book club, sort of (lyn)

Nine of us meet up at Ruth’s.  We spend the first two hours catching up, as most of us only see each other at book club.  With one exception, our one common bond is that all our kids went to the same elementary school, and now those same kids are in college.  The group members have changed only slightly since I joined in 2002, as have the simple rules:

• The host gets to select the next book (although the group has input).
• The host supplies all the food and beverages.
• No book is off limits.  It used to be that hardcover books were not allowed (a rule I lobbied unsuccessfully to have changed).  Some members complained that hardcovers were too heavy to carry around.  Fortunately Amazon introduced Kindles.

This is a gracious, warm group of educated, smart women.  Unlike some groups where no one wants the responsibility of hosting, everyone here competes for the privilege..  “C’mon I haven’t hosted in a long time.” “It’s summer, we can sit on my terrace.”  “Okay, if I can’t do next month’s, than I want to do the month after that.”

Ruth’s home is beautiful.  And, it is one building over from mine.  I get to wear my Isabel Murant dicker boots that I had to have last season, and waited eight months to get, as they were sold out everywhere.  They are gorgeous but have limited usage.  I wear them over to Ruth’s.   Despite Ruth's living less than half a block away, and despite my sitting all evening, I need to take my boots off an hour into the night.  The boots are shrinking as my feet are growing.  In retrospect, I should have bought the 8.5, not the 8.  Too late now.

The stories among us are, as always, compelling.  Some are spurred by the book (Defending Jacob) we’ve come to discuss, others are not.  R’s son is applying to college, and needs advice on schools.  J’s mom, a holocaust survivor, has a serious illness; she does not fear death, but rather the pain of it.  P shares a story of her son’s cheating in high school and her ostracism as a result.  L has two kids at Columbia who love a specific course, which coincidentally is the one K teaches.  A is moving her aging dad into a nursing home while looking for an apartment for her mom.  M is supporting her daughter’s dream to be an actress.  V’s son dropped out of college with only one semester to go; he will finish somewhere else.  And where did the delicious quiche come from?

It’s been ages since we read a book we all really loved.  But it doesn't matter.  This is one book club where the the book is inconsequential to the enjoyment of the club.