About Us

Tuesday, APril 29, 2014

Who and What is the Zodiac Book Group

The Zodiac Book Group began meeting in Houston, Texas, in 1996, with eight members. Most of us have moved here from other places, including Canada, but there are a couple of members who are native Houstonians. Over the years, people have come and gone but we have almost always been composed of middle-aged women (give or take a few years). Several members are librarians; others include a pubic health researcher, a therapist, a financial advisor, and a sales rep. A few of us are retired, semi-retired, or free agents.

Members: We now have 12 members, which seems to work well. When we had a smaller number of members in past years, around six, we often didn't have enough people present at the meetings to have a good discussion. New members are added casually, when someone brings a friend or when one member leaves and we invite someone else to join. We can't get too big because none of us has a huge living room!

Pre-meeting Sustenance: Before each meeting, we treat ourselves to dinner at one of Houston's many restaurants. We try to select a place that is somehow related to the book we're currently reading, trying to match the cuisine to the locale of the story. Given the diversity of some of the countries and settings of the books we've read after all these years, that's not always possible. But we all love to eat so it's never a problem deciding where to go.

Meetings: We meet monthly from 7 to 9 pm at a member's home, taking turns hosting the group, although no one is ever required to do it. We don't have a rigid schedule for meetings because we try to accommodate people's travel and personal schedules, up to a point. The hostess provides beverages, usually tea and coffee but occasionally something a little stronger if there's a reason to celebrate. Dessert is provided by one of the other members or sometimes by the hostess. These treats have ranged from ice cream to elaborate, homemade treats.

Selecting Books: Although we generally read fiction, we have thrown in a biographies, memoirs, or historical accounts. Over time, we've found that it's often harder to generate discussion about a biography or history book. After all, you can't exactly criticize the author for the plot or the ending! But there have been times when one of these nonfiction works has led to a really spirited debate, like when we read Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking. That one got really rowdy!

We choose new books when we're almost finished with the current selections, which gives us almost a years' worth of books in advance. To do this, everyone brings one or two suggestions to the group and from those, we narrow it down to one from each person. We try to stick to titles that are in print and available in paperback, only because they're lighter to read in bed than hardcover. Some of our members have taken to reading eBooks or listening to books on tape - very modern of us! We read the books in various orders: sometimes it's alphabetical by title or author, sometimes it's by the length of the book (longer ones over holidays; shorter ones when there's less time between meetings), or sometimes alphabetically by group member's name. It's all very arbitrary and up to the whims of the group member who serves as our secretary. She compiles the list of upcoming books, sends out reminder emails, and usually suggests an appropriate restaurant.

After all these years, we've noticed that once in awhile, there have been some "accidental themes" that have occurred in the list of books chosen. For example, there have been several books having to do with slavery, a number about long-suffering but plucky women (what we tend to refer to as "whiney women"), several involving dead animals (very traumatic for us pet owners), and a few about the Holocaust or war years. Other than these randomly occurring themes, anything goes in terms of what people can suggest, with a wide range of topics, issues, cultures, and authors, all of which makes for very interesting reading.

Afterword: We've even found a way to celebrate our longevity. Every fifth anniversary - August 2001, 2006, and 2011 so far - Donna (the group secretary) hosts the meeting and gives out small gifts to all of the members. Nothing extravagant: she cruises the dollar stores looking for trinkets and knicknacs that relate to the theme of the previous year's books. She wraps them without labels and the members then pick one at random, unwrap it, and try to guess which book it represents. Some of the items require a big stretch of the imagination depending on Donna's success prowling the Dollar Stores, but it makes for a fun evening. There's always an anniversary cake to complete the party. Our 20th anniversary is coming up soon!

The main thing that brings us all together is a love of reading. We get to socialize with a great group of women and we read things that we wouldn't normally pick ourselves. For that reason, we hope to still be reading together for at least another 20 years!