September 22: Book Club, Colson Whitehead, Foodies and Freaks

This post will be quick.  In about 45 minutes, the members of my book club will descend on my house, and the rest of my evening will be spent eating potluck and talking about Colson Whitehead's new book, The Nickel Boys.  (If you haven't read this book, you need to.  It's should be read by everyone living in Trump America.)

My book club is kind of an anomaly as book clubs go.  We have been holding our monthly get-togethers for over 13 or 14 years now.  Yes, members have come and gone--moved away, drifted off, lost interest.  However, our core group has remained.  I've been with the group since the beginning.  I was one of its founding members.  In my experience, most book clubs have a shelf life of about five years.  My book club has the shelf life of Twinkies. 

It started as a church activity.  I christened the group "The Good Book Club" and recruited members from my wife's Methodist church.  Of course, it helped that one of the other founding members was one of my best friends and, at the time, the pastor of the church.  Over the years, this tenuous tie to church has evaporated, and now we are just a group of book lovers, mostly liberal-minded and thoroughly bound to each other.

So, tonight, we bond over Colson Whitehead.  Two years ago, we read The Underground Railroad.  That book immediately became one of my favorite books of all time, and I found myself forcing it on other people like some kind of literary drug pusher.  "Here," I'd tell almost complete strangers, "you NEED to read this book."  While The Nickel Boys doesn't hold that same power over me, I still love it.  Whitehead is simply an amazing writer. 

It is almost 4:25 p.m.  Usually, a few people will show up early, so I have to close this post now.  My wife, who worked until 4 p.m., is stopping on her way home to pick up a meat-cheese-tray and a bag of ice.  (Did I neglect to tell you, my faithful disciples, that we eat really well at our gatherings?  We have been blessed with members who are wonderful readers AND cooks.)

I hope everyone reading this post has a group of friends like I do.  People who share my taste in books and my penchant for anti-Republican digressions.  We all go together like pea soup and ham.  Or weenies and crescents.  Or fettuccine and Alfredo.  Can you tell that I'm a little hungry?

I frequently have people ask if they can join this book club.  We used to have a pretty open door membership policy.  However, after many one-timers and two-timers (people who show up and never return), we are pretty cautious about whom we invite to join.  It has to be talked over by all the members of the book club.  While we're a fairly democratic and welcoming crew, we like people who won't annoy the crap out of us or not engage in the books fully.  In short, we like foodies, geeks, and freaks.

Saint Marty will be blessed this evening by great friends, great food, and a great book.