A few years ago, my friend Melissa Lester started a ladies' book club at University church. I offered to help her decorate for the first meeting, and the rest is history! For the last two or three years, we have planned our quarterly ladies book club together. Melissa and I agree that the setting, food and decorations definitely enhance the reading experience, so we always approached choosing a book from the angle of "what will our table-scapes look like?". In a way, theme was more important to us than content! We got lucky that the books we chose happened to be great reads as well! You laugh, but I'm serious. Well, at least kinda.
We usually spent the better part of a Thursday afternoon unloading our best china and crystal into the fellowship hall and then transformed it into wherever the author and characters were taking us that evening! Different settings included the dangerous, yet romantic frontier, an upscale restaurant in the French Quarter, and even a sumptuous feast set in the first century. Melissa and I would provide the decorations, appetizer and often dessert. The other ladies brought dishes inspired by the book. On many occasions, Melissa had the author call in and talk to us about her inspiration for the particular book we were discussing. We always ended with a few door prizes including a copy of the selection for the next quarter's meeting. Besides the opportunity to read good literature and discuss it with others, we wanted these ladies to enjoy their evening out...to really feel special. You can read about many of our book club dinners on her blog, A Little Loveliness, here.
Well - Melissa took a job last spring as the associate editor of Victoria magazine in Birmingham, and so my partner in crime moved away! Nancy Itson (my Little Miss Manners and Sewing School buddy) had helped us in the past and she has volunteered to work with me as we go forward. We are planning to make a few changes. Not that it can or needed to be improved upon in Melissa's absence. We just thought we'd use the transition to mix it up a little. Our last meeting was held at Nancy's home where we discussed A Lasting Impression by Tamara Alexander.
I am excited to announce that our next selection is The Half-Stitched Amish Quilt Club by Wanda E. Brunstetter. Nancy Foster, one of our club members, chose the book and will be hosting the meeting at her home in Ft. Deposit on Sunday afternoon, November 17th at 2:00. We will meet at UCC and ride together.
Anyone who can make it is invited to join us. Just please let me know if you will be attending. The mix of ladies in our group is what makes the club so much fun. We have ladies ranging in age from 25-70 and from many different backgrounds. We always have a wonderful time of fellowship, and you know what they say...the more the merrier!
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I'm so glad you stopped by my neck of the woods!
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