Henry, who will be a college freshman in two months and I assume we’re all just going to let that happen, is running a book club this summer, as part of his “Do I want to be an underpaid English teacher or don’t I?” journey. The book club membership consists of four of Henry’s friends, plus it originally included four members of Henry’s household. But now Elizabeth has unexpectedly gone away for the summer to be a camp counselor (it is a Christian camp, and she knows this worries me, so she is sending texts such as: “I love my supervisor. Not to alarm anyone, but if she handed me Kool-Aid that would bring me to Heaven’s gate, I would drink it”), and she is on-duty 23 hours out of 24 (though not paid accordingly: the Lord’s work does not even APPROXIMATE fair wages, since presumably the Lord’s followers can readily subsist on manna collected each day from the morning’s dew), so now the book club contains only three of Henry’s household: William, Edward, and me. And actually Edward is participating in what Henry calls “remedial book club,” because Edward wants to read SOME books but not as many as Henry thinks we ought to read. My own opinion is that Edward is right and that Henry’s syllabus is far, FAR too ambitious, but this is how English majors learn what is reasonable before they turn into English teachers.
Anyway, we started with The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which I thought I had read in my youth but it soon became clear I had not. Goodness. And I never DID become inured to the casual use of the n-word, nor to the absolute PREPONDERANCE of male characters. But then we got to the part where Huck dresses up like a girl, and an older woman figures him right out because he catches a tossed ball of yarn by closing his knees instead of opening them, and I remembered that vividly! …Though I’d remembered it came from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer or possibly from a Laura Ingalls Wilder book. So my guess is that either there was a suspiciously similar scene in Tom Sawyer / Laura Ingalls Wilder, or else that scene was in one of those English-class collections that includes poems, essays, and excerpts from novels, and I read it there.
Our second book is Pride & Prejudice, which, well! I have read it multiple times, I own the annotated version which I highly recommend and am using for this re-read, and I have many evolving opinions on the strengths and weaknesses of the various TV/movie adaptations. It is HUGELY enjoyable for me to re-read it for a group project, and to hear the kids using “Mrs. Bennett” as an insult.
An aside: I told Henry that I would like to provide copies of the book for the book club, on a book-by-book basis: that is, let’s start with one round and make no promises and see how it goes. My working philosophy was that I would not buy from Amazon, and instead I would buy from Goodwill/eBay, where we can liberate used copies from the landfill!!!! Except I ordered eight matching “like-new” copies of the same edition (we want to be able to reference page numbers), and I received the most amazing hodge-podge of absolutely-in-NO-way-“like-new” books, which included highlighting, rips, entirely different editions, crumpled covers, water damage, a large patch of sticky residue, teachers’/schools’/libraries’ stamps/stickers, etc. Contacting the sellers resulted in a shrug: return them, if you want. But it was too late to do so before the book club began, so we breathed carefully and tried to use the situation as an opportunity to practice using perspective.
For Pride & Prejudice, we ordered from Amazon. I didn’t like it, but Henry’s overambitious reading schedule is tight, and we could get brand-new copies delivered the next day for less than the price of battered/unknown copies on eBay that would arrive a week and a half after we were supposed to start reading. For the next book (The Three Musketeers) we tried again to be responsible consumers, but once again we were too late: even thinking relatively far ahead, eBay copies wouldn’t get here for ten days or more, AND those battered used copies would cost more than brand-new, so we ordered again from Amazon. But the NEXT book after THAT is Jane Eyre, and we have some time because we are thinking SO SO far ahead, so we have ordered “very good” (i.e., undoubtedly stickered/stained/highlighted/underlined/ex-library/torn/water-damaged beyond reason) copies from eBay that will take two weeks to get here.
For used books you might consider Better World Books – doesn’t ship as quickly as Amazon but not too bad. Their very good condition does often include ex-library books though, if that bothers you. Usually they note that, but not always.
Love this post! And my nerdy heart would explode if one of my kids started a book club for the summer.
I want to put in a plug for Bookshop.org as an alternative to Amazon — reasonably priced and part of the proceeds go toward benefiting a local bookstore of your choosing. It takes longer than Amazon though to arrive so still some advanced planning would be needed.
Henry is not allowed to be old enough to go to college though, I object
I used to work for a Christian school and I have never been paid so poorly IN MY LIFE. Or treated so poorly, so there is that too. I made more as a summer camp counselor working outdoors in the woods than teaching second grade for that school.
Why is Elizabeth working at a Christian summer camp? Huh! I get your concern…as a non-Christian, I would fear The Indoctrination (I get that is *unlikely*, especially if she’s sending you texts like that ;), but still!), but also as a Christian parent, I would assume/want the counselors to also be Christians? Was that not a requirement? Although I guess I shouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t, because I used to work as a therapist for a Catholic non-profit and I was definitely not Catholic. But honestly, I always thought that was a little weird, like I SHOULD be a Catholic, because a lot of the clients WERE Catholic and were going there BECAUSE it was a Catholic place, and assumed—and wanted me to be!—ALSO Catholic.
