KENT, Conn. — Americans have become obsessed with screens; screens ranging from the largest iMax screen in the land—the 101-foot-by 70-foot AMC at Lincoln Square in New York City—to Apple watches that are roughly two inches square.
But there are encouraging signs that people are emerging from their stupor, raising their faces from their devices, and actually talking to each other. An example of this increasingly vibrant social movement is the proliferation of book clubs in the region, where participants share the communal experience of reading the same book and then sharing insights and opinions.
“We can’t survive in digital space,” said Benjamin Rybek, manager of the Kent’s House of Books [www.houseofbooksct.com] book club, which he oversees.
“I doubt anyone has a meaningful discussion via text. Book clubs fulfill the need—as do music venues, movies and other places where people come together,” he said. “Everyone used to go to the movies or to read: now it’s more of a niche thing. Whatever is ‘new’ may crowd reading a little bit, but it’s nice to see certain arts—writing, filmmaking, whatever—becoming a little more niche because the people who take part truly, truly love it.”
Rybek’s book club is held on the third Thursday of each month, and participants vote on what book they will read.
“Sometimes people tell me they don’t like the book we are reading,” he said, “but I tell them the group voted on it. That’s a little bit of a canard because I choose five books and they choose which one they want. I always choose something I would like to read.”
Nevertheless, he has noticed a trend in the group’s preferences for “darker topics that they can kind of wrestle with.”
“They like to talk about themes, language and situating the story in its cultural milieu,” he said. “This is a group of very smart people. When people come for the first time, they often say, ‘Man, you people really talk about stuff!’”
Kent is home to several other book clubs as well. And among the other bookish offerings is Betty Krasne’s popular series that offers a different theme twice a year. Krasne, a writer, professor emerita, and longtime Kent resident, explores complex themes such as family dysphoria through a selection of four books, all of which examine the concept from different angles.
Krasne, who ironically never has been a member of a book club, sticks to fiction in her selections. “I generally choose novels, although on a couple of occasions I did long short stories.”
This year’s topic will be “Fascism Revisited” and starts Sept. 11.
Krasne said three of the books are older with one contemporary offering.
“One of the points I want to make is that we have been here before,” she said. “The books show pretty explicitly other times when we thought we were becoming more autocratic. That could be encouraging or discouraging to folks, but then we can see the periods in between.”
The fourth book, written by a campaign worker, is set in the Obama era, “and shows that up close, all candidates not so glamorous. The author sees how politics are made—like going to a meat factory and seeing how sausages are made,” she said.
Krasne has been developing the concepts for group discussion since 2005. “It didn’t used to be online,” she said. “We met at the library, and it was a fairly small group. Then one night we got caught in a blizzard and people got really stuck. And then the pandemic struck, so we switched to online. It made it possible to tune in from wherever—we have one member from Pittsburgh.”
The sessions have been presented on Zoom, but the Sept. 11 meeting will revert to in-person at the library to mark the group’s 20th anniversary. The remaining sessions will be online. To register email kla-bmcallister@biblio.org.
Wendy Murphy head ups Kent’s No Name Book Club, which was started at least 25 years ago by Jackie Markham.
“We are in competition with the other book clubs,” Murphy said. “We are all women, and we have women who join two or three book clubs. All the clubs have distinguishing features, like the Vintage Book Club, which reads old warhorses like ‘David Copperfield.’ If anyone wants a lively spirited group come to us, not the Vintage Club. We’re also a great place to hear all the gossip.”
She said her club alternates between fiction and non-fiction. “Everyone is supposed to come with suggestions for which book to read next and then we sit around and argue about that. We can’t just read fiction. We want stuff to read like science, technology, and biographies. We try to stay away from political things, but we can’t resist.”
Following each meeting, Murphy writes a summary of what happened and what the group will read next. It is circulated among the 25 members, not all of whom are active. “We meet on Sundays about every five weeks at the library,” she said. “We had much better attendance at people’s houses, but it was better for the library because they get brownie points for offering another service.”
Anyone who wishes to join can get Murphy’s contact information from the library, 32 North Main St.
For the serious minded and the environmentally aware, there is the Environmental Book Club run by Deb Schlee.
