Book Club Therapy

by Sandie

I've loved books since I started to read in the first grade. I remember Mom taking my sister and me, also a big reader, to the library every other Saturday morning. I loved it! The feeling of walking into the library with all those books just waiting for me to read them is the same feeling I get today when I walk into a library or book store.

Seven years ago, when I lived in Maryland, I decided to start a neighborhood book club. About nine of my neighbors/friends joined. We decided that we'd take turns choosing the books and whomever chose the next book would host the meeting. We'd have coffee/tea and desserts since we were meeting in the evenings, once a month. From that first meeting, I was hooked.

Our first book pick, hosted by my friend/neighbor, Carol, was House of Sand and Fog by Andre DuBus III. We all liked the book and had a good discussion about it. But what was really great was that in talking about the book, we talked about us. Every book after that just led to more discussion about our lives--from raising our kids to our religious beliefs. It was better than therapy. We quickly made the Vegas rule--what happens in book club stays in book club! We were sharing so much of ourselves that we wanted everyone to feel safe.

A few months after we started that club, Carol was diagnosed with colon cancer. A year later, she passed away. I, and I know others as well, felt such a great gift in that book club, because we had all grown so close and had shared so much with Carol. A week before she was diagnosed, as I was driving her home from a book club meeting in which we had discussed religion, Carol told me that although she had converted to Judaism from Catholicism when she married her husband, she just KNEW when she died she would see Jesus in Heaven. I've never forgotten that and it gave me a sense of peace when she passed.

When we moved to Georgia a few years ago, I was very sad to leave my family and friends--and my book club!! On my last meeting, the club surprised me and had pink t-shirts printed saying, "Sandie's Book Club" and listing all the books we'd read! They're still together and we exchange book lists.

It didn't take me long to start a book club here! We've been meeting for about a year now and once again, I've made some great friends. What I love most about book club is sharing/talking with other women but I also love that I've read books I wouldn't have chosen to read. Have I liked all of them? Heck, no! But that's the other great thing--when we have some people who liked the book and others who didn't, it makes for a much more interesting and fun meeting!! And, almost every book somehow relates to our own lives and we start talking about us. No therapy could compare!

For July, we're reading a book I picked by one of my favorite authors, Jodi Picoult. It's called Change of Heart. It's actually about the death penalty, something we just discussed in the nest. I can't wait to discuss it in our club.

I'm listing some of the books (from my old club and current club) we've read in hopes that you'll broaden your reading experience and maybe even start a book club of your own!

We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates
Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding
A Widow for One Year by John Irving
The Lost Legends of New Jersey by Frederick Reiken
Sea Glass: A Novel by Anita Shreve
Fortune's Rocks: A Novel by Anita Shreve
Back When We Were Grownups by Anne Tyler
In the Time of Butterflies by Julia Alvarez
The Lovely Bones: A Novel by Alice Sebold
Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende
It's not about the bike by Lance Armstrong
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons by Lorna Landvik
Falling Leaves by Adeline Yen Mah
The Other Boleyn Girl, Philippa Gregory
Cane River, Lalita Tademy
Outlander, Diana Gabaldan
Queen Bees and Wannabes, Rosalind Wiseman
Shantaram, Gregory David Roberts
The Woman who Walked into Windows, Roddy Doyle
Cruel as the Grave, Sharon Kay Penman
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Friend,
Christopher Moore
Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen
A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini
The Life of Pi, Yann Martel
The Shadow of the Wind, Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole
Change of Heart, Jodi Picoult (Jul 08)
Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut (Aug 08)
The Book Thief, Markus Zusak (Sept 08)
The Gravedigger’s Daughter, Joyce Carol Oats (Oct 08)