More Than a Book Club

I was charmed by this group of Fox Valley women three years ago when they invited me to one of their meetings to discuss my debut novel, Three Daves. I could see then that their friendship extended far beyond their bi-monthly book club, which will reach its twenty-year anniversary next year. Twenty years!

More Than a Book Club started in 1994, and the common connection was H.C. Storm Elementary school in Batavia, IL, where each of the members of the book club was either a parent or a teacher. Over its nineteen year history, the group’s size has remained at exactly six members—exactly the same six. Keeping the group small and intimate is one factor in its longevity, but there’s more to it than that. So when they invited me back again last month to discuss my latest novel, Divine Temptation, I turned the tables and asked them a few questions, trying to figure out exactly what it is that makes this book club so enduring and congenial.

What I found out was that it’s not really the friendship that strengthens the book club, but rather the book club that strengthens the friendship. Here’s how:

The regular, scheduled meetings make them get together.You know how it is—you say you’ll “do this again sometime” but then calendars fill up and months and months go by, and then it’s years before you get the whole gang back together again. Not with these ladies. They meet every month, no matter what, alternating book discussions with a purely social get together.

The club has shown them the importance of respecting one another’s opinion, even when they disagree. This is a varied group of women, with different likes and opinions, and as a result, there’s rarely been a book under discussion that they’ve universally agreed on, either positively or negatively. They say that their discussions often get “interesting,” as they are all bluntly honest in sharing their thoughts, but the conversations have never gotten heated because they value each other's unique perspective. 

The book club gives the friends the opportunity to see through each other’s eyes. For example, Sue K. doesn’t have much patience for in-depth descriptions in literature and prefers writing that is plot-forward and to-the-point. But every once in a while during a book discussion, another member will read a descriptive excerpt out loud, and when the piece is singled out like that, she can appreciate its beauty. I had an extremely cool author-moment at the meeting when Sue F. read a passage fromDivine Temptation that she’d marked as a particular favorite: 

“Maggie made the mistake of looking at him. The sincerity and anguish that strained his sublime features cradled her heart even as they ripped it apart.”

What was so great about the moment was that Sue K. had just complimented my writing for keeping the story flowing without an overabundance of words, and yet Sue F., who enjoys vivid descriptions, still felt all the emotion I'd hoped to convey.  

Through book discussions, the women have learned things about each other that otherwise probably never would’ve come up in regular conversation. Even though they’ve known each other for decades, they still get surprised by something another will say when either talking about a book or exploring a tangent spurred by the book discussion. The night I was with them, one of the members shocked the others by confessing to…oops, well, you know what they say—what happens at book club stays at book club. Sorry, no can tell.

The book club has also been a great excuse for the women to go on field trips to destinations in the books that they’ve read, including girls’ weekends to Boston and West Virginia as well as local trips to view Frank Lloyd Wright’s home in Spring Green, WI after reading Loving Frank by Nancy Horn and a Chicago architectural tour after reading Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. I couldn’t resist asking them where they’d choose for a Divine Temptation field trip. The consensus was a public garden, like Cantigny Park—I was thrilled with this idea since Cantigny, along with other local landmarks, served as an inspiration while writing.

And so you see that this group has truly earned its name. It is, indeed, more than a book club, and the books have been much more than just books to its members. Whether you're in a book club or not, have you noticed similar ways in which book discussions have fostered your friendships?

Author Notes: I live in Batavia and write romantically-inclined women's fiction under the penname Nicki Elson. Book clubs canvisit my website for discussion questions for both Three Davesand Divine Temptation.  Both books are available at Batavia Public Library and through the LINC system. Also available atAmazon, Barnes and Noble and locally at Gibby's Wine Den in Geneva. If you're interested in an author visit for your book club, send me an e-mail at elson.nicki@gmail.com.