Let’s Talk About It: Luring Maine Readers...Out of Our Living Rooms ... and Beyond Our Borders
Let’s Talk About It BOOK LIST SAMPLER
Ten years ago, Oprah’s Book Club emerged as a major force in book publishing, pushing sales of its selected titles into the millions. The club raised thorny questions about celebrity culture, engaged many new readers, and enraged some seasoned ones, but its one irrefutable effect was to make book club culture more visible. Bookstores now commonly devote prime shelf space to popular book club selections, whose back pages are filled with “discussion questions.” How-to guides approach the trend from many angles: there are tips for mother-daughter clubs, annotated lists of titles on every imaginable theme, and tips for dealing with “problem” group members. There’s even The Book Club Cookbook, which features a recipe from the popular literary repast prepared annually by Bowdoin College Dining Services for the Maine Humanities Council’s Winter Weekend.
This proliferation of book club varieties and resources may not correspond to any real increase in the number of readers, yet the trend does suggest a desire among readers to leave the confines of their living rooms and talk with others about what they’ve read. The Council’s Let’s Talk About It program satisfies that desire by bringing Mainers together to engage in conversation about books. But several unique features distinguish Let’s Talk About It from most traditional book clubs.
The most significant difference is that Let’s Talk About It groups are free and open to the public. In communities throughout Maine, the program connects neighbors from all walks of life who might not otherwise meet. One participant has said, “I have been in book groups with friends, but it was so wonderful to be in one that was public. It is so important to have this type of exchange, and to have experiences like this open, free of charge, to all who wish to attend.”
This sense of community is enhanced by the fact that Let’s Talk About It groups meet in a vital and time-honored civic space: the local public library. The Council provides publicity materials and advice, while the Maine State Library stores and distributes books throughout the state. Financial support from the Maine State Library, the Belvedere Fund of the Maine Community Foundation, and this year, the We the People initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities, enables about 40 libraries-from Rangeley to Lubec, Caribou to Kittery, and many towns in between-to host programs each year. Since most libraries run on tight budgets, Let’s Talk About It is often their most significant if not their only public offering.
Another distinctive feature of the program is that discussions are led by skilled facilitators, whose provocative questions elicit a range of perspectives. “One of the most difficult things about running a book group,” said one veteran participant, “is getting people to talk. From the first discussion, our Let’s Talk About It facilitator had the group pondering, discussing, debating-and often laughing.” Facilitators are equally adept at focusing discussions that stray too far from the topic at hand.
Finally, rather than choosing books on a whim, Let’s Talk About It groups explore themes through carefully constructed series of books. The readings in each series are selected by a scholar with expertise pertaining to the theme. Program hosts can choose from over 35 different series, including perennial favorites like “Going to Sea” and “The Mirror of Maine.” (For a full list of series, please visit www.mainehumanities.org/programs/talk.html.
Thanks to support from the Belvedere Fund and other Maine Humanities Council donors, staff and scholars have introduced six new or revised Let’s Talk About It series within the past year, with five more in progress. One goal of this expansion has been to satisfy frequent requests for series that explore a variety of cultures.
The Council worked with Mahmud Faksh, a professor of political science at the University of Southern Maine, to develop “Behind the Headlines: An Introduction to the Middle East.” This series differs from the rest in that groups meet three times, not five, and each session begins with a 45-minute presentation by a facilitator who specializes in the Middle East, followed by an hour and a quarter of facilitated discussion and questions. The single text is The Contemporary Middle East, edited by Karl Yambert, a new, accessible anthology of writings by leading scholars incorporating historical, cultural, and political perspectives of the region. Its timely theme has been met with an incredible response. Groups at each of four pilot sites-York, Bridgton, Bangor and Yarmouth-immediately filled to capacity, and long waiting lists formed. A recent caller to the Council who read about the program in the newspaper guiltily confessed that she has felt hatred for all Muslims since 9/11. She wanted to join a Let’s Talk About It group to become better informed and more open-minded.
While “Behind the Headlines” may encourage understanding through its balanced approach to a fraught region, “Making a Difference: How Love and Duty Change Lives” tackles the subject of compassion head-on. This series asks what happens when we are called to act upon what we perceive as our duty-especially when such action entails considerable sacrifice. It was developed with support from Thoughtful Giving: Philanthropy as Civic Engagement, a project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Other series that have been well-received by groups seeking books from beyond Maine’s borders include “From the Outside Looking In: Views of the South Asian Experience” and “So Near & So Far: An Exploration of Cuban Literature.” “Family and Self,” designed to trace shifting values under increasing Western influence as depicted in 20th century Japanese novels, will be offered for the first time this spring. Scholars are still refining two other series: “Paradise Revealed,” which samples Caribbean literature in many genres, and “Growing Up Between Cultures: Circulations and Collisions.” A new series on “The Gilded Age” debuted this spring at Portland’s Victoria Mansion, and a revision of the popular “Defining Wilderness, Defining Maine” series is also in progress.
These Let’s Talk About It offerings will introduce Maine readers to a wide array of new perspectives-not only the ideas in the books themselves, but also the opinions of fellow readers who come together to discuss them.
