On my summer trip last year to Bermuda, I stopped in to the Bermuda Bookstore and found Georgia Bottoms, which was a book so hysterical and wonderful, I had to stop back in during my spring break trip to see if I could find another wonderful book. I found The Reading Group. This may be my new favorite book (do I say that about them all?).
The Reading Group tells the story of a newly founded book club. It's members are Nicole, Harriet, Polly, Susan, and Clare. The cast of characters is listed at the beginning of the novel and I have to admit that this scared me off a bit. I was wondering how complex the novel must be to require a list of characters at the beginning, but it wasn't at all. In fact, after about 100 pages in, I think I could've described the cast with no trouble, offering more details than the author. They are that well crafted by Noble.
The book is sectioned off into 12 parts: one for each book that the group reads and discusses. During each section, we get a glimpse into each character's life and what we see is how closely these ladies' lives parallel the books they have chosen to read. It's quite brilliant, really. It also made me realize that when we read, we take our lives into the books. If the book can't teach us something about ourselves, we tend not to like it as much as those books that do. I have felt this for years about the books I read. It was nice to have my thoughts and feelings validated, even if only by fictional characters.
I can not tell you how much I loved reading this story. I felt heart broken for Clare, and angry with Cressida and Elliot, yet by the end I adored their sweet story and their darling Spencer. I hated Gavin and envied Nicole, but only partly. I think I am probably most like Harriet, in more ways than I care to admit (her round figure being tops on that list). I hope that I can be as good of a mom as Polly and I hope that when my own mom gets older I can be as loving as Susan. What I really wish is that I could be the sixth member of The Reading Group.
This lovely story made me seriously contemplate beginning a Reading Group. I am sure that I could find some lovely friends who would read with me. But keeping my reading to one book a month would hard for me. Unless I read the story over and over (like I did with Wonder). Rob doesn't seem to think that I would like being part of a group. He thinks that I'd become bothered by the lack of discussion of the book in favor of discussions of more gossipy things. And since I don't drink wine, he thinks that few book clubs would even invite me. He's probably right. It seems as though these five fictional ladies created their group because they needed an excuse to get out of the house once a month. I don't feel that need, but I do often feel the need to talk about what I read and to hear other's ideas and thoughts. I guess I fulfill my end of things with this blog. But I rarely hear what other people think. Blogs are often one sided that way, I guess. Maybe one day I will be invited to join a group and I can read and talk about what I read. It will be like college all over again, minus the grades. Could be fun.
Read this book. You will love it. I promise.
Happy reading everyone!
:) Dodie
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