Booklist, the American Library Association’s book review database, wants to feature profiles on various book clubs. I’d love for #MidnightBooks to be one of them! To put us in the running, I need to answer their questions, but I can’t answer them without you. Please answer the poll questions below, so I can represent us accurately. This is a great opportunity to share what we’re doing and bring more people into our conversations. Yay!
Booklist’s Questions
Please let me know in the comments if I should add anything to my answers for these questions.
Tell us a little about your book group in 200 words or less. How and when did it start? What is the tone or vibe of the group? Is there a theme? What makes your group different from others?
Midnight Book Club began meeting in 2014. It’s the brainchild of The Midnight Society, a group of YA and NA horror authors. Most book clubs consist of readers, but we are readers AND writers. The group helps us stay current in the publishing world while developing our understanding of how readers respond to books. We primarily read new releases in YA and NA horror, but sometimes we read the classics to trace the history of the horror genre, or a book that’s just been released paperback to keep costs down. Beyond the typical reader-response book club questions, we discuss the writer’s craft, tropes and allusions, and how horror develops certain themes. Since we’re an online group, we meet on Twitter. There have been several articles on the positive potential of social media on book clubs (here and here). In addition to the content of our book club, we enjoy being part of that exploration. For example, it allows us to meet more authors than in a face-to-face book club. We’ve had the authors at five of our meetings this year.
When, where, and how often do you meet?
We meet on Twitter (#MidnightBooks) the first or second Monday of every month at 8 CST.
How does your group make its reading selections? Include any resources you use, such as websites or periodicals.
One member selects the books. She uses Amazon’s Hot New Releases and My Bookish Ways to find possible books. She makes her selections based on the following criteria, with some exceptions:
- It’s published within a month or two of its discussion time.
- It’s traditionally published.
- The author is active on Twitter.
- Group members have marked it as to-read on Goodreads.
- It introduces a new author or sub-genre. If possible, it supports the We Need Diverse Books movement.
How do your group discussions work? Is there one leader or do you have another way of discussing?
One member moderates the discussion, drafting questions ahead of time, but there’s always time for others to introduce other questions and comments.
What is the best piece of advice you’d give a group that is just getting started?
Start with a few core members who will be committed to regular reading and discussing. Motivate that commitment by choosing books the members were excited to read anyway.
Are you looking for new members? If so, leave your contact info for those interested.
Always! To stay updated, check us out online.
Poll Questions
They also asked about books we’ve liked and ones we want to read. These polls will provide the answers.
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Twenty-five years ago, Elmbridge High burned down. Three people were killed and one pupil, Carly Johnson, disappeared. Now a diary has been found in the ruins of the school. The diary belongs to Kaitlyn Johnson, Carly’s identical twin sister. But Carly didn’t have a twin . . .
WANTED. Five girls. Must be able to sing, dance, and kill zombies. Five unknown students are desperate to change their lives. They know they have what it takes to become one of the Deadly Divas. Now they just have to prove it to what’s left of the world.
Kenna’s past has kept people—even her own mother—at a distance for years. Just when she finds a friend who loves her and life begins to improve, she’s plunged into a new nightmare. Her mom and twin sister are attacked, and the dark powers Kenna has struggled to suppress awaken with a vengeance.
When seventeen-year-old Breezy Lin wakes up in a shallow grave one year after her death, she doesn’t remember who killed her or why. All she knows is that she’s somehow conscious—and not only that, she’s able to sense who around her is hiding a murderous past.
Lea was in a cemetery when the earth started bleeding. Within twenty-four hours, the blood made international news. All over the world, blood appeared out of the ground, even through concrete, even in water. Then the earth started growing hair and bones.
A thrilling reimagining of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, The Steep and Thorny Way tells the story of a murder most foul and the mighty power of love and acceptance in a state gone terribly rotten.
Lennie always thought her uncles’ moonshine toast was just a tradition. And when they talked about carrying on their “important family legacy,” she thought they meant good old-fashioned bootlegging. As it turns out, they meant granting wishes. And Lennie has just granted more in one night than her uncles would grant in a year.
When Heather goes missing after a May Day celebration, Ivy discovers that both her best friend and her beloved hometown are as full of secrets as the woods that surround them.
Salem, Massachusetts is the site of the infamous witch trials and the new home of Samantha Mather. Sam is the descendant of Cotton Mather, one of the men responsible for those trials and almost immediately, she becomes the enemy of a group of girls that call themselves The Descendants. And guess who their ancestors were?
Five gifted teenagers are selected out of hundreds of other candidates to fly to France and help with the excavation of a vast, underground palace buried a hundred feet below the suburbs of Paris. No one has set foot in it for over two centuries.
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