Book Club

I decided that my fabulous book club needed a blog post. We started our book club back in October (around the same time that I attempted to start a book club with some old high school friends - which after three months of me being the only one who read the books, was disbanded). But this book club has been a godsend. There are 9 of us in the group, many of whom I didn't know before the club started, and now I find myself eagerly anticipating the monthly gatherings with each of these wonderful gals.


We've read some really great books, and some not so wonderful books (It's The End of the World As We Know It), drank some good wine and eaten some fabulous food. And, if I do say so myself, we've got a pretty good dynamic going on and just the right number of people in the club to get some great discussions going. There is always a dinner (or brunch) which everyone contributes to, resulting in far too much food each and every month, and then just a lot of catching up and story telling.

Last night was our 7th book club meeting, where we had read The Diving Bell and The Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby. For anyone who doesn't know his story, he was the editor-in-chief of French Elle, when he suffered a massive stroke that left him the victim of Locked-In Syndrome. Pretty much, he was completely paralyzed except for the ability to blink his left eye. And that is how he wrote this book - by blinking his left eye!



Unfortunately we had our first injuries reported last night. I came over to Lauren's (our host for April) to help prep dinner and she assigned me to chopping duty. I assured her that I was a world class chopper. Moments later, I yelped and after much blood loss and a little dizziness, I was back to work with a band-aid on my index finger. Lauren ridiculed me to no end (I think dropping the chopped garlic all over the kitchen floor didn't help my situation), but I had the last laugh because when opening a can she sliced her thumb and also returned to work with a band-aid. :)



April's book club was also possibly the loudest book club in our history. We found that we have the tendency to raise the volume around the dinner table to an unhealthy level. But, we also took a little time to get to know each other with a nice juvenile game of two truths and a lie. Where this came from I have no idea - well it was from Steph, but that doesn't exactly explain why we all agreed to play it, that could have been the wine. But I think we'd all agree that it has been a blast getting to know these girls both in and out of book club over the past 7 months.


The best part - so most of these gals know each other through their fiances/husbands/brothers (a group of guys who know each other from high school and college), a group which includes Ryan. When these guys realized that they were all sitting around with nothing to do one night a month they decided to band together and form their own club. So they formed "The Barrio" - a club focused on finding the best burrito in the Bay Area. http://burritorater.blogspot.com/. While it pales in comparison to our book club, the entertainment value is quite high.

Love these girls, and love our monthly get-togethers. Thanks for all the laughs, can't wait to see what next month has in store...

Book Club Members:
Ashley, Becky, Cary, Lailah, Lauren, Megan, Robin, & Stephanie.