Published: November 21, 2008 12:22 pm         

Gardendale Library makes plans for new book club

By Melanie Patterson

The North Jefferson News



Bookworms in north Jefferson County now have a club all their own.

Starting in January, a new book club will begin at the Martha Moore-Gardendale Public Library.

About 10 people who were interested in the club met this week to discuss getting it started.

Lisa Keith, who works in adult services at the library, is heading up the club. She said participants were excited at the meeting.

“It went really well,” she said. “We’re just now getting started so we’re going from the ground up on this.”

Keith said this is the first-ever book club hosted by the library.

“We’re really encouraging everyone who would like to be a member of a book club to sign up,” she said.

Only women attended the initial meeting, but Keith said it is open to men as well.

“We have just all types of people who belong to the club,” she said. “There are retired professionals, stay-at-home moms and senior citizens. I think it would appeal to a wide range of people and their tastes.”

Keith said the club has grown out of interest expressed by library patrons.

“During other programs, some women have expressed that they’d like to have a book club,” she said. “We have not had a lot of adult programming at the library. We were looking for something that might spark some interest.”

So Keith made a poster and placed some fliers at the library.

“We’ve had a great turnout,” she said.

The group has picked out its first book: “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” by John Boyne. The fiction work is the story of an unlikely friendship in Germany during World War II between the son of a Nazi officer and a Jewish boy.

The book, published in 2006, was made into a film in 2007.

Keith will have books available at the library for anyone who wants to check out a copy.

She said the library will borrow the book from other libraries in the Jefferson County Library Cooperative.

The first meeting is Jan. 12. The club will meet the second Monday of every month at 6:30 p.m. at the Gardendale library.

For more information, call Keith at at 631-6639.