LitClub: First, the Food
Greater Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina

That was 10 years ago— What's happened since?
A lot. We were in our 20's, in grad school or first jobs. We've had weddings, births, new relationships, new jobs—some at home as moms and some head-ing back out to the workforce.

Tell us about the food first.
We generally eat first. Everyone brings a dish—signing up on our website to avoid duplication.
Sometimes the food is themed:

Water for Elephants—circus food, including individual bags of pop-corn, peanuts, etc.

Dracula—Bloody Marys, garlic bread, and a red velvet cake in the shape of a bat!

Beloved—cornbread, fish, collard greens, among other things. We took it from the feast scene in the book.

Fast Food Nation—homemade versions of...what else, fast food.

What's your "March Mystery Month? It sounds cool.
It's our favorite tradition. We pick a "whodunit" mystery for every March. But only one member finishes the book. She tells the rest of us where to stop—before all is revealed. We all read to the stopping point and come to the meeting with our theories on who committed the crime and why. Even it's a lousy mystery, it's always fun.

What else have you read?
Here's our 2007-08 list:

Dracula
The Alchemist
Suite Francaise
Dreams From My Father
The Post-Birthday World
Ghostwritten
Kate Vaiden
The Virgin of Small Plains
Water for Elephants
Anna Karenina
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
The Feminine Mistake
Evening

Any favorites over the 10 years?
Our top vote getters of all the books we’ve read were:

Atonement
The Handmaid’s Tale
Jane Eyre
The Time Traveler’s Wife
East of Eden
The Namesake
The Blind Assassin

Best discussions?
Dreams from My Father made us wonder how much we connect with our ethnic/racial backgrounds. Post-Birthday World piqued questons of romance and fidelity. The Sparrow (religion and ethics); Life of Pi (faith); Handmaid's Tale (feminism and fundamentalism), East of Eden (sin). Then there's Eat, Pray, Love—which covers just about evany ery topic you can think of!

Any disappointments?
Surprisingly, Anna Karenina! Many of us are distressed that so many female characters in classic literature seem to be so little in control of their destiny. They fall in love, and then describe the rest of events as things that happen to them, feelings beyond their control.

  Some of us observe this in more contemporary literature, such as The Post Birthday World and Little Children.

  Liz thinks that this is why she loves Jane Eyre so much. Jane feels that pull to Mr. Rochester very intensely, but she still makes an explicit choice to leave him, then to be with him again.

What about outside regular meetings?
We do lots of things: we go out to dinner or to movies—especially if it's an adaptaton of a book we've read. We took a long weekend trip to the beach to celebrate our 10th anniversary, something we now plan on doing every year.

  We have surprise wedding showers, and baby showers when we each give the mother-to-be a children's book. In December we have a holiday party for spouses and children, when we have white-elephant book exchanges from our own bookshelves.

  We now have a 2nd book exchange for the kids.
  
On selecting books—any rules?
1) We choose monthly, two-at-a-time, which gives busy moms a way to schedule their reading more easily.

2) We alternate our picks by working our way down the list of members.

3) We have one rule: to choose, you must have been at 3 of the past 4 meetings. Seems a little harsh, but we've had some members come to a few meetings, choose a book, and then not show up when their book was discussed...or ever again!

And Kevin Bacon's in your group? Is that right?
Sort of.... We recruit friends and friends-of-friends, and most of us knew only one, two, or three others. But it turns out that Marina, who joined in 2005, has independent connections to nearly everyone in the group—like "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon." She's related through roommates, boy friends, best friends, sisters, brothers, husbands, college friends, work colleagues—you name it. She gets around.

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