M. Suzanne Terry

One of the first “adult” novels I read was Danielle Steel’s Fine Things. I was probably 10 or 11, it was summer, and I was restless. We went to the library once every week or two, and I checked out the the maximum number of books I was allowed (whether by my mother or actual library policy, I don’t know), which was ten. I had exhausted my library selections and had already re-read my own small collection numerous times. So I went to Mom and uttered the two words we knew better than to ever say –

“I’m bored.”

Usually, this declaration received an enthusiastic vow to find us something (usually cleaning-related) to do immediately and for many hours into the foreseeable future. As much as I hated washing the wooden baseboards, though, I was desperate.

I was a reader without a book. In a word – ennuied.

Instead of the usual to-do list (which she mysteriously happened to always have on hand), Mom suggested I read. Like I hadn’t thought of that. When I explained my dilemma, she proposed an alternative. Why didn’t I choose something from her shelves?

Anything?! I marveled. I can choose anything there?!?

Apparently so. If I could reach it, I could read it. I darted out of the room to begin my feverish search before she changed her mind.

I’m not sure if she forgot that she had the romance novel on a lower shelf or if she really was ok with me reading it at my tender, pre-pubescent age, but Fine Things was the main book that stood out to me (Sins of the Fathers by Susan Howatch was also a contender).

In it, I discovered a whole new world of people interacting in what seemed to be (to my young, sheltered eyes) scandalous and brazen ways. Of course, my delicate sensibilities did not deter me from reading. I was hooked from the very beginning.

I’ve never considered romance a favorite genre until recently, but that may just be because I didn’t consider a lot of the books I read with romantic elements to be Romance ™. Is Chocolat a romance, or just a delectable story about opening a pâtisserie in a small town in France that happens to include some love connections? Does Nina George write romance, or are the books and the food the real love interests in her stories? Surely Jasmine Guillory (start with The Wedding Date) and Helen Hoang (The Kiss Quotient) are romance. I can’t wait to tuck into my next Alyssa Cole (How To Catch a Queen was pretty hot) and, while not set in contemporary times, all of Outlander as well as Bridgerton are on my TBR list. I also am a fan of Jemima J (and other Jane Green books) as well as the occasional Sophie Kinsella (The Undomestic Goddess pictured above is one of my favorites of hers).

I think part of my decision to embrace my love of romance novels is that I’d rather call these books “romance” than “chick lit,” a term I’m not super fond of. Because you don’t have to identify as a chick to love a good meet-cute (or a steamy sex scene). Both romance and chick lit genres have been the targets of disdain for “serious” readers (whatever in the world that means), but I don’t give that attitude a lot of credence either.

Whatever you call it, I love it. I read a fair amount of difficult topics, but I also like a tidy ending that promises years of happiness to come for the characters I’ve spent the whole book rooting for.

I’m spending October writing about the books I love (and hope to love in the future).

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My first book club of the month meets on the first Tuesday, so tonight is our meeting for October. We’re discussing Lisa Wingate’s The Book of Lost Friends, which I am enjoying. If you like historical fiction, particularly regarding the post-Civil War era and the plight of enslaved people during/after/seeking emancipation, give it a read.

This was the first book club I joined. It kinda set the standard for how laidback I like a book club to be. The person who hosts it is a friend from grad school, and pre-pandemic, we met at her house. We’d each bring food to share. Sometimes there was a theme, but mostly it was a motley potluck of whatever sounded good to us. There are a couple of great bakers in the group, and the host kept an emergency cake in the freezer, so there was always at least one dessert. The other common offering for meetings was plenty of wine. We have met online since March or April of 2020, and while I miss the delicious food spread, I love that we can include members who have moved away through Zoom. Also, there is still wine; it’s just in our own houses.

