For most of my adult life I have run a book club. This year, I am taking a break and find I really miss it. I love the discussion and camaraderie that come from a good book club meeting. In the past, all of my book clubs have read “serious” literature—Booker Prize winners, classics, indie fiction. I’ve never been in a book club that read just for fun—as opposed to edification. So it was with pleasure and curiosity that I went to a meeting of the Romance Novel Lovers book club at a nearby local library.
The book club is run by Jennifer Lohmann, the librarian chosen by Romance Writers of America as Librarian of the Year in 2010. (Next week I’ll have my interview with her.) Jennifer is a big fan of romance novels and thought running an evening book club at her library would be a great way to introduce readers to the genre. Currently her book club has 27 readers, although on any given meeting—they meet once a month—there are usually around eight to ten members. Jennifer picks all the books and they discuss two each time they meet. The two books usually share a common theme and she picks books easily found at the library or in paperback. She posts the schedule on Meetup.com months in advance so that everyone has plenty of time to find and read the books.
Well, these things happen, don’t they?
A friend recently started a book club, and I was delighted to join. Sure, what I like best to read are romances and mysteries, but to include one book per month that was outside my usual reading range sounded like a great idea. So far we have met twice, the one book I have read until now was not quite to my taste, but still interesting to peruse, and I like other participants, all women. None of the other women read romance extensively, although one is like me in that she openly and unabashedly prefers happy endings. The other thee women are more into literary fiction, with some women’s fiction and detective stories added. So far, so good. There is only one thing that is driving me up the wall.
In an extremely tight race, 
