Episode 65: Shop Talk: Book Clubs

This week on the Watchung Booksellers Podcast, four of our booksellers/book club hosts, Asia, Aubrey, Caroline, and Marni, discuss their clubs and what makes a great club an essential part of a book-lover’s community.

Asia Jannah has been a bookseller/gift buyer for 11 years and is the host of the Thought Daughter book club, which features undiscovered books under 300 pages.

Aubrey Cece is the Kids' Room manager and host of two book clubs: Books in Translation, reading books in translation, and Just the T, which features fiction and non-fiction books by trans authors. 

Caroline Shurtleff manages school events and hosts the middle reader book club for kids ages 8-11. They discuss the books, have snacks, and do a themed craft! 

Marni Jessup is a the co-producer of the Watchung Booksellers Podcast and hosts the NYT 100 Best Books of the 21st Century book club, which is working its way through that entire list.

Books:
A full list of the books and authors mentioned in this episode is available here.

Register for Upcoming Events.

The Watchung Booksellers Podcast is produced by Kathryn Counsell and Marni Jessup and is recorded at Watchung Booksellers in Montclair, NJ. 

The show is edited by Kathryn Counsell.

Original music is composed and performed by Violet Mujica. Research and show notes by Caroline Shurtleff.

Thanks to all the staff at Watchung Booksellers and The Kids’ Room!

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Transcript

Marni: Hi everybody. Welcome back to the Watchung Booksellers podcast, where we bring you conversations from our bookstores, vast community of book professionals who talk about what they do for the love of books. Thanks for joining us. I'm Marni, and I'm here with my co-producer Catherine. Hi Catherine. 

Kathryn: Hi Marni.

Kathryn: Hey everybody. 

Marni: And this week, as we do every week we're talking about books, but today we're talking about book clubs with several of the women who run our wonderful book clubs in the store. 

Kathryn: I love this conversation, um, partly because I love all these fabulous women here, um, Asia, Aubrey, Caroline, and of course you Marni.

Kathryn: Um, but also I just love that it's kind of, it's. Own book club. Um, the conversation, like every book club, it sort of starts off a little reserved and, you know, and what's your opinion? And then once it gets going, everyone really warms up and gets enthusiastic. And, um, I think it really represents how book clubs work.

Kathryn: Um, I think it was also super interesting to learn, um, how and why you guys and other people want to run and be in book clubs, uh, especially as we're just starting a new one with the podcast. 

Marni: Yeah, so the Watchung Booksellers Podcast Book Club is our newest club based on books we talked about on the podcast.

Marni: Um, after we did our live, uh, book club event last year, uh, we talked about loved and missed, , by Susie Boy with Alice Elliot Dark and Dagmara Daminczyk. Um, we realized that the podcast is a great opportunity to not only. Uh, bring the insights about books from professional book people, but also, um, talk about books with our listeners.

Kathryn: Yeah. So we're having our first conversation next Tuesday, March 24th at 7:00 PM and, um, you still have time to pick up the book. It's Stoneyard Devotional by Charlotte Wood. It's, uh, in store now. It's in paperback. Um, you just need to sign up on our events page and then we'll email you a link to join. Um, we might record this one and air it on the podcast. Marni, um, can I guess what you are reading right now? 

Marni: I 

Kathryn: think you can. 

Marni: Uh, yeah, so I'm reading, I'm reading two books at the moment. Um, Stoneyard Devotional by Charlotte Wood, the one Catherine was just talking about, and also, Hurricane season by Fernanda Melcor. , Book number 82 on the New York Times. 

Marni: Uh, best 100 books of the 21st Century, um, which is part of the monthly book club that I host. Um. And there is still time to read that. It's actually a short book. It's a novel, but it's short. So if you want to come, there's, there's copies in the store, but also you can register online on our website and come and join us, uh we're meeting. Monday, March 23rd at 7:00 PM , We'd love to have you. 

Marni: How about you, Catherine? What are you reading? 

Kathryn: Uh, I am reading slash listening actually, on Libro.fm. Uh, I'm listening to Brawler by Lauren Groff. Um, she's just a phenomenal writer. And you know, she actually has a bookstore too Yeah. In Florida. Yeah. 

Marni: Yeah. 

Kathryn: Um, but it's a book of short stories and, she's actually the one reading them, and I mean, that first story.

Kathryn: I, I was hooked. I wanted to just stop and go back and listen to that one again and again. It was so good. Um, she wrote Fates and Furies and the Matrix, and you just never know what to expect from her, except that they're gonna be great. So I highly recommend that it's out now.

