October Outings, Part Two: A Book Club Party and a Baby Shower

Skirt: So, Kohl's

Top: LC Lauren Conrad, Kohl's

Dress: LC Lauren Conrad, Kohl's

Shoes: LC Lauren Conrad, Kohl's

I know that you've been waiting with bated breath for part two of my October outings.  So here they are, a book club party and a baby shower!  Some of you have asked how the book club works, and in a nutshell it's this.  My mom, sister, and I take turns choosing a book.  We read the book.  Some of us read more quickly than others, or even read more than one book at once.  My sister listens to the audiobooks because she has such a long commute.  We talk about the book, in twos, as we go, on the phone, due to our differing schedules.  Then we talk about the book once we're done reading it, also in twos.  And that's it.  There is no book club meeting.

Until now.  In August, my mom wanted us to get together for a tea party to discuss the twenty books we'd read this past year.  Again, due to those pesky schedules, it didn't happen until October.  But then it overflowed with all the festive gusto that my mom brings to any occasion.  She made food featured in the books (although I forgot to photograph them, the Hope Cakes from Jodi Picoult's Mad Honey were bursting with buttery goodness), she found book-themed paperware, and she displayed the books around her dining room.  She even made a poster listing our roster of titles as well as who had chosen each.  As we sipped our tea and enjoyed our goodies, we answered the questionnaire that she had so thoughtfully prepared.  We discussed our favorite books (not surprisingly, we each picked our own), the books we could relate to, and the books that left us cold.  It was all very illuminating, and I think we learned some things about each other.  

On the fashion front (because there's always a fashion front, even amidst the most intellectual of pursuits), I wore my new blue LC Lauren Conrad top and maroon So skirt with my much-loved Madden Girl T-straps.  I was so chuffed with the look that I wore a dress in the same print for the following day's baby shower.  And yes, it was the shower for which the husband and I took that fateful test drive.  I'm happy to report that I arrived without incident. 

Because like my books, I prefer my journeys to end on a high note.

What Happens in the Galapagos Stays in the Galapagos

Or does it?  That's the question in Jodi Picoult's Wish You Were Here.  A book, by the way, that I initially wished I weren't reading.  It was my mom's book club pick.  And she's a fan of serious books, so.  Here's the premise:  

Diana O'Toole is a twenty-nine-year-old New Yorker waiting for her surgeon boyfriend Finn to pop the question.  Already the darling of Sotheby's, her career is on track, and she's itching to get on with her meticulously-mapped ten-year-plan.  She craves stability because her famous photographer mother was never around.  Diana and Finn are all set to go on a romantic vacation to the Galapagos when COVID paralyzes the city.  As a front-line worker, Finn has to stay.  But he urges Diana to go.       

As I ventured deeper into Diana's struggles in the ghost town that is the pandemic Galapagos, I wasn't sure how much I could take.  Diana's luggage is lost.  She has no place to stay, almost no money, and doesn't speak the language.  She even narrowly misses eating a poisoned apple before a stranger stops her.  Yet most depressing of all are Finn's emails.  He goes into excruciating detail describing patients on ventilators, his 72-hour shifts, and feeling hopeless.  It's the stuff of nightmares and catapulted me right back to the beginning of the pandemic and all its uncertainties.    

But then the stranger and his family take Diana in.  She begins to relax and appreciate the beauty of the island, even rediscovering her passion for creating art instead of just selling it.  (Not that there isn't heavy stuff still going on; the stranger's daughter self harms.)  Before long, Diana's frenzied life in Manhattan seems like a distant memory, a realization that Picoult illustrates through this simple but telling line:

"Busy is a euphemism for being so focused on what you don't have that you never notice what you do." (172)

So, yeah, like Diana, ahem, adapting to the Galapagos, I was getting used to this book.  

And then something totally unexpected happened, throwing me for a loop.  It made me make the leap from merely tolerating the book to enjoying it.           

And . . . that's where I'll stop.  Except to say this:

Thanks, Mom, for getting me to open my mind to life's sometimes poorly wrapped curveballs and mysteries.  

That said, it's my turn to pick the next book -- and this time we're reading a rom com.