Book club mania

The book clubs of Laguna Beach provide people with an opportunity to

expand their horizons as they socialize.

Recently, a local book club meeting turned into a celebrity event

when Franz Wisner, author of the best-selling “Honeymoon with My

Brother,” made an appearance.

Book club member Janelle Naess said members were delighted to meet

the author of one of their favorite books, a memoir about a world

tour Wisner took with his brother after being stranded at the altar.

The book is being made into a motion picture.

“It was nice,” Naess said of the visit. “They [the author and his

brother] have Orange County roots. It was great, well-written and

easy to relate to.”

Naess isn’t alone in her love of books or her membership in a book

club. Laguna Beach is littered with them, from women’s clubs to

couples’ clubs to children’s clubs.

Diane Kloke, a member of a women’s club and a couples’ club, said

that one of the draws of book clubs is the opportunity to socialize.

“The thing with ladies’ book clubs is that it makes them friends,”

Kloke said. “We’ve known each other through all the ups and downs and

changes in people’s lives.”

Naess agrees.

“Usually there’s no husbands, no kids, no authors. Just a bunch of

girls having dinner, wine and discussing books,” Naess said.

Friendship was only one of the motivations Megan Mayer had when

she organized a mother-daughter book club with her daughter, Kate.

She admitted that the club strengthened her daughter’s friendships

-- and her own -- but she said it’s also important to “enrich their

understanding and comprehension of literature” and to help the girls

learn to “share varying opinions” and respect them.

Mayor Elizabeth Pearson-Schneider, a member of a book club,

expressed a similar idea. “I think the value of book clubs is that

you are compelled to read books you might never have otherwise read,”

she said.

“It opens new worlds that you may never have seen.”

Book clubs may provide benefits to their members, but they are not

easy to start or run.

Mayer, whose club advertises itself by word of mouth and on a

small bus that one of the mothers drives, said that at first it’s

difficult to “hope that others will join in and help out.

“But the group we have has just been wonderful,” she added.

Her group was so popular that she had to split it into four clubs

in order to keep the number of children per club manageable.

Another problem can come from the book selection. Children’s

librarian Rebecca Porter, of the Laguna Beach Library, personally

selects the books for the two children’s clubs that she runs.

“We don’t read a lot of nonfiction,” she said. “A lot of

children’s nonfiction reads more like school assignments.”

Mayer’s book clubs solve their selection problems through

dictatorship: Whoever hosts the meeting chooses the book.

Naess’ club and another, called Wine, Women and Words, are more

egalitarian.

The latter club takes the summer off so members may independently

read books that they might propose for the club.

In September they vote on all the books they will read that year.

Naess’ nameless club chooses books by majority vote at each month’s

meeting, when they also choose the next month’s hostess.

The library helps out by allowing book clubs in Laguna to put

books on hold for members.

BOOK CLUBS

For more information on Wine, Women and Words, visit:

www.book-club.co.nz/bookclubs/ourbookclub.htm

For advice on starting your own club, see:

www.readsinggroupguides.com

www.book-club.co.nz

www.canadianbookclubs.com