An interview with Jan Ulrich, member of Turf Valley and Beyond Book Club.

When did your club get started?

I think it was 1996 when it was started. Turf Valley Overlook is our neighborhood, and the reason we call it "beyond" is we started getting members from surrounding neighborhoods.

What book are members reading this month?

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. It's [adventure] fiction. We try to choose a book from various genres and at least touch on something that we haven't done in the past. We have an annual planning meeting where all the members bring selections ... and we have to vote ... to narrow the selections down. ... And for each meeting, we have one person who volunteers to be the facilitator. They lead the discussion with a question based on the text plus provide background information on the author, history of the location or setting. ... If someone wants to do a lot of research, that's fine, and if someone doesn't want to do research, that's fine. It's all for fun. And we also have a hostess who will open her home to the group and provide light snacks.

Has the group had any favorite authors over the years?

We like to read books by authors that we've enjoyed in the past. Unfortunately, we've been disappointed by that lately. One of the books we loved was Stones from the River, and that's by Ursula Hegi. And then we were disappointed by The Vision of Emma Blau [by the same author]. In Stones from the River, the characters were well-developed. It was poetically written. It offered a wonderful insight inside Germany prior to World War II and during World War II from the viewpoint of an outcast, who was a woman who suffered dwarfism. The Vision of Emma Blau continued the story Stones from the River, but it grew tedious and it was not nearly as lyrical.

Is there any book that stands out as a favorite over the years?

It's nice to have a book that is a little controversial, so not everyone likes it, for the discussion. We all liked A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle. It was a very pleasant read. He's funny. And so we all just sat around [during the meeting] and said, "Yeah, that was nice." ... One of our all-time favorites that provoked in-depth discussion was Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood. I guess because it had so much symbolism.