The Anthropocene Reviewed Book Club

It’s National Library Week and I want to tell you about a powerful experience I had recently that showed me how stories connect us - and through talking about them in community, we find meaning. 

Back in May 2021, I created a special Take Home Kit to celebrate the release of The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green at my library. I did it in response to patrons asking for more teen/adult kits, to give them something delightful, thought-provoking, emotional, real & honest. I have absolutely no way of knowing how it impacted them; I know all the kits are gone now. (I did make sure to give the family who recommended more teen/adult kits their own kits - and I hope they enjoyed them.) I also sought out the insight of fellow Nerdfighter, Christina Hoover Moorehead, who shared lots of ideas for how to make this kit fabulous. If I’m honest, I also made this kit for myself, to find something that brought me joy in the midst of the uncertainty and the continued exhaustion. (But we’re not here to talk about the 1-star experience of burnout.)

I also made it to celebrate something that had been a companion, a salve, a voice of empathy and knowledge in the chaos. In March & April 2020, as many sheltered in place at home, I joined Sarah Urist Green and John Green for livestream bean-art making (as in Chicago’s the bean sculpture, which is named Cloud Gate) to be in community, made in a gratitude journal I started (and am now on my third) inspired by John’s gratitude practice. I also made one of those encouragement signs to put by my window.

So, I made physical Take Home Kits for The Anthropocene Reviewed when it was released, set up a book display, and created a blog post to both supplement the kit with links and resources - and make it accessible to those who didn’t feel comfortable coming into the library or fellow readers interested in Anthropocene Reviewed/Nerdfighter fandom. John Green’s books are poignant, powerful, and emotional, and as a book that does address some difficult topics, including loss related to COVID-19, I made sure to include community mental health resources.

I made the thing, the kits were distributed, and the project was done.

Or, so I thought…

In February 2022, I received a message from Eileen, a book club host in Maryland, who found my blog post online and was curious about the kit since she was hosting a discussion of The Anthropocene Reviewed in March. We started corresponding and I shared the resources I had created for the kit. I casually offered to join their book club if it was virtual - and I was truly honored to be invited to join. I learned that they are a community group of voracious readers who had continued sharing books throughout the pandemic over zoom. They had been together for a decade or more, which is incredible! I immediately felt welcomed and accepted by their book club community as a special guest. I had forgotten what it was like to discuss books with a community, beyond work responsibilities and evaluation committees - just for the pure joy of digging into a text. (Book club is life - and I dearly miss it.) Their community exuded book joy. 

I had the opportunity to share a bit of the story above about why I created The Anthropocene Reviewed Fandom Kits, as well as a bit about what being a Nerdfighter means to me. I shared my experiences attending author events with John and Hank - and friends - and connecting to this empathetic, engaged, curious, and kind community. Unabashed enthusiasm for the things that make us more ourselves is a core value in Nerdfighteria. I think about all the ways I’ve been told or felt like I’m too much - and I seek to reclaim my muchness. Loving ourselves is definitely part of decreasing world suck. In a display of old school show and tell, I was able to share each of the items from the kit and explain what I was trying to express. (If only zoom had scratch n’ sniff o’vision.. On second thought, it’s probably better it doesn’t.) I honestly think this is the first time I’ve been able to demonstrate a take home kit I’ve created to a live audience and get their reactions to my whimsical takes on the book. Their sincere laughter and smiles about the things I included made me so happy. It also helped me think critically about the creative process - and as a librarian, I’m always making things - and it is creative work even if it’s made invisible or isn’t acknowledged. It is important, meaningful, and helps people connect with the library - and each other. I cannot tell you how much my heart needed the affirmation of the work I’ve done, seeing the creativity and vulnerability I put into creating this kit and the daily work of librarianship. And seeing that my enthusiasm is my strength - and also takes energy and effort. It’s something powerful when you are seen. 

Suzanne and Eileen were rockstar moderators who shared a thought-provoking list of discussion questions ahead of time, which I’ll do if I have a community book club again. They made the conversation flow naturally, ensuring everyone’s voice was heard, and kept us on track. I learned so much from them. 

I loved how each of us was able to share our own connections to the essays, weaving in our personal narratives with the human-centered planet ourselves. 

