Last Tuesday, Bonny and Carole and I hosted the Read With Us book discussion for our spring selection, How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair. As always, we had a lively and interesting discussion. It also made Read With Us history, as I hosted the Zoom from our cabin up north. (I was a bit discombobulated, and not quite as “together” as I usually TRY to be. But it worked.)

Since How to Say Babylon is a memoir, the beginnings of our discussion focused on memoir-as-a-genre. The group, as you might imagine, had varying opinions on reading memoirs. Some of us enjoy reading them (although for most of us, it all depends on the “subject” or author), while some of us really don’t care for the genre at all. We enjoyed sharing our impressions about the book, discussing Safiya’s family and childhood, her mother’s influence, the power of education and poetry, Rastafarianism, and forgiveness/redemption.

I’m always pleased and happy that so many of you are willing to jump into the reading “deep end” with us — especially when you pick up books to Read With Us that you might not choose to read otherwise. One of the best things about book groups, after all, is sharing our reading experiences with book friends. Most readers who participate in book groups find that their understanding of and appreciation for a book is enhanced when they talk about it with other readers. This has certainly has been true for us in the Read With Us book group. Whether we enjoyed a particular selection or not, we always come away from the Zooms with a new perspective and a deeper understanding of the book we’ve just shared.

And . . . we enjoy each other’s company, too!
(Which is the best kind of book group bonus.)

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Be sure to check our our Read With Us posts next Tuesday . . . when we reveal our summer book selection. (Hint: It’s not a memoir.)