Albany Book Groups Offer Glimpses into Many Worlds

Here a group. There a group. Everywhere a book group. Or so it seems when the topic of books comes up in Albany, or the love of reading.

Albany's book groups are but many of the thousands that have sprung up nationwide in the last 20 years or so. One explanation may be that these groups are a continuation of parents reading to children, and children reading together in school, then in college. Who doesn't enjoy a good story? And sharing it with someone else makes the experience all that more pleasurable.

Groups vary in terms of size, how they choose their books, which selections make it onto reading lists and ages of members, among other factors. Four participants of five Albany groups recently described the ins and outs of each.

Susan Peters, 89, is one of seven members of a group that focuses mainly on books by women, with the occasional exception, such as The Eye of the Leopard by Henning Mankell. This group also avoids bestsellers, to cut costs, and aims for paperbacks and library books as well as exchanging books. One member has pulled the group out of the centuries-old Gutenberg era by using a Kindle. Their ages range from the 40s to 89.

Peters said she likes that her group exposes her to books she normally wouldn't read. "I usually read the classics, Charles Dickens in one of my favorites, but now I enjoy reading different books and hearing other opinions about them."

Two other groups, however, often stick to bestsellers, despite the expense. Meg Griffith said her eight-member group reads mostly bestsellers and once in a while chooses a biography, a classic or short stories.

How groups go about choosing which books to read varies. Griffith's group, which has met for 15 years and started when all its members' children were in third grade, said each month's host, who serves dessert and coffee, suggests three or four books and the others vote to pick one. This group ranges in age from 55 to 65 and begins the meeting by checking in with each other about what's happening in their lives. Then to the book!

Barbara Bean's group, which has met for 11 years, rotates hosts, and the host is responsible for bringing three suggestions. The host serves snacks and beverages. Occasionally the group, ages 28 to the mid-60s, travels to hear an author whose book members have read or will read. Bean and her college-aged daughter add a twist to the usual book group structure. They try to read the same book together, but find they can't always meet their goal.

Membership to most groups is by invitation only; usually a core group shows up at meetings, along with new invitees now and then. But the Albany YMCA has a reading group with open membership and eight to 10 participants at any given time.

Albany resident Karen Larson joined the group 14 years ago. She said there's a good mix of the classics and contemporary books on the group's reading list. This year they are reading Charles Lindbergh by A. Scott Berg, and the first volume of Anne Morrow Lindbergh's diaries. They go to dinner in December, and in January vary their reading with poetry.

"I wouldn't have met the women in the group if I hadn't joined the Y," said Larson. "Not often, we've had a man or two, but they don't stay, which is too bad because they offer a different perspective from a women's perspective."

Larson participates in a second group as well, one that began meeting for lunch when the members' children were in elementary school. This group frequently reads bestsellers, though she said they just read a fantastic book, Truck: A Love Story, by Michael Perry, which came their way through an Alameda County Library service called book kits. The kits allow a group to order multiple copies at once; the library catalogue states whether kits are available.

Although each book group has its own identity, the members hold in common the delight in traveling through books to places they otherwise would not have been.

Said Bean, "This is such diverse reading. It's an adventure."