Tag Archives: book clubs

Jenny from the Block

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Domain_Playground_002For book lovers, the Internet is a 24/7 playground. We can shop to our heart’s content, visit authors web sites and lap up book reviews on dozens of great sites by journalists and bloggers. I started Athena’s Bookshelf more than a year ago as a way to recommend reads for women, but something didn’t seem right. Something was missing. As I do with most ideas, I let it sit on the bench at recess and when the idea was there, we could play ball. The missing ingredient wasn’t on the Internet; it was in real life. What was missing for me was the visceral. I needed to see my friends, share a drink and discuss books, but it had to be fun, fun, fun. I wanted to combine the beauty of the Internet with 3D laughter, not just LOLs on the screen.

But to share my love of books *only* with fellow book lovers wasn’t quite right, either. After all, we already blog about books, buy books and support authors. We needed to get out beyond our recliner and reach out to our non-reading friends. We needed to get all evangelical about reading – coaxing our girlfriends to read and exploring life through the magic of books AND the magic of girls night out. YES! Even though I *thought* it sounded like a good idea, I think I have good ideas all the time, but my believing it doesn’t always make it so. I wanted some proof.

Enter Jenny.

Jenny is a new friend of mine and upon telling her about my new book club/reading revolution she looks up and says, “I don’t think I’ve read a book in years.” She went on to say she loves to go into book stores but has no idea what to pick out or where to start. Jenny is a nurse with a wild sense of humor. I recommended she lose her second reading virginity to THIS LITTLE MOMMY STAYS HOME by Sam Wilde. She’ll get the perineum humor and hopefully the book will entice her to come back for more. Another and another and another.

Jenny is now a member of my chapter 1 of BEbabes. My challenge for you all, since you are reading this and not your non-reading friends, is that you don’t bristle when a friend says, “I don’t read,” aka I only read Glamour/People/Star/TIME, or the other excuses we hear which we’ll talk more about next week, and probe them (geeeeently) for what their interests are. See, great book lovers are also great matchmakers. We don’t just push our own reading interests on people. We find out more about them – even from the type of TV shows they like to watch – and suggest some books they may like. I assure you, just like Jenny did, they will appreciate it.

I hope you’ll consider starting up a chapter of BookEndBabes, not because I’m trying to build a castle, but because I genuinely believe that reading benefits our society at large. I will help you in any way you can to get set started. Our challenge for the weekend then is to not only invite the low-hanging fruit – the lit lovers whose bookshelves are stuffed full – but the Jennies out there.

Let the conversion begin. – Malena Lott

Side Dish with Samantha Wilde

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Wilde-Pub-3Welcome Samantha Wilde, shoes off, virtual mocha coffee (and M&Ms) in hand on our sectional to dish on why reading rocks and girlfriends rule.

Despite the fact that I am a rather addicted, greedy sort of reader—if I’m reading a good book there’s very little I’d prefer to do and trying to separate me from my story isn’t always pretty—I’ve never been part of a book group. I have no idea why. Maybe I’ve never been invited, maybe all my friends are too busy eating Fritos and watching bad television, I don’t know. If I had a point, it would be this: I didn’t know what to expect.

I didn’t know what to expect when I arrived, the other night, at a book group. I wasn’t just crashing the thing for free booze and chocolate (abundantly available, someone even made CAKE!), I was actually there because this whole gaggle of women had read my book and wanted to talk about it.

To say that I instantly loved these people would not do the experience justice. Sitting around and essentially laughing for three hours didn’t just remind me why girlfriends are as essential as chocolate, it reminded me what life is all about: connection and community, a sense of belonging, intelligent conversation, a look to things larger than our own cramped experiences of daily life, friendship.

I love books, of course. But book reading, just like book writing, is a solitary experience. There is something truer that happens when a circle comes together. I could wax poetic about it, but it’s hard to do that while eating M&Ms (which, obviously, I’m doing right now). Suffice it to say, I ate happiness frosting with that cake.

And, at the end of the night, they invited me to join.
So at least now I know there is nothing wrong with me.
I can not speak for my friends and their Fritos.

book coverSamantha Wilde is the author of BEbabes Top Pick THIS LITTLE MOMMY STAYED HOME. If you have a comment or question for Sam, let her have it!

the Pulpwood Queens' Tiara-Wearing Book-Sharing Guide to Life

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the Pulpwood Queens’ Tiara-Wearing, Book-Sharing Guide to Life by Kathy L. Patrick

First line: “If you saw me today in my full Pulpwood Queens Book Club regalia featuring hot pink, leopard skin, and a diamond tiara, you might not immediately think of me as a bookseller.”

With the average American reading one book a year, I have to admit I like the idea of the author’s ingenious salon/hairdresser concept, Beauty and the Book. And I’d much rather hear about a good book while trapped in a salon chair than the hairdresser’s love life. I’m probably not the only one. The book is just as inspired, part memoir, part self-help book, tossing such pearls of wisdom as “If life hands you a lemon, make a margarita.” Who can argue with that?  What sets the book apart is Patrick’s love of books and her quick pick for any given situation. She has enough recommendations to fill your book club for the next ten years. As the first line indicates, she started her own book club spawning chapters all over the States. In fact, a little tiara-wearing, book-sharing is exactly what we need more of. Patrick’s personality is probably contagious, so no one in her company feels blue for long. Her book can offer the same remedy.

For: Spawning your own book club and a cheerier outlook on life. - Malena Lott

Buy it at Amazon.