I was leading my book club wrong for 2 years until a new member in Seattle called me out

We were discussing 'The Vanishing Half' and I kept steering everyone back to the plot summary, thinking that was helpful for people who didn't finish. The new member, Sarah, finally said 'I think we're missing the point if we just retell the story, can we talk about the themes instead?' It totally changed how I run our meetings now. Has your book club ever had a moment where someone changed the whole way you talk about books?

3 comments

3 Comments

nelson.wesley2mo ago

Seattle Sarah saved you from being a human audiobook.

paige4272mo ago

Remember when everyone was obsessed with true crime podcasts? My book club tried reading a thriller and we spent the whole time just guessing the killer like it was a game show. It got so shallow. Then my friend pointed out we never talked about why the victim was written to be so careless, or if the story was even being fair to the real places it mentioned. It made the whole book feel different. What's a book that completely changed for you once your club dug into the why behind the story?

luna8912mo ago

Imagine spending two years just giving everyone the SparkNotes version. Thank goodness for Sarah, the hero your book club didn't know it needed. My group had a similar wake-up call when someone asked if we were a book club or just a really slow audiobook.