A book club with a twist: Sharing life lessons, friendships, sisterhood ... and tiaras
The Pulpwood Queens Book Club that started in the Ark-La-Tex 14 years ago, now has 570 U.S. chapters and 15 in foreign countries and more than 2,000 members.
The motto is: “Where tiaras are mandatory and reading good books is the rule.”
The club was launched in January 2000 after Kathy L. Murphy (Kathy Patrick at the time) lost her job as a publisher’s representative. She opened Beauty and the Book, a hair salon/ book store in Jefferson, Texas, at the suggestion of her sister.
“In Texas, everyone thinks everything comes from Dallas, Austin and Houston,” Murphy said. The club got its name from East Texas being in timber country.
Murphy went to a local book club as a guest and membership was a maximum of eight, which she thought was not enough. She started her own club among six strangers in March 2000, and the rest is history.
In December, Murphy moved from Jefferson to Holly Lake Ranch, Texas. She moved her home and shop there and serves as youth director at First United Methodist Church in Hawkins. “I started over at 57,” she said.
Whereas some book clubs seem pretentious or like “homework,” Murphy thinks she has really changed the way book clubs are run. “This is the only franchise book club in the country,” she said.
She said diets are left at the door, tiaras are worn and that “no one has a right or wrong answer.”
What connects people are written stories, Murphy said. Authors appear by teleconference, Skype or in person. “This creates a community,” she said.
Murphy believes reading is the best entertainment in the world, adding that books make great movies. A documentary about Murphy, “For the Love of Books,” won audience choice at the Phenom Film Festival in Shreveport in 2013. She is taking it to other film festivals across the country.
Murphy has a 2008 book, The Pulpwood Queens’ Tiara-Wearing, Book-Sharing Guide to Life. She offers tidbits of her philosophy on friendship and sisterhood and makes a strong pitch for literacy.
“[Murphy] has a gift for bringing writers and readers together, and a sort of magic occurs. It’s like a big family reunion where everyone is talking excitedly about books,” said local author Judy Christie. “One of the unexpected blessings of my life as a writer has been the love and generosity of this exuberant and engaged group of readers.”
Christie has been a featured author at the annual Pulpwood Queen Girlfriends Weekend Book Festival in Jefferson several times. Christie also Skypes with their book clubs and occasionally speaks at their meetings.
“I’ve gotten to be friends with many best-selling authors through this book club and learned so much about books and writing and about the special relationship a reader has with a book,”
Christie said. “Kathy and her book clubs around the world enjoy reading; they savor books. They remind me of the power of stories – our personal stories and the stories we encounter in books. They also promote literacy each year with a silent auction for literacy causes.”
Christie met Murphy at the Shreveport Municipal Memorial Auditorium at Author! Author! right before “Gone to Green," her first novel, came out. Murphy was passionate about books and spoke at the local festival. “She was generous and gracious in taking me, a new novelist, under her wing and introducing me to avid readers and best-selling authors,” Christie said. “She loves to connect readers and writers and does it with heart.”
Plenty of nationally known authors fly into Shreveport for the girls weekend, Christie said. She picked Becky Aikman up at the airport this year. Aikman had a New York Times nonfiction bestseller on widowhood and was featured in People and The Wall Street Journal.
Robin Thicke’s mom, Gloria Loring, a soap star and singer, performed at the last weekend event.
Book signings hosted at chapters have included the likes of Kay Bailey Hutchison, Rue McClanahan, Fannie Flagg, Pat Conroy, Paulina Porizkova and Pulitzer Prize winner Edward Humes.
Along with author panels, Murphy also has three costume events at the festival with a theme. The authors dress up and serve readers on Thursday evening. Then there’s a costume party Friday and the Great Big Ball of Hair Ball on Saturday.
The recent theme was “Viva Las Vegas,” and the prior theme was the “Gilded Age” due to the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic and popularity of Downton Abbey. Jane Ryder, Oscar designer, of Shreveport produced a World Wide Fascinator Hat Show with authors in 2013.
Murphy is looking for a new location for girls weekend since she’s moved from Jefferson, and its convention center can only hold 500 people, so 2015 dates have not been set. It was held there for 14 years. “We sell out by summer,” she said.
She is hoping to tie more of the film industry in at the next event. “All arts tie in together,” she said.
While reading technology has changed with Kindles and iPads, Murphy thinks her average member wants a hard copy book and an autograph, “something to hold and feel.”
She has appeared on Oprah’s Oxygen Network, “Good Morning America” and had features in The Los Angeles Times, Time and Newsweek.
Official book selections are listed on the website at www.beautyandthebook. com. Anyone interested in joining may contact Murphy at 903-601-2725, or thepulpwoodqueen@gmail.com. Twenty-five dollars covers a lifetime membership.
The club is open to men, and they are called Timber Guys.
– Mary Ann Van Osdell
