Book Club: The Correspondent

Our book club read The Correspondent by Virginia Evans this month. All eight of us showed up (yes, even Heidi made time in her schedule) though I'm not going to tell you how many actually read it. Fewer than you'd think. The book was so popular that several members were still on the library app waitlist, and when I tried to buy a copy at the airport, they were sold out (oh to have that kind of success!).

So instead of a deep literary dissection, we veered into a conversation about letter writing and etiquette, and the lost art of the Thank You note. Sandy told us about the year she made her son write notes after his birthday party. Picture a snail being told to pick up the pace. She sent them to school with him to hand out to his classmates, in the manner of middle-school mothers everywhere, and weeks later they turned up undelivered and destroyed at the bottom of his JanSport backpack. Classic.

As an activity, we each wrote a letter to someone we thought would be most excited to receive one. Adele wrote to her grandmother. Olive wrote to her best friend. I sent a note to our youngest daughter, Mimi, who checks her mail about once a month, so I have no idea when she'll actually read it.

We wrote them at the table over glasses of 1908 Empress Gin and Limeade, a variation on the Empress Gimlet that I will be calling J.C.’s Letter Opener from now on.

Eight women, handwritten letters, a renamed cocktail, and the memory of some Thank You notes written under duress. This little book club is becoming one of my favorite nights of the month. In fact, I like it so much I'm giving the women of Blue Lake one of their own.

P.S. Those of us who did read the book liked it well enough. It may have been too tame for our club, which one member, Lydia, told her husband and children is called Murder Club. Next month we are reading a murder mystery (and probably every month going forward).