Meet Motown Review Book Club
By APOOO • Sep 4th, 2008 • Category: APOOO Features, Head of the Class •
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MOTOWN REVIEW BOOK CLUB
TAKES FIVE WITH APOOO
Location: Detroit, MI
When Founded: 1998
Number of Members: 7
Name FIVE authors whose books your book club enjoys reading together.
Daniel Black
Victoria Christopher Murray
Carl Weber
RM Johnson
Reshonda Tate Billingsley
List the FOUR BEST books that your book club has read this year.
My Soul Cries Out by Sherri Lewis
Something on the Side by Carl Weber
On the Other Side of Through by Marsha Sanders Jenkins
You Gotta Sin to Get Saved by JD Mason
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 Book–Too Good to Be True by E. Lynn Harris
Current Book–Gather Together in My Name by Tracy Price Thompson
Next Book–TBD
Offer TWO tips for a successful book club meeting.
The most successful meetings are where everyone has read the book and come prepared to discuss. The hostess has good food.
If your group could have dinner with ONE author, who would be your group’s choice and why?–Daniel Black, because of all the books we have read in the past 10 years he is the only one who got 5 stars on both of his books, that we talk about all the time and we recommend his books to everyone. He is also one of few authors we have not met.
GOTTA RUN…BUT BEFORE WE DEPART:
What makes your book club unique and different from any other book club?–I do not know about how unique, but our book club is also a travel club. We started our book club after the co-founder went on a literary retreat in Virginia Beach, we met several book clubs and decided we should start one also. We plan at least one trip a year that we all can go on. We also take side trips with maybe one or two of us, will go to an event close by where we are able to meet authors.
Also, our members are great cooks and often times our goal at the meeting is to have out cooked the last hostess, or at least fix one different dish that we have not had before.
Is your group currently accepting membership? If so, whom should readers contact?–No, our membership is by invitation only.
How can one reach your group on the Web? Our group does not have a Web site, but our co-founder has a MySpace account that is used to communicate with the group. It is www.myspace.com/motownreviewbookclub or she can be reached at jnette88@yahoo.com
Motown Review Book Club, CONGRATS ON TEN YEARS OF FELLOWSHIPPING VIA BOOKS AND many thanks for chatting with APOOO! We look forward to meeting and getting together again in the near future!
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
How does your book club select/determine the book of the month for your group?
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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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Hello Motown Review Book Club!!!
10 years CONGRATULATIONS!!! That’s remarkable. I love Italian food and I may have to stop by a meeting for some good eats and reads!!!
How does your book club select/determine the book of the month for your group?
We look over books that have recently been released/or books we haven’t read and then we each vote on which books we’d like to read. Those votes are tallied and we pick the three books with the most votes.
Happy Anniversary, Motown! You ladies are the best!
Congratulation Ladies,
You have all the right ingredients for a good book club, all you need is good friendship, good reading and good eating.
Hello Motown Review Book Club,
Nice to meet a bunch of beautiful ladies that loves the gift of reading. A sista love to eat lol so most definitely good food should be apart of the book club meeting. Congratulations on 10 years of togetherness, keep doing what your doing.
How does your book club select/determine the book of the month for your group? Usually the member that host for the month will choose the book of there choice, but for the 2008 year we decided to pick our reads for the whole year.
Congratulations on the success of the book club ladies.I hope ALL of you are blessed to enjoy many many many more years of friendship,discussion,reading, and of course GOOD EATING
Ps
Love the fact that all of you are sistahs:)
Wow! I cannot believe it’s been ten years – that’s when I first met Motown Review! Congratulations on ten wonderful years. I think it’s not only great that you guys are still reading strong, but I love that you travel together (and I know ’cause I see you – or one of you, everywhere!) Thank you so much for all that you do for me and all the authors. You don’t have any idea how grateful I am. Much love to all of you!
