Re-Boot

I started this blog with the intention of actually sharing my impressions of all the books I am reading. It feels like my book club membership has gotten out of control - topping out at 11 and now back to a comfortable 9 (1 quarterly, 6 monthly and 2 that are virtual, no actual meet up - and I don't always read those books). In January 2023, I became the librarian for our Irish Cultural and Heritage Center and have jumped in with both feet. I investigated apps for organization and cataloging of the books (settled on Library Thing) and worked with librarian friends for advise on how best to organize and make our catalog available to users (settled on Tiny Cat - which is actually a partner of Library Thing). It has been a labor of love and also pushed me to follow more library and book resources on social media and newsletters etc. A couple of months later, the founder of the Celtic MKE book club left and suggested that I take over either temporarily or indefinitely while they replaced her and I have been doing that ever since. Expanding it to a monthly virtual meet up that encourages participation by our members outside of Milwaukee. It's been a blast!

 
Other than that - it doesn't seem to me like you can have too many book clubs. I joined another BC through the Milwaukee Public Library - Novel Ideas, the History Buff Book club through the library re-booted but sadly, the Mystery book club folded :(.

 
In summary: 

IrishCentral Book club (Facebook - follow what they are reading and sometimes read the book) 

The Irish Book Club (same - FB - follow, sometimes read, often pull from here for the Celtic MKE poll) 

MPL Novel Ideas Book Club - Year round, one book a month 

Banned Book Club - monthly - summers off - through the Jewish Community Center. This is a new, a friend got me into it and then dropped out. Story of my life! 

MPL History Buff Book Club - re-booted from virtual to in-person, I loved it under prior leadership and still love the discussions, not 100% sold on the book choices. 

Celtic MKE - started totally facebook and now I am managing it and meeting monthly via Google Meet. Operations book club - the BC started during the pandemic survives and we still meet every month with a small but loyal following. Hoping more people join with the expansion of operations. I manage this book club too. 

All BRG Book Club - Started prior to the pandemic, it has evolved, but still meets quarterly to discuss mostly business related books, but some novels and some books drawn from whatever BRG focus is current (Black History month, Pride Month etc). I am on the planning committee for this one and do most of the nuts and bolts (manage the membership and send the communications). 

And finally - the OG book club - Books and Brunch, now in it's 13th year! Hosted at our home on Sundays each month including a pot-luck brunch. A couple of years ago we started choosing the books for the whole year (Sept. through June with summers off for Free Read) so that we could take advantage of library books with a longer wait time. (the idea that we could reserve them in plenty of time. That has not worked out as we forget to reserve them in time anyway). 

I was briefly part of a book club through the public museum. Cool in theory, we would discuss the book and then tour related exhibits in the museum, but the book discussions were too sciency and the exhibit visits - super dry. So... the road. It is a strange realization that a large part of my identity has shifted to Reading/Libraries/Books - but there are worse vices! I am going to try to reboot and comment here on my current reading.