“Our book for September is ‘Regeneration: Ending Climate Change in a Generation’ by Paul Hawken,” she said. “Other wonderful books we have read and discussed include ‘The Book of Hope’ by Jane Goodall; ‘Silent Spring’ by Rachel Carson; ‘Revisiting Silent Spring’ by Douglas Brinkley; ‘The Hidden Life of Trees’ by Peter Wohlleben; ‘Nature’s Best Hope’ by Douglas Tallamya, and ‘The Climate Book’ by Greta Thunberg.”
“We currently have a nice group of environmentally-minded ladies, and the discussions often extend beyond the books into actions some are taking such as planting native plants that attract bees and butterflies,” she expanded. “We welcome anyone who has an interest in climate change and its profound effect on our environment. If anyone would like to join us this fall, they can contact me at deb.schlee@icloud.com.”
The local library also promotes the book club trend by starting children on the literary path early through its middle school group that introduces middle schoolers to the concept of analyzing an author’s works. A teen book club for youths in grades 8 to 12 for older youths is in the offing.
Staff member Kate Zarin said the young people choose the books they wish to read two months in advance. The library provides the books, and the members have about a month to devour them. Topics are varied based on the group’s interests and discussions can be lively.
But Kent is not the only town with multiple book groups. The Norfolk Library hosts several book groups, including a First Monday Book Group, a new Cookbook Group that focuses on regional cuisines, and Books and Boots, a reading group that is a joint venture with the Norfolk Land Trust.
But the group with the widest-ranging impact reaches readers as far away as Tanzania. Academic and cookbook author Mark Scarbrough—no, he does not run the cookbook group—conducts the Norfolk Library Book Group, which meets on select Thursdays via Zoom.
“The Norfolk Book Group celebrated its 15th anniversary this past year,” said Scarbrough, “and has now read 192 books.”
Every winter, the group tackles “something monumental” that consumes its full schedule. “I am the curator, and I get to decide which books we read,” he said. “We bang around a lot in contemporary fiction. I read about a year and a half in advance of the group and I stick with what hits me. We’re just finishing a set of Finnish novels. I read 17 Finnish novels and chose eight for the group.”
As a former academic, he says he reads widely and eclectically. “A person does not need a book group to read John Grisham,” he said. “I’ve nothing against those books, but I am looking for books that have an edge to them, that have multiple entry points so people from all walks of life can discuss them.”
He said his group “exploded” during Covid when it went online and attracted international readers. “We have tried unsuccessfully to pull it back,” he said, “but we have people from Dublin, London, Berlin—even Tanzania—so it is hard to go back to in-person.”
He said the group is very diverse, with everyone from professors emeritus down to “people who have never been to a college.”
“We remain an open group,” he said. “Members sign a pact that there is one thing they can never say—’I liked it, or I didn’t like it.’ We can’t discuss personal tastes, because if you say, ‘I like artichokes,’ and I don’t, that’s the end of the discussion. There’s just nowhere to go. Instead, they have to talk about how the book works, how an author does or doesn’t meet his stated goal, or if he changes his mind halfway through and it feels weird.”
Scarbrough also runs a poetry discussion group in Salisbury that he says is “utterly different” from the Norfolk group. “It’s sporadic,” he said. “It goes in three-to-four-month bursts. We have been reading contemporary U.S. poets although I keep threatening them with Virgil.”
The Salisbury group only meets in person as it tends to be smaller. “Poetry is so antithetical to our world, it’s so much older, more contemplative,” he said. “Most of the people who come are those trying to write poetry. The Salisbury group ended last month and there is nothing scheduled, but I expect it will pick up.”
As in the other towns, the poetry group is only one of several in that town. The Scoville Library also hosts the Current Fiction Book Group, which meets monthly, and Noble Horizons, a senior living community, has offered virtual book clubs in the past.
Over in Sharon, Hotchkiss Library hosts the Tuesday Afternoon Book Group, a dedicated group of readers that meets the first Tuesday of each month at 3:30 p.m. The group has read 250 books together, both fiction and nonfiction and every fall hosts a facilitated discussion series moderated by the peripatetic Mark Scarbrough.
All are welcome and copies of the books under discussion are available from the library.
Cornwall Library has five book groups, ranging in subject matter from progressive parenting, to a Mystery Book Discussion Group to Chat & Chocolate.
In Falls Village, readers take on controversial publications in its Banned Book Club, sponsored by the Falls Village Equity Project and the D.M. Hunt Library.
This group is open to anyone high school aged and older. and focuses on books that have been banned or challenged. It meets the first Friday of each month at 5 p.m. at the library and the selected books are available through the library.
Contact the library for further information.
