Reading is a solitary activity, but there’s nothing better than telling someone about a great book you just finished, talking about that twist (!!), or awaiting a much anticipated new release. That’s but one of the many reasons I’m grateful for the Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club. This is the place where we enjoy the pleasure of reading together, and get more out of our experience through community, classes, and conversation.
I’m amazed by all we packed into this year, and excited about what we have in store on the horizon! Please enjoy this “year in the life” look at some of our 2022 happenings and highlights. As we look forward, we’re also looking ahead: with our popular Team Best Books of the Year coming up mid-December, our January kickoff, and our exclusive Spring Book Preview, now is a great time to jump in! Click here to join us in our one-of-a-kind community, and enjoy this look back at 2022.
January
We often say MMD Book Club is the place where we are learning to read better, together—and we believe rereading is one way to read better. We’ve welcomed so many new members over the years, we wanted to invite them to revisit past standout selections. We kicked off the year with not one book recommendation, but SIX! Members got to “choose their own reading adventure.”
February
Many readers shape their year with goals, challenges, and projects. We hosted our Hallmarks of a Great Book Project session early in the year in order to offer copious examples of book projects meant to give purpose and structure to a reading life. If you’re the kind of reader who loves homework, you’re in good company around here. Many of our events and classes come with worksheets, including this one!
We also hosted author Liz Moore for a fascinating discussion on her novel The Unseen World.
March
In March, we talked about books that make us laugh and books that make us cry. Author Amy Poeppel joined us for a session entitled Let’s Talk About Funny Books where we discussed the serious business of writing books that make us laugh out loud. I’m still thinking about her “rule of threes” and why three produces more comedy.
In MMD Book Club we seek to balance the heavy and the light: our main selection for the month was the memoir The Light of the World by Elizabeth Alexander, and we enjoyed a meaningful conversation about love, art, and grief.
April
A first-ever for the MMD Book Club: we created an exclusive poetry collection. There was rich conversation as we dove deep into the meanings of some beloved poems, both classic and modern. Poetry lovers and those brand new to poetry learned from each other, and from our two experts: poet and professor Tania Runyan and spoken word poet Amena Brown.
Join Us for Journaling is a new regular member event where we set aside an hour to catch up on our reading life reflections together. These are simple, but so valuable for “appointment” reading and reading life maintenance. Plus I usually learn some genius move in the chat, like one member who shared how she checks the Library of Congress page for themes if she’s stuck.
May
Every May brings the best book party of the year with our Summer Reading Guide Unboxing. Book Club members get access to an exclusive Summer Reading experience including a 90-minute unboxing session where Anne talks about each book she chose and why. This year, we offered two different times for our unboxing, plus a watch party.
We also hosted author Bethany C. Morrow to talk to us about So Many Beginnings and a Little Women watch party as well.
June
June was jam packed with bookish helps. In our Bookworm Problems session, we gathered to troubleshot common problems that plague readers. Then we explored popular genres with a deep dive into memoir and historical fiction in our Kickstart Your Reading life mini-series.
Mary Laura Philpott, author of Bomb Shelter, joined us to talk about how she sent herself to “story school” and a real-time peek at how Frank the Turtle was doing.
July
A personal highlight for me came with our Readers’ Weekend in July. So many of you joined us virtually, and a few of you booked yourself into a hotel or AirBnb and devoted an entire weekend your reading life. On my way to Louisville, I met up with readers and Book Club members at Novel bookstore in Memphis, Joseph-Beth in Lexington, and Carmichael’s in Louisville for coffee and bookstore browsing.
We also talked with Lessons in Chemistry author Bonnie Garmus this month. We love when authors bring us show & tell, like Bonnie did!
August
Part two of our Kickstart Your Reading Life series focused on mystery, to go along with our main selection, The Cartographers. We talked with author Peng Shepherd at the end of the month. We enjoyed an illuminating conversation and she also shared a few truly excellent book recs!
We observed our fourth annual Austen in August, reading Sense & Sensibility and watching the film together. Plus, we hosted self-professed anglophile Caitlyn from Geraldine + Virginia for a Regency-era history lesson and tea party to enhance our Austen reading experience.
September
If you love the Summer Reading Guide, you probably also look forward to our seasonal Fall Book Preview, an unboxing event packed with books we’re excited to read for fall. (Get ready for our Spring Book Preview in January!)
In our 10 Ways to Organize Your Library class, we talked about why your systems matter, how to identify if they work for you, and how to adapt in different situations.
Our September selection, Breaking Bread with the Dead was filled with rich discussion, along with our flight pick for Shakespeare in September, The Taming of the Shrew. It was so much fun to watch 10 Things I Hate About You, a Taming of the Shrew inspired 90s romcom, together.
October
We got delightful nerdy in our 10 Things You Want to Know About Literary Awards class. While it’s absolutely possible to have a vibrant reading life without knowing the ins and outs of book awards, it is fun to know what kinds of works get recognized, and why.
We also read a literary family drama, The Arsonists’ City by Hala Alyan, and talked with the author as she shared why the city of Beirut haunts and beguiles her, how talking about books can be so very difficult for readers and writers, and… you guessed it, some juicy show and tell for her next project.