Kathryn: Um, and you can either download it on Libro fm or grab a copy in the store. 

Marni: Okay, so let's get to our chat. Uh, I'm not gonna give full bios, but we'll just let you know who's on Asia and I both work in the flagship store. Uh, Asia runs the Thought Daughter Book Club, and I run the New York Times Best 100 books of the 21st century. And now, uh, co-run the podcast book club 

Kathryn: and Caroline and Aubrey both work in the kids' room.

Kathryn: Caroline runs the middle readers book club, and Aubrey runs the just the t and books in translation book clubs. 

Marni: Enjoy the conversation and we'll be back after to fill you in on what's coming up in the store.

Marni: Uh, hi, this is Marni.

Marni: Uh, I am one of the co-producers of the podcast. And I've worked at the bookstore since 2021 and I started off just selling books and then, um, transitioned into the podcast two years ago. Um, and I lead the New York Times, uh, best 100 books of the 21st century at the bookstore. Uh, we meet once a month. Uh, it's usually the last Monday of the month at 7:00 PM and we initially started the book club.

Marni: Gosh, over a year ago, I think we started in the fall of 2024 because the Times published the list, um, in, at the end of the summer, I believe. And we started going down our list starting at 100 and it was really fun. And we had sort of the same crew showing up month after month. And then some of our regular members, um, suggested that we start bouncing around the list.

Marni: So now we do, um, a random number generator. And pick our titles that way so that we're not, you know, eight years down the road reading some of our, um, favorite titles. So, uh, and my book club is very casual. Uh, the one thing we do ask is that people sign up online, so we know how many chairs to set out, but it's a really informal group.

Marni: Um, I lead the discussion, but that's only because I have the keys to the store. Um, and. It's typically about, you know, six to 10 people that show up and we just, you know, go around the group and we just talk about the book, why we liked it, why we didn't like it. Um, but we don't, we don't, uh, have any like, formal questions.

Marni: Um, and oftentimes if we have someone that really loved the book or, or has any sort of extra information about the author. Or the book. Um, sometimes they will ask to lead the discussion, which is always fun.

Asia: Uh, my name is Asia. I have worked at Watchung since 2015, so it's been 11 years this year, which is crazy and insane.

Asia: I started working here when I was in high school. I was part of the junior bookseller program when I was in high school, and then I went away to college for a couple years.

Asia: I came back full time and now I do book selling. I do gift buying. I do really fun stuff at the bookstore, and I started running my own book club two, two years ago. I also, I think it started in the fall of 2024. It was in September. And it's the Thought Daughter book club. So we do backless books, really primarily written by women.

Asia: We haven't done a book written by a man yet, but it's all under 300 pages and it's a very, very. Chill low stakes book group. I remember when I started working here, we had so many other book groups. We had like the memoir book group, we had the history book group, we had the climate change book group, and some of those we still have, but we've cycled through so many, and so we had never had a book group that was kind of.

Asia: I don't know if this is inappropriate to say, but like for young people. So I wanted to do that. I wanted to get people who are my age, like in reading and to know what everybody wanted to read and what everybody wanted to talk about. So it's a really, really fun group. It's very small. It's usually only like six or seven people at a time.

Asia: But it's a great crowd and we have really good discussions, like very casually. And sometimes we really like the book. Sometimes we bash it, but it's always really fun. 

Asia: We do read a lot of darker kind of unknown fiction, but it is kind of primarily just for like the books that nobody really would wanna read.

Asia: Kinda like off the beaten path, things that make you think type of things.

Caroline: Hi, I'm Caroline. Um, I've been working at the bookstore since 2023, , and when we opened the kids' room in July that year. Um, we kind of had discussions and plans of maybe doing some kids book clubs and so October that year, um, Evelyn and I started the middle reader book club, which the point of that was, okay, so I've been out of the game of reading kids' books for a while.

Caroline: I need a structured pattern of. I'm gonna read one every month. I'm gonna have the discipline of knowing something else to recommend. And middle reader felt like the perfect category of, you know, readers that are a little bit more settled into their reader identity. It's kind of eight to 12 years old.

Caroline: I'd say the average age is 10 or 11 of most of the kids. Um, and it was really fun. We kind of had. A regular group right away that just started coming and at this point I have like couple different factions of regulars that cycle in and out based off their extracurricular activities. It's on Wednesday evenings at four o'clock and we have discussions, snack activity.

Caroline: I try to come up with an activity, but sometimes it's. Can you draw this on a page because there's not enough time in a day. Um, but yeah, it's really fun. I get love getting schooled by 10 year olds month after month, and it's one of my favorite things that I do at Watchung Book Sellers. I, 

Aubrey: I'm Aubrey, I also started working here in 2023 when we opened the kids' room.

