Book Club 2024

Last year, I decided to do something crazy and recap the entire year’s worth of book club experiences. I have been attending this book club for most of my adult life and we are so much more than friends who meet once a month to talk about a book we read. We are a core group of friends. We have been there for each other through some of the hardest times and some of the best times. To be honest, this year was a hard one for most of us. Just about everyone had something major happen in their lives, and because of that, we tried to make book club a fun, enjoyable place for everyone to come and be lifted up. We read a lot more romance than we normally do and opted for light-hearted reads over heavy ones.

Here’s how our book club works: We have six members (we added a seventh member in September, which means we’ll be switching things up in 2025!) so each member gets two months. When it’s your month, you come prepared with three book selections that we’ll vote on and then an experience. My first month was March so when we had February book club, I had my book selections ready. During February book club, I also announced the experience I had chosen so we could schedule the date.

That’s enough preamble! Here’s book club 2024!

January

Book selection: This Time Next Year by Sophie Cousens
Overall book club rating: 3.6
Experience: Pasta bar and PowerPoint night

This was the perfect way to kick off 2024! We all gathered at Bri’s where we brought items for a delicious pasta bar and then snuggled on the couch together for PowerPoint presentations. We laughed hysterically through almost everyone’s presentation, and it was a very good time. My presentation was on the reality TV futures of each member, which was a delight to think about.

As for the book, it wasn’t one of my favorites. I wanted it to be steamier and more of a traditional romance, so it didn’t give me exactly what I was looking for. Other book club members really enjoyed it for what it was: a sweet contemporary fiction novel. Sometimes that’s what we need!

February

Book selection: The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston
Overall book club rating: 4.4
Experience: Murder mystery night

In February, we all gathered at Lynn’s house for a murder mystery party! During January book club, Lynn handed us printouts that explained who our characters were and how they related to the murder mystery party. We were also given instructions to dress as our characters (if possible). My character was Mary Wollstonecraft and originally, I thought I had found the perfect dress at ThredUp but then the dress got sold out from under me. Wah! So I just wore a dress with a cardigan and called it a day. We didn’t love the setup of this murder mystery as much as the one we did last year. That one had an actual script we could follow while this one was a lot more of a free-flowing conversation. We figured out the “whodunit” but it was very confusing to get there. Live and learn!

As far as the book discussion went, I was the lone dissenting opinion. I gave it 3.5 stars and everyone else gave it 4 or 5 stars. I think the narration really affected my rating. It just wasn’t very good and I should have read it in print. Everyone else really loved the clever plot and writing style.

March

Book selection: The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline
Overall book club rating: 4.25
Experience: Making candles

March book club was such a great one! For the experience, I chose candle making at a lovely place called The Candle Pour. I’ve now made four candles from this shop and each time, I try a little something new. For this candle, I opted for something coffee-scented. We had a great time making candles and afterward, we had lunch at a nearby Mexican restaurant and then walked around a pop-up market. We all ended up buying something from this market (I bought a print of a cat in a cowboy hat that says “Meowdy!”) so we all went home with handmade candles and something special from local vendors.

The book was on the heavier side for what we’ve been reading lately, but everyone really liked it! It taught us a lot about Australia’s history and how difficult it must have been to be a woman without any resources. (The novel is about three women who are found guilty of various offenses and sentenced to live in Van Diemen’s Land, a penal colony in Australia.) I remember having a really good discussion about this book and the way it impacted us.

April

Book selection: The Mostly True Story of Tanner and Louise by Colleen Oakley
Overall book club rating: 3.3
Experience: Dinner and an ice cream social

This was a really fun Friday night book club! First, we all met up at a local Mexican restaurant where we enjoyed some seriously delicious food. Then, we drove over to a really cute ice cream shop to have an ice cream social! We even had a reserved table and everything. The ice cream was outstanding and the conversation was even better.

Our book club pick for the month came with mixed reviews. I wasn’t a huge fan of it (I gave it 2.5 stars) and neither was another friend in book club, but everyone else gave it 4 stars. I just didn’t enjoy the writing or the convoluted plot. It also had an unsatisfying ending, in my opinion. But others really enjoyed it and thought it was a cute, fun story! So, YMMV.

