It was a beautiful sunny Saturday when our group last got together. We had each thoroughly enjoyed reading our last book, Remarkably Bright Creatures, and shared our appreciation. We look forward to reading West to Giraffes for our upcoming gathering in November.
As always, we shared our month's news and rejoiced or commiserated, but always supporting each other. What a remarkable gift our friendship is.
NO WAY! When I saw the last time I'd updated our blog I was, am, shocked! We've met several times over the last few months, read several books, and shared many happy times. Oops!
But on with the now. Our last gathering was at our currently designated meeting place, Penngrove Market, on a Saturday morning at 10:00. We aimed to have everyone present, but life has a way of interrupting plans so 3 of our members weren't able to attend. The remaining 7 of us of chatted and updated everyone about all that had transpired in the 2 months since our last gathering. As I recall, we didn't actually discuss the book. It had been so long I honestly hardly even recall the title much less story details. (Actually our book was The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont. Apologies.) Nonetheless conversation managed to span the hours.
Our next book assigned (which WILL be discussed) is Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt.
What to say about a perfect, quite remarkable gathering? Boy, we're lucky!
We all were invited to Carolyn's house to celebrate Barbara's surprise birthday party. Knowing Carolyn, we all expected it to be special, but it was quite simply beyond that. The food, the laughter, the cocktails, the friendship all made for a most outstanding birthday celebration. It was very special for our birthday girl, Barbara and all of us shared in the joy of the day.
We had time to talk, share and to discuss the book we all read, Olive, Again and assign a new book, The Librarian of Burned Books: A Novel by Brianna Labuskes. Our continued friendship is one of our most precious gifts. How lucky we are to have such a special group of friends.
We all enjoyed last month's book, Lessons in Chemistry, and, though there is still a long way to go, we appreciated the advances in equality the book so aptly illustrated.
Our next month's book is Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout which builds on our previous reads of Olive Kitteridge and the Burgess Boys.
Meeting once again at Penngrove Market and enjoying various coffees and drinks and surely the world's best scones, we shared our dismayed and disturbed anguish after reading Barbara Kingsolver's beautiful book, Demon Copperhead. Her story affected each of us deeply and initiated a great deal of discussion.
Hoping to turn to a more uplifting book, we decided to read Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus for our next gathering in March. We'll see if this forecast rings true.
It's a new year and we're back in our same meeting place, the Penngrove Market. This month, happily, they've regained their indoor seating space so we were able to escape the freezing temperatures outside.
We had a lively gathering with all but one of us crowding around a table to share our family news and the amazing book we read, Mad Honey. Each of us enjoyed the reading and were so impressed to have been educated about transgender issues.
Unfortunately I was so captivated by our gathering that it skipped my mind to take a photo. Darn! Next month!
And speaking of next month, our chosen book for next month is Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. Another lively discussion is sure to follow!
