In 2011, Emily P.G. Erickson \u201908 wanted to join a book club for Twin Cities Mac alumni. The trouble was, no such group existed\u2014so she started her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now her creation, MacReads, is celebrating ten years with a blend of longtime regulars and newcomers who joined when the group moved online during the pandemic. \u201cMacReads is absolutely the best of why I went to Macalester and why I love Macalester people,\u201d says Kate Baxter-Kauf \u201902, a member since the group\u2019s third meeting. \u201cIt\u2019s smart people in a room discussing something in depth and with feeling, knowledgeable about the subject and excited to dig in together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Intrigued about starting a book club where you live? We asked a few MacReads members for their advice:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s tempting to pick current bestsellers, but your meeting will be limited to those who can go out and buy the book. One of the things that I really appreciate about Emily\u2019s construction of MacReads is her focus on making sure that the books we read will be accessible, with numerous physical and\/or e-books in local libraries.\u201d \u2014Sarah Dicks \u201909<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTranslation can be an issue when choosing foreign language books. The first time I chose a book for MacReads, I chose Yevgeny Zamyatin\u2019s We <\/em>(1924), a Russian dystopian novel. I didn\u2019t realize that We <\/em>had been translated into English many times, and the different translations give the reader a substantially different idea of the story.\u201d \u2014Everett Beek \u201906<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cConsider the MacReads model! Because it\u2019s open to all alumni, we\u2019ve had a core group of folks as well as others who come in and out based on their availability and interest. It\u2019s great for keeping discussions interesting, always having enough people, and creating lasting relationships. And don\u2019t be afraid to have a book club where everyone really does read the book.\u201d \u2014Kate Baxter-Kauf \u201902<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cInclude people you don\u2019t know. That\u2019s how this group started. This was a big vision and kind of brilliant\u2014there are so many commonalities between different classes over the years.\u201d \u2014Ken Iosso \u201987<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cA food theme related to the book for in-person gatherings is always enjoyable.\u201d \u2014Aimee <\/strong>Thostenson \u201994<\/strong><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Emily P.G. Erickson \u201908 created the book club for Twin Cities Mac alumni in 2011.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1077,"featured_media":17908,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","mediatype-articles"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"fields":{"article_type":[8],"flickr_photoset_id":"","youtube_id":"","square_thumbnail":false,"press_photos":false,"story_title":"","story_caption":"","rotations":false,"maps":false,"marker_title":"","marker_text":"","geographic_location":false,"feature_embed":"","custom_link_url":"","news_icon_name":"","image_options":false,"main_feature_story":"","custom_image":false,"custom_feature_title":"","custom_feature_caption":"","custom_markup":"","custom_markup_link":"","custom_markup_title":"","custom_markup_caption":"","byline":"","post_thumbnail_style":"default","press_downloads":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1077"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17896"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30799,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17896\/revisions\/30799"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}