LitLovers Blog

Indulging again…in crime novels.  I go on binges, devouring one after another, reading into the wee, wee hours….  Then suddenly it’s cold turkey, and I don’t touch them for months…even years. 

So for my monthly LitPicks, I decided  it was time to do a little round-up of detective stories. I’m not sure what makes them so addictive, but I’m hardly alone, right?

Perhaps their appeal has to do with the notion that the world ultimately can be known.  Clues get uncovered, answers found, life’s mysteries solved—and, most of all, order gets restored.  There’s comfort in that.  And comfort’s addictive…like mashed potatoes and gravy.

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Some pretty interesting emails show up in my inbox, many having to do with problems common to a lot of book clubs.  Here’s a recent query I received.

QUESTION:  How do you handle a member who tends to dominate the conversation?

ANSWER: 
1.  Use a special token.  Pass an object—a  branch, painted stone, or small pillow, say—around the room.  ONLY the member who holds the token may talk.  Those who aren’t holding the token cannot interrupt or interject even a brief  comment. You might consider limiting the number of times a person gets to hold the token. (I personally don’t like the token method, but groups who use it insist it works.)

2.  Limit comment time.  Use an egg- or kitchen-timer to time members’ comments.  No one should talk more than two (2) minutes for openers—and certainly no more than one (1) minute to comment on someone else’s ideas.  The goal for all is to learn to talk succinctly so that there’s time for everyone to voice an opinion.

3.  Take charge of the discussion.  The leader can interject with comments like, “Great, Bill. Thanks. But let’s give others a chance”  or  “Can we hear from someone else?”  or  “What do the rest of you think”  or  “Mary, you haven’t said anything.”  It takes an active, fairly skilled, leader to move the discussion from one person to another, without letting a single individual dominate.  It’s not easy.

4.  When all else fails…be direct.

• Someone may have to initiate a one-on-one conversation with the person — a face-to-face, or perhaps a phone call, but never, never an email.  Be frank but kind.  Choose someone who has diplomatic skill…or who is a close friend of the person. What to say?  Say that some members feel they don’t get to have their ideas heard…or that the group appreciates the person’s insights, but there’s a tendency to over-do.  Simply ask that the person give others a chance…or not to interject so frequently…or to limit the length of his/her comments.
•  The worst case scenario is to ask the offending member to leave the group.  This is painful, but for the sake of the overall group it may be necessary.  If the problem isn’t resolved, members may start dropping out and finding other groups.  Using a face-to-face conversation or a phone call (never email), suggest—kindly—that the member move on.

Is this a problem in your club?  Any suggestions?

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Were you like me, wondering what the World’s Fair looked like in Erik Larson’s book?  The book’s photos didn’t help much. Take heart:  Below is a photo that appeared in today’s New York Times, front page of the “Week in Review” section.  Now we can see what all the fuss was about!

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I get some interesting emails—many are about problems a lot of book clubs face.  Here’s one I got recently: 

PROBLEM—What do you do with members who haven’t read the book…but still love to talk and talk? 

SOLUTION—Set some guidelines at the outset
At the beginning of every book discussion, the host or discussion leader should ask if all members can agree to the following propositions:

•  It is realistic—not everyone can read every book; we all have busy lives.  Therefore, non-readers should always feel welcome to attend.
•  As a matter of fairness—those who have read the book should get first dibs on talking about it.
•  As a matter of courtesy—it’s incumbent on non-readers to LISTEN and comment briefly or rarely.

Any other ideas?  Here’s the spot to share them.  Feel free to leave a comment.

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Oooooh….!  Halloween’s coming up.  A reader asked me to come up with ideas for spooky mystery novels.  The writer herself suggested Diane Setterfield’s The Thirteenth Tale.  Good one!

Here are some I came up with—mostly older works:

• Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier, 1938  (an all-time favorite)
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, 1847  (the mad women in the attic)
• The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, 1859-60 (scrumptious)
• The Hound of the Baskervilles by Conan Doyle, 1091-02 (the great Sherlock and Watson)
• Twilight by Stephanie Meyer, 2003 (the first of her vampire series)
• Anything by Stephen King… Any particular suggestions from anyone?