November
Over the years, we’ve been asked one question more than any other: how can I be a great book club host? Team members contributed our best tips in our 10 Hallmarks of a Great Book Club Experience class. We covered everything from picking a great book, inviting fellow readers, asking good questions, setting rules, and, of course, food.
Show notes are one of my very favorite parts of MMD Book Club. After any live event, we send out an email packed with links to recommended books, playlists, and yes, often lipstick colors. This month was a favorite because after talking with author Alissa Wilkinson about our November pick, Salty, those show notes were full of great links for conversation-starting mugs, favorite writing tools, beloved cookbooks, films & audiobooks, and THAT salad dressing.
We just hosted our first ever readalong, inspired by Louise Penny’s new release, and I can’t let November go by without mentioning a highlight of my reading year, participating in a Community Pick of The Overstory. We enjoyed rich conversation that felt like English class in the best possible way.
These community picks sprout up often, anytime a few readers want to come together to talk about a book, new or old, in addition to our official main picks and flight picks.
December
If all this so far sounds like the kind of place you want to be, readers, now would be the perfect time to join! We’ll be talking to author Sara Nisha Adams today (December 8th) for a spoiler-free conversation about her book The Reading List. (If you miss it or can’t join us live, no worries—we record all our classes, author talks, and book discussions for our members!)
Still to come this year on December 15th, we’re hosting our MMD team’s Best Book of the Year event, where we each share a very favorite book (or two or three!) we’ve read and loved. This is one of the most fun—and rewarding—events we host all year, and I can’t wait for our 2022 edition.
Perhaps this post has you thinking, “I’d love a community like that.” Well, we’d love to have you join us! We have gift memberships available, whether you wish to be the recipient or you’d like to give a friend the gift of reading together.
We have a wonderful time in MMD Book Club: members say our time together is always a bright spot in their days and weeks. We hope to see you there. Happy reading, everyone!
About the author
Ginger Horton is our Book Club Community Manager here at MMD. Her go-to genres are literary fiction and classics. You can find Ginger on Instagram posting as herself @gthorton or in the MMD Book Club account @MMDBookClub
19 comments
Looking forward to a great year of books!
Same here!
You all do such a great job and I have not only read some great books but really learned so much. I started my own book club and have turned to your examples of how to do it to learn and grow. My favorite month was by far the poetry month, April. Up until then had did not really dive into poems but I do now and love it. Thank you for all you do Ginger and the whole team. Have a great holiday.
So glad to hear you’ve read some great books and learned more about your reading life. And I especially I loved April too! Thanks for your kind words.
Great post, Ginger! Loved the look-back at this past year of reading with MMD Book Club. It’s been such a wonderful part of my reading life for so many years now and I look forward to another amazing year in 2023. Thanks for everything that all of you do to make it such a fantastic readerly space!
That’s so lovely to hear!! Looking forward to 2023.
My husband gifted me a membership last year and I have just LOVED it! I have finally found the type of book club I e always been looking for. Thank you for all you do to enrich and delight my reading life!
So glad he brought you our way. We love to hear it’s enriched your reading life!
Well written summary of the year, Ginger. Thanks for sharing. I’m enjoying being a book club member and looking forward to reading in 2023!
It was so fun to think back on our year, and I cannot wait for what’s to come!
What a fun review! I’m having a hard time choosing my favorite thing – very torn between the poetry discussion with Amena, Bethany C Morrow and the Little Women remix (and I don’t even like the original Little Women, so… ) Peng Shepherd discussion of the Cartographers, and Hala Alyan on The Arsonist’s City. The abundance of riches and difficulty narrowing down the best is a great problem to have!
Oh my goodness, those are all SUCH good ones you mentioned. A very great problem to have indeed.
The penguin book truck on your shelf is cute. How on earth did you manage to get hold of it ?
A Penguin rep gave it to me at Book Expo of America way back in 2015!
This was my first full year in book club and I’m SO glad I joined. I haven’t been able to participate nearly as much as I’d like, but I read nearly everything and loved almost all of them. Looking forward to doing it all again (but better?!) in 2023.
So glad to have you with us, Kathy! As we say, it’s a buffet! You enjoyed what you had space for this year. 🙂 So glad and here’s hoping for more room on your plate in 2023. Join us for the Open House if you can on January 5th. We’re sure to chat strategies for how we and fellow Book Club members use it in the rhythms of their day and reading lives.
Wow, what a year! I’ve been swooning over the MMD book club, but being in the UK I wonder how much I’d be missing out on in terms of live and group sessions. There doesn’t seem to be any way to message about it, so hopefully someone can let me know what value I’d get out of it. What times do any live sessions run? It’s just the sort of book club I’d love!
We have several members in the UK and often host afternoon classes (eastern time) that seem to work well for the evening timeframe across the pond. 🙂
We also record all our classes and author talks and you’re right, there’s nothing like attending live, but you can always submit your questions beforehand in the forums and catch the replay when it’s convenient for you.
Great question and we’d love to have you join us, Sally!
Ginger, thank you so much for replying with such useful information. It sounds like I might be able to make it work 😊