Book by Book: Cleveland Reads in Book Groups

Gustave Flaubert, author of Madame Bovary, once said “Read in order to live.” I thought about that quote at book group last night where clusters of friends talked about good summer beach books, books read in other book groups, and armfuls of books gathered on frequent library trips, books they just had to read. Books are our lifeblood, our passion, our connection with people and the universe. We would be lost without books.

Reading has not gone out of style. Entering a bookstore on a Saturday night, I’m reassured of our culture’s love of books. Book discussion groups are all the rage now in private homes, on television, and in libraries and book stores.

Our Westside book group started back in 1986, when a couple of us decided it would be fun to start a book discussion group. We had no idea we were following the tradition of Victorian women portrayed in Helen Hoover Santmyer’s And Ladies of the Club. Our initial group was college-educated men and women in vocations revolving around reading and writing: librarians, teachers, paralegals. We chose classics and biographies and prize-winning fiction. In preparation, some of us read the author’s biography, others did their own research of criticism, and the leader prepared intellectual discussion questions to bring to the group.

We drank tea. Eventually, we ate dessert as well.

Our group evolved. We are now a group of educated women in our thirties, forties, and fifties who work in accounting, education, sales, marketing, law, and libraries. Our common thread is a love of books and the creative process. Someone invites a friend, someone else moves away and we keep our number of members at twelve. The hostess provides a light meal, wine, and drinks, as well as dessert. The food may be inspired by the book, as when we ate Japanese food while discussing Memoirs of a Geisha.

Writers use the collective hubris of their lives, all the places and people they know, the feelings they’ve had, and their reactions to those experiences, when they write. They use life to color and shape what is put on paper. Reading is the same--our own life experiences affect how we react to what we read and what we get out of the experience. And like a writer who gets lost in the story unfolding, we forget we’re reading and our memories pull varying themes, character traits, emotional depth, and meaning from the work of art. “What counts, in the long run, is not what you read; it is what you sift through your own mind; it is the ideas and impressions that are aroused in you by your reading.” Eleanor Roosevelt said it well. The reading itself is private, but discussion expands our worldview and understanding of human beings.

The books we read vary from The Enchanted April, a book by Elizabeth von Arnim about middle-aged Victorian women vacationing together in Italy to classics by Hemingway and Zola to the excruciatingly deep novel by D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover. Vietnam, Africa, and Italy became closer through reading Nelson DeMille’s Up Country, Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible, and Frances Mayes’ Under the Tuscan Sun. We were immersed in and felt the pain of the characters in provincial France in Like Water for Chocolate, occupied Germany in Stones from the River, and Hassidic Jerusalem in Sotah. While we like reading novels, we have read the biographies of Mark Twain, Thomas Jefferson, and Eleanor Roosevelt who lived in different times than our own, experienced life differently than we experience it living in the suburban United States in the 21st century.

What did we learn about ourselves and our core beliefs about relationships with others? How did The Divine Secrets of the YaYa Sisterhood and Tuesdays with Morrie touch our collective soul? We learn that people have dealt with love and hate, war and peace, insecurities and triumphs, and iniquities and hope across the centuries. We come to new understanding of our own feelings and differences between us. Our souls are enriched and our interactions with people are more sincere and empathetic. We approach our lives with more energy.

When our lives sag or become difficult, books speak to us. Pain is truthfully told in Toni Morrison’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, but the world she creates can be a comfort. Books are the best way to quiet the soul or can be a means to liven up a dull life, like Dan Brown’s The DaVinci Code, which kept me awake during a trans-Atlantic flight to Rome and Paris. Sometimes I start reading at eleven in the evening, thinking I’ll read for only a short while, and I finish the book at four in the morning, as I did with Amy Tan’s The Bonesetter’s Daughter.

Lately we’ve read books by Cleveland-area writers James Robenalt, Cinda Chima, Doria Russell, Les Roberts, and Ohio writer Terry Ryan. Robenalt and Chima spent the evening with us. We find writers to be accessible--Sue Grafton sent a Christmas card, Icy Sparks’ husband’s e-mailed, and Tracy Chevalier connected by e-mail as well. So many of the books we’ve read--Snow Falling on Cedars, The Horse Whisperer, Memoirs of a Geisha, The Bridges of Madison County. Message in a Bottle and Cider House Rules--end up on the Silver Screen we tend to think we make it happen.

What a simple thing it is to get some people together who like to read, pick a book to read for a month, get together and discuss it. The experience of reading together costs nothing, but it’s priceless. What we gain in depth as people cannot be measured and I am awed by the experience. I am grateful for good writing, and I’m glad our book discussion exposes us to different styles and different worlds and different people. Life opens up. And so do we. Find a book discussion group at a library, a bookstore, or the Cleveland Metroparks. Check out websites or look for pamphlets and posters. People are reading and discussing all over the Greater Cleveland area.

Or start your own book group--gather friends and neighbors around and pick a book you saw at Borders or on the new books shelf at the library or reviewed in the paper. Choose a place to meet where you can relax and enjoy each other’s company and are able to focus on the discussion. Find someone who has a passion for books and can keep the talk flowing to lead the group. You’ll find Life will open up, and so will you.

From Cool Cleveland contributor Claudia J. Taller ctallerATssd.com (:divend:)