Book Club
This project will give you practice in reading traditional texts; it should help you become a better reader.  Too often we think that if we don’t get something we read, it wasn’t meant to be got.  Meaning will not just jump out of the book and present itself to you.  You must work at it.  You must look at the information that the book gives you and decide on a theory of what the book is trying to say.  Then you need to figure out the way the facts in the book support your theory.  This is what you do when you read.  You may not think reading is something you should have to work that hard at, but it can be—certainly in a classroom setting at least—and I hope the book club project will help you to see this, as well as give you strategies to help you be a better reader for this and all of your classes. 

I also hope you will get out of this what the “club” part of the project means: meaning just doesn’t fall out of the sky and into your own head.  You think a thought; you share it with a friend; they add to it; it comes back to you a different, more complicated, maybe better (or maybe worse) thought then when it was with you alone. Whatever happens, though, it is a different thought then when it started.  That’s the nature of how we make sense of things.  This book will be no different.  Your group will help you figure out what is important in this book and you will help them.  Writing and reading are collaborative enterprises. 

Book Club will be held once every two weeks or so in class for about a half hour to fifty minutes. You’ll meet with a group of about five other people Your group will decide the book you choose. Here are your book club choices for this semester.

In the Time of Butterflies by Maria Alvarez

This novel is the fictionalized story of four sisters from a prominent family in the Dominican Republic during the time of the brutal rule of the Dominican dictator, Trujillo . The story chronicles how each sister found her way to protest the regime and the price they paid—and they paid dearly—for their protest.  Many of us like true stories; this book has the benefit of being both true and imaginatively written.

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

The novel opens with the announcement of the death of all five of the Lisbon sisters—the virgins of the title. The story is told by the adolescent boys that lust after and watch the mysterious, unknowable, beautiful girls. We come to share the obsession the neighborhood boys have for the Lisbon sisters, and the obsession, combined with the mystery surrounding the girls, makes the book hard to put down.

An Unfinished Season by Ward Just

A beautifully-written coming-of-age narrative wherein a nineteen year old, caught in the moments between high school and college, discovers and loses his first true love.  The story juxtaposes high and low society, the celebrities and the reporters, and a young man’s first love with the waning of love between his parents.  (251 pp.)  (Pulitzer finalist)  This was a pleasure to read.  Straightforward narrative structure but a few character surprises along the way.

Survivor : A Novel by Chuck Palahniuk

Tender Branson, aged 33, has commandeered a Boeing 747, emptied of passengers, in order to tell his story to the "black box" while flying randomly until the plane runs out of gas and crashes. Branson relates in his long flashback the long, strange trip his life has been: member of a bizarre cult, domestic servant, psychic. Branson finds himself on the edge of fame and fortune when the cult members begin a suicide binge. But the world eventually tires of Tender and his side-show, marking the beginning of the end for Tender Branson, media darling.  Chuck Palahniuk is the author of the novel Fight Club.

Here’s how this is going to work:

 1. Read the book. As a group you should decide how to divide up the reading over the course of the semester. Use the syllabus to help you set page amounts for each meeting. I would suggest counting up how many book club meetings there are and divide the number of pages in the book by that number.

2. Write the journal.  At the start of each book club, you will write for around ten minutes about whatever you read for that meeting. You should always be developing your theory of what is important/significant about the book—always trying to figure out what the book is trying to say.  So you just can’t summarize.  You have to think and write about why this story is being told as well as how it is being told. You should expect to share these journals with your book club.

• It is not ever acceptable to say “I don’t know what it means,” or “It’s stupid and the writer didn’t mean for it to mean anything.” You need to try.  Your effort will be valued, even if your idea isn’t perfect.
• It is not enough to say “I think the book is funny” or “I think it is interesting.”  You need to talk about why you think these things are true and what in the text proves it to you and how it connects to the overall significance of the book.
• It is not enough to say “I think the book is about love” or “I think the book says that time heals all wounds.” First off, don’t talk in clichés.  Be specific and original.  Second, if you say that the book is about how war can make even the best of friends into the worst enemies and vice versa because, in war, you need different parts of your personality then you do in regular life, then you need to find evidence in the text to prove it. You need to figure out how the plot, characters, setting, and all that show you that this is in fact what the book is about. 
• There may be many more then one or two ways to read this book.  You will and should have different theories.  As long as you prove them using the text, you will be fine. 

3. Meet with your group during the scheduled time for book club. 

4. Write a final reflection.  After you’ve finished the book, also during book club, you’ll write a reflection on your reading over the course of the semester.  You will write on this prompt: describe the reading process based on your work on the book club project.  What role does writing about your reading play in making meaning?  These might seem like impossible questions right now, but by the end of the semester, you’ll have smart things to say. 

5. Try to enjoy yourself

In addition to the reading and writing you will do for the book, you will also do a group presentation about the book. More information will follow at the end of the semester about this presentation.