‘Persian Pickles’ tries new approach

Our book club started in Lawrence in 1999. Seven of the eight charter members are still with us. We currently have 15 members. The book club is named the Persian Pickles from the Sandra Dallas book about a Midwest quilting group. We meet once a month at members’ homes. The first 30 minutes or so are purely social, usually with wine and appetizers. Then we get down to business.

We start with a pre-discussion rating of the book on a scale of 1-10. We vote based on individual reaction to the book, reflections, interest of subject matter and other points.

The facilitators of the book gives a brief biography of the author and then ask thought-provoking questions. We have had some lively discussions.

We nominate and vote on our book selections once a year.

This year we are trying something new. We have broken into four groups. Each group picks a “theme” that will run for three months. The theme may be a particular author, historical fiction, nonfiction, biographies, cultural, etc. We can read three related books, or if it’s an epic novel, like “The Memoirs of Cleopatra” by Margaret George, we can spread it out over the three months.

For more information, contact sandyeago@aol.com.