Book Club Night

Last night I was invited to be a guest at a book club that had read Into His Arms (I still hate that title). Anyway, it was tons of fun. The woman who was hosting went to my high school and is good friends with my sister-in-law. (Yes, both my brother and I married high school sweethearts, although he took a somewhat more circuitous route.) There is another woman from my high school in the group, and the hostess invited a third Pomona grad because the third woman and I had been on the speech team together. None of them were in my class, so they’re people I didn’t see at the reunions. We spent the first hour-and-a-half just getting caught up on the 22 years since I’d seen them at my brother’s wedding.

The book discussion went nearly two hours, although one can’t properly call it a book discussion because, well, hey, y’all read my blog. We talked about the book, religion, education, parenting… The women were all friendly and funny and talkative. (Did I mention there were about 10 others that I didn’t go to high school with and had just met?) There were the standard questions: How do you get your ideas? If you were casting the movies, who would play which parts? Which book is your favorite? Have your husband and son read your books? Your students? What do they think? My favorite comment was a woman who said she read a love scene while her husband was away and she had to call him and have a long, steamy conversation with him when she finished it.

Almost every book club I’ve spoken to, I get a really surprised reaction when people find out that I’m not Christian, which I find very satisfying. When I told my mother-in-law the concept for the novel, she said she didn’t think I could write a convincing Christian. Oh yeah? Into His Arms remains the book I get the most fan mail for, despite the fact that I think the next two are better written, and it’s Christian women who write. They feel that their journeys have much in common with my heroine’s. Then there was the woman from Azerbaijan who wrote that Faith reflected her spiritual and emotional experiences as a Muslim woman. That was way cool. This woman and I corresponded regularly until she married, and then she kind of slipped off the radar, and my emails go unanswered. I miss her, and I hope that she’s well and happy.

We wrapped it up way past my bedtime and the hostess gave me a beautiful, hand-knit scarf. It was just a great experience.