Share Your Reading Experience with Others

Do you ever finish the last sentence of book and wish that you could rave about how much you loved it with someone? Or rant to someone about how you couldn't believe it ended that way?  Every month, we are itching to share and listen to what others thought at Neill Public Library's Grand Avenue Book Club (GAB).

Our first GAB meeting was held in 2008, with a group of passionate readers who were anxious to talk about books with others. We read The Last Lecture by best-selling author Randy Pausch, who had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. With humor and encouragement, the writer gave his last lecture on "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" to his Carnegie Mellon students. Like wildfire, with such an inspiring book, this first meeting sparked a monthly opportunity for friends and strangers alike to come together and share their love of reading.

Since 2008, GAB has grown to include over 30 community members and more than 50 titles have been read and discussed. Our titles are based on suggestions the group has gathered from best-sellers lists to hidden gems to recommendations from friends. We vote on the titles every six months, alternating between non-fiction and fiction titles for each month. As a result of our involvement with GAB, we have had the opportunity get to know authors on a personal level as we video-Skyped with authors such as science curioso Mary Roach, author of Stiff: Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, a hilarious investigation of the journeys our bodies go through postmortem. Brandon Schrand, local U of I English professor, did a reading from The Enders Hotel, a coming of age memoir about growing up in a historic hotel in Soda Springs, Idaho. Young adult author Jacqueline Kelly, video-Skyped with us to discuss to her award-winning book The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, a story of young Calpurnia exploring the natural world around her in 1899 and her rumpus sequel to Kenneth Grahame's Wind in the Willows, Return to the Willows, where we joined Toad, Mole, Rat, and Badger on an adventure in the English countryside.

Many of the titles we have read are part of Neill Public Library's Book Club in a Bag collection, a collection developed for local book clubs to have access to multiple copies of the same book and discussion questions to start the conversation with reading friends. This collection is supported by the generous contributions of the Friends of Neill Public Library, a non-profit organization that supports the library with materials and programs not allotted in the library's budget. A complete list of this collection can be found at www.neill-lib.org. If you would like to find out more information about becoming a Friend of the Library, please visit their website at http://www.friendsofnpl.com.

Grand Avenue Book Club meets every first Thursday of each month at 6:30pm in Neill Public Library's Hecht Meeting Room. Our next meeting is Thursday August 1st, where we will be discussing Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris. If you would like to find out more information about this library program, please contact Rezina or Jodi at (509) 334-3595.

By Jodi Prout, Circulation Assistant at Neill Public Library
published 7/27/13 in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News