Attendees: Rosie, Agnes, Pat, Leslie, Sealia Wendy N, Wendy H, Katharine C,Denise, Peggy, and Barbara J.
First, Katharine Claringbull discussed the collaboration between the Montpellier English Library and the AWG Book Club. MEL generously agrees to host our monthly Friday morning meetings. Katharine thanked for new members from AWG who have joined MEL. Concerning the question of whether MEL would buy the 10 books chosen by AWG members, Katharine explained that such decisions need to be approved annually by the board. This year MEL voted to support the AWG by purchasing the quantity of books corresponding to the number of AWG Book Club members that are also members of MEL. The MEL budget is almost exclusively used for books and is determined by the number of MEL members in January. (Membership runs from Jan to Dec.) Katharine added that her husband Phil is MEL’s treasurer and keen to join Hello ASSO to simplify subscriptions. He is working on it and will keep us posted.
Next we discussed the survey created by Sealia to choose next year's books. Nine people suggested books and 14 voted. The most popular book was Long Island, with 13 votes. Four books got an equal number of votes and one had to be eliminated to come up with 10. A tie breaker vote between those 4 books resulted in Wuthering Heights being eliminated. We agreed that we would probably reread it and certainly discuss it when we read Fifteen Wild Decembers by Karen Powell, since it deals with the Brontes.
There followed a discussion about usefulness of the survey. Most people agreed that they prefer to vote for the books electronically rather than in person, since that allows more time for reflection. Rosie proposed that we keep survey and just vote for the books we really prefer. It was agreed that Sealia would make a survey next year allowing for a minimum of 5 choices and a maximum of 10.
We also decided that in next year’s call for book suggestions, we should keep the number capped at 3.
We then discussed the calendar for 2024-25, taking holiday dates into consideration.
November 15th: Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng. Presented by Denise
December 13 What You Are Looking For Is In The Library. Presented by Katharine C.
January 10: Tom Lake by Ann Patchett. Presented by Peggy
February 14: The Guilty Can’t Say Goodbye by Mariam Navaid. Presented by Sealia
March 14: Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano. Presented by Evette
April 11: Fifteen Wild Decembers by Karen Powell. Presented by Pat
June 13: The Kunstlers in Paradise by Cathleen Schine. Presented by Wendy H
September 12: The Hummingbird by Sandro Veronesi. Presented by Denise
October 10: Long Island by Colm Toibin. Presented by Rosie
Finally we considered the format of presentations. It was agreed that the presenter should not feel obliged to take up too much of the discussion time. In fact, the limit on people’s attention span is 20 minutes of listening to uninterrupted discourse (although some members said that theirs would be less!). We agreed that there is no need for a detailed synopsis of the book since we will all have read it. Similarly, “spoilers” are perfectly alright for the same reason. Questions are most welcome since they prompt discussion. We agreed that if any readers have questions about the book that they would like to have addressed, they may send them to the presenter ahead of time, with the understanding that she will use them in her presentation if she so wishes.
We also discussed Sue's suggestion that we start a poetry discussion group. One member wondered whether such a group wouldn’t be redundant since there’s already a British cultural association poetry group. Book group participants were not ready to include poetry discussions as part of their activities. However, they encouraged Susan to reach out to the AWG board if she is interested in starting an independent group.
