Book Club Discussion Notes Novels & Stories

Gwen's Pov I couldn’t stay in that apartment another minute. The package on the coffee table stared at me like a living accusation. Every time I glanced at it, fresh waves of humiliation crashed over me. I needed out. My Book club meeting was today. Right. It was my one safe, normal thing this week, a quiet gathering at a cute café a few blocks away where we talked about romance novels and drank overpriced lattes. No ex-husbands. No lecturers. No drama.

"We make a great trio. I love you both." As the day progressed, Ruby felt her weariness growing. She had spent the past few nights studying diligently, but Math remained a subject she struggled with. A part of her believed that she needed Ella's help to overcome her difficulties, and she hoped that she would receive it. The day marked the inauguration of the book club, and the final lecture of the day was canceled. Luke and Olivia tried to convince Ruby to join them for the program, but she firmly refused. She didn't want to spend her time on anything that wasn't mandatory. Saying a quick goodbye to her friends, she made her way to the first floor of the library.

I stopped to look down at my nails, my eyes instantly drawn to the one different nail on my left ring finger. "Oh yeah?" Ella said. "Maybe we should create a little book club of our own, have discussions about our lunch gatherings rather than just sharing glances at each other." She suggested. "Well... While the young wives might like the idea, I'm not so sure about the old wives," Cilvia commented. "Is this your way of saying you don't want to do book clubs?" Ella asked, and Cilvia just shrugged her shoulders. "We can go get our nails done. I'm sure all the women would like that," Cilvia suggested.

Like I'm reading diary entries to strangers. When I arrive at Lisette's apartment, there are six women waiting. They're sitting on her couches with wine and snacks. They're holding copies of my book with bookmarks sticking out where they've highlighted passages. They've done the work of reading. They've prepared. "Ladies," Lisette says. "This is Nadia. She wrote the book we're about to discuss." Nobody makes it weird. Nobody gushes or acts starstruck. They just nod like they're meeting a friend of a friend at a dinner party. Like we're about to talk about something that matters but not something that requires performance.

Like I have room to breathe and think and be without considering someone else's needs or emotions. I go to work. Lead a team meeting about expanding our mentorship program to middle schools. Keisha challenges one of my ideas and I adjust it instead of defending it. Growth. Lunch with two colleagues who are becoming actual friends. We talk about a documentary we all watched, debate its conclusions, laugh about the terrible acting. Not once do I think about Damien. Not once do I feel guilty about that. Evening, I go to Clara's book club that I joined last month. We're reading a novel about female friendship and ambition. The discussion gets heated about whether the protagonist made the right c

Mia says fanning her face. Oh yeah, somehow in the past two weeks us girls have been getting together on Fridays to discuss our book of the week, kind of like a book club I suppose? Tonight we’re at Steph and Julian’s house while X and Julian are downstairs playing pool. “Fuck me that was such a hot chapter!” Alina squeals and then takes a big gulp from her glass of wine. “I’m telling you guys, you need to role-play that scene! Julian and I did last night,” Steph beams.

Klein stood in the middle, his voice booming as he read paragraphs of p**n like material, and I squirmed in my seat. “Thank you all for coming,” Klein said. I watched everyone get up, and walk out in pairs, men and women, women and men alike, their hands and body clearly screaming to do one thing. “Did you have fun?” “Oh God,” I gasped, turning back to Klein. “You scared me.” “I am sorry,” he smiled. “What do you think?” My lips parted. “I think…it was amazing.” The following weeks, I came to the bookclub, dressed up and left needy. The literary erotica was picked for a week, and then Klein would dissect it in that awesome voice of his.

“It’s pretty wild. You’re in for an interesting night.” Luna grabs another copy of the book from a nearby stack and hands it to me. “Here you go. This one’s a fresh copy, we have plenty. You’ll see why in a minute.” I take the book, glancing between them. “You’ve actually got extras? What kind of book club is this?” Lilly grins mischievously. “One that takes its material seriously. We didn’t just pick this one by chance. We’ve been swapping theories about it for weeks now. Everyone’s dying to hear your take.”

Beneath were flawless downward-turned lips she knew Sean satisfyingly feasted on now and then. A grim stare in her direction had Gianna turning her face in embarrassment. He caught her staring. Should she call it a miracle that Sean hadn't looked her way all day or gotten two meters close to her? Was it due to the effect of the slap or simply a bite of guilt? Whatever it was, she hoped it lasted a while longer. "We have a book club going on, I believe you must have heard about it." Gianna began. "The book donation thingy?" "Yeah, we campaign for you to join us. If you're interested that is," she offered. "New ideas for improvements are welcome at any time." She added, for effect.

The point was, they didn’t seem to mind my sporadic, off-the-wall quirkiness, and so they were the best friends I’d ever had. They hadn’t even balked when I announced we were going to start a book club together, and better yet, they hadn’t naysayed me when I’d picked out the first handful of books we’d read. They were completely fine with the fact that I’d chosen only happily-ever-after novels to discuss. So I had decided which day we’d first meet, and then—