Book Club Experience

          

         I attended Mystery Loves Company at Hamilton East Public Library with Jan hosting. This book club meets monthly and they typically read mysteries and thrillers. I work with Jan in public services and let her know ahead of time that I was coming, but didn’t want to register so I could leave a spot for a patron since I would just be observing for the most part. She was super exicted to have me and introduced me to the group as one of her colleagues finishing her master's program. This month’s book was The Night Shift by Alex Finlay and I thoroughly enjoyed it; I did not guess the mystery either! 
    This is a hybrid program, so we had a few people join us on Zoom too and we ended up with 17 people in attendance.  Before we started discussion the book, Jan introduced herself and had us go around the room and share our name and what we like to read. I recognized several of the patrons in attendance as attending another book club that I have covered before - they were excited to see that I was there again which made me feel welcome too. We also all made name tags and grabbed bookmarks that had the rest of the books picked out for the year on them. 
 In the book clubs that I have covered before, we usually have a rolling snack cart with coffee and tea, but Jan did not have it tonight. I do not think she usually has that available. 
    Jan took charge and asked questions when needed, but the conversation flowed naturally. She also made sure that everyone felt comfortable to speak. I observed more than chatted, but Jan asked for my thoughts a couple times so I wouldn’t feel excluded, which I appreciate from a leader. We were asked how we felt about particular characters, whether or not we figured the mystery out, and a general if we liked the book. I loved how because of this, I felt like the discussion was balanced. One thing that a lot of us were hung up on is that one of the characters is an FBI Agnent and is 8 months pregnant with twins. This character put herself in some questionable situations that were probably way to dangerous for her babies and I jokingly spoke up and said, “Well, the author looks like a middle aged white guy, I’m sure he doesn’t know anything about pregnant women” and they all thought that was hilarious. I just had to suspend my disbelief for that one! 
      I would like to attend next month too. They are reading All Good People Here by Ashley Flowers. I read it when it came out last year but I’m curious what people think about the book and her, particularly with her podcast and plagiarism accusations.