When my husband and I retired to Kelly Plantation from the Chicago area, we certainly weren’t going to miss the weather, but what I was going to miss was my book group. For 14 years, I met monthly with ten women discussing and sharing so much over books; I really wanted to continue that in my new life in Destin. So in the fall of 2016, an eclectic group of ladies met at my house to discuss forming a book group. None of the ladies had previously been in a book club, so this would be a new adventure for all. One of the key ideas that came out of that meeting? The only thing that we could provide was water so we could focus on the discussion.

 

Over the years, we have read almost 100 books, chosen and led by individual members. We have watched clips of old Carol Burnett shows after reading her biography, as well as a documentary after reading The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and their Epic Quest for Gold in the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown. We have very different tastes in what we enjoy to read. Last month was the first and only time that unanimously we gave an eight out of 10 to a book: The Briar Club by Kate Quinn.

Besides The Briar Club, some of our favorite books over the years have been The Women by Kristen Hannah, Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt, Beach Music by Pat Conroy, The Measure by Nicki Erlich and The Radium Girls: A Dark Story of America’s Shining Girls by Kate Moore. 

After almost 10 years, our book group is still going strong and we all look forward to being introduced to new books and authors and great discussions in the years to come.