Chapter 32 The Next Chapter Book Club

It should come as no surprise that I raised a child who loves to read. Our youngest daughter, Claire, has just finished up 15 years as an English teacher and has migrated to a job as a Library Media Specialist. For the uninitiated among us (I was, for sure) it is someone who helps people find information and teaches students how to research. In addition they might assist teachers with research and curriculum development. Of course, it also seems that, at least in Claire's school, she is the font of all technical knowledge so if something goes wrong with teacher computers she assists in finding answers. Unlike me, she reads multiple books at a time and somehow manages to keep them all straight.

Back in February Claire came with me to the Savannah Book Festival where we got to see and hear many of our favorite authors. We picked up copies of Dinner With the President by Alec Prud'homme and decided that we would read it together and have a book club of sorts. Our plan was to touch base every Sunday and to read a chapter a week until we were done. Sometimes life got in the way of our mission either because we were too busy or one of us was away, but we got through the book and enjoyed talking about it. We discussed food (always a favorite subject for each of us), politics, history, foreign policy, families, as well as presidential legacies and author biases.

After we finished that successfully we have moved on to World Travel: An Irreverent Guide by Anthony Bourdain and Laura Woolever. The book was outlined before Bourdain's death and Laura Woolever has found pieces of his television shows and essays by people who knew him to give color to the book. There are over 40 countries and multiple cities highlighted in the book with food and places to visit within each country. The countries are listed alphabetically and we are just starting the G's at this writing. We have had a lot of fun discussing food we'd love to eat as well as places we'd like to go. As we have limited the number of countries/chapters each week it has been very easy to include this with other reading which each of us is doing.

So, why am I telling you this? Because our book club of two has been an excellent way to connect on a weekly basis. We chat a bit before our book club discussion but we know that at least once a week we can talk about things we both enjoy like food and travel. These books have worked better than novels would, I think, because as a reader you aren't driven to read ahead. You are simply reading the chapter you'll be discussing next. I started thinking about what types of books besides those mentioned above would lend themselves to a weekly discussion and my picks are outlined below.

Biographies - When I think of all the great biographies there are out there and how often you have to read them a chapter at a time because of all the information given, these seem ideal for a chapter by chapter book club.

History - This is another area where information is poured out on the pages so a chapter by chapter read would probably work well. Authors like Alex Kershaw, Stephen Ambrose or Erik Lawson do a great job and are easy and interesting to read.

Memoirs - Another type of book to consider for a chapter by chapter book club would be memoirs. These are slightly different from biographies in that the author is telling about his/her experiences. I think of Bill Bryson with A Walk In The Woods here or Julia Child's My Life in France.

Social History - This genre deals with everyday life of ordinary people. Books like The Vertigo Years: Europe 1900-1914 by Philipp Blom or A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage would be really interesting to read chapter by chapter and discuss.

Do you have any ideas for a chapter book club? Do you do anything like this with a favorite reader? Let me know!