Book Club

Well, tonight was our first book club meeting, and we all thought it went great.  Our first selection was "How to Be a Woman" by Caitlin Moran, which I've mentioned before.  There were five of us (two more will join us next month) and none of us had ever belonged to a book club before.  So after dinner we kind of looked at each other and said, "Um, should we have, like, ground rules or something?" Lynn had downloaded some questions from the Internet, but we decided that it was our book club and we'd just make the rules up as we went along.  It was exactly as I had envisioned a book club discussion.  A couple of us loved the book, one did not like it, two liked it with reservations. Brian had problems with her cavalier attitude towards pornography, a sort of "If woman ran the porn industry, the movies would have a plot line," missing by a mile the larger issues of exploitation and degradation rampant in that business.  Lynn liked most of the book, but didn't particularly like the author, feeling that, at 35, she was a little too cocksure of herself on every issue; I felt that kind of ballsiness was exactly what propelled her out of the poverty and despair that was programmed for her.  We all were amused at her complete disdain for any type of plastic surgery and her certainty that she would embrace the sagging and the wrinkles as sings of a life well-lived.   Just wait, we all said.  In ten years, tell me how charming you find gray hair and jowls.  Next month's selection is "Gone Girl," which has been getting fabulous reviews -- a tense fictional thriller which will be a good counterpoint to Caitlin's comic rantings.

 

It lasted from 7-9, and since I hadn't had time to do my walk before then, I came home, grabbed Banks and his new leash, and off we went.  His endurance is growing as the summer heat wanes; now he's up to 45 minutes before I bring him home and complete the other half myself.  It was still a little hot and humid, so I finished up at St. Ed's to take advantage of the open buildings and drinking fountains.  Not to mention bathrooms.  I'd forgotten that strawberries have that effect on me.