Book Club update… the Discussability Issue

With this book club update, I’m introducing a new element: the Discussability Score. 

(I know: thrilling!)

Two factors feed into the Discussability Score:

The Discussability Score is on a 5-point scale:

1 = Nobody has a word to say.

2 = You talk about the book for 5 minutes before someone mentions upcoming vacation plans and you never allude to the book ever again in your natural life.

3 = The book generates some discussion, but none of it is very zippy or interesting. But you’ve done your duty and now you can drink some wine and feel virtuously intellectual because you talked about a book.

4 = You all have interesting things to say about the book, and you’re all excited to be talking about it. The discussion goes on for quite a while, and it’s lively.

5 = Your group keeps talking and talking. Eventually, you talk about your vacation plans, but you keep leaping back to the book. And this thing has an afterlife… you’ll bring it up again and again at future book club meetings.

So let’s score these puppies!

The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton

Discussability Score: 4

Because: We talked about the things that surprised us in this book, and also about the things we would’ve done differently if we were writing the book

Alice Adams by Booth Tarkington

Discussability Score: 5

Because: We kept talking about the characters’ motivations and their social circumstances, and the fact that the book has surprising depths that creep up on a person

Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith

Discussability Score: 5

Because: We talked and talked and talked about this book — the motivation of the characters, whether we could identify with the main character, how it reflected the era when it was written, and how it fit into the suspense genre 

Next up: Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain