Here on the ReadingGroupGuides.com blog we've interviewed Lisa See, Kate Jacobs, Julie Metz and other authors. Now we're doing something a bit different.

We're launching a new feature where we'll be interviewing authors with questions from book club members. And so we'd like to know: which authors would you like to hear from?

We'll invite them to be interviewed and, if they agree, we'll then ask book club members to submit questions they'd like the author to answer. Share your suggestions in the comments section or write to Shannon@Bookreporter.com.

Nancy Thayer's latest novel, Summer House, is the story of Nona, Helen and Charlotte --- grandmother, mother and granddaughter --- who gather in their family's vacation home on Nantucket, only to have their idyllic lives threatened by a hurricane of secrets. Today Nancy talks about her dream book club gathering to discuss Summer House --- where it would take place, what would be discussed --- and reveals details about the characters and the story.

Nancy is also the author of Moon Shell Beach, The Hot Flash Club and several other novels.


My dream book club would meet in my garden on Nantucket Island to discuss Summer House. It would be in late June, right when the new dawn roses are blooming. I'd serve chilled Bellinis --- Prosecco and peach nectar --- and almond macaroons.

The members of my dream book club would come from all over the country. Since Nantucket is thirty miles out at sea, I'm pretty isolated. I love hearing different accents and different points of view. I love meeting strangers. I love hearing readers disagree about a book's characters --- it opens up new ways for me to see things.

First, I'd talk about my mother, Jane, now 91 and the inspiration for Nona, the grandmother in Summer House. I'd show you the photos of her when she was a young woman in WWII, wearing fabulous little veiled hats. I've always wanted to wear hats like that. I'd ask you if you ever wore hats like that, or wanted to. I don't think it's an entirely frivolous question.

I'd be very interested in knowing what my book club thought of Nona's secret. Would you have done the same thing in her place? We'd talk about the connection between grandparents and grandchildren, and how different it is from the connection between parents and children. Did our grandparents have secrets we never knew or even guessed?

Since this is my dream book club, I'll have us all magically transported around the island to the gardens that have inspired Charlotte's garden. I'd take you up Main Street where the trucks park on summer mornings, setting out their baskets of eggplant and arugula and bouquets of flowers. Charlotte, 30 years old, Nona's granddaughter, has her own organic garden business. She's trying, as her father says, to save the world, one lettuce leaf at a time.

I'd love to know what the club thinks of Charlotte's disregard of her parents' wishes. What would we do if we were her age? What did we do at that age? I'm sure we all made some very interesting mistakes. I can hear the laughter now.

When the club discusses Helen, who is sixty, I'd take out my pen. She loves all her children, especially Teddy, her youngest son, a handsome, charming, unpredictable, unreliable alcoholic, but does she make the right decision? Are there clear-cut right decisions for every family problem? I'm sure the discussion would be intense, and I'd take notes to help me when I write my next book. My writer's magpie mind would record the flash of one woman's smile, the swirl of another woman's skirt, and what everyone has to say about Helen and Nona and Charlotte. Someday these bits and pieces would help create a new character.

When the book club leaves, I'd give everyone an hourglass filled with island sand to help them remember Nantucket and Summer House --- and how quickly summer goes by.

---Nancy Thayer

Each month novelist and creative writing professor Joshua Henkin shares behind-the-scenes stories about his meetings with reading groups to discuss his novel Matrimony. Today he answers a question that he has been asked by book club members. Read on to find out whether he prefers e-readers or printed books.


May's Condensed Statistics

Number of Book Groups Visited: 17
Number in Person: 3
Number by Phone: 13
Number by Skype: 1
Number of States Represented: 8 (New York, New Jersey, Texas, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Iowa)
Total Number of Participants, not including author: 165
Total Number of Male Participants, not including author: 6



A Popular Book Group Question in May: How do you feel about Amazon Kindle?

This is a question that usually gets asked when I visit a book group in person, and at the end of the evening I sign readers' books. There are always a few people who read the book on Kindle, so I can't sign their books, and most of the book group members assume that I (and authors in general) hate Kindle. Not so. I'm certainly a print and paper guy myself. I like the feel of a real book, and I also know from when I'm writing that things look different on the screen than they do on the printed page (the screen is much more forgiving). I don't own a Kindle and would be surprised if I owned one anytime soon. That said, I can see the appeal of Kindle and other e-readers. When you're traveling, you can carry fifteen books with you in bag, which you can't do with an actual book. Beyond that, my feeling is that as long as people are reading (and buying!) my book, I don't care in what form that reading takes place. Although I would be disappointed if printed books became obsolete, if they do, I'll adjust.

To me, far more worrisome than e-readers are two phenomena that rarely get mentioned by book group members. The first is the decline of the newspaper and, along with it, the paring down (and at times elimination) of book review sections. Book reviews have long been the way that writers get discovered. I know that I owe a lot of Matrimony's success to the coverage the book received in the major book review outlets. With those outlets disappearing, it's getting harder and harder for writers to be discovered, and for readers (and book groups) to learn about new authors they might admire.

