Book Club Experience

For this assignment, I participated in the Sacramento Public Library’s virtual Forever Young Adult Book Group, a book club where adults read and discuss teen books. An Adult Services Specialist led the group on Saturday, February 24. Approximately ten people who appeared to be between the ages of 20 and 40 joined the book group via Zoom, and many lived in other cities or states. The Adult Services Specialist began the meeting by telling everyone they could either unmute their microphones or use Zoom’s chat function to answer questions and share their thoughts. As someone who is often very anxious when interacting with new people, I appreciated this accommodation. The Adult Services Specialist then asked an icebreaker question (“If you could tell your high school self one thing, what would you share?”), which helped create a light and relaxed atmosphere. She then provided a brief overview of the book in question, Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute by Talia Hibbert, and mentioned the list of content warnings at the front of the novel. 

The Adult Services Specialist asked several open-ended questions throughout the discussion. The questions included: “What were your thoughts about our leading man and leading lady, Bradley and Celine?”; “Which romance trope did you enjoy most: enemies-to-lovers, friends-to-lovers, close proximity, or mutual pining?”; “What are your favorite tropes in general?”; “What did you think about the dialogue in the book? Was it believable for the characters to speak the way they did, or did it lean more to Gilmore Girls (i.e., highly amusing but not realistic)?”; “Who was your favorite secondary character?”; “Those of you who listened to the audiobook, what did you think of the narrators, and would you recommend the audio version?”; “What do you think of the cover art, and do you think it matches what happens in the story?”; “What is the meaning of the title, and who do we think ‘highly suspicious and unfairly cute’ are descriptors for?”; and “Would you recommend this book to another reader or another book group for discussion?” I didn’t read the book beforehand, but I did refer to Goodreads reviews to get a better understanding of and feel for the plot, characters, writing style, and overall romance. I thought the discussion leader’s questions were well-informed and led to fun and meaningful conversations about the book. 

Even though the book group met on Zoom, most attendees actively participated in the discussion. Nobody stole the spotlight, but only two or three people chose to use their microphones and answered all of the questions. Attendees raised their hands to answer verbally and took turns speaking rather than talking over each other. The chat was very active and especially useful for people who wanted to participate but weren’t yet comfortable speaking. The leader kept up with the comments and conversations in the chat and read each attendee’s response aloud to include them in the discussion. Hoffert (2019) notes that many librarians feel that book club leaders should be facilitators who don’t dominate discussions and focus instead on “providing background on the book and author, keeping the conversation on track, and formulating questions in advance (especially helpful when the conversation stalls)” (p. 31). The Adult Services Specialist provided background information and prepared many questions to keep the conversation moving and the group engaged. She ended the meeting by introducing the next book, The Cartographers by Amy Zhang, and encouraging attendees to register for the next meeting. Three days later, she sent a follow-up email to attendees that included an overview of our discussion, read-alikes, catalog links to check out the next book, and a link to register for the next meeting.

 
Reference
Hoffert, B. (2019 April). The book club experience. Library Journal, 30-33.