Aubrey: Um, I'm the manager. Of the kids' room. Uh, when we first opened after the middle reader book club started, I tried doing a YA book club that ran for a while, but I feel like that age range is a little tough to, um, have commitment to timing. So, um, I no longer do that one. And I read so many books. I figured why not start some other book clubs?

Aubrey: So. Last year I did the L-G-B-T-Q book club, which I think was too generic and there's, um, a lot of other L-G-B-T-Q book clubs around the area. So this year I pivoted a little bit and, um, changed it to. Just the t. Um, so just books written by trans authors or with trans characters.

Aubrey: Um, and last year I did anything Goes book club, which was basically anything I felt like reading. And I think that was also a little too generic, so I changed it to books in translation because that is one of my favorite things to read. Um, I tend to pick my books a little bit more topically around what maybe is happening during the month, um, whether it be like Women's History Month or, uh, various other things like that.

Aubrey: I'm trying to build up the book clubs and, um, I'm hoping to .

Aubrey: Uh, gain an audience.

Marni: Wait, Aubrey, how so? How many book clubs is that? That's a lot. 

Aubrey: Well, right now I have two in the store. 

Marni: Wow. 

Aubrey: But I also have one that I'm part of in the town, in my town in Bloomfield. Um, and I would do more if I. Could find more time in the day. 

Marni: That's amazing. Three book clubs a month. 

Aubrey: Yeah. 

Marni: That's crazy. 

Aubrey: But that's not all the books I read.

Marni: Yeah. 

Aubrey: Also, that's 

Marni: where, that's incredible to me because I find. It very challenging to balance work and my reading life and you know, the little tiny bit I do for the podcast, I find it really difficult to read what I'm obligated to read versus what I really wanna read. How do you, 

Aubrey: because you're very busy, how do you do that IAnd?

Aubrey: I think part of making my own book club mm-hmm. Is that I can pick books that I. Want to read. 

Marni: Yeah. 

Aubrey: Yeah. And I've found out that actually there's some books that I've been wanting to read for a long time and I did not like them. Oh. And then, then it's a little disappointing, but then I also find ones that I'm so glad that I finally read.

Marni: Yeah. So what's like the average attendance for some of your book clubs? 

Aubrey: My attendance has been low, but I'm hoping. To garner more interest in it. Um, and I don't know if it's timing or if it's the books I've chosen. I can't really figure it out. 

Caroline: What do you think the benefit is of not liking the book and book club?

Caroline: Like what, what do those discussions fuel in a different way? 

Marni: Those are my favorite discussions actually. And I find that , there probably has been a couple times where everybody's loved the book, but I feel like there's more times where we're divided and those are the most interesting discussions.

Marni: Mm-hmm. Because you get to see, you sort of get to know these people who, some of them, you know, if they're regulars and then we, our, our club has a lot of people that kind of come and go, so you really get to know a little something about a stranger and their perspective. And I find that fascinating.

Aubrey: Mm-hmm. 

Marni: Um, I mean, whatever, sometimes I'm sure it's annoying. Um, but I, I find that probably the most interesting part of the book club aside from the book, but it, it is, it's like other people's perspective or, or how they just interpret something so very different from me. I feel like, I'm, not to sound corny, but I do feel like I learn a lot about people.

Caroline: Isn't there that. Expression or idea that um, you know, like the quickest way to community is like a joint enemy. So 

Marni: Yeah. 

Caroline: If the book is your joint enemy Yeah. Like it builds intimacy quickly. Um Yeah. Of it's like you have something to gossip about the book. 

Marni: Yeah. 

Caroline: Or 

Marni: right. 

Caroline: Um, so I always think that's fun and, and that's like a, I dunno, that's a healthy way to pile on, is an artistic.

Caroline: Discussion. Yeah. Instead of like, you know, being mean to someone. Yeah. It's mean to a fictional person is a different category. 

Marni: Yeah. Well, I think one of the more challenging things, and we can all speak to this in terms of running a book club as a bookseller at Watchung booksellers, you, you have to be responsible in the way you respond to your other members, right?

Aubrey: Mm-hmm. 

Marni: So if they have a very different opinion. That you don't agree with, you still have to, you know, I don't know. Do you guys find that, or you still have to have your composure and be polite and respectful? 

Aubrey: Especially when a 10-year-old is. 

Marni: Yeah. I mean, but for a 10-year-old, you are the adult, so you could actually be like, oh, that's, that's really interesting.

Aubrey: Yeah, 

Marni: let's give someone else an opportunity to talk. But when you're sitting in a room full of. You know, 40 to 70 year olds, right? You have to show some deference, but you also have to, you know, of course, keep the conversation going. Um, I, I find that not challenging, but it's something I always have to kind of keep in the back of my mind, because if I were just attending a book club wherever, at someone's house or whatever, you could have your opinions and just be like, I totally disagree with you.

Marni: You know? 

Aubrey: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. 

Marni: And I think you're wrong. I, I don't feel that, that I can necessarily do that in my book, not 

Caroline: You stand up in the middle. 

Marni: Yeah, I know. And they 

Asia: start washing. 

Marni: Yeah, exactly. No, I just mean like, you, you have to, you know, you gotta keep a little space in the room for everybody to kind of disagree.

Asia: Luckily, I, this is so funny because Caroline comes to my book group too, so a lot, we're reading the same book at the same time. Usually so I can air all my grievances ahead of time, like to somebody before the book club so that by the time it happens, I'm like, well, I've already said everything about the book that I didn't like.

Marni: Yeah. 

Asia: So now everybody else can talk, 

Marni: but have you guys experienced that in your book club where you've had. Wildly different opinions sort of the meta message or the underlying feeling is that there's a little bit of tension when people have a very different opinion like I've even found myself being like, this person knows nothing about what it means to be poor in America. Like I definitely will have to then take a step back and be like, come on, like it's a Monday night. And these are all very nice people, so calm down. 

Caroline: My tension is age tension of they'll be a first grader and a fifth grader.

Marni: Amazing 

Caroline: in the discussion and they're weight things differently of. You know, if they didn't think a certain character was cool or whatever. 

Marni: Yeah. 

Caroline: And it's, it's all very subjective and they kinda learn. 'cause in the classroom everyone's a little bit on equal footing. 

Aubrey: Yeah. 

Caroline: But this is not a classroom. And so the kids are coming at it from different perspectives as they tell me multiple times, this is not class, this is not school.

Caroline: When I try to tell them, we did Mentos and Coke one time because we did Kathryne McKinnon's, um, middle reader. Millicent Quib, and it's all about mad science. And so I was trying to come up with like a little experiment that we could do. So we did Mintos and coke, and I tried to explain to the kids like, why?

Caroline: Why it causes the eruption. And they were like, is this science class just, just hit it? Like amazing? Just put them into, in, 

Aubrey: I 

Caroline: have to say 

Aubrey: the middle reader book club is so fun to listen to. 

Caroline: Even when they tease me, I find it really entertaining. There was also another book club that was Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins, and that's about people who live underground. They find this like underground society, and so there's people that have never seen the sun, and there was this girl that was like, we were talking about how weird the people looked, that they were like.

Caroline: Purple eye and really, really pale, and one of the girls was like, kind of like you, like pale, kind of like you. Wow. Which honestly, I had to laugh because she got me there like. And so there's, my tension is also with my control of mm-hmm. Of the room. 

Aubrey: Mm-hmm. 

Caroline: Um, and them being respectful of each other, which those are the main tenets of facilitating a book club 

Aubrey: no matter the age.

Marni: Wait, do you have regular, did you say this before? Do you have regular kids that show up? 

Caroline: I do. I. It kind of cycles of like, it'll be the same kids for like 6, 7, 8 months and then a few new ones will trickle in and then they kind of compound off of that. Or they know a few people and they'll tell other people.

Caroline: And now at this point, I have some people that have like aged out that are like, that, loved the book group and like, now wanna read ya or, um, and that's so sad. It's like the, the class you're ending and you never see the kids again. Wow. But then they still come in to the bookstore and I can still recommend them books and you know, feel like it's still fun to see them.

Caroline: Wait, so Asia, you've been here the longest? Yeah. 

Marni: This is your first book club 

Caroline: that you've 

Marni: gone Yeah, that's my first book club that I've 

Asia: also 

Marni: attended. I've never done have you. Why so long without being forced to do this Slacker. Yeah. 

Asia: Um, without being forced to do it. 

Marni: Well, not that we're forced to do it, but 

Asia: yeah.

Asia: I mean, we actually used to all of our, now I feel like a lot of the book clubs are staff run. They didn't really used to be like that. They used to be. Customer run, like community run, people would come and want to have their book clubs at the store. So we would kind of stay to just, you know, keep the store open and do checkouts and stuff.

Asia: But we, we didn't really do like staff run book clubs for a long time. 

Marni: We do, we do still have two that are staff run. Right? 

