Women With Opinions…and Their Books
This interview is with Denise Sargent-Natour of Pleasanton, California of Women With Opinions…and Their Books. Read on to see more about this group.
Q: Does your group have a name and/or a theme? How long has your group been in existence?
A: The name of our group is Women With Opinions…and Their Books. Our group started in 1997.
Q: How many members do you have? How many men, how many women? What age are most of your members?
A: Members have come and gone. Currently we have 9 members all of whom are women. Most are in their 40s.
Q: How often do you meet? Where do you meet?
A: We always have met monthly on the second Monday of the month. We started out meeting at each others houses, then we met at a coffee house in a special room, now we meet at a different quiet restaurant each session and have dinner as well. We have also begun to have a monthly movie outing to see good foreign or non-mainstream films.
Q: Do you eat at your meetings? Who brings the food?
A: We now let others feed and serve us at the restaurant we select!
Q: Who leads the discussion? Do you use reading group guides?
A: We start out with a general discussion. We take turns asking reading group guide questions if they exist for the book chosen.
Q: What kind of books do you read?
A: We don't have any rules or stick to any genre. It seems as though we read quite a few books by women and also select quite a few award winners. We select books by whatever sparks interest in the group at selection time.
Q: How do you choose your books?
A: We have a special meeting once a year. Books are presented through their reviews that we bring in for the books we have noticed and wish to read. The books are put into a pool and we all vote on 12 for the coming year. We then attempt to order them so that we don't cluster the same category of books together, choose the shortest book for December, etc.
We have added a new tradition. Last year, and again this year we will do the selection at a women's retreat weekend at SeaScape. We walk the beach, go to the spa, eat out and most importantly choose books. It is a real treat to look forward to!
Q: What were some of the best discussions or favorite books the group read?
A: Some of the memorable one's are:
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant), The Robber Bride by Margaret Eleanor Atwood, The White Bone by Barbara Gowdy, The Book of Ruth by Jane Hamilton), Stones From the River by Ursula Hegi, and She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb.
Q: How do you keep things fun?
A: Well, the mix of women is great. We all like each other and take choosing the books seriously, so that we get a great selection to get discussions going. Sometimes we get off topic, but we enjoy each other's company and feel secure around eachother.
Q: What advice would you give to other reading groups?
A: Have fun and keep reading, make the commitment, you owe it to yourself.
Q: Do you have any horror stories, amusing anecdotes, or other special tales to tell?
A: Well, there was the time we invited a new member who came late, but did bring Brandy Alexander's ... hhhmmm ... the discussion did become quite lively, although not quite on topic that meeting!
Q: Is there anything else unique or noteworthy about your group that you would like to share?
A: We have a webpage(although we can't find the 1997 booklist):
http://www.geocities.com/dsargie/BookGroup.html
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