We love book clubs here at Books on the Nightstand, and when we heard that the National Women’s Book Association had dubbed October to be National Reading Group Month, we wanted to mark the occasion in some way. So we put out a call for our readers and listeners to tell us about their book groups. We’ve gotten a very nice response, and we will run these spotlights occasionally throughout October. There’s still time to tell us about your group: details are in our earlier post, Show Us Your Book Group.

Our first spotlight is Enzo’s Book Club, which is located on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Kate wrote in to tell us about the group, which meets monthly in a member’s home. The club is made up of 9 school employees who all love to read. Kate says:

“One of the members organized the book club last year and we have been going strong since. We take turns hosting and the member who hosts chooses the book to read. We read all genres, mostly fiction. We have great discussions on all books but the The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein, and Handle With Care by Jodi Picoult were the best discussions.

Our name comes from the first book we read as a group – The Art of Racing in the Rain. We had a great discussion and decided that we would be called Enzo’s Girls after the main character in the book.”

I just love that the group’s name came from a literary character in a book they read together. I’ve been in many reading groups, but not one of them ever had a name.

This book was also mentioned in Bring On The Tears, a recent Books on the Nightstand guest post by Josh Christie. Josh names this as one of the books that made him cry due to its “heartrending (yet hopeful) last few pages.”

I have had this book on my nightstand for quite a long time. I may need to move it up higher.

Thank you, Kate, for telling us about your book group!