Book Club!

Below is a sample of a blog post.

How to Start a Book Club

So you want to start a book club with your friends? Great! Here we’ll go over some tips to help you get started. 

Step 1 - Let’s Talk Genre

While a book club doesn’t have to be limited to one genre, it's important to have an idea of the types of literature you’d like the group to read.  If you’re starting a club with people you already know, you can take a poll amongst the group to get an understanding of what genres they’d be interested in. An advantage to knowing the individuals in your group is that you can assess what genre you believe they would like. If you’re beginning a book club that will be open to the public, the best genre to choose is the one that interests you the most. Being passionate about a specific genre will attract others who feel the same way! The best part about starting your own book club is that it can be whatever you want it to be, so if the first choice doesn’t work out, make adjustments. 

Step 2 - The Little Details

The logistics of a book club are just as important as the passion you bring to the group. When picking a day and time for the club, you want to be consistent. One day and time may not work for every single person so you’ll want to provide two consistent options for the group to initially choose from. Providing more than two options can cause confusion and debate so we suggest trying to limit the options. Location is also important to hosting. You will want to scope out a public location that allows groups and has seating during the time you’d like to host. We recommend testing the location with a friend to ensure it can meet the group's needs. A place with small snacks and drinks is always a plus! Lastly, you’ll need a way to communicate with the group. There are many apps that allow you to form large group chats and have more capabilities than text or imessage. We recommend Discord, Group Me or Slack to get you started!

Step 3 - Choose Your Book

You’ve worked out all the little details now it's time to choose your book! Keeping in line with your chosen genre or genres, we recommend selecting two or three books for the group to choose from. There are many ways to find new books, but if you’re struggling with where to start here are two options. The first is to peruse local bookstores. Almost all bookstores will openly showcase popular books from every genre and if there isn’t one that interests you, ask an associate, they’re there to help! Secondly, check Goodreads recommendations for the genre you’ve selected. Goodreads can be extremely helpful because they will have reviews posted for each book allowing you to gauge if a book is the right fit. Remember not to be too hard on yourself, it's impossible to please everyone!

Step 4 - First Meetup

We’re finally at the first meeting of your new club! The best way to start is to have everyone introduce themselves, disclose pronouns and tell everyone why they’ve joined the club. It's an easy way to break the ice and acquaint everyone. While it's possible the conversation will flow naturally it's best to have a list of questions to ask the group. These can be book specific, genre related or generalized questions about reading. In any case, predetermined questions can help to negate awkward conversational lapses. At the end of your first meeting make sure to get feedback from the group regarding location and communication so you’re aware and can make adjustments. 

It's our hope that in following these steps you can form an amazing book club and foster a love of reading or just have some fun with friends. Remember not to take anything too seriously and have fun!

Creative Writing

This is a snippet from a fiction piece that I’m currently writing. It is still undergoing editing.

