Book Club Experience

 

I am in a regular book club, that tries to meet about once every-other-month. We're also a weekly Dungeons & Dragons group, and a monthly trivia team ("Chaotic Stupid"). However, there are only five of us and it's incredibly informal, so for this assignment I decided to visit a friend's book club instead. This is a group of people that I met while doing activist work and fundraising. There were around a dozen participants during the meeting I went to, and I was told that this was pretty normal - ranging from 10 to 20 each month. 

The make up of the group was really interesting. My friend is the "leader" and hosts, and she is a OBGYN. There were a large number of other doctors there, but a lot of them seemed to have different specialties. One was a nephrologist, another was a general practitioner traveling to different VA hospitals. There were a couple of nurses, a few residents who seemed to have tagged along with their respective doctors, and then a social worker and a grant writer who both seemed affiliated with a hospital as well. At least two people were volunteers with Planned Parenthood doing clinic escort work, and probably had non-medical full time jobs. 

The book club discussion was scheduled to start at 7, but people were encouraged to get there as early as 5:30 for snacks and drinks and non-book related chatting, since the club is made up of colleagues and friends. I'd imagine this would be very different for a more formal club, where members are really only brought together to discuss a text. My friend's home is the usual location, although I'm told other people have hosted. The atmosphere was very comfortable, and pretty casual. However, when the book discussion got going it did stay focused. There weren't any side-conversations or much veering off course (I think people got all their other chatting out during the social hour). 

The "leader"/host did ask a lot of the questions and steer the discussion this time, but I'm told that whoever chose the book being discussed tends to lead - not always the host. The questions asked were all open-ended; even ones that could be answered with a yes/no ("did you agree with...?") invited respondents to explain why or elaborate. Everyone actively participated, although some people were more quiet and others maybe droned on a little too long. Actually, I noticed the residents were way less likely to talk and especially to disagree, which makes sense considering they're in the presence of their mentors. The group was a majority women, but there were at least 4 men, which was nice - especially considering the book being discussed is one that male doctors should probably be familiar with. 

There was one moment of tension, or vehement disagreement, but it was a good one that showed that it was a discussion group unafraid of arguing and really getting into the books. A quick summary, just because I found it an interesting experience: the book being discussed was about reproductive justice, and included the right to have and raise children safely. An example the author used was that wealthy people who can afford childcare are often seen as better parents than the "help" they've hired, who are forced to spend less time with their own families to care for rich parents' children. Now, in a group that includes very well-off households where both parents are doctors, and social workers and activist volunteers who work with people in poverty every day...you can imagine this sparked some spirited debate. The double-doctor couple seemed affronted by the idea that hiring childcare was anything less than a good thing, and the social worker pushed hard at the idea that often childcare workers are undocumented and underpaid and taken advantage of, and that this system violates that worker's own reproductive rights. It got heated! But stayed respectful, and while it was a little uncomfortable to observe, I found it really really enlightening. 

The books read by this group tend towards non-fiction, I think because of the scientific background of most of the members. But it seems like fiction books aren't a rarity, especially ones involving social issues relevant to the members' interests. Previous books they've read include: The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Fascism: A Warning by Madeline Albright, and The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin. The way they choose books was interesting to me as well. They have a Google Forms page where all members can add book suggestions to a list, and then every month before the next meeting, members vote for the book they want to read next.