I appreciate that we don’t have to finish the book to be welcome. In fact, when the reminder went out a day or two ago, someone automatically replied, “I have 140 pages to go!” I also have not finished it yet, and the meeting is at 7:00 p.m. (I can do it! I think!). The unofficial rule on spoilers seems to be that we will try not to give too many details away if someone who hasn’t finished is intent on doing so and doesn’t want to know what happened, but that’s not usually the case (for the record – I personally don’t mind spoilers. They don’t take away from my enjoyment of a book, show, movie, etc., at all). We always talk about the book a little bit, but unless it was super juicy and we all finished it, the actual book discussion is usually short.

The best part of this group is getting to know and staying in touch with these amazing women. We keep up with what’s going on in each other’s families/lives. We share advice when it’s wanted and take each others’ sides in rants about work, difficult family members, and bad customer service. We give each other book recommendations and take bets on which of us will/won’t like next month’s selection. Also the host has a little free library on her porch and will pull books that she thinks we’ll enjoy to put aside for us.

I love having these book friends in my life.

I’m writing about books all month – click here to see the master list!

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I love sharing what I’m reading with other people, but other people don’t always care (or at least not as much as I do). I’ll start to fangirl over the latest book I’m reading, and they’ll nod and smile and listen for a few sentences. Then their eyes will glaze over, or they’ll start looking around like they’re searching for someone – anyone – else to talk to, and their part of the conversation will start to sound like, “Huh,” and “Uh-huh,” and “Oh, wow.” So I finish the sentence I’m on and set them free.

My book clubs, though, give me plenty of space to say everything I want to say about not only the things we’re reading together but also what else we’ve all been reading since the last time we met. We share recommendations and lend each other our own copies of things we think someone would particularly like. If you enjoy talking about books at all but also notice that sometimes when you do, people look like they want to run away, joining a book club may be just the place for you.

The trick is finding one that matches your book club personality.

Not all book clubs are the same. Some focus on the more social aspect of the gathering, while many are super serious about dissecting the plot devices the author used in the novel. And unless you start it yourself, the expectations for how discusssions are going to go have already been set, and they’re unlikely to be changed by a new member. The best way to find a book club you enjoy is to look for one with the structure you like.

There are a few key factors to consider when you’re trying to match your book club personality to an existing group:

1. Are there snacks? This may not seem like it’s related to the discussion at all, but the presence (or absence) of snacks, how many snacks there are, and who provides it all tell you some things about the expectations of the group. An elaborate spread, dinner, or potluck, complete with wine or other festive beverages, probably indicates (with one key exception I can think of, as you’ll see below) that this is mostly a social gathering that happens to have reading as a theme. If the conversation veers from the selection you’re discussing that evening, that’s probably not a big deal to anyone there. Coffee and tea with a few light refreshments provided by the host, on the other hand, probably indicates that they expect the discussion to be mostly focused on the book or genre scheduled, but they want you to feel welcome (or at least awake on a Saturday morning at the library). No snacks means serious business. You don’t have time to eat or drink anything – you have plot and characters and symbolism to discuss. Also, if you had food, you might spill on the book, and they wouldn’t like that at all. The only book club more serious than one without any food or drink is one with themed food and drink (and also maybe costumes).
2. Do you need to have finished the book to attend? This is the main factor that matters to me. Even as someone who almost always finishes the books we discuss each month, sometimes I need the option not to. First, life is too short and there are too many good books out there to struggle through one I’m just not enjoying. But I still want to hear what other people liked/disliked about it. Second, a great book club for me is always going to be about more than books. Book people are my people, and I’m theirs. Meeting with them each month is one of my favorite parts of my social life, and I don’t think I’d be comfortable with the idea that I’m only welcome if I’ve done the homework. You, on the other hand, may think that reading the book should be the bare minimum expected of attendees. After all, if you want to delve deep into the discussion of the book, it can be a bit of a bummer if others weren’t even interested enough to finish it. Knowing where you stand on this issue before you look for a book club to join can save you a lot of frustration.
3. How is the discussion structured? This question speaks to the practical aspects of the meeting, including how long you spend talking about the book, who leads the discussion, and how you know when it’s finished. You may be looking for long, relaxed evenings where you start by talking about what everyone liked about the book, which turns into a discussion about how it compares to other things you’ve read, which turns into musings on how it challenged or changed your perspective and what it means in the grander scheme of your life, culture, or the world. Perhaps you just want a short, casual meeting with other readers structured by a list of 10-15 questions designed to spark discussion about the book you all read before you go on with the rest of your day or evening. Other book clubs choose to just play it by ear, so the actual time you spend discussing the book can last ten minutes or two hours, depending on how much everyone has to say about it. If you have a definite preference, it won’t take long to decide whether a particular book club is right for you.
4. Are you a good fit for the personalities in the group? I once attended a few meetings of a group formed through a local bookstore. I was drawn to it because the focus they advertised was on feminist themes in classic literature, which sounded like it was right up my alley. It didn’t take long for me to realize that we weren’t a great fit, though. The members were enthusiastic, smart, witty, and friendly. They were also mostly professors or grad students in various English programs in the area, and they clearly didn’t want to avoid (or explain) the jargon known to those in their field in order to be more inclusive. They also did not appreciate my thinly veiled disdain for their insistance that some books are literary and some are not (implied – fluff, less than, not for serious readers). My tastes veered a little too much in the direction of the experimental for them. I think we were all relieved when my schedule suddenly “changed” (i.e., I intentionally made other plans those nights). But that’s how it goes. Just like with any other social group or relationship, sometimes everything looks right on paper, but it just doesn’t work. It may take a few meetings to figure it out that you belong, but once you do, it’s wonderful.

