RaeAnn Jackson of Portland, Oregon shares information and anecdotes about her book club, The Spine Breakers. She talks about the novels that have generated the best discussions among group members and explains the process by which books are chosen each month. Read on to learn more about this group.

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

A: Our book club's name is The Spine Breakers, and we have been going strong for over 6 years.

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

A: We currently have 8 members, all women. Our ages range from 33 years of age to 49 years of age. We are very proud of the age differences in our group, which only seems to enhance our discussions with different viewpoints and opinions.

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

A: We meet once a month. The first Wednesday evening of every month at 6:30 we will meet at various restaurants around town, and once in a while a member will be gracious enough to host us all at her home.

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

A: We definitely always eat AND drink at our meetings. Sometimes we will do a theme dinner either at a restaurant (keeping in theme with the book), or at someone's home. When one of our members hosts at her house, she will provide the main course (shish kabobs, make your own tacos, curry smorgasbord, etc., etc.). Then the other members will provide the bread, salad, wine and dessert. We never walk away hungry!

Q: Who leads the discussion? Do you use reading group guides?

A: Whoever has chosen the book for the month will start the discussion, but after the first question the discussion seems to take on a life of its own. We do not have any meek or mild personalities --- everyone feels free to agree or disagree regarding different aspects of the discussion. We will use Reading Group Guides as a bit of structure to our questioning when the guides are available for the books we read. We seem to have the most trouble finding information on the different authors we read. That has been a bit frustrating in many cases, because we are always interested in the authors we read and wish there was more information out there.

Q: What kind of books do you read?

A: We read primarily fiction --- although one of our members is a children's librarian at the Multnomah County Library here in Portland, and she has chosen a few very interesting nonfiction books for us to read, which has been a nice change. This year our group also read Angels in America, which was in Play form. We as a group found it very confusing and frustrating at times to be in the middle of the dialogue, and all of sudden there would be information on the set and lighting changes and different positioning of the characters. I'm not sure we would read another play, but I'm glad we read it just for the experience.

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?

A: We rotate members, so each member is assigned a month to make her choice of a book for all of us to read. We all enjoy the fact that we know which month is going to be our month to choose --- months ahead of time. We try to have our book choices three months in advance, but depending on how anxious each member is, sometimes we've had books chosen 5 months in advance.

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

A: Some of our best discussions have come from books we didn't particularly like, so a good book doesn't always lead us to great conversation. With that said, here are some of our favorite books and why:

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell --- although this book was not a specifically easy one to read, it was an amazing story that stayed with us for years to come. The story was great at showing us that "things are not always what they seem." We all walked away from this book (even now) not knowing if we really liked the story, but the story itself has stayed with us, and we often bring this book up in conversation at our meetings since reading it.

Life of Pi by Yann Martel --- this author did a great job of subjecting you to a story that you in no way would ever believe, and as the story develops (unbeknownst to you) you have completely fallen for it. The ending is fabulous and leaves you chuckling and praising the genius of the author.

Keeping Faith by Jodi Picoult --- this book led to quite a good religious discussion with our book group. We absolutely love Jodi Picoult; she is just an amazing author. Her books all revolve around a different (well-researched) theme, and by the end of her books you realize that you have become incredibly informed on these different subjects. A few of us even went to see her speak at Annie Blooms Book Store here in Portland. She was such an incredible person --- I walked away feeling like she was every woman's best friend. As Maya Angelou says, "She makes me proud to spell my name WOMAN."

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant --- this book was amazing in the fact that really none of us were excited to read about Biblical times. But this book sweeps you up in its story and you become absolutely fascinated with the women in this book and how hard life was AND how great it could be.

Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks --- this book was again something that we didn't really want to read due to its era. But from the first page we were hooked and didn't put the book down until the last page was read.

White Oleander by Janet Fitch --- this author is so poetic and her descriptions are so incredible that you end up enjoying the read even if the story is not a happy one. Although we had conflicting views of the characters and the choices those characters made, we all loved the writing.

Empire Falls by Richard Russo --- this story had quite a few twists and turns and a few great surprises. Richard Russo is an incredible storyteller and I'm sure we'll read more of him in the future.

Q: How do you keep things fun?

A: Wine, margaritas or beer always help break the ice, and the fact that we have such a great dynamic group of women. We never see each other outside of these Book Club Meetings, so when we do get together it's such a breath of fresh air that we have all been looking forward to all month. We so enjoy each other's company --- there is always plenty of laughter!

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

A: Don't be so anally retentive or rigid with rules and format. At some meetings we are completely into the book discussion, and other meetings we spend more time talking about current issues and our lives in general. We are just always so happy to be in each other's company.

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

A: We once had a member who didn't want to be responsible for picking the books to read. This was before we started the rotating process. But she would put the kebash on everyone else's book choices, so that inevitably we would ALWAYS end up reading her choices of books. We finally voted on a process and have stuck to it. And rotating members with book choices has been a great thing for our Book Club.

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

A: This summer we have decided to take our first-ever Spine Breakers Book Club Retreat. We will be going to Nye Beach at the Oregon Coast and will be staying at the Sylvia Beach Hotel where each room is decorated in a different author's theme. We are very excited and hope this will lead to future retreats. We want to leave you with a correct impression of us all by telling you that we are all incredibly beautiful, funny, witty and smart. How could we not be a successful Book Club going on our 7th year?

Back to top.