May

Book selection: Text Me When You Get Home by Kayleen Schaefer
Overall book club rating: 3.9
Experience: Flower arrangements

Oh, this was one of my favorite experiences of the year! We got together at Bri’s house to do a flower arrangement night. I believe we ordered pizza to keep things easy and after dinner, we got to work. Beforehand, one of my friends had gone to a flower wholesaler to get a whole bunch of different flowers and plants so we could all make something different. We brought our own vases to put our arrangements in, which made things even more unique! What I remember most about this night is how complimentary we were of everyone’s creations. We were just gushing about how everyone’s flowers turned out, and it was such a sweet, supportive environment. And that’s what I love most about these women.

The book that was chosen was one I had read years ago (2019) and I remember it fondly. It is such a great representation of the kinds of female friendships I want in my life—and the kind I have now! Everyone else really liked the book, too. Honestly, I can’t remember much about the discussion of the book. I think we all just really enjoyed the book and felt very seen by the author’s perspective.

June

We didn’t take a book club picture in June!

Book selection: Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters
Overall book club rating: 2.9
Experience: Breakfast for dinner

In June, we went to a diner that’s fully run by people in the queer community to have breakfast for dinner! The food there was phenomenal and I am itching to go back.

Our book club discussion was probably the most involved one we had for the entire year. While the book itself didn’t meet our expectations (aside from one member who gave it 4 stars), I do think it led to an in-depth conversation about the trans community, motherhood, and what we owe to the people in our lives. For the most part, our group does not have personal history with the trans community so there is a lot we don’t know. Still, I do think we were able to have a respectful but fully honest conversation about our misconceptions and what we learned from reading this novel.

July

Book selection: Go As a River by Shelley Read
Overall book club rating: 4.1
Experience: Mexican food and making picture frames

I loved this book club experience and was so impressed by Lynn who suggested it. What a unique, cool idea! We all met at Lynn’s house and then traveled together to a local Mexican restaurant for dinner. I’m pretty sure we all ordered margaritas and ate our weight in chips and salsa. Afterward, we reconvened at Lynn’s to make picture frames. We had all sent her the picture we wanted to frame and she had picked up the frames + printed out the pictures for us. We all pitched in to bring craft supplies. I brought a few books and had to reassure my friends a few times that yes, it’s okay to rip out the pages and cut them up for the frames! The majority of us ended up doing book pages, ha, but we all had a different spin on it! This was such a fun, relaxing night and I loved every minute of it.

The book was one I had read the month prior and given 5 stars. I just loved this book, even though it was pretty heavy and sad. We talked about some of the more visceral scenes in the book and about the perseverance of women. I don’t remember everything about our discussion (I really should do a recap in my Notes app for this end-of-year post, eeps) but I do feel like we had a pretty heartfelt conversation about the book.

August

Book selection: The Art of Scandal by Regina Black
Overall book club rating: 3.0
Experience: Pajama party, nacho bar, and game night

In August, we had the best pajama party! We gathered at Amber’s condo for the night where we enjoyed a nacho bar and sangria. This sangria became a cult favorite for our book club. It has a high alcohol content so we were all feeling it after just one bottle! (The brand is Capriccio, if you’d like to fall in love the way we have.) After dinner, we played the game I brought, Over-Rated, which is in the style of What Do You Meme or Cards Against Humanity. This game brought us so many laughs and inside jokes, and we truly had the best time.

The book wasn’t a hit for our book club, unfortunately. I enjoyed it but everyone else rated it 2 or 3 stars and some didn’t even feel like reading it. The book has a big political throughline, which turned a lot of people off. I really liked the political element, but that’s because politics fascinates me. For others, they wanted less of that and more of the romance. Fair enough!

September

No photo taken

Book selection: Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto
Overall book club rating: 4.6
Experience: Hunt a Killer

September’s book club was a bit strange. We held it in between hurricanes (what a wild thing to say) and one friend couldn’t make it because, well, she was going through the worst thing: a completely destroyed home. We were also hoping that this would be the first book club meeting for another member who had recently moved back to Florida after a decade living out of state, but her home had also been destroyed (way to welcome someone to our state, Mother Nature). And since my car had been totaled during Hurricane Helene and I was currently without a car, a friend picked me up and drove me home.

