Community through Book Club

I have just recently started my first ever book club and my excitement is fueled with so much gratitude. My neighbor and friend organized this communing and she poured her gift of hospitality, love for reading, and desire of exploration into our connecting. To be there felt special and was an honor. I met with 5 other women and the timing couldn’t have been more aligned for each of us. We got to know one another better through our connection to books and reading whether daily readers or beginners. We all vary in ages and interest, but reading together brought us together. It was so touching to witness why each of us were there and what we wanted to get from the time spent. It was welcoming and pulled us into a space of adventure, community, intellectual stimulation, autonomy, smut, self-love, passion, depth, power, fantasy, and more. Although the wording of each reason was different, it came back to connecting and community. We laughed, we explored topics, we felt safe and provided safety. I smiled and continue to smile at the continual unfolding of community’s necessity and longing. I’m so grateful at how it continues to meet me, us. I look forward to learning more, seeing more, and 

communing more with each of them.

So what is book club? It is honestly what you want it to be. The heart behind this book club was just to build friendship through one’s love of books. There was no “rule” book that she went by and in fact this was her first book club experience. She used her passions to create a safe space for others to be present and the rest unfolded. I want to let you all in on how the time spent went to help give ideas to others to try or just a warm and welcoming tug to anyone who is interested in something like this. 

We ate together and laughed over answering some questions given to us to fill out about our current relationship with books and reading. We then read those aloud, which to me was an icebreaker to the start of getting to know each other and being able to speak our truth in a safe and fun manner. We discussed “rules” that centered around reminders to be respectful and open to what may transpire through our times together. We even took some time to educate one another about sub-genres and tropes that we may be touching on as we gather. This was done through a fun game of bingo where each winner got a prize. The prizes fostered continued reading through exploration and journaling. Some of the books provided, through prizes, we may be reading at some point as well. There was an optional raffle that was implemented to welcome in the support of the community. The money collected would go to the funding of the next meeting. We made bracelets that answered the questions: What do you want out of this book club and theme for the new year? What do you want to read about and explore throughout our book club experience? We then went out with a bang to a hilarious game of Dirty Minds. 

I failed to mention earlier that this is a “Lovers Book Club”. We will be exploring the genre of romance through varying sub-genres and types of writing. Our first book, that we have about 2 months to read, is a fiction novel called Restore Me by J.L. Seegars. It’s an enemies to lovers sub-genre. I’m so intrigued and excited to dive into this book and check in with the other ladies as we unpack this smut together!

How fun?! As the owner of Candescent Books would say, “I like my books good and smutty”. Do you? 

Have any of you been in a book club, started one, or want to be apart of something like this? We would love to hear your thoughts and journey with communing together through books and reading. If you have any questions about books of the like please don’t hesitate to ask and I will gladly let you know my feels on Restore Me in the comment section below. 

Until next time, be YOU in community with others! 🫶🏾