Asia: Yeah. The, um, 

Marni: or not staff community run. We have three, I think 

Aubrey: we have, um, climate change. Mm-hmm. Nasty women and great writers. Great writers. 

Asia: Great writers. Yeah. 

Marni: And those three have been the longest running.

Marni: Yes. 

Asia: Yeah. Great writers definitely. I remember was, and climate change before, and now it's strictly virtual, but they did used to meet in the store too, and nasty women kind of had its revival like in the last couple months. Uh, but that was a long running book group too. So, yeah, 

Marni: my, my favorite book club at the store.

Marni: Was the, the original memoir book club. 

Asia: Yeah. A lot of people, 

Marni: yeah. 

Asia: Customers will come in and talk about how much they miss that they kind of wanna, 

Marni: well, I 

Asia: another like revival of memoir, but everybody really loved that. 

Marni: So we should say that that book club was ran by, um, Louise De Salvo, the late great Luis Salvo.

Marni: She was, um. She was, I'm trying to make sure I get this right. She was a Virginia Wolf scholar, I believe she helped found, she founded and ran the MFA program at Hunter College, uh, MFA in memoir writing. And she lived here in town, and Margo knew her pretty well. Um, she had that club for so long that Sammy, I'm trying to think how old Sam my son was.

Marni: I think June was a baby. And I remember saying like, I need to get to that book club if it kills me. But I was still, um, you know, in the throes of toddlerhood and it was always around June's bedtime, so I could never go. And, um, when I finally got June's sleep train, which she was very old. And I remember, I was like, I'm, I'm, if it kills me, I'm going to that book club. I'm a Debbie Downer. I'm gonna say it. By the time I could go, Louise had gotten very ill and passed, and I was heartbroken.

Marni: That I never got to go. Um, and she still to this day, is one of my favorite, favorite writers. 

Aubrey: Yeah, 

Marni: if you've not read her stuff, she's a, was a phenomenal writer. But anyway. But I tried to revive that memoir book club. I don't know if you guys remember that, but it was super fun. But, um, it was, um, I felt like I had really big shoes to fill because there were people that came to it from the previous Yeah, from the pre, yeah.

Marni: And I was like, oh man, that's a lot of pressure. Um, and I tried to be like, oh, like cash about it. That was not appreciated. Um, you can't 

Aubrey: be casual after 

Marni: that. I could not 

Aubrey: after following 

Marni: her. No. 

Aubrey: Yeah. Yeah. 

Marni: Um, and I would always be like, and I'd always tell the story about Luisa Salvo to those that didn't know her.

Marni: And, um, yeah. 

Caroline: What do you think that driving force of, like, you were like itching to get in that room. What do you think is a thing that draws people to like wanting to get in the rooms to discuss? With each other 

Marni: For book clubs in general? Yeah. Or that one in general? 

Caroline: I think book clubs in general, like, 

Marni: well, for me, I think it's a guaranteed way that you are gonna interact in community.

Marni: And I don't, a lot of people don't care about that. I care deeply about that because I, we, we moved to Montclair in 20 2008. From New York City like everybody else. And um, I remember I was like, ah, suburbs are weird, man. So weird. 'cause I Nobody 

Caroline: reads in the suburbs. 

Marni: Yes. No, I was just, it was a weird, I just felt so exposed.

Marni: I don't know if anybody, I mean, I'm sure, I'm sure that's very cliche, you know, and you live in a large city. I lived in New York and San Francisco. You're very anonymous, right? And then suddenly you, you move to a small, it's not really a small town, but you move to a town where everybody knows each other and then.

Marni: You sort of understand what it means to become a part of that community. So that I learned that, I was like, oh, that's, that's how it works, right? Mm-hmm. Because I moved around a lot when I was a kid and I didn't really have that experience. My family didn't have that experience, and I, when I, as an adult, I was like, I do want that for my kids.

Marni: So one of the first places I came was the bookstore because I was like, that's kind of where it happens, right? For book lovers, for readers. Mm-hmm. Um. And, uh, that I think that's my, that was my reason for, for ever joining a book club. Um, and, and ultimately to lead one was so that you would sort of be in community at least once a month.

Marni: Um, I don't know. I know that's a little, it's a 

Caroline: connection point. 

Marni: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Where you, and, and it's also a great opportunity to get to know people you wouldn't otherwise sit in a room with, in my opinion, you know? 

Aubrey: And mine is, my reason for joining book clubs is because I'm gonna be reading anyway, so why not?

Marni: Yeah. 

Aubrey: Then talk about it afterwards. Yeah. Maybe it'll help my memory of the book a little bit. 

Marni: Yeah. 

