Intimate Conversation with The Sista Girl Book Club
BPM: Give us the history on your organization. How many members do you have?
Sista Girl: It was my personal challenge to read at least one book a month that lead me on this literary journey. My name is Michelle and I started “The Sista Girl Book Club” back in Sept 2005, with some of my co-workers. Our eighth year anniversary is September 2013! It has been an interesting adventure to say the least. If any book club has been together more than a couple of years they can attest to the fact that a positive book club is hard to maintain. We started with five members ,we at one time had eleven members and back down to the four core members and the last three years we had five members. This May we added our sixth member to our club, we will wait another year see how this works out and may consider adding another member and take it a year at a time. We are primarily located in PA with one member from NJ.
BPM: What is the purpose for your organization? Do you host events during the year or provide services for the community?
Sista Girl: We are a group of ladies whom love to read and get together the last Saturday of each month to break bread, relax and catch up on each others lives in the midst of discussing a common book we have read. Our sole purpose is having a Sista Night Out! We all have busy lives, families, jobs and such and we are taking one night out of our busy months for some Sista time!
BPM: Are you satisfied with the legacy black books will leave our future generations? Do you think the writings of today's authors are leaving the same legacy as authors from other generations? If so, who?
Sista Girl: I am so proud to introduce someone to the African American authors that I have come to know. The writings of my people can not be housed in just one category as even I thought when I began my reading journey almost seven years ago. We have authors such as Mary Monroe and then you go all the way to the other side with a Monique D. Mensah and I will throw in a Eric Pete, Lori Johnson, Daniel Black, Tracy Brown and my newest author Victor McGlothin in the middle. What you have here is Good reading for the young and the old.
BPM: Do you feel as if African Americans are represented in a good light in the novels you read?
Sista Girl: This is an internal debate that I have with myself about the books by my people. Do I pick a book just because I want to just support my people or do I pick a book because the author is a good author? The Sista Girl Book Club has chosen to support whom ever we tell can tell a good story, simple!
The Urban/Hood books that I read, it’s like the lights are out! Don’t get me wrong these are some of the best books that I have come to know and authors that I continue to support, but face it we look bad in most of them. My husband always tells me to stop reading those comic books. Then we have some books that I tend to remove from that Urban category but are by African American authors and these books tell stories that shed better lighting to us as African American people. These books make you think a little harder it seems and they definitely lend to a better discussion.
BPM: Do you think digital books will ever replace a printed book? Does the price of ebooks play a big part in the purchase? Would you ever stop buying printed books?
Sista Girl: Well what can we say about technology? The price of the e-books definitely caused me to purchase more books than I would have normally. I think the easy access to purchase and read the books right away also lends to why e-books have become more popular. I have noticed that my son reads more than he did with his e-reader than his printed books, not sure why but he does. I have some diehard friends whom swore that they were not going to stray from printed books and where are they getting their books from right now? You guessed it, from the comfort of their homes, work. or wherever they are on their electronic e-readers! I will buy a printed book when necessary or at an event to support an author that I like, so I won’t rule out buying a actual printed book!
BPM: How may we find out more about your club? Please share your FB link and website address.
Sista Girl: Like us on Facebook as Sista Girl Book Club. You can check out the Sistas & Sista Happenings on our website: www.Sistagirlbooks.com