If you want to join a book club but don’t know where to start, this post gives a lot of great suggestions. Then it’s kinda like dating. You go out with a few of them until you find one (or three or four) that works.

What kind of book club do you enjoy?

I’m talking about books all month long!

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A big part of my reading life is taking notes – on what I’ve read and when I read it, how much I liked it, what I want to read, etc. Maybe someone out there is wondering, “But…why? Isn’t reading enjoyable enough on its own?” Well, yes. I loved to read long before I actually kept any sort of records about it. But why settle for enjoyable enough when I can heighten the enjoyment? That’s what tracking does for me.

There are several reasons why I track my reading habits and goals:

• It helps me stay out of the reading rut. Left to my own devices, I will grab the nearest thing to read and plow my way through. When I do this, I tend to gravitate to certain types of books. There’s nothing wrong with that, of course, but after a while, even my favorite genre starts to seem like homework if that’s all I’m reading. Actually planning my reading and keeping track of what I’ve finished helps me head off staleness at the pass so that I am more likely to stay engaged.
• Related to the first point, tracking my reading helps me ensure that I’m not just sticking to my comfort zone by gravitating toward authors who tell stories that are similar to my own. One of my favorite benefits of reading is that it constantly fine-tunes my ability to empathize and appreciate other people’s perspectives, and maintaining some diversity in my selections is a good way to aid this process. 
• Tracking gives me better recommendations. I love tracking through Scribd, because when I rate something highly after I finish it, it updates with suggestions for other books I might enjoy. So what if my TBR list is so long I’d never finish it in 10 lifetimes? I like having well-curated choices.
• Keeping up with what I’ve read also helps me offer better recommendations to others. Inevitably, upon learning that I love to read, people will ask, “What’s the best book you’ve read?” First, how dare you ask me to choose just one. Second, off the top of my head? I have no idea. I can gush at length about one of the books I’m currently reading, but if a person (or one of my book clubs) is actually looking for something I liked that they might like, too? I’m going to pull up the trusty Goodreads app and peruse my personal reading challenge lists and filter through until I find something I think they’ll enjoy. 

