St. Louis KUMC Book Club
A special thanks to Polly Klasek and the other women of suburban St. Louis who share their KUMC Book Club with us.
Q. Does your group have a name and/or a theme? How long has your group been in existence?
A: Our group is simply called the KUMC Book Club. ("KUMC" is Kirkwood United Methodist Church in Kirkwood, MO.) It's a dull name, we know, but changing it to something catchy just hasn't seemed important. We've been meeting since August 2000.
Q: How many members do you have? How many men, how many women? What age are most of your members?
A: We have between 10 and 15 members of various ages. Usually we just have women at our meetings, but in April we were pleasantly surprised when a man showed up. We think he may return when we discuss John Adams by David McCullough, and we have invited members' husbands to this as well.
Q: How often do you meet? Where do you meet? Do you eat at your meetings? What do you eat? Who brings the food?
A: We meet the first Tuesday of each month at our church. This is great because nobody has to clean her house, and someone sets the room up for us. All we have to do is come, talk and eat. A volunteer brings light refreshments each month, and sometimes the refreshments mirror the "flavor" of the book we're reading. Food is secondary for us, though, which is probably different than some book clubs. We usually wait until after we discuss the book to eat, and sometimes when the discussion really gets going, someone has to remind us that there's food.
Q: Who leads the discussion? Do you use reading group guides?
A: A different member leads the discussion each month. We ask for volunteer leaders after we've set our reading list for the year, and the leader is often not the person who suggested the book. Several of our members have used reading group guides from this site and similar resources.
Q: What kind of books do you read?
A: In our first year, we simply made a list of books, both fiction and non-fiction, that we had read or would like to read and thought would lead to interesting discussions. This year we adopted a formula of reading a biography, an autobiography, a classic, a work of fiction, a work of non-fiction and a best-seller, with other books filling out the schedule. It was amazing to us, looking back on our first year's selections, how closely our first list came to this formula.
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 use the last part of our August meeting to start making suggestions for the year ahead and lining up the discussion leaders and refreshment providers. This is really a book free-for-all, with people passing books around for everyone to look at and ideas flying left and right. Somehow out of this, we come to a general consensus on the books and the order in which we will read them. From our August 2001 meeting, we actually came up with so many good choices that our current list goes through December 2002! As the year progresses we make any necessary alterations to the schedule. We would like all of our members to have an opportunity to be a discussion leader, but there's no pressure. We try to make sure that the book can be found at public libraries and, if possible, available in paperback to make our reading list as accessible as possible. We publicize our meetings in our church newspaper and Sunday bulletin, listing both the books we will read for this month and the next. One of our members just told us this month that the local public library is willing to post reading lists from local book clubs, which we thought was a terrific idea!
Q: What were some of the best discussions or favorite books the group read?
A: Our very first book, in September 2000, was Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible, which remains a favorite. One of our best discussions came from reading The Tortilla Curtain by T. Coraghessan Boyle. We thought this book was well-written and thought-provoking in dealing with social and political issues as two different worlds collide. Other favorites include Personal History by Katharine Graham and A Painted House by John Grisham. We look forward to our summer line-up of John Adams by David McCullough, A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson and One Thousand White Women by Jim Fergus.
Q: How do you keep things fun?
A: In the first place, we read a wide variety of books, which keeps discussions lively and encourages each of us to read books we wouldn't ordinarily read. We are a very relaxed group --- there is no pressure to come every month, and we also make it clear that you don't have to have read the book before the meeting. Some members have said that, if they haven't finished a book, the discussion motivates them to finish it. Overall, we don't take ourselves too seriously, and no one person tends to dominate the discussion. This is not to say that we don't have our differences of opinion --- a diverse membership leads to opinions all over the map!
Q: What advice would you give to other reading groups?
A: Read a variety of books and stretch yourselves. Go beyond what you feel comfortable reading --- you're going to read these books anyway --- to explore other subjects and genres.
Q: Do you have any horror stories, amusing anecdotes, or other special tales to tell?
A: After not quite two years, it's really been smooth sailing. There are certain books some of us would have preferred not to read, but we are all very good-natured about it. All of us are still very excited about our book club and look forward to years of thoughtful discussions.
Q: Is there anything else unique or noteworthy about your group that you would like to share?
A: People are constantly telling us they are surprised at the variety of our reading list. Being a "church" book club, there is, perhaps, an expectation that we would limit ourselves to Christian-oriented books --- which we made a conscious decision not to do. We have read The Red Tent by Anita Diamant and Walking the Bible by Bruce S. Feiler, which could be considered typical for a church-related group, but in general we are simply a group of people who love to read and want to share that love with others. We offer an open invitation to all members of our church as well as visitors and friends in the community, and as such our book club has really become an outreach ministry. This philosophy seems to coincide with the "Open hearts, open minds, open doors" philosophy of the United Methodist Church. We love having new members bring new perspectives to our discussions.
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