We talked about so many big ideas, about the capacity for wonder, to the compulsion to create art, about why the 24-hour news cycle is not great, the magic of the World’s Largest Ball of Paint, from Piggly Wiggly to mental health to air conditioning history to the delightful audiobook narrated by John.

We talked about how books lead us to paths we didn’t even imagine and the rabbit holes that John Green inspires. 

When we discussed humanity’s temporal range, I shared See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love by Valerie Kaur, one of my top 10 impactful books I’ve read from the past year, paraphrasing a quote that I think about often, “The future is dark…but what if—what if this darkness is not the darkness of the tomb but the darkness of the womb?” And how perhaps it’s up to us which path we choose. 

Barbara shared how she visited the Lascaux Caves and shared replicas she bought from the gift shop. How cool is that!? 

Suzanne and Barbara introduced us to the View from My Window project that brought people together during the COVID-19 lockdown to share pictures of their views and visit the world from home. I’m so grateful to find this project now and get this new perspective. 

I shared why Auld Lang Syne is my favorite piece because of my personal connection to the late, beloved author Amy Krouse Rosenthal, getting to know her a little bit from attending Beckoning of Lovely events at the Bean. (You can read more about that here.) It felt so good to talk about Amy’s endless capacity for wonder and her ability to see magic in people and bring it out of them, which of course, means that it’s something I aspire to do, too. (I mean bringing a bunch of strangers together who then become a community sounds a lot like book clubs and libraries.) Our conversation about ‘we’re here because we’re here because we’re here..” reminded me of a mantra I’ve repeated a lot these past years which is, “your only job is to breathe.” Just being here is enough.  

And because I’m a librarian, I had to recommend and booktalk Amy’s Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life and Textbook AKR to suggest future reading. 

We talked about individual achievement versus the collective coming together to make cool things and make this world better. 

Every time we listen/read The Anthropocene Reviewed, we all notice new things and feed our curiosity. We love books more when we share them with community. 

Even now, the high I had from this experience feels ephemeral and distant, but I remember feeling on cloud nine, full of hope and validation. You put things out into the world and you don’t know where they’ll reach. You plant seeds in isolation and don’t know the impact of the things we’ve made or done. But experiences of tangible proof, like this phenomenal book club, are the fuel that keeps me going. When we say Libraries Transform, we can also mean library workers are transformed by support and kindness. 

I gained so much from joining this incredible book club. I am truly grateful to Eileen, Suzanne, Kathy, Peg, Mara, & Barbara for making me feel so welcome, for sharing their stories and experiences, and helping me see The Anthropocene Reviewed in new ways. This book will forever be connected to this book club visit, which makes it even more meaningful.

Thank you for the beautiful card I keep close by and the delightful Maryland cutting board.

I give everyone in this fabulous book club 5 stars.

I hope our paths cross again, maybe even at ALA Annual. Anything is possible in the Anthropocene.

July 2022 Update

I’m happy to share an exciting update to this story! I met book club friends, Eileen and Suzanne, at the American Library Association annual conference in Washington, DC! Thanks to the generosity of my alma mater, the iSchool at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (Thanks, Jill!), I was able to request exhibit passes for them to check out the publishers’ booths and get a window into this side of library land. And of course, we met up at the GSLIS booth in the exhibits! Thanks, Meg, for welcoming them and taking our picture! (We removed briefly for photos; ALA required masking throughout the conference.)

Meeting in person was such a delight, bonding over our Anthropocene Reviewed book club, learning about their wonderful book club and getting to know them better. I appreciated all the new book reccs! I was able to share some more about my experiences as a librarian and the opportunities and challenges in our field. My ALA plans are always nonstop, chaotic and over-scheduled -and they were so kind and flexible to go with my whirlwind flow.

I believe outreach is a mindset, not just about specific practices or places, but about creating ways of connecting with people, forming relationships, and positive associations with libraries and access to their services. Book clubs, at their heart, are about building relationships, using books as the catalyst. I’m grateful for this opportunity to meet Eileen and Suzanne and share this special experience together. It’s hard to convey how meaningful these experiences have been - and how they help me remember what makes me myself, my unabashed enthusiasm, my joy at connecting with people and bringing them together - and learning from each other. As Hank said in the recent Vlogbrothers video, “If you think galaxies are amazing, just wait until you find out about you.”