book club

I seem to itch for ways to keep busy. Who knew, right? My latest thing is a book club, started by my friend BlueDragonfly.


We had talked about books before, and the summer I read Twilight I realized how much I missed just reading. Since then I've picked up random books from the "hot reads!" shelf at the library, books my friends have recommended on blogs/Facebook, books that are New York Times bestsellers, books where I heard they were being made in movies, etc. I feel like a thinker again.

I suppose I had talked about my renewed passion for wonderfully written words with BlueDragonfly, and she got the book club idea going. So far we've met twice, with the last meeting just last week.

Our first book was called The Five Quarters of an Orange. It was a German-occupied France WWII tale about some kids who got into trouble on accident, and their single mom was kinda nuts. Lots of mother/daughter angst... interesting. I really got into it. In the end though, the book probably made me madder than anything, since people were being ridiculously rude to each other and knew it and yet couldn't help themselves. That kinda stuff just irks me. (I like happy stories.)

Our next book was The Help, one of the top books of 2010. It was spectacular. The characters were so interesting and the story so finely woven and the details so precise. It was sharp. It was set during the mid-1950s in Mississippi, where lots of rich white girls have hired black help, treat them atrociously, yet get away with it because they are white. It was so enlightening. But again, I suppose I like touchy feely happy things so the book in some ways made me upset because it broached, you know, ethical and cultural subjects that are hard to deal with. It made me think and made me uncomfortable. Which actually, is probably a good thing.

The club has just been so fun. I like getting together with everyone else and discussing incidents and concepts from the book, feeling like a smart woman, and basically just exercising my brain. Whimsy at one point did an online book club where we all read a book and reported back to her blog and posted about it. That was really fun, too. It's just different than if you read a book and meet someone else who read the book, and you're like, "did you like it?" and they're like, "sure." "Book clubs" are so much more than that.... you really get into the details and your thoughts and what was the best and what really hurt. I enjoy that.

Some other interesting things:

• One of the girls is in two book clubs -- already busy and a super voracious reader. Two of the gals, um, are so well read that they have read every single book we suggest! And since we want them to feel fulfilled, that leaves us trying really hard to think of books to read!!
  
  
• I feel like this is a new world of "pop culture" or something. It's pretty exciting that I can talk to someone about book club stuff and say, "oh yeah, we read that book" or "one of my friends read that book," or "did you know that is going to be a movie with Reese Witherspoon?" I'm starting to learn titles and authors and storylines and sequels.
  
  
• At one point in my life I kept a folder of news clippings of reviews of book that I thought were interesting and decided I wanted to read. I just keep adding to the list. Especially when I'm at book club and we're trying to decide on a new title, and a super interesting book is suggested but 3 of the 5 girls have already read it. I guess I'll just add that to my personal list! I just hope I have the time and energy to fulfill all my intentions of reading these incredible books.
  
  
• A couple of my Facebook friends are book club pros. I asked one of them her advice when I joined the group. She said to pick books that were fun, so reading didn't seem like a chore. Also, the books had to generate good discussion, like they included some thought-provoking ethical question. Although I counter that with this: Have any of you seen the paperback Twilight books and did you see there are book club questions in the back? So yes, if Twilight can generate discussion, I bet anything can generate discussion.
  
  
• Our group has, officially, 7 people in it. I've never been to a meeting where everyone could make it. I think that is a good number, since we all get to talk -- I imagine bigger groups are harder. My mom was in a group once at Church with a boatload of people and she felt like she couldn't get a word in edgewise. Numbers are important.
  
  
• When we decided to start ours, ok when BlueDragonfly decided to start ours, she arranged an introductory meeting at a restaurant where we ate appetizers and went around the table and said what we were hoping to get out of the club. It was really a cool way to speak our peace and say what our goals were. BlueDragonfly, for example, found herself only reading parenting books and really wants to push herself to read fiction. I want to read something that makes me feel smart. Others just want a night away from their kids. All worthy goals!

Needless to say, I'm pretty excited. I'm actually thinking of starting my OWN Church-centered book club, where we read a couple chapters of Jesus the Christ each month. Wouldn't that be awesome? It's a heavy book -- all the more reason to read it alongside other people and hash it out together.

So, here is your job.... tell me some of your favorite books. So I can read them and have our book club read them :-) Maybe I'll post a nice list in a future email!