Book Club Visit: A public library book club which meets the last Monday of each month

February 25, 2019:  The librarian in charge of the program escorted me upstairs. From her description of the program, it generally followed the LitLovers’ suggestions on the I Love Libraries site:

Ground Rules:

·         Members who haven’t read the book. (LitLovers)

The moderator asked if anyone had not finished the book. A couple of members had not, and two of us had read the book months ago.

·         Disagreements about the book. (LitLovers)

 The moderator welcomed and listened to everyone’s comments without judgement.

·         Dominating personalities. (LitLovers)

One man was vocal about his dislike of the book and tended to ramble. However he allowed other members to take their turns without interruption.

Book Selection Process and Meeting Format

·         Don't read favorites. Do mix genres. Don't choose for the whole year.  (LitLovers)

            The book club digressed from LitLovers’ guide in this section. Although they choose books from different genres that are not members’ favorites, every November the group makes selections for the following year. That session begins ½ hour earlier to allow for the selection process and the book discussion. The meeting did not include a social time or discussion of administration issues. The 90 minute discussion focused on the chosen book. The member who has chosen that month’s book leads the discussion.

Experience

            The discussion group consisted of ten people, including me. Each person attending that night were regular participants. All but one man from Rwanda and me were senior citizens from the local community. There were three men and seven women. The club met upstairs in a boardroom. We sat around an oval table and each of us had a place card with our name on it. On my visit, the selected book was the young adult dystopian novel, Scythe, by Neal Shusterman.

             Book Summary  (Source: Carmel Clay Public Library online catalog)

Two teens must learn the "art of killing" in the first in a chilling new series from Neal Shusterman, author of the New York Times bestselling Unwind dystology. A world with no hunger, no disease, no war, no misery: humanity has conquered all those things, and has even conquered death. Now Scythes are the only ones who can end life--and they are commanded to do so, in order to keep the size of the population under control. Citra and Rowan are chosen to apprentice to a scythe--a role that neither wants. These teens must master the "art" of taking life, knowing that the consequence of failure could mean losing their own (CCPL).

            The woman who led the discussion was a retired middle school English literature teacher. Her experience managing teens proved useful during the lively meeting. She started by asking if anyone had strong feelings about the book, its topic, or characters. Next she turned to the person to her right and asked them to share their thoughts. The other participants responded in succession. When the conversation came to one of the men, he condemned the book as blasphemous and an affront to the Bible.  Everyone listened politely and voiced their opinions calmly. I did however notice some disapproving and exasperated facial expressions among the members. One woman rolled her eyes when he said the book was “pure evil.”

            Probably the most interesting comments about the book came from the man from Rwanda. He talked about the author’s choice of the word “culling” to describe the act of killing as a means of population control. The scythes perform a duty analogous to one in Rwanda, he said, where culling is done to conserve African elephants and other animals. The man said that elephants can be very destructive; they threaten their own ecosystems when they uproot trees and trample plants in forests as they eat and roam. He also referred to the genocide in Rwanda as a form of culling. His reflections sparked questions about whether immortality in the scythe’s world is better than life in the age of mortality:

When there is no disease and income is guaranteed, is the motivation to improve taken away?
And if so, what is the value of life?

There still seems to be a built-in inequality because the scythes have power other people do not.
Is Shusterman creating a nihilistic society?

             When the discussion ended, the moderator placed handouts about the Scythe story arc on the table in case anyone was interested in reading the series. I was surprised that she had not passed out the materials at the beginning of our conversation. When everyone had left, the librarian and the retired teacher explained that the man who was so opposed to the book responded that way to any books they read. The women said that he only reads nonfiction, and he frequently references the 1950s TV show, Leave It to Beaver, as the standard of content appropriate for children and teens.

Evaluation

This was the first library book club I have attended. I enjoyed the experience, even though the one man seemed determined to make the conversation a platform for his religious beliefs. The moderator and other members managed to keep the discussion’s focus on the book. Each participant contributed interesting observations and stimulated conversation. Overall I found the experience enjoyable and would like to attend another meeting with the group in the future.

References

CCPL (Carmel Clay Public Library). (2019). Scythe: Summary. Carmel Clay Public Library. Retrieved from https://www.carmel.lib.in.us/

Starting a Book Club. http://www.ilovelibraries.org/booklovers/bookclub/bookclub

Shusterman, N. (2016). Scythe. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.