Meet Marcus Book Club, September 25, 2008
By APOOO • Sep 25th, 2008 • Category: APOOO Features, Head of the Class •
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MARCUS BOOK CLUB
Name FIVE genres that your book club reads regularly.
Literary- both contemporary and historical fiction
Memoir/Autobiography
Black Commentary/Political/Sociology
Mystery
Speculative Fiction
Name FIVE authors whose books your book club enjoys reading together.
Bernice McFadden
Walter Mosley
Diane McKinney Whetstone
Tananarive Due
Our home girl Terry McMillan
Oh and if I can add one more, J. California Cooper is a favorite.
List the FOUR BEST books that your book club has read this year.
Scottsboro by Ellen Feldman
Brother, I’m Dying by Edwidge Danticat
Seen it All, Done the Rest by Pearl Cleage
Them by Nathan McCall
List THREE books—the last book your club read, the current book your club is reading, the book your club plans to read next.
Last- Seen it All, Done the Rest by Pearl Cleage
Current- Trading Dreams at Midnight- DMW
Next- Blood Colony- Tananarive Due
Offer TWO tips for a successful book club meeting.
Having an established date and time to meet.
Everyone gets a chance to facilitate and everyone’s opinion is respected.
If your group could have dinner with ONE author, who would be your group’s choice and why?
Oh, we had fun with this question. The consensus was Blair Underwood. Besides the obvious reasons, LOL, we all want to quiz him about the status of his plans for making My Soul to Keep by Tananarive Due into a movie. We know he shot some footage in Ethiopia and we have been waiting for years for this movie.
GOTTA RUN…But Before We Depart:
What makes your book club unique and different from any other book club?
We are a book club that grew out of the Marcus Book Stores, a Black-owned book store started by the Richardson family. There are two stores, one in the Fillmore in San Francisco and Oakland. Blanche Richardson, manager of the Oakland store, wanted to discuss My Soul to Keep, the word spread and a book club was born. We are proud to be associated with such a distinguished institution as Marcus Book Stores.
Is your group currently accepting membership? If so, whom should we contact?
Yes. Marcusbookclub65@yahoo.com
How can one reach your group on the Web? Currently we do not have a Web site, but one is in progress. Once it is up and running, we will share the new address.
APOOO is happy to feature Marcus Book Club and a big kool-aid grin goes out to Dera Williams, who is not only a member of Marcus, but she’s also a very ACTIVE member of APOOO as well as an editor and reviewer for APOOO’s review team, AET.
DISCUSSION QUESTION
CLICK HERE for today’s discussion question…it’s a meme and it’s about FREEDOM TO READ.
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APOOO is an online author and reader community dedicated to advancing African American literature. Our mission is to expose readers of all ages to a good book in any genre; to support African American authors, books, literary events and bookclubs; to provide marketing resources, tools and tips to authors; and, to promote literacy within the African American community.
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Yasmin, thanks so much for featuring Marcus Book Club. I will notify the group to come on over.
Dera’s last blog post..I’ve Been Called Out
Congratulations Marcus Book Store members and Dera!!!
I especially like that you’ll named yourselves after the bookstore. Eleven years is AWESOME!!!
Nardsbaby’s last blog post..Nardsbaby gave 5 stars to: Nan
Nice to meet ya, Marcus Book Club! And how cool that we have one of your members as an APOOO member. YG Dera!
Darnetta’s last blog post..Free Books
How cool is that. And male members to boot. Love it!! YAY Dera
Blessings,
angelia
From the list of books and authors read, this group is serious. There are no “urban/street” lit titles listed. I also like that men are included. To me, it adds to the discussion. I find they are serious and are not interested in reading “fluff.” Thanks.
YAY! Dera.
Jennifer C.’s last blog post..Thursday Thirteen #8-Things I Want to Do
Finally get to Meet the members of Marcus Book Club. Congratulations on the APOOO Feature.. wish i was in CA, cause I would fit right in with your group. Love the diversity in members.
Congrats to you also Dera!!
Hip Hip Hooray to Marcus Bookclub.
You all get the best authors there. I too would love to have Blair Underwood come to one of our meetings for dinner, but it would not be to discuss books. I would be speechless and just want to sit and … well you know. : )
Hello all! Pleasure to see and meet you all! Welcome to the forum.
Good Morning All and good going Marcus Book club!!!!!
Hi Marcus!! I see my girl Tyra!
Nice to meet you Marcus Book Club, congrats on your feature today….
Really nice to see the men in the club. Must make for very interesting discussions.
Congratulations! Wonderful looking group!
Thanks to everyone for your comments. Yes, we tend to read more literary authors and works but since we all loved The Coldest Winter Ever (it may have been the only urban lit we have read) hopefully we plan to read the sequel. We have read some general contemporary as well.
Yes, it is nice to have men in the group; they give a different perspective, especially when we discuss certain books like for instance Forty Million Dollar Slaves which was about sports and athletes.
We get to meet a lot of authors as many of them want to come to Marcus Books. Blair Underwood was there for his children’s books a couple of years ago. We have had brunch with E. Lynn Harris and Tananarive Due; special forums for Terry McMillan. Next month Jewell Parker Rhodes will be there.
Dera’s last blog post..I’ve Been Called Out
Dera, tell Jewell I said hi and don’t forget to take a picture with her!
xoxo
Congrats on the success of the book store and the book club.
Thank you, thank you, thank you to Marcus Book Club for opening up the cyber doors and giving us a glimpse into your book world. Book clubs make the world go ‘round. Congratulations on the success of your book club.
OOSA Online Book Club´s last blog post..OOSA Online Book Club gave 4 stars to: Preacherman Blues