Still jazzed that I made my book club appearance this month—not as a speaker, but as a participant. My own book club meets monthly and has been for over 30 years, but scheduling conflicts kept me away for the past two months. I was busy promoting Behind the Lies, my third novel published in mid-November. Plus the holiday season invited total immersion in family and festivities so I unplugged for awhile.

Every book club is unique and mine is no exception. Our rules have evolved over the years and so have the members—even though we have lost certain members to re-location, and others to long absences, the core group has been together for much of that time and if 12 of the 14 of us gather, we consider it a full house. 

When we started, the club met at 7:30 on a week-night. Wine was paired with a snack while we discussed the book and then we would have coffee and a sweet for the after business catch-up. Later, we moved to 7PM as we yielded to the realities of demanding careers and growing families which made for a tighter time-line.

During the COVID years, we zoomed, totally worthwhile although numbing.  After the pandemic was declared almost over we dared meet together socially. 

And, now that the last of us has retired, we acquiesced to the few who dared admit to not wanting to drive at night and declared 2 PM as the new meeting time. After a year, everyone is delighted with this new order. Although, one of our members arrived at the host’s home at 7 PM not long ago having forgotten the new time! You know how it is with old habits—hard to give up sometimes.

This is a hearty crew of women who have remained steadfast to reading our book choices month by month for many years. I still have a paper file from the early years, with hand-drawn maps of hostess residences before navigation systems took over. We regularly have debates about whether we have read a certain book before—and someone has to find the paper schedule to verify their memory.

For me, the inauguration of the book club was a celebration that my own interests could finally take a place in my busy life where child-rearing and career held priority placement. What a pleasure to carve out a few hours a month to meet with other readers to discuss the book we had selected to read together. Now, we have become a community that I count on.

Through life’s peaks and valleys these women have been a mainstay. The pleasure of their company, and a good book to discuss is one of the joys I look forward to every month. I take pleasure in the new and different books/genres we discover every year. Our choices are diverse, and could never be described as stale. We prepare carefully for the competitive pitching we do every September to choose the books we want to read for the year. In the last ten years or so, we agreed to two books a month to get more books on the coveted chosen list! 

I love my book club! If you are a reader, I hope you have one—or can start one. Happily, my grandson and son have started one. I love the idea of intergenerational book clubs and hope it takes off. To engage with different age groups over ideas and expressions of the human condition is a great way to form the bonds of community.

Happy Valentine’s Day! Happy reading!