Writer, entrepreneur and editorial executive Diana Loevy has published THE BOOK CLUB COMPANION --- the ultimate guide for reading groups that encompasses everything from advice on starting and maintaining a club and tips for keeping conversations lively, to reading selections and ideas for themed gatherings. In this interview with ReadingGroupGuides.com's Shannon McKenna, Loevy discusses the elements that make up the ideal book club book and describes the various sources from which she pulled together her lists of "Indispensable Titles." She also explains the benefits of actively participating in more than one reading group and even sheds light on the social history of book clubs in the 18th and 19th centuries.

ReadingGroupGuides.com: What inspired you to write THE BOOK CLUB COMPANION?

Diana Loevy: I wanted to write a book that would encompass all things book clubs. It would be a reference, of course, but also an inspiration for all types of readers. I wanted the book to be fun, with fascinating details about the book club world. I was greatly inspired by a book we adored and carried around at all times when I was in college: THE AMERICAN CINEMA by Andrew Sarris. It classified the films of the studio era and Sarris did this brilliantly --- and controversially. Book clubs and book club books are sometimes criticized in the same ways as popular films used to be, I think unfairly.

RGG: How long did you work on compiling material and editing the book?

DL: About 10 years, from inception of a business plan I wrote --- that was later adopted by Bookspan for its Literary Guild and Black Expressions clubs --- through the proposal stage and the real writing of the book, which took about two years.

RGG: The book is divided into nine sections, or groupings. Did those come easily to you, or was there some internal discourse on how to categorize the selected titles?

DL: There wasn't really an internal discourse on the categories. Nothing like the torment of selecting individual titles. The sections came very naturally and reflected, in many cases, how clubs select books and how they see the different genres.

RGG: What criteria did you use for selecting the "Indispensable Titles" in each chapter?

DL: I have been watching book club reading lists for over 10 years from clubs around the country and the world (via my online reading groups), bookstores and libraries, "best of" lists from many sources including the BBC and The New York Times Book Review, plus all the literary prizes. But clubs develop different reading lists that are subtly different from the "best of" lists. I also have an informal panel comprised of journalists, librarians and book club people from around the country. There was a great deal of honing, adding, subtracting, pondering. I also wanted to include an element of surprise.

Each club will have its own favorites, and I hope the lists in The Book Club Companion encourage clubs to look at their own lists, and to even develop their own "best of" lists. Lists are fun, and the interesting part is that they change --- and that makes them really alive. It's a challenge to keep up with the older and newer classics, the hidden gems and all the new books. For instance, I missed The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion by a matter of weeks. And I tried to find a place for a book that clubs have kept alive since the day it was published: The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, among many other incredible books. But deadlines beckon and The Book Club Companion would never be published if I couldn't ultimately make a choice.

RGG: What kinds of books make for the best discussions?

DL: Wonderfully written books with depth of plot and character in which the author is in complete control of the material. Book clubs start with reading, of course. Books with compelling writing, settings and characters will do it every time. If the author has done his or her job, clubs have to do theirs, which means marking passages and thinking about the questions they would like posed at the club. I think all of the classic authors and the modern classic authors give you great opportunities to talk about the big issues and the smaller themes, character and plot.

Variety in book selection is also important to discussions. If you just finished a Middlemarch, pick something light like an Alexander McCall Smith, who describes some of his books as "tea novels" --- a concept reflected in the chapter Literary Respites of The Book Club Companion. Also, never dismiss the fun and the tawdry. The Devil Wears Pradawas a terrific summer selection in clubs this year and many clubs went to see the movie together.

RGG: Of the discussions you've participated in with your book clubs, which ones were the most memorable?

DL: So many. In absolutely no order: Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner, Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, Empire Falls by Richard Russo, Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh, The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines, Atonementby Ian McEwan, The Dive from Clausen's Pierby Ann Packer, Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser, A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson, Wild Swans by Jung Chang, Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, The Lovely Bonesby Alice Sebold, The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory, Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, The Known World by Edward P. Jones.

The list just goes on, and luckily I was able to capture many memorable discussions in The Book Club Companion. Right now, a lot of my clubs are about to discuss Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl and The Emperor's Children by Claire Messud. I can't wait. It's also delicious to anticipate who in my clubs will love them and who will not. And I might be surprised.

RGG: How can "club rules" keep a group on track?

