Laurel Bookmarks
Maxwell Park Book Club Members Keep "Open Minds"

by Robin Stevens

It seems book groups are all the rage. Ever since Oprah Winfrey decided to discontinue the enormously successful book discussions she'd been leading on national television for years, everybody's doing a book club. They've even become institutionalized on morning television. The Today Book Club asks high-profile authors to recommend a book to their viewers. ABC's Good Morning America asks one local discussion group to recommend a book for another. This month, producers arranged for Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones to arrive on a raft to the members of a senior citizens reading club who also happen to perform synchronized swimming together.

We've got our share of book lovers in the neighborhoods served by the MacArthur Metro. And we've got our share of book groups. In Maxwell Park, the Open Minds women's book group has been meeting at one another's homes to talk about reading for two years now.

"We all differ so much on what our favorite books are and also which ones we didn't like, which is part of the excitement of the group," says Alice Leon, a longtime Maxwell Park resident and Open Minds member. "Being with a group of people forces me to think in a different way than I might usually."

Fifteen or 20 people are affiliated with Open Minds, although not everyone shows up at any given meeting. They read work by women authors from a wide range of backgrounds, ethnicities, and nationalities. Each month's host chooses the book to be read. This month the recommended title was Sister Noon, by Karen Joy Fowler, a novel set in San Francisco's Barbary Coast days.

"I like books about women in different parts of the world. I would never otherwise know about how they lived their lives," says Susan Scolnick, one of the group's cofounders. "I also like knowing all of these women in my neighborhood!"

Open Minds member Jane Stahlman agrees. "My first week in Oakland, I was out gardening, and Paulette, one of the group's founders, came walking down the street and started talking with me. Within a month I was meeting people in the neighborhood through the book group."

Almost unanimously, Open Minds members recommend one book in particular, Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader, by Anne Fadiman. This collection of essays explores the role books have played in the author's life and family. "Everybody really enjoyed it," says Scolnick. "People have been buying two and three copies of the book to give to others."

Several book groups have formed through the Laurel Bookstore, which sells book-club selections at a discounted rate to members. An as-yet nameless group that meets at the bookstore has so far read The Mineral Palace, by Heidi Julavits, The Red Tent, by Anita Diamant, and Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Another larger group is in formation, and owner Luan Stauss will continue to take the names of potential members.

For those of you who love the idea but don't think you have the time for a discussion group, you might try the Oakland Public Library's online book club. Each weekday, members receive a few pages of the week's featured title via e-mail. There's information online at http://www.oaklandlibrary.org.

[sidebar if there's space:]

This month's bestsellers at Laurel Bookstore:

Oaktown Devil (new edition), Renay Jackson

Sister Noon, Karen Joy Fowler

The Red Tent, Anita Diamant

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Michael Chabon

The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold