releasing

Look what came in the mail today! Thanks so much, sgscarcliff! This is on its way to you. I appreciate your generous offer :)

I finished this book this morning at my brother's house in Zurich. Brought it on this trip because it's on a friend's wish list :)

I made some notes on the plane for my journal entry, and will add them here later. The one thing that keeps coming back to me is that this book reminds me quite a bit of The Future Homemakers of America, except that I liked this one much better. Both books follow a group of women who are friends over multiple decades. I'm always interested in these types of relationships, and jealous, too, that I don't have that.

Anyway, will add additional notes later, but I really liked this book! I laughed, I cried. It was great :)

Updated to add my notes:

Before I ever even got into the book, I found something I liked in the prologue:
A few years back, when I finally got smart enough to go to a therapist, she asked how I had held things together all these years. It didn't take long to come up with an answer. 'That's easy. I belong to a bookclub.'

As if you didn't already know that this group were a bunch of booklovers, here's a clearer description of their love for books. Upon opening a new libary book: She opened the cover and ran her hand over the page, enjoying the paper's smooth, cool texture under her hand.

Chapter One. How many times in her life had those two words invited her to go to a different place, a better place than the one she lived in?

This book isn't just about a book club, though. It's about friendship. The descriptions of each of the women are so clear, I felt like I knew them -- or had maybe been in bookclub with them -- by the end of the book. The description of Kari, in particular, made me want to be like her: There's something Kari that makes me feel calm - after listening to her I feel like I've drunk a warm glass of milk.

And last, the value of sharing things (in this case a book, but it applies elsewhere) and how a life is enriched by doing so. Audrey describing bookclub: What I had come to love about bookclub (besides the fabulous desserts and free liquor) was how in hearing so many opinions about the same book, your own opinion expanded, as if you'd read the book several times instead of just once.

I'm so glad I got to read this book! I'll treasure its memory and I've already recommended it to several people :)

I got this book from the lovely antof9. We had the pleasure to have a cup of coffee together twice a week. I wished we could do this much more often, like once a week ;-)

Thx so much for this book, I'm looking forward to reading it soon...

I liked following the lives of these women. Over three decades they read books together, eat and discuss and are there for each other. I wished I belonged to a circle of friends like that. Sometimes I found the story a little erratic, but I guess it's pretty impossible to write everything about so many different characters during so many years.

I enjoyed reading this and I will pass the book on to nice-cup-of-tea who is MY bookclub friend ;-)

RELEASE NOTES:

Kommt heute zum MeetUp ins Café Gloria...

Picked up the book soemtime ago at Cafe Gloria but havent read it yet....hopefully will start soon

I loved reading this book more than anything in a long time. I wish i belonged to such a club and i really envy these women to have such amazing support and rapport, to be able to share much more than just books....i love the idea of discussing the books one has read with different opinions and viewpoints, have discussions or arguments or just chat it through various chaacters....oh, i loved the stories of the varous women and in each character i could identify with some part of them. The loss of Kari's dog brought tears to my eyes, having lost my own faithful companion of 13 years this last autumn. There were so many tears while reading this book and so many laughs...i am so glad i gt to read this book...it has shown me some new light to manytough topics i was going throguh at the moment....thank you, Bookcrossers!!