Book Clubs: Women and the Uses of Reading in Everyday Life

by Elizabeth Long

Book clubs are everywhere these days. And women talk about the clubs they belong to with surprising emotion. But why are the clubs so important to them? And what do the women discuss when they meet? To answer questions like these, Elizabeth Long spent years observing and participating in women's book clubs and interviewing members from different discussion groups. Far from being an isolated activity, she finds reading for club members to be an active and social pursuit, a crucial way for women to reflect creatively on the meaning of their lives and their place in the social order.

Genres: Nonfiction, Feminism, Academic

280 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2003

Reviews

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book does what I expected it to (i.e. provide a deep and thorough ethnographic account of middle-aged white womens book clubs) but also does a lot more. In particular, its examination of how these women's reading, while following conventions of canonnical and literary value in terms of selection, goes on to belie such interpretations in their discussions. It is a useful intervention into why we must study the ways that content is interpreted rather than merely looking at content itself when defining its value or readers.