Mom and I were the dueling cameras at our book club meeting last week. We were in the garden where the weather, scenery, company, and conversation were at its best. It seemed fitting, somehow, after last gathering in the garden to discuss Uncle Tom’s Cabin, to then return to discuss April 1865: The Month That Saved America (review coming soon).
I thought I would again celebrate girls’ night out by driving the Mustang. Sadly, I had no brakes, but that is a story to add to the Mustang saga I’ll tell another day.
It felt like a coming home, of sorts, as many of us feel a sentimental tie to Poet’s Garden, which has now been closed for a year. Obviously, for a few of us, we really were home. (The shop sits on the plot of my childhood veggie garden.)
We talked away the evening, devouring our chocolate cake and refreshing drinks. It was certainly convenient to have a cozy building in which to retreat as the mosquitoes came out in full force. We seated ourselves in the numerous chairs purchased as photo session props.
ChocLit Guild has a wonderful legacy of babies born into the club. I was pregnant with Luke when we began meeting over five years ago. Luke, Monet, and Ivy were born that year. Malachi the next. Then Leif, Jared, and Daphne. Phoebe is our current babe of the hour, and she is a doll!
Our previous book selections are listed here, but this is our current line-up:
The Giver (Lois Lowry)Three Cups of Tea (Mortenson/Relin)Louisa May Alcott Novel (reader’s choice)April 1865 (Jay Winik)Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet (Jamie Ford)I Am David (Anne Holm)E.P. Roe Novel (reader’s choice)Mystery (reader’s choice)Jane EyreBiography (reader’s choice)Personality Style Books (reader’s choice)Quo Vadis*
The Jesus I Never Knew (Yancey)
*Several years ago, we had a month when each reader chose a book set around the life of Christ. Most of us read Quo Vadis, Ben Hur, The Silver Chalice, or The Robe. We enjoyed them so much, we’ve chosen this theme a few times since. This year, we’ve added The Bronze Bow and the Mark of the Lion series to widen the pool of selections.