In both of my book clubs, we take the month of December off from an assigned book. In our local book club, we met for a wonderful brunch at 42 on our regular 1st Sunday.
For our on-line book club, with 2 of us in LR, 1 in Texas, 1 in Kansas City and one in Indiana, doing something special took creativity.
To start, I sent out some questions--what is the most special gift you ever received at Christmas, and why? and What was the most unusual gift you ever received and why? The answers were pretty fun to hear. None of them were expensive, (well, maybe the engagement ring, but it wasn't just the diamond, it was the proposal that was special). But it was who gave it and the thought that went into it that mattered.
After our general discussions, we went on to Holiday Jeopardy. I have an app that lets me create games with any topic. So I had 5 categories.
Since we had no clickers for people to click in to know who was first, everyone was on equal footing. They had to write down their answers,
and then, once it was revealed, if they got it correct, they got the points.
Paula ended up the grand prize winner with $2600. I am sure she is still waiting on the check!
We laughed and talked and had the most delightful time, via zoom. This has been one positive from Covid. When we started in lock down, I asked them if they were interested in a zoom book club. Now we five friends (4 from high school and college, and one college only) meet monthly, which we did not do before. It has connected us so much in a short period of time, and we get to talk books, family and life every month.
Since we did not have a book club book in December I went back to my old friends. I read both of Louise Penny's new books--both were wonderful, the latest Walt Longmire, a couple of more Cork O'Conners (only 1 more to go, so he needs to get writing!), a couple of Joe Pickett books (C.J. Box), Lucas Davenport (John Sanford), Harry Bosch (Michael Connely), and a John Grisham book Sooley. I had no idea it was about basketball, or would not have checked it out, but I enjoyed it and learned quite a bit about South Sudan. I just want to say, we need to be grateful for how we live in the US. It is brutal in many places!