October marks the last month of any given year of our book club’s schedule. This October was particularly special, in that I had asked all the women in the club if they would grant me a wish and come down to Fredericksburg once for book club. I haven’t hosted a meeting in my home since November 2004, when we lived in Centreville, because the commute to the ‘burg is insane. I was pleased when everyone agreed to come on down and lose out on a Saturday of their precious weekend to come to my place and talk book.
Last month’s meeting got a little rowdy, and while we were all laughing and crying and enjoying ourselves, Lauren suggested that we should include a night at the bingo hall at the end of book club as part of the F’burg experience. Then I was beyond excited! So it was set, October 2 was books and bingo day.
I selected The Last Days of Summer by Steve Kluger as my book for this year. I love going to book club and discussing the books, don’t get me wrong, but I also wanted to shake things up a little bit and try something new. Since I knew we’d have a good amount of time between book club and bingo, I decided to change our format of eating and discussing to include arts and crafts hour.
Cecily contacted Steve and he agreed to call into the club meeting at 2:00pm. We were scheduled to start the meeting at 1pm, but of course with a car fire on I95, everyone got to the house around 1:30. We tucked into our food (Dinner theme: What would you serve if your favorite celebrity came to dinner?), and then discussed the book for a few minutes until the phone rang and Steve was ready to chat with us!
He is a fascinating book club speaker and talked with us for about 45 minutes. He told us lots of stories about how the book came to be, who the characters were, and so forth, and a hilarious story about the Tony Awards (seriously, if you ever have him call into your club, ask him about that one!).
Afterwards, I finished off with one of my favorite quotes in the book and then it was time to set the schedule for next year. We have an awesome round up of books coming up this year (see below for the list) and I’m really excited to get reading!!! We asked Penny to take a group photo as well. She agreed, but we had pre-arranged that after we took one regular shot, we would all make a peace sign like Penny does in most of her pictures. Oh my gosh, she was so embarrassed and laughing. it was ADORABLE!
The it was time to get busy and do some crafty fun! I asked each member to bring a picture of someone who had changed their life and be ready to talk about it. We went around the circle with our pictures and everyone started talking about the person who influenced them. More than a few tears were shed as we talked about moms and best friends and teachers and aunts and uncles. It was a special and moving experience that I can’t hope to capture here, but it was awesome to be a part of.
Then I got out all my scrapbooking materials and we set up shop on the coffee table. Pretty soon scraps of paper were flying, stickers were being exchanged, and projects began to take shape. I’m so glad I decided to do something a little different—I think it was a whole lot of fun for everyone and gave us all a lot to think about.
The person I selected was the school librarian from my school growing up. I first remember meeting Mrs. Collins (at the time, Miss LeBel) when I was in kindergarten and she really inspired me with what has become a lifetime love of reading. In 1998, when I had moved home and was trying to figure out what to do with my life, Mrs. Collins would request me all the time as her sub when she was out. In the spring of 1999, she asked me to be her long term sub while she battled cancer, a fight she ultimately won. Then she was diagnosed with MS and retired from the library. This spring, I was lucky enough to see her at my dad’s retirement party, and introducing her to my husband and my daughter was a special moment for me. Then I sat down with her and began to talk about the new crossroads in my life: what’s next? What am I going to do with myself after Leah doesn’t need me full time any more? Mrs. Collins responded, “You would make a great librarian.”
So here I am now applying to library school, the final push in the right direction having been applied. And I have asked Mrs. C to write me a reference.
Back to book club…
After we all finished our projects and shared them, we had some time to hang out and relax until bingo. We started packing up at about 5:45 and headed over to Wawa for some extra provisions in case our meeting leftovers didn’t hold out. We got to bingo a trifle bit late, so we all had to cram around a table for 6 (and there were 7 of us and the people next to us were not giving an inch!).
Luck held. Melissa won big, $100, her first ever bingo win! For most of the night, we were all sitting around laughing, eating, and hoping for big winnings, but Melissa was the lucky draw. Then a few games later, my number came up at the exact same time 6 other people’s lucky number came up, so I won a whopping $14. Ah well, it nearly paid my admission! :) A win is a win is a win, right?
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Bitches With Books Year 7 Reading List
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
The Opposite of Me by Sarah Pekkaner
The Mighty Queens of Freeville by Amy Dickinson
Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay
The Postmistress by Sarah Blake
The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom
A Scattered Life by Karen McQuestion
and 4 choices to be named later. Happy reading!
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