Raise Your Book: A Toast to A Year of Excellent Reads...

As the new year came in, I was reminded of just what it means to be a part of a book club...the opportunity to fellowship with a wonderful group of like-minded sisters who see an afternoon curled up with a good book as a mini-vacation...that once a month I am guaranteed a good date with great food and stimulating conversation...and that, yes, every once in a while, I will have to read a book that I would have never chosen for myself and that I have to will myself to keep turning the pages.

This month Literally GEMS Book Club is reading The Vow (Denene Millner, Angela Burt-Murray, and Mitzi Miller), and while I certainly would not have chosen this book for myself, it had it's redeemable moments, and I learned a lot about myself as a reader in the process. There will be two more books chosen by respective members of the club before it's my turn to choose the book of the month for April. Is there pressure to pick a book that absolutely everyone will love? Not really. We are a group of nine very different women, ten if you count the guest reader of the month. Chances are, not everyone will love every selection. Has it ever happened that everyone (finished) and was in love with the book of the month? Yes, I think I recall that happening once or twice. Then there were the times when the individual ratings for a selection (we give books one to five gems; one being "poor" and five being "excellent") have ranged from "4.75 gems--let's read it again") to "let's torture the member who chose that one."

No matter what the book or the projected rating, I always look forward to the meetings, the discussion, the various perspectives, and the moment when the new book of the month is revealed. I am very excited to have completed The Vow (whew!) and am truly looking forward to a new year of book-by-the-cover judging, first chapter skimming, margin note-taking, thematic menu creating, and character motivation arguments...

Won't you join us? www.literallygems.com