Read A Book

An interview with Liz Tomalis, founder of the Fulton Ladies Book Club. Why did you start this book club? I had been in one in another state and really liked it. So I started asking people that I met socially if they would like to join one. Who are the Fulton Ladies? We are a group of women who mostly have children at Fulton Elementary or who live in the Fulton area. We needed another outlet besides working, carpooling, kids, all that stuff. How long have you been meeting? We started in September.

When Oprah talks, people listen. Earlier this month, the talk-show host resurrected her book club after a 14-month hiatus with the selection of John Steinbeck's East of Eden. The day of the announcement, the book rose to No. 2 (from 133 earlier that day) on Amazon.com, and Steinbeck's publisher, Penguin Group USA, ordered 600,000 extra copies (the book usually sells 40,000 to 50,000 copies a year). And boy, are people ticked. One acquaintance bemoaned the fact that Oprah Winfrey, of all people, would be the one to turn people on to Steinbeck.

An interview with Lisa Bankman, co-founder with her daughter, Judy Bankman, of the Book Buddies Book Club. Is this a mother-daughter book club? Yes, the mothers are always invited, but they're not required to come. How did you start? My daughter and I had talked about it since she was in the sixth grade and by the time she was in eighth grade, we sent out invitations to a group of close friends and to the moms. We had our first meeting and took off from there. That was in the beginning of 2001.

An interview with Phyllis Kepner, founding member of B.A.D. book club. How did your club get started? Some of us belonged to a federated garden club ... and we joined together with some friends and neighbors and co-workers and decided to read a book a month. ... We needed a name, so since we were D.I.G., Discoveries in Gardening, and it's easy to remember and we have dessert for our book discussion, we decided we would be B.A.D., Books and Desserts. What book are members reading this month?

How do you interest middle school pupils in reading for fun, with so much else - friends, video games, sports and television - competing for their free time? Lori Frederick, media specialist at Oakland Mills Middle School in Columbia, had an idea to encourage children to read for pleasure. Inspired by a journal article, she recently donned a conductor hat, decorated the library to look like a train and invited English classes to read there during a two-day event. She and an assistant arranged wooden chairs to resemble a train car, punched train tickets, handed out pretzels and played songs from Buddy Davis' Rhythm of the Rails.

How do you interest middle school pupils in reading for fun, with so much else - friends, video games, sports and television - competing for their free time? Lori Frederick, media specialist at Oakland Mills Middle School in Columbia, had an idea to encourage children to read for pleasure. Inspired by a journal article, she recently donned a conductor hat, decorated the library to look like a train and invited English classes to read there during a two-day event. She and an assistant arranged wooden chairs to resemble a train car, punched train tickets, handed out pretzels and played songs from Buddy Davis' Rhythm of the Rails.

An interview with Thea Jones, founding member of Renaissance book club. When did your group get started? A group of us decided to do this about 1980. ... We were working together as members of the Friends of the Howard County Library, and ... we thought that it would be a great idea to have a book club with men and women in it so that there would be cross-gender discussion, if I can say it that way. And we convinced our husbands that it would be a great idea. What book are members reading this month?

The idea of the book group seems so virtuous, so high-minded, so pure. A group of people read the same book and then sit around for a few pleasurable hours each month engaging in stimulating conversation about plot points and character development, metafiction and memoir, literary merits and shortcomings. Glasses of mediocre merlot are optional. Opinions are not. Maybe some book groups start out this way, but sooner or later -- perhaps after six months or so -- even the most literary of gatherings can turn ugly.

An interview with Pam Everett, founding member of Food for Thoughts book club. What book are members reading? For our December meeting, we're having a Christmas get-together. The book we're reading now will be for [a discussion in] February, and that is Waiting by Ha Jin. Some months we do something other than read a book. Now for January, we're going to watch a video: Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. I haven't read [the book]. One member read it, and she said it was good. But she thought we'd enjoy the video more; hence we're watching the video.

An interview with Lita Schabra Parke, founder of the Breakfast Club book club. Why do you call yourselves "the Breakfast Club"? We're actually looking for a new name, but we met for the first time in July for breakfast - [at] Bob Evans - but because of the makeup of the group we have been moving the time around to meet everyone's schedule, and now we meet in the evening. How did you get started? Was there some spark? I read a book called Honey for a Woman's Heart by Gladys Hunt, and that book spurred me to take action.