Book Clubs

 The plan has changed somewhat since the post this morning.

With the announcement that Adam Schiff will stop by at least one of our book club meetings (!) our book club ranks swelled from 40 to 120!  Remember, we may not know in advance which of our zooms Adam Schiff will choose to attend.

Gift books: I have paired each of the 12 BJ peeps who are receiving the gift books with another BJ peep who is gifting a book.  It looks like most of the Amazon orders should be arriving on Saturday.  If things are tight right now with the holidays and you want to participate but the book cost is a challenge, there are still other gift offers available.  Just send me email.

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Let’s all plan to read the whole book before the book club starts.   After the first one, each book club meeting will have a theme for the discussion, so a “just in time” approach where you read each chapter just in time for the meeting won’t be practical.

Start date: January 12.

Meeting day & time:   Wednesday evenings at 8:00 Eastern.  Zoom meetings will start on time and will last 90 minutes.

Schedule:  meet every week on Wednesday evenings.

# of book club meetings:  5 meetings

# of people signed up for the book club: 120 people

Book club dates:  mark your calendars!

Jan 12, Jan 19, Jan 26
Feb 2, Feb 9

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Book Club Plans for Adam Schiff’s Midnight In Washington (New Info)Post + Comments (21)

With the announcement that Adam Schiff will stop by at least one of our book club meetings (!) our ranks swelled from 40 to 120!  Remember, we may not know in advance which of our zooms Adam Schiff will choose to attend.

For anyone who missed the previous posts, and to ensure that all the information is available in one place, I’ll outline the broad plan here and supply a few details.

Gift books: I have paired each of the 11 BJ peeps who are receiving the gift books with another BJ peep who is gifting a book.  It looks like most of the Amazon orders should be arriving on Saturday.  If things are tight right now with the holidays and you want to participate but the book cost is a challenge, there are still other gift offers available.  Just send me email.

We agreed to start the book club after the holidays, so we are looking at a start date of January 12.

With 120 participants, we can’t have wide-open discussions of days and times and all sorts of other book club planning.  So I’ll lay out a plan that can be adjusted here or there at the margins. We are happy to have input and feedback but it’s not practical to think that we can be voting and making the decisions with some group process.

I chose Wednesday evenings – if that turns out to be a terrible night for a ton of people, we could choose Thursday evenings instead.  But I think those are our best choices.  We can’t expect Adam Schiff to stop by on a weekend; he has a family.  He is most likely busy during the day; I understand that he has a job that keeps him kind of busy! :-)  Monday nights and Friday nights are not great, though for different reasons, so those are out.  So I landed on Wednesdays.

? Thoughts on Wednesday evening vs. Thursday evening? ?

Let’s start at 8:00 pm Eastern time.  That’s 7 pm in the Midwest and 5 pm for the West Coast peeps.

Let’s plan for a total of 6 book club meetings, with an option to extend it if the group feels there is more to discuss.

? How often do we want to meet?  Every other week? ?

We will have a mix of book club posts and book club zooms.  I’m thinking of BJ posts for 2-3 of the book club meetings and BJ zooms for 3-4 of the book club meetings – with all of the BJ thread meetings coming first, and then shifting to zoom meetings after that.

? 2 book club posts and 4 zooms?  Or 3 book club posts and 3 zooms? ?

Thoughts on length?  I’m thinking 90 minutes, with an option for an additional 30 minutes if we are still going great guns.

? Is 90 minutes good?  Is 2 hours better? ?

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Reading the book

Let’s all plan to read the whole book before the book club starts, because with 24 chapters (if you include the prologue and the epilogue) it’s just not practical to go with a “just in time” approach, reading each chapter just in time for the meeting.

I’m thinking that for this book it’s best to go with broad themes for discussion, rather than focusing a meeting on a particular chapter or chapters.

There are no book club guides for Adam Schiff’s book, so we are on our own here.

For the past 4 nights, I have listened to the audio book as I am falling asleep, and then I listen again in the night if I wake up for awhile.  The effect is a bit of jumping around – I might sleep through 3 chapters and wake up to a different portion of the book.  But it’s giving me a feel for the book, which is helpful for the planning that can’t wait until I finish reading the book cover to cover.

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3 Themes for Discussion

I have tentatively decided on topics for the final 3 book club zooms.

Meeting 4.  What Didn’t You Know Before You Read the Book?  What Surprised You?

Meeting 5.  So Many Shocking Betrayals!

