Book Club

Around this time last year, I was thinking that when we move back to Canada I should join a book club. I've always wanted to be in one. Then I realized I could take matters into my own hands and start one up while still living in Hong Kong.

Shortly before I left for Canada for the summer, I approached my friend Mary and asked her "On a scale of one to ten, how would you feel about a book club?". To which she replied "Oh! A seven!". Which is funny because I don't consider seven to be ALL that high, but the way she said it, it came out like a ten or eleven! So I enlisted Mary's help and together we spread the word and got quite a bit of interest from people (mostly from our mom's group) who wanted to join. 

There ended up being about seven or eight "regulars" which meant that on average five or six who would turn up monthly at a coffee shop, where we took turns choosing book titles and leading the discussion. 

These are the books we read (I'm writing this post mainly so I can remember):

September- Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver
October- Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
November- The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
December- The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society- by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Burrows
January- The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbough
February- The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom
March- Where'd You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple
April- The Color of Water by James McBride
May- The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer

I think that of this list my personal favorites were Snow Flower and Where'd You Go, Bernadette. I also liked Flight Behavior, but I think I may have been one of the only ones!  I'm so glad it was a success. It was a fun challenge to read a book that I may not have chosen otherwise, and while I was reading it, I'd look forward to the discussions that we would be having. And I think every time we met, there would be things we'd discuss that I hadn't thought of, and it was interesting to hear the opinions of the others. Now when I read books, I find myself wishing that I'd be able to discuss it with the book club members. I'm really going to miss this group. In a way, I'm happy that they want to continue on with it next year. In a way, I'm sad because I'll be missing out. I may need to find a new book club to join next year!