laughed inside when I heard negative comments about it being a cozy mystery because it goes back to the readers tastes. The people that enjoyed it felt like they had to justify why they liked it. This reintegrated the need to be respectful of everyone's reading tastes in a reader's advisory interview. Lastly I noticed only a few took advantage of the wonderful refreshments provided.