The Novel Women Book Club

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The Novel Women
a book club of eleven women, one living room at a time, since 1991

This Month · 1999-2000 Reading List · How We Do It · Books We've Read

We began in the fall of 1991, when six of us who kept running into each other in the library's new-fiction shelf decided we might as well sit down together and argue properly. Eight years and eighty-some books later we are eleven, we have lost two husbands, gained four grandchildren, survived one flood in Helen's basement, and have never once all agreed on anything, which is exactly as it should be.

I'm Lorraine Cohen. I was a school librarian for thirty-one years, so naturally I was elected to keep the list. My nephew showed me how to make this page last winter, and it has become my favorite way to put off the dishes.

Next Up: October
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Thursday, Oct. 21, at Sylvia's. She's promised a proper English tea.

One day in June in London after the first war: Clarissa Dalloway spends the day getting ready for her party, and a shell-shocked young veteran named Septimus Smith has a very different day across town. We're reading it this month on purpose, because in November we read The Hours, which won the Pulitzer this spring and borrows its bones from Mrs. Dalloway. Joan suggested the pairing and has been insufferable about it since.

A word of warning for first-timers: Woolf doesn't do chapters, and she moves from one person's thoughts to another's in the middle of a paragraph. Read it slowly. Read it out loud if you have to. It's worth it.

Last Month
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, at Doris's, September 16.
The Price family goes to the Belgian Congo in 1959 with a Baptist preacher father who will not bend, and the story is told in turns by his wife and four very different daughters. Our longest meeting ever, three hours and a pound cake. Half of us thought Leah was the heart of the book and the other half would follow Adah anywhere. Everybody wanted to push Nathan into the river. Verdict: 5 cups out of 5, and Doris says it earned every one.

Our 1999-2000 Reading List
Third Thursday of the month, 7:00 p.m. Voted on at the June picnic.

Month	Book	Hostess
Sept. 16	The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver	Doris
Oct. 21	Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf	Sylvia
Nov. 18	The Hours, Michael Cunningham	Joan
Dec. 16	Christmas party! We'll take turns reading Truman Capote's A Christmas Memory aloud, then the grab bag.	Lorraine
Jan. 20	Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, J. K. Rowling. Bernice's granddaughter dared us.	Bernice
Feb. 17	Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston	Mae
Mar. 16	Snow Falling on Cedars, David Guterson	Nancy
Apr. 20	A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson. Our annual nonfiction book, and Pat promises we'll laugh.	Pat
May 18	Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen, followed by the A&E tapes on a Saturday afternoon, all of them	Anita
June 15	Picnic, and we vote on next year's list	Helen

Libraries: the county library holds extra copies for us when it can. Please return them promptly so we stay in their good graces.

How We Do It

The hostess leads. She brings a few questions, a little background on the author, and a dessert that has something to do with the book, if she can manage it. (For The Joy Luck Club it was almond cookies. For Cold Mountain Anita made cornbread and apologized to no one.)
Finish the book if you can, but come anyway if you can't. We will spoil the ending. You've been warned.
Everyone gets a turn before anyone gets a second turn. This rule is mostly for Joan.
At the end, we rate it from one to five coffee cups. The scores are on the Books We've Read page.
We're full at eleven, because that's how many fit in Pat's living room. We keep a waiting list. If you'd like to start a club of your own, write to me and I'll gladly tell you everything we learned the hard way.

Readers who have turned this page:

Suggestions, questions, or tell us what your club is reading:
[email protected]

Last updated Friday, September 17, 1999 · © 1999 Lorraine Cohen