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“Anna,” Marianne snaps, pulling me out of the dissociative state I was just in. “I know it’s the end of the week but can you please try to keep your thoughts with me so we can get through this list?” she begs. I’m sitting behind a faded wooden desk left here by the previous tenants of this office building. My black rolling chair is pressed almost directly against the double windows of this cramped office. If you could call it that. The vanilla candle I have lit on the window sill is doing little to stop the smell of mildew from berating my nostrils. Papers, pens and discarded compostable coffee cups liter the desk causing me further anxiety. It’s just one more thing I need to get in order that I’ll never have the time to do. Marianne sits across from me in one of the two wooden chairs stationed in front of my desk. Her ginger hair rests around her face in tight ringlets that I’m positive can’t be replicated by any curling iron. A red leather notebook jammed with scribbled pages and sticky notes rests on her crossed legs. Hazel eyes lock with mine pleading with me to give her my full attention. “I know I’m sorry, I’m with you, let's get through this.” We’re set to review the schedule for the upcoming week and just like every other week since I started campaigning, it's packed to the brim. I was never convinced I’d make it past the democratic primary let alone have a real shot at winning the election for Texas governor. It’s still a bit surreal. “Next week you have a meet and greet on Monday at the public library downtown, volunteering at the Women’s Resource Fair Wednesday night and the Gala event hosted by Elanor on Saturday. If you want to take a look at a few of the cases for Wednesday ahead of time let me know and I’ll print them out for you. Saturday is a huge day for you and this campaign so I’m blocking off additional time Thursday for us to shop for dresses. And before you complain I want you to genuinely think about what your closet situation looks like and then rethink your response.” She has a point, it's not as though I don’t enjoy shopping, I just don’t have the time with everything going on. However, Saturday could act as a turning point for the funding of my campaign so I'll have to make the time to find something to wear. I sigh loudly, “Unfortunately you’re right about the state of my closet. Everything else sounds perfect and I'll definitely take a copy of the cases ahead of time. Can you make sure the logistics for the meet and greet are set in stone? I’ll want to do a walk through of the event space to make sure everything is working correctly when we arrive.” Even though part of my motivation is always to gain support, I genuinely love the volunteer work I do with the Resources for Women foundation. I graduated from Yale law and passed the bar that same year in twenty eleven so I give free legal advice to women at the shelter. “Will do and I'll ensure you’re picked up early enough to do the walk through. That’s all I have for this upcoming week so I’ll get out of your hair,” she replies. She stands and exits through the creaking solid door barring my office from the rest of the second floor in the complex. Marianne is easily my favorite person on my staff, and for that I’m thankful because it’d be pretty insufferable to have her as a campaign manager otherwise. At only thirty-two she's one of the youngest yet most accomplished campaign managers in the United States. She’s won three separate gubernatorial elections and essentially spent her entire childhood learning strategy from her single father, also a campaign manager. Our decision to work together was a mutual one. She strongly believes in my platform and similar to her, if elected, I would be the youngest Texan governor to date at thirty-seven years old. Marianne has an oddly upbeat attitude about her for someone who I’m sure is continually shown the nasty side of people. Over the last couple of months we’ve become something akin to best friends. When she became my campaign manager we spent days going over the entire history of my life. She constantly reassured me it was so she could ‘run a successful campaign’ and ‘not get blindsided’ but I knew she was also just a bit nosy. Whatever her internal strategy, it's worked out great for me so far so I’ll continue to do what she says. The rest of my staff left hours ago and I can’t blame them. It’s ten pm on Friday night and I know the second I get home I’m going to pass out. This week has been all preparation for the fundraising event hosted by Elanor. It’s where my thoughts go every time I’m caught staring off into space while someone speaks directly to me. Elanor owns Eagle energy, the largest petroleum company in the state of Texas. In the last year alone her company grossed almost five billion dollars and the woman is wealthier than Bill Gates. While I’ve taken a strong public stance on a diverse energy portfolio, I haven’t actively bashed the oil industry or implied that as governor I would transgress against oil conglomerates. That being said, I was still flabbergasted when an invitation arrived at my personal residence last Thursday inviting me to the upcoming event. As the leading democratic candidate, I haven’t been nearly as well funded as my opposition. Leading up to the primary, I focused less on big budget tactics and more on meeting different community groups, going door to door, and engaging in debates with the other primorial candidates. At the time I felt those strategies allowed me a better platform to discuss the ideologies behind my candidacy. I knew I was smarter and had a tighter plan than the other four democratic primaries running against me. My platform takes a more moderate approach whereas the other older candidates leaned heavily into leftist propaganda. I’m not the first politician to admit I don’t believe in everything I’m saying, but I know the makeup of the Texan audience and I’d be a fool to come in guns blazing with an aggressively leftist platform. I do admire my fellow candidates for sticking firmly to the progressive agenda but I have to believe that the more moderate take is what ended up winning me the primary. Now post primary, I’m definitely going to need a larger amount of funding to compete with the republican candidate and possibly win this election. Enter my guardian angel, Elise. This event is the opportunity my candidacy desperately needs to project my policies to a room of highly influential people, who may or may not decide to donate to my campaign. I intend to spend the following week leading up to the event researching potential persons attending and figuring out how to best sway them. But that’s a problem I’ll tackle Sunday because right now I need to sleep for thirty-six hours.