She was looking for a summer job that involved working with kids, to give her an idea of whether that’s something she’d like to do career-wise. Their website definitely implies that counselors are carefully selected from among God’s chosen, but she was frank about not being a Christian before filling out an application. (I think they were getting pretty desperate for staff.)
Elizabeth’s comment made me laugh! And this is not to make you feel better about the Christian camp, but I just got back from a family camp weekend with my nephew at the Christian (ELCA Lutheran) camp that I attended as a kid. And I was heartened by the fact that the campers are asked at registration what pronouns they use, there was a transgender man who was a staff member, and the Bible concepts that we talked about were things like treating everyone how you would treat God (the whole God tells you he is coming and then sends people and you need to treat them like you would treat him) and God also sends you help in the form of people so for goodness sake accept their help. So basically lessons that I think apply to all of us no matter if we believe or not. And the earnest and kind college kids who were staff members made my heart happy. I wore my Kamala Joyful Warrior shirt. Another parent wore a No Kings shirt. The whole weekend maybe didn’t make me feel better about religion in general, but made me feel A LOT better about people. Anyway, I hope Elizabeth’s camp is more along these lines ;)
IT IS like that, and that made me feel much better about the whole thing.
Ha – Elizabeth and her commentary crack me up.
I have ordered used books through Alibris before with good success. But… I haven’t ordered a LOT of books, or even multiples of the same book, so YMMV.
The book club sounds wonderful and I love that your kids are going around calling people Mrs. Bennett.
See how I am ignoring the completely nonsensical reference to Henry going to college???
Some other suggestions here, but I swear by Thrift Books!
I also love Thriftbooks! Most I’ve gotten from there have been old library books and I’ve found their descriptions of quality to be truthful.
Putting in another plug for Thriftbooks. They’ve been good to me for years! :)
I’ve had several good experiences with Thriftbooks. I highly recommend them, too.
I like PangoBooks for used books since the people selling them are required to use at least one image of the actual physical book. Sometimes there is damage that isn’t disclosed but it’s never been like you described with your books, more like a crease or a stain here or there.
I’m sure as a librarian you’re well aware of it, but you should read James!!! It would be the perfect follow up to Huck Finn as it is a retelling from Jim’s perspective. It’s incredible.
Agreed! I loved it!
My son, exactly Henry’s age, was cast as Huck Finn last summer in a community theater production of Tom Sawyer. They were careful to remove the problematic language – a character was renamed One Eyed Joe. This summer he is in Around the World in 80 days which also has the problematic parts removed.
Swistle, have you seen the CraftLit podcast? It’s a podcast that annotates classic literature with great humor. I mention it in case it’s a fun addition to or continuation of Henry’s book club.
I was also going to share a podcast recommendation- Overdue. It has two male hosts, both of whom majored in liberal arts in college (at least I think so). It is a long running podcast, so they’ve definitely covered the books on Henry’s list and they just covered James by Percival Everett. They talk about the uncomfortable parts such as the n word, without actually using the word itself. There are also jokey bits about different topics for each book as well.
I am so charmed by your book club. I want to echo the recommendation of bookshop.com. They are pretty fast though I’ve never needed to order matching copies of a book so I don’t know how that would go.
I am confident in Elizabeth’s ability to return to you unconverted. North want a day camp job this summer, having done sleep away camp last summer and it was hard finding a job. They didn’t get a place at theater camp or cooking camp and had to settle for a general purpose day camp. The job hasn’t started yet, but they are hoping it will be better than canvassing, which was kind of grueling and they quit. I’m just impressed they found two summer jobs because their brother has been mostly unemployed since last fall.
Camp counselors and their pay exist in a legal loophole, pay wise, because they are receiving room and board in addition to a (meagre) wage. When I was a Girl Scout camp counselor we worked 22 hours a day, six days a week (better hours and pay than I get as a SAHM, just sayin’), and our supervisor told us not to calculate our hourly wage unless we wanted to be depressed. The experience was invaluable, though.
Can I just say that it’s super fun so read about all the smart ways your kids are testing out career paths? I’ve been reading for so many years and feel like I’ve grown up alongside them a little. I’m currently trying to find my own career and stories like this really affirm that it’s a process :)
You would probably know if your library had book club kits. My book club used them once for a hard to get book.
I understand Henry’s desire for everyone to have the same version of the book if he’s trying to replicate a classroom. In my book club, we never have the same copies. Some of us read with our eyes and others with their ears. Sometimes the people who listen are at a disadvantage occasionally if there are visuals; Interior Chinatown’s formatting and The Wager’s maps come to mind.
I’m curious how Henry choice these books. They’re classics written by White people. Any classics by BIPOC authors coming up? Or more contemporary works?
