This interview is with Dalene Bradford from "The Rockhill Book Club" of Kansas City, MO. 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 group has been meeting for 25 years (as of March 2003). We are the Rockhill Book Club.

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

A: Currently our 18 members are all women, ranging in age from 50 to 70 (most are 50 to 60).

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

A: We meet once a month in members' homes.

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

A:By unanimous agreement cooking has no relationship to our meetings, unless it is mentioned in what we have read. Hostesses usually provide some drinks (coffee, tea, water) and a small plate of nibbles (cookies, grapes). We did not want food to become a burden, to detract from our limited discussion time. Plus, most of us are watching our weight.

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

A: Our origins are as an Adult Great Books Group, which stresses the entire group's involvement in constant questioning of the literature we read. We don't have a leader (as Great Books Groups usually do), but urge all members to come with a provocative question or two about what they have read (analytical, rather than literal). When we find a reading guide we use them, but many of our selections aren't on popular fiction, so they're not available. With our history, we often find our own questions to work best.

Q: What kind of books do you read?

A:We work hard to find literature that operates on multiple levels, contains 'controversy' or room for interpretation, provides different points of view, and invites literary analysis. We try to select readings that challenge us to think and grow intellectually (perhaps things we might not read on our own) and that engage us in challenging and enjoyable discussions. We generally read short stories (three or four for each meeting), interspersed with novels. We find that we have really good discussions around short stories, but have read most of the collections available over the years. We rarely read hardbacks, as some members don't want to spend that much money. This has the advantage of reading books that have had some reader scrutiny before we dive in.

We do a lot of searching for our novels, as the group has high standards for books that will generate really good discussions. We are constantly asking friends (and other book groups) what they are reading, and pore over book reviews. We've read some Oprah books, reached back for some older, unusual classics (like the 1923 A High Wind in Jamaica) and often find ourselves letting one book take us on a tour of others with similar themes or origins (like Harlem Renaissance writers).

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 have a soft 'rule' that at least two of the group's members read a book and agree that it's a good choice before we assign it to the group. The test is "Will it generate a good discussion?" Since we've been meeting for so long, we have a good sense of what this means for our group --- generally whether there is some controversy (an issue that might cause different interpretations) or whether the themes are universal enough to lead to thoughtful and wide-ranging conversation. As an example, lots of us read and enjoyed Memoirs of a Geisha in our individual reading, but no one thought it would generate a good discussion. So we didn't do it as a group. On the other hand, A Fine Balance was so full of issues that we could have discussed it for weeks. Occasionally we break our own rules and read a book that we've heard been talked about a lot (or is written by a local author). It's no fun if you're too rigid with rules.

We tend to work about three months ahead on our assignments. Reading a short story collection helps with this. They generally last about three or four meetings and, when we insert a novel or two, we end up with six months planned out.

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

A: Middle Passageby Charles Johnson. Our discussions usually start after a 15 or 20 minute fun-time warm-up conversation about life in general. The night this book was scheduled, people launched right in the moment they got there and we never diverted from the topic at hand. The book operates on three levels: the obvious (but fascinating) story of a black man who gets in trouble in New Orleans, quickly secures a job on a ship leaving port in order to escape the police. Once at sea he learns he is crew to a slave trader headed to pick up a shipment in Africa. It is also an allegory about modern day urban life (pointed out by obvious anachronisms) and it takes on a mystical aspect once the cargo is on board through a strange creature that has special meaning for the slaves but who is nailed up inside a wooden crate. Fabulous layering provided more discussion material than we could cover in a meeting.

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. While many in our group found it depressing, it represented one of our favorite types of books: one that opens up a new world to us (as it is set in India in the 70s) but that points out many commonalities we have with others. The themes were universal (getting along in the world despite our differences), yet the place was new to most of us (India) and provided topical discussions about countries so different from ours.

Women in Fiction is a collection of short stories edited by Susan Cahill (there are two volumes) that stands as our favorite of this genre. Written by and about women, these stories generated fabulous discussions, both about the stories themselves and about our lives. Although we read these in the mid-80s, we still talk about many of them in our discussions of other books. The Yellow Wallpaper has become a standard point of reference for us, as has As I Stand Ironing. Great literature that sticks with you and pops up on our collective consciousness is a wonderful experience.

Q: How do you keep things fun?

A: Laughter comes easily to this group of friends. We all really love to read and the chance to talk about it is reward in itself. So we don't really work at it … fun just comes naturally to a group that has met together this long. Sometimes we laugh at a 'bad' book choice and then reminisce about the other 'losers' we've read. If only one member has recommended the book, they get a special, loving ribbing. Often, when a new member joins, it gives us a chance to tell old book group stories and celebrate funny happenings. We do leave time for visiting, which is an important part of our time together --- usually the first 15-20 minutes (and any amount of time folks want to linger after the discussion ends).

We are careful to accept and validate everyone's contributions and opinions. While we are serious about our discussions, we allow time at the beginning and end for visiting.

Occasionally we 'mix it up.' For example, we read Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, The Hours by Michael Cunningham, and then went together to see the movie version and invited spouses and friends to come. Afterwards, we had dinner together. One year we celebrated a book group anniversary by having dinner (out at a restaurant). Another time we read a local author's short stories, then invited her to a meeting. The discussion turned out to be incredibly stimulating (even to the author, who said she loved getting our 'read' on her writing) and generated a long-term relationship with her.

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

A:Challenge yourself. Read some things that stretch you. Don't just read the most popular bestsellers. We find that we sometimes don't 'like' a book while we're reading it, but then develop a better appreciation from our discussion, which opens up new understanding. From that we've learned that the popularity of a book (or the ease of reading it) is not necessarily an indication of a good discussion.

Develop some shared parameters (how much visiting is enough, the responsibility of members to read the selections and come with a question), and don't be reluctant to revisit them if needed. Set a limit on membership. Getting too large can be a problem (meetings can break into several discussions and get frustrating).

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

A: We read a nonfiction book called Goat Brothers, which followed the lives of several fraternity brothers who didn't turn out well. It was recommended by one member (me!) and bypassed our usual process (which requires two members to read a selection in advance and declare whether it is good 'book group' material or not). There was nothing redeeming about the turns the lives of the main characters took and little applicability to our own. There was also not much to discuss, except how little everyone enjoyed it. On a funny note, one member took it along (in large, hardback format) to read on a European vacation. She complained loudly about how she hated it, didn't have anything good to read on the plane and had to lug it all over Europe. We still tell that story occasionally (a cautionary tale to careful selection of future books).

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

A: Once we had a woman come to our group, saying she was writing a story on book groups for the local newspaper (easily believed, as she was a university professor and a contributing book reviewer to the paper). She came once, then twice. Eventually she joined the group. Later she told us that she had anticipated writing a disparaging article about book groups as 'lightweights.' Then she met us and became enamored. She was a member for over 10 years, until she and her husband had to move to a nursing home.

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