Book Club Bliss: Bibliochix

I can't believe that the book club I belong to, The Bibliochix, has been together 10 years.  We were once so young...I'd like to be clever and try to tie in book titles throughout the blog.  Something like:  After our summer get together, we certainly didn't try to Purge. Or, it's a good thing that Mildred didn't try to Pierce her navel.  We don't have a Mildred but you get the picture, and I'm sure you're saying, don't do that.  OK.  We are a sort of diverse group.  I'm the oldest by blah blah blah years.  But let's just say the majority of the chix are not baby boomers, some have adult children, some have high school aged, some have high powered jobs (including being the moms they are), some are entrepreneurs, and some, as an aside,  raise chickens and bees.  I'm the baby boomer and proudly retired (at a young age I might add). We have, at times, 10-12 members and, at times, may have only 4-5 members attend a discussion.  But that's OK.  I'm also the only one who lives in the suburbs.  At first we tried meeting at Starbucks but it was just too noisy.  So, one of the girls suggested we meet at the Ritz Carlton in their bar called "the Library".    Read more...
 Well, la de dah.  It's a drive for me, but it's a nice change of pace for me to get out of the 'burbs.  Anyway, the waiters have come to know us and know that they will receive a healthy tip for serving us hot tea, iced tea or coffee and putting up with our chatter.   Yes, no alcohol because we meet at 11am on a Friday.  Well, even if it's 11am, it's 5pm somewhere, isn't it?  No, not us.  The valets even know us. We select our books this way: To our supreme leader (one of our co-founders), we submit books that we think the group would like to read.  Our SL (supreme leader) sends out all of the suggestions and then we vote on those suggestions.  (Because of school vacations, we may skip two months for our book discussions.)  Then our SL asks who would like to lead the discussion for which book.  We've read some Oprah selections but we all agreed that they were too similar in theme and too depressing.  Before the above process, we would just sort of suggest books as we went along.  This works far better. We read primarily fiction, bios, classics.  No sci fi or fantasy or politics (As I said.  We are a diverse group.)  Although I did get the chix to read Duma Key by Stephen King.  Why do so many people think Stephen King is only horror and absurdness?  Duma Key is a great semi-autobiography with some paranormal thrown in.  Anyway, it still caused some members nightmares.  Read The Green Mile, The Stand,  The Shawshank Redemption and Duma Key and you will know a different Stephen King.  That's my two cents...

Other than meet for our Friday book discussions, we also have other get together's that are a tons of fun.  With spouses in tow, we meet once during the summer at one member's house.  We all bring something to compliment the main course served by the hostess with the mostess.  We all bring our beverage of choice (now, this is where we drink!). Because most of the hubbies still work or are full time stay at home Dad's, we select either short stories or essays and say to them, "Here.  Read this by Saturday for the chix party."  But by adding the guys in, we get a whole different perspective on things.  Sometimes it takes things in strange directions. One thing I enjoyed and was rather pleased about was that for our last summer's gathering, we read some stories by Edgar Allen Poe and I, moi, was asked to do a dramatic rendition of "The Raven". I would say I did a rather good imitation of Vincent Price (right).  We also meet in the fall in Highlands, NC for a chix outing.  It's just to get together and it's more about discussing ourselves rather than books.  Because when we meet on Fridays to discuss books, we have such busy lives, we put aside the personal.  This is more girl time.  And then we have our Holiday party.  It's based on the same format as the summer one.  I insist that every 3-4 years we have one of the parties at MY HOUSE IN THE 'BURBS! Hah!  Make them drive for a change...

I love my Bibliochix group.  They get me out of the 'burb bubble I live in, they get me to look at things differently (and hopefully, I get them to do the same), and they are just a very nice group of girls.  Happy 10th Anniversary Chix!