I loved Jane Eyre when I read it in high school although I think a re-read might have me giving Mr. Rochester some side eye about his treatment of Bertha. If you want a follow up to Jane Eyre, I’d suggest Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys.
He chose classics normally taught in high school, books any incoming English major would be expected to be familiar with, but that had not come up in his own high school English classes. Classics, as you have observed, tend to be by white men; half the reading list is by white women, but even that was a much more limited pool to choose from. One reason his high school English classes have missed a lot of the classics is that they are teaching a much wider variety of viewpoints, including contemporary and BIPOC voices; however, these aren’t (yet) classics. We are reading The Three Musketeers.
Pride and Prejudice is one of my all-time favourites and I NEVER get tired of it. How fun to have your own book club! I have never read Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn and I probably won’t.
I can’t wait to hear what other books you read!
I went to Lutheran bible camp when I was a kid, and there was definitely chapel/ prayers but it didn’t feel too indoctrinating. Or I was already indoctrinated, one or the other. Mostly I remember swimming and going to the tuck shop. (I no longer identify as Lutheran)
I love that you are reading the classics with Henry’s book club! May I recommend James by Percival Everett as a follow-up? I read it as a part of Sharon McMahon’s online book club, and it was fantastic!
Hiiiii, fellow Governerd! xo (and yes, James is a spectacular book!)
I came her to say this!
Seconding the recommendation for bookshop.org! They aren’t as quick as Amazon, and are a little more expensive since the books are the main focus and not a loss-leader for everything else. However, they are reliable, accurate, and give a percentage back to independent bookstores. You can even designate what bookstore you want it to go to, whether a local favorite or minority-owned or whatever.
I feel like I would die of happiness if my son wanted to run a book club, but I think U.S. teachers are paid worse than Canadian. And pensions? The pensions seem to be killer here, is that not the case there?
More than anything, the sheer SPEED of Amazon is almost irresistible. And it’s not because I WANT to have things immediately, I don’t mind waiting for the most part, but some things you actually just NEED right away, especially with the world moving at the speed it does now. It is VEXING.
My sixth grade teacher read Huckleberry Finn to us over a few months at school, and I still remember whole passages in his voice. Have you read James? Amazing companion read.
I was thinking about the Canadian vs American teacher thing too. I know teachers are well paid up here and have great pensions (though the provincial government is doing it’s best to devalue teachers and the school system these days, and a friend is considering leaving the profession because of the hair-curling violence that she’s subjected to as an elementary school teacher with no support from her school or board to deal with it) but I get the impression that teachers in America are severely underpaid and under-appreciated.
So I haven’t been able to comment recently on this and a couple other blogs, until I stopped putting in my website. Weird.
That is bizarre!! Lots of people put in their websites! …Although, maybe there are lots more who aren’t able to comment either, and I don’t know because they can’t comment!
I wonder if there’s any chance it’s a website address FORMATTING issue? I know Blogger blogs only let me put my website address one particular way (I have to include the http://www.). And ONE blogger’s WordPress blog makes me confirm my login EVERY SINGLE TIME—as in, takes me to another screen that says “Is this you? This isn’t who you were before,” and I have to say yes for the love of god it’s me once again.
yes! That’s happened to me too. And your website USED TO make me put in the http://www but now when I do that it doesn’t show my comment.
Check out Pango books! It’s just regular people selling their books, but I’ve been pretty pleased at the turnaround.
Another plug for thriftbooks! And I’m always impressed at the speed with which I receive orders from them. It’s usually under a week.
I’m so pleased you all are doing book club! I would check The Strand for multiple copies of used books.
I just finished James by Perceval Everett- it’s a retelling of Huck Finn from Jim’s perspective. It is fantastic!
I too read Huck Finn early this summer (unofficial member of Henry’s book club, yay!). I tried to prepare myself, but I still full-body recoiled at each n-word. It was a lot. I had never read it before and read it in preparation to read James by Percival Everett, which is fantastic! I went to hear Percival Everett speak at a literary event I volunteer for each year at my alma mater, and he was incredible – smart, sarcastic and funny.
Also, I’m loving all the used book website recommendations. I’ll add abebooks, since I don’t see it above. I don’t know if you can find multiple copies, but you can find great deals on used books, especially older books and classics.
Again, I’m sure you’ve considered this, as you work in a library, but your circulation department can put holds on multiple copies of books from area libraries that are then checked out to users of the book club. Depending on how many branches/libraries are in your interlibrary system, they could arrive quickly!
I remember liking Tom Sawyer, but I don’t think I read Huck Finn. Would love an end of the summer update on how the book club went.
A while back, a friend group of moms with kids in my daughter’s grade organized a book club for moms and daughters. It lasted from while they were in 3rd grade to 7th grade; there was a very sweet horse-themed book phase in the middle of those years. We even had a couple outdoor meetings during the pandemic, but then the kids grew apart. The book club ran its course. Some great memories of reading together and spending time with friends.