The February Spotlight Group is The Desert Sleuths Book Club!
The Desert Sleuths started a mystery book club three years ago to accommodate the gals who come to Palm Springs, CA for delightful winter weather.
We are from all over the country and Canada, and enjoy reading, discussing and laughing away an afternoon every month. We have read Defending Jacob, Room, The Husband’s Secret and Bruno, Chief of Police.
Think of great pairings in the world, such as red wine with steak, hot chocolate with snowstorms, Simon with Garfunkel. Each one alone is fine, but the combination creates something new and different.
The same is true for reading groups. We often limit our book choices to one genre or the other, fiction or nonfiction. But one way to enrich your group’s discussion is to read a novel alongside a work of nonfiction, whether a biography, cultural study, or even the author’s own memoir or journals.
Given the lyric prose in the first novel by Eimear McBride, we enjoyed discussion the style as much as the story itself. The book brought up many important and timely issues to discuss: gender, power, trauma, individuality and perception, and caused us to consider how the meaning of of these words/themes change when they are specifically tied to a woman’s story. We were lucky enough to have Eimear answer a few questions for us!
RGC Group: When you began writing the book or had the idea for the book,
Add some extra fun to your book club discussions this year by introducing creative and playful spins to your book club approach.
Dress up as your favorite characters! You can keep it simple by limiting costumes to just one item—a mask for The Queen of The Night or Old West hats for Lady Cop Makes Trouble. You might also want to open the evening with an impersonation game to see what book club member best embodies the book’s protagonist.
Reading Group Choices is happy to partner with Milkweed Books for a literary extravaganza to celebrate our readers. In our fast-paced world, reading groups can offer us the time to slow down, catch up with friends, and talk about wonderful books. We want to celebrate you the readers with a free evening of fun giveaways, delicious snacks, and rounds of author speed-dating with 8 terrific authors: Hala Alyan,
Our group of 11 has been together for over 12 years. We range in age from 55-80. We formed after several of the ladies became friends when attending a church-sponsored series on leading a purpose-filled life. They came up with the idea of staying in touch through a book club. I was courted (I fought the idea) by a couple of neighbors when the group was formed. I attended a meeting when it was held in one of my neighbors’ homes. My plan was to go to the meeting, and then then tell them I wasn’t interested.
