They don't give one another detention if someone doesn't finish the book. We're very social. Discussions, like children in September, inevitably drift back to school. After reading Jane Hamilton's A Map of the World , where a student charges a nurse with child abuse, the group noted how easy it is for students to make allegations. With Doris Lessing's The Fifth Child , they centered on how to deal with strange children.
Members note that their monthly meetings have a positive effect on their work.
Olinger, who buys food for the district, agrees. When Waite learned mystery writer Alan Russell would be signing books nearby, she wrote a letter inviting him to lecture to the group, and she drove thirty miles to the signing to meet him. Russell agreed to come by to talk about his book The Hotel Detective . Children's author Rita Micklish met a member of the group through her visits to area schools, where she talks about the magic of writing. After one of her classroom visits, she was invited to meet with the El Cajon Book Group.