In March 2020, when everything shut down, I found myself going through my planner and crossing out all the plans that were getting canceled. I tried making it festive by putting stickers over them, but the novelty of that wore off quickly. So as the fresh pages of new weeks appeared, I just started using my planner as my TBR list. I limited it to my notes section in my 2021 planner, but it was already full by the end of August. Now I have a designated book journal that I carry around. 

I also just got the newly released book journal by Anne Bogel (aka Modern Mrs. Darcy, queen of book lists) called My Reading Life. I have started thumbing through it and think it will be an excellent way to track at least the books I read for book club, as the tracking pages each have a notes section. She also gives tips for leading book club discussions (which is great – because I’m not awesome at that), her own tips for overcoming ruts, suggestions for setting reading goals, and, of course, more TBR lists. I look forward to using it!

Do you track your reading? If so, what’s your process like?

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I read so many good things this month that I had a hard time narrowing it down to five. Because I’m writing about books all month (and thus will have ample opportunity to discuss the others), I am appeased to highlight the five this month that stood out not only because I really liked them but also because of a certain factor that made this book (or, in the case of the first one, this author) particularly extraordinary.

Super vague? Yes. But I know what I meant, and hopefully you will, too, soon. I promise there’s method to the madness.

1. Anxious People by Fredrik Backman – Let me get this out of the way first – I LOOOOOVE Fredrik Backman. He writes character-driven fiction that is hilarious, charming, and detailed. When my own characters are falling flat and I can’t seem to make them come alive, I pause and read a little while out of whichever of his books is nearest to me to remind myself how to do it. Another reason I love his books is that in each one, there is at least one scenario that could go quite badly, but then the characters choose empathy and kindness instead of fear or selfishness, and the reader gets to see how wonderfully those decisions play out. And this may be my favorite book of his I’ve read yet. I wish I could give it more than five stars on Goodreads, because five is not enough.
2. The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See – Set mainly in Jeju off the coast of Korea, this book takes you through the story of the friendship and hardships between two haenyeo (female divers who harvested the ocean to support their families). I didn’t know anything about these legendary women before I picked up this book, and the tale is intriguing. While the book itself is fiction, it takes you through the area’s history, highlighting particularly the regimes in control, particularly during World War II and the Korean war (minor tangent – colonialism is trash). I also found the family structure in the divers’ subculture fascinating. Definitely glad my book club chose this one, because I’m not sure I would have picked it up myself, and I would have been missing out.
3. Caste by Isabel Wilkerson – I started reading Caste as part of HR’s summer book club at work. There has been a lot of praise about this book already, and I don’t have much to add to what has already been said, except to say that it lives up to the hype. It is both meticulously researched and artfully written. One of the reasons it takes me so long to get through a lot of nonfiction is that it often reads so drily. It still took me a while to read this one but that’s because I didn’t want to miss a single word of her beautiful prose. I can’t wait to read her previous book The Warmth of Other Suns next.
4. How To Be Both by Ali Smith – This book is also exquisitely written. It’s presented in two interrelated parts – one set in the 1400s and one set in more modern times. Some versions are printed with the older time frame first and some with the more recent time frame first. My copy started in recent years, but I kinda want to read it again a few years from now (after I’ve forgotten enough details that it feels quasi-new-ish) with the other time frame first.
5. Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton – Ok, so I haven’t technically finished this one yet. I’m listening during my commute, so it takes a little longer to get through it. But I don’t need to finish it to know I adore it. The main narrator is a crow. That’s it. That’s all it took to sell me on this series. But it gets better – it’s a zombie novel told from the perspective of a crow. I found out about it when we had our first in-person meeting of our book club at the local public library, and we were invited to take a couple of free books that they were sent. I chose the second book in the series (Feral Creatures, which is on the TBR for this month), so I decided to listen to the library’s audio copy first. It did not disappoint. Clever concept and good, witty writing. 

What have you read recently that you’d recommend?

I’m writing about my love of books all month.

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