book club

Years and years ago I met a friend who was a fellow bookworm.

We were instantly friends.

We decided that we would start a book club, read only classics, and invite friends.

That was in 2010.

We’ve been meeting the first Monday of each month ever since.

The books we’ve read in no particular order:

1. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
2. The Crucible by Arthur Miller
3. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
4. Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
5. Watership Down by Richard Adams
6. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
7. Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens
8. Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
9. Strong Poison by Dorothy Sayers
10. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
11. The Road Back to You by Ian Morgon Cron
12. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
13. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
14. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
15. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
16. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
17. Anthem by Ayn Rand
18. Kristen Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset
19. The Summer of Monkeys by Wilson Rawls
20. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
21. 21 Balloons by William Pene du Bois
22. The Boy Tales of Childhood by Roald Dahl
23. Persuasion by Jane Austen
24. Lady Susan by Jane Austen
25. Miss Buncle’s Book by D.E. Stevenson
26. 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
27. The Constitution
28. The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery
29. Aunt Crete’s Emancipation by Grace Livingston Hill
30. The Long Fatal Love Chase by Louisa May Alcott
31. O Pioneers by Willa Cather
32. 1984 by George Orwell
33. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
34. Silas Marner by George Eliot
35. My Man Jeeves  P.G. Wodehouse
36. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
37. Missing Christmas by John Grisham
38. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson
39. Sherlock Holmes Adventure of the Speckled Band by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
40. The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
41. The River’s End by James Oliver Curwood
42. A Girl of Limberlost by Gene Stratton-Porter
43. The Keeper of the Bees by Gene Stratton-Porter
44. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
45. My Antonia by Willa Cather
46. The Scarlett Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
47. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
48. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
49. Old Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott
50. Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton
51. Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
52. Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
53. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
54. Letters to Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien
55. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Pearl Poet
56. Gift of the Magi by O. Henry
57. Harvey by Mary Chase
58. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
59. Jane of Lantern Hill by Lucy Maud Montgomery
60. Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
61. Emily of New Moon by Lucy Maud Montgomery
62. Napoleon of Notting Hill by G.K. Chesterton
63. The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan
64. The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare
65. Country of the Blind by H. G. Wells

Assorted Poetry

 

Our book club has become such an important part of my month. Women have come and gone, but there’s a core group who have stuck around. We’ve celebrated births, prayed for parents and cancer scares, shared opinions and sometimes disagreed. But what a gift to meet together and talk literature and ideas.

What makes a hero admirable?

What is courage? beauty? truth?

I’m so thankful for these women and all the years of sharing delicious food and thoughtful conversations.

To be honest, when we started, our children were much younger and the motivation for reading classics was to stay ahead of our children and their curriculum. But the benefits have far exceeded our initial goal. I’ve enriched my life and taken a hand in redeeming my own education. I’ve made good friends. I’ve been able to have relevant conversations with other well read and educated adults and with my own kids and their peers. I’ve had good cries over beautiful stories and become an avid reader.

Although our goal is to read classics, about once a year we go off road into the world of contemporary literature and read books I wouldn’t otherwise have picked up. I might indulge in a book solely based on the gorgeous cover or because it’s a best-seller. Summers are typically hit or miss. Christmas season always means reading and sharing poetry. November’s book club is always a potluck and always at my house.

Have a book club? What do you read? How often do you meet?