The Joy of a Book Club

I belong to a book club that has been meeting monthly since December 2016; however the club did meet regularly in the years of 2004-2006 and we took an extended hiatus as our lives and those of our families took precedence. I really enjoy our club, we named ourselves The Liguorian Society Book Club, because the club is made up of members of our church, St. Alphonsus Liguori. When we renewed our club this past year we chose Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline as our first selection. We thoroughly enjoyed reading this fact-based fictional novel about the trains that during the late 1800’s carried orphans from America’s East Coast large cities to the heartland of America for adoption. While some of these orphans were received and welcomed into loving families and homes of the Midwest, most were not and faced a life of hard labor and servitude. Our club is made up of a cross section of our parishioners, each member bringing a unique aspect to our book discussions. We then chose Marker by Robin Cook followed by a club favorite The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls. This book really touched home for me as Welch, West Virginia was a major setting for this autobiography of Jeanette Walls and her very colorful and tenacious childhood of growing up poor in the coal mining town of Welch and her determination for a better if not “normal” life. Next came our club’s consensus for favorite read, so far, A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman, if you haven’t read this book I highly recommend it as the story of a cantankerous Swedish man and his quest to be reunited with his recently departed wife and the neighbors who somehow intervene in his every attempt to commit suicide. When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi definitely hit home with us, as each of us have been affected by cancer and how it changes our lives. The Rescue by Nicholas Sparks was an enjoyable read if not however completely predictable. Our last selection that we discussed this week was Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance – many of our members related to so much of this story as I myself along with many of my family made the immigration from our Appalachian roots for manufacturing jobs in the North and Midwest. In July we will meet for our summer social event that was very popular with our club in the past, a current event discussion, brown bagged wine tasting along with appetizers. We will resume our regular book discussion in August as we meet to discuss The Nightingale by Kristen Hannah. We have in the past held a Christmas event where we did a children’s book drive where we donated books to underprivileged children. For our Christmas gathering we cook a dinner together by putting all the different jobs of preparing the meal in a hat and drawing out what we would do for the meal. This was a great way to get to know our fellow club members and their spouses. Our club even put together a cookbook of our favorite holiday and family recipes. If you like to read and enjoy lively discussions, please join a book club, if there isn’t one in your area, start one. It’s very enjoyable and you’ll be insured of making lifelong friends (Rose, Ruthann, Dennis, Cheryl H, Carolyn and Cheryl W.) in the process.