Dear Book Club
Dear Book Club Friends,
Thank you for you. Thank you for us.
Books, movies, TV series, politics, setbacks, struggles and joys.
Marriages, illnesses, children, miscarriages, divorce, death, work, school, bad bosses, good jobs, no jobs.
Always evolving.
Our first all-time favorite book 30+ years ago was Wallace Stenger’s “Crossing to Safety.” Now, we’re in fierce agreement — which is a miracle considering how we vociferously and respectfully disagree — that “A Little Life” is our favorite.
The language, the story, the love, the violence, the vulnerability, and glimpses of hope. From the bleak Midwestern room of abuse to the extremely cool New York City condos. The resilience and the cutting. The intelligence and the compassion.
Our favorites reflect who we are.
Thank you for you and for us because we dish out intelligence, compassion, and hope.
We’re exuberantly free with our opinions, not caring if someone else has a different take. In fact, we yearn for different takes on books, art, life itself.
But not on right-wing conservative men. No, no, no. Give them vasectomies.
“But they can’t die from a vasectomy. Make the vasectomy life-threatening.”
“Or just cut off their balls.”
During all these years guests have joined us for a session or two. And never returned. Oh well.
We have strong backbones, gentle hearts, and voracious minds. We are kind but not always polite.
“What are you really trying to say? Just tell us what you mean.”
Wish-washy, we’re not.
We are so, so loud. Often talking over one another about our discoveries, disgusts, delights, and despair.
Thank you for you and for us. And the music of our loud voices. For helping one another see a story differently, re-consider a scene in a movie, find comfort in our quirks and darkness.
The real story of our Book Club is our lives, listening every month without judgment as we share the highlights and lowlights.
“We are here for you,” we say to whoever is walking through a difficult, heart-wrenching part of her story.
We comfort each other and we take comfort in our books. They expand our perspectives, drill holes into ever deeper wells of empathy, give us escape hatches, demand we question our assumptions, and — when we find a really good book — fill us with wonder and awe.
Thank you for you and for us, dear Book Club friends.
We’ve been sharing what literary authors we’d invite to a perfect dinner party.
You will always be mine.
