November - Book Club, What Book Club?

That book? The one there to the left? That's the one we were supposed to be discussing in November. The problem was that I threw a meeting and nobody came. After a disappointing turnout in October, I made the decision to not ask anyone to host in November so no one had to prepare food, buy wine, and clean their house only to have just two people come. The problem with this plan, a problem that occurred to me about an hour before the November meeting was scheduled to begin? What if no one shows up and I'm sitting in a bar by myself? Yeah, well, that is exactly what would have happened if I had not called Linda to see if she was coming - reminding her that we were having book club. She came, we enjoyed drinks and conversation, including a call to Mari. But we didn't talk about the book because neither of them had read the book.

So here's where we're at ladies: do we even have a book club any more? Or are we just a group of friends who meet once a month to talk, laugh, and spend a little bit of time discussing what we've read? I'm fine with that - it would certainly save me some time and effort!

If we're still a book club, I think we really need to talk about what it's going to take to get people to read the books that are selected, how we can get new members, and how we want to handle meetings moving forward. If there are books you think would make good choices, by all means let me know and we can read them. I would like to ask that if we're reading a book you've selected, I'd like you to be the person to step up and lead the discussion. We stay on task better if we have some questions ready. I'm working on putting together choices for the first half of the year, but I'm more than willing to change things up if there's something you really want to read.

In December, our selection is The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman; Mari highly recommends this one. In January, I've selected Don't Let's Go To The Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller, a book about growing up British in Africa as the countries on that contact begin to revolt against British rule. For February we'll be reading Cathy Marie Buchanan's latest novel, The Painted Girls. This one is just coming out in January so get your requests into the library soon because we'll be talking to Cathy (we Skyped with her before when we read The Day The Falls Stood Still).