DL: Almost all of the clubs I have visited say "we have no rules," which is not to say that most clubs are not relaxed or informal because they are usually. All clubs have rules because that is the basic definition of a club: when does a club meet, what are we reading and who is in the club. The further a club gets away from the book and at least the basics of an organization, that club is "at risk." You can always get together with your friends, but if the book and the way you discuss it goes out the window, what is the point? Club rules can also make the club more challenging and more interesting. It's about club members making a case for small changes or even larger ones.
 
RGG: You belong to several book clubs. Why more than one?

DL: Different clubs do different things well. One of my clubs is more social, another is more diligent, and yet another is relatively teeming with members, it's like a small city. But you never really know what awaits and who is wearing what mood ring.

RGG: How important is it to liven up meetings with things like outdoor settings, holiday celebrations and the occasional champagne cocktail?

DL: I think it's very important. It really defines you as a club because events and creativity are the things that pull a club together. Even not doing the entertaining elements defines you as a club, and it doesn't have to be a big deal, of course. I was once invited to a club where I was told that absolutely nothing would be served and it was to be a serious discussion of the book, with everyone leaving on the dot of 10 p.m., having had a purely intellectual experience. I was very excited about this and imagined this club to be the governing board of Hogwarts. When I got there, it was all very lovely, with the usual wine and cheese and very nice people, but absolutely nothing atypical. I think in this person's mind, it would have been ideal to be the way she described, but that really wasn't the case.

RGG: What advice do you have for book club hosts?

DL: Showing your club hospitality does not mean you have to spend days whipping up a Lane Cake, just because it was mentioned in To Kill a Mockingbird and that's the night's selection. Just be attentive and welcoming, and anticipate what the club might need in advance so you don't have to leave the discussion or spend a lot of time fussing beforehand. I once attended a club where the host was from England and had never made coffee in her life. She was the most hospitable person I've ever met and chose the morning her club was coming over to not only try to make coffee for the first time, but to make it in a French press --- one of the hardest ways to make coffee. Everyone pitched in, though no one really knew how to operate this contraption. Lots of laughs and good spirits, but there are no "shoulds" when it comes to book club entertaining. This host thought she should have coffee because Americans were coming over, but really, tea or water would have been fine.

That said, if a host decides to prepare something special or offer a thematic surprise, the club will always appreciate it. In fact, they will never stop talking about it.

RGG: You say in THE BOOK CLUB COMPANION that everyone has a favorite Anne Tyler book. Which one is yours, and why?

DL: My favorite is Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant for its almost breathtaking originality. It's early and definitive, the essence of Anne Tyler and the reason so many of us loved her in the first place. I'm also very interested in 20th-century bestsellers and classics. There is so much to discuss --- not only the book itself, but the time in which it is written. How has the passage of time influenced the way you see the book today? These books are also relatively easy to pitch to the club because people have either not read them or haven't in decades so they turn into atypical choices, a breath of fresh air. Why can't a club select Breathing Lessons or Sophie's Choice or Watership Down along with the latest "it" book? And they almost never fail --- these books are fascinating and provocative. I also like the idea of club members sharing books that were important to them in different periods of their lives.

RGG: Why do you recommend that book clubs make New Year's resolutions? What are the benefits of doing this?

DL: To focus attention on what is working and what is not working and to look forward to the year ahead. There's no reason to settle. Adopt the best books and the best practices and leave yourselves open for surprises. That's what makes a great book club.

RGG: We think of book clubs as a relatively new phenomenon, but that's actually not the case. What can you tell us about the book clubs of classic literary figures like Samuel Johnson and P. G. Wodehouse?

DL: There is a history of intellectual societies and coffeehouse culture, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries where books, newspapers and the events of the day were discussed. The elites had private clubs, and often they were strictly gentleman's clubs --- the very clubs Wodehouse satirizes as the Drones Club. Bertie Wooster was very frightened of books, never being entirely clear on the concept of "a book." So when he and his friends Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright, Gussie Fink-Nottle, Tuppy Glossop and Pongo Twistelton repaired to the Drones, it was for cocktails, bread fights, squash, cricket scores and moaning over perpetually broken engagements. Jeeves had his own club of butlers called the Junior Ganymede Club, famous for its Club Book in which the misdeeds of the employers were carefully detailed. The contents were secret, but it is well known that the entry on Bertie Wooster was by far the longest.

I always thought Jeeves would be the ideal book club leader from several standpoints --- he knows everything, he would tolerate no side conversations, and he could serve his mysterious elixir to all of us.

RGG: Will there be a follow-up book?

DL: I'm working on a few ideas now, definitely in the book club spirit.

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