The American Women of Berkshire
and Surrey Book Discussion
Many thanks to Peggy Dupont of The American Women of Berkshire and Surrey, in Berkshire, England, for sharing her reading group with us!
Q. Does your group have a name and/or a theme? How long has your group been in
existence?
A. It's just called Book Discussion. We're part of The American Women of Berkshire and
Surrey, an American women's group of about 700 members. We're from lots of towns and
villages in Surrey and Berkshire. Most live in Virginia Water, Sunnindale, Windlesham, and
Englefield Green, Surrey and Ascot, Camberly, Warfield, Berkshire. The discussion was
started about five years ago.
Q. How many members do you have? How many men, how many women? What age are most of your
members?
A. We have about 30- 50 members, all women. There are usually between 15-30 at any
meeting. We have a large range of ages, between late 20's to 50's.
Q. How often do you meet? Where do you meet?
A. We meet in a member's home, once a month on a Monday morning from 10:30 AM till about
1:30 PM.
Q. Do you eat at your meetings? What do you eat? Who brings the food?
A. We have lunch after our discussions. Everyone brings something, lots of interesting
things, sometimes it relates to the book we're reading.
Q. Who leads the discussion? Do you use reading group guides?
A. We volunteer for leading the discussion with one leader and one additional leader, in
case we split into two groups when the attendance is large (20+). They use reading group
guides if available or make up their own questions and research information on the author
and book reviews.
Q. What kind of books do you read?
A. We try to read a lot of different kinds of books. Mostly fiction. We pick award winning
books (Booker, Pulizer , Nebula and Noble) classics, biography, and books about women's
issues, the future, religion, coming of age, other cultures and families.
Q. How do you choose your books? Do you choose one new book at each meeting, or do you
choose the books for a number of meetings ahead of time?
A. We have a committee meeting over the summer to choose a short list and present this
list during our first meeting in September. Then the group as a whole votes for which
books they would like to read. We had seven ladies on the book selection committee this
summer, and we had a list of 49 books in 14 categories. The group picked 7 for this year.
Q. What were some of the best discussions or favorite books the group read?
A. Our favorite books have been: THE POISONWOOD BIBLE by Barbara Kingsolver, BIRDSONG by
Sebastian Faulks, MIDWIVES by Chris Bohjalian, A TALE OF TWO CITIES by Charles Dickens,
RAJ by Lawrence James, A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT by Sebastian Japrisot, CAPTAIN CORRELLI'S
MANDOLIN by Louis de Bernieres, and BELOVED by Toni Morrison. One of our best discussions
was MEMOIRS OF A MEDIEVAL WOMAN by Louise Collis, even though it was difficult to read and
most of us didn't enjoy reading it.
Q. How do you keep things fun? What advice would you give to other reading groups?
A. We don't do anything special. Everyone loves reading and enjoys being in the group. We'd
recommend having a discussion leader, as it helps to have someone really familiar with the
author and reviews of the book.
Q. Is there anything else unique or noteworthy about your group that you would like to
share?
A. Our group is made up of American women living in Berkshire and Surrey, England. We're a
very diverse group. Most of our group are on assignments in England for 2 to 5 years, so
we have a high turnover rate and new members join all the time. A lot of our members are
taking a break from their own careers to be in England.
We like your reading group guides and would love to use them for all our books. These are
the books we've chosen for the rest of the year: POPE JOAN by Donna Woolfolks Cross,
CROSSING TO SAFETY Wallace Stegner, THE POWER OF ONE by Bryce Courtenay, TRUE TO BOTH
MYSELVES, BLINDNESS by Jose Saramago, THE MAP OF LOVE by Ahdaf Soueif and UNCLE TOM'S
CABIN by Harriet Beecher Stowe.
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