Sign up for Mother-daughter Book Club Newsletter

The second edition of the Mother-daughter book club newsletter will be on the way in just a few days. There’s still time to sign up and receive the latest issue.

This month I’ll be featuring a review of Frank Cottrell Boyce’s new book Cosmic, and The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson. There’s also an interview with Heather Vogel Frederick, author of The Mother-Daughter Book Club, and a profile a the book club I’m in with my youngest daughter, Catherine.

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This Boy’s Life

My mother-daughter book club with Madeleine met last week to discuss This Boy’s Life by Tobias Wolff. This was our first memoir, and it’s unfortunate that it came so close to the end of school that many of the girls were too stressed studying for finals to read much of it. The moms and two of the girls had read it, and we had an interesting discussion.

The story begins when 10-year-old Toby is driving with his mother from Florida to Utah to escape his mother’s abusive boyfriend. They eventually keep moving on to Seattle and finally to a small town north of there. The moms were a bit frustrated that we didn’t know more about Toby’s life before then: we find out his mother is divorced and an older brother lives with the father, but we never learn more than that about his earlier life.

The memoir takes place starting in the mid-1950s, and it’s surprising to read about neglect and abuse in an era that often evokes thoughts of “Happy Days.” The moms wanted to see more redemption in the story. Toby changes his name to Jack, gets into trouble out of boredom and lack of supervision, and generally seems to be on a course that will limit a successful future. We know he comes out well on the other side, because we know he’s an accomplished writer, but we don’t get to see that in This Boy’s Life. The girls were more accepting of those limitations and read the story for what it was. A snapshot of Toby’s life from the time  he left Florida until the time he left high school. Through the years he learns to survive. The author wastes no emotional energy on his younger self, giving it to the reader straight through the boy’s actions and letting us draw our own conclusions about his emotional state.

All in all, it was a good book to discuss, and it was interesting for us to read a memoir with an author writing about the same age our daughters are now. Recommended for 11th grade and up.

Mother-daughter Book Interview

When I interviewed author Christina Hamlett recently (read interview), she then turned the tables and interviewed me about mother-daughter book clubs for American Chronicle. How interesting it was to be on the other side of the pen. Here’s a link for you to read Christina’s interview. Check it out!

Spotlight on a Mother-Daughter Book Club

Featured mother-daughter book club
Eight moms and daughters from Brookfield, Wisconsin

The mebers of this mother-daughter book club in Brookfield generously took time during their last meeting to answer some questions about their group. Read on to find out how the group started on some of their favorite books.

How did your group get started, and what grade were your daughters in when you first formed?

Our group started at the beginning of the girls’ seventh grade. Several mothers had done similar clubs with older daughters and suggested we form a club for this group of girls. The girls have a relatively small class so we invited all of the girls in their class to join and decided we would form one or two groups depending on level of interest. Our original group was 7 mother daughter pairs so we elected to do a single book club. We will meet through the summer after 8th grade - we decided high school activities would preclude meeting in high school.

How many mother/daughter pairs are in your book club?
We are now up to 8 pairs - one mother/daughter joined us after a few months. They had originally declined due to other commitments but heard our discussions at other school events and decided they were missing out.

How often do you meet?
This varies depending on other school activities and holidays but is generally every 6 weeks.

Do you tend to read certain genre books?
Everyone brings suggestions of books they would like to read and we have had quite a variety. We generally get consensus on which book we will read next.

Tell us about the three books you’ve read that have been favorites with the group and what you liked about them.

• The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd - a wonderful story of women and their diverse friendships. Teaches perseverance and acceptance of others. We have already talked about doing a book club reunion when the movie comes out next year.
• Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick - Funny and sad story with a great boy lead character.
• The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom - thought-provoking book that led to a great discussion and made us all think about the impact we have on others.

Do you have activities outside of book club?
We plan to go to a movie of one of the books we have read and then out for dinner where we can compare the movie and the book.

Can you offer any tips or advice to other mother/daughter book clubs?
Make it a fun, quality time for mothers and daughters - not one more chore for the girls, another assignment to finish, an attempt to improve reading skills, etc. To make it fun, each meeting was hosted by one mother-daughter pair and the discussion led by another pair. We always started with a game - often based on a TV game show - that “quizzed” us on some details of the book. We had inexpensive prizes which were theme based - for example Burt’s Bees Lip Balm for Secret Life of Bees. The hosts often served theme-based food - for example, Chinese food for the meeting to discuss Chinese Cinderella. The game and food made the meetings fun and helped lead to great discussions. We had prepared questions to prompt discussion - each one started by of the girls. Eight mother/daughter pairs was a good size - I don’t think you can go much bigger and have a discussion that includes everyone. Teach the girls to listen - at first everyone tried to talk at once but we eventually got to the point where one girl started the discussion and everyone contributed.

Mother-Daughter Book Club Meeting Last Night

Last night my daughter Catherine and I met with our mother-daughter daughter book club. We had read A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly. The girls are in eighth grade, and this book addresses more mature subject matters than we’ve addressed before. The girls were ready for it.

