Around the end of last year I was invited to join a new book club, after the debacle that was the last book club I was in and how negative of a feeling it left me with, a feeling that followed and haunted me for too long, mainly because I loved being in a book club but I now recognize that particular one was simply not the right fit for me.
When I read back over the post I wrote on being kicked out of the previous club I’m rather disgusted with myself due to my negativity, anger and hostility. It is comforting to know that I was a completely different person back then, I’m also glad the comments are gone, from my botched move to WordPress because it had some very true comments about my attitude although I’m not embarrassed to say I still agree with most of what I wrote it just could have been written a hell of a lot better. This also brings me back to my work on changes in perspective and myself in general, I’m not proud that I used to be THAT big a of a bitch, unfortunately I was then mind you, but I’m content that I can read it over and see the sadness, the hurt, the place I was coming from and as I did and am continuing to do, I’m learning from it.
The new club is great although there is still structure, we all read the same book, we all bring food related to the book when possible and wine for some, this book club is so much more laid back, I don’t feel like I’m in some classroom. In my last book club there was a test on every book and prizes NO talking about the book in any way shape or form until book club which I personally still stick to but I don’t care if others don’t, to each their own but believe it or not I can actually keep my lips sealed for six weeks waiting for the next book club meeting.
Since I joined there have been four books read and I have made two meetings, one I missed because I was away and one I missed because I let some personal shit going on at the time get to me and I couldn’t leave my house.
So far we have read and discussed:
- The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets by Eva Rice – I LOVED this book, and highly recommend it although it does contain more than one editing error it is still worth the read.
- Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez – this is the only book so far I have not read I was in Ontario for the meeting.
- The Condition by Jennifer Haigh – This was my pick and I missed the meeting, but still finished the book, I did enjoy it although it dragged in places but over all I would recommend it.
- Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee – This book made me realize how awesome this book club really is the content of this novel was heavy set in post-apartheid South Africa it deals with violence in many layers just when you think it can’t get worse it does, the central character a cynical middle aged snotty academic who seemingly doesn’t even know what the word change means must find away out of his darkness, out of his disgrace.
Although the content was heavy and we all had strong opinions they were all heard and we had a great talk, as mentioned in the post on my old book club most of the ladies would not even read the book I picked because it was too scary for them. It was a fictional novel for crying out loud; this book although still fiction is not far off what really went on in South Africa or rather still goes on. I can’t be happier to have found an open minded bunch of ladies to discuss real issues with whilst enjoying BOOKS!
Next up is Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. That is all I will say on that although I do love having Adam to bounce stuff off of now and I read out passages I love or loathe to him and even though I did say I wouldn’t join another book club without men in it I’ve realized that I don’t need to be in a book club with men [not saying I'd mind] I simply needed to open up my mind and go with it. I am still always going to leave meetings worried I’ve spoken too much, interrupted too much, gotten too personal in regards to how the book relates to my life but these things are normal to my person and my own inner struggles, I do waste a lot of energy on negative attentional bias and allow it to stress me out, but I am not letting it torture me like I used to instead I just keep on reading.
