The FOURTH TUESDAY BOOK CLUB at Books, Inc. in Palo Alto - Glad to Be Back!

Well, last night was the 1st time I've been to Books, Inc., Palo Alto, for the FOURTH TUESDAY BOOK CLUB in quite a while.  I went regularly for close to a year, but have been MIA for probably 8 or 9 months, maybe even more.  It was great to be back.  Margie Scott Tucker, a co-owner of the Books, Inc. chain (there are 11 locations) leads the discussion.  She does a great job.  Everybody goes around the room and gives their synopsis/opinion of the book, and then Margie asks questions.  But, unlike some book clubs (sorry RBC people), the questions are very well thought out and produce a lot of discussion.   And I really like how everybody participates and nobody dominates (I don't do that, Margie, do I?).  Tuesday night was no exception.  Our book was All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr.  As you know from my review of November 15, I liked it a lot. Most of us there tonight did.

When you have someone like Margie directing you - and when one of your book club members is Meg Waite Clayton, the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, who has written 4 books, with a 5th coming out next August - then you're bound to have some interesting facts presented to you.  Here are a few:

1.  It took Anthony Doerr 10 years to write this book.
2.  This is his 5th book, but only his 2nd novel.  2 of the others are short story collections, and the 5th is a memoir.
3.  Both Margie and Meg said it was unusual for a book of this length (530 pages) to have such short chapters.
4.  Our resident experts are seeing an editorial trend for novels to go back and forth in time.  The way Doerr did it bothered some of our book club members a bit.
5.  The Art of Fielding (which I liked and reviewed on August 10, 2012), by Chad Harbach, took 15 years to write.

Are some of these factoids random?  Sure.  But that's what makes them so interesting. Us book groupies love these insider details.

So, I was really glad to be there, and have already ordered the book for the January meeting - Painted Horses, by Malcolm Brooks.  See you all then.

Everybody in this group is important.  But Margie is standing on the far right, and Meg is next to her.