The five of us who were able to attend enjoyed an evening at Bri’s house. We ordered pizza and then gathered in her living room to play Hunt a Killer. We were exceptionally bad at the game this time around, ha. I think we placed four guesses until we got the right one. I was very adamant who I thought the killer was and forced us to make the first guess, and I was very much wrong, so I kept my mouth shut for any further guesses. I’m not cut out to be a detective, I don’t think! Anyway, Hunt a Killer is such a fun game and I hope this is something we can do on an annual basis!

Our book selection for September was a hit for everyone in our book club – everyone gave it 4 or 5 stars! We all fell head over heels for Vera Wong and would like to make her an honorary member of our book club. We also really enjoyed the mystery as a whole and talked about what parts of the plot we guessed before they were revealed.

October/November

No photo taken

Book selection: The Roommate by Rosie Danan
Overall book club rating: 3.75
Experience: Naughty Cocktail Party

Okay, buckle up. This book club experience might throw you for a loop. We combined October and November’s book clubs into one (due to hurricane craziness and also knowing that November is always a hard month to schedule book club due to the holidays/schedules/etc), and we did a sex toy party! One of my friends had done one of these parties with another friend group earlier in the year and brought it up as a possibility for a future book club experience. And you know what? We were on board! This was a crazy night. There was a lot of wine and sangria consumed, a ton of laughter, and some really open conversations about sex and sex toys and pleasure. And yes, there were lots of toys bought that night.

This was one of my favorite book clubs of the year, and not just because of the sex toys. But one of the things that has happened this year in book club is becoming way more open and honest about our sex lives. We talked about sex in long-term partnerships, sex with new partners, self-pleasure, and all of that fun stuff. It has allowed us to unlock an even deeper level to our friendship. As someone who grew up in purity culture and was told sex is only permissible inside of marriage (heterosexual marriage, of course!), I have had to really come to terms with my own feelings around sex and self-pleasure and how to talk about it without those feelings of guilt and shame. And I think I’m getting there!

The book we chose this month was a steamy romance but it didn’t land with everyone. One member thought it was too steamy so she stopped reading it. Other members wanted it to be even more steamy. As for me, I thought it was one of the steamiest romances I’ve read in a while! I really liked it, though.

December

Book selection: One Day in December by Josie Silver
Overall book club rating: 2.7
Experience: Christmas party

Our annual Christmas party took place this past weekend! We always do this as our December book club experience and while we try to have a book on tap to read, it’s not a focus of the event. (This year, three of us had read the book but two of those three read it years ago, lol.) We all showed up to Bri’s house dressed in our Christmas pajamas, had a delicious potluck, made really terrible gingerbread houses, and played some fun games on Jackbox. We also did our second annual Favorite Things gift exchange. This year, I gifted everyone a One Line a Day journal. I’m finishing up my third year of using one of these journals and I love it so, so much. It’s so much fun to see exactly what I was doing/thinking/feeling at this time during previous years! Everyone was really excited about my gift, which made my heart grow ten sizes!

Here’s some of the other Favorite Things from my friends:

A 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle
A flower vase with a bookish theme
A bottle of Capriccio sangria, cozy socks, Lanolips lip balm, and chocolates
A $10 Starbucks gift card
A bundtlet from Nothing Bundt Cakes
A bottle of the best-smelling handsoap, an Alani energy drink, and a cucumber chip clip (<– there’s an inside joke to this)

And that’s book club 2024! I can’t believe I’ve written 2,500 words about all of our book club experiences for the year. Whew. I did this last year, and it’s quite the undertaking, but oh my goodness is it a delight to go back and remember everything we did over the year. We had some really great times!

To finish off this post, here are some of the book club stats for the year:

Genre breakdown: romance (4), contemporary fiction (3), historical fiction (2), nonfiction (1), mystery (1)
Overall rating: 3.7
My format breakdown: print books (6), audiobooks (4), e-books (1)
Highest-rated book of the year: Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto (4.6)
Lowest-rated book of the year: One Day in December by Josie Silver (2.7)

Do you belong to a book club?