Peace River Book Club

Our book club was started in June 1989 by Helmi Bracco Callaghan. The first meeting was held in her backyard and Peek Frean cookies were served but no one can remember which book was discussed. I attended the second meeting in September 1989 at which we discussed The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler. Within months after starting the club, Helmi moved away from Peace River. Many members have come and gone over the years but we have three of the original members still involved. At present we are all women but on several occasions some of our husbands have come to the meetings. The discussion often takes a different tone when the men are there.

In June 1994 I started keeping a formal diary of our meetings and we managed to retroactively piece together a record of all the books we have discussed. At present there are about 19 members and usually about 12 show up for each meeting. We find that if we all show up it is harder to keep the discussion going as one large group and smaller groups start talking in their own corners.

Our Book Club has quite a diverse membership including two pharmacists, two physicians, two physiotherapists, one Book Store Clerk, two artists who are also stay-at-home moms, three other stay-at-home moms/community volunteers, one teacher, two Special needs teacher aides, one College teacher, one former teacher who is now in Health Promotions, and one self-employed cleaning lady.

We meet about 6 - 8 times a year and take turns hosting the meeting in our homes. The hostess serves wine and beverages, some finger food and a dessert and coffee. Food is a very important part of the meetings and we keep a record of what has been served. We only have to host a meeting about once every two years.

In the last two years we have allowed the hostess to select the book for the next meeting. Prior to that we decided as a group which books we were to read but found that not everyone was getting a fair voice in the decision.

In the ten years that our book club has been meeting, I have been to every meeting except two - the first one and one earlier this year. Our format is very informal. We try to discuss the book for at least an hour. Luckily some of the members make notes or mark passages. This helps a lot in getting the discussion rolling. We frequently get off on a tangent - religion, sex, men and children usually come up in most meetings! It is my job (self-appointed) to get discussion back to the book. We hold our meetings on a Friday evening starting at 8 pm and they last 3 - 4 hours. We have a lot of laughs and share a lot of wonderful thoughts. We also have gotten to know each other very well and shared our major life events with each other.

Karen Lundgard
Peace River, Alberta