Reading Room

 I believe that Oprah Winfrey has been like a National Searchlight that illuminates for the collective American conscience that which needs to be examined. Wherever she trains her journalistic eye, there our attention is turned. If she accomplished nothing else, however, Oprah earned my undying gratitude for having revived this nation’s love of books and interest in book clubbing.

My friends and I started a book club in September 2003. We call ourselves the "Sunday Night Solstice Book Club." Solstice is usually understood to refer to the position of the sun in relation to the equator: the word results from a combination of the Latin sol (sun) and sistere (to make stand). However, there is a secondary meaning of solstice. From Webster we learn it can also mean a furthest or culminating point; a turning point.

Allowing time to belong to a book club was, in fact, a kind of turning point in our lives. We made a commitment to carve time from overcrowded schedules to read and to be together. Both are worthy, but essentially self-oriented endeavors. Permission to luxuriate in reading represents a significant redirection for women who typically devoted their days to families and careers.

The book club discussions are also solstice-like in that, by the end of the evening, there has been a growth process. We begin with an understanding of the literature that inevitably expands as we talk. We arrive in a new and further place from whence we began.

We meet on Sundays beginning at 7:00 p.m. We share dessert and beverages. It’s simple by design.

 

We have gone on some wonderful field trips. In September 2004 we were Oprah’s guests during the taping of her discussion of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. (You can view the video my daughter, Brittany Morehouse, a backpack journalist, prepared for Oprah in the Multi Media Room.)

When one of our members married, we re-enacted a ‘sixties coffee shop and staged an ‘open mike’ evening. We placed a wreath made of fresh flowers upon the bride’s head when she arrived with her groom. My son gave us an acoustic guitar performance and there was wedding cake, champagne, and gifts. Then we presented the bride and groom a binder just like the ones we held in our hands. Inside these binders was a collection of love poems each person had selected specifically for them. One by one, we  gave oral interpretive readings of our poetic selections.

Then, in conjunction with our readings of The Omnivore’s Dilemma (Michael Pollan) and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (Barbara Kingsolver), we held our book club discussion at an organic restaurant that is supplied by local organic farmers. Afterward, we explored the organic farm market in Oberlin, Ohio.

In July 2006 we hosted artist Kathy Skerritt in a home-as-gallery, weekend-long festival. Kathy displayed more than 50 paintings in my home and then acted as our personal guide, walking us through this incredible body of art. We discussed readings Kathy had selected on light, and the philosophies of art and beauty. Visit Kathy’s Web site at http://www.kathyskerritt.com/ to see some of her art.

And so on. It’s been fun.

 

We tackled two ambitious projects. One project was the Kids ‘N Moms Book Club. Here, adults and children all read the same book. Some of the wonderful books written for young readers--books like The Giver (Lois Lowry), A Wrinkle In Time (Madeleine L’Engle), and Hoot! (Carl Hiaasen)--were new to the mothers. During our meetings, the kids were exposed to a healthy example of courteous listening and confident sharing, while the moms discovered our kids can be incredibly insightful about literature and generous in sharing their ideas.

Another project was very near and dear to my heart. This was a blended book club in which the women of Sunday Night Solstice came together with the women who lived in the Elyria Y.W.C.A. shelter. These women called their book club "Talk Back." Our blended group became known as "Books Are Keys To Me," or, "B.A.K. 2 Me." Our goal was to use literature to shine the light of introspection, and bring the revelations 'back to me.'

To help break the ice, we shared cheese and crackers, veggie trays, desserts, juices, sodas, and water bottles before the meeting. Our teenage children brought with them toys, coloring books and crayons, and books to read aloud, and baby-sat their little ones during the discussion.

Our first book pick was Pulitzer Prize-winning Ironweed by William Kennedy. The action takes place during the Great Depression, before homelessness was even a word. The protagonist, Francis Phelan, didn’t think of himself as homeless. In his mind, he was just a bum. He left home in a raw attempt to escape a punishing sense of guilt over having caused the death of his infant son by accidentally dropping him. Twenty-two years later, Francis overcomes the ghosts and guilt and returns to his wife and home.

The book inspired many powerful reactions in both the middle class women and the women living  at the Y.W.C.A. The walls came tumbling down during our frank, emotional discussion. We realized we have more in common with one another than we ever imagined could be possible.

My dream is for this kind of blended book club outreach to be taken up by others--church groups, book clubbers, anyone--all across the country.,

Visit the Multi Media Room to view the Ironweed video prepared by backpack journalist Brittany Morehouse.

Visit http://www.youtube.com/user/OneManBandReporter to see more of Brittany’s work.