Last year, we started a Central Office book club in our rural Georgia school district. This was Janette’s idea, but she graciously allowed me to help organize its inception. We asked another local book club if we could read their books they were not using, and we gave each title another round of reading before placing these in Little Free Libraries according to the grant provisions with which they were originally purchased. This club has become a sisterhood, and much like my writing group friends, our interactions go beyond the daily water station office talk into what goes on in our lives and how we feel about issues that arise in the books we read. We connect on a deeper level this way.
We’re a cross-section of society, which lends to richer discussion. I’m the oldest. Martina is the youngest. All of us are mothers and wives. Two of us are real sisters (Jill and Joy). Four of us are grandmothers. Two of us are preachers’ kids. We’ve all been through some tough times and bring differing perspectives to our conversations. But what’s most important is that we are all readers, we understand that every book is not going to get five stars but that there is something to take from each, and we embrace our collective voice on womanhood and readership. We’re the Kindred Spirits – and we are aptly named.
Last April, I shared a poem with our group each day during National Poetry Month, and while most were written by well-known poets, one or two were poems that I wrote. They know that writing poetry is what keeps me balanced at all times, but particularly in tough times – of which there have been many lately in my life. When my father died in June, I was sad that he would not be here to see the book I’d been working on for so long come out on Labor Day weekend.
Imagine my surprise when my Kindred Spirit sisters knew I was feeling down and threw an after-lunch dessert party for me and presented me with a poem that they had all written to cheer me up and celebrate me. I was moved to tears as they explained that they had each written two lines, and that the lines appeared in alphabetical order according to their names: Janette, Jennifer, Jill, Joy, and Martina.
I framed it and keep it among my greatest treasures; it means so much to me that in a time when I was grieving, my reading sisters built me up and reminded me that we are all in this together – – and that the tears along the journey can be turned into laughter and joy. We feel it in our local coffee shop on our small town square each month as we sip our brews and talk about the characters we have come to love (and dislike). We feel it at work as we deal with our day to day duties, and we will feel it in the movie theater later this week as we watch our monthly novel come to the big screen: Colleen Hoover’s Regretting You.
I’m not sure where I’d be without my reading group – and my writing groups. Today is a day to celebrate all of you (if you’re reading this, it includes you, too) who make a difference in my life. My glass is raised to you, dear friends, for all that you mean to me. You inspire me, and I appreciate each and every one of you!
Books We’ve Read in our Club So Far:
The Beautiful and the Wild by Peggy Townsend
First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston
The Last Flight by Julie Clark
Mother-Daughter Murder Night by Nina Simon
The Wedding People by Allison Espach
One Tuesday Morning by Karen Kingsbury
God of the Woods by Liz Moore
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Regretting You by Colleen Hoover
and
Selected Poems-a-Day for National Poetry Month
Book Club Haiku
we’re always on the
lookout for our next great read
….any suggestions?
Common Threads 
Ack, I love this! What a community builder you are- so lovely to see how you are valued for the group you have nurtured. There is something special about groups that connect over words (whether written or read). I miss being in a book club…
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Thank you, Erika! Wish you were here – – we’d make you part of ours!
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Kim,
I, too, am grateful for my reading and writing communities: EthicalELA, and although I am new here as of last week, Slice of Life. I retired in May and was concerned that I would miss my connection to my school, but two ways that I am keeping and even deepening that connection is through writing and reading. I return to school once a week to write for an hour before school with the seventh grade English teacher on my team and another recently retired teacher. It’s been so lovely. I’m also in a book club with my former colleagues.
I have two book recommendations for you. Ocean Vuong’s The Emperor of Gladness is my favorite book so far this year. And it seems like a good fit for your group as it as about a group of fast food workers who like your book club are of different ages and experiences, thrown together at work, who like your group end up supporting one another in both big and small ways, at work and outside of work.
My second recommendation is Ian McEwan’s What Can We Know. For my slice, I wrote a poem about the questions it is raising for me.
