|
|
November 22, 2002/Kislev 17 5763, Vol. 55, No. 13
Read, shmooze, read
Local clubs bring book-lovers together
VICKI CABOT
Contributing Editor
Members of the Brandeis University National Women's Committee Jewish Book Group meet at the Borders bookstore at Cactus and Tatum roads for the convenience and accessibility of the location.
Photo by Tegwin Winterhalt
|
Read Anita Diamant's "The Red Tent" and return to the days of Jacob, Rachel and Leah.
Pick up Michael Chabon's "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, A Novel" and become an aspiring comic book writer in New York in the 1940s.
Immerse yourself in Martin Goldsmith's "The Inextinguisable Symphony, A True Story of Music and Love in Nazi Germany" and find out what it was like to be a Jewish musician in Berlin during the Third Reich.
Books can transport or transform - taking readers to far away times and places or opening them up to new ways of looking at the world. That power multiplies exponentially when reading becomes a group activity. Book clubs, or book groups, provide the forum for reviewing, critiquing and discussing a multitude of books, subjects and life experiences. As many books as are written, there are equally as many readers with equally as many opinions and "reads" on a subject.
Book clubs have proliferated in the Valley of the Sun as elsewhere, providing socialization, intellectual stimulation and sheer enjoyment to legions of avid readers. Some are organized informally and include readers who enjoy each other's company. Others, equally collegial, are affiliated with national organizations, such as Brandeis University National Women's Committee or Hadassah, and draw participants from their membership.
Most have no more than two dozen members. Some require members to take turns hostessing and reviewing; others meet in public venues and assign one member to facilitate discussions. Still others favor a freewheeling approach.
The Thursday Afternoon Book Group has been meeting twice a month for more than 50 years. Its members, all women, are friends as well as fellow readers, but reading and intellectual discussion is what initially brought them together.
Paula Sobol, the self-described new kid on the block, only a member for the past nine years, relates how the group was formed around 1949 by a group of five women.
"There was little available in the way of lectures and book reviews in Phoenix at that time. And people were thirsty (for intellectual stimulation)," explains Sobol, who moved to the Valley in the early 1950s from Minnesota. "What little they did have, they created for themselves."
The book group organizers did just that.
Original members comprise a who's who of Jewish communal life of the times. According to Sobol, they included Ellie Abelson, Millie Ehrlich, Lilian Feiler, Bert Goldman, Helen Kaplan, Helen Korrick, Fran Kulish, Pearl Langerman, Lyne Lerner, Ruth Marks Rosen, Brenda Meckler, Nona Segal and Ruth Spitalny. Some are deceased; a few still participate.
The group meets at 12:30 p.m., sometimes for lunch, sometimes just for coffee or cake, at a member's home. Discussion commences within the hour and "lasts as long as it needs to," says Sobol.
She recalls one recent meeting that went on for more than four hours as members discussed issues as diverse as separation of church and state, women's liberation and civil rights. A recent book about the U.S. Supreme Court justices sparked the lively exchange.
"We're a very diverse group," says Sobol with classic understatement, noting that members represent the full spectrum of political proclivities.
Tastes in books are as eclectic as the members' interests. Recent reads include a book chronicling the British royal family and a biography of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.
At the September meeting (the group meets from September through May), members put together a schedule of hostesses and reviewers, but not books. Each reviewer is free to choose whatever book piques her interest when it is her turn to lead the discussion. Sometimes reviewers advise the group of selections in advance; sometimes they don't. So not everyone will have read the book before the meeting.
Sobol says it doesn't matter.
"Whatever is reviewed acts as a springboard to an interaction, sometimes intellectual, sometimes emotional, sometimes pedestrian. It is the basis of an afternoon's worth of discussion about life, the universe, everything."
Though Davi Weinberg, study circle chairwoman for Hadassah Valley of the Sun, says her Hadassah group's Jewish Book Group is more structured, it still provides many of the same pleasures and satisfactions.
Weinberg's group, all Hadassah members, have been meeting one Saturday morning a month at area homes for the past 10 years. The group is all women but diverse in terms of ages, lifestyles and backgrounds. They limit their choices to books either written by Jewish authors or those with specifically Jewish content. They read both fiction and nonfiction.
Recent choices included Roger Kamenetz's "The Jew and the Lotus," Victoria Zackheim's "The Bone Weavers" and Steven Kluger's "The Last Days of Summer."
Weinberg explains that members read the same book for each meeting, choosing as they go along. They talk about what is good, what they want to read, and then make choices about three months ahead. Each hostess is responsible for bringing background material to the meeting and initiating the discussion.
"It's freewheeling," says Weinberg. She says that different perspectives and life experiences enliven discussion and invite interchange.
"It gives you a chance to think about things differently - or confirm what you think. That's the exciting thing about book clubs," she says.
Weinberg says that a discussion about Tova Mirvis' "The Ladies Auxiliary," was especially enlightening. The book details Orthodox communal life in Memphis, Tenn.
"We could have been there all day," she says. "Everybody related to it."
She notes that the group's Jewish focus seems to be particularly compelling.
"A lot of people are looking for that. They have a lot of questions."
Ellen Tuckman leads a similar group for Brandeis. Participants must be Brandeis members and pay an additional fee to participate in the study group. Hadassah does not have a study group fee.
Tuckman's Jewish Book Group meets the first Thursday of every month at a local Borders bookstore. There is no charge for using the facility, and the store offers members a 20 percent discount on books from the group's reading list as well as free coffee.
Book selection and review are well-planned.
Books must have Jewish content or characters or be written by a Jewish author. The group devotes two meetings to choosing books for the year, using the first meeting to field suggestions and a second to calendar choices members have made by written ballot.
Tuckman leads each discussion, which begins with answering what she calls "the fer kashes" or four questions. Each (see box) is designed to help elicit salient points about the book and guide the group in its critique.
The discussion usually lasts 90 minutes and often veers off in a variety of directions.
"The discussion can go to real life," says Tuckman, noting how good literature can be a catalyst for discussion of contemporary issues. "That brings a personal touch to the story."
Tuckman says being involved in book groups has broadened her reading choices, often leading her to read things she might not normally choose. And it has made her a better reader.
Tuckman is a member of two Brandeis groups.
"I have to read two books a month," she says, "and that's a lot for me. It's a balancing act."
Weinberg, who moved to the Valley four years ago, says the book group has been a wonderful way to meet other women. She is in the process of organizing a new Hadassah group that will focus on mystery writers.
"The book groups give women a chance to have meaningful conversations," she says, noting that the shared commitment to Hadassah establishes a common bond that enhances the interchange.
Sobol notes that the Thursday book group is special because of its longevity and the commitment of its members.
"We have become more than a book review group," she admits. "We are supportive friends."
Contact the writer at vicki_cabot@jewishaz.com.
|
