Introduction

If you knew me personally, you would be very surprised that I have started a book club.  Being a left-brained math teacher, I even surprised myself by coming up with the idea of starting a book club.  Out of all the people I know, I am the last person anyone would ever guess to start one.  For one thing, I barely read.  I rarely finish an entire book.  The last book I think I finished was DaVinci Code.  This was before the movie came out so it was about five years ago!  It was suggested that I read this book because there was some discussion of math in it.  Although there was very little math in DaVinci Code, I still thought it was an excellent book. 

About a year ago, after seeing the movie “Julie and Julia”, I became interested in Julia Child’s life.  Before this movie, all I knew about her is that she had a cooking show on IPTV that my mom used to watch.  Her life seemed very interesting so I bought the book “An Appetite for Life – The Biography of Julia Child” and started reading.   In the first chapter, it mentioned that her mom had a book club.  This is what sparked the idea of forming a club.  And, of course, the first book we will read at the book club is “Appetite for Life.”

This will not be just an ordinary book club though.  One reason is that it will be a slow book club.  We will read parts of the books, then meet to discuss each part.  Although, the other members of the group are fast readers, I am not.  Also, it creates suspense if you read only a part then discuss the possibilities of the later parts or the ending.  Another reason this is not a typical book club is we will do other things at the book club besides discuss and eat.  We will play a game with a prize and have a craft at every meeting.  And being the teacher that I am, as we read the book at home, we will have a worksheet to fill out.  Also, a homework worksheet will be filled out during the meeting which hits all the levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy.  A learning activity and a visual will also be planned.  We will have a preview party before we actually start reading.  Then at the end, we will have a review party where we may watch a movie or do another activity.