I am in a book club. Now, before you judge and make comments about how lame a book club is, how nerdy is that, this is a different sort of book club. This is not a group of pretentious book snobs who only read the boring 1000 page novels and expect you to come to these meetings to dissect every aspect of them. Instead we are a group of amazing, intelligent, fun-loving, wine-drinking, food-eating ladies who happen to love reading and the books are an excuse to get together every couple of months to eat, drink and laugh our asses off. Of course we discuss the books but we have a tendency to deviate. A lot. In fact, we probably spend most of our time just talking about our lives. Basically, what is said in book club, stays in book club. I have never laughed so much than when I’m at these gatherings. No book is off limit for us. We read fiction, non-fiction, young-adult, old-adult, chick-lit, adventure, etc. We submit books and vote on what to read. We have a benevolent dictator who keeps us scheduled and organized. It is such a great system.
This month’s book was Matched, by Ally Condie. It is a young adult novel about a dystopian world where everything is controlled by the Society, from what you eat, where you work, who you marry, etc. The book focuses on a young woman, who is “matched” to her best friend but a glitch in the system shows the face of another boy. Our group did not enjoy this book at all. We did not like the writing style, the story, the characters. Many made the connection between this series and the Hunger Games. And the Hunger Games was infinitely better. Now, it’s a trilogy and I couldn’t even bear to read the other two, thank goodness a couple of the ladies read it and gave us the synopsis. They didn’t like the other ones either, it got progressively worse, more confusing and ridiculous. Needless to say, we did not spend too much time discussing this one.
Life just gets so busy and I barely get enough sleep but this book club makes me put my love of reading a priority. I love it.