Hi,
Thanks for the kudos
We select our books one month at a time. Each month who ever is hosting gets to pick the BOM. Some months a member will bring is the Black Expression circular and pick from there. At least once a month or so, I like to send out list of new books and up coming books and hopefully the members will pick a book from that list. Or, one of your favoirte authors will release a new book and we will go with that or someone will read a great book and want to discuss it so that’s their pick. I guess you can say no rhyme or reason.
On the months we go out ot eat, everyone put s in a name of a book and we draw it out of a hat!!
Talk about good eating!!
Last month our member Roberta husband fried us some fish, she made dirty rice, green beansw/potatoes strawberry lemondade and banana pudding!! For appetizers we had homemade salsa, chips and fruit!!
Hi Jeanette,
Thats some good eating lolol
Motown Reviewers – Congratulations on 10 Wonderful years… I love the idea of traveling together. That’s a great way to promote sisterhood and friendship…. I’ll hae to check out your Myspace to keep up …..
Also congrats on the Salute from APOOO!!
Great picture Sherri!!!!
Congatulations Motown Review on 10 years. It is wonderful to see that you ladies take time out for yourselves to read, meet and travel.
That’s awesome! I’m very proud of them! And of course just the word motown makes me tingle all over!!
You’re all beautiful, but hey, that should be obvious since their in the best city this side of the Mississippi!!!
Sylvia’s last blog post..Sylvia Hubbard featured this week on Readers Views
Congrats on 10 Years!! And I may have to take a lil hour or so trip just to get my grub on! Banana pudding…hmmmm
It was great getting to know you all. Love sistah unity!
Darnetta’s last blog post..Thursday Thirteen #3– Oh so cute!
Traveling is what we do. We have been to:
-Virginia Beach – Ruth Bridges first Literary retreat
-Then we went with on her retreats to:
-Savannah,
-New Orleans, ( took a train from Chicago to new Orleans)
-New York (pre-9/11), We stayed at a hotel right across from the World Trade center.
-Sedona, Arizona
- Caribbean Liteary Cruise
-We went to BEA in Chicago,
-Ami Girls retreat in upstate New York.
-Drove to Fort Wayne to the Soul Expression tour
-Harlem Book Fair in New York
- NAACP convention in Detroit (well no traveling there), Cinncinati
I know I am forgetting a few places, but if you ever meet with us, ask to see our photo albums. ( you can see a few of our pictures on our myspace page.)
-OH HOW CAN I FORGET; Harrisburg, PA to the Spa!
Hey Motown Reviewers and fellow Detroiters, it’s great your club has been meeting for 10 years-now that’s longevity. I really like the travel idea and so I’m gonna steal it and mention it in to my bookclub. Hey maybe since we are both in the “D” maybe our 2 clubs can meet. If that is okay with your members hit up our president at LadyDiva211@aol.com.
Susan
Literary Divas
Congratulation Ladies,
We need more positive women in the community to show these younger ladies that we are able to have “girlfriends that are true friends”. Keep up the great work and PLEASE spread the word on how reading has more to offer than just because we “have to”.
This is my book club. This is a true honor and pleasure to be among such beautiful women. They are no not only my book club friends; they are the sisters I never had. As mentioned by our founder Jeanette we love to travel. We also keep each other uplifted with words of encouragement when needed. What I found outstanding about us, is the fact we can agree to disagree and still love each other. I still remember the day Jeanette invited me. Thanks for inviting. Congratulations to us.
Hey Motown Review, and other viewers, this is your girl Sherri you know the sister sitting on the bench to the right of your computer screen. I just want to say I love you guys, our wonderful frienship, our trips together, the food, laughter and the fact that we have been together for 10 years. 10 years ago Jeanette and I travelled to Virginia Beach and said we should start a book club. 10 years later here we are and I must say it’s been a true blessing to be surrounded by my sister friends. Happy Anniversary ladies and may we have many more. For all who are reading this and are not a member of a book club, I suggest you join one or start one of your own. You will find the experience rewarding and not only that it helps to relieve the stressors of everyday life that we black women face. so again thanks to all who view this and help to support Motown Review.
PS- Victoria Christopher-Murray and Angela Benson it was real good seeing you at the Soul Expressions book tour in Fort Wayne. I’m sure you guys are still laughing about seeing us in Walmart with shopping carts loaded with books waiting to have our books signed by our favorite authors. It’s such things or outing like this that makes being a member of a bookclub fun. Thanks for giving us good literature. Okay I got to go now but before I do remember, OBAMA 2008.
Ohmi-ohmi ladies
You all look fantastic and Jeanette its really good seeing you again girl its been a lonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnng APOOO time…hee-hee. It’s wonderful to know of the longevity in your group – now das what I’m talking about…..What eva keeps you all together keep on doing it, wow that is something if I could mimic anything from your group it would be that I would love to mimic from your group. I love a small intimate sister circle which is what we have in our group. You ladies mentioned something that I agree is essential to a successful meeting “The most successful meetings are where everyone has read the book and come prepared to discuss” Why do folks join book clubs & don’t read the book nor make the meeting but can make every author or literary event????
Yikes I went off on a tangent sorree…Shaddyup Missy…
Thanks for demonstrating that we DON’T have to be a mega book club to be a force…I love you ladies keep it up my next door sisters. Let’s do something together in 2009 or 2010. When you decide on your 2010 trip let us know if its ok we would love to go…lol (look at me inviting myself…) BIG BIG ups ladies…
Our first year of choose books we did it month to month. Members would bring their idea of a book and then we would write it on slips of paper and pick one out of a hat. In 2007 we decided that we wanted to eliminate that by chooseing ahead of time. So we choose 2008 books in 2007. As the year goes on and we get author invites we add them to our BOM. So several months this year we read 2 or 3 books that month. For 2009 we will go back to month to month there’s so many books that come out and we want to read together and month to month allows more flexibility.
Many your lives be enriched with much love, characters & book escapes 4 u MOtown!!
Jeanette you just made my mouth water with that meal Roberta’s hubby made!!
Excuse my typos I;m not a dummy just a fast thinker and the spell check on my fingertips is BROKE
Missy- I am laughing pretty hard right now after reading your comments and can’t wait to meet you. Even though I have not met you, you remind me of one of our members Valerie. She keeps us laughing! Don’t you agree Motown review? We definitely like taking trips, so we need to get busy with the planning.
Busy busy bee’s yeah yeah yeah I’ll take that to mean you are inviting Reader’s Paradise and we accept….lol
:0 :0
Missy I’m still laughing. Ok we have got to make this trip a good one.
Okay, Readers Paradise, you are in Chicago, a short train ride away. And there is a Cheesecake Factiry there!!
Within the next couple of months I will be lookng at upcoming events and pick out a trip. We’ll keep you updated.
Missy you are right, I think the last time I saw you was at a Harlem Bookfair, back when it was worth me getting on a plane to fly to New York and back in 24 hours.
PS: Roberta’s husband can fry the heck out of some fish!!!!!
Congrats ladies. Keep up the good work. May God continue to bless you all…
Congrats on ten years. I love the concept of your group and that you travel together too.
Hey Ladies,
You can contact Daniel Black and he can talk to your group via telephone. Our book club had a meeting with him by phone to discuss THEY TELL ME OF A HOME.
Patricia
Ladies of Color Turning Pages
You all are looking good. great review. So where is your next literary event?
Dera’s last blog post..I’ve Been Tagged
Hey Patricia,
We would love to talk with Daniel Black. Do you have contact intormaton for him?
I hear he has a new book coming out soon.
Hey Sherri,
I think it is awesome that you and your friends have been able to stay committed for ten years. The friendships and fellowships during the past ten years I am sure are priceless. I remember when we were kids you read all the time, especially Harlequin Romance Novels
). I never started because I new I couldn’t read them all. I wish you all many more years of vicarious experiences through reading. If I still lived in Michigan, I would join you! Continued success and yes, go Obama!!!!
Kerri Mack
Good luck Sherri Davis and friends. You guys look great!!!
Kandace
Congrats Ladies!!! Thats a great accomplishment, the travelling component is awesome & a great added perk. I would love to be a part of this if I wasnt so far away.
