And So It Begins...

In June of 2005, my friend Christine asked me if I was interested in being in a book club. I was a young Mom of (then) 3 and I figured a night out of the house with some girl friends would be a good time, so I readily agreed. At first I was a bit nervous because although I had heard that book clubs could be fun, I had also heard that book clubs could be pits of drama, hard feelings and cat fights. After brief contemplation I thought I didn't have much to lose because, lets face it, I can hold my own in a cat fight.

Several years, many books and some very good friends later I am so glad I did. The book club was started with 6 members, we have had a member leave us, gained a new member and then we gained 2 more. We have a wonderful group of 8 women with 23 children between the lot of us. We have 6 year old twins, 4 year old triplets and "if I peed on the stick and a plus sign appears, does that mean I am actually pregnant?" kids. Oh, we have definitely had a few bumps in the road but overall we have navigated them well. We learned not to discuss religion or abortion in the first year (or maybe two) of book club; we learned Beth needs gluten free snacks, Pam prefers margaritas, Rachel and Diane are happy with their pet-less existence and a book club field trip is always a hit. We also learned to make decisions as a group and to take the book club seriously.

We have settled in to a routine with our club, a routine that I have broken down into the basic rules. So here they are, the rules of book club, as I see 'em:

1. We rotate picking books, one per month. My pick always follows Kristen's pick, unless we have to switch to accomodate someone's schedule.

2. If you pick the book, you host the book club that month. You are responsible for the snacks and the book club questions. Generally we try to have about 2 questions per person (I always think the made up questions are the best! So much easier than those internet questions that someone else made up...) Christine has treated us to two especially notable book clubs: 1 - the finger sandwich tea party (catered!) and 2 - the Winery tour/tasting (free gift certificate! Woohoo!)

3. We meet the last Sunday of the month (Thus our name, Sunday Nigth Book CLub - which I am abbreviating to SNBC), every month. We rarely switch the date and I think we have only skipped an entire month once in our 5 years together ~ Seriously? 5 years already!

4. Try your damndest to finish the book and if you don't no need to worry, it is probable that Danielle won't have finished it either! We still enjoy having her at our meetings and we can fill in the ending of the book anyway.Reading the book is preferred but we have ALL been guilty of putting down the monthly selection (usually Rachel's picks for me!)

5. Recently we added a rating system for our books, we also keep a list of all of the books we have read so we can review as needed. It is surprising really how many books one can forget she has read... (Yes, we read a book called "The Book Club" and then forgot about it; I am sure it has everything to do with our advancing ages and nothing to do with the actual book!)

6. We all strive to WIN a book club award! This is top priority in making book club choices and although we won't admit it, I am pretty sure all of us have coveted an award each year(more on the awards later, definitely it's own blog...)

7. Lastly, Instead of reading a book for the month of December we have a dinner and hand out the yearly book club awards. We also do a yankee swap with gifts that follow the theme of one of the books we have read that year.

Sounds simple, right? Ha! (Or LOL as we say on facebook...)

We did not make these rules at the beginning of our book club journey. We thought about it and then, well, we drank more wine instead. Eventually we came to a big turning point in the scheduling and we picked a monthly day (the last Sunday) that never changes. Then we can all anticipate it, make plans around it and if we need to miss it, there are no hard feelings. That is unless you miss a 40th birthday party for Kristen. Apparently that is not a good plan and the remainder of the book club may torment you about it for awhile (watch out for Christine especially). We usually have most of us at book club, although summer meetings can be a bit thin. Oh yeah, and that time at Rachel's house, where there were only 2 people that showed up (hey, I have an excuse, my grandmother died on that day...)

Through parties (too many to list), new babies (Rachel and I both), tampon throwing at Danielle's house (I had not even met her before I launched Tampax at her beautifully decorated house) and, of course, many books, we have been sharing our stories with each other. We have told the stories of our youths, our families, our husbands, our jobs, our religions, our hopes, fears and our beliefs. And although we are very different, we all keep coming back for more.