Most of us thought A Northern Light was a beautifully written book with well-developed, complicated characters who made difficult choices. It was a great entrée to discuss the limitations put on women by society in the early 1900s, and to talk about how the girls’ choices in life are so different now from when the characters were living or even from when the moms were growing up.

Set in upstate New York, A Northern Light weaves the real-life story of Grace Brown into the fictional story of Mattie Gokey (Mathilda Gauthier). Mattie’s mother has died, exacting a promise from Mattie to take care of her younger sisters and her father and brother. But Mattie’s father is isolated from his family emotionally, as he works non-stop to eke out a living on his farm. Mattie’s brother has left, after a blow-up with his father, and no one expects to see him again. Mattie’s sisters need parenting, but not from an older sister.

And Mattie has dreams of her own. She’s a talented writer who’s been accepted with a scholarship to attend Barnard College in New York. But how will she ever get the money to live while in school or permission from her father to leave? Told in flashbacks between a time when Mattie’s story intersects with Grace Brown’s, a young girl who drowned on a lake at a summer camp in the Adirondacks, and Mattie’s life leading up to that point, the story moves along at a comfortable pace until we ultimately reach the point of Mattie’s biggest decision. Donnelly flawlessly weaves in vivid details of life in the Adirondacks - lumbering camps for logging, isolated farms, summer camps for wealthy tourists, supply boats, and one-room schoolhouses - that transports the reader back to that time in history.

It also deals frankly with several sexual situations. While the passages dealing with these situations were a little awkward to read out loud, they were appropriate for readers eighth grade and older, and they also gave us a chance to discuss some issues that are tough to talk about if you’re not discussing a character in a book. Highly recommended for older mother-daughter book clubs.

Sign up for the new Mother Daughter Book Club newsletter

Beginning this month, I’ll be publishing a bi-monthly newsletter for mother-daughter book clubs. Here’s what you can expect to find in each issue:

• Book reviews for different age groups
• An interview with an author or librarian or someone else with helpful information for book clubs
• A featured book club
• A recipe to try at your next meeting
• Featured Web sites

You can sign up to get your own copy delivered to your inbox. Just click here to sign up for the newsletter. If you’d like your mother-daughter book club to be featured in a future edition, send me a note at info@motherdaughterbookclub.com. I’ll be asking you a few questions like the age group of the girls, how often you meet, favorite books and favorite activities. I’d love to hear from you.

Blog on New Mother Daughter Book Club

I’ve been following a blog called Booking Mama, where Julie Peterson is writing about a new mother-daughter book club that she started with her daughter a few months ago. The book reviews are great, and Booking Mama’s descriptions of her mother-daughter book club meetings are really good too. The girls in the group are 8 years old, and if you have younger girls in your group this is a wonderful place to get ideas of what to read and discuss.

I’ve already published a book review from “Booking Daughter” for Sarah Plain and Tall on MotherDaughterBookkClub.com. I look forward to getting more reviews from both moms and daughters in this group.

I also enjoy the reviews of books for adult readers that are included on the site. Julie reads even more than I do! Here’s a link to the Booking Mama blog so you can check it out.

Booking Mama.blogspot.com

Reading Group Guides

Tonight Madeleine and I are meeting with our mother-daughter book club to talk about Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. We both enjoyed the book, but I finished it a couple of weeks ago. To refresh my memory, I’ll visit ReadingGroupGuides.com.

ReadingGroupGuides.com is a great place to visit and look for discussion questions about a book you’ve read. If you’re leading the discussion in your book club, you can get ideas for things to talk about in your meeting. If you’re not hosting the meeting, you can still visit the site for a reminder about some of the more important actions and themes in your book.

Tell Me What You’d Like

I’ll soon be redesigning some of the features at MotherDaughterBookClub.com. Before I do, I’d like to hear from readers about what you’d like to see more of on the site or what you think would make a good addition.

• Would you like more recipes?
• A reader’s suggestion forum?
• The ability to subscribe when changes are posted?
• A monthly newsletter?
• More links to other resources?

Please visit MotherDaughterBookClub.com soon, and send any suggestions to info@motherdaughterbookclub.com.

Another Great Beach Weekend

November isn’t the best time to go to the Oregon Coast, but it ended up being great for the mother daughter book club I’m in with my youngest daughter, Catherine. This was our first trip away together as a group, and we didn’t really know what to expect.

What we got was lots of great conversation, wonderful food, fresh air and walks on the beach, time alone, time together and less sleep than we expected. We talked about our book selection, A Mango Shaped Space, and we watched movies. It did rain quite a bit, but between the rain drops we were able to walk outside and enjoy the outdoors. And we had a great view of the ocean for the wet moments between.

But the time we had together was invaluable. Without the two hour constraint of our monthly book club meetings, we were able to really get to know each other and talk about life experiences we hadn’t been able to before. There was lots of time for the moms to be alone together and for the girls to be alone together as well as for all of us to be with each other.

We all agreed it was a great way to spend a weekend. Here’s a picture of the girls having fun on the beach during one of the drier moments.