Neighborhood Book Club: The GLoL's

Ladies of Literature: Anissa, Jennifer, Me, Andrea, Jeannine

I have always wanted to be part of a book club, and now I am!

By now you might be able to anticipate my reason for not forming a book club--the whole 'I'm too sick to make it work' thing. 

Even though I was still in the midst of my gastroparesis flare last Spring, I decided that a neighborhood book club with a group of women who understood my illness just might work. It did! And I had no idea how much fun it was going to be!

We decided to meet on Sunday afternoons four times a year, which makes it manageable for all. I knew that we could meet at my house, where I would always have a recliner. This past Sunday, I was well enough for us to meet at Jennifer's house! Mom never gets the house to herself, and the break was good for both of us. 

I have also discovered the amazingness of audible.com, which has a selection of books that far surpasses that of our library and offers the ability to bookmark and make notes while listening. This means that our book group isn't tied down by what is available on audio from the library (which I still use and love!).

So far we have tried to choose a diverse selection of books: 

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes 

Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver

Defending Jacob by William Landry

Where'd You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple

At each meeting a different person comes with a list of 2 or 3 books she is interested in reading, and we democratically choose the book we want to read. 

Book Journal from Busboys and Poets in Washington, DC

Growing up, I wasn't much of a reader. Mom jokes that I stopped reading once I got to chapter books., which worried her! :) I spent so many hours studying or engaged in after school activities that I tended to gravitate towards socializing over reading in my spare time. 

It wasn't until I got sick that I discovered the true blessing of books and reading. After my gallbladder surgery in 2005, I could no longer focus to read a book. 

Mom's close friend was (now retired) a librarian at one of the elementary schools. One day, she arrived with a large box of books on cassette, hand-picked as favorites of hers. She introduced me to the world of children's literature that I had missed out on growing up and to the world of audiobooks.

My life has never been the same since I first placed one of those cassette tapes in the player and escaped my suffering, if only for a short while. It's not that I hadn't listened to books before or hadn't read them before, but I had never needed them the way I did at that moment. 

Now, books are one of my very favorite things to talk about, my list of books I want to listen to is longer than I can ever get through, my book group is full of delightfully kind, smart and funny women, and my world is richer.

Blessings,

Emily