A book club was established in San Diego in January 2025. Its founder and moderator is Viktoria Barbaniuk. To learn more about the club’s activities, Hromada newspaper correspondent Oleg Kernytskyy visited the June meeting and interviewed Viktoria.
 

1. How and when did the idea of creating a book club arise?
The idea was matured a long time ago, but when I joined the board of the House of Ukraine as the cultural director, it seemed to me that it would be absolutely organic to have a book club so that Ukrainians who had recently arrived here or had been living here for a long time could come and chat about books. There was a desire to be on the pulse of the Ukrainian book market. Therefore, for our book club we chose both modern literature, which was written after the full-scale invasion, and classics.
 

2. Who helped to organize this?
In fact, the idea of a book club is very simple. We need people who love to read and a place where they can do it. We are very happy that we have the House of Ukraine, where we can physically gather. The help came from the House of Ukraine, under whose roof we do all this. That is, it is a collective activity, which actually requires the participation of those people who visit the book club, read books and are active members of the club.
 

3. Were there any difficulties?
There were actually no difficulties. But at first we couldn't predict how many people would be interested in this club. Although my position is that if there are two people, then in principle it is already a book club, because there is a certain dialogue and understanding of what has been read. Therefore, this is probably the only thing that could have stopped us, but we were convinced that in our community there are people who read, who were members of book clubs in other cities in the USA, so uniting these people under the roof of the House of Ukraine was not so difficult.


4. According to what principle was the selection of works?
I selected the works for the entire 2025. We have a list of books that we will read every month. I often timed these books to certain events. For example, in May we read "Za Perekopom ye zemlia. Krymskyi roman" (“Beyond Perekop There Is Land. A Crimean Novel”) by Anastasia Levkova by Anastasia Levkova. It is a book about the Crimean Tatars. It was timed to May 18, the day when we commemorate the victims of the Soviet deportation of the Crimean Tatars. In March we read Shevchenko’s works, but since “Kobzar” is a book that is very difficult to discuss in a book club, we chose to read his prose works, which were recently published by Vivat Publishing House. In June we read Artem Chekh, since his birthday is this month and his “Rayon “D”” (“District “D””) is a very interesting book to discuss. Similarly, for Oksana Zabuzhko’s birthday, we will read her book. Also, in November we will have books dedicated to the Ukrainian “Executed Renaissance”. And in August we will read about Ukrainian dissidents, and it will be timed to coincide with Ukraine's Independence Day. So, it was an attempt to time it, but we also took into account what books are available both electronically and in print.
 

5. Where do you get the books? Are they free or do you have to pay for them? 
I believe that Ukrainian publishing houses should be supported financially. Therefore, it would be good for us all to read official sources. Books can also be in electronic format. We have a lot of opportunities for this. For example, there are Ukrainian platforms such as Abuk, Librarius, which have Ukrainian books in electronic format. And the official partner of our book club is the family online bookstore Sokolya Ukrainian Books. They are located in Michigan and give a 10% discount for our club members if they order books in paper. This is a bookstore that works directly with Ukrainian publishing houses and imports books from Ukrainian publishers to the USA. Therefore, it is very important for me, as a book club moderator, that we support Ukrainian book publishing, do not engage in piracy, and do not read books in the access for which they are not intended.
 

6. I noticed that your club is mostly women. How can this be explained?
This is not unique to our club. International statistics show that women read more than men, are more likely to participate in and even found book clubs.
 

7. Is there any meeting that you remember the most? Are they all unique?
All of them are truly unique, because each book provokes lively discussions. Each book allows you to immerse yourself in the present or the past. And each book allows you to learn more about a modern author, or about those who have already entered the canon of Ukrainian literature.
When we talked about the book "Za Perekopom ye zemlia. Krymskyi roman" (“Beyond Perekop There Is Land. A Crimean Novel”), the President of the House of Ukraine, Nadia Haywas, prepared chebureks for us, or “chibereky” as it is correctly translated from Crimean Tatar. It was delicious and added to the atmosphere.
I also remember our first discussion, where we read a modern literary report about Ukrzaliznytsia “Potiah prybuvaye za rozkladom” (“The train arrives on time”) by Marichka Paplauskaite. It was one of those first clubs when we didn’t know who would join and what the response would be, but it was interesting to discuss it in a circle of different people.
 

8. Do you plan to change the format of the meetings and perhaps invite authors?
I also moderate the online book club of Sokolya Ukrainian Books bookstore, where we use Zoom for discussions. The main goal here is to bring together book lovers from San Diego physically in a place where they can meet.
I am not a fan of adding authors to the discussion in book clubs for one simple reason – when you have a living author sitting in front of you, it is much harder to be frank in your review of the book or in a conversation. I think that meeting the author is very good for a book presentation or if people have read a lot of works and want to know more about the writing process or motivation. 


9. You have developed a diary for book club members, in which one of the questions is – If you had the opportunity, which of the authors would you like to invite?
If I were asked this question, I would invite Oksana Zabuzhko. I believe that it is very valuable to have people who have important historical and literary knowledge for understanding our literature and history in general. In principle, there were answers where there were wishes to talk with Lesya Ukrainka, Olga Kobylyanska, if there was such an opportunity. We, at the House of Ukraine, have a very good format for such meeting called “Verses from the War”. This is when modern Ukrainian writers and poets from Ukraine come to us, which gives us the opportunity to meet them in person. This is an important way to learn more about modern Ukrainian literature.
 

10. Do you have any advice for people who want to start a book club or help them with this endeavor?
I would like to draw attention to the incredible lecture by Bohdana Neborak, who talks about how to create a book club. But in general, the advice is very simple. A book club should exist among those people who really love to read. Because for someone it can be a motivation to discover new literature, but I believe that a person should really enjoy the process of reading. And here the recipe is very simple. If there is more than one person who has read the same book and you want to discuss it, then you can think about creating a book club. I would advise people who are trying to create a book club without knowing the audience they will work with to try to choose books that could resonate with different people. Try both Ukrainian classical literature, and modern literature, and non-fiction literature. That is, to appeal to different interests. And when a circle of regular readers is formed, consult with them about which works to read.
 

11. There is an opinion that it is not worth reading at all, because often people who do not read and do not study – live much better than those who read. What do you think about this?
In fact, a lot of people read. I think if you ask Bill Gates, he would give you a whole list of books he reads every year. I think reading is important because it is our way of experiencing things that we may not have had the opportunity to experience in real life. I think that reading, especially Ukrainian literature at the moment, is a way of preserving and developing our country. And I really believe that people who read, they think. And thus is a very important skill in modern life.
 

Thank you, Viktoria! You are doing a very useful thing. Creating book clubs where people can communicate, share thoughts and understand Ukrainian literature helps Ukrainians unite, especially in the diaspora.