The Literary League of Extraordinary Women
Dayna Delmonico is a member of “The Literary League of Extraordinary Women” in Haddon Heights, NJ, which celebrated its second anniversary in March. In this interview, Danya explains that her club operates in a “21st century” manner by holding discussions with “virtual” members living in Ohio, Utah and Arizona. She also shares an amusing anecdote about Anne Boleyn’s special place in the group.
Q: Does your group have a name and/or a theme? How long has your group been in existence?
A: We named ourselves “The Literary League of Extraordinary Women,” or LLOEW for short. The name is a takeoff on the comic book and movie The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. That League is made up of 19th century fictional adventurers --- Allen Quatermain, Tom Sawyer, Dorian Gray, Mr. Hyde of Jekyll and Hyde, The Invisible Man, Captain Nemo and Mrs. Harker from Dracula. We will be celebrating our second anniversary this month.
Q: How many members do you have? How many men, how many women? What age are most of your members?
A: So far we have nine female "baby boomer" members who repeatedly celebrate their 39th birthdays. We also have three "virtual members" in Ohio, Utah and Arizona.
Q: How often do you meet? Where do you meet?
A: We meet every six weeks or so at the homes of members.
Q: Do you eat at your meetings? What do you eat? Who brings the food?
A: It's usually BYOB with everyone bringing munchies or a desert for the group. Sometimes the faire is indicative of the book being discussed. For A Thread of Grace we had Northern Italian cheeses and common everyday wine from the Piedmont region of Italy. The Historian was discussed over two lovely wines named Dracula and Vampire, both imported from Transylvania. PuPu platters and Chinese beer was enjoyed by all for the Snow Flower and the Secret Fan meeting.
Q: Who leads the discussion? Do you use reading group guides?
A: The hostess usually leads the discussion and we always use reading group guides.
Q: What kind of books do you read?
A: Our first year we leaned heavily to historical fiction, which seems to be a favorite of most members. We've gotten a tad more eclectic in scope since then.
Q: How do you choose your books? Do you choose one new book at each meeting, or do you choose the books for a number of meetings ahead of time?
A: Our reading year starts in September and ends in June, so our May meeting is when we pick the next set of books. Every member has the choice of adding one book to the upcoming year OR choosing a random title from the ReadingGroupGuide.com Best Of list.
Q: What were some of the best discussions or favorite books the group read?
A: Our discussions seem to be based on selections "theme" or "themes" and can take off in a number of directions. For The Red Tent, childbearing as a life experience in addition to the Old Testament as history led to discussions of personal experiences and religious beliefs. Our Snow Flower discussions had a definite "the importance of females as a community" flavor to them.
Q: How do you keep things fun?
A: That's a problem we've never had. Our members, by nature, are funny and fun loving.
Q: What advice would you give to other reading groups?
A: Don't forget what you've read in the past or older works as potential selections. With the recent death of Kathleen Woodiwiss, we realized that a great many of us read her books in the '70s. After we toasted her memory, we started to talk about our other old favorites. I'm pretty sure my next choice for the club will be the banned in Boston --- the first super bestseller, Forever Amber from 1944.
Q: Do you have any horror stories, amusing anecdotes, or other special tales to tell?
A: It will take a lot to outdo our May 19, 2006 meeting. For that meeting the book was The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory. A few days before the meeting we learned, quite by accident, that Friday night was the 470th anniversary of Anne Boleyn's' beheading! It's the first story we tell new members. We call it the HEADS UP Meeting, and Anne has had a special place with this club ever since.
Q: Is there anything else unique or noteworthy about your group that you would like to share?
A: Because two club members are professional web content editors who specialize in technology, we have a blog, http://lloew.blogspot.com/, virtual members and are working on members having the ability to attend meetings via the web. We're SO 21st century.
© Copyright 2001-2008, ReadingGroupGuides.com. All rights reserved.
No comments:
Post a Comment