The Home Avenue Book
This interview is with Maureen Hoffman-Wehmeier of Franklin, Indiana. Her group "The Home Avenue Book Club" has been in existence for a number of years and every member attends the same church. Read on to learn more about this close-knit group.
Q: Does your group have a name and/or a theme? How long has your group been in existence?
A: Our club is called "The Home Avenue Book Club." I am a new member, with over one year under my belt. The rest of them have been together many, many years.
Q: How many members do you have? How many men, how many women? What age are most of your members?
A: There are about 20 members, with only one male. We range in age from 38 to well over 70.
Q: How often do you meet? Where do you meet?
A: We meet on the first Monday of the month in the Franklin First Baptist Church.
Q: Do you eat at your meetings? What do you eat? Who brings the food?
A: No.
Q: Who leads the discussion? Do you use reading group guides?
A: One person leads the discussion each month (we volunteer several months in advance). We do not use guides much.
Q: What kind of books do you read?
A: We read a variety of books. This year we have read an old Maeve Binchy book, Evening Class, as well as Animal Farm. We will read The Lovely Bones in November. We also read Bias.
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 begin bringing in book ideas in August each year. We write a brief synopsis of books we want to share with the group. The lists are passed around in September, we vote in October and in November we have our selections for the year.
Q: What were some of the best discussions or favorite books the group read?
A: We like Grisham's A Painted House, which we read shortly before it aired on television. We all gave high marks (we score on a scale of 1-bad to 10-excellent) to Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees.
Q: How do you keep things fun?
A: The difference in our ages keeps it fun. We all get along very well.
Q: What advice would you give to other reading groups?
A: Find a common thread and then build on it. Our thread was that this group all attended the same church. My friend joined the group while she attended there, and then began attending my church. She convinced me to join.
Q: Do you have any horror stories, amusing anecdotes, or other special tales to tell?
A: Once I was to lead the discussion, and my son called me from basketball practice to tell me he had a serious knee injury. I had to make arrangements for someone else to lead that night, so I could be with him. (He had surgery and lost the end of his season.)
Q: Is there anything else unique or noteworthy about your group that you would like to share?
A: I am 42, and one of the two young people. It is great fun to read with people from a different generation. We share so many likes and dislikes, yet we are all so very different. It is a well-educated group, all with at least one college degree, some with many.
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