Book Club Beyond Borders

written by Guest Blogger Kathy S.

Contrary to the early prediction that our Book Club would have “the shelf life of a dairy product,” BC has now flourished for years and is spreading its influence across the country. Starting with a group of Michigan transplants in Chicago, moving north to Minnesota (Amanda), east to New York City (Jamie), and now south to TEXAS!

After seeing a ReadBetweentheWines posting on Facebook, an old Marquette friend living in McAllen, TX, reached out to hear “EVERYTHING” about our book club so she could start her own. “I'm not sure how serious y'alls club is,” she said, “but I'm pretty sure ours will be about 50% eating/vino drinking, 30% gossiping, 20% book talking”. Sound familiar?

I gave her the lowdown on the basics, like rotating apartment locations, bringing a bottle to pass, and consuming copious amounts of dip, as well as on the more complicated matters, like the process of choosing the next book (suggesting the frequently instituted “heads down/hands up” voting approach in certain heated situations). In addition, I shared some essential things to consider when choosing a book, some of which we learned the hard way, like;

The # of pages (i.e. Edgar Sawtelle)
The unreliability of Oprah’s Book Club (i.e. Love in the Time of Cholera & Edgar again)
Hard cover vs. soft cover
The seasonality (i.e. Ted Bundy)
Who’s already read it
Who’s mom’s already read it

Much like a fine wine (or fine cheese for that matter) our Book Club has only gotten better with age and here’s hoping the new clubs formed will lead to as many new friendships, passionate discussions, and hung-over Fridays as ours has. Cheers!