An interview with Kim Hartman, member of Meadowood Book Club.
When was your club formed? Our first meeting was in April of 1995. Meadowood is our neighborhood ... in Marriottsville. The lady that started the club ... thought it would be a good way for our neighbors to, you know, kind of have a monthly contact and have something fun to do with each other.
How do you choose the book of the month? We pick books six months in advance, and the way we do it is everyone brings one or two choices of books. And it has to be something you've read. ... We're a diverse group. We have everything from stay-at-home moms with babies to people who have grown children and grandchildren. ... I enjoy it because I get to read a lot of things that I probably would not choose by myself.
What book are members reading this month? The book that we're reading this month is Bee Season [by Myla Goldberg]. It's about a little girl and a spelling bee. It's sort of about a dysfunctional family, but it all centers around this little girl who's in a spelling bee. Her mother is basically, like, a kleptomaniac and has these mental problems, and the brother gets involved with a cult, these Hare Krishnas, and the dad was sort of out in la-la land. ... There were no really redeeming qualities in any of the characters, so I wasn't really intrigued by it. It was bizarre to say the least.
Are there any books that stand out as real favorites over the years? I would have to say one that stood out was The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. I would say the other book that really stood out was Cry to Heaven. It's actually by Anne Rice, but not at all like her other books. It's not a vampire book. ... It definitely provided one of our most lively discussions, if nothing else. ... The subject matter was different than what we were used to reading, and it was also more graphic, not pornographic, but it was descriptive. It basically had to do with European times back, I don't know, in the 1700s. The church would sort of hand-select these male singers while they were still young and make sure their voices wouldn't change. In order to make them be able to continue to sing like a young boy, I think they made them eunuchs, so their voices wouldn't change. And [in our meeting] there was a lot of discussion about that. It was very unfamiliar to all of us. And there was a lot of sexually explicit material, but the characters were very intense, and you really got emotionally hooked into it. ... You really felt like you were there.