Book Club!

I joined a book club this past February. Shortly after, I happened to catch a part of Oprah's show where her guest Dan Buettner said that joining a group that meets regularly and people remind you to attend gives as much happiness as earning an extra $75,000 (or something like that. I've misplaced my notes).

I'm not sure I agree with Mr. Buettner's assertions (after all, $75,000 is a lot of cash) but I will say that I have enjoyed my new group immensely. Four of the women attend my church, but since we have four services, I don't see them regularly, and didn't even know they were book lovers like me. Like Anne of Green Gables, I enjoy discovering kindred spirits!

Another gal, I learned, lived a block away from me for about four years, and our kids even attended the same elementary school! She now lives in a small town outside of Wichita, and we meet in book club. Small world.

On my first night, they said goodbye to the group's founder, who was moving to Arizona. In the parting gifts they referenced the books they'd read over the past two years, and I was pleased to see that I had read a number of them as well. I also learned who was the Kindle spokeswoman, who championed the classics, who liked sci-fi, and who relied heavily on wikipedia when she didn't have time to actually read the book.

One great thing about this group is the food. The hostess is charged with serving snacks or a meal that corresponds to the book we just read. So, when we read "Bridget Jones' Diary" Jade fixed a turkey curry buffet, since Bridget's mom was always wanting her to attend the Darcy's annual Christmas turkey curry buffet. When we read "Room" we munched on snacks that Jack and his mom ate in their five-year captivity in the room.  For "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" it was a Southern-style spread, with chocolate pecan pie, a caramel cake, and tomato sandwiches with the tomatoes patted dry with a napkin, just as the best caterers would. For "The Hunger Games," we had fish and berries that Katniss would have caught, and a decorated cake Peeta would have been proud of.

This last month, however, topped them all. We read "A Homemade Life" by Molly Wizenberg, the creator of the food blog "Orangette." Jimi had everyone bring something from the book--or a special recipe of their own. Yum! Everything was incredibly delicious--butternut soup, with pear, cider, and vanilla bean; roasted tomatoes; meatballs with pine nuts, cilantro, and golden raisins; pickled grapes with cinnamon and black pepper; blueberry-raspberry pound cake and much more. After devouring everything, we took a picture with everyone wearing aprons.

Another great thing about this book club is we actually talk about the books--sometimes extensively. We always rate each book on a scale from 1 to 5, and give our comments. I think Erin nailed it this week. She admitted she isn't really interested in cooking, but she read the book because it was the book this month--and she enjoyed it. She said that's why she joined book club--to read things that she wouldn't normally pick up.

I guess that's why I'm doing it. But the food's good too.