The second phenomenon is the decline of the independent bookstore. Independent bookstores are essential for the health and diversity of book culture. When you shop at an independent bookstore, the workers at the store can recommend a book to you that you haven't heard of and that you very well might love. This is especially true if you're a regular customer and the people at the bookstore know your taste. Just this month, Shaman Drum Bookshop, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, a town in which I lived for eight years, announced that it was closing down after thirty years of business. To me, it was devastating. If a college town like Ann Arbor can't support a great bookstore like Shaman Drum, then the state of independent bookselling (and of book culture more broadly) is in serious trouble.

So go ahead, use your Kindle. But don't forget, also, to buy books from independent bookstores and to strongly support your newspaper book review sections. We'll all be much better off for that.

---Joshua Henkin


Previous RGG.com Posts by Joshua Henkin:
Book Club Adventures, April 2009
Book Club Adventures, March 2009
Book Club Adventures, March 2009 Part II
Book Club Adventures, February 2009
Book Club Adventures, February 2009 Part II
Book Club Adventures, January 2009
Book Club Adventures, January 2009 Part II

Carol Cassella's novel Oxygen is the story of Marie Heaton, an accomplished Seattle anesthesiologist involved in an operating room disaster. As her life and career fall to pieces, she uncovers the fault lines of responsibility, betrayal and truth that can divide us, and discovers that conviction and love --- like oxygen --- can sustain us. "This novel is written with a clear, even hand, and the reader feels like a part of the heady world of high-stakes surgery.... Oxygen is a great read with some juicy surprises," wrote our reviewer on Bookreporter.com

Today's guest blogger, Carol --- a practicing anesthesiologist herself --- shares some of the benefits to personally connecting with book clubs.


People in the book business are always telling me who my readers are. Book store managers, publicists, agents, editors --- the demographics and stereotypes fly when they discuss where to shelve Oxygen, which blog or magazine or radio talk show to target. But after a year of meeting with book clubs all over the country --- in person whenever possible --- I know the people who are reading my novel way better than any statistics could summarize. I've eaten dinner with my readers. I've copied down their lasagna recipes, compared the relative clutter of our living rooms, discussed childrearing, aging parents and, of course, the miracles and pitfalls of our healthcare system.

Any writer, particularly any novelist, can confirm that the world of writing a book and the world of marketing a book are not always compatible. Writing forces you to turn off all those critical voices and get naked with yourself. Alone. Marketing, on the other hand, forces you to shut down your nurtured internal muse, change out of your coffee-stained bathrobe and transform into a cold-call salesman. And it might seem like offering my presence at book clubs is just more marketing in disguise. But book clubs fall into their own category entirely; a sweet spot in between the private and public life of an author. I'm not there trying to sell your club my book --- you've already chosen it. I'm not dancing around to avoid spoilers and plot twists --- you already know them. You've read Oxygen, or at least skimmed it to get to the meeting in time for the appetizers. You've entangled a bit of your imagination inside the black and white words that originated in my own mind. We are now, in a way, siblings. Or, better, co-parents of this small brain-child I produced.

Without your participation my novel would never really come to life. It's sort of a literary take on the Koan --- those famous Zen paradoxes designed to foster enlightenment: "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" "Does the falling tree make a sound if no one is there to hear it?" Can a book find its true soul until it travels the full circle from my keyboard to your mental movie? Sure, the same question might be raised about almost any artform --- paintings need eyes, operas need ears, perfume needs noses. But a book is a participatory experience too. I can only choose a few details out of millions of possibilities when I build my characters and scenes; a few metaphors that resonate with my concept of the story. Ultimately, I can only offer you a sketch. From there on it's you, the reader, who animates the child's face and shades in the particular hue of that blue sky or sunburned skin. I hand you the template for what has to become your own private journey.

I could add plenty of other benefits to personally connecting with book clubs: so far everyone has been really nice to me! They share their list of favorite books. There is always good food --- homemade, and way better than my cooking. I know one author who asks for the simple payment of a six pack of beer --- imported preferred, but only if you can afford it. I'm plenty happy with a glass of wine and a good chair, which I can provide myself if we're meeting over the phone. You pay me with fresh insight on my characters, their motivations and secrets. I hear what parts of my novel made you cry or laugh or rage, and what parts left you wanting more. I learn even more about the complicated relationship between doctors and patients. But the hands-down best payment is that I come away from your book club a better writer because I listened to you, my readers --- the critical silent partners in the art of fine story-telling.

---Carol Cassella

Today RGG.com contributor Jamie Layton raises a terrific issue --- inspiring kids to read over the summer. She has come up with an interesting list of books for her 14-year-old son, ones that will make great reading and discussing for everyone, regardless of age. Since I think many school reading lists do not encourage reading but rather make it seem like a chore (or a punishment), as many of the books are not exciting, we've compiled on our website for teens, Teenreads.com, the Ultimate Teen Reading List with more than 300 titles. What we've skipped is anything that we would not want to read ourselves!


