Book Club Ideas for "Station Eleven" {by Emily St. John Mandel}

Wow...we had the most amazing time at our Station Eleven Book Club meeting.

 We planned things right having our meeting outside in the warm summer air which created the perfect ambiance for our discussion.

Part of this book follows "The Traveling Symphony" as they perform Shakespeare in different "towns" along their travels. We put up a couple small tents in Kellie's backyard to symbolize their life on the road. If you don't have your book club outside, you could still set up a small tent inside and achieve the desired effect. The exact tent which is shown on the cover of the book would be a bell tent but no one we knew had one we could borrow. (One can dream right?)

(Source)

{Decorations}

Kellie had so many great ideas for this book club!

She even made this little tee pee tent! it

Her kids love playing in it and she can keep it for them to play in now, win-win!

Kellie collected dozens of  Ball jars to put candles in because she wanted all the light we used that evening to be candle light, no electricity. She used lots of things she already owned or borrowed to give it that scavenged feel and she even plucked  handfuls of wild flowers from around her yard.

Kellie hot glued some twine around some of the jars to give them a little uniqueness. 

If you are outside, we'd also suggest using these insect repellent candles so that you can keep the mosquitoes away from your fellow members, they were a lifesaver for us!

To represent the symphony, Kellie used her daughter's violin and her other daughter's guitar as decor.

In the beginning of the book, a main character dies on stage performing King Lear so it was only appropriate to have a copy of the play King Lear on display along with maps of the area that "The Traveling Symphony" traveled in Michigan. 

The Traveling Symphony is a caravan of actors, musicians and artist with who scavenge their costumes and props to perform to towns on the road. In the book it mentions that they have a tarp in gun metal gray with, "The Traveling Symphony, because Survival is Insufficient," painted on it in white paint.
Kellie recreated the tarp that served as our backdrop for the evening.
*Just as an FYI, don't let it sit in the sun too long (that is why it looks melted.)

{The Museum of Civilization}

Before book club Kellie asked all the ladies to bring something that night to represent something they would miss if we lived in the new world described in the book. So, we made our own Museum of Civilization where members could see artifacts from the past.
Members brought everything from cameras, globes to represent travel, to hair products and A/C.
And let's not forget feminine hygiene products! (We had a lengthy discussion about that lol!)
 Each girl put a tag with their name on the item they brought then when had each person go around and say what they brought an why, It was fun to see what each person valued in modern technology!

{Game}

Station Eleven is a book about many things but it's also about SURVIVAL.
Many times through out the book they have to hunt to eat so we thought a great game would be to members try their hand at shooting toy bows at a target. 

{Prize}

Kellie put together a fun prize to the winner of the shoot off!

 She found these, How to Survive Anything and A MidSummers Night's Dream books that went perfectly with a very versatile handkerchief that can be used for many things.

Lastly, she added a large paper weight that she made with a dandelion inside. That's right, you heard me, she MADE THAT RAD PAPER WEIGHT!!

If you've read Station Eleven then you know the paper weight plays a big part in the book. 

(Kellie)

"The paperweight with the stormy cloud moves thru the book - symbolic of fragility and the transitory nature of what we value."

(Kellie)

In the book they go through these two things: Contagions (the Georgian Flu) and Social Collapse.

(Kellie)

Shalease was the lucky winner!

 {Socializing}

We're women and we love to talk!

I am so sad to say this beautiful lady is moving to Boston. We will miss you Brittanie and make sure when you come back to visit you can make it to book club.

{Discussion}

We had such a great discussion of this book!! 

There are so many things to talk about and we discussed this book much later into the evening than we usual do.

Here is a list of the questions we used.

Right when we started our discussion we had the perfect little guest show up. In the center of the picture you will see a baby deer.

As it got darker it made the discussion feel cozy and like we were camping with no electricity.

We had to read everything by candle light!

{Take Home Gift}

Kellie wanted to give the ladies a gift to take home because she's just amazing like that.

 She found this idea on Pinterest and added her own little packaging twist to them. 

Similar foil pan here.

(Kellie)

(Kellie)

(Kellie)

Print the labels I created.

Here is a Pinterest Board I created for ideas.

        Follow Kellie's board Station Eleven Book Club on Pinterest.    

Here's a Playlist Kellie created for Station Eleven:

Check out our Station Eleven Book Club Food Ideas

and our Book Review

A huge THANK YOU to Summer from Summer Nicole Photography for all the beautiful photos!

xoxo,

Kellie & Kelly!