Book Club Redux

Just a postscript to my request for people's experiences with book discussion groups. (And thank you all for your input.)  We neighborhood ladies got together last night, some of us - the communication was via email and it looks like not everyone reads theirs faithfully - for a planning session for our incipient group.  It was quite pleasant and relaxed, and I think I will enjoy an opportunity to meet like this once a month.  One of the members, Paula, was part of a group in Colorado for many years before she moved here, and she was a good resource and guide for the rest of us, who are neophytes.  She and I were the only ones who came equipped with book suggestions, so we only chose the first book, for our March meeting, the epistolary novel, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.  This was one of Paula's suggestions, and one I have heard mentioned from others as quite a good read.  It is not one I would have chosen on my own, but it's a time and place that I do find interesting.

I know something of the history in which the story is set, the German Occupation of the Channel Islands, from a PBS presentation on Masterpiece Theatre, Island At War, several years ago,   I've read other books set in these Islands, starting with two by one of my favorite childhood authors, Elizabeth Goudge:  Island Magic. and Green Dolphin Street.  One of Elizabeth George's mysteries was also set on Guernsey, and maybe even one of PD James' Adam Dalgliesh mysteries.  In any case, it's a location that calls to me, one I hope to visit while I can still walk the cliffs and beaches.  So, despite my fears that this one is perhaps sweeter and more sentimental than I would normally choose, it's now in my library queue.  A lot of other people have it in theirs too, so I only hope we'll get it in time for us both to read it.

Something I found interesting last night was the complaints from the other women present about not having anyone to discuss a book with after they read it. Every woman there has a living husband.  Don't husbands (men) read?  Do women only read chick lit that their menfolk won't touch? Here is where Gail and I have a wonderful advantage.  We pretty much read the same books, eventually anyway, and always discuss them with each other.  Our women friends also read many of the same books, NOT what is generally thought of as "chick lit" either, and when we get together we often have a lot of informal book chat.  It will be interesting to see how formal book chat differs.