BOOK CLUB EXPERIENCE

I attended the Santa Fe Public Library’s “Quarantine Book Club” for the first time on a Friday, February 19, at 4pm. For this, the second meeting of the club which began in December, we gathered over Zoom to discuss Trevor Noah’s Born A Crime, a memoir of the comedian’s early life growing up in South Africa. The club previously discussed Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. The club will meet again in April to discuss SFPL’s pick for the NEA Big Read, Into the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea. 

The Tuesday before our meet up the moderating librarian emailed attendees a list of discussion questions that ranged from asking about the role of language in Noah's life, how he fit in or felt like an outsider, how we thought about his relationships, how the book compares to other memoirs, his writing style, to any challenges to our beliefs or opinions we found provocative. 

Twenty-one people attended. Everyone agreed this number did not require breaking into smaller groups via Zoom’s breakout room feature. I recognized four librarians from my regular visits to SFPL and getting to know them better through the book discussion was a highlight for me. The library director opened and closed the session and asked some questions, however another librarian introduced an equal number of questions when conversation lagged. Attendees also brought up topics in the course of discussion and asked their own questions. The only yes/no questions asked came at the very beginning and were, “Were you familiar with Trevor Noah before reading this book?” and “Have you seen the Daily Show?” I was not familiar and had not seen his show although the majority of people answered yes.

Then the moderator introduced the general question “What did you think, did you like it” before discussion became more nuanced. Everyone participated in the discussion; although some people spoke up more than others no one dominated the conversation. There was one attendee who had not read the book but shared her own experience living in South Africa during apartheid as a teenager. This reminiscence didn’t go on over-long, but it also didn’t really invite others to comment or move the discussion forward. 

Everyone found the book interesting, particularly Noah’s discussion of the many language groups in South Africa and his discovery that he could use language to supersede race, which was compared to the idea of “code-switching.” We also discussed how Noah was able to overcome much of the adversity he faced by being observant and always questioning the world around him and how his mother passed on these characteristics to him. 

Meeting online is, of course, a little awkward: mics are off when they should be on, time lags mean people talk over each other, you can see yourself which is not usually the case in face to face conversations, but there were no major glitches. The Zoom format offered the advantage for one attendee to share a video clip of Noah visiting his grandmother at her home in South Africa on the Daily Show, but unfortunately precluded the possibility of shared snacks and drinks. 

Attendees were mostly retirement age and mostly women. I had the impression that a core group of participants regularly attends library activities (held via Zoom since quarantine) and others, like myself, were attending for the first time. I had never participated in a book club before, and I enjoyed the experience. I would have to say that it fit my expectations, everyone was nice and thoughtful and clearly enjoyed discussing ideas the book introduced. I think the fact that this was a public library program contributed to a discussion that stayed focused on the book. I’m planning to attend the next session and will be on the lookout for other book clubs to join in the future.