This is a long one! I'm going to count it as two entries.

I do belong to two book clubs...I’m not sure I would call it a membership...One I joined, one I created...

The one I joined is filled with librarians who usually make good choices...but they tend to “present and be pedantic.” Unfortunately one of them has taken to finding authors on the street and insists on bringing the author and the book...both of whom should have been left on the street!

But I have to get my act together for them – they usually choose my book for me (they see me as the experimental one) and I like that...so I reviewed A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan for them...and if I think about it A Constellation of Vital Phenomena – the structure of which fascinated me. As I write I realize I have to get going on their next choice for me – Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flannagan.

The book club I created is a hoot. I “rescued” a cat whose owner was desperate. Her husband had developed asthma to the point he fainted. It was the husband or the cat and there was a moment...but...

So she would visit the cat and he would shun her...she had had him for ten years...she was devastated. He would lie under the bed and we would lie on either side on the floor talk to each other about books. And we created a book club, BOGG (Because of Gillie Group). The truth was that we hadn’t realized – she was Jewish, I was Wasp...and for the first time this group of women who had grown up in the same city and were all of the same age met over the love of books and we have even gone so far as having a summer picnic in the park in Pointe Claire near the yacht club.

When one of the original members died, her daughter had a celebration in her house and it was then that Peggy, one of the Jewish members, realized that her son and the daughter had dated!! Peggy’s husband was commandant of the Pointe Claire yacht club in the 60’s which we couldn’t believe...

Sometime I must map the connections that have been made in that club...they are far ranging...

Peggy’s step mother is in the local senior’s home...she knew the manager because he had worked at the yacht club. I knew the manager because I taught him in grade seven...

We didn’t make any of these connections until we were in our 70’s!