Chase Talks About the Cover to Cover Book Club

Yesterday, I attended the Cover to Cover Book Club’s monthly book discussion group at the Boone County Senior Services, Inc. building in Lebanon, Indiana. The facilitator of the club is Kay Martin (totally related,) and the group has 30 members which about 15 to 20 people typically attend. One of the missions of the club is to read and experience different genres and subgenres. This month’s selection The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, which fell under the nonfiction genre of memoirs with a subgenre of coming of age, as explained by the facilitator.

I actually arrived at the event early because I was recruited to help set up. I met with one of the other members, and our jobs were to set out the Goldfish crackers, make the coffee, and setup the table. I chose a seat off to the side because I was not going to be an active participant and preferred to just observe unobtrusively without taking credit for my pouring of the Goldfish crackers into a larger bowl.

There was about twelve participants at this particular meeting. They were all women who I would assume use and are familiar with the services of the Boone County senior’s center. (I wasn’t about to ask for the ladies’ ages or make any assumptions on that.) All of the attendees seemed familiar and comfortable with each other as they had a lot of catch up banter before the discussion officially took place.

The facilitator announced the official start of the discussion after giving time for any late stragglers. She made a couple of announcements and mentioned that a couple of the regulars weren’t going to be there. Then, she introduced me - first on a personal level and then told them my purpose for being there. Then she pulled out a notebook where she had written extensive notes on the book. I noticed that other people also had brought notebooks and/or had pages in the book marked. She began by explaining the genres that this book fell under before launching into her opening question for the group. The questions she asked throughout the meeting were both open-ended, multiple part, and yes/no questions that lent themselves to further discussion. At one point, she said, “Tell me about what you thought the title of the book means,” which served the purpose of making the participants reflect on the overall meaning of the book. The line of questioning allowed them to discuss themes and symbolism as well as relating what they had read to other books. The group was essentially offering readers’ advisory for each other based on the type of book they were reading.

I will note that I had not read the book, but I was familiar with the story from having seen the author on an episode of Oprah and other interviews. This helped me understand some of the thoughts and reflections that the group was being asked about and commenting on.

The Cover to Cover Book Club members were active participants right from the beginning. There seemed to be no hesitation to speak from the majority of the members right out of the gate. They were respectful of whoever was speaking at the moment without talking over or interrupting the speaker. Many times, there were expressions of agreement such as, “Oh, yes,” and “Mmm hmm.” I noticed that the facilitator and the members often praised each other on the points that others were making. I was hoping to witness a disagreement to see how that was handled, but everyone seemed to be on the same page. I wondered if that was because this was a nonfiction title. However, they did make inferences into how the real-life characters may have been thinking or what led to some of the decisions they made. I also noticed that no one openly criticized the book.

Sometimes someone would mention an occurrence in the book that would inspire them to tell a personal anecdote about themselves. These moments would also cause the members to speak in small groups amongst themselves. For instance, a discussion about a butter and sugar mixture had them all talking about variations of something similar that they used to eat, which broke off into different segments of conversations.

The facilitator only had to bring the group back to the topic a few times. She employed a device where she had pulled quotes from the author’s mother that the facilitator called “Momisms.” She had a list of these quotes and would often go back to them to brought the group back to the topic of the book.

One participant was more outspoken than others. She often was the first to answer and had commentary on just about everything said. I didn’t find her pushy or notice anyone seeming upset at her, but it was obvious that she was one of the more dominant members of the club. The facilitator mentioned to me later that she tries to reign her in to let others speak. Regardless, the points that this woman made were well thought out and added to the discussion in a non-disruptive way. On the flipside, I noticed that one woman didn’t seem to speak as much. I couldn’t recall anything that she had spoken, but I noticed at one point that she began to speak but didn’t get her words out before someone else started to speak. She didn’t try to contribute after that moment. That could be an area that the facilitator should take notice and direct other members in a non-threatening way such as, “I believe so-&-so was about to make a point.”

The meeting lasted a little over an hour. The next book was announced. The facilitator said that she wanted to do a classic and that the group was able to get a good deal on the books for the next discussion. After I carried a few sacks of books in from the car, the group was told that they were going to read Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. The group were excited by the title and loved the way the cover of the book looked. Before they adjourned, we took a few group photos and went our separate ways.