Book Club

Last night our neighborhood book club met for the first time. My friends and I have been planning to do this for a while, but couldn't seem to get it together until now. 

Starting a book club is always difficult - what book should we read, how many people should be invited, should there be snacks, how frequently should we meet, what if I recommend a book and no one likes it?

Our group decided to meet once a month and we thought we would read general fiction, historical fiction and nonfiction. Not very interested in fantasy or gory murders.

The first book we chose was The Lying Game by Ruth Ware. It is told in flashbacks, something I do not enjoy in a book, and deals with events that happened to four teenage girls at a boarding school in England. The father of one of the girls was an art teacher at the school and the girls spent many weekends at his house.

The Lying Game comes from how the girls always tell other people lies about themselves, including Isa Wilde who tells people she is a descendant of Oscar Wilde. One lie they tell is that Ambrose, Kate's father disappeared one day.

Our book club felt manipulated by the authors to believe something else happened to Ambrose. Don't want to give away the plot in case you haven't read this book. 

For our next couple of books we decided to read Camino Island by John Grisham and Hum if You Don't Know the Words by Bianca Marais.

Overall everyone had a chance to talk about how they felt about the book. Sometimes we veered off talking about other books we had read (which to me is the fun of book clubs). Many of us were busily scribbling down the titles of books our co-club members had read.

Some others on the future list include Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore by Matthew Sullivan, The History of Bees by Maja Lunde and Cooking for Picasso by Camille Aubray.

It was a fun evening, and yes we had snacks and wine.