New Attitude

Ethereal Reader Book Club began in October 2009 from an idea hatched by my sister Jen and me. We are both voracious readers, were dissatisfied with our existing book clubs, and needed an outlet to talk about books we read.

We started out as a small group that consisted mainly of my sisters, with some other family members thrown in. Over time, we have added a few new members. The idea always was that participation was voluntary and there was no pressure. If a member wanted to participate fully by voting on books, reading the chosen book, and posting comments about the book, then that was awesome. However, if a member only wanted to read some of the books, and maybe didn’t want to participate at all via comments, or only wanted to find out the names of some new and interesting books, or only wanted to participate some of the time, that was all okay.

In the beginning, we had a pretty good discussion about books. We would comment back and forth, at least to a certain degree, which is what my sister and I had envisioned. Over time, however, participation changed. Fewer people read the books, and fewer still participated. And the discussion became more like book reports.

And we all remember what it felt like in high school when you had to write a book report. So it’s no wonder that participation dwindled.

As we talked to members to see why they couldn’t or wouldn’t participate, we found out that some people felt they just didn’t have time to read a book in the time we allotted. Others felt that the books we chose were too dark and they didn’t want to waste valuable reading time with a dark book. Still others just hated the part about commenting.

So, being very open-minded (but also stubborn enough to not throw in the towel) , we decided to go back to the drawing board and see if we could shake things up a bit. After all, there is still a core group of about five that participate fully, and we would like to continue to talk books with them (and add to that group if possible).

Action plan:

We have come up with a list of six books that we are going to read over the next 12 months. The list, which admittedly was compiled by a small group, consists of a variety of books:  a nonfiction, a couple of novels, a mystery, a couple of classics. Yes, taking away the voting part makes this a dictatorship/book club, but we were getting fewer and fewer voters, and last time my sisters and I chose the book as no one else voted. Our thought is that this way participants can look ahead and decide which of the books interests them. Since one of the chief complaints was that members didn’t have enough time to read as they were busy with family activities, work, etc., we feel knowing the books and the dates 12 months in advance will allow everyone time to read the books they actually want to read.

Knowing the books ahead of time will also allow us to tell our friends who may want to participate in the discussion for just a certain book. I really believe the more people that participate in Ethereal Reader, the better the discussion.

And, as for discussion, we would really like to encourage a return to not just commenting, but reacting to others’ comments. In fact, after the initial review, don’t feel like you need to write a dissertation about the book (unless you feel so inclined). Our plan was always that participants would react to the initial review, adding thoughts of their own. We would like to make this as interactive as is possible in this format.

Here is the list of books, along with the dates of reading and discussion:

The Kingmaker’s Daughter, by Philippa Gregory

                Read from April 1 through May 25; discussion May 25 through June 1

Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland’s History-Making Race Around the World, by Matthew Goodman

                Read from June 2 to July 27; discussion July 27 to August 3

Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker, by Jennifer Chiaverini

                Read from August 4 to September 28; discussion September 28 to October 5

My Antonia, by Willa Cather

                Read from October 6 through November 16 (shorter reading time because it is a shorter book); discussion November 16 to November 23

A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens

                Read from November 24 through December 28, discussion December 28 to January 4

Damage Control, by J.A. Jance

                Read from January 5 through February 22; discussion February 23 to March 1

I will send a reminder email as we start each book. I will be interested in hearing how you all feel about knowing the books in advance. And, as usual, if you have any ideas on how to make our discussions better, or anything else, let me know. Also, if you have any trouble making your comments, let me know that as well and we can coach you. Worse case scenario, I can post your comment for you.

One last thought, some time ago Margaret had suggested that we have a section where we talk about other books we are reading/have read. I, being a technology simpleton, don’t know how to do that as part of the blog, other than putting it in the comment section. I will continue to work on figuring that out. In the meantime, please let all of us know when you are excited about a book. 

Book Review (or why the guests were uninvited...

Wow. I’m not even sure what to say about this book. I vascillated between hating it and being extremely amused by it. I can’t say I ever loved it.

I generally am very clear on how I feel about the characters in a book. Sometimes I am disgruntled to find that I don’t like a character that I think the author wants me to like. Except for Emerald, and perhaps Patience and Ernest, and of course Smudge, I heartily disliked the characters most of the time, but liked them on and off. But my suspicion is that this is exactly what the author wants me to feel.

Though the social mores of the main characters were disturbing (i.e. ignoring the train survivors in lieu of preparing for the party), I could understand (if not forgive) because of my love of Downton Abbey. The classes were the classes in post-Victoria n England, and these characters could not be any different, even though they were actually quite penniless.

I found the author’s writing style quite charming and quirky. The plot was bizarre, but funny – almost like a play. In fact, I could see making this into a play. The story of Smudge and the pony was hilarious. In fact, the intermingling of everything that was happening as the night ensued was really funny, and I could have actually whole-heartedly loved this book if it hadn’t been for the whole ghost thing that seemed to come out of nowhere and then be dismissed fairly off-handedly.

Charles was utterly despicable, but apparently quite charming and charismatic. I was initially morally affronted during the parlor game in which guests were to name something unique about one of the others, and I began squirming when it seemed to turn mean. How could they do this, I wondered. All of the sudden, a memory came crawling into my mind – something not even my two sisters know about and will be horrified to read.

When I was in junior high school, I went to the birthday party of one of my school friends, whose mother had a hair salon in their basement. Not surprisingly, BOYS crashed the party. Nothing good comes of an unsupervised gathering of junior high girls and boys. At some point, the boys decided it would be hilarious to write something on one of the girls’ foreheads using nail polish. Yours truly was the one selected. Now, most assuredly, some little voice in my head told me this was not a good idea; nevertheless, in an unending pursuit of popularity, I agreed to it. I was blindfolded, and one of the boys proceeded to use nail polish to write on my forehead. Upon removing the blindfold, I discovered the boy had hilariously written F*** on my face. Now whether nail polish remover was unavailable or we just didn’t think about it, the way we removed the polish was by using a brillo pad to scrape off the top layer of my skin, leaving a bright red mark across the top of my face.

The reason this memory came back is that it reminded me just how easily human nature allows us to do something that is profoundly wrong just to be accepted by others. That is what I saw happening during that parlor game. The guests all knew it was wrong, and yet they kept playing and, in fact, became quite mean. Interesting.

Once it was disclosed that Charles was a ghost, I realized that the others were ghosts as well, so the ending didn’t really come as a surprise.

I would definitely NOT recommend this book to others, though, as I said, I found the author’s writing to be quite funny, and the story to be really clever at times. Still, it says a lot that the best thing I can say about this book is that it was blessedly short.