Book Club Experience

I attended an online book club, and they were discussing “In the Country of Women” by Susan Straight. This was a virtual meeting.

There is a clear leader, which is one of the employees at the library. However, once a question is asked, several people took turns to chime in and some asked questions that snowballed off of the original questions. The leader was great at navigating the discussion and in the span of an hour a ton of questions and topics were touched on.

The leader does ask questions and first lets other people respond. If there is no response to the question after a few seconds pause the leader steps in and gives her thoughts, to which people would then chime in with their own thoughts most of the time. If no one chimed in, the leader would quickly move on to the next question. A few times the leader called on a couple specific people to ask their opinions. It seemed as though she knew them well, because once she got them to open up, they would continue to chime in. This was confirmed later in the meeting when several people asked what the next book was going to be and commented on some previous choices.

The questions asked were very open ended. The leader asked questions such as what they liked about the assigned chapters, what stuck out most to them, and other general questions about how the book made them feel. What I found most interesting was that the leader asked how this related to their personal life. This led to a wonderful discussion about race and feminism. A few BIPOC women shared their experience of being a mother and what it means to have a son that is BIPOC. One woman said when she found out she was having a boy she was sad because she knew that she would have to give him “the talk” about how to stay safe when he leaves the house. This also led to discussions about Black Wall Street and how many have not heard of huge historical events such as the Tulsa Race Massacre. From what I recall there were no yes or no questions beyond asking if everyone was able to read the assigned chapters.

Most attendees did actively participate. There was only one other person besides me who did not chime in.

There was one man who ended up stealing the spotlight a couple times. As this is a biography from a woman’s perspective that touches on racial relations, it was frustrating that he kind of ate up more than his fair share of time when I really wanted to hear more from the BIPOC women in the group about their perspective. At one point he said that he was mansplaining and instead of stopping he continued to do so until the leader transitioned away from that question.

The atmosphere of the discussion started off pretty light, and as the topics discussed got deeper and heavier it definitely shifted to a more serious mood. However, by the end of the discussion the leader brought it back to a lighter place and was able to get everyone pretty excited about their next meeting since the author, Susan Straight, will be attending. This all took place over Zoom and most people looked to be in their homes.

Snacks and drinks were not provided since it was a virtual meeting, however at the end of the discussion one attendee did show off the cookies she had made and was snacking on.

Looking back in their events calendar, this group discusses several different kinds of books. In the past they have discussed fiction, biography and memoirs, topics of science, productivity, and other diverse topics.

Even though I was observing, I had a blast! I did not chime in since I did not read the book but listening to other individuals discuss this book and how it relates to them was so interesting to me. Since we met virtually, I felt a lot less pressure to actually try to read a book and felt relaxed enough to just observe. I found that I definitely prefer these types of meetings to be virtual as I do not feel so pressured to speak and can just exist and enjoy myself.