Aubrey: Which, you know how that can be. You read something and then, okay, it's done and 

Marni: yeah. 

Aubrey: You want, you want facts about it. Oh, 

Marni: well, and it helps as a bookseller, right? Yes. Because you're like, oh, I sort of, now I have a.

Marni: Better grasp on that title 

Aubrey: to sell it? Yes, I started taking notes August. Um, my son, who also works at the bookstore, um, has always been a fan of annotating his books and. I, first of all, I would never deface a book. I can't, I'm not like a, I don't fold pages, I don't do any, I don't mark up anything. But I have this little notebook now where I'm keeping notes and then I write the little page number down.

Aubrey: So when I go to the book club, I can be like, oh, this is something I wanna bring up. Does anybody else do anything? I have the subject, I do that. 

Asia: No. I said, I have to start doing it. I don't do, I don't do anything. I read the book. And I finish it probably the day before, so that I'm like, great. It's fresh in my mind.

Asia: I can talk about it. And then I get to the book club and I'm like, 

Aubrey: no. I started doing it. I started doing it because I was feeling so nervous that I was going to forget things. So, 

Asia: yeah. 

Aubrey: And being a perimenopausal aged woman, it's very common to not be able to find words as I often cannot find words. Yeah.

Aubrey: And memories and things. Yeah. So I need to definitely. Have that and I think it's helpful. 

Asia: It's helpful too when like sometimes a lot of things that I read in the book I will think about when I'm reading it and then I forget about it, but then someone in the book group will bring it up. I'm like, oh yeah.

Asia: Oh yeah. Thank God someone else calls that because I did wanna talk about that. 

Caroline: I have a similar feeling as Marni in that I do feel like it help it. It's one of the primary things that helps me be a better bookseller is. Getting to talk about books with its readers and like not being from Montclair and then moving here, I didn't know anybody.

Caroline: And so honestly it was such a good way to meet the kids and in the town and see what they're interested and how they talk to each other and like that's been the most like. Easy way to build relationships with the kids that come in the store. And so that, like, I actually know their names and get to chat with them on a regular basis, 

Marni: which is amazing because Nicole, , who works here at the store, she's our,

Marni: Operational Manager. Operation Manager? Yeah. Mm-hmm. At 54th, the main store. Um. She used to run in Asia. Tell you can fact check me on this. She used to run like a kids, didn't she do like a kids' newsletter or It was like kids reviews. That's what it was. It was kids book reviews. 

Asia: Yeah. Yeah. 

Marni: And so kids would come in and like tell her what books they liked and then they would have an opportunity to submit some type of review.

Marni: And one day I was working in the store, Nicole was there and this um, young person came in probably in their like twenties. And went up to Nicole and they had this whole conver like, do you remember me? This whole conversation. Um, this person was, came up in the store, was like a young reader and learned to love reading through Nicole and loved writing these reviews and now works for Roxanne Gay and does a ton of like, really cool, um, writing and credits,

Marni: the start of that with Nicole, which I think is kind of amazing. 

Caroline: That's really 

Marni: cool because, um, you know that's what, , 10, 15 years later. Um, so Caroline, you, you will probably meet some young adults in your time that says, I remember when you ran my, my book club. It's kind of great. 

Caroline: Yeah. Like one, there was one month that, um, we had, we read Under the Egg and had Laura Marx Yeah.

Caroline: Fitzgerald come and like. Do a little bit of a deep dive of some of the art history things and stuff that, of why she put certain things in the book and that's another opportunity that's like, I don't think the kids realize it's like, this is the person that wrote it. The name on the cover is right here.

Caroline: Like that access to see and visual. What an author or like could be and that it's, you know, obtainable to them. I know a lot of them are writing their books. I hear about their chapter updates. Amazing. 

Marni: They 

Caroline: collaborate in writing books. Certain friends write certain chapters. Um, sometimes they bicker about, you know, the deadline of their own book.

Caroline: Um, but it's always nice to see them take it another step. What about, okay. The other question that was living in my mind was what makes a book, a book club book like set that there's kind of a cachet to it sometimes if somebody's like, oh, it's a really good book, club book. Sometimes I'll like kind of not be intrigued by that title.

Caroline: Mm-hmm. Because in my head it's like, oh, it's like easily packageable or like easily. Universal. And sometimes that's good and sometimes that's boring. 

Asia: Mm-hmm. 

Caroline: Um, I don't know. What do you think makes a good book for discussion? 

Asia: That's kind of interesting because I feel like, to be honest, every book is a book, club book.