Hey Jeanette,
Here’s Daniel Black’s contact information. babaomo@aol.com. I want to recommend a book by a new author. The book is Daughter Denied by Alretha Thomas. We just had coffee with her this morning. She is such a positive person. This book is a must read. With so much Urban fiction out there, Ms. Thomas’ is a wonderful change. You can get it from Amazon.com. I have posted a review on Amazon.com. Pass the word on. Check my ladies out on September 8th. Take care.
Patricia
Ladies of Color Turning Pages
Thank you Patiricia.
I’ll be sure to check you all out on Monday.
This is so much fun!!
Congrats to my friend Sherrie (an outstanding cook), Jeanette and the rest of your book club members. I remember when Sherrie and Jeannette were doing the traveling. If I remember correctly we were over Jeanette’s (another great cook I might add) for one of our Ladies Night Out events! I believe you had just come back from or were getting ready to go either on a cruise or to Virginia Beach. I also remember reading that wonderful article in the Sunday Free Press about your book club. You were with one of my favorite authors Pearl Cleage. I can’t believe it’s been 10 years for your book club already. Anyway, best wishes to all of you. Sherrie – love you my sista and hope to see you soon, Eileen.
Congrat to Motown Review Book Club and especially to Birdie;
Happy! Happy! Ten precious years of reading
Its a beautiful thang, its a beautiful thang when we can get together for something soooo positive. You ladies are doing it and doing it blessed. I wish all of you the best. Birdie you have always been such a inspiration to me; and I will always be your biggest cheerleader. I miss you truly!!
May God bless each and every one of the Motown Review Book Club members and their families.
Congrats on the 10 years ladies…..
P.S. Roberta’s Husband can THROW DOWN LOL!!!!!!
Congratulations Motown Review Book Club on 10 years…and especially to Roberta,
A group that reads together and prays together, stays together!
Nice Picture ladies.
Donna Bennett’s last blog post..
Congrats! I think it’s wonderful that it’s more than a book club. I see a great sisterhood and the travel just kicks it up a notch. Love it!
Congratulations on 10 years! I met Roberta Thornton at the NAACP Author’s Pavilion in July – wonderful spirit. As a new author, it always great to connect with those who have a love for the written word. God bless your group.
Hi Jeannette, Sherry, Francine, Valerie, Roberta, Yvette, and Yvonne better known as Motown Review. Congratulations on the occasion of your 10th anniversary. It seems as if I’ve know you as long – just about. As I was reading all the places you’ve been as a book club, I recall having travelled a few of those places with you.
It’s wonderful that you all have been together this long sharing, discussing, debating the written word of others. I’m proud to say you are one of my favorite book clubs. I’ll be certain to pass this page to my other Fayettevillian friends who are also friends of yours.
My best,
Suzetta Perkins
Sherri,
I want to congradulate you and your book club on ten years and running. You guys are an inspiration to all of us who love to read. You’re going to have to help us get one started at the office.
Hello Ladies,
Congrats on 10 years!!! This is truly a milestone – keep up the great work!!! Continue to be an inspiration and blessing to women – we need that!
Congrats on 10 yrs. 5 more years and we’ll be there also. Love the pic it shows unity.
Daniel Black is excellent we absolutely adore him. We read both of his books and have had the opportunity of him joining us both times to discuss They Tell Me of a Home and The Sacred Place.
How does your book club select/determine the book of the month for your group? Everyone gets a chance to be hostess and as hostess you get to select what book interest you.
Congrats ladies on 10 years! I truly enjoy our book discussions! We have a good time.
Everybody talks about how we eat so good, but it’s a part of entertaining and welcoming
each other into our home. But I also enjoy the purses. Oh you ladies know the book police notices everything. My bookclub members love purses and some have a nice collection to add to the collection of books. Thanks for the fun times ladies.
Thanks to everyone for the comments and APOOO for this opportunity and by the way my husband can cook.
The one thing I like about our book club is we pick the book a month in advance as opposed to once a year, because every Tuesday new releases come out.
Take care ladies!
Thank you, thank you, thank you to Motown Review 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