Thank you for sharing your community building and the poem your Kindred Spirit sisters wrote for you–what an act of love!
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Sharon, thank you so much for your kind words and for the book recommendations. I’m keeping a list of those that are recommended and will bring this to the Kindred Spirits to see about reading them in the group. I appreciate your encouragement!
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Oh, Kim, what a precious tribute to all your literary friends. (Thanks for the shoutout to your other groups too.) I so love the poem they wrote you, especially the last line. 🙂
I have a recommendation for your book club, if it fits you all. I want to do a book club with this book: Do I Stay Christian?: A Guide for the Doubters, the Disappointed, and the Disillusioned by Brian McLaren.
Thanks for your community-building inspiration.
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Denise, that sounds like a book our group would love! Thanks for always encouraging me and for all you do to keep our writing communities going.
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A reading group that writes together – what a wonderful thing, especially as you support each other. Having community makes such a difference. Two books I’ll recommend. The poetry anthology (collected by Pádraig Ó Tuama) called Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World. And the YA novel Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley – which is a few years old now, but I just re-read (in anticipation of reading her newest book, Sisters in the Wind) and was re-inspired and truly learned so much.
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These sound like amazing titles. As part of the Stafford Challenge, I was blessed to hear Padraig O Tuama on a webinar talk that he gave recently. He is an extremely talented poet! I will check out the book by Boulley and appreciate the recommendation.
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I am slowly savoring Storm Pegs by Jen Hadfield. It is gorgeously poetic about living in the Shetland Islands. What is your favorite read from you book list?
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I will have to check out Storm Pegs, and appreciate the recommendation. I’m keeping a list to share with the group. Hmmm……my favorite book from the list of titles the Kindred Spirits have read is probably God of the Woods. It’s lengthy, but I enjoyed the story line. Thanks for asking!
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I will put it on my list! Thank you!
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Kim, this is a lovely tribute to you as well as your empowering group of readers and writers who are clearly supporting each other’s thinking and life-long growing. I sure wish I lived closer. I recently read Verghese’s Covenant of Water and would have LOVED to talk about it – even in parts. I also can suggest When the Jessamine Grows, Everhart, set in North Carolina in the 1800s.
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Anita, you would fit right in with the book club, and we’d welcome you with open arms. I wish you lived closer, too. I have Covenant of Water downloaded on my Audible but have not listened yet. It appealed to me. I will check out the other – I do love North Carolina so much. My brother and his wife just went under contract on a lake house there today, so I will get to spend some time in Taylorsville with them soon. I can’t wait – – sounds like the perfect book to get in the NC spirit of things.
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Cheers, my writing friend! I’m so glad you shared ALL of this. What a lovely poem. What a lovely photo. What a slice devoted to gratitude.
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Thank you, Sally! Loved your post today – -what a fabulous photo you shared!
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Kim,
This is so lovely. That poem is such a special gesture. I have a similar one a friend wrote and framed w/ photos of the two of us when I retired. You mentioned lots of details about your reading group, including a nod to religion, but you did not mention politics. Anyway, I’m glad you included a list of the books you’ve read. I’ve read three from the list. Mostly I read nonfiction and Verse Novels these days. I’m in the middle of “Jesus and John “Wayne” now.
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Glenda, I’m adding that to my list. Sounds like a wonderful read and I love that title. Yes,
We decided early on that living in the structures of the book without bringing in our religion or politics would be part of our norms, and we honor that in respect for each other. I plan to write a piece soon on our small Stafford group. My groups make my life better.
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What a lovely tribute to you by your Kindred Spirit sisters! And to think it wasn’t for a particular day; it was just to celebrate you. Thanks for the pictures, helps to put faces to their names.
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Thanks, Alice! We enjoy time together and it enriches our work culture too.
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This is a beautiful story filled with warmth and love. I think your group sounds heavenly! Along with the support you give to each other, this also spoke to me, “Every book is not going to get five stars but that there is something to take from each.” That’s a great idea to share with students-especially those not interested in a particular genre.
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Thank you, Debbie Lynn!
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