Hi!
It’s Kelsey Dundon from The Waited and Mahsa Di Placito from We Need to Unpack This.
We’re both writers, bookclubbers and sometimes podcast hosts.
We’re also friends IRL (though, as you’ll hear in the episode, our friendship actually started as a parasocial relationship). Since the real world is such a hot topic right now—and books are trending in everything from the fashion world to pop music—we recorded an episode all about building community and keeping it alive for years and years and years.
Which isn’t actually as difficult as it sounds, even if you’re a lazy Type B kind of host, like we both are.
In this episode we cover:
The genius of McMuffins and Mimosas.
What to do if no one’s inviting you to join their bookclub.
Why Mahsa says: If you build it, they will sometimes come.
WhatsApp etiquette and “sleeper agent” members.
Plus, ideas for clubs that require no reading whatsoever.
But if you’re looking for the TL;DR version, here are our book club rules in a nutshell:
We try to do them every few months. We never reschedule if it doesn’t work out…we just keep moving. That keeps the momentum going.
We have a WhatsApp but I send official invites through Paperless Post.
We host them at restaurants because many of us have young kids which makes weeknight hosting difficult. Though, as you’ll hear in this episode, Mahsa hosts her book clubs at people’s homes.
It doesn’t matter if you’ve read the whole book or haven’t even cracked the spine—we have a rule where everyone’s allowed to say anything about any point of the book (spoilers are welcome!) because if you (I) didn’t finish in time that’s your (my) own fault.
I used to encourage people to come prepared with questions and now that I just dug up my original invite email from ten years ago, I’m thinking I should reinstate that rule:
Please come prepared with 2-3 questions to discuss (you can pull them off the internet. We won’t judge). My mother, a professional book club member, insists we also have someone give a quick book/author background chat to start things off so I can do that.
Find Mahsa Di Placito
On Substack: We Need to Unpack This, a pop culture deep dive.
On Instagram: @haveyouheardpodcast
Find Kelsey Dundon
On Substack: The Waited, which is all about creativity amidst chaos.
On Instagram: Kelsey Dundon
Thanks! Enjoy! Can’t wait to hear what you think!
-Mahsa and Kelsey
P.S. On the next episode of The Waited, Kelsey is going to be talking with Dr. Danya Fast, who studies youth and substance use. A bit of a departure from our usual conversations about creativity and community? Not as much as you might think! So send all the questions you’d like me to ask her to: KDundon@NorthillCreative.com