This is the time of year when summer reading lists start springing up overnight in every magazine, on every website, even on breakfast TV shows. I, however, am bemoaning the absence of a summer reading list for one very important person --- my 14-year-old son, a rising high school freshman. To be fair, I must admit there is a book he must read before classes resume in August. But notice the singular article: "a." As in one. And only one. Did I mention he is an honors student? And no summer reading list? Huh?

My son is an avid reader; but unfortunately seems to go most summers without a book at hand. I have decided this summer will be different and put together a Summer Reading List for him that I have since shared with several mom friends and now happily pass along to those of you who find yourselves in the same boat.

First on the list is The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, his freshman reading requirement. I'm so glad I'll be able to say, "I didn't pick that one for you!" because I am already anticipating the complaints of a 14-year-old boy regarding this book.

He's already most of the way through Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America and has really liked it. The rest of his list includes All Quiet on the Western Front (Erich Maria Remarque), Night: A Memoir (Elie Wiesel), I Know What You Did Last Summer (Lois Duncan), Lord of the Flies (William Golding), A Long Way Gone (Ishmael Beah) and I Am the Messenger (Marcus Zusak). (If he has time I'm going to throw Ayn Rand's Anthem at him to see if he gets it.)

If the list has any underlying theme, it is this: At this time of his life, as a teenager living in America with a limitless future, countless freedoms and a multitude of blessings, I hope these books will remind him how truly fortunate he is to be able to walk every mile in his very own shoes. Perhaps reading about boys not much older than himself who endured incredible war-time horrors (Wiesel and Remarque) will remind him of the sacrifices of earlier generations. Maybe he will understand how truly lucky he and all his friends are to have been born in a democratic country versus one where constant civil strife creates soldiers out of eight year old boys (Beah). Maybe he'll finally get that the blue collar worker who greets him at Wal-Mart does so not because they want to, but because they have to (Ehrenreich). Maybe he'll think twice before getting too crazy this summer (Duncan) or remember how lucky he is to have a home with a mother who cares before ignoring a request to clean up his room (Zusak). And as he moves toward the social challenges of high school, perhaps Golding's classic will open his eyes to group dynamics and the power of personality.

If your child didn't come home with a summer reading list, don't despair. Make one up! There are countless resources on the internet to turn to; many colleges now assign one book that all incoming freshman must read, like Nickel and Dimed. Use their requirements for your list. Many private high schools publish their reading lists online. Take advantage of them. Or just take your kid to the local library or favorite independent bookstore and ask them what they want to read this summer. Whatever you do, make sure you keep 'em reading...

To an enjoyable summer,

Jamie Layton

Marjane Satrapi is the author of the memoir Persepolis, in which she recounts growing up in Iran in the 1980s. As our review on Bookreporter.com says,"Those were particularly turbulent years for Satrapi's native country of Iran, encompassing the overthrow of Mohammed Reza Pahlavi (the Shah of Iran), the installation of the Islamic Republic, and the war with Iraq. The story is told entirely through the eyes of Satrapi, the child, and how these events affected her parents, her relatives, her friends, and herself."

We received an email from Marjane that we wanted to share with readers. It's a request from the heart, from one who understands all too well the current crisis that Iran is facing.

Dear Friends:

To all who beleive in freedom and democracy...

Please sign this petition to the United Nations to stop the violence, arrests and torture in Iran.
The situation is really, really bad.

Please forward it to whoever you know.

Best and lots of love,
Marjane Satrapi

http://www.petitiononline.com/12June/petition.html

Yesterday we shared some of the activities, trips and other things reading groups are doing differently during the summer months. Here are some more of their plans...


INVITE OTHERS
"The Finley Farms Elementary Book Club is comprised of a group of faculty and staff from our elementary school. For the summer we choose a young adult novel to read and in July have a mother/daughter book club meeting. Sometimes our daughters will also bring a friend and fellow student along. We love the interaction and various viewpoints that are presented during this book club meeting. And also 'passing the torch' with teaching our children different aspects of what is involved in a book club. It is always, by far, our best attended meeting of the year." ---Robin Hall


FIND NEW MEMBERS
"In an effort to attract new members, our group sponsors a summer reading contest. We pick a theme and have sign up sheets. All books must be checked out at our library, and the desk personnel help our patrons keep track. In September, we invite all the participants to attend a reception where we give prizes for the most books read, etc. We serve refreshments and invite all to join our book group." ---Marie Smith


CHANGE THE FOCUS
"Our book club, after much trial and error, has evolved a plan where we pick a longer book than usual, assign it in June, and then pick a date in September to discuss it. Even last year, when we decided to try meeting over the summer, was unsuccessful. People found that as much as they wanted to, they couldn’t keep the dates of the meeting, and we often ended up with only 2 or 3 members." ---Susan Reidy, Newport, RI

"Our book group does something different for June, July and August. We start an hour earlier and have a potluck supper before our discussion. We either have it at a member's patio or deck and sometimes at a local park. One of those months we usually do a cookbook so everyone brings a cookbook and a dish from that cookbook. We have lively discussions, believe it or not, and many books bring back fond memories. We have been together a long time and have become friends as well as book club members. When I recently had major surgery my 'book mates' brought me meals, books, book reviews and lots of encouragement. How much more can you ask?" ---Heather James