In my pre-librarian life as a Foreign Service spouse, I discovered that starting a book club when I arrived at a new post was a quick and reliable way to do two essential things – learn about an unfamiliar environment by reading the literature of the region and build a sense of community. When I started working at Mary Riley Styles Public Library in Falls Church, Virginia, a few years ago, I thought that starting a staff book group might do those same things in my new workplace, too.
Our TLC (The Library Book Club – the “B” in the acronym is replaced by a book in the logo) staff book club launched in January 2024. The club meets on a recreational (after working hours) basis; participation is voluntary. As an initial organizing principle, we focused our reading on our shared terrain of libraries. Our first read was The Library Book by Susan Orleans, followed by other books related to or set in libraries, including What You Are Looking For Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama and Why We Read: On Bookworms, Libraries, and Just One More Page Before Lights Out by Shannon Reed.
In 2025, we decided to expand our horizons by selecting a book from a different genre or format every month. As our motto states, we are “reading our way around the library.” We started with graphic novels, and have gone on to explore various types of fiction (romance, mystery, fantasy) and non-fiction. For one summer meeting last year, we each brought a favorite children’s picture book to share. Reading across genres has encouraged us to read outside our comfort zones. Each month, one member presents a short talk about the upcoming genre to provide us with context for the next month’s book. This has had the added professional benefit of making us able to offer better-informed readers’ advisory to our patrons.
TLC Staff Gathering, October 2025.
The group meets once a month in a staff member’s home or in a café near the library. The chance to relax and socialize with colleagues over a shared love of reading has been great for staff cohesion and morale; it’s also just plain been a lot of fun. The club is open to retired staff as well, and it has proven a wonderful way to keep in touch with former colleagues.
TLC Staff Gathering, February 2026
We keep “suggest a title” posters up in our staff room for people to make recommendations for what they’d like the group to read. Title selection is made based on availability and group consensus. To source the books, we turn to our library’s book club kits, or choose books that are widely available in area libraries or in e-book or e-audiobook format. A shelf in the staff room holds the growing collection of books we’ve read so that anyone who misses a meeting but might want to read the book can easily browse through or borrow a copy.
We look forward to our future shared reads and are talking about how the club might evolve. This summer we’re going to share favorite cookbooks, and we also plan to read a work related to American history in recognition of the nation’s semiquincentennial. We are also thinking about eventually opening things up further to “read our way around the world” by selecting works from different regions; we might also consider combining a fiction and related non-fiction book each month. Whatever direction our reading takes, the TLC meetings are helping us feel grounded in our library collection, connected with one another, and inspired to keep reading – while building our ability to assist patrons in finding satisfying reads, too!
-Paula Hawkins, Adult Services Programming Librarian, Mary Riley Styles Public Library