Asia: There's something to be taken away and learned from every single book that you read. So it's kind of like, even if it's not a very extensive or fun discussion or something like, I think you can say anything about books that you read. Like, I feel like some certain books that we've done have been way, like, there are way more points in there to discuss, or there's like way more layers to it.

Asia: But even some of the quieter reads, I'm kind of like, there's still a an hour worth of conversation to be had about. 

Aubrey: Mm-hmm. 

Asia: This book with other people at least just like to see, even if it's just to see what other people think about it, not even if they didn't necessarily take something away from it, but I think that any book can be discussed like in a book club setting.

Asia: So I kind of do agree with that. Sometimes, like when I hear people say it's a book club book, I go, oh, it's probably really easily readable. So it's like easy to discuss in a group and it's not a very complex plot. Like I think that probably would be a little harder. Mm-hmm. But I think I'm like any book can be a book club book.

Marni: I totally agree. And I do find that some in the New York Times book club, there's been many titles where our book club members will be like, why, why was this, why is this on the list? Uh, and where I'm like, oh, makes perfect sense to me. And so then the discussion is around why would, why would so many readers think this belongs on a list for us all to read and discuss?

Marni: And I'm with you. I think it's, you're always gonna find something. I mean, maybe that's 'cause reason why we're all booksellers is you, you, there's always a way to discuss a book, even if it's abstract where you didn't fully understand it. 

Aubrey: Yeah. 

Marni: Or get the point. 

Aubrey: Mm-hmm. 

Marni: I probably miss the point all the time, but that's part of the discussion too.

Marni: You know, like I've learned a lot about specific titles from people in my book club. Or I'll just be like, I don't, I didn't get this part. You know? Then it's more 

about 

Aubrey: that person. Well you probably found a different thing that maybe they didn't see. I mean, never. Maybe sometimes we all have our own perspective.

Aubrey: Yeah. And I think that also, 

Marni: yeah. 

Aubrey: What helps the world go round. 

Marni: Yeah. 

Aubrey: Um, I also agree with you, Asia, that any book can be a book club and sometimes I think when I'm picking my books, I. Focus too hard on trying to pick the perfect book that everyone wants to read. Yeah. Or this is the book that I wanna read.

Aubrey: Why doesn't everybody else wanna read it? Um, so when picking books, I know Marni you don't have, 

Marni: yeah, I don't get to pick. 

Aubrey: You don't have to pick. But when picking books, do you have criteria that you, okay. Asia also has a little specific criteria, but, um. Leaving it more open-ended? Like how do you, how do 

Caroline: you choose?

Caroline: I actually, okay. Just for discussion's sake, I'm gonna disagree with the fact that every book can be a book club book because I, some of it is like self-protection. There are some books that I love too much that I don't wanna discuss with people. I don't want, I don't want it to be food for the animals.

Caroline: Um, and 

Marni: why is that? Just because you don't wanna hear like. The other 

Caroline: side of the Yeah, no, there's, there's just some that I'm like protective of. 

Marni: Mm. 

Caroline: And I already love it. And it doesn't need to be solidified by somebody else's opinion. 

Marni: Mm. 

Caroline: Um, I sometimes that happens with the kids. I will love the book so much and they're like, it was cool at parts.

Caroline: Like, whatever. Like they're. And then I like, you know, wanna get into all the historical aspects of it and like teach a lesson and they're like, I don't know, it was kind of weird when they said that thing. Like, they like just wanna, they just wanna talk about it on a, a different casual level. Um, but in terms of selection, I just pick something I haven't read and have minor curiosity of like what's in there.

Caroline: Like I kind of. I feel like that would be interesting to know what that book actually reads like. Um, and then I try to do a variety of genres. 

Marni: How do you guys handle, and Caroline, this, you, you answered this first, but maybe, maybe this is the wrong question, but how do you guys handle when there's like a little bit of a lull in the group and, and there isn't a lot of conversation about the book.

Marni: Is that different for kids? 

Caroline: Usually the lull is they've already gotten up and they're across the room. 

Marni: Oh. 

Caroline: Um, so then I'm trying to bring them back to the table. 

Marni: Yeah. Or they're trying to 

Aubrey: find out what's next. 

Caroline: That's, yeah. And I pretend to let them browse the shelves and say, what would you like? And then I pick the book and their opinion doesn't matter.

Caroline: Um, but. In terms of honestly, they've gotten good about like, guys, we need to talk about the book, which makes me laugh sometimes. Maybe that's when I know it's time to transition to the activity or do something a little more interactive or that's when I'll ask a question maybe they can relate to of like.

