“Chocolate is a perfect food, as wholesome as it is delicious, a beneficent restorer of exhausted power. It is the best friend of those engaged in literary pursuits.”
~Baron Justus von Liebig, German chemist (1803-1873)
Eleven years ago, I was out on a shopping trip with a close friend of mine. More accurately, she is my second mom from childhood (my mom’s best friend and the mother of my closest childhood friend). Over lunch she mentioned an idea that had come to her: a book and chocolate club. Because books. And chocolate.
Shortly thereafter, I took the idea and ran with it. Who wouldn’t want to get together once a month to talk about books and eat chocolate?!
In January, more than a decade ago when I was pregnant with Luke, our ChocLit Guild was born and we’ve been getting together to eat chocolate and discuss books ever since! Our members have stayed mostly the same with just a few leaving and a few coming. We’ve been through so much together!
[Scroll to end of this post for 11 years of book lists.]
We rotate through members’ houses/gardens as each person is available to hostess or we’ve met a couple times at coffee or frozen yogurt shops.
Thursday we met in Carolyn’s yard. She lives out in the gorgeous countryside on a working century farm. She also collects everything vintage and lovely. (I love the picture above because it shows the reality of country farm life—the clouds of dust swirling up behind tractors.)
My mom and sister Shannon made an incredible gluten-free chocolate lava cake with ganache frosting. It even had zucchini and applesauce in it, so I’m certain it was healthy (ha!!). (Someone other than the hostess volunteers to bring dessert each month.)
My sister Holly brought garden produce to share, and Carolyn added corn on the cob to the offerings.
We sat snuggled in blankets on the brick patio next to the fire as the sun set on our conversation. I love my life.
According to my records, this is an accurate list of the books we’ve read over the past years:
2014
January: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (Barbara Kingsolver)February/March: Jayber Crow (Wendell Berry)April: Flannery O’ConnorMay: Notes from the Tilt-a-Whirl (N.D. Wilson)June: Pudd’nhead Wilson (Mark Twain) July: Till We Have Faces and The Weight of Glory (C.S. Lewis)August: The Red House Mystery (A.A. Milne) September: Bird by Bird (or any book by Ann Lamott)October: The Call (Oz Guinness)
Nov/Dec: The Birds’ Christmas Carol or Maggie Rose: Her Birthday Christmas
2013January: Les Miserables (Hugo)February: The Harbinger (Jonathan Cahn)March: Retellings of Iliad/OdysseyApril: Medieval/King Arthur themesMay: ShakespeareJune: Oscar WildeJuly: The Little Prince (Saint-Exupery)August: Russian LiteratureSeptember: Gilead (Marilynne Robinson)
October: Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury)
2012
January – Bonhoeffer (Metaxas)February – Animal Farm (George Orwell)March – My Name is Mary Sutter (Robin Oliveira)April – A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (Mark Twain)May – An Irish Country Doctor (Patrick Taylor)June – Salt: A World History (Mark Kurlansky)July – A Million Miles in a Thousand Years (Donald Miller)August – Peace Like a River (Leif Enger)September – The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time (Mark Haddon)October – Biography (reader’s choice)November – No Meeting
December – Les Miserables (movie night!)
2011
January: Books set in ChinaFebruary: The Five Thousand Year Leap by W. Cleon SkousenMarch: One Thousand Gifts by Ann VoskampApril: Easter-themed books (The Silver Chalice, The Bronze Bow, etc.)May: The Secret Garden/A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson BurnettJune: Bianca’s Vineyard by Teresa NeumannJuly: Not My Will by Francena ArnoldAugust: Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan ManningSeptember: Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. LewisOctober: Perelandra by C.S. Lewis
(November: That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis)
2010
January: Biography (reader’s choice)February: Personality Style Books (reader’s choice)March: Quo Vadis, Ben Hur, Silver Chalice, The Robe, The Bronze Bow, etc.April: The Jesus I Never Knew (Yancey)May: The Devil in the White CityJune: Mystery (reader’s choice)July: Cranford (Gaskell)August: Twilight (Meyer)September/October: The Hunger Games (Collins)
November: The Screwtape Letters (Lewis)
2009
February: The Giver (Lois Lowry)
March: Three Cups of Tea (Mortenson/Relin)
April: Louisa May Alcott (reader’s choice)
May: April 1865 (Jay Winik)
June: Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet (Jamie Ford)
July: I Am David (Anne Holm)
August: E. P. Roe (reader’s choice)
September: Mystery (reader’s choice)
October: Jane Eyre
November: No Meeting
(December: Share Personal Stories)
2008
January: Biography (reader’s choice)February: From Jest to Earnest (E. P. Roe)March: Watership Down (Richard Adams)April: Murder Myster (reader’s choice)May: What’s So Amazing About Grace (Yancey)June: Ruth (Elizabeth Gaskell)July: The Inimitable Jeeves (P. G. Wodehouse)August: The Harvester (Gene Stratton-Porter)September: Little Britches (Moody)October: A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)November: Mimosa (Amy Carmichael)
(December: Share Personal Stories)
2007
March: Mere Christianity (C. S. Lewis)April: North and South (Elizabeth Gaskell)May: I Dared to Call Him Father (Bilquis Sheikh)June: The Pilgrim’s Progress (John Bunyon)July: Down the Garden Path (Beverly Nichols)August: Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Harriet Beecher Stowe)September: The Richest Man in Babylon (George S. Clason)October: The Robe (Lloyd C. Douglas), Ben Hur, The Silver Chalice, or Quo VadisNovember: The Little French Girl (Anne Douglas Sedgwick)
December: Belles on Their Toes (Gilbreth)
2006
January: Narnia (C. S. Lewis)February: Safely Home (Randy Alcorn)March: Robinson CrusoeApril: To Kill a MockingbirdMay: The Count of Monte CristoJune: Eve’s DaughtersJuly: The Orphan (Helen Dunbar)August: George MacDonald (any book by author)September: Moonstone (Wilkie Collins)October: David Copperfield (Dickens)November: David Copperfield (continued)
December: At Home in Mitford (Jan Karon)
2005
January: Lorna DooneFebruary: Lorna Doone (continued)March: A Rift in Time (Michael Phillips)April: The Homecoming (Angela Santana)May: Wives and Daughters (Elizabeth Gaskell)June: Francine Rivers (any book by author)July: Cheaper by the DozenAugust: The Dean’s Watch (Elizabeth Goudge)September: A Severe Mercy (Sheldon Vanauken)October: The Tennent of Woldfell HallNovember: Our Hearts Were Young and Gay (Skinner/Kimbrough)
December: The Shoe Box (Francine Rivers)
2004
January: Gene Stratton-Porter (any book by author)February: Presidential BiographyMarch: MysteryApril: The Robe, Ben Hur, Quo Vadis, or The Silver ChaliceMay: Children’s Literature: Eight Cousins, The Railway Children, The Princess and the GoblinJune: Jane Austen (any book by author)July: Patricia M. St. John (any book by author)August: The Woman in White (Wilkie Collins)September: A Year in Provence (Peter Mayle)October: George MacDonald (any book by author)November: Movie Night, The Inheritance (Louisa May Alcott)
December: Maggie Rose or The Birds’ Christmas Carol