Books, Books, Books

by Laurissa
During the month of July our theme here at the Working Stiffs is “summer” and all things related to summer. I mentioned a couple weeks ago that my favorite summer pastime is reading. That being said, I participate in a couple book discussion groups that have enhanced my reading experiences. What I love about these groups is that the books chosen are often ones that I wouldn’t have selected on my own, but that I end up loving. Last year one of my discussion groups read, The Help, by Kathryn Stockett. At the time, I hadn’t yet heard of it; although now after being on the bestseller lists for many weeks, I wouldn’t be able to say that. The Help has ended up being one of my favorites.


A memorable book discussion occurred last summer when the selected book was, The Day Donny Herbert Woke Up, by Rich Blake. I was new to this group and had read the book prior to attending the discussion. This book is a true story based on the life of Donny Herbert and his family including his wife, Linda. While the story is true, after reading it, I felt as though the people portrayed were characters in a book and not actual people. So you can imagine my surprise when I went to my first discussion and found out that the character, “Linda,” was going to talk with us via telephone conference call. There were problems with setting up the conference call and it ended up that the phone was passed around and we each spoke with Linda personally. Talk about enhancing my reading experience. I spoke with a “character” in the book! I was absolutely thrilled.

How about you, do you belong to a book club? What are some of your memorable books or discussions?