This interview is with Mary Kiernan of "New Readers of the Purple Sage, West Palm Beach, FL." Read on to see how this group, which is comprised of readers spaning six decades has made their book club interesting.


Q: Does your group have a name and/or a theme? How long has your group been in existence?

A: We are the New Readers of the Purple Sage. We took a few liberties with Jerry Garcia and Zane Gray to come up with our name. We have been meeting for 1 year as of May.

Q: How many members do you have? How many men, how many women? What age are most of your members?

A: Our core membership is 8 but we have had up to 12 depending on the book that we are reading. At this time we have 6 women and 2 men and our age range is from 30-87. We hope to build our core group up to 12 regulars.

Q: How often do you meet? Where do you meet?

A: We meet monthly at the Lake Park Library in Lake Park Fl. Our meetings last from 60 to 90 minutes. The Library advertises our selected book and meeting date/time to attract new members.

Q: Do you eat at your meetings? What do you eat? Who brings the
food?

A: Since we are a group that has outside social activities we plan our meetings around the book discussion. We did celebrate the Christmas holidays by having a small happy hour in conjunction with our meeting.

Q: Who leads the discussion?

A: We start with a round of "Thumbs Up--Thumbs Down" for the book. Usually the member who has suggested the Book will facilitate the meeting. We use information from the Internet and reading group guides to get the conversation going.

Q: What kind of books do you read?

A: Because we are so diverse in age, we have read an eclectic assortment of books. We paid homage to Zane Gray and read Riders of the Purple Sage. We read novels, murder mysteries, biographies and have selected themes (Spiritual Gardening--The Good Earth, Black History Month--Their Eyes Were Watching God). We anticipate reading short stories and children's books in the future.

Q: How do you choose your books?

A: We have a list of recommended reading that has been compiled from other reading groups. We also round table to find out what other members are reading during the month. Usually a member recommends or selects the book for the next meeting. That member will facilitate the meeting.

Q: 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 try to chose two months in advance for purposes of advertising our meetings, and growing the group.

Q: What were some of the best discussions or favorite books the group read?

A: Tuesdays with Morrie evoked discussions of our beliefs in euthanasia and/or religion. I don't think we even discussed the book. It was the book that made us friends --- not just book club members. There was two opposing camps with fiery debates and we all left as good friends. Also, we just read The Good Earth and it was a total "thumbs up". Everyone felt it was very good fiction that provided everything you could want in a book - a good character that we could empathize with, plenty of conflict (some resolved, some unresolved),and a peek into another time and place as it was set in China during the early part of the last century.

Q: How do you keep things fun?

A: Since we meet monthly, we discuss what is new in our lives. There is enough diversity with our group that everyone has done something different during the month. While we are a pretty focused on our book selection, there is still time before and after meetings to socialize.

Q: What advice would you give to other reading groups?

A: Diversify. Each member had their own little genre of book that had become a habit (me personally--I read murder mysteries only). The Book Club has made me read all sorts of reading material. While murder mysteries are still my favorite, we have read classics, African American literature, novels, etc.

Q: Do you have any horror stories, amusing anecdotes, or other special tales to tell?

A: Books bring back memories of incidents that may have happened in our lives. We were all charmed when, after reading a novel set in Egypt, Ed and Eve produced pictures from their 1965 trip around the world with themselves and their daughter seated on camels. You find out some really interesting things about folks in reading groups.

Q: Is there anything else unique or noteworthy about your group that you would like to share?

A: It's probably not unique but it is noteworthy that we have such a span of ages, as mentioned before, and we really enjoy sharing life experiences.

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