Book:
A Wedding in December
Author:
Anita Shreve (of The Pilot's Wife fame)
Book Club Members:
Lollie – Book Selecting Club Instigator. Said book chosen because it was in the bargain bin at Barnes and Noble. I was sick of not having a Book Club experience, so I bought 6 copies of the novel for $5.95 each and handed them out to random women at my brother’s Super Bowl party)
Elizabeth – Mood Making Host Extraordinaire. Sister-in-Law and Co-worker who ran out to take her Krav Mgraw class an hour and a half before hosting. She specifically placed lamps and candles in her unlit living room to create a lovely space for the chics)
Kim – Boob Jobbed Voracious Reader. There was never an uncomfortable quiet moment all night due to Blondie – love her…in small doses. Husband bow-hunts and feeds the family game at least twice a week. 4-year-old son is a yellow belt in some martial art.
Jen – Most Looked Forward To Member Winner. She is great reader, good suggester of books and the only other one of us with Book Club experience. Wish I lived closer to her. We'd be BFFs for sure.
Lisa – Husky Voice Femme Formidable. Lisa has terrific stories about her previous life as a HRS staffer, started on the advocate side, saw some really disheartening situations and moved to the fraud department. After telling us how she broke her ankle chasing a car to get a license number, she said “Detective work is my true calling.”
Shirley - Book Club Provoker. Cheerleader for the Book Club during a neighbourhood Christmas party. "You should do it. We should do it. I would love to do it!" She looks like a Cheerleader too - beautiful blonde, but with three girls.
Laureen - Martha Stewart on Steroids. I have never met a more organized person than this woman. She had no time to read the book, and knew she wouldn't and we were informed of this early in the month. She wanted to attend anyway and bring dip.
Gina - aka: GinaDoesn'tRead. She likes to hang out though. I was very pleased at the end of the evening when she said she was interested in "reading" our next book, Freakonomics. "Do they have it on AudioBooks?"
Book Club Menu:
Drink - Zinfandel (Seven Deadly Zins), Chilean Cabernet (Carmen?) and some white stuff for Lisa. Gina brought her own Crystal Light.
Appetizer - Sushi from Publix (really not bad at all), cheddar cheese plate, BLT dip on bread (Laureen always gets her recipe on, see earlier MSoS reference).
Dessert – petite fours, chocolate chip/white chocolate chip/macadamia nut cookies. And more wine.
Minutes:
A slow start - for only five seconds. Then everyone dove in. We were surprised to see that the back of the book had ready-made Book Club questions, but we never got to them. We had enough conversation of our own. The best comment was made by Jen and it made the whole night for me. She said, "I didn't like the book very much while I was reading it, but now that we're talking about it all together, it is making me like it a lot more."
An hour later, we were all still talking about the book (Gina and Laureen sat patiently listening). After a bit, we kind of broke into individual groups. Jen, Kim and I continued on talking about books that we've loved and we were madly scribbling notes of each others' recommendations, Elizabeth, Lisa and Shirley went from a short conversation about books to the Anna Nicole Smith saga, and Laureen and Gina immediately dove into a dialogue about loads of laundry.
The wine was drained, the next book and venue were chosen, and the Suburban Egretto Girls said good night to a fabulous evening of Mommy-escape. Being the only non-development, non-baby-having-member, I climbed into my car and smiled to myself on the trek South.
New first rule about Book Club: You talk about, at, and after Book Club.
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8 comments:
Wow. Are you seriously reading Freakonomics next!? You're some cool chicks.
Glad it was a grand time. Good crowd, indeed. I may show up one of these times in wig, fake boobs, frumpy dress, glasses, and with a ridiculous falsetto voice. (I was heavily influenced by Bosom Buddies and Kids in the Hall, I think.) Can we serve finger sandwiches?
The Jealous One,
-cK
Color me jealous as well. But very very nice post. I felt like I was there, sort of. Aren't you proud of yourself that you got that going on? You should be.
But no poopy-diaper stories? I'm disappointed.
The best line? - "She wanted to attend anyway and bring dip." That one sentence sums up the difference between men and women in my opinion.
XO.
Mommy talk was banned in my trio - no poopy diaper stories. Just intelligent conversation about poetry and prose - it was brilliant.
Hmmm - I think I just realized...I miss school.
Man, I usually have no yen for book clubbin' but all of a sudden, it sounds great. Color me jealous, too.
Sassmaster - you should do it! It really is great. If the book sucks, well, you just say so and get to drinking!
Lollie dear, I think it's you that makes the book club. The Dread MC and I might have to import you to Minnesota just so we too can have an enjoyable book club.
(Dread MC? I like that lots, but Sassmaster I'm not sure I know you well enough to call you that... But it does sound good though, doesn'it it?)
If we do this by the way, you have to bring the dip.... XOXO.
If I promise to bring the dip then I also have to promise not to read the book...
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