Book Club!

I've mentioned a couple times here about the book club I'm in now. It's pretty great, so I wanted to share a little bit about that.

Now, despite loving books a whole awful lot, I was never in a regularly meeting book club until now. I believe there was one that my high school library ran, but they never seemed to be reading books I was interested in (which is ridiculous, because I know for a fact that book club is the reason I heard of the Glass Castle which is a book I loved immensely, I just didn't read it when they did or participate in the book club). Also, it was recently brought to my attention that in my 27 things about being 27 post I said that I'm in a book club for the first time in my life which is not, in fact, true. When I wrote that, I was just thinking about book clubs in the traditional sense. But I was, in fact, in another book club a few years ago with some of the kids I used to take care of who aren't really kids anymore (they are all currently in high school). It didn't come to mind when I thought about regular book club gatherings, because we skyped each other and since I didn't have a computer at the time (how come I never seem to have a computer?! *eye roll*) and multi-person skype calls don't work on phones,  I could only ever voice call into the meetings, and couldn't see anyone. It didn't really have the same communal vibe that my current book club has. I do admit, though, that it was an error to claim that this book club is the first I've ever been in. Because that other one was definitely a book club and we definitely read all seven Harry Potter books and had virtual meetings to talk about them. So I stand officially and publicly corrected. (Happy now, Tricia??) Anyway, back to the topic of my current book club! In July I asked some local women approximately my age if they wanted to have a book club and they seemed all for it.

At the time I was funemployed and kept buying books nonstop, so I had all sorts of books on my shelves that I hadn't yet read. I asked if they were interested in reading The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter and How to Make the Most of them Now with me. They agreed. We proceeded to pass around the same copy of the book and never find a time to meet up and talk about it. In December, when we still hadn't met up to talk about it, we decided to pick a completely new book and a date in January and start this whole thing off for real.

And wouldn't you know, that actually worked for us! See, we learn?!?! A few more people ended up joining, too, and so in January six of us met to eat food and hang out and discuss The Wonder by Emma Donogue (who also wrote Room). It was immensely fun.

In February we read All the Single Ladies by Rebecca Traisor, which was less fun but was really really good. It's all about how women are increasingly choosing to wait to get married (and have children) until they are much older than ever before historically and how that impacts the society we live in right now. It was a heavy read, but was fascinating all the same. It was also really cool to talk about it with a bunch of young, unmarried women.

On Monday night we met up to talk about The Power by Naomi Alderman. The book was INTENSE. The premise is that it’s written a few thousand years from now, but in a world fairly similar to our own with one notable exeption; women have evolved to be the more powerful of the two standard sexes. The book is written as a history, cataloguing events from many different primary characters throughout about a decade of time that presumably takes place now and for the next ten years. It was really interesting. It was fascinating to see how the author examined the effects of power on the human psyche. She really challenged us to think about the way that humanity has shown itself to act, regardless of sex or gender, and how the idea that women would run the world in a more peaceful way than men. It was thought provoking and disturbing and, ultimately, a really good book for us to read as a follow-up to All the Single Ladies.

We haven’t yet picked our next book, but I’m sure it’ll also be great.

Oh, we also make/eat yummy food and often drink wine. So like no complaining there, either.