Caroline: When's a time you felt like this character might have felt or when's a time like where they wanna talk about themselves? Okay. If they don't wanna immediately talk about the book. Yeah. Let me talk, get them to talk about themselves and then we'll go back to the book. 

Marni: Smart. 

Aubrey: When I was doing the YA book club, I did have a list of questions that I would pull out every once in a while, um, that I just printed off from some website, those generic enough questions.

Aubrey: Mm-hmm. But you could like plug in some. Little probing like things, I, I think the YA book club, the age range was just, you know, that little awkward enough. 

Marni: Yeah. Tricky, 

Aubrey: right? Like, yeah, like the, the middle reader, they're still young and, and rambunctious and not so self-conscious. And then these kids were a little bit older, so I felt like I needed to definitely have that list to be able to pull out.

Marni: That's really smart. Maybe I should have a list 

Aubrey: like I should too. 

Marni: Yeah, I mean 

Aubrey: you can add it in your little notebook now when 

Asia: you go. 

Marni: Yeah. Asia, what about you? What do you do? Is there a lull sometimes or you guys all really know each other, right? 

Asia: Yeah. I mean, we do now. Yeah. I think it's, it helps that it's the same, like kind the same crowd.

Asia: Mm-hmm. So we all. Are comfortable with each other. There are some new people that come like periodically though, which is nice. Um, I don't know. Sometimes I'll just ask kind of a really, really general question, like, what did you think about X character? What did you think about the end? What, what was your favorite part?

Asia: Like, I kind of just try to get the conversation going back a little bit, but I'm very grateful that I'm in a book group full of very smart, talKathrynive people. So they sometimes, like pe other people will ask questions or lead discussion or something. So. It kinda, it just naturally kind of slows and picks up, which is good.

Marni: That is great. We, we, I think we tend to move towards the author and what, what each of us knows about the author. Um, and I try to either read something like an interview that the author was in, or, um, a podcast so that we have like a little tiny bit of information. Um. Because you're always, you know, sort of like, oh, I didn't know that about this person.

Marni: Um, and that's really helpful. 

Caroline: Okay. So what's everybody reading right now 

Asia: For the book club or just in general? For, for the book club. I also forgot to say my book club meets on the last Thursday of every month. Everybody said when their book club meets, sorry, I forgot to say that.

Asia: Um, 

Aubrey: guidance we are reading right 

Asia: now. The book for March is The Incendiaries by R. O. Kwan, which I actually have read, I read it. When it f like before it first came out. 'cause I remember reading the galley and I have not read it since then. So I'm excited to reread it and get a fresh look on what I remember and what I don't and to see what everybody thinks.

Asia: So that will be exciting. 

Caroline: And the middle reader book club is reading Miss The Escape from Mr. Lemon Cello's Library by Chris Grabber. Stein Grabber Stein, something like that. Um, and I picked that because. That's one of August's favorite books. So I picked it on August's recommendation, so it's his fault if it's bad.

Aubrey: Um, for just the T Book Club. This month we are reading Nevada by Imogen Binney and, um. For books in translation, we're reading OAM by nwa. Nwa, I'm not sure how you pronounce the first name. Uh, Barco. Um, and 

Marni: how about you Marni? . Uh, my club is reading, um, hurricane Season by Fernanda Melcor. Um, and it is, uh, number 82 on the New York Times Best 100 books of the 21st Century. Uh, it came out in 2017 and it is a novel and we're also going to be, uh, discussing Stoneyard devotional, uh, on. Tuesday, March 24th at 7:00 PM and we're gonna do it online, virtual, and we'd love to have you join us and you can find all the information about that on our website.

Marni: Okay. We have to open the store

Kathryn: Thank you Asia, Aubrey, Caroline and Marni, uh, for talking about your book clubs and hosting them. And of course, uh, just being avid book lovers listeners, we actually have a dozen book clubs you can choose from. So really you have no excuse not to join one of them. Uh, you can find information about all of our clubs in our show notes and at Watchung booksellers.com.

Marni: We have a quiet week this week, but next week we have five book clubs and one author event. On Thursday, March 26th, Toni Ann Johnson, who was on the podcast a few weeks back, will be here to discuss her new book. But where's home? With all Latif Farmer.

Marni: And looking into April, we've got a great workshop planned with Ariel Eckstut and David Henry Sterry, AKA, the book doctors to share all their insight on how to get published. 

Kathryn: Plus, we're already gearing up for our annual independent bookstore day on April 25th.

Kathryn: We have merch. You can order now, and you can also submit your entries for our bookmark contest. You can get details and tickets for all of our events, story times, and book clubs through our newsletter show notes or at Watchung booksellers.com.