Meeting 6.  We’re Not Helpless Passengers On a Bad Ride – Making Our Own Shade.

? Do you love these?  Hate these? ?

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Themes for the other three discussions

What other themes would be good to discuss?

If you have started the book… is there a chapter or section that struck you as a good focus/discussion area?

If someone else suggests a an area that you also think would be good, please chime in.  I’m not looking for an infinite list, or the longest list possible – I’m looking for mutual areas of interest that would be good topics/themes for the other 3 meetings.

? Topics or themes you want to suggest? ?

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Split between posts on BJ and zooms

Adam Schiff will only stop by the zooms, not the BJ posts.

? Do we want an even split between posts and zooms?  Or 2 posts and 4 zooms??

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Questions for Adam Schiff

Remember, we may not know in advance which of our zooms Adam Schiff will choose to attend.

And we certainly don’t know whether he will just want to listen (surely not!  hopefully not!) or whether he will talk with us or whether he will take questions.

So we definitely need to be prepared with questions for Adam Schiff in advance in case we get that opportunity.

What questions would you like to ask Adam Schiff if we get that opportunity?  Please share any questions you have now, in this thread.  We’ll ask again before our first zoom, so we can make the most of this opportunity.

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?  Has anyone heard of Bookclubz for organizing book clubs?  Never mind.  I am not going to ask 120 people to create an account. ?

What did i forget?

??

Book Club Information for Adam Schiff’s Midnight In WashingtonPost + Comments (79)

Adam Schiff will be joining our Midnight In Washington book club for at least part of one meeting!

I wrote this comment on the calendar thread last night:

In other good news, spoke with Adam Schiff’s chief of staff today, and I need to let him know when our Midnight in Washington book club will be meeting and Adam Schiff will drop in on one of our meetings for 15-30 minutes or so.

Possibly unannounced, and possibly announced beforehand.

He is more likely to drop in if we have a zoom than a post – easier for him to participate.

i am to get back to him when we have a plan.

I seem to be getting all the credit for this, but it all started with a tweet by one of our BJ peeps about the Jan 6 hearings. Here’s the story of how it happened.

BJ peep Betty replied to Laura Rozen re: the Jan 6 hearings.

As soon as possible. I know from reading Midnight in Washington how well Schiff and Raskin understand this.

— Betty Perry-Fingal (@PerryFingal) December 2, 2021

Betty was excited because Adam Schiff “liked” that tweet, and immediately jumped on BJ to tell us about it.  I saw Betty’s BJ comment in real time and immediately replied that she should tweet back, telling him about our Midnight in Washington book club (starting in January) and inviting him to join us for a Q&A.

And she did!  Go Betty!

@adamschiff I have been delegated by the blog Balloon Juice to tell you we will be having a book club discussion of Midnight in Washington in January, and we would love to have you join us for a Q&A.

— Betty Perry-Fingal (@PerryFingal) December 2, 2021

Long story short, I am to get back to the chief of staff when we have a firm plan with dates & times for the book club.

So you can expect another book club post soon.  If you haven’t signed up for the book club but you would like to join us, chime in below and let us know!

If you would like to participate but money for the book is an issue at the moment, several people have offered to buy the book for others.  Two people have the book in their hands already – the receivers are thrilled to have their books and the givers are really happy to be helping someone else get the book.  Win-win!

Send me an email if you want to join the club but this isn’t a good time for your to purchase the book. Let me know whether you want a paper book or a Kindle, etc.

Totally open thread.

Adam Schiff, Midnight In Washington, and Balloon JuicePost + Comments (248)

A month ago I put up a post asking if there was interested in a weekly book club to discuss Adam Schiff’s book Midnight in Washington.

Interest in a Weekly Book Club to Read & Discuss Adam Schiff’s Book Midnight In Washington?

Here’s a list of people who indicated they were interested:

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Book Club – Adam Schiff’s <i>Midnight in Washington</i>Post + Comments (100)

Is there any interest in having a book club to talk about Adam Schiff’s book: Midnight in Washington?

Maybe a chapter a week?

I typically never read these political books, but this is definitely one I want to read.

I’m thinking maybe a different person could lead the conversation every week, or at least write up a little something to get the conversation started.  Of course, if you hate that idea, it doesn’t have to go that way.

If you’re interested in reading / discussing this book, let me know in the comments?

If not, open thread!

Interest in a Weekly Book Club to Read & Discuss Adam Schiff’s Book Midnight In Washington?Post + Comments (79)