If anyone has some other ideas, let us know.  We’d love to hear from you.

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Ah, poor me….just returned from Italy.  Life is so hard.

So…I was reading Sarah Dunant’s The Birth of Venus—which I’d just happend to pick off the bookshelf at the house  (scusami…”the villa”) where I was staying.  And here’s what happened…

Dumb me. I left my purse on the Hop-On-Hop-Off tour bus, which takes you around the city of Florence.  Had to sprint—shoes off—through a piazza to head it off at the next stop.  No mean feet, so to speak (not so young…nor so thin).  But happy ending.  Got the bus, got the purse.
 
Here’s the cool part:  the piazza I cut through was in front of the Basilica di Santa Croce—the very place where Savanarola preached and where Alessandra, the Birth of Venus heroine, hears him ban women from public life  (i.e., those running barefoot around town).  And I’d just read that chapter of the book the night before.  Ah literature…ah, life! 

Anyway, my trip was slightly different from Liz Gilbert’s…my version was Eat, Run, Eat.  Just as much fun…but no book, no movie.

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Short update—I’ve just received a terrific invitation to be a guest on a local NPR station in Hampton, Virginia.  We’ll be discussing book club issues—the how-tos of starting and running a club, and handling difficult issues. 

The show is HearSay with Cathy Lewis.  Maureen Corrigan will also be on, as well as Susan Coleman who is leading Virginia’s Big Read!  Call letters are WHRV 89.5 FM. 

Most of you won’t be within reach, but for those in Southeastern Virginia and Northeastern North Carolina…tune in on Thursday, September 3, from 12 noon to 1pm.

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Here’s an idea:  treat yourself to an evening out and head to your local library.  After a rat-race kind of day, the peace and quiet a library offers is refreshing. 

Take a leisurely stroll through the stacks … or browse through the periodicals … just spend some time exploring all the resources.  And if your library is like the one in my center city, there’s a cool cafe with terrific snacks, pastries, and sandwiches.

If you’re a book club, go as a group.  If you’re a couple, go on a date—it’s an inexpensive night out.  If you’re a parent, take the kids.  If you’re single, where could you find a cozier spot to just hang-out?

I always come home feeling refreshed…and regenerated with new ideas for books and things to write about–like this blog post!

Oh, that’s one of the libraries I use pictured at the top—Pittsburgh’s Main Carnegie Library (Andrew was a Pittsburgh boy, just so you know).

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Just to let everyone know…we’ve hit the 800 mark!  That’s the number of Reading Guides we have on our main website, LitLovers.

We add new guides all the time, keeping track of titles book clubs want to read.  Many are added by request from our users.  So to the wonderful readers in our community of LitLovers—thank you!  With your help, we’ve built a terrific index.

I think our guides are the best—the most in-depth and thorough on the web.  Along with author bios and discussion questions, we include both negative and postive reveiws, not just promotional blurbs from publishers.   If discussion questions aren’t available, we often develop our own set of  ”talking points” to help get discussions off the ground.

A search bar is next—a real grown-up search bar to make it easier to find the title and guide you’re looking for.

Anyway…1,000…here we come!

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Someone emailed asking for a reading guide that wasn’t listed in our LitGuide index.   So I put one together…and included the set of discussion questions issued by the publisher.

But I get an email back saying…well, thanks very much, but those questions are just too hard for any book club to answer. 

So I came up with my own set of questions, and that seemed to do the trick.

But the whole exchange raises an interesting issue:  sometimes (not always) the publishers’ discussions questions are like a nasty pop quiz.  You”ve got to wonder if a college professor…or even the author could answer them!

What do you do?  Well, you might give the LitLovers Generic Questions a try … and also check out our Read-Think-Talk chart.  Both of those resources may give you some help.

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